It came to me on Sunday, as I sat on the couch in a mind fug, tired and with misery in the guts, that my previous days weakness at a birthday party really just wasn't worth it. Mind you I think I might have compounded matters by getting up early and swimming 34 laps when I probably should have slept in, but try tell that to a morning person!
See I'd weakened when the various platters came round with tasty lunch snacks of vegetable samosas, mini pizzas, homemade pate and crackers among other gluten laden treats. I was hungry, the food looked good so I ate. And of course I paid for it. When will I ever learn? Anyway it gave me inspiration for this weeks Friday Baking Club as I remembered something Neil and a friend were discussing as they were devouring the samosas - their favorite party food - party pies and pastizzis. It gave me a yearning for homemade sweet and savoury pastry treats like my Mum's pasties, date and walnut slice and lemon meringue pie. So I think that this Friday I'm going to make short crust pastry to make Neil some party pies and myself a date a walnut slice. Just thinking about them now has got me salivating.
I might also peruse my new birthday cookbook, thanks Kersten, "Babycakes: vegan, gluten-free and (mostly) sugar-free recipes from New York's most talked about baker" by Erin McKenna, for further inspiration if I get time. I'm excited by the pretty pictures - they look good enough to eat - as well as the concept that these recipes use health conscious alternatives to refined sugar and butter as I really don't want to pork out over the next six months of baking! Anyway, enough of that.
Now I also wanted to take this opportunity to encourage comment, advice, suggestions, requests and information sharing in response to my ramblings. Don't be afraid to have your say or to pass on your pearls of wisdom. I'm also just learning how to "blog" so bare with me as I work things out. I'm currently cross posting on Facebook to let people know when I write a new post as I haven't quite worked out how to send out automated emails for those supportive friends who have joined up as a follower. By the way, big thanks to all 9 of you!
Happy baking!
28 July, 2010
25 July, 2010
Muffins, jaffa puddings and more Afghans
Phew that was a busy Friday Baking Club, I've only just finished it! A pattern seems to be emerging with early mornings where I'm usually in the kitchen by 6:30am preparing for the day's socialising. I needed bread, muffins and Afghans by about 11am to take to lunch with friends, do the shopping for dinner and prepare for dinner with guests arriving at 7pm. There was hope for an afternoon nap but it was difficult to squeeze it into the tight schedule to avoid getting slightly manic by the end.
Anyway with a loaf of sunflower seeded bread in the oven I thought it was time
to tackle the first adaptation for the day. After making the Afghans last weekend I had a quick hunt around on the net for a few different recipes and pictures for comparison and from what I saw the recipe I tested was atypical with its highly spreadable flat biscuit. Although it was still rather tasty and chewy, I thought I'd try to make one that had a bit more depth. I was thinking that by playing with the ratio of flour to butter with a bit less baking powder and sugar with the addition of a nut might still produce a very tasty biscuit but more in-line with the kiwi tradition. So here's what I came up with.
Meg's gluten free Afghans
makes approx 30
190g butter, softened
1/2 c brown sugar
3/4 c rice flour
1/2 c tapioca flour
1/4 c potato flour
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 c gluten free cornflakes
50g dark chocolate melted
walnuts broken into small pieces
1. Preheat oven 180C and line 3 baking trays
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Sift flours, baking powder, bicarb and cocoa and mix in with creamed butter
4. Stir in lightly crushed cornflakes.
5. Use a teaspoon to roll dough into small balls and press down with a fork, bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool on trays before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
6. When biscuits are completely cooled, drizzle chocolate over the top of biscuit and place walnut piece on top.
Anyway with a loaf of sunflower seeded bread in the oven I thought it was time
to tackle the first adaptation for the day. After making the Afghans last weekend I had a quick hunt around on the net for a few different recipes and pictures for comparison and from what I saw the recipe I tested was atypical with its highly spreadable flat biscuit. Although it was still rather tasty and chewy, I thought I'd try to make one that had a bit more depth. I was thinking that by playing with the ratio of flour to butter with a bit less baking powder and sugar with the addition of a nut might still produce a very tasty biscuit but more in-line with the kiwi tradition. So here's what I came up with.
Meg's gluten free Afghans
makes approx 30
190g butter, softened
1/2 c brown sugar
3/4 c rice flour
1/2 c tapioca flour
1/4 c potato flour
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 c gluten free cornflakes
50g dark chocolate melted
walnuts broken into small pieces
1. Preheat oven 180C and line 3 baking trays
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Sift flours, baking powder, bicarb and cocoa and mix in with creamed butter
4. Stir in lightly crushed cornflakes.
5. Use a teaspoon to roll dough into small balls and press down with a fork, bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool on trays before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
6. When biscuits are completely cooled, drizzle chocolate over the top of biscuit and place walnut piece on top.
Things to note about this Afghan recipe is that they may not keep as well as the other biscuits, they go rather crumbly with moisture so they are best eaten within a couple of days, which isn't too hard if you've got a few friends to share with. Also if anyone tries the recipe with a bit of Xanthan gum let me know how it goes - that might help bind them together.
After cooking all the Afghans I turned myself to the task of creating the perfect
Carrot, sultana, walnut and orange muffins. I've been trying to re-create this recipe for a while, keeping in mind my Mum's Carrot cake that I wanted to make into a muffin which I grew up baking and eating. Its taken me a while to get it to a stage where I'm happy to share and invite comment. The ones I made on Friday morning were better than my two recent attempts however they were still a bit crumbly and dense, where I was looking for a more springy tasty texture. Not to mention I got the quantities wrong with too much liquid and extra flavourings such that batter filled 15 muffin tins rather than the normal 12.
So this evening I tried to scale back the ingredients and correct the ratios while also adding xanthan gum and a little more oil to help with the binding and springiness. This seems to have done the trick, the resulting muffin is springy and not so crumbly, although it does tend to have a slightly odd flavour I tend to associate with pre-made GF flour mixes so its a bit of a trade off, maybe its the Xanthan gum. Anyway they seemed to have passed the 'Neil' taste test and I'll take them to work tomorrow for further comparison, and at least one colleague will be able to compare the two as well as she was at lunch on Friday. Anyway here is tonight's recipe for the muffins.
Carrot, sultana, walnut and orange muffins
Makes 12
½c brown sugar
2/3c grated carrot
1/3c sultanas
1/3c walnuts, broken into small pieces
50g potato flour
175g rice flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp xanthan gum
1tsp mixed spice
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp nutmeg
2/3c vegetable oil
½ c orange juice
2 eggs
1. Preheat oven to 180C and line 12 hole muffin tin.
2. Mix sugar, carrot, sultanas, orange rind and walnuts together, stir in sifted dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, spices & xanthan gum).
3. In a mixing jug, lightly beat vegetable oil, orange juice and eggs and pour in with above mixture. Stir until just combined and spoon into prepared muffin tin.
4. Bake for 20-25mins, cool for a couple of minutes before removing from to cool completely.
Carrot, sultana, walnut and orange muffins
Makes 12
½c brown sugar
2/3c grated carrot
1/3c sultanas
1/3c walnuts, broken into small pieces
50g potato flour
175g rice flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp xanthan gum
1tsp mixed spice
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp nutmeg
2/3c vegetable oil
½ c orange juice
2 eggs
1. Preheat oven to 180C and line 12 hole muffin tin.
2. Mix sugar, carrot, sultanas, orange rind and walnuts together, stir in sifted dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, spices & xanthan gum).
3. In a mixing jug, lightly beat vegetable oil, orange juice and eggs and pour in with above mixture. Stir until just combined and spoon into prepared muffin tin.
4. Bake for 20-25mins, cool for a couple of minutes before removing from to cool completely.
Although I haven't iced the muffins to minimise the sweetness, a orange cream cheese frosting would go nicely with them!
Now back to Friday's baking and the final adaptation challenge which was to take the Women's Weekly Self-saucing Jaffa Pudding and adapt it to serve 6 individual puddings. Luckily this was surprisingly easy and quick to do. Now although this recipe is not one that can be pre-prepared before your guests arrive, you can however assemble two parts to mix together about 30-40 mins before you want eat! And even a slightly tipsy person can do this without coming too undone! I put the butter, milk (or dairy free alternative), sugar, vanilla essence and rind in a bowl that can be microwaved just before mixing and sifted the flours and cocoa powder ready in another bowl so its just a matter of whisking the two together and popping in the oven. And, if like me you had some left over melted dark chocolate from icing the Afghans, you can add that to the mix as well. Another tip to remember is to place the oven proof dish (or ramekins) on a tray to avoid any overflow for ending up on the oven floor. (It can make a smokey burnt mess which is hard to clean!)
Self-saucing jaffa pudding (The Gluten-free Cookbook by Australian Women's Weekly)
60g butter
1/2c milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3/4c caster sugar
1/2c rice flour
1/3c soya flour
1/3c GF SR flour
1tsp baking powder
2Tbsp cocoa powder
2tsp grated orange rind
1/2c brown sugar
2c boiling water
1. Preheat oven 180C. Grease 1.5 Lt ovenproof dish
2. Melt butter with milk and extract in medium saucepan (or microwave). remove from heat and whisk in caster sugar, then sifted flours, baking powder, half the cocoa and rind. Spread mixture into dish.
3. Sift brown sugar and the remaining cocoa over mixture, gently pouring the boiling water over the mixture.
4. Bake pudding for about 40 minutes. Stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Individual servings: grease 6, 1 1/2c ramekins, divine batter equally, sprinkle with brown sugar and cocoa and pour boiling water to 2/3 height of ramekin. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Be careful that they don't over flow.
They go splendidly with cream and/or ice cream! I've served this recipe two Friday nights in a row, once as a single pudding and once as individual servings and all the guests loved them and had no idea they were gluten free. So a winner all round and I particularly like the individual servings as its nicer to plate up. Unfortunately no photos are available at present... we're too focused on eating rather that recording the moment.
20 July, 2010
Adaptations
One friend has said to me that she's really keen to see how I go at adapting recipes to give them my own flavour or to try new things. This idea excites me as well. It gets the mental juices flowing and for this week's Friday baking club I'm going to focus on adapting and melding different recipes to see if I can come up with something that really works.
Luckily I've already got a couple of audiences to test these baked treats out on. A lunch with girlfriends and dinner with some friends to test a variation on the Afghans, make a meld of recipes for carrot, sultana, orange and walnut muffins and adapt a recipe for chocolate and orange self saucing pudding into individual servings for better presentation. So stay tuned to see how it all goes this Friday.
18 July, 2010
A chocolate fix - Afghan biscuits
A couple of years ago I was introduced to the delight of the Afghan biscuits, a tasty bicky packed full of chocolaty buttery crunchy goodness, thank you Alli! And it wasn’t until today that I realised why I’d not really heard that much about them. A quick search on google has alluded to the fact that they are of Kiwi origin but it is unknown where the name has come from. They certainly weren’t a biscuit we grew up knowing, maybe they weren’t big on Pemberton and Perth unless you had Kiwi ancestry!
Anyway I must admit I’d been having chocolate cravings so as I was flicking through the cookbooks on Friday morning I was drawn to all the recipes with chocolate in them. I was torn between brownies, chocolate cake and the Afghans and the Afghans won. Maybe it’s because of the fond memories or maybe it was because they would go nicely with a cuppa after dinner that night. Seeing the recipe I now understood where the crunchiness came from – cornflakes! So at about 5pm on Friday I decided it was time to bake. I must admit I’d spent much of my day setting up the blog which has been quite fun. Looking back now it was a wee bit foolish as we had guests arriving at 7.15pm for dinner and we still had to get the beef burgundy on! And as it was I was still drizzling chocolate on top of the biscuits our guests arrived!
Now a couple of things to note about this recipe including the fact that they will spread, a bit like Anzac biscuits. So be sure to leave plenty of room. A don’t fret if they look really flat after they cool off, that’s normal and they firm up after cooling properly and look a treat once you drizzle the chocolate over the top. In contrast to the recipe I used dark chocolate instead of chocolate icing as I prefer the slight bitterness in contrast to the sweetness. And according to my friend its traditional to have a nut on top, a walnut or pecan are good suggestions, however I didn’t get this advice until yesterday so I’ll know for next time. Anyway the recipe is below with and a couple pictures of the dough and finished product.
Afghan Biscuits (The gluten free kitchen by Sue Shepherd)
Makes 30
1c brown sugar
190g unsalted butter, softened
100g rice flour
65g tapioca flour
1tsp bicarb soda
2tsp gluten-free baking powder
2Tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2c gluten-free cornflakes
Chocolate icing
1 ½ c pure icing sugar
1 ½ Tbsp cocoa powder
Or 100g dark chocolate
1. Preheat oven 180C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Sift flours, bicarb soda, baking powder and coca powder three times.
4. Add to butter mixture and beat well. Gently stir in cornflakes.
5. Roll dough into walnut-sized balls and flatten slightly by pressing between your palms. Place on baking trays, allowing plenty of room for spreading and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. To make chocolate icing sift the cocoa powder and icing sugar into a small bowl, Add 1 ½-2 Tbsp water and mix until smooth. Alternatively melt chocolate in microwave. Drizzle the icing/chocolate over the cooled biscuit and leave to set.
Enjoy!
Anyway I must admit I’d been having chocolate cravings so as I was flicking through the cookbooks on Friday morning I was drawn to all the recipes with chocolate in them. I was torn between brownies, chocolate cake and the Afghans and the Afghans won. Maybe it’s because of the fond memories or maybe it was because they would go nicely with a cuppa after dinner that night. Seeing the recipe I now understood where the crunchiness came from – cornflakes! So at about 5pm on Friday I decided it was time to bake. I must admit I’d spent much of my day setting up the blog which has been quite fun. Looking back now it was a wee bit foolish as we had guests arriving at 7.15pm for dinner and we still had to get the beef burgundy on! And as it was I was still drizzling chocolate on top of the biscuits our guests arrived!
Now a couple of things to note about this recipe including the fact that they will spread, a bit like Anzac biscuits. So be sure to leave plenty of room. A don’t fret if they look really flat after they cool off, that’s normal and they firm up after cooling properly and look a treat once you drizzle the chocolate over the top. In contrast to the recipe I used dark chocolate instead of chocolate icing as I prefer the slight bitterness in contrast to the sweetness. And according to my friend its traditional to have a nut on top, a walnut or pecan are good suggestions, however I didn’t get this advice until yesterday so I’ll know for next time. Anyway the recipe is below with and a couple pictures of the dough and finished product.
Afghan Biscuits (The gluten free kitchen by Sue Shepherd)
Makes 30
1c brown sugar
190g unsalted butter, softened
100g rice flour
65g tapioca flour
1tsp bicarb soda
2tsp gluten-free baking powder
2Tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2c gluten-free cornflakes
Chocolate icing
1 ½ c pure icing sugar
1 ½ Tbsp cocoa powder
Or 100g dark chocolate
1. Preheat oven 180C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Sift flours, bicarb soda, baking powder and coca powder three times.
4. Add to butter mixture and beat well. Gently stir in cornflakes.
5. Roll dough into walnut-sized balls and flatten slightly by pressing between your palms. Place on baking trays, allowing plenty of room for spreading and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. To make chocolate icing sift the cocoa powder and icing sugar into a small bowl, Add 1 ½-2 Tbsp water and mix until smooth. Alternatively melt chocolate in microwave. Drizzle the icing/chocolate over the cooled biscuit and leave to set.
Enjoy!
Bread
I love the smell of baking bread, its warm yeasty smell. Not to mention its really tasty, fresh from the oven, still a bit warm so your butter melts all by itself. It’s also great with cheese and red wine. Or practical for a travelling packed lunch. Toasted it’s a perfect bed for a sunny side up egg with a side of bacon or just a nice homemade jam on a Sunday morning. Gluten free bread and rice or corn alternatives just don’t cut it. They’re more like cake and crumbly or are hard and crunchy. Our honeymoon was hard with a couple of weeks of corn thin sandwiches every day. At one stage I experimented with Rye and Spelt bread or variations of, even making my own with the ‘no-knead’ technique. It was great fun and tasty too but although these grains were supposedly gentler on the digestive system I still suffered. So it was back to the gluten-free bread and corn thins.
So more recently I thought I might try out some of the gluten-free bread mixes to see if there had been any improvement since I last tried. Now this blog is not about promoting any particular product, but this is one brand name that I will mention as it has changed things considerably for me when dealing with my love for bread. So here it goes ‘Springhill Farm - the real bread mix’ is the go. It’s a mixture of maize starch, potato starch, flaxseed flour, psyllium and pea protein. The mix is made up with yeast, sugar, salt and warm water just like normal bread. And guess what? It even tastes and feels like bread too! Amazing!
I shared this find with a fellow gluten intolerant work colleague and she was suitably impressed and raced off to buy some of the mix as well. Another exciting thing about this mix is that it can also be used to make breads with different grains, fruit, herbs etc as well as pizza bases and pasta. My friend has made spinach and ricotta cannelloni with it with great success. However, I’ve only ventured to make a mixed fruit loaf and a sunflower seed loaf but hopefully I’ll get more adventurous over the next 6 months. One word of warning though, large doses of psyllium might not be for everyone.
The two pictures are from the latest fruit loaf made on Friday which has a about 200g of sultana, apricots and mixed peel. Enjoy!
So more recently I thought I might try out some of the gluten-free bread mixes to see if there had been any improvement since I last tried. Now this blog is not about promoting any particular product, but this is one brand name that I will mention as it has changed things considerably for me when dealing with my love for bread. So here it goes ‘Springhill Farm - the real bread mix’ is the go. It’s a mixture of maize starch, potato starch, flaxseed flour, psyllium and pea protein. The mix is made up with yeast, sugar, salt and warm water just like normal bread. And guess what? It even tastes and feels like bread too! Amazing!
I shared this find with a fellow gluten intolerant work colleague and she was suitably impressed and raced off to buy some of the mix as well. Another exciting thing about this mix is that it can also be used to make breads with different grains, fruit, herbs etc as well as pizza bases and pasta. My friend has made spinach and ricotta cannelloni with it with great success. However, I’ve only ventured to make a mixed fruit loaf and a sunflower seed loaf but hopefully I’ll get more adventurous over the next 6 months. One word of warning though, large doses of psyllium might not be for everyone.
The two pictures are from the latest fruit loaf made on Friday which has a about 200g of sultana, apricots and mixed peel. Enjoy!
Birthday baking - Lime & coconut friands and Vanilla cookies
It’s a tradition at my work that on ones birthday one provides cake. Well this year my birthday happened to fall on my very first Friday dedicated to baking, although I can’t say I did much baking! However, the next day I did get back in the kitchen as we had friends coming around for morning tea. See previous post for recipe and pictures of what we had! Anyway last Sunday, after coming back from a long weekend in Blackheath, I decided I best do my birthday baking for work.
Like many workplaces and even school yards today, there a few tricky people to bake for, myself included. We have at least three people who are gluten intolerant, a vegan, a dairy free and another that is a little tricky to discribe. Anyway, I consulted with my tricky collegue and we decided she’d like to try the gluten and nut free friand recipe I’d found. And for the vegan and dairy free I had a trusted vanilla cookie recipe that I had from my intolerance testing days that I could jazz up with some icing. Both were reasonably simple recipes that could be whipped up in a couple of hours.
Now there’s a funny story about the first time I tested friand recipe a couple of weeks ago. Neil and I were going to visit his parents and a couple of my friends at the northern beaches. Like my Mum, I always like to take a little treat with us when we go visiting as I hate to arrive empty handed. We were also visiting the friends at lunchtime, so I offered to bring a pot of soup and a freash loaf of gluten-free bread. This all meant for a busy morning in the kitchen, just as well I’m an early riser!
Anyway, I was mixing up the friands after I’d made the bread and while preparing the soup, in a bit of a rush as we really had to get out the door soon. As I about spoon the batter into the friand tins I was thinking it was a bit runny and a bit light on but not having made it before I didn’t have anything to compare it with so I continued on regardless. See at this point I think most normal people who weren’t in a rush, would do a quick check against the recipe, but no not me, I blithely spooned it out and popped the trays in the oven. Then about halfway into the recommended baking time I was getting cooked smells from the oven. At the same time I also went into the microwave to heat up some milk and there was the melted butter waiting to go into the batter. O oh! I was at a loss at what to do. So I had a quick peek and they looked ok and were nearly done so I just left them. I now had butter free friands or maybe they were more like lime and coconut macaroons!
I can’t bear to waste things so I took them with us visiting anyway. Also family and friends have always proven to be very polite and appreciative of my not always perfect attempts at baking. Now these friands, even when you get the recipe right, don’t look like normal friands as they use lindseed meal, which makes them much darker and grainer. And without the butter they were light and fluffy and not dense at all. They were most definitiely edible, even quite tasty! Now I’m sure I read somewhere that chocolate brownies were invented by accident when a baker forgot a key ingredient. So sometimes mistakes have interesting outcomes, who knows I might have discovered a new tasty treat!
Anyway I digress, back to the friand recipe, once again courtesty of Australian Womens Weekly Gluten-free cookbook. As I said it uses lindseed meal which is quite handy if you also know someone with a nut allergy! It also uses both lime rind and juice which helps to balance the butteryness and sweetness, while the coconut gives it a great texture. So all in all it’s a lovely little moist friand that goes perfectly with your favorite cuppa! And this time I’ve included an extra picture of the batter in the tins so you’ve got a bit of a reference, if like me until recently, you haven’t made them before! Also the batter should be thick and relatively easy to spoon. Also to note is that I used shredded coconut instead of desicated coconut and I didn’t put flaked coconut on top, mainly because I only had shredded coconut and couldn’t be bothered buy more!
Lime and coconut friands (The Gluten Free Cookbook – The Australian Women’s Weekly)
Makes 12
6 egg whites
185g unsalted butter, melted
3/4 c linseed meal
½ c desiccated coconut (shredded ok too)
1 ½ c pure icing sugar
½ c soya flour
2 tsp finely grated lime rind
2 Tbsp lime juice
¼ c flaked coconut (optional)
1. Preheat oven 200C. Grease 12-hole friand pan.
2. Whisk egg whites in a large bowl until combined. Add butter, meal, desicated/shredded coconut, sifted icing sugar and flour, rind and juice; stir until combined. Divide mixture among pan holes.
3. Bake friands for 10 minites. Remove pan from oven, sprinkle with flaked coconut and bake for a further 10 minutes. Stand in pan 5 minutes; turn top-side up onto wire rack to cool.
Now for the vanilla cookies. This recipe was a bit of a staple from me several years back when I was going through intolerence testing and pretty much everything was off the allowed food list. They are simple sublte and tasty. They also can be varied in numerous ways with brown sugar, choc or carob chips, nuts, dried fruit or even citrus rind. This time I chose to go with the basic recipe and jazz them up with passionfruit icing (see melting moments recipe). Note I use my Kitchen Aid to do all the mixing and the cookies are quite pale if you use caster sugar, while brown sugar will give you a more golden cookie. Altenatively butter can also be used in same quantities if you don’t need to worry about being dairy free and a more golden cookie will be achieved. A few pictures are provided below recipe.
Vanilla cookies (Friendly Food by Royal Prince Alfred Hopsital Allergy Unit)
Makes 18 (approx)
125g dairy-free margarine
1/3 c caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 c GF plain flour
½ c GF SR flour
1. Preheat oven to 170C. Line two baking trays with baking paper
2. Beat the margarine, sugar and vanilla essence until well combined. Sift the flours into margarine mixture and use a wooden spoon until well combined. Use your hands to mix to form a soft dough.
3. Shape tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on prepared trays. Use a fork to flatten until about 1cm thick. Bake for 12-15 minutes until light golden. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.
Neil was my official taste tester of both recipes and they go the tumbs up. Well I suppose he needs to get some kind of payment for taking all the pictures for the blog! What was left went to work on Monday. I thin there were a few happy campers, especially from those who generally can’t eat other treats at morning tea!
Like many workplaces and even school yards today, there a few tricky people to bake for, myself included. We have at least three people who are gluten intolerant, a vegan, a dairy free and another that is a little tricky to discribe. Anyway, I consulted with my tricky collegue and we decided she’d like to try the gluten and nut free friand recipe I’d found. And for the vegan and dairy free I had a trusted vanilla cookie recipe that I had from my intolerance testing days that I could jazz up with some icing. Both were reasonably simple recipes that could be whipped up in a couple of hours.
Now there’s a funny story about the first time I tested friand recipe a couple of weeks ago. Neil and I were going to visit his parents and a couple of my friends at the northern beaches. Like my Mum, I always like to take a little treat with us when we go visiting as I hate to arrive empty handed. We were also visiting the friends at lunchtime, so I offered to bring a pot of soup and a freash loaf of gluten-free bread. This all meant for a busy morning in the kitchen, just as well I’m an early riser!
Anyway, I was mixing up the friands after I’d made the bread and while preparing the soup, in a bit of a rush as we really had to get out the door soon. As I about spoon the batter into the friand tins I was thinking it was a bit runny and a bit light on but not having made it before I didn’t have anything to compare it with so I continued on regardless. See at this point I think most normal people who weren’t in a rush, would do a quick check against the recipe, but no not me, I blithely spooned it out and popped the trays in the oven. Then about halfway into the recommended baking time I was getting cooked smells from the oven. At the same time I also went into the microwave to heat up some milk and there was the melted butter waiting to go into the batter. O oh! I was at a loss at what to do. So I had a quick peek and they looked ok and were nearly done so I just left them. I now had butter free friands or maybe they were more like lime and coconut macaroons!
I can’t bear to waste things so I took them with us visiting anyway. Also family and friends have always proven to be very polite and appreciative of my not always perfect attempts at baking. Now these friands, even when you get the recipe right, don’t look like normal friands as they use lindseed meal, which makes them much darker and grainer. And without the butter they were light and fluffy and not dense at all. They were most definitiely edible, even quite tasty! Now I’m sure I read somewhere that chocolate brownies were invented by accident when a baker forgot a key ingredient. So sometimes mistakes have interesting outcomes, who knows I might have discovered a new tasty treat!
Anyway I digress, back to the friand recipe, once again courtesty of Australian Womens Weekly Gluten-free cookbook. As I said it uses lindseed meal which is quite handy if you also know someone with a nut allergy! It also uses both lime rind and juice which helps to balance the butteryness and sweetness, while the coconut gives it a great texture. So all in all it’s a lovely little moist friand that goes perfectly with your favorite cuppa! And this time I’ve included an extra picture of the batter in the tins so you’ve got a bit of a reference, if like me until recently, you haven’t made them before! Also the batter should be thick and relatively easy to spoon. Also to note is that I used shredded coconut instead of desicated coconut and I didn’t put flaked coconut on top, mainly because I only had shredded coconut and couldn’t be bothered buy more!
Lime and coconut friands (The Gluten Free Cookbook – The Australian Women’s Weekly)
Makes 12
6 egg whites
185g unsalted butter, melted
3/4 c linseed meal
½ c desiccated coconut (shredded ok too)
1 ½ c pure icing sugar
½ c soya flour
2 tsp finely grated lime rind
2 Tbsp lime juice
¼ c flaked coconut (optional)
1. Preheat oven 200C. Grease 12-hole friand pan.
2. Whisk egg whites in a large bowl until combined. Add butter, meal, desicated/shredded coconut, sifted icing sugar and flour, rind and juice; stir until combined. Divide mixture among pan holes.
3. Bake friands for 10 minites. Remove pan from oven, sprinkle with flaked coconut and bake for a further 10 minutes. Stand in pan 5 minutes; turn top-side up onto wire rack to cool.
Now for the vanilla cookies. This recipe was a bit of a staple from me several years back when I was going through intolerence testing and pretty much everything was off the allowed food list. They are simple sublte and tasty. They also can be varied in numerous ways with brown sugar, choc or carob chips, nuts, dried fruit or even citrus rind. This time I chose to go with the basic recipe and jazz them up with passionfruit icing (see melting moments recipe). Note I use my Kitchen Aid to do all the mixing and the cookies are quite pale if you use caster sugar, while brown sugar will give you a more golden cookie. Altenatively butter can also be used in same quantities if you don’t need to worry about being dairy free and a more golden cookie will be achieved. A few pictures are provided below recipe.
Vanilla cookies (Friendly Food by Royal Prince Alfred Hopsital Allergy Unit)
Makes 18 (approx)
125g dairy-free margarine
1/3 c caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 c GF plain flour
½ c GF SR flour
1. Preheat oven to 170C. Line two baking trays with baking paper
2. Beat the margarine, sugar and vanilla essence until well combined. Sift the flours into margarine mixture and use a wooden spoon until well combined. Use your hands to mix to form a soft dough.
3. Shape tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on prepared trays. Use a fork to flatten until about 1cm thick. Bake for 12-15 minutes until light golden. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.
Neil was my official taste tester of both recipes and they go the tumbs up. Well I suppose he needs to get some kind of payment for taking all the pictures for the blog! What was left went to work on Monday. I thin there were a few happy campers, especially from those who generally can’t eat other treats at morning tea!
17 July, 2010
The fat on shortbread
I’m not sure what comes first, the intention to bake treats or to catch up with friends. Either way the outcome is good, I get to bake and catch up with friends! I’ve now made shortbread twice, both times when we’ve had people round to catch up over a cuppa and baked treats. The English perfected this notion with the invention of High Tea which I’m a huge subsctiber of. In fact I’m such a huge fan of High Tea, I held three last year two for my birthday and one just for the girly fun of it! And to top it off this year we even had a High Tea Wedding and I had a High Tea Hens do. And I secretly think Neil could have quite happily had a High Tea Bucks do too! So I think the next six months are going to involve a lot of tea and baked treats. Hmm just as well I’ve got a gym membership, a boxing and cycling buddy and a commitment to ride to work once a week otherwise I’m going to turn into one big butterball! So friends keep an eye on me and if I get any fatter invite yourselves around to help lighten the load and sure I’m riding my bike and going to the gym!
Anyway, onto the fat on shortbread! This is probably one of the easier recipes to convert to gluten free, as it’s essentially butter, sugar and flour and it doesn’t need to rise. Although it can be a bit crumbly if you don’t get the ratio quite right. And not having made shortbread in the normal way I don’t have much to compare with. Never the less, I didn’t let that put me off, I ploughed on with a couple hours to spare before friends arrived to test a muffin and shortbread recipes and trusted favorite for normal double chocolate chip cookies. The second time round I tried it again this time with the melting moments and another muffin. Luckily I’ve got forgiving friends that don’t mind eating less than perfect first and second attempts.
Well each time friends arrived and I managed to present up the Lemon and Cranberry Shortbread (The Gluten-free Cookbook, The Australian Women’s Weekly), a version of Carrot, Orange Sultana Muffins (same book or and adapted version of Stephanie Alexander's muffin recipe) and another tried tested biscuit. I’m still trying to master a muffin recipe so I write about that another time when I get it right.
The shortbread recipe is for Orange Shortbread but it included a variation for Lemon and Cranberry which I chose to do so I didn’t double up on orange flavours with the muffins. I also halved the recipe as I didn’t have enough butter for both biscuit recipes. Handily the recipe is for two 20cm rounds. I didn’t bother with pre-marking the wedges before baking and I found cutting the easyist when fully chilled otherwise it broke and crumbled. But hey that might be my inperfections with the butter to flour ratio meaning that my verision was more crumbly. Anyway I still think the recipe is a keeper as it got the thumbs twice in a row. Once again it keeps for a week in an airtight container but it’s unlikely to stick around that long. The recipe included nutritional information but its best not to look at that as it’s just too scary! So here it is.
Lemon and Cranberry Shortbread (The Gluten Free Cookbook – The Australian Women’s Weekly)
250g butter
3 tsp lemon rind
½ c caster sugar
1 ¾ c GF plain flour
1/3 c rice flour
1/3 c dried cranberries, chopped
1. Preheat oven 150C. Grease two oven trays
2. Beat butter, rind and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Sift in flours, add cranberries and knead dough (either in bowl on floured surface) until smooth
3. Divide dough in half, shape each on separate trays, into 20cm rounds. Mark each round into 12 wedges, prink with fork. Pinch eadges of rounds with fingers and sprinkle with white sugar.
4. Bake shortbread about 40 minutes. Stand 5 minutes, then using shark knife, cut into wedges. Cool on trays.
Enjoy!
In picture below: Carrot, orange and sultana muffins with orange butter icing, lemon and cranberry shortbread and melting moments with passionfruit butter icing. Photo courtesy of Neil Hinds Photography.
Anyway, onto the fat on shortbread! This is probably one of the easier recipes to convert to gluten free, as it’s essentially butter, sugar and flour and it doesn’t need to rise. Although it can be a bit crumbly if you don’t get the ratio quite right. And not having made shortbread in the normal way I don’t have much to compare with. Never the less, I didn’t let that put me off, I ploughed on with a couple hours to spare before friends arrived to test a muffin and shortbread recipes and trusted favorite for normal double chocolate chip cookies. The second time round I tried it again this time with the melting moments and another muffin. Luckily I’ve got forgiving friends that don’t mind eating less than perfect first and second attempts.
Well each time friends arrived and I managed to present up the Lemon and Cranberry Shortbread (The Gluten-free Cookbook, The Australian Women’s Weekly), a version of Carrot, Orange Sultana Muffins (same book or and adapted version of Stephanie Alexander's muffin recipe) and another tried tested biscuit. I’m still trying to master a muffin recipe so I write about that another time when I get it right.
The shortbread recipe is for Orange Shortbread but it included a variation for Lemon and Cranberry which I chose to do so I didn’t double up on orange flavours with the muffins. I also halved the recipe as I didn’t have enough butter for both biscuit recipes. Handily the recipe is for two 20cm rounds. I didn’t bother with pre-marking the wedges before baking and I found cutting the easyist when fully chilled otherwise it broke and crumbled. But hey that might be my inperfections with the butter to flour ratio meaning that my verision was more crumbly. Anyway I still think the recipe is a keeper as it got the thumbs twice in a row. Once again it keeps for a week in an airtight container but it’s unlikely to stick around that long. The recipe included nutritional information but its best not to look at that as it’s just too scary! So here it is.
Lemon and Cranberry Shortbread (The Gluten Free Cookbook – The Australian Women’s Weekly)
250g butter
3 tsp lemon rind
½ c caster sugar
1 ¾ c GF plain flour
1/3 c rice flour
1/3 c dried cranberries, chopped
1. Preheat oven 150C. Grease two oven trays
2. Beat butter, rind and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Sift in flours, add cranberries and knead dough (either in bowl on floured surface) until smooth
3. Divide dough in half, shape each on separate trays, into 20cm rounds. Mark each round into 12 wedges, prink with fork. Pinch eadges of rounds with fingers and sprinkle with white sugar.
4. Bake shortbread about 40 minutes. Stand 5 minutes, then using shark knife, cut into wedges. Cool on trays.
Enjoy!
In picture below: Carrot, orange and sultana muffins with orange butter icing, lemon and cranberry shortbread and melting moments with passionfruit butter icing. Photo courtesy of Neil Hinds Photography.
16 July, 2010
Melting moments or Passionfruit kisses
A couple of weeks ago I decided to get a head start on my baking project. I’d bought myslef a couple of gluten free cookbooks to add to the couple I already had on intolerances, so my library now consists of
• The Gluten-free Cookbook by the Australian Women’s Weekly
• The Gluten-free Kitchen by Sue Shepard
• Irresistibles for the Irritable by Sue Shepard
• Friendlly Food: The essential guide to avoiding allergies, additives and problem chemicals by the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit.
We were visiting friends and I wanted to take a little treat with us so I decided on the “Melting Moments” from the “Gluten free kitchen”. Well you know what? When I first decided on this challage I searcha few websites and looked around for some advice on gluten free baking and one of the most important ones I noted was ‘Be careful with your measurements as gluten free baking is more exact and less tolerant than normal baking’. And of course you’ve got to learn to trust your instincts.
So as I was preparing this recipe for the first time what did I do? I wasn’t very exact with measuring out the flour and when it came to rolling out mixture into balls to put on the tray I didn’t trust my instincts. Anyway I thought they didn’t have enough flour and were too buttery and I was right. I pulled out a cooked tray that was one big crumbly biscuit. There was no way I was going to put passionfruit icing on those and take them to our friends place! Oh well we stopped off at the local bakery on the way to vist them and I didn’t eat any baked treats that morning.
However, when we returned home I headed straight into the kitchen and gave it all another go. This time I was careful with the measuring of the flour and adjusted the mix at the end to make sure my dough rolled nicely into balls. And hey presto, they came out edible this time. Although they were are bit small and high because I didn’t fork them down as well possible. Mind you they still tasted a treat as I just iced the top with the passionfruit butter and they were bite sized tasty morsels instead. They got rave reviews from friends who came over that night for dinner.
Anyway here is the recipe courtesy of the “Gluten Free Kitchen” by Sue Sheppard.
Melting Moments
Makes approx 15 double/30 single biscuits
½ c puring icing sugar, sifted
½ tsp vanilla essence
200g unsalted butter
1 Tbsp orange zest
1 c GF custard powder
1 c GF plain flour
Passionfruit Cream
30g unsalted butter
1 c pure icing sugar sifted
2 Tsp fresh passionfruit pulp
1. Preheat oven 180C and line 2 baking trays with baking paper
2. Place icing sugar, butter vanilla essence and orange zest in abowl and beat with electric beaters until well combined.
3. Sift the custard powder and flour into a bowl, then add to the creamed butter and mix to form a firm dough.
4. Roll dough into small balls (approx 30), place on baking tray and press with a fork. Bake fir 10-15 mins or until lightly browned on base. Remove from oven and leave on trays for 5 mins before transferring to wire racks to cool completely
5. To make passionfruit cream, mix butter and ½ cup icing sugar in a small bowl until pale and creamy. Add remaining icing sugar and passionfruit pulp until thick and pale.
6. Depending on how you like it – spread cream on base and sandwich together or if you like bite sized like me, spread a bit on the top of each biscuit.
Enjoy! Note they keep in an airtight container for about 3-5 days but they’re unlikely to last that long at our place or with friends!
• The Gluten-free Cookbook by the Australian Women’s Weekly
• The Gluten-free Kitchen by Sue Shepard
• Irresistibles for the Irritable by Sue Shepard
• Friendlly Food: The essential guide to avoiding allergies, additives and problem chemicals by the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit.
We were visiting friends and I wanted to take a little treat with us so I decided on the “Melting Moments” from the “Gluten free kitchen”. Well you know what? When I first decided on this challage I searcha few websites and looked around for some advice on gluten free baking and one of the most important ones I noted was ‘Be careful with your measurements as gluten free baking is more exact and less tolerant than normal baking’. And of course you’ve got to learn to trust your instincts.
So as I was preparing this recipe for the first time what did I do? I wasn’t very exact with measuring out the flour and when it came to rolling out mixture into balls to put on the tray I didn’t trust my instincts. Anyway I thought they didn’t have enough flour and were too buttery and I was right. I pulled out a cooked tray that was one big crumbly biscuit. There was no way I was going to put passionfruit icing on those and take them to our friends place! Oh well we stopped off at the local bakery on the way to vist them and I didn’t eat any baked treats that morning.
However, when we returned home I headed straight into the kitchen and gave it all another go. This time I was careful with the measuring of the flour and adjusted the mix at the end to make sure my dough rolled nicely into balls. And hey presto, they came out edible this time. Although they were are bit small and high because I didn’t fork them down as well possible. Mind you they still tasted a treat as I just iced the top with the passionfruit butter and they were bite sized tasty morsels instead. They got rave reviews from friends who came over that night for dinner.
Anyway here is the recipe courtesy of the “Gluten Free Kitchen” by Sue Sheppard.
Melting Moments
Makes approx 15 double/30 single biscuits
½ c puring icing sugar, sifted
½ tsp vanilla essence
200g unsalted butter
1 Tbsp orange zest
1 c GF custard powder
1 c GF plain flour
Passionfruit Cream
30g unsalted butter
1 c pure icing sugar sifted
2 Tsp fresh passionfruit pulp
1. Preheat oven 180C and line 2 baking trays with baking paper
2. Place icing sugar, butter vanilla essence and orange zest in abowl and beat with electric beaters until well combined.
3. Sift the custard powder and flour into a bowl, then add to the creamed butter and mix to form a firm dough.
4. Roll dough into small balls (approx 30), place on baking tray and press with a fork. Bake fir 10-15 mins or until lightly browned on base. Remove from oven and leave on trays for 5 mins before transferring to wire racks to cool completely
5. To make passionfruit cream, mix butter and ½ cup icing sugar in a small bowl until pale and creamy. Add remaining icing sugar and passionfruit pulp until thick and pale.
6. Depending on how you like it – spread cream on base and sandwich together or if you like bite sized like me, spread a bit on the top of each biscuit.
Enjoy! Note they keep in an airtight container for about 3-5 days but they’re unlikely to last that long at our place or with friends!
The "Friday Baking Club"
In May this year I hit a really big flat spot. The last 4 months had been busy starting the New Year, planning a wedding and a honeymoon. Then the Big Event happened and Neil and I we’re married and off to the Coral Coast of WA for our honeymoon. Good times indeed. But then reality hit like a thump in the middle of May, I was back at work, it was getting cold and I didn’t have anything fun to plan and do. And those FIVE solid days at work just really hit me hard. I was Blue!
One evening Neil took pity on me and rented “Julie and Julia”. I’d previously read the book and had been intedning to see it at the cinema but never got round to seeing it. I loved the movie just as much as I loved the book. It got me inspired about baking again. Although my focus is on gluten free baking not “Mastering the Art f French Cooking”.
Around the same time I’d also been putting together photo albulms via an on-line photo publishing site which was helping me re-live our wedding and honeymoon. It was so easy. And as I sent off our two on-line phototbooks I thought about other types of books you could make on-line. What about a cook book? Easy right – just a mixture of text and photos, with my husband’s photographic skills and my passion for baking it should be a marriage made in heaven right? But where would I find the time?
Driving to work the next day, I was pondering this challenge, TIME! Well my current boss was only working four days a week, with Wednesdays off to mind the kids while his wife worked. My old boss took Monday’s off to write a book and another friend also took Mondays off just to have fun! Geeze there certainly is some advantages to working for the public service and their dedication to a flexible work hours. So I thought surely I could take a day off to bake, couldn’t I?
So after a big chat with my boss, a quick review of my finances and consulation with Neil, the “Friday Baking Club” was born. Fridays are now going to be dedicated to baking, cooking and socialising with friends over food. I’m going to focus on testing and adapting existing recipes with a focus on gluten free baking. And at the end of the year, I only got an approval for one day a week for up to 6 months leave without pay, I’m going to make a Meg’s Tasty Treats cookbook. Let me know if you’d like a copy for Christmas!
One evening Neil took pity on me and rented “Julie and Julia”. I’d previously read the book and had been intedning to see it at the cinema but never got round to seeing it. I loved the movie just as much as I loved the book. It got me inspired about baking again. Although my focus is on gluten free baking not “Mastering the Art f French Cooking”.
Around the same time I’d also been putting together photo albulms via an on-line photo publishing site which was helping me re-live our wedding and honeymoon. It was so easy. And as I sent off our two on-line phototbooks I thought about other types of books you could make on-line. What about a cook book? Easy right – just a mixture of text and photos, with my husband’s photographic skills and my passion for baking it should be a marriage made in heaven right? But where would I find the time?
Driving to work the next day, I was pondering this challenge, TIME! Well my current boss was only working four days a week, with Wednesdays off to mind the kids while his wife worked. My old boss took Monday’s off to write a book and another friend also took Mondays off just to have fun! Geeze there certainly is some advantages to working for the public service and their dedication to a flexible work hours. So I thought surely I could take a day off to bake, couldn’t I?
So after a big chat with my boss, a quick review of my finances and consulation with Neil, the “Friday Baking Club” was born. Fridays are now going to be dedicated to baking, cooking and socialising with friends over food. I’m going to focus on testing and adapting existing recipes with a focus on gluten free baking. And at the end of the year, I only got an approval for one day a week for up to 6 months leave without pay, I’m going to make a Meg’s Tasty Treats cookbook. Let me know if you’d like a copy for Christmas!
The naming of Meg's Tasty Treats
About a year ago my partner and I had planned a weekend trip to country NSW. Neil had got a gig to shoot the Mulga Bill Festival in the small town of Yeoval. As Neil would be working most of the weekend I decided to hold a stall and try and promote some of Neil's photography. What a supportive partner am I?
I also saw it as an oppertunity to try and sell some of my baked goods. I'd been getting a bit of practice, making little gift packages for Christmas and birthday presents and was always getting rave reviews from friends. Gawd love them :) I orginally thought about cakes and biscuits but then the practicality of it hit me. It was a 5hr drive and we needed to be there on Friday night to kick things off. And I didn't have time to bake the day or night before. So I needed something that could be made in advance and would keep well packaged up.
So I resorted to one of my tried and trusted easy favorites, rocky road. Its always been a favorite and friends often request it when I offer to bring something along. And I thought it would work well - I could have a little tasting plate made up of the off cuts as I packaged them up. So it was in the design of the packaging that I realised I didn't have a name for my tasty treats... so then along came "Meg's Tasty Treats".
Little did I know that I would be competing with the local CWA stall which had a wide variety of home made baked goods and all at very reasonable prices! And that the second day of the stall would get rained out. Oh well all in good fun and I managed to sell most of my remaining goods to friends at work and at the local organic buyers group. Although I don't think I'll be setting up a business anytime soon.
I also saw it as an oppertunity to try and sell some of my baked goods. I'd been getting a bit of practice, making little gift packages for Christmas and birthday presents and was always getting rave reviews from friends. Gawd love them :) I orginally thought about cakes and biscuits but then the practicality of it hit me. It was a 5hr drive and we needed to be there on Friday night to kick things off. And I didn't have time to bake the day or night before. So I needed something that could be made in advance and would keep well packaged up.
So I resorted to one of my tried and trusted easy favorites, rocky road. Its always been a favorite and friends often request it when I offer to bring something along. And I thought it would work well - I could have a little tasting plate made up of the off cuts as I packaged them up. So it was in the design of the packaging that I realised I didn't have a name for my tasty treats... so then along came "Meg's Tasty Treats".
Little did I know that I would be competing with the local CWA stall which had a wide variety of home made baked goods and all at very reasonable prices! And that the second day of the stall would get rained out. Oh well all in good fun and I managed to sell most of my remaining goods to friends at work and at the local organic buyers group. Although I don't think I'll be setting up a business anytime soon.
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