Prune and almond chewy high-fibre high-protein cookies

These cookies are chewy and chocolaty. Cook them for less time for a softer chewy cookie, or leave in at a lower temperature for longer for a firm cookie.  I rolled them out and cut shaped cookies, but you can just make blobs and press them flat with your fingers, or cut them into bars.  They hold their shape well, are quiet to eat, and don't make crumbs, making them ideal to tuck into your bag for a trip. Increase the cocoa of you want a more chocolaty flavour - this is just enough to give a warm hint.  I haven't tried it but I am pretty sure you could skip the egg without much effect if you need egg-free recipes.

Ingredients
250g dried prunes
100 ml oil
1 egg
200g ground almonds
75g urid lentil flour
20g cocoa
40g ground flax seed
200g sugar
1 tsp mixed spice

Blitz the prunes in a blender with the oil and egg to make a paste.  Scrape into a bowl and mix in all the other ingredients.  The dough will be firm but malleable; I mixed this with my hands but if you have a food mixer use the dough hook to save effort.

Either take small blobs and press onto a lined cookie tray, roll into a log, chill and then slice into cookies, or roll out using more urid or other flour to stop sticking and cut into shapes.

Bake at 175C fan for six to eight minutes depending on how thick your cookies are and how chewy you want them.  You can always put them back in to the oven for further baking if they are too soft when they cool.

Slide the cookies on their lining paper onto a cooling rack and let them cool for a minute before trying to move the onto the cooling rack.  Stiffening slightly makes them easier to move.

This amount of dough made about 70 small cookies.

Chocolate sorbet

I get given boxes of chocolates by my mother-in-law occasionally, but they always have wheat in.  Added to that the amount of dairy in chocolates is enough to cause me trouble.  I used to squeeze all the chocolates in a mixed box to find the ones that were firm (fortunately husband loves soft-centred chocolates) but mostly now I have just given up buying chocolates.

We have had about three hot days this summer, and thoughts turn to ice-cream.  I keep coming across people posting about chocolate sorbet.  This seemed a great way of having two types of treats at once.

This sorbet is very intense, and one small scoop is enough for me.  It would be great with raspberries or other soft fruit.

Ingredients
500ml water
125g cocoa
250g sugar
75g dark chocolate chips (this is a dairy free version)
1 tsp chilli (very mild warm sensation, add more for a bigger kick)
1 tsp cinnamon
10g coconut oil.  I have found this stuff works well to give a coconut flavour to curries so thought I would try it. I added this as I fancied a bounty bar (coconut coated in chocolate)  With this tiny amount I couldn't taste the coconut so next time will add more.  I should have split the batch in half and done two tests.
1/2 tsp 50% alcohol liqueur, more if lower strength.  Use whatever alcohol you like the flavour of with chocolate.  If you don't want to use alcohol just allow ten minutes after you get it out of the freezer for the sorbet to soften before attempting to scoop.  We have a hasty household.


Heat the water, sugar and cocoa powder together, stirring, until everything is smoothly mixed.  Allow to cool a little then add the chocolates, stir to melt.  Add the flavourings.  Strain through a sieve in case you have lumps of undissolved stuff.  Add the alcohol.

Leave to sit in the fridge for a few hours to make sure the flavours mature and the mixture cools properly.  Freeze in an ice-cream maker and store in the freezer.

Best ever easy gluten free chocolate cake

For thirty years our standard family celebration cake was a giant devils food cake from the Cordon Bleu series of cook books.  I used to make multiple tiers in my fifteen inch pizza tins - think of the immense chocolate cake in the movie Matilda.  My copy of the book is annotated with notes on how many times to multiply the recipe to feed sixty, how many times the recipe can be increased before the batter won't fit in the food mixer, and spattered with lots of bits of chocolaty dough (now, of course, a hazard).

I realised I hadn't written up this recipe on the blog.  I looked for it today for another family party tomorrow. Our books are all in heaps as we have had builders doing some repairs to the library walls - a sudden panic when I thought I wouldn't be able to track the recipe down.

2x 8 inch / 20cm cake tins.  Ideally these should have loose bottoms to make turning out easy. Grease tins and line base with non-stick baking paper.

Set oven to 170C / 160C fan


Ingredients
175g flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
25g ground almond (optional, helps with richness and keeping)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
285 g sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
125 soft baking margarine (or softened butter)
210ml water
60g cocoa

Method
Sift/whisk flours, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together
Beat sugar and margarine together until light and fluffy
Mix cocoa and water together
Add eggs to sugar mixture, beating well
Add cocoa mixture and flour to sugar/egg mixture - add a bit of one, mix well, then a bit of the other, and so on until all incorporated
Beat until even texture and colour

Pour into prepared tins.  Bake for about thirty minutes at 170C/160C fan.  When baked, turn out onto cooling racks and remove the lining paper from the base.  Leave to cool completely before icing.

Many icings will be good with this.  I usually make a partially cooked one I invented because I was too lazy to spend time beating butter and icing sugar together.  It sets well to a soft fudgy texture, making the cake a little tidier to eat than a normal butter cream.

Icing Ingredients
75g butter
50ml water
30g cocoa
450g icing sugar

Icing method
Melt butter with water in a saucepan
sieve icing sugar and cocoa.  Add to water/butter mixture and stir until thoroughly mixed.  Sandwich cakes together with some of the icing and then use the rest to cover the top and sides.  If you like a fugdy look to the icing let it cool slightly before putting on the top of the cake.  For a glossy finish make sure the icing is hot and pour it on the cake.  If it seems too thick to do this easily add a little water to the icing.