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Hang on a cotton picking second…wasn’t it July literally yesterday? How has December managed to swoop in with such stealth that none of us noticed until it was sitting in our laps? As we all gear up for Christmas, Jew’s the world over have been making preparations for Hanukkah (which has actually been and gone now since it landed on the 8th of December this year).
If like me, you’re a total ignoramus whose knowledge of Hanukkah stretches as far as the Friends episode in which Ross dresses up as a giant armadillo, here is the very rough and very short version of the story of Hanukkah.
Pumpkins. As a nation us Brits probably only encounter a pumpkin when Halloween rolls round and even then I doubt many of us eat the innards after we’ve finished hacking a face into one. I know Pumpkin Pie is a Thanksgiving staple in the U.S but we don’t have anything like that here and I think a lot of people are a bit daunted about where to start with a pumpkin and what to do it, and most of the time pumpkins are generally bigger than the International Space Station and unless you have a meat cleaver it’s a bit of a battle trying to slice them to bits.
Another new feature I’ve dragged out for the depths of my imagination (which, judging by my groundbreaking titles is more like a puddle than a never ending abyss of creativeness).
As you probably gathered from the highly innovative concept, each edition will feature one ingredient used two different ways. The two recipes featured here came about after I was sent the Dietary Specials new recipe Shortcrust Pastry.
I must preface this now by saying this is NOT a sponsored post, I just really love this product.
This is the first edition of one of my new features Speedy Sides (racked my brains to think of that title didn’t I?). The name speaks for itself, each edition will be a super quick and easy dish which will work great as a perfect side,with, or as an addition to a main meal (Depending on whether you eat for England or enjoy mini meals).
Ingredients
700g New potatoes 100g Radishes 100g Half fat creme fresh (or you can use full fat if your already bikini ready!
We all know by now that I am a total lemon slut. I love anything with/near/like lemon and as a result I perhaps post more lemon recipes than any other. I had promised that I wouldn’t do anymore lemon containing recipes for a while, but after I converted this one from the The Hummingbird Bakery book I knew it was far too yummy not to post it on here (despite it being a doppelganger of one I posted last year)
After you’ve finished yakking after reading my vom worthy ‘Daddy Cool’ post I thought you might like to indulge in a yummy-o, calorific Apple Upside Down Cake (the point being you turn the cake upside down,not eat it whilst upside down…but you knew that already). I wouldn’t have ever attempted an upside down anything due to my innate ability to pretty much drop anything I pick up, but my Dad found it while flicking though my new Rachel Allen cook book (a barginlicious £5 from W H Smith) and I had promised him a dessert of his choice for Fathers Day and this was what he chose, and blow me if it didn’t actually come out pretty much perfectly!
Scones are one of those things that are hard enough to get right when they’re not gluten-free, and they’re even harder to re-produce when you take gluten out of the mix (literally). This recipe is one that I’ve adapted from a Phil Vickery recipe. Phil uses his own flour mixes, but I find the Doves Farm flour mixes are brilliant and work great for this recipe.
Ingredients
300g Self raising gluten-free flour (we need to give these bad boys a fair chance at rising!
Ingredients
100g Cream cheese (Philadelphia) 200g Plus x2 25g caster sugar 175g Cranberries (I used frozen cranberries defrosted ) 1 Tsp vanilla extract 2 Eggs 2 1/2fl Sunflower oil (don’t be tempted to use olive oil,it will make the muffins taste vile!) 200g Plain flour (Doves Farm,Glutafin) 2 Tsps Gluten-Free Baking Powder Makes 12
Extras
12 Muffins cases 12 Hole muffin tray Small pan Method
Pop the oven up to Gas mark 5 and get on with beating 25g of sugar into a bowl with the cream cheese, mix well until its all combined and whack it in the fridge until you need it later.
So here we go a lovely gluten free macaroon recipe you can get your teeth into. Make sure you make these on a day when you have no appointments/things to do/people to see/sleep to be had. The times I’ve had to ring up and cancel appointments because my macaron’s aren’t ready.. The original recipe is gluten-free anyway, but I couldn’t resist twiddling with the recipe and changing the lemon curd around so I could use my own recipe for it.
Millionaires shortbread seems like one of those things that should be super duper hard to make, but this recipe is actually surprisingly easy. The recipe is in part inspired by a Phil Vickery recipe, but the rest I’ve tweaked and changed to make it easier and even more yummy (if I do say so myself).
Ingredients
120g Butter 60g Golden caster sugar 160g Plain flour mix (Doves Farm, Glutafin) 397g Tin Carnation Caramel (Nestle) 200g Milk chocolate 100g White chocolate A few drops of vanilla extract Extras
I call these cookies, but technically they should be called shortbread since they have no eggs in and loads of flour. They’re called Happiness Cookie’s because they make me very popular in my house (which in turn makes me happy), everyone seems to like them and they’re my Baking Trump Card which I usually play when a person who has previously been cynical about gluten-free food comes over for coffee and I palm them off at non G/F.
An ability to produce homemade mince pie’s is a skill in other people that I greatly admire, and at the start of the year I decided I wanted to be one of these clever people and endeavoured to make my very own mince pies, from scratch, from the pastry to the mincemeat, every last bit of it would be made by my own fair hands. I talked about the hitch I had with the mincemeat, but luckily I found a Gluten-Free mincemeat recipe (god bless Nigella) which I made at the very start of November, and finally this week I decided the time was right to unite mince with pie and bake a batch.
I harked on about Snicker-doodles in yesterdays post, but actually failed to explain what they are. According to Nigella they’re sort of like an oven baked doughnut and a cross between a cookie and sponge, they remind me of those massive sweet pretzels with the cinnamon sugar, and everyone knows I’m a slut for cinnamon. They’re the sort of thing that could be varied in so many different ways, but for now I’m going to give you the original recipe without any variations.
Ingredients Makes 12
125g/5oz Butter (softened) 125g/5oz Caster sugar 125g/5oz Gluten-Free self raising flour (Doves Farm, Glutafin) 2 Eggs 2 Tsp’s instant coffee + a few drops of water 1 Tsp of vanilla essence (or extract, whichever your prefer) For the frosting
125g/5oz Full fat cream cheese (lite or half fat versions work just was well) 50g/2oz Softened butter 300g/ 10 1/2oz Icing sugar 1-2 Tsps instant coffee Method
I adapted this recipe from ye old faithful Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook who’s cakes and biccies are on a par with my one and only Nigella.
Ingredients Makes 20
270g Soft butter 160g Caster sugar 160g Soft brown demerara sugar 2 Large eggs 1/4 Tsp vanilla extract or 1 tsp of vanilla essence 380g Plain Flour (as always Doves Farm are great, but any plain flour mix works just as well) 1 Tsp bicarbonate of soda 1/2 Tsp salt 1/2 Tsp cinnamon 110g Rolled oats (omit if you can’t tolerate oats) 220g Sultana’s Note: I use Sultana’s in this cookie recipe becauseIi think they’re not so shriveled as raisins and tend not to burn as easily either, but feel free to use raisins if you prefer.
Thankfully I’m already totally in keeping with the Pink Campaign by Breast Cancer Care with my oh-so-pink blog. And here’s another oh-so-pink and shamelessly girly Pink Cupcake recipe in honour of breast cancer awareness month. Make as many as you want, hundreds if you got the time and the man power (or woman power, depending on your household demographics). Take them into work, school, college, uni, your reading circle, anywhere you please and ask everyone to make a donation per cupcake, they look so scrummy no one could possibly refuse and you’ll have a tidy sum to send off to Breast Cancer Care, plus everyone will remember you as the pink cupcake extraordinaire, it’s win win!
(Check out my Great Grannies vintage plate!)
When these bad boys are cool they can be stored and frozen and kept for around a month or until you need them.
Ingredients
200g Butter (melted) 150g Caster sugar 2 Eggs 250 Gluten-free self raising flour 150g Dried cranberries 1 tsp Golden caster 1 tsp Cinnamon 100g White chocolate cubed (or white chocolate drops) 2 tsp’s Vanilla Extract Method
Pop the oven on to heat up at gas 3 (160c).
Ingredients
1x 200g pack of Dietary Specials shortcrust pastry (or if you want to make your own pastry follow the recipe for which went with the Treacle Tart recipe I did in June) 4 eggs 100g cheese 100ml milk or double cream 1 large red onion 1 red pepper 1 yellow pepper 5 mushrooms 2 tbsp’s olive oil 2 thin slices of ham, or 2 rashers of bacon cooked and cooled.
These tiny little burgers are again small enough to pop into a lunch box with a G/F pitta bread and a small tub of dip or even just left plain. The best thing of all is that they’re naturally gluten free! Hooray! They’re also cheap, and the mixture makes plenty that can be frozen for the future. Double Hooray!
Should you want a dip to accompany your fabulous falafel’s I’ve listed a few quick to whip up dips and the like at the end of the recipe, good to you aren’t i?
Ingredients
9oz Plain gluten free flour mix (Dietary Specials, Doves Farm, Glutafin) 2 tsp’s Gluten free baking powder 5 1/2 oz Caster sugar 1 1/2 tsp’s Xantham gum (Doves Farm) 4 tbsp’s Olive oil 1 Egg 250ml Milk 5 1/2 oz Blueberries 1 tsp Cinnamon Method
Whack the oven up to gas 6 while you set about putting your cases in a tray. If you make mini muffins just use regular cupcake cases, if you want to make normal sized muffins use muffin cases.
Ingredients
1/4 tsp Salt 1 tsp Cayenne pepper 1 1/2 oz Butter 1/4 Pint milk 8 oz Self raising flour (Doves Farm, Glutafin) 3 oz Cheese (Cheddar or a stronger cheese if you prefer) Method
Pre-heat the oven to gas 5 and grease a baking tray with butter (you may need to grease two trays depending on the size and also how big you make your scones, the mixture will make 16-24 mini scones) Sieve the flour, salt and cayenne together in a bowl Cut the butter into cubes and pop into the bowl with the flour.
Hooray for the warm weather! I can finally turn my electric blanket down to its lowest setting and my bed has been relieved of its winter covers!
In other news the sun actually warrants eating salads and not pining for a warm stew while the British weather pelts rain against the window in mid-June.
So while the sun has got his hat on I thought it would be a good time to post my recipe for Quinoa salad.
