Gluten free Chocolate Profiteroles

Tomorrow is pastry week on The Great British Bake off so I thought I would have a go at making a gluten free version of Choux Pastry and make chocolate profiteroles.

Recipe-

150g water

60g unsalted butter

75g GF plain flour ( I used Doves farm )

2 large eggs

gluten free dark chocolate or milk chocolate if you prefer.

optional tsp honey (to add to chocolate)

extra thick double cream.

greased baking tray

I started with 60g unsalted butter and 150ml water. I heated these until the butter melted and the water and butter mix started to boil.

I took the pan off the heat and added the 75g of gluten free plain flour ( I used Doves farm ). This needs to be stirred vigorously until it forms a soft ball. To make life easier pop mixture into a food mixer,

Leave to cool before gradually adding 2 beaten eggs. A great deal of elbow work is now needed to form a smooth paste, don’t give up! hard work but it will be worth it.

Spoon mixture onto a buttered baking tray. I also sprinkled a little water on to the tray too. which is supposed to help producing a small amount of steam.

I used a pastry brush to egg wash the top of the choux buns. I made 9 large choux buns.

The tray goes in a pre heated oven 220c for 10mins then I turned the heat down to 190c for the final 20mins until golden brown.

I cooled the choux buns on a wire rack ready to fill . The plain profiteroles can be stored in an airtight container once cooled to use later.

I used some gluten free chocolate with 1 tsp of honey and cream to make the chocolate sauce.

I melted the 85g bar of chocolate then added 2tbs of thick double cream and 1tsp of honey.

If you are using very dark chocolate I just melt the chocolate and drizzle over the profiteroles. Perfect if you are trying to have less sugar in your diet.

Once the choux buns were completely cooled I made a hole in each one and piped in extra thick double cream. If you don’t have a piping bag, slice profiteroles in half and fill with cream.

Then it was time to add the chocolate sauce.

I always thought being gluten free would mean I could never have treats like this again. I’m so glad I was wrong.

The choux pastry was more tricky than some other pastries but not impossible.

Top tip –

I have started using my food processor to mix my profiteroles, which works very well and saves your energy!

Happy Baking!

Easy Cheesy gluten free Scones

This is a tried and tested simple cheese scone recipe, tastes and looks a good as regular gluten Scones.

Recipe

60g butter

250g gluten free SF flour

2tsp baking powder

1 egg

150ml milk

125g cheese a strong Cheddar or mix with Red Leicester

Pre heat oven to a hot 220c.

Put flour, baking powder and baking fix in a bowl add cubed butter.

Rub together with finger tips,

add grated cheese , egg and milk. Mix together with a knife.

The dough will be sticky, handle as little as possible.

Put on floured surface and form into a ball.

Pat down lightly  or roll out. I find patting with palm works fine.

Use a cutter to cut out 6 large or 12 small cheese scones. brush just the tops with egg or milk.

Put in hot oven for 10 mins.

After 10 minutes they should be smelling delicious and golden brown. cool on wire rack then enjoy with some butter.

Happy Baking!

gluten free fruity cinnamon bread

Its Tuesday so it must be The Great British Bake off ! Now tonights theme is Sweet dough which is a tough one for me. As well as being intolerant to gluten I also can’t tolerate Yeast. This makes dough making tricky.

I decided to have a play around with the batter bread recipe on my blog and make a sweet version without using sugar. I just add a little honey.

Firstly I put 8 oz of Gluten free SR flour in a bowl with 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1 grated eating apple and 4 oz of sultanas that I had soaked in tea earlier. I also added a tsp of Gf baking fix from Isabel’s naturally free from. This gives an airy texture. ( made from cassava starch)

To this I added 3 whisked eggs and a 7 fl oz mix of melted coconut oil ( I used Lucy bee coconut oil ) and milk about half and half.

I mixed together the sweet batter with a whisk.

Poured half the batter into a greased baking tray and drizzled a mix of honey and cinnamon and mixed spice all over. Then I spread the rest of the batter on top and added more of the honey spice mix ( 2tsp honey 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a sprinkle of mixed spice) you can play around with this mix and add what you like.

This is baked in a pre heated oven 200 c for 15 mins

Once of the wire rack, drizzle on any extra honey and cinnamon that is left.

Delicious warm straight out of the oven or cooled with unsalted butter and a little extra honey or jam.

It has a lovely bouncy , light texture. The sultanas add a slight sweetness but this is not an overly sweet bread. You could add a little sugar to the batter mix but I think it is unnecessary.

I think I would add more sultanas next time and possibly a little more cinnamon.

Happy inventing!

gluten free Harvest Apple Pie

This weekend we celebrated Harvest festival. The perfect pudding in my opinion at this time of year is an apple pie. Since being gluten free I have not had apple pie and definitely never thought of making one. But after making a couple of tarts and pies recently and the pastry being a success I thought I would give it a go. Now I’m trying very hard to Leave Out Sugar from all my cooking. not so easy to avoid when dealing with bought goods from either the high street or independent gluten free companies. I am fortunate to have a Farm shop and Orchard just down the road from us in Norfolk @droveorchard . We are spoilt for choice at this time of year with a huge array of apple varieties both eaters and cookers. Available to pick yourself or buy straight from the farm shop. Because I didn’t want to use any sugar in this recipe I chose a selection of eating apples Katy Discovery Suffolk pink Worchester Such a huge selection it was difficult to choose. Recipe for Harvest apple pie Shortcrust pastry – 200g plain Gluten free flour ( I used Doves farm ) 100g unsalted butter ( I used Anchor ) optional – 1 tsp of Gf  baking fix from Isabel’s naturally free from  I use it in pastry, cookies and cakes. A little cold water to bind together Filling- selection of eating apples  475g peeled cored and sliced. 1tsp of cinnamon 2 heaped tsp of cornflour 20g  unsalted butter Firstly make pastry, put flour and cubed butter into a bowl and rub together to form breadcrumbs add a little water a couple of tbsp and bring together with a knife and then with your hand. pop onto a piece of cling film, cover and chill in the fridge. Pre heat oven to 220c Then put the peeled cored and sliced apples into a bowl add cornflour cinnamon and butter, gently mix together. Roll out 1/2 the chilled pastry between two pieces of cling film, I promise it really helps! Using the bottom piece of cling film manoeuvre the pastry into place in the pie dish. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Then add the apple filling it will look a lot. The apple will go down once cooked. Roll out second ball of pastry in the same way and pop on to the top of the pie. Some of the apples I chose had a beautiful pink flesh making the pie a pretty pink colour. Egg wash the pie,  just whisk up an egg and brush the top of the pie. Make a slit in the centre of the pie to let the steam out. Put in very hot oven 220c for first 15 mins , then turned oven down for final 35 mins to 175c The Harvest apple pie can be enjoyed on its own or with a big dollop of double or clotted cream. Enjoy! The pink coloured apple centre tasted delicious and didn’t need any extra sugar. Apples from- Drove Orchard Thornham, Norfolk

Review of rawLicious raw crackers

At first sight these crackers don’t look the most appealing , but I was pleasantly surprised at how nice they tasted. Jam packed with organic seeds, vegetables and herbs and no grains. They are perfect for a gluten free diet.

The crackers are also vegan and dairy free and have no added sugars. rawLicious crackers are available in 5 varieties from Natures health box

I enjoyed mine topped with egg, butter and cress. The crackers are not crunchy, they have a slightly chewy texture, very nice.

The cost of these crackers is £5.49 per box.

Disclaimer- This is an unpaid review, I was sent this product to try and have chosen to review them.

Natures health box 

Twitter – @NaturesHBox

Baking gluten free cookies

Today is The Great British Bake Off and as it’s biscuit week I thought I would make some gluten free cookies.

I decided to firstly make Ginger cookies from a recipe in The Gluten free baker by Hannah Miles. This book is fab, lots of recipes for cakes, cookies, bread and pastry. I can definitely recommend.

Hannah also has a Savoury version of this book called The Savoury gluten free baker.

You need

160g Gluten free self raising flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

180g ground almonds

180g caster sugar. I cut this down to 100g and found them sweet enough

2 teaspoons ground ginger

grated zest of 2 limes

125g butter

6 pieces of stem ginger in syrup finely chopped plus 3 tbsp of the ginger syrup

I started with the dry ingredients, then added the melted butter and syrup from the stem ginger.

I then stirred in the stem ginger finely chopped.

The oven needs to be preheated to 180c and you need 2 baking trays greased and lined.

The cookies tend to spread, so I left plenty of space around each one.

The cookies went in the oven for 12 mins then I left them on the trays to cool for a while.

Then moved to a wire rack.

I was very impressed with these cookies. Crunchy and chewy inside. Perfect!

So very easy to make.

Next I decided to take inspiration from The Gluten free Almond flour cookbook by Elana Amsterdam  to invent my own cookie.

A dark chocolate and cherry cookie

You need

100g gluten free self raising flour

110g almond flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g butter or coconut oil melted

100g agave nectar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

85g dark chocolate gluten free, Finely chopped

10g cocoa powder gluten free

handful of chopped glace cherries

I firstly mixed all the dry ingredients together

Then added the butter, agave and vanilla extract.

finely the chocolate finely chopped and the cherries.

pre heated oven at 180c .

I used a tablespoon to put the mixture on to the baking tray leaving plenty of space and flattening  slightly with the palm of  my hand. Then I popped them in the oven for 15 mins or until the cookies look dry on top and start to crack.

I left these on the baking sheets to cool before moving to the wire rack.

These cookies turned out  softer inside with a crunchy outside. I might try baking them for a little longer when I make them next time.

These biscuits are not overly sweet as I used dark chocolate.

Why not have a go at inventing your own cookie or biscuit. I’m very pleased with mine.

Happy Gluten free Baking!

Review of Nutty Cranberry Maple Muesli from Bakery on Main

Nutty cranberry maple Muesli is a delicious sweet breakfast choice from Bakery on main available from Natures health box an online company with a large gluten free selection.

I would describe this more as a crunchy granola or cereal. Made with corn and rice.  It has a lovely maple syrup flavour and nutty golden clusters of sesame, sunflower and flax seeds and little cranberries. It was delicious with greek yoghurt and blueberries and was very good on its on when I had the munchies.

Natures health box has a choice of 7 different Bakery on main breakfast cereals and granola. The cost of these is £4.09 per bag

I have noticed the new packs are called Granola as opposed to muesli.

Disclaimer – This is an unpaid review, I was sent this product to try and I have chosen to review it.

I can recommend this breakfast cereal and would definitely buy it.

Natures health box is on Twitter – @NaturesHBox

Facebook – Natures healthbox

gluten free Orgran puff pastry Chicken pie

Tonight is ‘Pie night’ on The Great British Bake Off . So rather than making something sweet again I decided to make a Chicken pie using a gluten free Pastry Mix from Orgran which is stocked by online company Natures Health Box

This pastry can be used to make short crust or puff pastry. As I haven’t tasted puff pastry for a long time I thought I would have a go at making it.

The instructions are quite complex and making the pastry is not a quick thing, but well worth it in the end.

I didn’t find it easy to bring the dough together so added a little more water.

I rolled the butter out between to pieces of grease proof paper.

Then added the butter to the pastry covering 2/3rds of the pastry.

after folding and rolling the pastry it goes in the fridge to chill for 10 mins. this is repeated 6 times.

While the pastry was chilling I made the chicken filling. I chose to cook a chicken first then use the meat for the pie. I added courgette and bacon and made a béchamel sauce to which I added freshly made chicken stock.

I rolled out the pastry and sat in on top of the pie.

Brushed pie with egg and popped in a hot over 180c for approximately 45mins.

I am very pleased with how the pie has turned out. Would definitely buy this Orgran Pastry mix from Natures health box again.

Happy baking!

Disclaimer- This is an unpaid review, I was sent this product to try and I have chosen to review it.

My review of WOW bakes gluten free cakes

I was thrilled to be asked by Karen to review her Wow bakes cakes recently.

I regularly buy @wowmuffins Savoury and sweet muffins from the @creakeabbey farmers market in Norfolk so was very keen to taste the gluten free cakes. Unfortunately these delicious cakes are not yet available at Creake Abbey farmers market. But are available from Back to the garden in Letheringsett North Norfolk.

I was able to try 4 of the 5 gorgeous cakes available from WOW bakes

Fruity apple cake – is also dairy free, a lovely moist cake due to the goodly amount of apple inside. Quite crumbly, the family liked it best with a dollop of double cream. Gluten loving friends gave it a thumbs up too, saying they would never have known it was gluten free. I gave this cake a 8/10 Could definitely be used as a pudding too.

Belgian Chocolate cake – what can I say!  We were all very impressed with this cake. Rich and delicious reminded us a little of a chocolate torte. I loved the chocolate coating all over the cake. Very decadent. Glad to see butter used in this recipe.  A big favourite with family and friends. I awarded this cake 10/10 and would definitely buy it for a special occasion.

Carrot cake – this cake is dairy free too. I am a fan of carrot cake and this one is very good and very light. A very moist cake too  and not overly sweet. A definite 9/10 .

Would definitely buy this one if I had guests coming for tea.

Sticky Ginger cake – Not normally a Ginger cake fan, I was surprised how much I liked this cake. I would buy it again as it was especially nice with a cup of tea and again not overly sweet. Also think it would work well with custard as it was on the slightly dry side. I would still give this cake an 8/10

WOW muffins & bakes are a Norfolk company and the cakes are available at local farmers markets, shows and local cafes in East Anglia.

Twitter – @wowmuffins

Cafe’s – @back_togarden

Check out there website here wow muffins.com

Product review – Against the Grain Chocolate chip and Hazelnut cookies

Disclaimer – This is an unpaid review, I was sent this product to try and I have chosen to review them.

I am often disappointed by free from biscuits, sometimes they are crumbly, almost dry & dusty in texture. But not these gluten free, wheat and dairy free ones,  Against the grain cookies come in 5 varieties. The chocolate chip and hazelnut winning a gold taste award in 2009. This year they were shortlisted in the free from food awards.

I can see why!  They had a lovely crunch and the chips are dark chocolate ones which means the cookies don’t taste too sweet and have a subtle hazelnut flavour. These cookies make great dunkers too. They are also egg free.

The cookies are not overly large , but there are chunky and there are plenty of them,  9 in a beautifully presented box.  At £3.19 they seem a similar price to other free from organic biscuits. You can order these cookies online from Natures health box who have a big selection of gluten free cookies and biscuits as well as gluten free flour, pasta, crackers, cereal etc

Twitter – Natures health box