Recipe: Apple Crumble

We recently bought a slow cooker and I love it! While it will be more useful when I go back to work, it's quite practical to prepare meals early as Joshua tends to be fussier on an afternoon.

Last week I tried this apple crumble recipe as a nice warming dessert. I loved it and ended up eating most of it. I love fruity desserts.

On the downside, the crumble top is not as crisp as you get in the oven. I'd like to try a traditional fruit crumble in the oven.

However, it did work as a gluten free recipe an I enjoyed the addition of walnuts.

Recipe: Gluten free biscuits

Last night Isabella and I tried this gluten-free biscuit recipe. I changed a couple of ingredients (rice flour for coconut flour and butter for coconut oil).

It was difficult to work with, as most gluten free doughs are. In the end, we made one huge biscuit and cut the shapes when it was baked.

The biscuits are very soft, almost cake like but tasty. A recipe we can work on.

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.

No bake Gluten-free Lemon Bars

I've been following Kale and Chocolate on Instagram for a while for a bit of diet inspiration. This is the first recipe I've tried though, and I'll definitely be looking out for more.

It's basically ground cashew nuts and dates. It fits in with paleo and makes a good, filling snack. Nico had to put it through the meat grinder as the food processor couldn't deal with the dates but otherwise it worked really well. Perfect for on the go.

Gluten Free Lasagne

This week we tried gluten free lasagne. Since going gluten free, we've tried making our own pasta but found it to be a messy and frustrating experience and the store bought version is expensive.

This time, we tried replacing the pasta with slices of courgette. Nico made the bachemel sauce with cornflour and the result was delicious.

It was every bit as tasty as the ‘real thing' and probably even better given that veg is so much healthier.

The first...

...homemade soup in our new house.

Today we made this soup from the autoimmune paleo cookbook. It's snowing here and this was the perfect warming lunch with leek, ginger, garlic, celery root, bacon and the bone broth. Delicious!

Recipe: Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients:

• 125g Butter
• 200g Brown sugar
• 125g plain chocolate
• 50g rice flour
• 20g cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 150g nuts

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter, sugar and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of water.
2. Add the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and stir well.
3. Add the eggs and nuts. Mix in. Transfer to a baking tray.
4. Bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees.
5. Allow to cool, slice and serve.

Recipe: Ploughmans Open Sandwich

Ingredients:
(per person)

Four slices of gluten free bread
One tomato, sliced
Six olives, sliced
Four teaspoons of mango chutney
Four slices of feta
A few large lettuce leaves

Instructions:

• Lay the toast on a plate.  Layer the ingredients on top as follows; mango chutney, olives, feta cheese, tomato, lettuce.
• You can change the order, but we find putting the lettuce over the top as a kind of wrap makes this lunch easier to handle.

Lemon Cake

This weekend, I got cracking in the kitchen again with this gluten free lemon cake.  

I was inspired by a special offer in the bargain bin at the supermarket so I have to admit this was from a packet.  That did make it nice and easy though - and it was delicious.  

The mix was just 99cents.  I added butter, eggs and a bit of water, mixed and baked for an hour.  The results were delicious and I'll be enjoying it at work this week too.

I love lemon cake - fruity desserts have always been my favourite and this one didn't disappoint.  

The weekends of 2014 so far have proved very fulfilling - we're very happy nest building, baking and sewing away.

Bread!

 At the weekend I made my first attempt at gluten free bread.  Nico has often made this for me but I wanted to attempt it myself so I don't have to pester him all the time.  He helped me follow his recipe and I was so pleased with the results.  

The recipe is Nico's own which involves replacing wheat flour with rice and cornflour and adding some xantham gum to keep the dough together.  Also, he added carrots for moisture and I love it.  It makes me feel all healthy about eating the bread (I can count it as one of my five a day!)

Nico also got creative in the kitchen and made a delicious aubergine dip which we enjoyed with the bread for Sunday lunch.  It was really nice to prepare that together.

Currently loving...

...homemade muesli!

A perfect mix of raisins, dried coconut, dried almonds, cornflakes, oats - shake well, add milk and enjoy...

Recipe: Gluten Free Orange and Honey Cake

My cousin, who is studying at catering college and made my amazing hen night cupcakes, was kind enough to send me this amazing recipe for a gluten free cake last week and I tried it over the weekend.  

I love trying new gluten free recipes and this was the first time I separated eggs by myself (not as hard as I thought it would be), and it was totally worth it - the cake lasted about five minutes once I managed to remove it from the cake tin!

Ingredients:-

•  115g gluten free flour (I used a 50/50 mix of rice and cornflour)
• 115g butter
• 1tsp baking powder
• 115g caster sugar
• 1 large orange, juiced and grated
• 2 large eggs
• honey to serve

Instructions:-
 

1. Pre heat the oven to 180c / gas mark 6.  Grease a 9" cake tin.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light, fluffy and almost white in colour.  Separate the eggs, adding the yolks to the butter mix.  
   
3. Combine the flour, baking powder and orange zest. 
   
   Add this to the butter mix and mix well.
4. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites into a stiff peak and mix into the cake one third at a time.  Add the orange juice and mix well.
5. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 30-45 minutes.
   
6. Remove from the oven, cool completely, serve with honey.
   
7. Enjoy!!