Coffee Ice-Cream (Egg- and Wheat Free)

Training and gallavanting, and back in business!!

I have returned to life from my little escape (as explained in my last post), I thought I'd return to making some ice-cream. It seems only right because the weather has been in excess of 18 degrees everyday for about a week and looks like it's not changing for a while! At the same time as I made this coffee ice-cream, I also made some really nice stracciatella ice-cream, which will be following this post.

This is a really, really simple dessert that only needs about 10 minutes of active preparation and an overnight sleep in the freezer. Minimal effort ice-cream, the best thing evar.

However, there is one very important thing to remember with this ice-cream: you must use coffee powder, not granules. The coffee powder is added directly to the mix and is not dissolved in water first, therefore the granules would just remain in big clumps and not mix into the ice-cream fully. That would be less than pleasant.

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

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres, 1 US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content
• 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) condensed milk
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) instant coffee powder
• Pinch of salt
• Optional: 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground cinnamon

HOW-TO

• In a large mixing bowl, pour the condensed milk and stir in the coffee powder and salt. Pour in the cream, while stirring, then stir until it is all combined.
• Using an electric hand mixer, whisk until it is light and a soft-peak consistency. You want to to look and feel like mousse, basically.
• Pour into a 2 pint (560 millilitre, 2½ US cup) pudding mould with a lid (or you can use a loaf tin and cover with cling film) and smooth out the surface. Cover and freeze for 6 hours, preferably overnight.
• Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

STILL ALIVE AND IN DUBLIN!

So yeah, Galway to Dublin!

When I returned home from Galway last week I decided that Galway is where I want to go and live my life because it is awesome! However, on making this realisation, returning home made me horrendously depressed, the kind "what is the point of being alive because I have no control of my life" kinda depressed.

So, as soon as I touched back in Limerick I started making plans to escape again, and luckily a friend in Carrick-on-Shannon provided me with that excuse by inviting me to a house warming dinner.

I planned a mini holiday around Dublin and the Midlands to visit all my friends who live in those parts, which was a lovely escape, but yesterday I hit a real crisis point where I just cried and cried and felt awful. So, I turned to my usual get-out-sad-free card: the Samaritans.

A lovely woman called Trish, having heard my whole story, suggested that I talk to myself as if I were talking to a young person in my line of work who was having the same issues. As such, I managed to clarify to myself that my home situation was abusive, and as a young professional with an income and savings I should just make a break for it and escape.

I've been looking for youth work jobs in Galway since and one has sprung up in Foróige that I will be applying for to ensure that I have a good reason to leave before I do.

This is just an update to let everyone know what's happening, and that I haven't fallen off the radar complety!

Thank you for your support,
Sweetie-Pie xx

Variations on a Theme: Lemon Curd Sponge (Wheat Free)

It's that time of year again: my mother's birthday.

Every year my mother wants something lemony or orangey for her birthday cake, and so every year I oblige. Last year I made a cake dinosaur for the fun of it, this year I was a little more modest due to time and financial constraints.

I unfortunately have no photographs of this cake, but this is a fairly standard home cooking cake. Not to undermine it in any way, because it is delicious.


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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Dairy (use ingredients in italics for a dairy-free version)
☒ Eggs
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:

For two 8 or 9  inch (20 or 23 centimeter) round sandwich cakes

• 7 ounces (200 grammes) spelt flour
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) cornflour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 5 medium eggs, at room temperature
• 2½ ounces (70 grammes) soft brown sugar
• 5 ounces (140 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2½ ounces (70 grammes) sunflower oil
• 2½ ounces (70 grammes) butter or block margarine
• Juice and zest of 2 lemons

For filling, crumb coat and icing:

• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 1 tablespoon butter (15 grammes), at room temperature

For chocolate and walnut decoration:

• Icing sugar

HOW-TO:

First, prepare the cakes:

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate).
• Prepare the cake mixture as per the basic sponge recipe, and pour into two greased and floured 9 inch (23 centimeter) cake tins. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes until ready. Allow to cool completely in tins.
• Once cool, turn one cake upside down to use as the base. Spread the lemon curd on the bottom layer and put the other cake on top.

Then, prepare the lemon curd:

• Make the lemon juice up to 2 fluid ounces (55 millilitres) with some cold water. Place in the saucepan with the sugar and zest and heat gently until the sugar has melted.
• In a small cup, mix the cornflour with a tablespoon of water to make a slurry. Take the lemon and sugar mixture off the head and stir in the butter until melted.
• Add the cornflour slurry and mix thoroughly. Return to the heat and cook gently until a thick curd is achieved.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

Assemble the masterpiece:

• Sprinkle icing sugar over the top for decoration.

This was fairly delicious. Hopefully when I make it again I shall take photographic evidence...

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: A Cautionary Tale on the Dangers of Novelty Cakes: The Dinnersaurus

American Style Pancakes... also known as drop scones, ssh. (Wheat Free)

Continuing the whole white spelt flour drought saga:

Today I rang Odlums, Doves Farm and Hildegard Health to ask where the Hell has all the white spelt flour gone and why hasn't it been available for the last 6 weeks. Every one of the lovely assistants on the phone replied with:

"I'm very sorry, but we've been having difficulty with the suppliers and we won't be getting any white spelt flour before the end of May."

Which got me thinking, what if your business relies on baking with white spelt flour? You've just lost over a month of business right there. I'm sure they all found other outlets... I hope at least.

So, anything that involves white flour is off the list for now so I've been eating a lot of wholemeal recently. Luckily, the wholemeal spelt flour that I buy is quite light and mild and you can get away with it to an extent in things like cake with a strong flavour (chocolate, coffee, toffee etc.) or bread products. Back to the business of the day!

I woke up this morning and got a hankering for some fluffy American style pancakes. This doesn't happen very often, but when it does I refer to a good old fashioned British classic, the drop scone. Because, I have discovered by comparing recipes, American style pancakes and drop scones are almost exactly the same recipe. The only difference is that pancakes have a little more raising agent.

The trick to making nice fluffy pancakes is the heat of the pan. You want it about a medium heat: too hot and the pancakes will get too crusty on the outside but won't cook through the middle, leading to crunchy soggy pancakes. Too cold and the pancakes will take too long on the pan and dry out. The first pancake or two may have to be sacrificed to getting the pan the right temperature.

These should be enjoyed with a little pat of butter (real butter, seriously) and a drizzling of maple syrup, golden syrup, honey or agave nectar; basically anything sweet and runny.

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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Dairy (use ingredients in italics for a dairy-free version)
☒ Eggs
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Cocoa products

INGREDIMENTS

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cornflour
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) baking powder
• 1 medium egg 
• 4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) milk

HOW-TO

• Heat a heavy frying pan or griddle on a medium flame and brush with a little sunflower or vegetable oil.
• In a mixing bowl, or large jug with a spout, sieve the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the middle.
• Add the egg and using a fork mix the egg, gradually bringing in flour from the sides of the well.
• Gradually pour in the milk and mix thoroughly until all the flour has just disappeared. Don't be too vigorous, but be thorough.
• Once the pan has heated, pour little puddles of pancake mixture onto the pan. Don't go mad because it does spread a bit even when you've finished pouring.
• Cook until the edges have set and when bubbles burst on the surface they stay burst, as in they don't fill up with wet batter. This should take about 2 minutes if the pan is right.
• Flip and cook for another 2 minutes on the other side. Both sides should be a lovely golden brown colour.
• Pile the pancakes on a plate as you go, keeping them covered with a clean tea towel, this way the steam will keep them nice and supple. Serve as suggested or however you like.

These are a nice carb fest first thing in the morning, but enjoy sparingly. These keep nicely in an airtight container for a few days.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Jaffa Cake Pops

Minty Mint Brownies of Mintiness, with Marbled Glaze (Wheat Free)

Woo, 80 posts! Only 20 away from the big milestone...

First of all, I would like to announce that I have now in my possession a fancy new Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini which has a lovely crisp camera. Seeing as said phone can connect to the internet, it makes attaching photos to my blog posts so much easier than the way I had been doing it up until this point, which was using my point-and-click camera and uploading the photos from the SD card, which could be fiddly at times.

But back to the recipe.

I love mint. I absolutely love mint. I love mint so much I wish everything in the world could taste of mint. Mint, mint, mint!

And in saying that, I think mint chocolate is one of the World's best things (apart from orange chocolate), which means a mint chocolate brownie is probably infinitely better than than a regular brownie. So, I thought it would be appropriate to mark my return to baking after six weeks of a hiatus with something awesome: I baked a whole tray of mint brownies for a birthday party I had been invited to and they went down very well!

When I was decorating the surface with dark chocolate glaze and white chocolate glaze (half white, half green) I noticed that it had a very camouflage look about it, and thought that it would be cool for an airsofting party or anything army themed.

Also, I have come to appreciate the convenience of recyclable foil tins. This was a large tin so I increased the recipe by half to fit.

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

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Dairy (use ingredients in italics for a dairy-free version)
☒ Eggs
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Cocoa products

INGREDIMENTS

For the brownies:

• 5 ounces  (115 grammes) spelt flour
• 2 ounces  (55 grammes) cornflour
• Pinch of salt
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) brown sugar
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs, at room temperature
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter, melted
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) sunflower oil
• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) chocolate (at least 55% cocoa), melted and slightly cooled
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) peppermint essence
• NO RAISING AGENT, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND GRACIOUS

For the glaze:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white chocolate
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) milk or dark chocolate
• 1½ fluid ounces (45 millilitres) sunflower oil
• Peppermint essence
• Green food colouring

HOW-TO

For the brownies:

• Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F, Gas Mark 3). Grease and thoroughly flour a 9x7 inch (23x18 centimetre) tin, or line with non-stick baking paper.
• Sieve together the cornflour, spelt flour and salt into a bowl and set aside for later.
• Put the eggs and sugar in a heatproof mixing bowl (preferably glass) and set over a pan of simmering water and stir until sugar has melted. 
• Remove from the heat and beat the mixture with an electric hand mixer or balloon whisk until pale, thick and doubled in size. You could do with without the water bath, but it’s take too long to beat out the lumps in the brown sugar; the heat speeds this process up a little.
• Like with my sponge cake recipe, melt the butter and oil together and pour into the eggs and sugar mixture gradually, beating all the time.
• Add the vanilla essence and then, in a thin stream, beat in the cooled, melted chocolate.
• Using a rubber spatula or metal spoon, fold in the the flour mixture, bit by bit.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, and firmly tap it a few times off the kitchen top to release any trapped bubbles.
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until spongy to touch and a cocktail stick stuck in the middle comes out with two or three sticky crumbs are clinging to it.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin.

For the glaze:

• Melt the white chocolate with 1 fluid ounce of the oil and a few drops of peppermint essence either in a bowl over hot water or in short bursts in the microwave.
• Melt the milk or dark chocolate with the remaining oil and another few drops of peppermint essence in the same way.
• Drizzle half the white chocolate over the top of the brownies, then colour the remaining white chocolate a pale minty green. Use the remaining chocolate glazes to decorate the brownies.
• Allow to set completely before cutting into squares.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: How to Use and Abuse Royal Icing

Spanner in the Works: White Spelt Flour No Longer Exists

First of all, thank you for coming back to my blog after Lent and Easter! The last 6 weeks have been insanely busy, but I'm glad to be back to work after the Easter holiday and I'm equally glad to be back blogging.

However, over the past weeks, I've been keeping half an eye on the local supermarkets and health food shops for the return of white spelt flour, and no joy. I also looked up on the websites of all the different suppliers of white spelt flour and they don't seem to produce it anymore. I chatted to the manager of the local health food shop and she told me that they can't get a hold of the product.

It may just be that it isn't produced at all anymore, which means wholemeal everything or finding a new wheat-flour substitute.

I bought a bag of wholemeal and am going to make some brownies with it to see what they are like. If the wholemeal is light enough that I can get away with just sieving out the bran and using it as white flour, that'll be fantastic. If I can't get away with using sieved wholemeal as white, I may need to go back to the drawing board and do some research.

But anyway, I'll have another recipe update for Thursday!

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Dinosaur Kimberleys

Happy 1st Birthday, Sweetie Pie Bakes Stuff!

Bang in the midst of a very busy time where I'm not baking as much, and in the midst of a spelt flour drought, I hereby celebrate my first anniversary!

I started doing "Sweetie Pie Bakes Stuff" on Monday March 18th 2013, and it has since then garnered nearly 3000 views and many a like and share; my Facebook page has just over 60 likes, and my little how-to video on chocolate ice-cream has a handful of views. Woohoo!

From hereon in I'll be including at the end of each blog what I was doing this time last year, just to show how much things have changed and improved around here. Hopefully this blog will continue to grow and progress, and that once I get the YouTube channel in full flow it'll get even bigger and better.

Here's a list in order of the year's most popular posts, from most popular to not as popular:

1. Oatie Biscuits
2. No Churn, No Cook Strawberry Cheesecake Ice-Cream
3. Orange Chocolate Fudge (Naturally Gluten-Free)
4. Peanut Butter Fudge (Naturally Gluten-Free)
5. Gluten, Egg and Dairy-free Adventures (plus 2 Biscuit Recipes)
6. Orange Bourbon Creams
7. Wheat-free Chocolardiac Arrest Cake
8. Jammie Dodgers (Linzer Biscuits)
9. Homemade Ice-Cream Cones
10. Coconut Custard Creams

I'm looking forward to another year of culinary creations and sharing my knowledge with fellow wheat-free bakers across the world!

Thank you so much for your continuing support,

Sweetie-Pie

xxx

Crazy at Work! (BREAK UNTIL AFTER EASTER)

Sorry for the lack of updates for the last fortnight, I've been stupidly busy with work and gigging and catching up with mates. I had no idea that making a Lenten promise to not say no and take on new experiences would make my life so incredibly busy!

I am deciding therefore to take a little break from blogging until my life is a little more settled and regular. Hopefully, also, the white spelt flour will have returned to the shelves by then!

Happy baking and happy easter!
Sweetie Pie
xxx

The Return of Spelt Flour and Cupcakes

So I found some white spelt flour in my local health food shop, albeit for a higher price than what I'm used to. But that extra 80c was worth it because I was beginning to lose my born mind.

Recently, I've rediscovered my like of fairy cakes (cupcakes to my American/Canadian readers) since I was reminiscing over my daily lunchtime strawberry fairy cake that I used to have when I was in college. I made some lovely vanilla cakes with green vanilla icing for my Irish speaking café event yesterday, and took some photos for y'alls to see!

In my opinion it's best to make oddly coloured icing a neutral flavour, like vanilla, so the brain doesn't get seriously confused. Obviously, if your green icing is mint flavoured on top of a chocolate cake, that makes sense and it a nice compliment; but when the icing is the main feature it's best to keep it simple.

I'm getting super excited about St Patrick's Day! When I was a little girl, my mother used to bake all kinds of green things to eat on St Patrick's Day, from bread to cakes to putting food colouring in lemonade, and we used to make it was a special day for my brother, who is called Patrick.

I'm so happy to be back baking!

Spelt Flour Drought of 2014 Continues

Still no spelt flour in the shops, and I will not buy that gluten free stuff because I don't like it. As such I've been making records quantities of flapjacks, but I've already uploaded that recipe before.

I am as such announcing a break until I can get a hold of some spelt flour. Apologies for the inconvenience.

The Grand Spelt Flour Drought of 2014

And thus it was, the great spelt flour shortage of 2014 was started. For a straight week I've not been able to find spelt flour, and every time I ask about it in the supermarkets they say they have none in stock on the shelves or the store rooms.

Once I get access to spelt flour once more, I'l be back to my baking self. It's making me antsy...