Fruit and Nut Flapjacks (Gluten Free)

Flapjacks: oats wrapped in toffee. What's not to like?

I've always loved myself a flapjack, and I would have one every now and again. But once I was diagnosed with a wheat intolerance suddenly they became my main man (that and granola). Anything oaty and caramelly, like Hobnobs or Nature Valley bars were my go-to tea accompaniment for many months before I discovered spelt flour.

But, apart from their wheat-less wonders, they are also shockingly simple, consisting of 4 ingredients only in a easily remembered formula (if you think in ounces, like I do): 1:2:2:4, golden syrup to butter to sugar to oats. Also, you can make them all in one saucepan. Done and done!

INGREDIMENTS

• 1 ounce (30 grammes) golden syrup, or dark corn syrup or honey
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) brown sugar
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) rolled oats, check for gluten warnings
• Optional: 1 ounce (30 grammes) raisins
• Optional: 1 ounce (30 grammes) chopped nuts

HOW-TO

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). Grease and line a 9 inch (23 centimeter) round sandwich tin.
• Melt all syrup, butter and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat.
• Mix in the oats and stir until fully coated. You could also add in the fruit and nuts if you want.
• Pour into the tin and flatten out with a spoon. Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes until the edges are golden, the it's still soft.
• While still soft, score into eighths. Allow to cool fully in the tin and then turn out. Cut along the score lines with a sharp knife. I've found a pizza wheel works best.

These keep well as they don't really ever get that stale, soft texture. They do, however, go sticky on prolonged contact with the air, so make sure to keep them in an airtight tin.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing (Wheat Free)

Whether you love it or hate it, it must be said that carrot cake is one of the most ubiquitous cakes of all time; a quintessential recipe for any home baker. The idea of grating a root vegetable into a cake may seem unthinkable to some people, but it's something that just has to be resigned to and accepted for what it is. The usual placation of 'But you can't taste the carrot!' never works: it has to be fed to skeptics under the guise of something less offense.

But, more about the recipe itself! Carrot cake is kept wonderfully moist by the addition of oil and carrots, which are full of juices, and as such lends itself very well to a wheat-free rendition, as the gluten is not relied on to maintain the texture. Also, the concoction of spices can be tailored to suit any taste, or even a spoon of a shop-bought spice mixture can be used for those who don't feel confident in mixing spices; I personally like cinnamon, coriander and cloves (3 Cs)

I understand the ingredient list is very intimidating, but it's mostly spices and extras.

INGREDIMENTS
For two 9 inch (23 centimeter) round sandwich cakes

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) spelt flour
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) cornflour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch of salt
• 5 medium eggs, at room temperature
• 7 ounces (200 grammes) soft brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 
• 5 ounces (140 grammes) sunflower oil
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) carrot, grated
• Optional: 3 ounces (85 grammes) dessicated coconut
• Optional: 3 ounces (85 grammes) chopped brazil nuts, walnuts or pecan nuts
• Optional: 3 ounces (85 grammes) raisins or sultanas

For cream cheese icing

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter, at room temperature
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) cream cheese, from the fridge
• 8 ounces (225 grammes) icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• Optional: 8 whole walnuts or pecan nuts

HOW-TO

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). If I turn my oven on directly before preparing the cake mixture, it's usually preheated by the time the mixture is ready.
• Prepare your tin for baking by greasing it on all sides then dusting with flour. Alternatively, you can line the tin with non-stick baking paper, or waxed paper. Here in Ireland, we have this marvelous sillicone-greased paper, and it works a treat.
• Sieve the spelt flour, cornflour, spices and baking powder (and salt, if using) into a bowl and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together with an electric hand mixer for about 4 or 5 minutes. It's ready when it is doubled in size, pale in colour, and leaves ribbon trails on itself when the beaters are lifted. If you don't have an electric hand mixer, you can use a balloon whisk, just set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Gently heating the egg mixture speeds up the process, and this means you won't snap off your arm by whisking for hours.
• While still whisking, gradually pour in the sunflower oil until fully mixed in.
• Add in the desiccated coconut (if using) and sieve in half of the flour mixture and fold in using a spatula, balloon whisk, or metal spoon. 
• Add all the grated carrot, and then fold gently. Sieve in the second half of the flour, and fold until just mixed. If you're adding nuts and fruit, gently fold them in here.
• Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin, and bake in the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Don't be tempted to open the door until after three-quarters of the cooking time has elapsed: the cake will sink.
• When the cake is baked, let it cool completely in the tin then turn out onto a wire rack.

For the cream cheese icing:

• In a bowl, beat the soft butter with a wooden spoon. You need to use a wooden spoon until the final beating, because cream cheese easily becomes runny on contact with sugar if mixed too much.
• Beat in a third of the sugar and mix until fully incorporated.
• Add in the cream cheese and zest and fold through gently. Add in the remaining icing sugar and lemon juice and mix until smooth, then beat very briefly to make it a little creamier.

Assemble the masterpiece:

• Put the bottom cake on a serving plate and cut off the dome. Save the dome for midnight snacking.
• Spread with half the icing, then put the second cake on top. Ice with the remaining icing, then streak or swirl on the top for prettiness. Decorate with nuts, if using.

Fool-Proof Meringue (Unless You're a Really Foolish Fool)

Apologies for lack of photos! That will be amended tomorrow when the camera is out of camera hospital (ie. my Dad's workshop).

How to make meringue; the ultimate question. For something so simple in theory, it is notorious for going very, very wrong very, very often. It's either too dry, or too sticky, or it gets too burnt, or melts all over the oven, sets too hard, sets too soft among other numerous problems.

I have found, however, that once you conquer a few little factors the perfect meringue will materialise as if by magic! The two factors are, like with any recipe under the sun, the recipe itself and the method by which it is made. I know I sound like Captain Obvious, but making meringues can be a delicate process that can be very easily upset if handled to roughly. So, onto my own personal recommendations:

INGREDIMENTS

The most basic formula for meringues, which is a time-tested staple to any cookery book, is 2 ounces (55 grammes) of caster sugar to 1 large egg white; 1 large egg white weighs roughly 1 ounce (30 grammes). That simple. However, there is a small issue with using just these two ingredients: it's not stable enough.

Have you ever made a meringue that collapses after baking, or one that goes all soggy a few hours later, or one that's crisp outside but wet and gummy in the middle? These are all results of the meringue separating during cooking: the sugar, water and protein have not bonded properly, meaning that the protein contracts, squeezing all the water out, and the sugar crystallises. This is bad juju.

The way to stop a meringue from separating is to stabilise it using one simple ingredient: an acid of any kind. The acid breaks down the protein allowing it to hold onto the sugar and water more easily, and then cook into shape while in the oven. For each egg white, use 1 pinch of cream of tartar, 3 drops of lemon juice or 3 drops of white vinegar. That's all that's needed.

If you want to make it even more stable, you can also add ¼ teaspoon cornflour. But, more on that in the...

METHOD
That there are two methods that work every time, no matter what you're doing.

METHOD A
Method A is the traditional French meringue. Because it's still technically raw on going into the oven to bake and needs to cook for quite a while, it is best suited for little meringues or pavlova bases.

• First of all, prepare your mixing bowl. Don't use plastic, as the surface can be too uneven; the best materials to use are either glass or metal. Take some kitchen roll, dampen it with a small amount of lemon juice or vinegar, and clean the inside of the bowl. This is to remove any shred of any trace of oil, which is the enemy of a successful meringue.
• Separate the eggs, put the egg whites into the bowl, and leave to sit at room temperature for an hour. If you can do this step a few days before you need to make the meringue, even better (obviously, keep them in the fridge until the aforementioned hour before cooking). The older the whites, the bigger the fluff.
• Before you begin preparing the meringue, preheat your oven to 120°C (250°F, Gas Mark ¼, very slow)
• Mix the lemon juice and cornflour together, and mix into the egg whites until fully mixed in.
• Using a balloon whisk (for masochists) or an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites on high speed until they reach the soft peak stage. Soft peaks stage is where the egg whites have turned completely into a dense foam, leaving no liquid behind, and on pulling out the whisk, a little peak is left behind that flops over.
• At this stage, running the mixer on medium speed, add in the caster sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until fully mixed in.
• Halfway through adding the sugar, add in the cornflour and acid (whether it be cream of tartar, lemon juice or vinegar). Continue adding the sugar as you were.
• Continue whisking the mixture until stiff peaks stage is reached. Having added the sugar, the dense bubbly foam that you had should have become a shiny, thick, glossy mass, and on pulling the whisk out of the mixture, a peak should be left behind that stands up completely straight. This might take a while to achieve, so don't feel like it's taking too long.
• You now have meringue mixture to do with whatever you will (see baking instructions below)

METHOD 2
Method B is known as Swiss meringue. This is partially cooked over a bain-marie, which makes it suitable for recipes where the meringue isn't cooked for very long such as lemon meringue pie or baked Alaska. This method is a little trickier, but makes a more sturdy meringue. 

• Like with the first method, separate the eggs, leave them, and preheat the oven. You can slow cook this like in method A, or you can set your oven to up to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate) to toast it quickly for a pie topping or Baked Alaska.
• The next step is to set a medium saucepan to simmer gently with about 2 inches (5 centimeters) of water in it. If you're afraid of cooking the egg whites, you can actually bring the water to a rough simmer then turn the heat off altogether.
• Into the eggs, add all the sugar and mix until the sugar is incorporated. Place the bowl on top of the saucepan and mix the eggs and sugar gently with a wooden spoon until the sugar has dissolved. Don't allow the water in the saucepan to boil, or you'll end up with sweet scrambled egg-whites.
• Once the sugar has dissolved into the egg whites, remove the bowl from atop the saucepan and beat relentlessly with a balloon whisk (for masochists) or electric hand mixer until the stiff peaks stage is reached. This can take from ten minutes to fifteen, depending on the strength your hand mixer; using your hand will take substantially longer, something more like the rest of your life.
• Once soft peaks are achieved, add in your cornflour and acid. Continue beating until firm peaks are formed, which is a tiny little bit floppier than firm peaks. Because the mixture is slightly warm, full stiff peaks cannot be achieved using this method; believe me, I've tried.
• You now have meringue mixture to do with whatever you will (see baking instructions below)

PREPARATION FOR BAKING

• Line your baking tray(s) with non-stick paper, like waxed or silicone paper, and prepare your meringue mixture however you want, just make sure the meringue is no deeper than 1 or 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters), otherwise it won't cook properly.
• You could also put the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1/2 inch (1 centimeter) nozzle.
• Cook for at least 30 minutes, until dry. The larger ones will obviously take longer, and I have notes on that below.

BAKING TIMES
Baking times depend on how dry you want your meringues to be. If you want them a little soft in the middle, bake them for the shorter time, but if you like them almost completely dried out, bake them for the longer time. Obviously, the higher you make your piles of meringue will increase the baking time: a thin meringue cooks faster than a fat one, no matter how wide it is. The best way to tell if the meringue is cooked is:

• Fully dry and matte on the outside.
• Hollow sounding when tapped on the bottom.
• Not in any way sticking to the paper, almost as if it's just resting on the paper.

However, for the pedantic, here are some rough guidelines:

• Little meringues, about 2 inches across, take about 45 minutes to an hour.
• Medium sized meringues, about 4 or 6 inches across, take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half.
• Large, pavlova sized meringues 6 or more inches across, can take an hour and a half, but try not to leave it in any longer as it'll begin to colour too much.

COOLING
Take the meringue(s) off the tray and cool on a wire rack to cool completely. Because the meringue(s) is quite porous, it won't take long to cool, maybe 20 minutes.

WHAT THEN?
What you do with your meringues now is completely up to you! Smother them in cream and coat them with berries, or drizzle them with melted chocolate, the possibilities are endless. They're even pretty nice on their own!

I hope this little thesis answers all the questions you have on baking meringues, however if there is any base I have left uncovered please do not hesitate to ask me any questions!

Going Abroad: Next Blog Post on June 20th

Well, my lovely readers! This week I'm going abroad the the United Kingdom for a week, so I've been spending all the time I would usually spend on baking packing my bags and preparing myself the the UK's biggest event in all metaldom: Download Festival 2013. Raise those devil horns!

When I return, I will have written and prepared a nice recipe for uploading on the 20th, which is a Thursday, as per usual. So, pencil that date into your diaries.

For my readers who live in the UK and Ireland: seriously, try the Cadbury's Marvellous Creations Jelly Popping Candy Shells chocolate bar... it's insanely delicious. I didn't like it at first, but then it grew on my to the point where I can't stop eating it; it's like crack.

Has any one of you ever had a similar food revelation? You never liked something then suddenly one day you thought it was delicious? Please, tell me the tale...

Vegan Banana Bread (Wheat-, Dairy-, and Egg Free)

Sometimes I get the sudden urge to bake things and then I discover that I'm missing some fairly critical ingredients: either late at night, early in the morning, or when I've run out of money for the week and have to rely only on the things in the house. The other day I wanted to get rid of some bananas that were slowly turning an upsetting shade of brown, and then I discovered that I had no eggs... and eggs are pretty vital when it comes to baking most things.

However, I put two and two together in my mind: I don't have eggs => who else doesn't have eggs? => vegans don't eat eggs => find a vegan recipe. So I did.

Luckily for me, I found this recipe online and adapted it for use with spelt flour and it worked a treat! Through my research I learnt that in a lot of vegan cookery eggs are replaced either with bananas or applesauce, which was ideal given that I needed to make egg-free banana bread.

I will note that, unlike cakes and biscuits where one can get away with replacing some of the flour with cornflour, one must use all spelt flour in tea bread, otherwise the texture is compromised. A tea bread needs to be firm enough to be cut into slices, and the addition of cornflour makes the crumb too fine, leading to breakage when you attempt to cut it. That's just my experience, anyway.

INGREDIMENTS
This will yield one 8x4 inch (21x10 centimeter) loaf.

• 8 ounces (230 grammes) white or wholemeal spelt flour
• 1 rounded tablespoon baking powder (yes, that's a lot. It's needed to compensate for the lack of air incorporated into the beaten eggs; it doesn't affect the flavour)
• 2 to 3 teaspoons cinnamon, or mixed spice for added interest
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) soft brown sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 3 large overripe bananas
• 3 fluid ounces (85 millilitres) sunflower oil
• Optional: 2 ounces (55 grammes) dried fruit or nuts

HOW-TO

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). Grease and flour a loaf pan.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, and spice into a large mixing bowl. If you are using dried fruit or nuts, mix them into the dry ingredients to coat; set aside.
• In another bowl or large jug, mash the bananas with the sugar, oil and salt until smooth and runny.
• Then, make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the banana mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon only until combined. You don't need to beat it, as the texture will be tough if you do.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes. Test the loaf with a cocktail stick, and if it's still sticky in the middle, bake for a further 5 minutes. Repeat this process if needed. Baking this bread is not an exact science: every banana will be slightly different in size, therefore every time you make this the cooking time will slightly change.
• Remove from the oven once baked and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Consume in swathes in lashings of butter, raspberry jam or peanut butter; that is not a serving suggestion, that is an order...

Mint Toffee Slice

Mint and toffee go very, very well together. There’s so many different kinds of sweeties that combine the creaminess of toffee and the warmly tingly tones of mint: Murray mints, Toffos, Humbugs, Mint Special Toffee... the list goes on! And very few people don’t like mint toffee; I haven’t come across one yet, anyway.

But when it comes to mint and cake, the relationship is very precarious: mint on its own doesn’t work in a cake. Mint works well as the only flavour in sweeties because it’s just sugar and mint, but our associations with mint and our associations with cake don’t marry well. Whenever I’ve eaten mint flavoured cake, I’ve just thought ‘toothpaste cake’, and that is not an image that I want people eating my cakes to imagine.

To make mint work in a cake, it needs to be a secondary, or accent, flavour: it needs to the second half of a classic something-and-mint combination, so when the person is eating the cake they imagine that nice combination of something-and-mint, and remember how nice it is. For example, mint and chocolate, mint and toffee, mint and coffee, mint and strawberry are all combinations found in the dessert world that contain mint. This works very nicely as the mint is just in the icing, not in the cake. This means it’s a caramel cake, which people are used to, and mint toffee icing, which people are also used to.

This rule applies to any kind of unusual cake flavouring. I’ve made cakes with really unusual flavourings, but because the icing and the cake can be considered separately, it works. For example, who’d have thought chocolate and cinnamon cake with mint chocolate glaze would be so popular? I made it, and it was.

Enough of my rambling theories! You’re here for a recipe.

INGREDIMENTS

For the cake

• 4 ounces  (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 ounce  (55 grammes) cornflour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) golden syrup
• 2½ (70 grammes) brown sugar
• 3 medium eggs, at room temperature
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) butter, or margarine, melted
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• If you have it: a few drops of butter-vanilla flavouring

For the icing

• 7 ounces (230 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) golden syrup
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) milk
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter, or margarine
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) peppermint essence
• Optional: different kinds of green sprinkles

HOW-TO

First, bake the cake:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (375°F, Gas Mark 5). Grease and flour a 9x7 inch (23x18 centimetre) tin, or line with non-stick baking paper.
• Follow the instructions for making sponge cake here, but when it comes to the sugar and egg mixture, beat the sugar, syrup and eggs with the bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Without the assistance of heat, any clumps in the brown sugar would take too long to break down, and also the syrup would just stay stuck to the bowl.
• Pour into the prepared tin and bake as instructed. Allow to cool to a touchable temperature in the tin then transfer to cool on a wire rack. The golden syrup makes it too fragile to handle while it’s warm. If you cooked it with non-stick paper, leave the paper stuck to the cake: this will be very useful when it comes to icing it later.

Next, the icing:

• Take the same tin as you baked the cake in. If you didn’t use non-stick paper, wash it and line it with non-stick paper. If you did, just put the cooled cake back in with the paper attached.
• Run the cold tap into your sink to fill the basin about 4 inches (10 centimetres) full of water. This is used to cool the pan later.
• Put all the ingredients, except for the peppermint essence, into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir over a gentle heat until all the ingredients have melted together.
• Bring to the boil, and then cook until soft-ball stage is reached. Remove from the heat and dip the bottom of the pan in the cold water in the sink. Allow the pan to sit and cool for about 5 or 10 minutes.
• Add the peppermint essence and then beat until opaque but still a pouring consistency. Pour over the cake and smooth out with a palette knife.

My homemade sprinkles got their first appearance with this delight! I thought they were very cute.