Posts Tagged: gluten free

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19
Jun 13

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

 PBC1

Some of you may know that I run a cake company, Go Free Foods. We make award-winning allergy friendly cakes to order. We very occasionally make some special cakes on demand for customers who are after something specific. I recently made these for a customer’s 40th birthday and they went down a storm, so I thought I’d share the recipe with you.

With cupcakes, it’s really important to make sure the mixture is mixed really well at the wet stage – i.e. before the flour is added. This will make for a light and fluffy cupcake. Use electric beaters or a stand mixer if you can. The same goes with making the buttercream.

Use a great quality muffin pan – I used this super one by Kaiser, which is so great you don’t even need to use paper cases if you don’t want to.

PBC2

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Makes 12

Ingredients

For the cakes

35g butter or dairy-free spread

145g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large free-range egg, beaten

3 tbsp peanut butter (I used smooth)

100g gluten free plain flour or 125g wheat flour

120ml milk, or soya milk

For the cupcakes

250g icing sugar, sifted

70g butter, or dairy-free spread

4 tbsp peanut butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

50ml milk, or soya milk

Method

1)   Preheat the oven to 170C. Place your cupcake cases into your muffin tin.

2)   Place the butter and sugar together into a large mixing bowl. Beat together until light and fluffy.

3)   Add the vanilla extract and egg and beat into the mixture. Next, add the peanut butter and beat until smooth

4)   Sift the flour into the mixture and fold in gently.

5)   Now, add the milk and mix until smooth.

6)   Spoon the mixture into the cake cakes, so that they around half to two thirds full.

7)   Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cupcakes are well-risen and lightly golden.

8)   Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool fully.

9)   Whilst the cakes are cooling, make up the frosting. The cleanest way to make this is to do it in a food processor – I use a Magimix. Place all the ingredients together into the machine and blitz until smooth.

10)  Frost the cakes when they are cooled fully. Either spread on the frosting or pipe it on using a nozzle. The cakes will keep for 3-5 days in an airtight container.

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19
Jun 13

Caxton Grill, London

 CG1

Caxton Grill is a newly opened super-smart restaurant in the St. Ermine’s Hotel in Westminster. Tucked away near St. James’ Park station in London, its entrance is very discreet – so much so it’s almost easy to miss.

The restaurant has been newly refurbished and offers a really cosy, calm and comfortable place to stop for dinner. The menu is short and typically offers traditional grill fare; steaks, roast chicken, venison and fish. Expect to pay £45 for a two course meal with wine.

To start, we shared the crab and the scallops, which were really good, very fresh and presented most attractively.

For our mains, we tried the grilled 35 day aged sirloin steak and the venison loin with some delicious sides including broccoli hollandaise gratin. Both mains were extremely well cooked and we were impressed by the really excellent quality of the meat.

The service at Caxton Grill was really relaxed yet extremely attentive allowing my friend and I a chance to enjoy a much overdue catch up.

Caxton Grill is a great choice for a good value meal, offering well-executed food in really comfortable surroundings in central London.

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17
Jun 13

Jessica’s Recipe Bag

Jessica from Jessica's Recipe Bag

Jessica from Jessica’s Recipe Bag

Have you ever wondered what it is like to have your meals delivered to your door? Well, last week, this was something I gave a go, when I tried the home delivery meal service by Jessica’s Recipe Bag.

The service includes the ingredients to make four meals for either two or four people, planned by a nutritionist, and are delivered fresh to your door by a courier alongside the accompanying recipes, meaning you avoid the planning and shopping part of your meal planning.  You’re not given any choice over the meals and ingredients you receive, but it does make unpacking an exciting experience as you discover what’s on the menu for the next few days. The ingredients in the bag were really fresh and looked great. The recipes included in the bag were interesting and a little bit different, so I was very keen to get cooking.

We tried all the meals and really enjoyed them. The portion sizes are carefully considered and the meals are well balanced. We found it easy to chop and change ingredients accordingly for our dietary requirements.

Jessica’s recipe bag comes in at £69 for 4 meals for 4 people, but is ideal if you love to cook tasty, healthy meals from scratch every night, but lack in either time or inspiration to do so.

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12
Jun 13

Griddled asparagus with goat’s cheese

Asparagus

This is a great super-simple supper I’ve been enjoying recently, making the most of the English asparagus season. It’s light, fresh and full of flavour and can be made in 15 minutes – great when you are hungry when you get home in the evening. It makes a lovely starter or a main, too.

The asparagus is best griddled, if you can, either using a griddle pan or on the barbeque. The best goats cheese to use are the Somerset variety: not too hard, nor to soft. By cooking them this way in a non-stick pan, it allows the cheese to caramelise on the top, and remain meltingly soft in the centre. You do need to use a great non-stick to cook the cheese this way. Do not be tempted to use oil: it just won’t work. I used a lovely environmentally friendly non-stick pan by Green Pan which worked so well.

Make the most of the asparagus season by giving this a go!

Griddled asparagus with goat’s cheese

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 large bunch fresh asparagus, with the tip of the stalks cut off

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 Somerset goats cheese

Method 

1)   Place a grill pan over a high heat to warm up.

2)   Place the asparagus into a bowl. Add the olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss, so that the asparagus spears should be lightly coated with oil.

3)   Transfer the asparagus to the hot pan and cook until tender. This should take around 10 minutes.

4)   Season the goat’s cheese well with pepper. Place face down in a non-stick pan and cook four around 5 minutes without moving, until it is caramelised.

5)   Serve the asparagus topped with the cheese immediately.

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2
Jun 13

The Chequers, Churchill

The Chequers

The Chequers

Churchill is a very pretty village in the heart of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, and is home to many well-known residents. It is a picture perfect village with a gorgeous church and lovely Cotswold stone cottages. The Chequers is the village pub and is a favourite with locals and visitors alike. Sat in the heart of the village, it’s a very popular place to visit and renowned for its Sunday lunch, so we popped along to see what we thought.

The Chequers has recently had a refit and is very smartly decorated in a rustic yet modern style, in keeping with the area. The Chequers is a pub, but the food is so much more than pub food. The building is divided into two sections; a bar with seating and a restaurant area with tables, with plenty of seating outside for the summer months.

The menu offers a fair bit of choice and has some lovely seasonal options, such as the delicious grilled asparagus I enjoyed to start. We also liked the confit duck salad as a starter, which was perfectly balanced and dressed.

For the main course, I had to try their renowned roast beef, which was very good, and I say that as someone who is often disappointed by roast dinners in restaurants. The beef was incredibly tender and served with delicious garlic courgettes, as well as a honey roast carrot, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and cauliflower cheese – a feast indeed. Another very popular choice on a Sunday is the half roast chicken with homemade mayonnaise, chips and salad, which was very nicely cooked and presented very attractively.

There is a wide choice of desserts, and we really enjoyed the lemon jelly and syllabub which was deliciously cool and sharp, which made a refreshing end to the meal, which we finished with a Monmouth coffee each.

The Chequers is a great destination for a relaxed meal in comfortable, yet informal surroundings. Make sure you book in advance!

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27
May 13

Las Iguanas, Oxford

Las Iguanas

Las Iguanas

Mexican food is enjoying plenty of attention of late. There is so much more to Mexican food than many people realize – it’s full of fresh flavours and interesting ingredients.

Las Iguanas is chain of Latino-themed restaurants that seems to be moving with the times and has introduced a new menu offering freshly made authentic Latin American dishes originating from Mexico and Brazil. It’s a lively restaurant to eat at, with loud music and cocktails flowing, and this was certainly the case on a recent visit to the Oxford branch on a Saturday night to see things for ourselves.

The menu offers loads of choice, from sharing dishes, to more predictable mains, such as fajitas, and a range of interesting Brazilian main dishes, including feijoada. We started with a very good mojito each and a selection of tasty nibbles, including some grilled king prawns and the Las Iguanas deconstructed guacamole which was very good indeed.

It’s great to see so much of the menu is gluten free, and dishes are marked accordingly making ordering easy. For our main course, we tried the fajitas which were cooked in a delicious spicy, smoky blend of spices, and the galinhada, a Brazilian paella type dish with rice, prawns and chicken which was very tasty and interesting to try something a little different.

For desert, we really enjoyed the Mexican mess – a twist on Eton mess made using a sweet hibiscus syrup drizzled over cream, meringue and berries.

Las Iguanas really surprised us by just how good the food was. It is fairly priced and there is plenty of choice on offer, too. We found it to be a great place for an informal, relaxed meal with plenty of allergy-friendly choices on offer.

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25
May 13

Roasted cinnamon plums

Roasted cinnamon plums

Roasted cinnamon plums

Somehow roasting fruit or vegetables seems to make them even more delicious. I love to roast tomatoes and peppers and keep them cold in the fridge to add to salads. It really brings out their sweetness and loses their acidity.

The same goes for plums. Especially those you so often get in punnets that never seem to ripen properly. This is a great way to use them up. They taste amazing and make a great dessert served with ice cream, or even a tasty breakfast, with some plain yoghurt.

Make sure you use a good non-stick baking tray though, such as this excellent one made by Judge, as the juices become very sticky, you don’t want to be chiseling them off once they’re cooked as roasted plums become very soft indeed.

Roasted plums

Roasted plums

Roasted cinnamon plums

Serves 4

Ingredients 

1 punnet plums

5 tbsp cinnamon sugar, or 4 tbsp caster sugar mixed with 1 tbsp cinnamon

Method 

Preheat the oven to 170C. Halve the plums and remove the stones. Lay out cut side up on the baking tray and sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon sugar. Bake for around 20 minutes until soft. Serve hot or cold. They keep well in the fridge in a Tupperware container.

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13
May 13

Homemade lemon curd with Vivien Lloyd

The ingredients to make lemon curd

The ingredients to make lemon curd

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I have recently been discovering the art of preserving. I’ve made jam, chutney and marmalade, and recently my attentions turned to curds.

Vivien Lloyd is one of the UK’s leading preserves experts and her latest ebook entitled Fruit Curds: Make and Bake has been guiding me through every step of the way.

Curds are an often forgotten preserve, but are absolutely delicious, much more so homemade than shop bought, and have all manner of uses in cakes, desserts and ice creams. The first time I tried homemade curd, I was absolutely blown away by the flavour – it is in a completely different league to anything else I have tried.

Making curd is not difficult and the process is shown in much detail at every stage with photos and videos which are really useful as you know exactly how the curd should look and feel throughout the process.

Vivien’s book shows you how to use your homemade curds in baking producing a range of incredibly delicious cakes and desserts.  If you’re interested in starting to make your own curd, I highly recommend this ebook, as it contains all the information you’re ever likely to need, and some really special recipes to make, too.

Vivien has very kindly allowed me to share her extra special Lemon Curd recipe with you here. Do give it a go and let us know how you get on. Vivien Lloyd can be found on Twitter as @vivienlloyd.

Making lemon curd

Making lemon curd


Lemon Curd


Lemon curd is the best known and my favourite curd with its rich flavour and bright colour. This is a traditional, tried and tested recipe and one to consider for competitions. I first made this recipe during my early days of preserving and it has become the one I return to most often. This recipe was first published by HMSO in 1929, Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables.

Makes about 1.25kg/ 2¾lbs

300ml (½ pint) freshly squeezed lemon juice ( 5-9 lemons)
215g ( 7½oz) unsalted butter 
700g (1lb 9oz) granulated sugar
300ml (½ pint) fresh eggs (5-6 eggs)

1.Wash the lemons and peel them very thinly with a vegetable peeler or a sharp knife before squeezing out and measuring their juice. Place the butter and sugar in an ovenproof  bowl over a large saucepan of barely simmering hot water. Add the lemon juice and lemon rind, and leave until the fat has melted.

2. Lift the bowl off the pan and leave to cool slightly. Lightly beat the eggs in a large bowl but do not whisk them. Gradually stir in the fat mixture, then strain the curd through a sieve (leaving the peel behind) into a clean bowl and place it over a saucepan of barely simmering hot water.

3.Stir continuously until the mixture is slightly thickened- the curd is ready when it just coats the back of the spoon. This will take about 15-20 mins. Do not over-cook or it will curdle. Turn off the heat and leave to stand for 5 mins, during which time the curd will thicken slightly.

4. Sieve the curd for a smoother texture. Pour into clean jars, taking care to fill them absolutely full. Press a waxed disc waxed side down on the surface of the curd and leave to cool. Cover the pots with a cellophane cover when cold. Store in a refrigerator and eat within 4-6 weeks.

FIRST PRESERVES CURDS ebook cover2 sm 02

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3
May 13

Lemon polenta muffins

Lemon polenta muffins

Lemon polenta muffins

If you love cake, like me, but sometimes keep half an eye on how much you’re enjoying, these delicious mini muffins might just be for you. They’re wheat free and really quite nutritious for cakes.

Polenta cakes tend to be a little more crumbly by nature, so for the best results, use a really good quality non-stick tin, such as this one made by Judge, and make sure it’s greased well if you are not using paper cases.

Lemon polenta muffins

Makes 12 mini muffins

Ingredients

75g butter

75g caster sugar

75g fine polenta

75g ground almonds

1 large free-range egg, beaten

Finely grated zest of one unwaxed lemon and 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1)   Preheat the oven to 180C

2)   Line your mini muffin tin, or grease well. Set aside

3)   Place the butter and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl and beat together well until light and fluffy

4)   Add the remaining ingredients and beat together well.

5)   Spoon into the muffin tin and bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown

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22
Apr 13

Espresso chocolate moelleux

 

Espresso chocolate moelleux

Espresso chocolate moelleux

Having recently learnt how to make the perfect cup of coffee, I’ve been busy practicing at home and decided to try baking with a delicious shot of espresso.

I just prepared a standard shot of coffee in exactly the same way as I would to make a cup of coffee using my machine at home and left it to cool. You don’t want to use hot liquids when you are baking, as it will affect the properties of the other ingredients in the mix. This is particularly the case when baking with eggs, as if they come into contact with any hot liquids, they will curdle.

I was mulling over what to make and decided on a moelleux, which is a deliciously dense and moist chocolate cake that’s very popular in France. It’s quite like a lighter version of a brownie and is very easy to make.

I’ve also been using a Gaggia Carezza coffee machine from John Lewis which works extremely well and is a lot cheaper than the models I tried on my coffee making masterclass.

Espresso chocolate moelleux

Makes 12 large slices

Ingredient 

225g 70% cocoa dark chocolate

1 shot espresso, cooled

225g vanilla caster sugar

225g butter

3 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch sea salt

65g plain four (gluten free or wheat flour)

1 tsp baking powder

Method 

1)   Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 9” square baking tin with non-stick baking paper.

2)   Carefully melt the chocolate in a bain marie or in the microwave. Once melted, stir in the cooled coffee and allow to cool.

3)   Using the Kitchen Aid, whisk the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla and sea salt and pour in the melted chocolate. Whisk well until the chocolate is evenly combined with the butter and sugar

4)   Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in to the mix gently. It will be a light and fluffy cake mixture by now.

5)   Spoon into the prepared tin and level off using a spatula. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top has formed a crust. The middle will still be pretty wet.

6)   Allow the cake to cool in the tin for at least 45 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool. It can be sliced when cold or refrigerated overnight and then cut the next day.

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