Baking Without: November 2015

Glorious Gluten Free Gingerbread

Since it's nearing towards Christmas now I figured it was only right to try out some gingerbread. A bit experimenting did take place and I found that the blackstrap molasses (which you can find in a good health shop) in this recipe adds a deep flavour to the gingerbread men and using a small amount of oat flour gives it a slight twist on the classic.

This recipe is suitable for vegans, and free from gluten, dairy, nut, egg and soy.

Glorious Gluten Free Gingerbread

(makes approx. 20)

Ingredients:

300g gluten free plain flour*

(*I used 160g rice flour, 50g oat flour, 50g quinoa flour & 40g gram flour)

100g coconut oil

100ml maple syrup

2 & 1/2 tablespoon blackstrap molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

4 whole cloves, ground

pinch of pink himalyan salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line two baking trays with baking paper.

2. Beat the coconut oil and maple syrup together until creamy then add in the molasses, vanilla extract and the spices.

3. Mix in the flour until fully incorporated. Knead until you have a smooth dough. If it's too dry add a little more maple syrup, if too sticky add some more flour.

4. Sandwich the dough between two pieces of large baking paper and roll out until 0.5cm thick (this stops it sticking to the rolling pin.)

5. Cut out the gingerbread men using your cutters and place onto the lined trays. Bake for 12 minutes then take out to cool (Note: they will firm up a lot once they've cooled.)

6. You can decorate them with icing etc but I prefer to leave mine as is.

Note

I made my own flour blend when creating these so if using a ready mixed gluten free plain flour I cannot promise they'll turn out exactly the same.

Happy baking!

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, by b

Choco-cado Cookies!

Choco-cado, you're wondering? If I named this post avocado cookies there's a chance you wouldn't read it. In fact, now you're probably still thinking avocado in a cookie? What is this madness? Well I tell you it's no madness, rather a masterpiece. The avocado is in place of the usual butter you would use in a cookie, combined with maple syrup and cacao powder you get this wonderful, soft, fudgy chocolate brownie-like cookie. It's also really good as a dessert, warned up with a dollop of (dairy-free in my case) ice cream or frozen coconut yoghurt.

The cookie is free from gluten, dairy, egg, nuts and soy. Also suitable for vegans!

Choco-cado Cookies!

(makes 6-8)

Ingredients:

100g ripe avocado

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup cacao powder

1 tablespoon chia seeds (or 1 egg)

60g dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I used raw chocolate)

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

optional - cacao nibs

Method:

1. Grind the chia seeds and mix with 3 tablespoons of water. Leave for 5-7 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a baking sheet.

3. With an electric mixer, whisk the avocado and syrup until smooth. Add in the egg.

4. Mix in the cacao powder and bicarbonate of soda until fully incorporated. Then mix in the chunks of chocolate and cacao nibs, if using.

5. Using a large spoon or ice cream scoop, spoon mounds of mixture onto the lined baking sheet.

6. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the cookies have firmed slightly. Note they will be more soft than an average cookie.

7. Leave to cool then put in the fridge to firm up the cookies. Eat within 3-5 days.

Notes:

I've also made these previously using dark chocolate chunks and using a normal egg - bear in mind if you do use a normal egg they will not be vegan or suitable for people with egg intolerances/allergies.

I used Pana Chocolate's Fig and Wild Orange raw chocolate in my recipe (which is delightful by the way.) Their bars are raw, organic, handmade, vegan, dairy, gluten, refined sugar and soy free. I'd hugely recommend trying them out!

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, by b

Superfood Squares - the healthy flapjack!

So the idea behind these came about as I wanted something I could snack on that would be full of goodness. At the same time I also quite fancied the idea of turning flapjacks into a healthy, energy boosting snack. So from that we got these vegan superfood snack squares, free from gluten, dairy and egg but full of super energising ingredients!

Superfood Squares

(makes 9)

Ingredients:

Dry

1/2 cup quinoa flakes

1/2 cup buckwheat flakes/gluten free oats

1 tablespoon chia seeds

1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon hemp seeds

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon goji berries (or dried fruit of choice)

1/4 cup Raw Health's dark hemp chocolate, roughly chopped (or any of your choice)

Pinch of pink Himalayan salt

Wet

1&1/2 tablespoon almond butter

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon cacao butter (could sub for coconut oil)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a small baking tray.

2. Measure out all the dry ingredients into a large bowl.

3. Add all the wet ingredients to a small saucepan, heat gently until it's formed a smooth mixture.

4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until fully incorporated and has created a flapjack-like mixture. If it's too sticky add some more flakes, if it's too dry add more maple syrup.

5. Transfer the mixture onto the baking tray and press down until the mixture is compact. At this point I like to stick a few exrtra chunks of chocolate into the mixture.

6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until golden.

7. Leave to cool before cutting into 9 squares.

In my recipe I used Raw Health's Heavenly Hemp Chocolate. I was intrigued at how raw hemp chocolate would taste but it's surprisingly really nice and the hemp adds a depth to the chocolate and even more so in my flapjacks, feel free to use your preferred chocolate but I'd heavily recommend trying some of this stuff, it's so good for you too!

Happy baking!

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, by b

My Winter Warming Soup

Today I fancied making soup but was unsure what kind so I headed to the shops and I ending up picking up some beetroot, parsnip, fennel and ginger. (Beetroot being a favourite of mine at the minute.) I got home and came up with this wonderful gluten and dairy free creation to warm me up on a cold day.

Roasted beetroot, parsnip and fennel soup

(serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 large beetroots

2 parsnips

1/2 fennel bulb

1 inch of ginger, grated

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon rosemary

1 tablespoon of your preferred oil (I use rapeseed)

2 cups cold water

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

2. Peel and chop the beetroot, parsnip and fennel into small chunks.

3. Spread out onto a baking tray and drizzle with oil, making sure all the veg is covered. Roast for 30-45 minutes. (You may need to take the parsnip and fennel out at 30 minutes, beetroot may take a bit longer.)

4. Once roasted, place all the veg in a blender or food processor along with the turmeric, rosemary and water. Blitz until smooth.

5. Pour the soup into a pan and heat for about 5-7 minutes until piping hot. You may want to add more water depending on the consistency you like your soup.

Happy souping!

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, by b

3 ingredient Peanut Butter Fudge!

So here we have another peanut butter related post. It doesn't take a genius to work out I may have a slight peanut butter addiction...

These peanut butter fudges are so fudgy and tasty you'll want to eat them all at once which is why it's a good thing that they're so simple to make!

They are gluten, dairy, soy, egg and refined sugar free. Suitable for vegans too.

Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of peanut butter (you can find my guide to making your own here)

1/3 cup of coconut oil (I use Raw Health's)

1/4 cup of date syrup*

*you could also use maple syrup

Method:

1. Start by lining a tray with baking paper or a mini cupcake a tray lined with cases.

2. Melt the coconut oil in a bowl in the microwave, it should take approximately 30 seconds.

3. Add the peanut butter and syrup in and stir until smooth.

4. Pour the mixture into your lined tray and pop into the freezer for 1 hour to set. You can top with chopped peanuts like I did or just leave as is.

5. The fudge can then either be kept in the freezer or the fridge, bearing in mind to let it sit for 2 minutes before eating if you keep it in the freezer.

Happy Baking!

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, by b

Pancakes for everybody!

So who doesn't love pancakes? This post contains three different ways of making them, we have an easy 2 ingredient way, a way without egg and a way without banana AND egg. So hopefully one of these will work for you!

They are all gluten, dairy, nut (if you ignore my nut butter toppings), soy and refined sugar free. The two without egg are also vegan (obviously!)

2 ingredient pancakes

(makes 5 pancakes)

Ingredients:

1 banana

2 eggs

& your desired toppings

Method:

1. Mash a banana in a bowl, beat in two eggs and mix until well combined.

2. Drizzle a bit of oil into a pan, then pour in the pancake batter.

3. Flip over the pancake after a couple of minutes, making sure it's cooked evenly on both sides. Once one is down, flip it onto a plate and carry on until you have no batter left.

4. Decorate your desired way. I like to use a nut butter or a spread* and some fresh fruit. You can find my guide to making your own nut butters here.

Vegan oat and chia pancakes

(makes 4 pancakes)

Ingredients:

60g oats (I use gluten free oats)

130ml dairy free milk (I use rice milk)

1 tablespoon chia seeds

& your desired toppings

Method:

1. Start off by making the chia seed egg. Add 3 tablespoons of cold water to the chia seeds, stir and leave for 5-7 minutes until it turns into a gloopy consistency.

2. Blitz the oats in a food processor until they turn into a fine flour.

3. Add the milk and the chia seed egg into the oats and blitz again until well combined.

4. Heat a little oil in a small pan then spoon in some of the batter - roughly 2-3 tablespoons.

5. Cook for 4-5 minutes on both sides, making sure it's cooked through. Flip onto a plate and continue with the rest of the batter.

6. Decorate your desired way.

Vegan oat and banana pancakes

(makes 4 small pancakes)

Ingredients:

60g oats (I use gluten free oats)

115ml dairy free milk (I use rice)

1/2 banana, mashed

& your desired toppings

Method:

1. Blitz the oats in a food processor until they turn into a fine flour.

2. Add the milk and banana to the food processor and mix again until it's all combined.

3. Heat a little oil in a small pan then spoon in some of the batter - roughly 3 tablespoons.

4. Cook for 3-4 minutes on both sides, making sure it's cooked through. Flip onto a plate and continue with the rest of the batter.

5. Decorate your desired way.

Here are a few ideas of toppings:

* I mentioned Raw Health's spread that I like to use. It's their Cacao Brazil Nut Bliss (an amazing alternative to nutella if you ask me)

The oil I tend to use for pancakes as well happens to be Raw Health's Virgin Coconut Oil, which you can buy on their website or from any local health store e.g. Holland and Barrett.

Happy Baking!

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, by b

"Delightful Doughnuts!"

Funnily enough I've never been a fan of doughnuts but for some reason I just fancied making some and I'm so glad I did, in my sister's words "they are delightful."

I started off just making plain ones but whilst decorating I dropped one and it broke so I obviously had to test it for taste. I was so surprised at how well they turned out I was inspired to make some more, but this time a different flavour and of course I had to go peanut butter flavoured, it'd be some sort of crime if I hadn't, right?

So here's the recipe to both the peanut butter doughnut and the plain one (incase, for some strange reason, you aren't a fan of peanut butter.)

These are baked vegan doughnuts, free from dairy, gluten, egg and refined sugar!

Baked Vegan Doughnuts

(makes 8-10 mini doughnuts)

Ingredients:

For the doughnut:

50g oat flour*

80g rice flour

10g gram flour

1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

100ml maple syrup

15ml rice milk

1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 chia seed egg

45g dairy free margarine

*you don't have to use separate flours, you could just use a pack of gluten free plain flour

For the icing:

50g dairy free chocolate, melted

Method:

1. First of all, make the chia seed egg. Grind 1 tablepsoon of chia seeds in a pestle and mortar. Add 3 tablespoons of water, mix and set to one side.

2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease a doughnut tray.

3. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together until combined.

4. In a small pan, on a low heat, mix all the wet ingredients, including the egg (which should be a gloopy consistency now.) Remove from the heat once the butter has melted.

5. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until its fully incorporated. Don't over mix!

6. Place a dollop of dough into each doughnut shape, smoothing the top over with the back of a spoon.

7. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean and dry.

8. When you take them out the oven, place the tray upside down on a cooling rack, the donuts should fall out onto the tray when you lift it up.

9. Once cool, drizzle over the melted chocolate.

Vegan Peanut Butter Doughnuts

(makes 8-10 mini doughnuts)

Ingredients:

For the doughnut:

50g oat flour

70g rice flour

10g gram flour

10g cacao powder

2 tablespoons cacao nibs

1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

100ml maple syrup

30ml rice milk

1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 chia seed egg

50g peanut butter

For the icing:

50g peanut butter

Method:

1. First of all, make the chia seed egg. Grind 1 tablepsoon of chia seeds in a pestle and mortar. Add 3 tablespoons of water, mix and set to one side.

2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease a doughnut tray.

3. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together until combined.

4. In a small pan, on a low heat, mix all the wet ingredients, including the egg (which should be a gloopy consistency now.) Remove from the heat once the peanut butter has melted.

5. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until its fully incorporated. Don't over mix!

6. Place a dollop of dough into each doughnut shape, smoothing the top over with the back of a spoon.

7. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean and dry.

8. When you take them out the oven, place the tray upside down on a cooling rack, the donuts should fall out onto the tray when you lift it up.

9. For the icing, melt the peanut butter and drizzle over the top. (I used a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle, but you could just use a spoon.)

Happy Baking!

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, by b

The Allergy and Free From Show

At the weekend I went with my family to the Allergy and Free From show in Liverpool at the Exhibition Centre. Inside the hall were tables and stalls set up with different brands and their 'free from' products, along with a load of samples! There were also chats and demonstrations you could watch and take part in too. I however got lost among all the stalls as it was my kind of foodie heaven.

Amy's Kitchen

On my way round, one of the stalls I visted was Amy's Kitchen where I was greeted and told about the background of Amy and how she started. The lovely lady who chatted to me asked about my dietary requirements and took me through each and every product, telling me which ones I could eat. I took away three different soups to try.

Dove's Farm

Dove's farm are organic flour specialists, and if you're gluten intolerant, the chances are you'll have heard of them. Their baking products are my favourite out there and you definitely can't go wrong with them. The team were there, not only offering advice and knowledge on their products, but giving baking demonstrations for gluten free cakes, brownies, pies and pastry. They had a huge wall of their products which was amazing as opposed to finding a small section in the free from aisle in a supermarket! I picked up a few things (that went into a very apt bag) and entered their competition to win a huge supply of their goods - fingers crossed!

Primrose's Kitchen

I visited Primrose's Kitchen, which was probably one of the ones I was most looking forward to. Primrose herself was there, greeting people and sharing her knowledge on her products. It was great meeting her, she's so passionate about what she does and I think that's so important. She's created a range of muesli, granola, nut butters and superfood powders that are all gluten free and vegan, some being orangic and nut free. I ended up coming away with two boxes of muesli and one pack of granola. I can't wait to try them and will definitely have a post up soon specifically on them.

Mr Popple's Chocolate

Next I came across Mr Popple's Chocolate. I met the man himself, Ben Popple, and he talked me through his products. His passion came across strongly, he told me his intentions were to use only tasty, natural, and healthy ingredients, not adding any fat or refined sugar and by sourcing only ethically grown ingredients. We bonded over just how much we liked raw cacao and it's benefits and I had a taste of a few of the different kinds he had and was amazed at how nice it was and what makes it better is the fact it's guilt free! My favourite has got to be the 88%, although I'd like to eat the full bar, I think it may go straight to my head...

The Primal Pantry

The Primal Pantry were there too. Another stall I was rather excited to find with testers of each of their paleo bars. There bars are made with 100% natural ingredients, especially great for anyone following the paleo lifestyle. They are free of grains, dairy, refined sugars and vegetable oils but defintely not free of taste. These bars are one of my favourite snack bars out there so I obviously had to stock up on a few whilst I was there.

Ugg Foods

I then came aross a new manufacturer that I'd never heard of before, Ugg Foods. They offer guilt-free, superfood baking mixes for breads and muffins. They give the recipe for you to create the products on their website, along with many others. Whilst checking them out though, I realised that they included egg and with me being intolerant to egg, it seemed a bit of a problem to me. I had a chat with one of the team there, Neil, (if I remember correctly) I told him how I'd tried different egg substitutes in baking and wondered if it would work with the chocolate chia muffin mix. So after discussing baking and different egg substitutes I came away with the mix and an experiment in mind. Hopefully, all will be revealed (if it goes according to plan) on a blog post coming soon!

Delicious Alchemy

Another brand that do baking mixes are Delicious Alchemy. All of their food looked amazing to try, unfortunately though, I couldn't due to them having egg in. But all of their mixes, from cakes to bread are gluten free and suitable for coeliacs. They even offered a Christmas cake mix - which looked delicious! Oh, and don't even get me started on their brownie...

Make It Gluten Free Limited

This stand had two different ranges of gluten and dairy free mixes for cakes, muffins, cookies, bread mixes etc. 1 2 3 Gluten Free and Simple Mills Again, the testers that were out included egg so I was chatting to the man on the stall who then produced the most amazing, fudgy, eggless brownies I've ever tasted and he'd created that from one of these mixes! I then, however, spied the pizza base mixes and was torn between the two. It's been so long since I've had pizza I decided to opt for the pizza base mix by Simple Mills. I'm quite looking forward to experimenting with that!

Free-From Heaven & Gluten Free Heaven

Free-From Heaven is a UK based magazine that I get every issue of so it made sense, when I came across their stand and were offering a special discount if you subscribed to them there and then, that I went ahead and took advantage of the opportunity. They also offer a gluten free magazine and a one for paleos. Each magazine is filled with recipes, advice, competitions and all the latest products. They're definitely worth checking out, especially if you're struggling or need inspiration on foods to eat - if you aren't already finding that here on my blog that is.

There were so many stalls and so many nice people I chatted to but I'm not going to go through every single one I went to, however you can find out more about each exhibitor here.

I will however have to mention Goodness Me Foods. They were the first stall I went to, and so friendly and helpful. I even found a rocky road I could eat! They're definitely worth checking out!

I didn't realise at the time, but when setting out all the products I got when I came back home, I realised I may be stocked up for quite a while! The Free From Market was possibly to blame for most of this...

Perkier -
these bars are amazing and nutritious!

Rawr Chocolate. Vivani Chocolate. Creative Nature

Primrose's Kitchen

The Raw Chocolate Company


Yummy Earth lollies! Get Fruity. Oh my Goodness. Pulsin

Overall, it was a really informative and helpful day. Being in a room full of stalls that could cater for my needs when I'm usually struggling to find places to eat really was quite a different experience. That and being surrounded by people in a similiar situation to me was really quite comforting, to know that you're not the only ~~fussy~~ one! Another thing that stuck with me was at the Dove's Farm stand my Dad tried one of their flapjacks and he said "the thing is, I can't tell the difference, they taste exactly how it would if it wasn't free from specific ingredients." I think that's the most important thing when it comes down to all of the brands and all of the products that offer foods for people with allergies and intolerances, if it doesn't taste any different to the 'normal' product then you're onto something.