Danish Pastries: Dinosaur Paws (Wheat Free with Dairy Free Option)

Having learnt how to make fairly decent puff pastry, I think it may be my new favourite thing. There are so many things I want to try out using it; it's a shame it takes so long to make! However, for now, I will show you all my most recent adventure in the land of laminated pastry: cinnamon Danish pastries!

In a lot of bakeries here in Ireland, there are a few varieties of puff pastry snacks available: maple pecan plaits, apple turnovers, croissants, and cinnamon spirals. The cinnamon ones are my favourite, and for those who have never seen one before, it looks like a slice of Swiss roll (roll cake) made with puff pastry and cinnamon sugar, and I love pulling off the pastry following the spiral around to the middle... because I'm strange like that.

This time, though, I decided to do a different shape, using the same combination of things. From researching, I've found no name for this kind of folding technique other than "Turkey Feather", which a few North American bloggers have used, and I've also seen it referred to as a "Tulip Fold"; I, however, think it looks like a dinosaur footprint.

To make these pastries, I used the same puff pastry dough I used to make the croissants, doubling the ingredient amounts to make a bigger batch of pastry. It also needs an extra 5 to 10 minutes freezing time between folds. You will also need about 4 teaspoons of light brown sugar or caster sugar mixed with a half to full teaspoon of ground cinnamon, depending on how strong you want the cinnamon flavour.

Without the aid of a video, I have drawn a little diagram of how I folded it and then took a photograph:

1. Roll the puff pastry into a rectangle roughly 14 inches (35½ centimetres) wide; trim the edges if you want it to be nice and neat, but it's not necessary. Wet the surface with a little water and sprinkle on some cinnamon sugar to make a nice covering.
2. Working with the long sides, fold each long side into the middle, using a technique called a book fold.
3. Wet the new plain surfaces of puff pastry and sprinkle on some more cinnamon sugar.
4. Fold in half, short end to short end.
5. Fold in half again, long side to long side.
6. Pop in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes (or the freezer for about 10-15 minutes) before cutting into 8 equal portions.

Arrange these on a baking tray which has been lightly floured, about 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7½ centimetres) apart from each other and the side of the tray, and bake in an oven preheated to 220ºC (450ºF, Gas Mk.8) for 10 to 15 minutes, or until fully expanded and have a nice golden brown colour around the edges. Use a fish slice to move the pastries from the tray to a wire cooling rack and eat cool, and preferably on the day they are baked.

These are super cute, and quite tasty! I thought they were just fine the way they were but you can also, for a more Scandinavian style cinnamon pastry, use some ground cardamom in addition to your cinnamon. 

Stay tuned for more adventures in the land of laminated pastry!

THIS TIME IN 2014: Mini Chocolate "Melkterts" (Wheat Free)
THIS TIME IN 2013: Homemade Box of Chocolates = WIN

Recipe Revision: Doughnuts (Wheat-Free with Dairy Free Option)

Every so often, I like to revisit and revise some recipes that I think need tweaking. I take on the feedback, and make adjustments to the recipes, and this time I'm having a look at my doughnuts recipe.

I've been using the same doughnut recipe for a while now, and it's been doing the job. However, the most common bits of feedback is that they're too dry, the crusts are too thick, and that they crack when they cook. A few people, both online and in the real world, have said that they would prefer something a little more moist and soft, like a "shop bought" doughnut, and I would actually agree with them.

To achieve this, I did a few things:

1. I reduced the amount of raising agent. This was causing the doughnuts to rise too quickly and too much, causing the cracking on the surface.
2. I upped the amount of milk in the recipe, to make the dough softer and a little cakier.
3. I swapped the oil for butter/margarine, and upped that too for more moisture. The block fat is melted to make mixing easier at the start, but sets up to solid again after a brief chill, making the dough - which now has more moisture - firm up and become easier to work with.

Also, another comment that was made, and that I personally experienced, is that the recipe I was using made dense and dry doughnuts that were difficult to fill with jam using the standard syringe method after cooking. However, no matter how many variations I tried, this was always the case. Also, sometimes the round doughnuts with no hole never cooked fully through, or needed way too long in the oil

To combat this, I had a go at filling the doughnuts before frying and it worked a treat! It also meant that they cooked faster and more evenly in the oil.

In the photos below, you can see a batch of doughnuts with glazed rings, and jam doughnuts. You can see in the sides of these ones where I attempted to inject jam, which didn't work at all. In the second photo, which had the jam sandwiched inside the raw dough before frying, the jam inside the doughnut, and the texture of the crumb of the cake itself. This method was far more effective. That's my brother's hand; can't you see the family resemblance?

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Eggs
☒ Dairy (you can use block margarine instead of butter, and water instead of milk)

INGREDIMENTS

For the dough:

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) cornflour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 medium egg
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter or block margarine, melted and cooled
• 4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) milk or water, or milk alternative, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• Optional: ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg

For filling and decoration:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) raspberry, strawberry, or any jam you'd like, sieved to remove seeds and pieces of fruit
• Icing sugar
• Food colouring
• Sprinkles
• Caster sugar
• Cinnamon

METHOD:

• In a mixing bowl, sieve the flour, cornflour, sugar, (nutmeg, if using) and baking powder together. Make a well in the centre, and add in the egg, butter, and milk. Mix with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are fully moistened, and the ingredients are well combined. The dough will seem very, very sticky, but don't freak out: it needs a stint in the fridge to set/
• Cover the mixing bowl with a sheet of cling film, or a slightly damp tea towel, and put in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or until the dough is firm to touch, but still a little tacky.
• In a saucepan filled with about 2 inches (5 centimetres) of flavourless oil, such sunflower oil, or in a deep fat fryer, preheat the oil to 190˚C (375˚F). Line a plate with a double layer of kitchen paper, for draining. I use a deep fryer because it's safer, and also because the heat is more consistent, which makes more consistent doughnuts.
• Dredge your work surface, rolling pin, and cutters very well with flour. You will need a 3 inch (7½ centimetre) round cutter for all the doughnuts, and a 1½ (3¾  centimetre) round cutter to cut out the middles of the ring doughnuts.

To make ring doughnuts,

• Roll the soft dough out on the surface, keeping flour nearby in cake it sticks, to a thickness of half an inch (1 centimetre).The mixture is very sticky and very soft, but that's how you want it, DO NOT be tempted to add more flour, because it'll make the dough too dry, which will cause the crusts to crack too much while frying.
• Cut out the doughnuts out with the big cutter, then their middles with the small cutter, and lie them on a baking paper line tray, to make frying easier. Gather up and re-roll the trimmings and punched out middles, being careful not to work the dough too much or be too rough with it; it’s delicate and temperamental.
• Using a fish slice and a table knife, put a doughnut on the fish slice, lower it into the oil, and slide it off the slice with the flat of the knife. This stops the doughnuts from losing their shape. Only fry a few at a time, because they need room to puff up, and if you put too many in at once you will make the temperature of the oil will drop too much.
• Fry the doughnuts for a total of 3 to 4 minutes, flipping half way through. You can tell when they’re ready to flip because the outside of the doughnuts, and the inside of the hole, will be a nice golden brown colour around the edge. If they brown too quickly, your oil is too hot, and if they don’t brown in two minutes, the oil is too cold.
• Flip and finish cooking, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on the kitchen paper lined plate, blotting off all the excess oil. Move to a wire rack to cool.

To make jam doughnuts,

• Roll the soft dough out on the surface, keeping flour nearby in cake it sticks, to a thickness of a quarter inch (6 millimetres). Try and get the dough into a nice a rectangle as you can.
• On one half of the rectangle, spoon teaspoonfuls of jam, about 2 inches (5 centimetres) apart, then fold the plain dough over, covering the jam blobs, pressing the edges around the jam gently. Use the big round cutter to cut out around the jam, making little round jam and dough sandwiches; treat them gently. Gather up and re-roll the trimmings as with the ring doughnuts.
• In the same way as the ring doughnuts, use a fish slice to lower them into the oil and a knife to push them off. These take a little longer to cook: about 5 minutes, flipping half way through. You can tell when they’re ready to flip because the outside of the doughnuts will be a nice golden brown colour around the edge. If they brown too quickly, your oil is too hot, and if they don’t brown in two minutes, the oil is too cold.
• Flip and finish cooking, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on the kitchen paper lined plate, blotting off all the excess oil. Move to a wire rack to cool.

To decorate,

• Once the doughnuts are cool, you can decorate them however you want. You can mix some caster sugar with some cinnamon, and toss the doughnuts in that to coat, or just toss them in plain caster sugar.
• Or, you can make some simple glaze with water and icing sugar, adding some food colouring if you like, and dip them in it. Decorate with sprinkles.

These new revised doughnuts are much nicer in texture and flavour than their predecessors, and using the pre-filling method is much more effective. You can, of course, fill them with whatever you like: custard, nutella, marmalade, peanut butter, marmite, superglue, or whatever your heart desires... within reason, obviously.

THIS TIME IN 2014: Variation on a Theme: Persian Banana Bread

THIS TIME IN 2013: Sweeties Make Great Gifts, Hopefully

Cheat Croissants (Wheat and Yeast Free)

Hello everyone!! I'm back from my extended break, and I am happy to be back to managing my time well enough to be able to bake often. Let me tell you what I was up to in my time away:

Firstly, where I work is a community centre run by the Methodist Church in Limerick: it's a three story building that used to be an office block that the church built about 75 years ago to rent out and have an income. However, 15 or so year ago, the businesses moved out and it was unoccupied except for one street unit that houses USIT, a student travel agent.

My mother became the minister of the Methodist Church in 2012, and since then she has been working on making the office block into a community space. In that time we have had many a different group and individual use our space, and everyday it is used for something or other, from breakdancing classes and theatre rehearsals, to English language classes and Mums and Tots groups. In 2014, I was made part-time community and youth worker, and as of the start of July, I was made full time.

Our longest tenant is an organisation called Doras Luimní, which is a migrant support and human rights NGO (non-governmental organisation) that offers legal aid, advocacy, and assistance to migrant people living in Limerick, and as part of my job I work with them for 5 hours on a Thursday. Part of Doras Luimní's remit is anti-racism and integration training, and since 2014 we have been running a European initiative called "C4i" (Communication for Integration), which involves "Anti-Rumours" training and workshops, designed to tackle racist rumours. The project evaluation was in Brussels at the end of June, and the project leader and I went over to attend the conference.

Since then, I've just been getting to grips with having a full time job and juggling it with my personal life - my friends, my companion, and my hobbies - and it's been incredibly time consuming. For about three weeks I only baked things for youth groups and church things, and as such used old reliable recipes with little or no experimentation.

But now, having found my feet, I'm back to abnormality, and my trip to Belgium inspired my to try something that I haven't done for years: croissants!

I tried making croisssants once when I was younger with no success: they didn't rise, and were as tough as nails. My brother Paddy ate them, but I did not think they were successful. Not only because I hate working with yeast (yeast and spelt are not friends in my experience), but because my layering process wasn't done properly or something.

Since then, I have dabbled in puff pastry many times, including recently when I made some sausage rolls. That dough was nice, but not quite right either. So, I did some serious research. What I present to you now is a mixture of about 4 different puff pastry recipes; these croissants are raised with baking powder, which is a little bit of a cheat, but it works.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Eggs (you can skip on the egg wash, though)
☒ Dairy (you can use block margarine instead of butter, and water instead of milk)

INGREDIMENTS:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) baking powder
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) caster sugar
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) water
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter, at room temperature, divided in four
• Extra flour for dusting
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) of milk or water, for glazing

METHOD

First, make the pastry (this takes roughly 90 minutes, over an hour of which is waiting for the pastry to chill):

• In a mixing bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, and sugar to mix evenly. Then, using your fingertips, rub in one quarter of the butter until it resembles a slightly wet sand kind of consistency.
• Add the water and mix until it becomes a very soft dough that cleans the sides of the bowl. Gather the dough into a ball, and allow to relax for about 15 minutes.
• Dust the work surface with flour and roll the dough into a rectangle about a quarter inch inch (5 millimetres) in thickness. Using a butter knife or the back of a spoon, spread another quarter of the butter over two thirds of the dough's surface. Sprinkle a little with flour, and then do a trifold: fold the unbuttered third over, then fold the remaining buttered flap over again; think of how you would fold a letter into three before you put it in an envelope. Wrap in cling film, and then put in the freezer for 15 minutes.
• After the brief freeze, the dough should be firm but still pliable. Dust the surface once more and roll out the dough into another rectangle quarter of an inch (5 millimetres) in thickness again. This time, do a trifold with no butter, folding the dough into three like a letter. Roll out again, and spread another quarter of the butter over two-thirds like before, sprinkling lightly with flour. Do another trifold, then wrap up and freeze again for another 15 minutes.
• Repeat the process, doing one more dry trifold and one last trifold with the final quarter of butter and a last little sprinkling of flour. Wrap and freeze for another 15 minutes.
• At this point, you can use it after the 15 minutes of freezing, but if you want even more flaky crispy layers, you can do a few more dry trifolds. Just be careful: do NOT allow the butter the melt out of the pastry, and always freeze it for 15 minutes before you finally decide to use it. Congratulations, you have made puff pastry!

Now, make the croissants:

• Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F, Gas Mk.6)
• When you're ready to use, roll out the pastry on a dusted work surface into another rectangle to about a quarter inch (5 millimetre) thickness. Cut 3 long triangles out of the dough, like this:

• Put the scraps on either edge aside for now, and then take each triangle in turn. Cut a tiny slit in the wide end, maybe about an inch or so (2½ centimetres), end then roll from the wide end to the thin end. Bend in the ends to made a crescent shape and that's your first croissant! Repeat with the others. You can also make wonky croissants with the edge strips, if you like; that's what I did.
• Place about 2 inches (5 centimetres) apart on baking tray lined with baking paper, or that has been every so lightly greased. 
• Brush each croissant with the milky egg wash, using a brush or your fingers, and then bake in the well preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until puffed up, flaky, and golden brown. It's important that the oven is well preheated, otherwise they'll be soggy. (You can use any leftover egg wash to make some nice egg fried rice or an omelette.)
• Once cooked, remove  from the oven and transfer to a wire rack. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before eating, or if you want you can eat them cold.

Croissants are best enjoyed the day they are made, straight from the oven, but if you want to eat them later they keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

THIS TIME IN 2014: Variation on a Theme: Choco-Nut Granola with Cranberries
THIS TIME IN 2013: Ginger Nut Biscuits (Wheat Free)

**Sweetie Pie is Going on Holiday**

Well everyone! I'm taking a little break for a few weeks because this month is very busy: I'm going abroad for work, and then when I get back I'll be settling into more working hours. I'll be active here the odd bit, sharing silly pictures, as is my wont.

I'm not sure when I'll be writing another blog, but you will all certainly be the first to know!

Thanks for all of your support so far! x

Sausage Rolls (Wheat Free)

For the afternoon tea party this month, I tried making something that I've never ever done before: puff pastry! I decided to use the puff pastry to make some delicious sausage rolls.

Now, sausage rolls made with normal shortcrust pastry are also delicious, but I thought I'd challenge myself. The idea of a picnic conjures up sausage rolls and pork pies in my mind (I knew there was Englishness hiding in there somewhere), so I decided to use it as an opportunity to try something new.

Puff pastry, admittedly, is a little time consuming and fussy. Traditionally, you make a shortcrust pastry, saving some of the butter, and then you sandwich the pastry with the butter, folding and re-rolling repeatedly to make thousands of layers of pastry and butter. This makes it puff and go super flaky on cooking in an extremely hot oven. The only challenge is that everything has to be ice cold, meaning that between each step you have to chill the dough, then fold and re-roll, then chill, and so forth. It takes forever.

So, some enterprising soul somewhere in history came up with rough puff pastry, which is a little bit of a cheat. You use a traditional shortcrust pastry recipe but you prepare it differently. You only rub the flour in halfway, and only mix in the water half way, and then tip it all out on the surface to begin your rolling and folding, freezing for 15 minutes after every third turn and roll. Of course, it's very messy to start with because it's crumbly and uneven, but as you progress it sorts itself out.

Now, I'm not going to outline the process in my recipe, I am, however, going to link you to a great video that shows it in good detail. I've linked it so that it starts where the method is explained, because I use slightly different ingredients.

So, let's get started!

INGREDIMENTS

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) very cold butter, cubed
• 2 to 3 fluid ounces (60 to 90 millilitres) cold water
• Generous pinch of salt
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) sausages of your choice
• Milk for glazing and sticking

METHOD

• Make the pastry using the flour, butter, salt, and water following the method in this video. The pastry needs about 90 minutes to 2 hours to make, so give yourself plenty of time.
• Preheat your oven to 220°C (450°F, Gas Mk.7).
• Skin the sausages and place the meat into a bowl. Mix it with about 2 teaspoons of water to make a manageable paste.
• Flour you work surface and roll the pastry into a long oblong about 1/4 inch in thickness, making the short end about 5 inches (12 centimetres) wide. The length of the oblong will depend on a few things, but make sure the width and thickness are right.
• Brush the pastry with milk and then put the sausage meat in an even line, spanning the length of the oblong.
• Fold the pastry over the meat, and crimp with a fork to make a big sausage roll. Cut the sausage roll into 20 little pieces, or 16 larger pieces is you want bigger rolls. 
• Place the rolls on an ungreased baking sheet and brush them with some milk for a nice gold brown finish. Place in the centre of the very hot preheated oven.
• Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown and puffed. Serve rolls straight from the oven, or allow to cool on a wire rack.

Of course, sausage rolls are very, very high in fat, so enjoy sparingly!

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: No blog due to going abroad

Experiments in Homemade Soft Drinks: Raspberry Lemonade and Orange Cream Soda

Ever since I was little, I've always been fascinated by the idea of making my own soft drinks. I would always make concoctions of different squashes and drinks and essences, and some of them were vile. I remember once mixing some artificial peppermint essence and sugar into some water, expecting it to taste like drinking a Softmint, but it was genuinely disgusting.

As I got older, I researched the science of making soft drinks, and their beginnings. I remember doing an experiment in science class at junior certificate level where we distilled some Powerade, and got a jug of crystal clear water and a jug of sticky dark blue gunk, and it clicked in my mind that they're literally a flavoured syrup diluted with fizzy water. This was solidified in my mind when I realised that's how cola taps in fast food restaurants worked.

So over the years I've made a few things, but could never quite ascertain a formula, until I found a recipe for strawberry syrup for pancakes, that mixed equal parts simple syrup with blended strawberries and sieved out the pulp.

I'd never really had an excuse to try making my own soft drinks again, because I'm not a big soft drink consumer anyway. But when the June afternoon tea party came along, I deliberately made it summer themed so I could have an excuse to make some fizzy again. 

For the event, I made two kinds. Firstly: a daintily pink raspberry lemonade!

I thought it would be nice to make a dainty pink lemonade, given the quaintness of the afternoon tea indoor picnic. Usually, the pink of lemonade would be as a result of colouring, or sometimes strawberry syrup, but I thought it would be nice to use raspberry. I'm a big fan of raspberry, and its sweet tartness works very well with lemon. This was the more popular of the two, as it is crisp and refreshing, and such a cute colour; it was even popular with the men in the room...

I found these lovely bottles in the local 2 Euro shop; they have more style than substance though, as I discussed in my full tea party blog.

To make the pink lemonade, follow this recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) fresh lemon juice (about 4 large lemons)
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) caster sugar
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) good quality raspberry jam
• Warm water

METHOD

• In a bowl, mix the jam with enough warm water to bring it up to 4 ounces (115 grammes). Mix until smooth and free of lumps.
• In a saucepan, heat together the sugar and lemon juice slowly, mixing all the time until the sugar has completely dissolved. Once dissolved, bring to the boil and cook for one minute.
• Add the jam mixture and mix thoroughly. Bring back to the boil, and once it boils remove from the heat.
• Pass through a sieve into a jug and allow to cool; discard the pulp left in the sieve. Allow to cool completely before storing in a glass container in the fridge for up to 3 months.

TO SERVE
Dilute the cordial with still or sparkling water, at a ratio of one part cordial to three parts water. Serve with ice, and strips of lemon zest for garnish, if you like.

The other flavour that I made was orange cream soda, which is based entirely on my favourite flavour of a drink called Jones Soda.

Jones Soda is a Canadian soft drink that was the number one tipple of Goths and skaters in Limerick when I was a teenager, and became the symbol of the alternative scene in the late Noughties. It has since declined in popularity, but I still buy it when I see it for nostalgia's sake.

Cream soda is something I enjoy very infrequently, as it's incredibly sickly. I don't know when cream soda stopped having cream in it, but the version I've always drunk it just a sugary vanilla flavoured fizzy drink. I've often wondered when the cream in a cream soda stopped being a thing. However, mixing it with another flavour makes it a much fuller drink, in my opinion.

The drink in the picture isn't as fizzy as the pink one, because while it was sitting on the table in its bottle, a lot of the fizz escaped through the barely functioning rubber stopper.

Here is how to make the orange cream soda.

INGREDIENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) fresh orange juice (about 4 large oranges)
• Grated zest of 1 orange
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) caster sugar
• Half a vanilla pod, or 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
• Juice of 1 lemon

METHOD

• In a saucepan, add the orange juice, the sugar, the orange zest, and the lemon juice. If you are using a vanilla pod, scrape out the seeds and add the seeds and the pod to the saucepan; if you are using vanilla essence, just add it straight into the mixture.
• Heat all the ingredients together slowly, mixing all the time until the sugar has completely dissolved. Once dissolved, bring to the boil and cook for one minute.
• Once cooked, cover the saucepan and allow to cool completely. This allows the zest and vanilla to infuse fully.
• Line a sieve with a handkerchief and pour the syrup through it into a jug; discard the pod and zest left in the sieve. Store in a glass container in the fridge for up to 3 months.

TO SERVE
Dilute the cordial with still or sparkling water, at a ratio of one part cordial to three parts water. Serve with ice, and strips of orange zest for garnish, if you like.

All in all, I really enjoyed the experience! I will be trying more flavours soon...

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: No blog due to going abroad

June Afternoon Tea Party: "Picnic"

Happy Monday all! Here's this month's tea party write-up, and this month's theme was 'picnic'.

It was a low key affair this time, with only a handful of folk there. Here in Ireland everything really does grind to a halt during the summer holidays, and I'd say I'll be closing up the monthly tea party events until September again.

I chose 'picnic' as a theme because it's summertime, and I think of picnics when I think summer food. Picnics also tend to have savouries and fruit, which are not typical features at the tea party events. Sometimes, something different is nice. The meeting room in our community centre was decked out with some nice blankets to simulate a picnic.

I decided to try a bunch of new things for this tea party, and I made some sausage rolls with homemade rough puff pastry, and two kinds of fizzy drink: orange cream soda, and raspberry lemonade. I also made some fruit skewers.

I had never tried making puff pastry before, and for a first try it came out really well! I think I made the dough a bit wet, though, and spent too much time mixing it in the bowl before rolling and folding. But it was still super flaky and delicious! I just used some shop bought sausages, adding some extra herbs and spices.

To make the drinks, I made some simple syrup cordials and topped them up at a 1:3 ratio with sparkling water. I bought these nice glass bottles from the 2 Euro shop, but they are more style than substance; the claps don't seal the bottles fully, meaning that the drinks went flat over the course of the evening.

I skewered some melon chunks, red grapes, and halved strawberries onto some cocktail sticks. I hulled the strawberries after slicing to make them look like hearts. I was going to cut the melon also into hearts, but I didn't want to waste any scraps so I just made it into chunks.

For the sweet teeth in the room, I made some shortbread teddies holding sweeties. I lifted this idea completely from Pinterest, but swapped the suggested mixed nuts for liquorice allsorts. Some of them caught the heat a bit in the oven, but they still tasted great.

Two other women also brought some snacks too, including homemade gluten free crackers with red pepper hummus, and a platter of cucumber stars, with tomato and cream cheese, and balled melon dressed in poppy seeds.

All recipe write-ups to follow!

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: Vegan Banana Bread (Wheat-, Dairy-, and Egg Free)

Variation on a Theme: Lemon and Poppy Seed Drizzle Cake (Wheat and Dairy Free)

This variation is a twist on a classic tea bread loaf: lemon and poppy seed drizzle cake!

A few months ago, I tried out making some yeast and wheat free bagels, and as such bought some poppy seeds. Since then, they have just been sitting in my press, feeling lonely. However, I was flicking through a cookery book at home the other day and was inspired by a recipe for lemon and poppy seed muffins. I thought it'd make a nice tea loaf.

I brought this to church for the after service tea last Sunday, and it was quite popular with the grown ups (the children stuck to the chocolate cake).

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Dairy

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cornflour
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) baking powder
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) poppy seeds
• 2 medium eggs
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) sunflower oil
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) water
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 1 medium lemon
• Caster sugar, for drizzle

METHOD

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). Grease a loaf tin and set aside.
• Make the batter according to my low effort sponge recipe, adding the zest of the lemon and the poppy seeds to the wet ingredients.
• Pour the batter into the tin, and bake in the centre rack of the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. You will know it's done when it's springy to the touch, and a cocktail stick of knife poked into the middle comes out clean. Once cooked, take from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack.
• To make the drizzle, juice the lemon into a jug and match the amount with some caster sugar, that is, if you have 1 or 2 fluid ounces (30 to 60 millilitres) of juice, add the same amount of sugar. Heat in the microwave at 30 second intervals until the sugar has melted completely. If you don't have a microwave, you can do this in a saucepan over low heat.
• Poke holes in the cake while it is still warm, and spoon over the drizzle, making sure to wet every inch of the cake's surface with drizzle.Allow to cake to cool completely in the tin.

Tea breads and loaves are very typically served at Protestant church functions, and are a real favourite. This one is a nice and simple one to whip up at short notice.

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: Mint Toffee Slice

Banoffee Pie (Wheat Free)

There are a few things in this life that are as good as a classic dessert, like this one: banoffee pie!

Banoffee Pie (originally spelled 'banoffi') was invented by Nigel Mackenzie and Ian Dowding in the early 70s in their resaturant The Hungry Monk, East Sussex, England. Originally it was made with a pastry shell, but over the years a cheesecake style biscuit base has become more popular.

I have never actually, despite it being a classic, made a banoffee pie. I've always though of using it as an element of a dessert mashup, like a banoffee cheesecake or banoffee millionaire's shortbread, but have never got around to making an actual straight-up pie. I was asked to make one for my companion's sister's birthday, and it served as a great excuse to give it a go.

The first one I made was an alright first attempt, but the biscuit base was too thin, and the toffee too chewy; also, the bananas sweated under the warm toffee (I had put them on the bottom) and make the dessert awfully runny. It tasted okay, but the presentation lost it a good few marks in my eyes.

I thought I'd make another one, because Pentecost Sunday was just around the corner, and it is also one of my eldest brother's favourite desserts. Take two was infinitely more successful, with creamier toffee and a thicker biscuit.

I used bought biscuits (a mixture of digestives and gingernuts), and you could too, but if you can't get wheat free biscuits, this recipe includes a recipe for making biscuits from scratch for the base.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts
☑ Eggs

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:
Makes one 8 inch (20 centimetre) round pie:

For the base:

• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) light brown sugar
• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) butter, at room temperature
• 5 ounces (140 grammes) 
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) ground cinnamon

Alternatively, you could use 14 ounces (400 grammes) of shop bought biscuits: digestives and gingernuts work best

• 5½ ounces (150 grammes) butter, at room temperature, to mix with the crushed biscuits

For the toffee layer:

• 7 ounces (200 grammes) evaporated milk
• 7 ounces (200 grammes) soft light brown sugar
• 2½ ounces (60 grammes) butter
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt

For the topping:

• 4 small bananas, not too ripe but not green
• 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) whipping cream
• Optional: 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) icing sugar
• Cocoa powder, grated or shaved chocolate, for decoration

METHOD

First, prepare the biscuit crumbs for the base,

• If you have a blender, pulse the oats and flour together until it has become evenly blended. If you don't, this part isn't necessary.
• In a mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together with your hands, rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients, until you have a crumbly mixture. Spread the crumbles and clusters onto a dry baking tray and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, tossing the mixture three times throughout baking.
• Once cooked, allow to cool on the tray completely. 

Then, prepare the biscuit base,

• Put into a plastic bag and smash into crumbs, as you would with normal biscuits. You could also put the crumbs into a blender to make very fine crumbs for the base.
• Put the crumbs into a bowl and add the room temperature butter. Mash the butter into the crumbs by hand. I prefer doing it this way instead of using melted butter because the resulting mixture is more mouldable, like play dough.
• Press the mixture into the bottom and sides of a round sandwich tin, lined with clingfilm. Chill for about 30 minutes.

While the biscuit base is chilling, prepare the toffee,

• Mix all the ingredients, except for the vanilla essence, in a medium saucepan. Cook gently over a low heat until the butter and sugar have melted together fully, then bring to the boil. Boil gently for about 5 minutes, until the mixture thickens into a creamy saucy consistency, and darkens slightly.
• Allow to cool in the pan to room temperature, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin forming.

Now, assemble the masterpiece!

• Pour the toffee into the biscuit shell, and spread out evenly with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
• Thinly slice the bananas into discs and place them on top of the toffee to fill the rest of biscuit base. Cut and layer one banana at a time, because you may not need all four.
• Whip the cream (with the icing sugar and vanilla essence, if using) to soft peaks and spread on top the bananas, swirling in a decorative way. Alternately, you can put the cream into a piping bag and pipe it on top of the pie to decorate.
• Decorate with a dusting of cocoa, or chocolate, either by grating or shaving curls onto the cream.
  
  
  

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties

THIS TIME IN 2013: Orange Bourbon Creams (Wheat Free)

Super Moist and Rich Chocolate Cake

There are very few things in this life as delicious as chocolate cake, especially when that chocolate cake is super dark, dense, moist, and rich. This weekend I researched a lot to find recipes for a lovely moist chocolate cake, and adapted my already existing one-step sponge recipe to something a little more decadent.

A lot of American style dense chocolate cakes are old fashioned hand-me-down recipes, and as such rely on the combination of baking soda and buttermilk to rise them. Baking powder is about four times more powerful than baking powder, but takes longer to act, which makes it a more suitable for wet cakes mixtures that need a long time in the oven. Cakes containing baking soda rise slowly but consistently, rarely having big domes.

Of course, baking soda alone doesn't leaven anything, it needs an acid to react off: enter sour dairy products! Traditionally, buttermilk is used as the other reactive ingredient, as it gives extra moistness and richness while providing acidity. I personally have always avoided using buttermilk recipes, as I don't want unused buttermilk hanging around in my fridge getting sourer and sourer, so I use yoghurt.

Yoghurt is also a sour dairy product which is much thicker than buttermilk, so I water it down. It means that I can use an ingredient which I already have in my fridge without worrying about having unused ingredients going wrong in my fridge.

Now. This is some seriously rich chocolate cake going on here: it used quarter of a pound (115 grammes) of good dark chocolate and a good dose of dairy. This is serious break-up or PMS medicine.I slather it in dark chocolate fudge icing, and I've included the recipe, You can use your favourite icing though, too.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts
☑ Eggs

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS
For one standard loaf (1 lb; 455 grammes), or one 7 inch (18 centimetre) round cake,

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cornflour
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• Pinch of salt
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) brown sugar
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) dark chocolate, melted
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) sunflower oil
• 2 medium eggs
• 4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) natural or greek yoghurt
• 4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the icing:

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) milk chocolate, broken into pieces
• Alternatively, you can use all dark or all milk chocolate, or even white if you like
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter, at room temperature, cut into cubes
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) milk

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 170ºC (325ºF/Gas Mk. 3), and grease your chosen tin.
• In a jug or small mixing bowl, melt together the chocolate and oil. You can to this in the microwave on the 'Defrost' setting in one minute intervals, or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, leave aside to cool.
• In a large mixing bowl, mix together the spelt flour, cornflour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, caster sugar, and brown sugar together, making sure to break up the sugar clumps. Use a spoonful of this mixture to dust your cake tin, returning the excess to the bowl.
• Beat the eggs into the chocolate and oil mixture, one at a time, and then add the yoghurt and the water. Beat until smooth and well combined.
• Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix thoroughly until completely smooth.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and put in the centre of your preheated oven. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, and DO NOT open the oven before at least 45 minutes have elapsed.
• After 50 minutes of cooking, start testing. It is done when a cocktail stick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out mostly clean, maybe with one or two crumbs attached.
• Once cooked, remove from the oven and loosen the edges with a palette or table knife. Cool in the tin for 10 to 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing,

• Heat the sugar and milk in a saucepan over low heat until all the sugar has dissolved. Once dissolved, bring to the boil and cook for about a minute or so.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and chocolate, mixing thoroughly until completely melted.
• Allow to cool to a spreadable consistency, stirring once every so often to prevent crusting.
• Spread on top of the cake, or you could even split and fill the cake instead. Decorate the icing however you please.

This, like I said earlier, is serious stuff. Enjoy in moderation!

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: Coconut Custard Creams (Wheat Free)

Zingy Lemon Gâteau (Wheat Free)

Happy Monday all! This weekend was my mother's birthday, and so I made her a lovely cake, based off her favourite (which is lemon drizzle cake), which turned out to be this delicious lemon gateau!

This is a three layered lemon flavoured sponge, with a lemon curd filling, and a lemon scented white chocolate icing, and it was rich and zingy at the same time. The lemon curd filling is not made in the traditional way, but with cornflour, making it easier and a little bit more like a melted lemon Turkish Delight. Instead of making three separate cakes, as you can see, I made one big cake and cut it into three layers.

I've been getting so much use recently out of this new way of making sponge cake, and to be honest I don't know why I haven't been using it all the time. The cakes rise perfectly and have a lovely flat top with no dome, and the crumb is so delicate and light. They are a bit tricky to work with though when it comes to icing: if the icing is too thick, it will tear chunks off your cake as you're icing it. Make sure everything is at room temperature when icing. 

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Eggs
☒ Gluten
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS
Makes one deep 7 inch (18 centimetre)

For the lemon sponge cake:

• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) cornflour
• 1½ teaspoons (8 millilitres) baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 3 medium eggs
• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) sunflower oil
• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) milk
• 2 to 3 teaspoons (10 to 15 millilitres) grated lemon zest
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) vanilla essence

For the lemon curd filling:

• 4 large lemons, juiced
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) grated lemon zest
• 2½ tablespoons (30 to 40 millitres) cornflour
• 1 ounces (55 grammes) butter

For the white chocolate icing:

• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) sugar
• 3½ fluid ounces (100 millilitres) milk
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter
• 7 ounces (200 grammes) white chocolate, chopped into pieces
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Yellow food colouring

To decorate,

• Block of white chocolate, for shaving

METHOD

To make the cake,

• Preheat the oven to 170ºC (325ºF/Gas Mk. 3) and grease and flour a 7 inch (18 centimetre) deep round cake tin, or you can use a silicone one which doesn't need greasing or flouring. Alternatively, prepare three sandwich tins of the same width.
• Make the sponge cake according to the method in my Fondant Fancies post, adding the lemon zest to the egg yolks.
• Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until risen, golden brown, and springy to the touch. If you're making individual sandwiches, cook for about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. 

To make the filling,

• Zest then juice the lemons, and then top up the lemon juice with water to make up 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) of liquid.
• In a saucepan, cook the lemon mixture, lemon zest, and sugar together over a low heat until the sugar melts. Once melted, bring to the boil and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.
• In a small cup, add the cornflour, and then take a few tablespoons of the lemon syrup from the pan and mix into the cornflour to make a slurry. Add this to the saucepan and then mix thoroughly.
• Bring this mixture to the boil, and cook until thickened and translucent, about 2 to 3 minutes.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla essence until smooth and shiny. Pour the curd into a bowl and cover with cling film, making sure the film touches the surface. Chill until completely cold.

To make the icing,

• Heat the sugar, lemon zest, and milk together in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook for about a minute or two.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, chocolate, and vanilla essence, then return to a low heat. Stir continuously until completely melted, smooth, and consistent.
• Pour the icing through a sieve into a bowl to remove the lemon zest for a smoother icing. Add enough yellow food colouring to get the shade of lemony yellow you want.
• Allow to cool and thicken, stirring occasionally, until a spreadable consistency, which should take about 3 or 4 hours.

To assemble,

• Cut the cake into three even layers, and divide the lemon curd into two, spreading half on the bottom layer and the other half on the middle layer. Allow to set for about 30 minutes.
• Using a few dollops of the icing, ice the cake with a thin crumb coat. If the icing is tearing the cake, you can melt it slightly to make it easier to spread. Allow to sit for 30 minutes.
• Ice with the remaining icing, making a back and forth pattern on top of the cake. If you like, you can shave some white chocolate curls onto the cake using a vegetable peeler.

So there you have it: rich yet light and zesty cake, ideal for the summer months. I ate two slices because I'm naughty, but it was so worth it...

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: Experiment: Homemade Sprinkles