Quick microwave orange pudding, gluten and dairy free

Continuing my testing of puddings in the microwave (cheaper, quicker and easier) I made one with some fragrant zingy oranges.   Unfortunately not straight from a tree- yet another year where I haven't made it to Seville for the orange season.  I don't think this recipe is quite right yet - if anyone makes a variation on it that works well perhaps you could let me know.

I based the recipe on this recipe for self-saucing orange pudding.

Ingredients
zest one orange
juice 5 oranges (approx 250ml) - 40ml for batter, rest for sauce
100g self raising flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal plus 1 rounded tsp baking powder)
80 g sugar - 40g for batter, 40g for sauce
40ml oil
1 egg

Mix the zest, oil, egg, 40g sugar and 40ml juice together.  Mix in flour.  Place batter in microwave safe bowl.

Mix remaining juice and sugar together.  Heat to dissolve sugar then bring to the boil.  Pour carefully over the pudding; it looks weird but that's what you do.

Cover in clingfilm, and cook on medium for 8 minutes.  Leave to sit for a few minutes, covered.

This pudding is quite fluffy but has a texture which reminds me slightly of dumplings.  The original recipe asked for melted butter, and a larger amount, which might have given a better texture.

Tastes good, worth doing again.

Marmalade loaf cake

Brought back a jar of marmalade from the storage unit made in 1999.  I prefer the crisp flavour of new marmalade but Rod likes this rick dark caramelly flavour.  I used half a jar to make him a cake using a recipe from the Telegraph as the base. This cake has a chewy toffee crust and gently orange middle.  Add more zest if you want a zingier cake.  I used satsumas as they were the only oranges I had.

I used half ordinary sugar and half a solid block of dark brown sugar which I had to dissolve slowly in the egg, so I didn't follow the creaming method fully.  I did cream the loose sugar, so for the first time in ages I got my food mixer out (thanks Lindsay).  The rest of the dissolved sugar and egg mix went into the mix after the butter and sugar was light and fluffy.

I added flaxseed as Rod's new pills mean he needs to increase his fibre intake.  It has the added benefit that I don't get tempted by these cakes as my delicate guts can't cope with flaxseed.

Loaf tin; 22cm by 12cm - traditional 1lb loaf tin, buttered and lined

Oven set to 175C fan

Ingredients
75g butter, room temperature.  If you are hasty and zap in the microwave be careful as the middle can become liquid before you realise
175 sugar (soft brown or other)
2 eggs
125g dark marmalade
zest of two satsumas and juice of one
175g self raising flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca and 20% cornmeal, with 1tsp of baking powder to 100g flour)
25g flaxseed (optional)


Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
add in the egg, juice and zest, beat, then add the marmalade
Stir in flour and flaxseed until evenly mixed

Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 35- 45 minutes.  If it looks wobbly when you first open the door at 35 minutes leave it in.  It should leave a knife clean when you test it.

Leave in tin for ten minutes.  Peel off paper and cool on a rack.

Turkey alternatives- vegan quinoa, butternut squash and cashew nut roast

It is always a good idea to have an alternative to turkey as people may be vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian or just not like turkey.  I had a look at a few recipes on the internet, including the useful evaluative series at the Guardian. I wanted to use roasted butternut and cashew, so also looked at the River Cottage nut roast.  I also fancied including cranberries, and found this pretty-looking recipe from Jamie Oliver.  I wanted this dish to be a complete protein source - it seems to me that too often the vegetarian option in restaurants hasn't thought through either the flavour balance or the nutrient balance.

I made two versions, I'll post the second, including mushrooms, later.
I cooked a whole 300g bag of qunioa, rinsing thoroughly first, to make both recipes.
I cooked 300g of fresh cranberries for a couple of minutes with the juice of a satsuma, 1tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp chilli jam.  This was used in both recipes.

Ingredients
600g cooked quinoa
250 roasted butternut squash (peel, chop, rub with oil, roast in hot oven half hour)
250g cashew nuts, chopped (quick blast in blender, be careful not to powder)
1 red onion, chopped, cooked until soft in 1 tbsp oil
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 tsp vegetable bouillon powder (make sure gf)
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4tsp pepper

cranberry 'topping'

Mix all the ingredients and check seasoning. As you stir the mixture the butternut squash pieces will break up  If any are too large just cut them. You want a mixture with some contrast but no large lumps.

You can eat this as it is to test or fry a small blob to give a crisp outer to test what it will be like when baked. You may well want more salt as I eat very little (just enough to stop my tendency to low blood pressure). You may also want to reduce or remove the cumin if you don't like its distinctive earthy taste. Try some sage as an alternative.

Place a layer of the cranberries in the bottom of your dish and pack the quinoa mixture on top.  I used individual baking cases - the sort often used for lemon drizzle, as some of these are being given away.  I made eleven individual nut roasts from this mixture, filling the containers to just below the surface. Drizzle a little oil on top to help it go crisp and brown when baked.

before baking

Bake in the oven with other things you are cooking for about 20 minutes.  These can be frozen; just get out of the freezer a couple of hours before you want to cook them if they are the individual size. These tiny individual portions are easy to tuck in next to other items.  Leave them to rest ten minutes before serving.

This nut roast has a light flavour and slightly crumbly texture.  It would go well with the other traditional items on a Christmas dinner.  Just remember to have some gf vegan gravy to go wit it.

Spiced plum cobbler

This cobbler has a light cake topping and a rich syrupy spiced plum base.

Ingredients
600g plums, chopped
4tbsp sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
rind and juice of small orange

topping
100g self raising flour (40%urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal and 1tsp baking powder to 100g flour)
50g cold butter
50g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
rice or other milk to produce soft dropping batter


Cook the plum mixture until the plums are beginning to soften.  Place in either one medium pie dish or two smaller ones (I like to make two so I can freeze one).

Cut the cold butter into small pieces, toss in the flour, then rub together, either with your fingers or a quick whizz in a food processor.  Stir in the sugar and spice, then the egg and milk.

Carefully spoon the cake mixture on top of the fruit.  Cook in a medium oven (175C fan) for 25-30 minutes until the top begins to brown and the cake is cooked all the way through.

This easy pudding can be made with any variety of fruit.

Biscotti - gluten free. Double orange and orange and chocolate

chocolate orange biscotti (cup by local potter)

I regularly make biscotti but as they keep so well I realised I hadn't tried my standard flour mix with them - I used to make it with a mix of ground almonds, urid lentils and tapioca.  So, today, pouring with rain outside and nothing else that must be done...two biscotti recipes. I am going to follow the English habit of referring to 'biscotti' as both singular and plural - in effect as if it is a biscuit name.  Any Italians, sorry.

I base my biscotti on the biscotti alla mandorle from the River Cafe Cook Book Green, by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, just swapping the flours, and adding anything else that pleases me to adjust the flavour.

Ingredients
150g whole blanched almonds, coarsely chopped
100g pine kernels
1 tsp vanilla
250g caster sugar
250g flour ( 40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
finely grated zest 2 oranges

For recipe 1 I added 100g of crystallised orange peel I made last winter.  I just chopped this coarsely and added it with the chopped almonds.

For recipe 2 I added 100g of plain chocolate drops.  I use Callebaut Belgian chocolate.  I buy it in 2.5kg bags from my local trade store, and always have the white, milk, 54% and 70.4% chocolate drops in stock. I know, that makes a lot of chocolate to keep, but it is very easy to cook with and tastes very good.



Instructions

Heat oven to 180C fan

Chop the almonds coarsely and toast for a few minutes in the oven with the pine kernels to a toasty golden.  Watch out you don't let them burn, and tip them onto a cool dish when you take them out of the oven or they may overcook from the residual heat  in the tin.  Let them cool.  If you forget to do them first you can speed up the cooling by putting them in a large metal bowl in a tub of iced water.

Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder together.   Mix the wet ingredients (including zest) and add to the dry ingredients.  You will have to work quite hard to get them to mix- probably easier in a mixer but for some reason I have always done this by hand.

Mix in the (cooled) nuts and kernels.  Mix in the chopped crystallised peel or chocolate drops.

Shape into two long thin logs and place on a buttered sheet or preferably on a silicon sheet.

logs - first baking

Cook for 15 minutes until the dough is setting.  If it is too gooey to cut neatly put back in the oven for a few minutes.

Remove from the oven and cut into whatever size pieces you want.  I tend to make these quite small as normal store-bought biscotti size is too big for us when made with such rich ingredients.

The chocolate tended to smear when cutting.  If this will bother you try leaving the dough after this first setting until fully cooled and the chocolate has re-set.  I think if you then slice and re-bake you will get neat chocolate biscotti.  Anyone tried this?

Place back in the oven on their sides and bake for another five minutes, turn, and bake again.

slices - second baking

They should be lightly browned.  You can take them out earlier if you like a chewier biscotti, but we like them quite crisp, and it means they keep very well.

biscotti- double orange

biscotti -chocolate orange

Keep in an air-tight tin.  They last for months.  They make good handbag emergency food as they don't go off quickly when carried around for a few days, and the high protein content makes them satisfying.