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‘Baking / Cakes / Desserts’ Category

  1. Gluten Free Banana Bread

    June 15, 2012 by Saara

    As some of you may know, I’ve embarked on a half hearted journey into the world of healthy living and exercising. I’ve been trying to eat more fruit and veg, exercise daily and drink 8 glasses of water a day – although I’ve realised that it’s a lot harder then you think and as my mum always says: “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”.

    I’ve been doing well with eating my greens but when it comes to fruit… I’ve been kind of neglecting them. I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve pulled out a tub full of furry strawberries from the fridge or the amount of times my apples have wizened into large, sorry looking raisins! Even my bananas are starting to look like giant slugs in my fruit bowl!

    So I was just about to chuck the ‘slugs’ in the bin when I realised that over ripe bananas can actually be used in baking. Infact, many recipes require overly ripe bananas as opposed to fresh ones. Which was when I had the brilliant brain wave of making gluten free banana bread.

    Banana bread, banana loaf, banana cake [or whatever you wanna call it]  is such an easy thing to make! It takes minimal effort [well, apart from mashing bananas] and what you get at the end is a glorious dessert that goes wonderfully with a good ol’ fashioned brew!  On top of that, you can add whatever you fancy to the mix before baking. Fancy walnuts? Then throw them in! Fancy raisins? Then throw them in! Fancy berries and seeds? Then throw them in!

    [FYI: I apologise for the poor quality of the photos. I've lost my camera charger, so until I find it again, I'm having to use my phone]

    Ingredients:

     

    • 2 Very Ripe Bananas
    • 110g Brown Sugar [I used Muscovado Sugar again]
    • 110g Butter
    • 2 Eggs
    • 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
    • 1 Tablespoon of Vegetable Oil
    • 225g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour [I used Doves]
    • 1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Powder [Gluten Free of course!]

    Method:

    1. Pre- Heat Oven to 180°c
    2. In a bowl and using a fork, mash the Bananas 
    3. In a separate bowl add the Butter and Brown Sugar and cream together 
    4. Add the mashed Bananas mix together 
    5. Add the Egg, Vanilla Extract and Vegetable Oil and mix together 
    6. Add the Flour and Baking Powder and give it a good mix till it’s all combined 
    7. Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper [or if you're out of greaseproof paper, generously grease it with butter] 
    8. Add the Banana Bread Mixture to the loaf tin, pop it in the oven and bake for 30 – 35 mins [when baked, if you insert a toothpick/fork into the Banana Bread, if it comes out clean - the banana bread ready!] 
    9. When ready, carefully take out of the oven and leave the Banana Bread in the loaf tin and pop on a wire rack for 5 /10 minutes. 
    10. Gently take the Banana Bread out of the loaf tin, and pop on a wired rack to completely cool 
    11. Pop on the kettle, make yourself a brew, cut a slice of your Banana Bread/Cake/Loaf and enjoy!

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    Category Baking / Cakes / Desserts | Tags: ,,,, | 3 Comments

  2. Gluten & Dairy Free Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes

    April 5, 2012 by Saara

    With the weather being a little on the crazy side yesterday [yes, talking about the random snow after a red hot week!] I decided to be all productive and whip up some gluten free cupcakes. Now I was going to make some standard, plain vanilla fairy cakes, when I suddenly had an idea – I’ll make some ‘cherry bakewell cupcakes!’

    I’m sure I’m not the only one who remembers Mr Kipling’s Cherry Bakewells! Although I wasn’t a huge fan, I still enjoyed nicking the cherry off my mums and taking off the icing… pretty much leaving her with a soggy top and the shortcrust base! [Oh, how she put it with me, I'll never know].

    So trawling the internet for an idea on how to make it, I came across a recipe by the lovely Holly Bell, who was a contestant on The Great British Bake Off. I took a note of all the ingredients I’d need and demanded Michael to take me to Asda at once! However, we searched high and low for some ground almonds with Mike asking ‘Can’t you just use chopped almonds?”. I was just about to throw the towel at Mike in, when I had a little brain wave – I could use Almond Extract. The good thing is with almond extract is that it’s easily available from most supermarkets, unlike the ground almonds!

    Ingredients:

     

    • 110g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour [I used Doves]
    • 100g Caster Sugar
    • 100g Dairy Free Margarine [I used Vitalite]
    • 2 Eggs
    • 1 teaspoon Almond Extract
    • 12 teaspoons of Jam [Strawberry, Raspberry or Cherry]
    • 6 glacier Cherries [cut in 1/2]
    • 100g Icing Sugar
    • 2 tablespoons of Boiling Water

    Method:

     

    1. Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC
    2. In a bowl, cream the Butter and Sugar together until creamy 
    3. Stir in the Eggs and Almond Extract [the mixture may look a little on the 'curdled' side] 
    4. Now add the Gluten Free Self Raising Flour and fold together
    5. Carefully pour into your cupcake cases and pop in the oven for 15-20s minutes 
    6. Once baked, carefully pop the cupcakes on a cooling rack to cool down 
    7. Once cooled, using a knife, gently take a little from the middle of the cupcake 
    8. Using a teaspoon, add a spoonful of Jam into the hole and place the ‘cut out cupcake part’ back on top [if that even makes any sense!] 
    9. Now it’s time to ice the cupcakes! I used Asda’s White Piping Icing to ice the Cherry Bakewell  but you can always make your own by carefully mixing 100g Icing Sugar with 2 tablespoons of Boiling water
    10. Pop 1/2 a cherry on top and admire your Gluten Free Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes 

     

     

     

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    Category Baking / Cakes / Desserts, Dairy Free Recipes | Tags: ,,,,, | 3 Comments

  3. ‘Wheat Pete’s Gluten Free Yorkshire Puddings

    April 3, 2012 by Saara

    Some of you may have already heard about my house mate, Pete, and because he’s the spokesman for ‘The Wheat Lover’s Association’, I aptly gave him the title ‘Wheat Pete’, and it’s kind of stayed!

    It all started when I’d just moved in with Pete and Mike about 6 months ago. I’d left my gluten free bread roll on the side, wrapped up in its packaging, ready for tomorrow. So when I woke up the next day and ventured into the kitchen… my bread roll had gone! I asked ‘Wheat Pete’ if he had seen it and his response “Oh, that stale bread? Yeah, I chucked it out”. Yes, that morning I was close to throttling him!

    But the other day, when he offered to make me some gluten free Yorkshire puddings, you could have knocked me down with a feather! I did scoff at the thought of him making them and did hope that they’d go wrong but I had to sadly swallow my pride – because those god damn gluten free Yorkshire puddings he made me were the nicest puddings I’ve ever had!

    Ingredients:

    • 120g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour [I used Doves]
    • 2 Eggs
    • 1/4 pint of Milk

    Method:

     

    1. Pre-heat the oven to it’s highest setting
    2. Using a cupcake tray/Yorkshire pudding tray, add a tablespoon of Oil and pop in the oven.
    3. Meanwhile, in a bowl, add the Gluten Free Self Raising Flour 
    4. Now add the Egg and mix together with a fork 
    5. Now add the Milk and mix together until you form a runny batter 
    6. Once the Oil starts to smoke in the tray, carefully pour the mixture in until it fills each hole 
    7. Close the oven door, turn the heat down to 200°C and cook for 10 minutes. Do not open the door while they’re baking!
    8. Once they have risen and turned a lovely golden colour, carefully take out of the oven and serve with whatever you want [I had mine with chips and gravy!] 

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    Category Baking / Cakes / Desserts | Tags: ,, | 1 Comment

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