Pampered Chef

A couple of weekends ago I was invited to a Pampered Chef party and intrigued, I went along to find out more. 

Pampered Chef is a bit like Tupperware or Gonis but with kitchenware for cooking and baking.  It originated in the USA and is rapidly growing here in Germany.

The rep came to my neighbours house and baked a loaf of bread which was then eaten with some dips, and made a kind of pizza.  Unfortunately I couldn't eat the bread or pizza as they contained wheat but I did bring some spelt bread and tried the dips.  

The rep explains all the products throughout and then points out some special offers and we looked through the catalogues.  Unfortunately many of the products were out of my price range and I'm not really a baker.  Nico does most of the cooking and baking and has every utensil imaginable.

I did order some fun shapers for pancakes and eggs to do with the kids at some point and a roller which I hope will work well with wheat free dough.

I enjoyed the evening and it was nice to see the neighbours socially but I won't be delving much further into Pampered Chef.

Recipe: Raspberry Cookies

Ingredients:

• 340g butter
• 225g sugar
• 510g spelt flour
• 170g ground almonds
• 170g raspberry jam

Instructions:

1. Combine all of the ingredients except the jam into a dough.

2. Portion into balls of 3 - 4 cm.  Make a hollow in the centre and fill with the jam.

3. Bake for around fifteen minutes at 180.

Recipe: Paleo Amaretti

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• Pinch of salt
• Lemon
• 250g ground almonds
• 100g coconut sugar
• 3 drops of bitter almond aroma
• 20 whole almonds

Instructions:
1. Beat the egg whites and salt until stiff.
2. Grate the lemon zest and combine with the almonds, sugar and aroma, followed by the egg whites.
3. Form into twenty biscuits and top each one with an almond.
4. Bake for 20 minutes at 160 degrees.

Recipe: Apple Pie

Ingredients:
(For the base:)

• 500g flour
• 250ml milk
• 75g butter
• 75g sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 packet dry yeast
• 2 eggs

(For the topping:)

• 275g flour
• 175g butter
• 150g sugar
• 1 packet vanilla sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 egg yolk

(For the filling:)

• A bag of apples
• Raisins
• Cinnamon 

Instructions:
1. Mix the ingredients for the base and knead well. (15 - 20 minutes) Then let in rest in a warm place for forty minutes.
2. Chop the apples.
3. Knead the dough for the base and let it rest for another ten minutes.
4. Prepare the ingredients for the topping.  Knead well.
5. Prepare a baking tray and spread the dough for the base.  Put it in a warm oven for ten minutes.
6. Add the filling, followed by the topping.  Bake at 140 for an hour or until brown on top.  

Recipe: Paleo Plum Cake

Ingredients:

• 80g ground hazlenuts
• 80g rice flour
• 60g ground almonds
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp hot water
• 30g coconut oil
• 500g plums
• Cinnamon

Instructions:
1. Combine the dry ingredients with the egg, water and oil.  Mix to a dough, rest for ten minutes in the fridge.
2. Roll out the dough, reserving a third of the mixture. Prick the base and blind bake for ten minutes at 180.
3. Cut the plums in half and remove the stones.  Lay the with the cut side up on the pastry base.  Crumble the reaining third over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon.
4. Bake for a further 35 minutes at 180.

Recipe: Paleo Coconut Bread

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1 capsule vanilla essence
• 3 tbsp honey
• 350g ground coconut
• 1 tsp baking powder

Instructions:

1. Mix the eggs, vanilla and honey until fluffy. 

2. Mix in the remaining ingredients.

3. Transfer to a baking tin and bake at 180℃ for 45 minutes.

Recipe: Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
300g pumpkin
125ml milk
1 tbsp butter
500g flour
2 tbsp sugar
3.5g salt
7g yeast

Instructions:
1. Boil the pumpkin, drain and blend.
2. Add the milk and butter and stir well.
3. Add the remaining ingredients. Knead well. Transfer to a baking tin and rest for thirty minutes.
4. Bake at 170℃ for about fifty minutes.

Recipe: Pretzel bread

Ingredients:

• 500g flour
• 250g water
• 10g salt
• 1 pinch of sugar
• 20g yeast
• 10-50g butter or oil depending on preference
• Soda lye

Instructions:

1. Leave the yeast in some luke warm water to activate it.

2. Mix all of the ingredients except the soda lye into a dough. Let it rest for five minutes.

3. Shape the dough how you want - pretzel, rolls, sticks. 

4. Using gloves, dip the rolls in lye. Rest for twenty minutes.

5. Slit the rolls with a knife, sprinkle with salt and bake for 20 minutes at 200℃.

Recipe: Chocolate tart

I made these using this recipe. It's the same pastry as the peach tarts last week with a yummy chocolate ganash. I managed ten individual tarts from this recipe.

Recipe: Peach Tart

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 3tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 113g butter
• 1 large egg
• Cold water
• 1 large tin of peaches
• Cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter in a mixer until it looks like fine bread crumbs. Make a space in the middle. Whisk the egg yolk with 2 tbsp water and place it in the space. Mix. Using your hands, combine the dough into one ball, wrap in cling-film and allow to rest for at least thirty minutes in the fridge.

2. Roll out the pastry to about 1/4 inch thickness. Line your pastry tins with it and push well into the corners. I used six small ones but you can vary this. Allow to settle for 15 minutes in the fridge.

3. Line the tarts with aluminium foil and top with dried beans. Bake at 180℃ for thirty minutes before removing the beans and foil.
4. Brush the pastry with the egg white and bake for eight more minutes until golden.
5. Slice the peaches and layer the slices over the tart. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar to taste. Bake for 25 minutes at 150℃.

Serve with cream or ice cream.

Recipe: Breakfast Bread

Ingredients:

• 400g spelt flour
• 10g yeast
• 250ml luke warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Sesame / chia seeds

Instructions:

1. The evening before, put the yeast and sugar in 50ml of the water and leave for ten minutes.

2. Gradually add the flour, salt, olive oil and remaining water. Knead well for at least ten minutes.

3. Divide into eight equal rolls. Prepare each roll seperately.

4. Line a baking tray with baking paper and spread the rolls equally (see picture).

5. Decorate the rolls with the seeds and sprinkle with water. Cover with clingfilm. Leave in the fridge over night.

6. The next morning remove the film, sprinkle with water again and put into a cold oven. Switch the oven on to 180℃ and bake for ca. 25 minutes until brown on top.

Recipe: Red fruit buns

I did some more baking with Isabella last week and updated an old gluten free recipe to make these fruity treats.

Combine 50g margarine and 150g sugar. Add two eggs.  Add 200g rice flour, 1 tsp baking powder and 175ml sour cream. Finally, stir in 150g frozen red berries, a packet of vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt.

Spoon the mixture into bun cases (I managed 24) and bake for twenty minutes on 220℃.

Recipe: Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients:

125g butter
200g sugar
125g dark chocolate
60g rice flour
15g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
60g crushed walnuts and hazelnuts
80g ground almonds

Instructions:

Melt the butter, sugar and chocolate over a pan of boiling water.
Stir in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.
Add the eggs and nuts and mix well.
Bake at 180°c for 30 minutes before cooling and cutting.

Baking with kids

I went through a long unproductive phase where I felt like I was making a daily choice between looking after Isabella and getting things done.

She's finally at a stage where I feel like I can involve her in things without having a breakdown.

On Monday we baked together. It was fun. She watched everything I did, helped and tasted where she could and then laughed herself silly playing with the egg carton for ten minutes.

She'd done less mischief while I baked than she would have managed if I'd been sat on the sofa and we both got something out of the experience.

So far, I'm loving this stage.

Recipe: Banana and Raspberry Bread

Sunday was baking day around here.

Nico and Isabella baked gluten free ginger buscuits. They are delicious and Isabella was great at cutting up raisins. She managed to cut almost as many as she ate!

Meanwhile I tried a new paleo bread/cake. This one had fewer eggs and more banana than my latest attempts and was better for it. An added highlight was getting to use fresh raspberries from the garden. Perfect for taking to work. Yum!

Paleo Marble Cake

Today I tried this new recipe. With this cake, as well as some previous ones, we've had the problem that the eggs make it very savoury and give the cake a strange texture.

Reading through the comments, I saw that some people replaced some of the eggs with bananas and that helped so I'm planning to trythat next time.

Waffles!

For my birthday, Nico bought me a waffle machine. Two weeks ago we tried plain (gluten free waffles) and I seized the opportunity to recreate the red, white and blue pancakes I had in New York. The fresh fruit really lifted the flavour and Isabella loved it too.

Last week we tried waffled banana bread from this book, and I'm eyeing up some new recipes for next weekend.

The first...

...cake in our new house!

In preparation for friends visiting this weekend, my amazingly talented husband baked this cheesecake (gluten and lactose free) and made two batches of ice cream. I am one lucky, well-fed lady! 

We're loving our new house and kitchen by the way.

Recipe: Plain Madeleines

Following on from the success of the Nutella Madeleines, I wanted to try tweaking the recipe a little. I had planned to make these more lemony but the ground lemon spice didn't have the effect I wanted so I'll keep working on that.

Ingredients:

• 75g butter (melted)
• 75g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 75g cornflour
• 2tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Mix the sugar and eggs in a mixer until light and fluffy.
2. Combine the dry ingredients, adding the butter at the end.
3. Bake at 180 degrees for ten minutes.

Tip: these were very plain for my sweet tooth so I mixed some icing sugar with a little water to top some of the cakes.

Recipe: Nutella Madeleines

Ingredients:

• 75g Butter
• 75g Caster Sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 60g Cornflour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• Pinch of Salt
• 15g Cocoa Powder
• 125g Nutella
• 60g Icing Sugar
• 30g chopped Hazelnuts

Instructions:

1. While melting the butter, whisk the caster sugar and eggs until light in colour. Fold in the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder, followed by the melted butter.
2. Grease a madeleine mould (ours makes nine and I got two and a half batches from this recipe) and heat the oven to 180 degrees. Spoon the mix into the tray - one tablespoon per mould.
3. Bake for ten minutes and allow to cool.
4. Mix the Nutella, icing sugar and some hot water (not too much, just enough to make the icing fluid) and cover the tops of the cakes with this icing. Sprinkle the hazelnuts over and allow to set.