Ginger, lemon and honey biscuits (gluten free, dairy free)

I promised you a post for apple butter victoria sponge, and was all set to do so until I woke up with a cold. I can't complain too much, it is the 2nd November and my first cold this year so I have done pretty well. My head is fuzzy and I know I will miss something out of the relatively simple but multi stage apple butter blog post. Soon I promise you, soon. 

Instead I offer you a simple recipe for ginger, honey and lemon biscuits. I like to think of these as the perfect healing biscuits if you have a cold. After all honey, lemon and ginger all feature heavily in commerical cold remidies.  And if you don't have a cold? They are still delicious little biscuits to nibble whenever you wish. 

The recipe is based on one for ginger and lemon biscuits by Signe Johansen in Scandilicous baking. As they contain honey I am going to enter them into this months alpha bakes.

Ginger lemon and honey biscuits

50g stem ginger

1 medium egg

20g golden syrup

20g honey

10g stem ginger syrup (from the jar the stem ginger comes in)

zest and juice of 1 lemon

125g non dairy spread (I used pure soya)

125g golden caster sugar

200g GF plain four

1/2 tsp xantham gum

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Finely chop the stem ginger, add to a jug and mix in the egg, golden syrup, honey, stem ginger syrup and the zest and juice the lemon. 

In a separate bowl cream the DF spread and sugar together until creamy. Add in half the wet ingredients, 1/2 the flour and the xantham gum, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda then mix to combine. Add the remaining wet ingredients and mix, finally add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until everything is combined. Place clingfilm over the bowl and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Place teaspoons full of the dough onto the sheet, making sure to leave 4-5cm between them. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, until golden round the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

I really like these biscuits, they are light, not heavy and crunchy like regular ginger biscuits (which I also love) and the lemon adds a freshness to the ginger. They will keep in an airtight tin for at least a week. If they start to go soft blast them in the oven for a couple of minutes to crisp them up.  

 

Dairy free coconut cake

Still on my two weeks of no dairy. Mind you without these two weeks I would not have discovered coconut oil. It smells like summer in a jar! It has various uses in cooking but I used it, instead of butter, as the fat component of my cake.

This cake is a simple flavoured one, it is not overly sweet, in fact not sweet at all, and has subtle coconut, almond, and honey flavours. The almond taste comes from the huge quantities of ground almonds in this cake, there is very little flour at all.

Dairy free coconut cake

60g coconut oil
2 eggs, separated
120g honey
3 tablespoons almond milk/ soy milk/ rice milk
200g ground almonds
55g plain flour
tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g desiccated coconut

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN. Grease (with a little oil) a springform cake tin. Line the base with parchment paper.

Gently heat the coconut oil until it has just melted. Mix together the egg yolks, milk and honey, add in the coconut oil, taking care that it is not so hot that it scrambles the eggs!

To the wet ingredients add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, coconut and almonds and mix to just combine. 

Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, stir a third into the cake mix to loosen. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and level the top. Bake in the preheated oven for ~30 minutes 

Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Its really good with banana ice cream on the side! It is just as lovely with a morning or afternoon cup of tea. It keeps really well, I am on day four and it is still fantastically moist.

n.b. you could easily make this cake gluten free by using either a gluten free flour blend or coconut flour

Rosemary, honey and poppy seed bread

Rosemary is on of those herbs that I have grown to like much more as I have gotten older. That said, a careful hand is needed, the right amount brings amount a lovely fragrance and taste, too much and the whole meal is left tasting of perfume and soap!

I recall one such instance in which the university cooked carrots in what appeared to be a whole rosemary bush, I honestly did not go near rosemary for over a year.

Thankfully I am over it or this bread would never have been born.

This loaf goes fantastically well with lamb. I had it alongside a lamb salad and also for a sandwich with lamb and pesto, both were equally delicious.

Rosemary, honey and poppy seed bread

makes 1 small loaf

125g white bread flour
125g wholemeal bread flour
1 sachet yeast
15g poppy seeds
1/2 tsp salt
Sprig of rosemary, finally chopped
175ml warm water
1 tbsp honey

Mix the flours, yeast, poppy seeds, salt and rosemary together in a large bowl. Stir the honey into the warm water to dissolve it.

Slowly add the water mix to the dry ingredients and combine to form a soft dough, The dough wants to be soft but not overly sticky, you may not need all the water, I had about a tablespoon leftover.

Lightly coat a worktop with olive oil and knead the bread for 5-10 minutes until smooth and springy. Place the kneaded dough into an oiled bowl, cover with film and allow to rise for 1-2 hours.

Knock back the dough and then shape it into a small loaf, any shape you like. I had a moment of creativiy so mine ended up braided!

Place onto a baking tray and allow to rise again for ~30  minutes. Preheat the oven to 220C/200C FAN. 

After the dough has risen for a second time place it in the preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until deep golden and the base sounds hollow when tapped.

Allow to cool on a wire rack and then enjoy!

This bread reminded me just how much I enjoy making and eating my own bread, the flavour is unlike that of the supermarket and the combinations are endless. 

p.s. sorry for the alarming photos, I had to take them with my phone but the camera will be back soon!

Honey streusel coffee cake

Ruth over at Makey-Cakey has kindly organised another surprise ingredient swap, the theme this time was spring.

This swap I was paired with Dom over at Belleau kitchen, go have a nosey and be prepared to drool. He sent me some Lincolnshire honey from croft apiaries.

First off you are lucky there is a post at all, this honey is delicious. I had a taste with greek yoghurt and almonds and was perfectly content to continue eating it like that. I did resist but I liked the honey and almond combination and decided that my bake would combine the two.

I give you a simple honey streusal coffee cake. A few things to note; the top streusel immersed itself into the cake during baking. Also the honey adds a lovely colour to the cake, so much that my streusel in the middle does not really stand out as a defined layer. Perhaps it would stand out more with dark brown sugar in the steusel, who knows?

These presentation blips aside I would not change a thing. This cake is beautiful, a lovely soft texture with contrasting almond crunch, all surrounded by a fabulous taste of honey. It really is, as the name implies, the perfect thing to have with a cup of tea or coffee.

And an added bonus, I have a smidgen of honey left, which I can eat!

Honey streusal coffee cake

enough for a standard bundt tin

for the streusel

50g brown sugar
30g plain flour
tsp mixed spice
75g chopped almonds
30g butter
80g honey

for the cake

220g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
70g butter
170g honey
1 tsp vanilla paste
115g golden caster sugar
250ml sour cream
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 170C/150C FAN and grease a bundt tin. 

Put the dry ingredients for the streusel in a bowl and briefly mix. Melt the butter and honey for the steusel then stir into the dry ingredients. Set aside for now.

For the cake put the flour, baking powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl and mix. Gently warm the butter and honey until the butter is just melted. Once melted stir in the vanilla, sugar, sour cream and finally the eggs.

Tip the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until thoroughly combined.

Take about 1/3 of the streusel mix and sprinkle it evenly over the base of the bundt tin. Spread about half the cake batter evenly over top. Now take the remaining streusel and sprinkle it evenly over the cake batter.

 Finally smooth the remaining cake batter over the top. 

Bake in the preheated oven for ~45 minutes until golden and cooked through.

Allow to cool in the tin for 1/2 an hour before turning the cake out onto a wire rack and allow the cake to come to room temperature. 

This moist cake will keep very well in an airtight tin, just how long it lasts though remains to be seen!  

Apple breakfast bars

I mentioned a few posts back that I had made Nigella's breakfast bars with minor tweaks.

I loved these bars and thought they had real potential to be really modified to create some lovely new bars for breakfast and snacks.

These have a very English autumnal feeling with apples, raisins and hazelnuts. I also spiked the condensed milk with a little honey that pairs beautifully with the other flavours.

Apple breakfast bars

1 tin condensed milk (395g), light is absolutey fine
1 tablespoon honey
250g oats
75g dessicated coconut
60g mixed seeds
100g whole blanched hazelnuts, roughly chopped
80g dried apple, chopped
50g raisins

Preheat the oven to 120C/100C FAN and grease and line a brownie pan (or similar) with baking paper. 

Gently, so that it does not catch, warm the condensed milk and honey in a pan. It does not need to be boiling  just warmed through to loosen it a little. 

Meanwhile mix all the other ingredients in a large bowl. Tip the warm condensed milk and honey into the bowl and make sure everything is well combined.

Tip the whole lot into your prepared tin and level. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 50-55 minutes. Keep an eye on it at the end of cooking time the honey in it means it can get a little too brown in a matter of minutes.

Leave to cool for 15 minutes then, using the baking paper to help you, remove from the pan and cut into bars. Do't leave it too long or they will be much harder to cut! Leave the cut bars on a wire rack to cool.

These bars take no time at all to whip up. keep for a week in a tin, and are the perfect on the go breakfast or snack, what's not to love?

Honey Madeleines

I was very excited to receive a Madeleine tin for Christmas  I had been craving one, bearing in mind I had never even tried a Madeline it was an odd tin to crave.

As it turns out my cravings were spot on, I fell in love with Madeleine's after my first bite. I am not usually a honey fan, finding it a bit sweet, but I love its flavour and it works beautifully in these.  I have actually made them a couple of times but without access to my camera so its taken a while for me to share them here.

For the uninitiated a Madeleine is of French origin (so I believe, feel free to correct me if I am wrong), traditionally flavoured with honey and made in a special Madeleine tin, giving the cake a shell-like shape.

There does not seem to be a hard and fast way to make these and so the recipe below is my take on the basic Madeleine. Apologies for the photos, my oven is a hot oven and I forgot to compensate and my Madeleine turned a wee bit darker than I would have liked. Still yummy though and there is a  photo to prove that the inside is light and fluffy!

Honey Madeleine

makes ~15

75g butter
1 egg
120g caster sugar
83g plain flour
15g honey

Preheat the oven to 170C/150C FAN and lightly grease your Madeleine tin. Gently melt the butter, then side aside to cool. 

Whisk the egg and sugar until thick, moussey and very pale in colour. Add the flour and gently fold in with a melted spoon. When the flour is almost incorporated add about a tablespoon of the melted butter and fold in. Add half the remaining butter and continue to fold in, once it is incorporated add the remaining butter and fold in. Add the honey and fold in until there are no swirls of butter or honey remaining. You should be left with a lovely glossy mix.

Fill each Madeleine mould ~3/4 full. Don't worry it the batter does not spread to fill it, it will do this as it bakes.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. 

When completely cool dust with icing sugar.

These are at their most delicious on the day that they are made. They will however keep in a tin for a day or so, they will become slightly more dense and sticky but still taste good.