Gluten free and grain free dessert ideas for this weeks Bake Off

Here are some ideas to bake along to Dessert week on The Great British Bake Off tonight.

The contestants will be making a traditional Crème Brûlée the technical challenge is a Spanische windtorte  from Austria, and the show stopper will be Baked Cheesecakes.

Why not have a go at one of these

 

Deliciously Ella’s Banoffee pies really yummy dessert with no refined sugar

Gooey grain free chocolate pudding a yummy moist chocolate cake pudding

Lemon meringue pies grain free  possibly my favourite pudding

Chocolate profiteroles A big family favourite and my most popular recipe on my blog

Harvest apple pudding fresh and crunchy delicious when apples are plentiful 

Gluten free french apple tart requested by my husband this turned out really well

Raspberry and vanilla panna cotta Another family favourite 

Pumpkin baked cheesecake this is a rich delicious dessert perfect for a chilly day like today!

Enjoy The Great British Bake Off tonight. Make sure you have something sweet to eat along to dessert week.

I would love to see photos of the finished desserts, tweet me @nels3 gluten free Helen

The new Healthy Living Zone and much much more at The Big Feastival

In less than two weeks it will be The Big Feastival presented by Jamie Oliver and Alex James.

A Food and Music Festival at Alex James farm in Kingham in The Cotswolds for all the family. A festival that not only celebrates the best in live music but also the best in delicious food. From some of the most tasty and creative street food vendors in the country to top chefs and health food pioneers.

This year there will be a brand new Healthy Living Zone which has been added to the Feastival . Due to the rise in interest of eating healthily using fresh local ingredients and avoiding processed food. The line up highlights the up and coming health food pioneers at The Oatly Kitchen counter including  Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley, of Hemsley + Hemsley ,

Jasmine and Melissa will be at the Feastival on Saturday

Ella Woodward of Deliciously Ella

Ella will be at the feastival on Saturday doing a talk at 12, a demo at 2.30pm and a book signing at 3pm

and Natasha Corrett of Honestly Healthy

Natasha will be there on Sunday on the Big Kitchen main stage at 10.30am for a demo and at 12.30 will be doing a talk with a 1.30pm book signing.

Olivia Wollenburg of Livia’s Kitchen

Olivia will be doing a demo in the Big Kitchen at 2.30pm on Saturday and a Kitchen counter session at 4pm talking about how she started her business. There will be chance to sample crumble too!

These timings may change, Please check your programme for up to date times

This year looks like The Big Feastival is going to be the place to be to get inspired to eat healthily and look at ways to cut down on the amount of grains and sugar from our diet.

Also in the Healthy Living Zone will be rising stars in the Paleo market My very favourite UGG Foods will be there

as well as Primal joy foods

and Primal Pantry.

 

All of which I have reviewed in the past on my blog. I will put a link to these at the end of this post.

Also Lickalix  natural ice lollies using real whole fruit which are free from lactose, dairy and gluten. You can find Lickalix in the food and drink producers market

Also on stand HH07 you will find the lovely Gluten free Baking and living who will be amongst other things launching a new gluten free plain flour. You will also be able to learn about their baking courses and they will be sharing gluten free recipes.

Coconut merchant who as the name suggests will have an array of coconut products including raw extra virgin coconut oil and coconut water.

The Health Hub will be serving festival fare with everything from freshly pressed juices to raw salads and air dried kale chips.

The action station will be hoping to re energise festival goers offering a full programme of activities including yoga and even clubbercise!

In the big kitchen will be top chefs  Jamie Oliver, Gennaro Contaldo,  Monika Galetti, Mark Hix,  Raymond Blanc to name just a few. With Demo’s running on all three days of the feastival

 

Street food alley will have the best of the street food scene

Here are a few stalls that advertise that they offer gluten free,

Big Apple Hot Dogs – advertise gluten free sausages

Crepe Lucette – offer gluten free crepes, they told me “we use separate equipment and cleaning products for our gluten free options.”

Happy Maki – they should have have gluten free vegan Sushi

Popdogs–  these hot dogs are gluten free and can be served with a gluten free buns. Normally served with a gluten roll ?

The Duck truck – says it has gluten free options  ( they say you can take your own gluten free roll which they will fill )

Beach food company– say they have plenty of fresh crab and lobster and gluten free fries, they say they do their best to avoid contamination

With all of these Food Stalls you will need to make up your own mind as to whether you will give them a try , If you have Coeliac disease please take extra care. I always pack a gluten free healthy picnic to take with me just in case. A festival is not somewhere you want to find yourself if you are glutened.

 

Churros – are Dairy free ( But Not gluten free )

 

As well as the big names in cooking there will also be three days of live music and DJ’s including Groove Armada, Dizzee Rascal, Example and DJ Wire, Ella Eyre, Paloma Faith, Rae Morris and Badly Drawn Boy and The Feeling.

and more music from Iris Gold, JP Cooper, Booka Brass band, The Beach, Hudson Taylor, Vangoffey etc

If you follow me on Twitter @nels3 Gluten free Helen you will know I love live music and going to festivals. This festival looks to have a great selection of well known and new music acts preforming over the three days. I also love the camping side of festivals although when I say ‘camping’ I guess I really mean staying in a camper van or caravan. More than anything this offers me somewhere to store chilled food for the time I’m away from home . With some many food intolerances and being gluten free I normally have little or no options at Festivals. This Feastival I hope will be very different. I hope to blog about my experience to hopefully encourage more Free Fromers to give it a go next year.

Latitude 2015

 

When I heard about the new Healthy Living Zone at The Big Feastival I was really excited, great music and healthy food together. What could be better ? The added bonus of stunning sunny weather would be a great addition too.

I was thrilled to have been accredited to have a Press Pass for this years  Big Feastival I hope this will give me as a blogger for Fabulously Free From access to many of the health food pioneers etc and report back to you all about all things healthy eating and review the new Healthy Living Zone. Maybe you will be inspired to go along next year?

 

Maybe I will see you there! Do let me know if you are coming along

Some Day tickets are still available for Friday . Camping tickets and Weekend tickets are now sold out 

Review of Primal Joy Foods > click here

Review of UGG Foods > click here 

Review of Hemsley+Hemsley > click here

Review of Primal Kitchen > click here

 

Follow on Twitter @thebigfeastival

Follow on Facebook Thebigfeastival

The Big Feastival will be raising money for the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation

Video of highlights from last year

Birthday and Bake Off

Today is my niece’s first birthday, yesterday was spent baking in readiness for the celebration family lunch party. I bought some tasty gluten free Cumberland sausages and chicken nuggets from Marks and Spencer’s along with some cocktail sticks for a retro birthday feel. I also made a grain free smoked salmon quiche with a mixed salad Click here for the recipe A birthday cake was the most important bake of the day. We decided on a Victoria sandwich 3 layer cake with 2 fillings a strawberry low sugar jam and a butter cream filling. This was topped of with a layer of 70% dark chocolate. Here is the recipe I used > click here 

I made two cakes and used three of the layers.

The cake was a success, the family all enjoyed it.

 

For my little niece I made some no refined sugar cake pops using a mashed banana and a tiny amount of good quality maple syrup.

 

 

I was thrilled that she loved them.

 

It is also The Great British Bake off tonight so I felt I should join in with the biscuit baking. Instead of making a gluten free biscuit I decided to make a batch of grain free low sugar ones.

This was a recipe from An Aussie with Crohns >click here <to get the recipe for Jam Pinwheels

 

I rolled out the dough between two pieces of grease proof paper

 

I spread a little apricot jam on the dough

 

I then used the grease proof paper to help roll the dough up like a swiss roll

The rolled dough was then chilled overnight

They baked quickly and were then left to cool and firm up

These are not what I would describe as a true biscuit, they don’t snap or really melt in the mouth but they do taste nice and are low sugar so ideal for those who are avoiding all grains and those avoiding sugar.

If I was in the bake off this week I would definitely be out in this round!

I was far more focused on our family birthday party today which went really well with all the family being hopefully well fed. A wonderful family event sharing food and making lots of memories.

 

Enjoy Bake Off tonight

Happy Baking!

 

Gluten free Madeira cake ready for Bake off!

Today see’s the start of 2015 The Great British Bake Off with the legend that is Mary Berry. I have been using her cookery books to teach me about baking long before I knew who she was. Then Bake Off came along in 2010 and around about the same time I had to go gluten free due to having Coeliac disease. What dreadful timing!

Now Mary is probably one of the most well known bakers and cooks in the country. I love watching Mary on the telly, she continues to inspire me to bake new and more difficult cakes and pastries, converting them to gluten free, low sugar versions for myself and my family.

My Mum often recounts the story of when I was doing a practical home economics assignment at senior school she gave me rock solid butter to make Mary’s Pineapple upside down cake I think I spent almost all the allotted time trying to beat the solid butter into submission. Thankfully I am slightly more organised these days.

I thought today I would make the Madeira cake as the contestants have been asked to bake this simple cake, the only difference being that mine will be gluten free and lower sugar.

 

Madeira cake

recipe-

180g soft unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

200g gluten free self raising flour

50g ground almonds

3 large free range eggs

zest 1 lemon

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method –

Pre heat your oven 150c fan

grease and line an 8 inch loaf tin

 

cream the butter and sugar together until very smooth

 

add one of the beaten eggs

and beat

add the ground almonds and beat again

add the remaining beaten eggs and vanilla essence

and beat thoroughly

sieve in the flour and zest and fold in gently

 

if the mixture is a little thick add a splash of milk

spoon in to your prepared tin

 

bake for 50 mins

check the cake is cooked by using a skewer

 

cool completely, remove from tin and slice

 

Review –

The Madeira cake I am pleased to say was a success. Using only 100g of sugar didn’t affect the rise or texture and the cake is quite sweet enough.  A simple cake, very easy for a new baker . Perfect for slicing and serving with a cup of tea. You could use this recipe in a round tin and slice through and fill with jam or for a Lemon Madeira just add juice of one lemon and add zest of an extra lemon. Or to make it extra special you could serve with lemon curd.

 

We will be enjoying our Madeira cake while watching The Great British Bake off tonight,

My parents are staying with us and they are not normally fans of the show. My Dad says he can’t watch it as it frustrates him as he can’t smell or taste the offerings on show, and for my Dad who really does Love Cake its just too tough!

Hopefully tonight with the added incentive of freshly baked Madeira cake they might get hooked.

Happy Baking!

The Great British Bake Off < website here