Gluten free mincemeat

I can tell its nearly Christmas, and it is not just the cold weather and beautiful fairy lights everywhere. No I mean that busy feeling as you try to get your to do list done before the holidays! I have many blog posts to write and barely have time to sit down for 20 minutes at a time.

Today I share my gluten free mincemeat with you, hopefully tomorrow I will share gluten and lactose fee mince pies with you, I know, I know, promises promises.

I have a mincemeat recipe already on the blog. It is not however gluten free, and I have tweaked the recipe to make it a tiny little less sweet so that the spices shine through, it is now also nut free. Feel free to have a look at both and chose the one that best suits your requirements. If you do not wish to add the brandy just add an extra 50ml of orange juice.

I found gluten free suet in a health food shop but my mum found some in Morrisons so its worth having a look in your local supermarket.

Mincemeat 

1 bramley apple
150g raisins
150g sultanas
80g stoned dates, chopped
100g  GF vegetarian suet
200g brown sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
fresh grating of nutmeg
Zest and juice of a small lemon
Zest and juice of half an orange
50ml brandy (or extra orange juice)

Put the raisins, sultanas, dates, suet, sugar and spices into a bowl and mix. Peel and grate the apple then add this to the bowl along with the citrus juice, zest and brandy, Give the whole thing a good mix.

Leave overnight, giving a good stir every now and then. By morning it will be slightly darker and lovely and sticky.

 Pack into sterile jars and leave to mature for as long as possible, saying that if you use it almost immediately it will still be delicious. 

 

Blueberry crumble cake

Last week it truly felt like autumn was here, it was colder, dark when I got up, dingy and grey. The only way to combat this was a comforting cake made with cinnamon and fruit, I did not quite veer into the autumn fruit territory (apples, blackberries, pears) but used some Scottish blueberries. a last hopeful cling on to summer. It worked we got a mild reprise to summer this weekend with plenty of sunshine and blue skies!

The cake is from this months good food magazine, I adapted it a little to make it gluten and dairy free and also enough to fit into a brownie tin.

The crumble topping is fantastically crisp and contrasts perfectly with the soft cake and fruit. This cake is best eaten as soon as possible as it contains fresh fruit. Also the sooner it is eaten the crisper the topping will be.

Oh and sorry for the dark photos... that is partly down to me wanting to eat it and partly down to the rubbish autumn weather I mention previously!

Blueberry crumble cake (adapted from bbc good food magazine)

150g dairy free spread (I use pure, sunflower)
225g golden caster sugar
300g GF plain flour (I use Dove farm blend)
1 tsp xantham gum
1 1/2 tsp GF baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 medium eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla paste/extract
180g natural soya yoghurt
1 1/2 tbsp non dairy milk (I used almond milk)

1 tbsp and 1 tsp of ccinnamon
2 tbsp each of golden caster sugar and brown sugar (light or dark). mixed
200g blueberries
6 tbsps GF plain flour
3 tbsps dairy free spread, cut small

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. GAS MARK 4 and grease and line a brownie tin (or traybake tin) with baking paper.

Beat the DF spread and sugar with an electric whisk until fluffy. Add the flour, xantham gum, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda to the bowl followed by the eggs and vanilla, beat until smooth. Add the yoghurt and DF milk and briefly beat until combined.

Spoon just under half of the mix into the prepared tin. Mix 1 tablespoon of the cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of the sugar mix and scatter half of this over the cake followed by half of the berries. Layer over the remaining cake mix, take care when smoothing it out the berries will want to come with you. Sprinkle over the remaining sugar/cinnamon mix followed by the remaining berries.

To make the crumb topping place the remaining sugar mix, flour and DF spread into a bowl and rub together until the mixture resembles chunky breadcrumbs. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the cake, squeeze some of the crumble together to make bigger chunks as you do. 

Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes, until it is risen all the way till the centre. looks golden and the topping is crisp.

 Cool the cake in the tin for 15 minutes then transfer to a wire rack, using the baking paper to help you lift the cake, to cool completely.

Coconut spiced caramels

This is the last of my homemade Christmas gifts. I made these for Mark who loves coconut and I liked the idea of the spicing.
It is an Annie Rigg recipe, from her amazing book Sweet Thing adapted ever so slightly considering what I had in the cupboard.

Coconut spiced caramels

vegetable oil for greasing
400ml (can) full fat coconut milk
6 cardamom pods
1 large cinnamon stick
50g dark brown sugar
100g light brown sugar
75g golen syrup
50g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt
225g caster sugar
2 tablespoons dessicated coconut

Grease the base and sides of a 17cm square baking tin and line with baking parchment.

Put the coconut milk into a saucepan and add the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Set over a low heat for 4-5 minutes to infuse the milk with the spices. Add the brown sugars, golden syrup, butter, vanilla and salt. Once the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved remove from the heat.

Put the caster sugar into a saucepan and add 2 tablespoons of water. Set over a low heat to dissolve the sugar. Do not stir. If sugar crystals form on the sides dissolve them with a pastry brush dipped in hot water. Bring the syrup to the boil and cook steadily until it becomes a pale coloured caramel, swirl the pan occasionally to make sure it caramelises evenly.  

Working quickly bring the coconut mixture back up to just under the boil. Continue to cook the caramel till it becomes maple syrup coloured. Take the pan from the heat and slowly strain the coconut milk mixture into it. Be careful, the mixture may hiss and splutter.

Return the pan to the heat and stir till smooth, and to dissolve any caramel that has hardened. Pop a sugar thermometer into the pan and bring to the boil. Stir frequently and continue to cook until the caramel reaches 118C. I used my thermospatula so the pan was not over crowded.

Remove the pan from the heat, whisk the caramel util smooth then pour into the prepared tin.

Lightly toast the coconut in a non stick frying pan over a low heat util golden. Scatter over the caramel and leave to set for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Tip out of the pan onto a chopping board and cut with a greased kitchen knife. Wrap each caramel in a piece of parchment paper, twisting the ends.

Best eaten within a week, though will keep for a couple.   

Annie adds ginger and star anise to the coconut milk along with the cardamom and cinnamon. I a) had neither of these, and b) one of my recipients is not so keen on ginger.

I do not think it mattered too much, the flavour of the spice comes through and makes a very different but delicious caramel.

I got the 'Sweet Thing'  cookbook for Christmas and I cannot wait to get properly stuck in and making some treats!

Spicy peacekeeper cookies

This month we get a bumper two books for the cupcake book club. 'Meet me at the Cupcake Cafe' and Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe, both by Jenny Colgan.

I plan to make something from both books. These are from the Christmas book and made at the special request of my boyfriend. He loves this sort of biscuit and as soon as he knew about them they had to be made! To be fair I like this sort of biscuit too, and I have dates left over from making Christmas cakes which need using. Still have plenty left though so need to put my thinking cap on to use them up!

I have adapted the recipe only ever so slightly. I am not convinced that 14g of walnuts is right, it may be a typo and I have taken it to actually be 145g. Whether I am right or not remains to be seen.

Peacekeeper spice cookies (adapted from Jenny Colgan, Christmas at the cupcake Cafe)

makes 34

110g butter

100g light brown sugar

118g treacle

egg yolk

tablespoon soured cream

375g plain flour

tablespoon baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

tsp ginger

tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp mixed spice

50g raisins or sultanas

50g walnuts, roughly chopped

50g dried dates, roughly chopped

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the treacle, egg yolk and soured cream and mix until well incorporated. 

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and spices. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing well after each addition.

Finally add the dried fruits and nuts and blend well. 

Chill the dough for 1/2 hour to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN and grease baking sheets, I did not grease mine but I know that it is very super non stick. 

Roll out the dough ~1cm thick and stamp out rounds.

This dough rolls beautifully!

 Cook for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden.  Using a palette knife transfer the biscuits to a wire rack and allow to cool fully.

Wow, I halved the recipe and still have ended up with 34 biscuits! Its a good job that they are delicious. They are spicy and light with lovely textures from the fruit. These would definitely cheer anyone up and keep the peace.

So many cookies!

Oaty slices

I was going to call these flapjacks but they did not really turn out that way. Instead of a soft chewy flapjack with crunchy edges these were all crunchy, like a biscuit with only a slight chew in the very centre.

Not sure if I dropped the ball when weighing things out or if I knocked the temperature setting on the oven. Still the verdict all round was that they were yummy, and if only I knew whatt I did I could make them again.

I made these using the remaining ingredients from Frances, as part of the seasonal ingredient swap, (I also made spiced fruit and nut shortbread)

Oaty slices

makes 16

175g porridge oats
70g cranberries
50g walnuts, roughly chopped
tsp cinnamon
tsp mixed  spice
130g butter
35g golden syrup
105g light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN and grease and line a brownie tin , or similar.

Mix the oats, cranberries, walnuts and spices in a large mixing bowl.

Gently heat the butter, golden syrup and sugar over a low heat until the butter has melted.

Add the liquid to the dry ingredients an mix until thoroughly combined. Press into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly golden. 

Leave to cool in the tin for 15-30 minutes then use the lining paper to transfer onto a wire rack. Cut into 16 pieces while slightly warm and then allow to finish cooling.

If anyone makes these can you let me know if they turned out like flapjacks or biscuits!

Spiced fruit and nut shortbreads

Ruth over at Makey-Cakey  has set up a seasonal ingredient swap. I missed her previous swap and so it was with some interest I read the principle behind it. Anyone who expresses an interest is paired up by Ruth and each person sends their partner an ingredient, preferably an interesting one, not a staple like flour! You then bake something with your received ingredient and Ruth posts a round up of everyone's creative bakes.

This time it was a seasonal swap, mind you the season is autumn, encompassing Halloween  bonfire night and thanksgiving, so the range of ingredients you could possibly send is very broad!

I was paired up with Frances. Frances does not have a blog herself but enjoys baking, looking at others blogs and taking part in baking challenges such as these.

Frances pointed out that it was the 200th anniversary of  the birth of Charles Dickens, and sent ingredients inspired by a passage from The mystery of Edwin Drood, one of Charles' works that I must confess that I have not read.

She sent me walnut pieces, dried cranberries and cinnamon (also some fab chocolatey sprinkles but I have other ideas for these!)

So I put my thinking cap on and slowly an idea began to emerge. When many people think of shortbread they think of clotted cream, strawberries and cream and ice cream. All very summery things. I decided to bring the shortbread biscuit into Autumn by using my sent ingredients.

Spiced fruit and nut shortbread biscuits

makes 10, easily doubled

100g butter
50g light brown sugar
115g plain flour
15g rice flour
heaped 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
25g of walnut pieces, roughly chopped
25g dried cranberries, roughly chopped

Cream together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add all the other ingredients and bring together, using a spoon, hands or combination of the two, until a dough is formed.

Divide the dough into two, wrap each in clingfilm and chill for 15-30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN. Roll out one piece of dough at a time a cut out what ever shape you like. Re-roll the trimmings and cut out more shapes. Its up to you but I do not like to roll more than twice as it makes the shortbread much less short. Place the shortbread shapes onto baking sheets. Repeat with the second piece  of dough.

If you want really sharp edges to your shortbread chill in the fridge or freezer for 15-30 minutes, this will help prevent the shortbread spread whilst baking. I did not really have time and as I made shortbread rounds it was not as important.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

These shortbread are genuinely one of my favourite shortbreads that I have made. Its highly tempting to use the leftover ingredients for more shortbread but I have another idea, so watch this space!

Cinnamon swirl loaf

Argghh, everything getting on top of me since coming back from holiday, have not been able to bake much , let along blog about it. A broken washing machine and flooded kitchen meant I could not get to my oven even if I wanted to. Still I have a couple of things I made before my holidays so now seems a good time to tell you about them.

One of them is a yummy cinnamon swirl loaf.


This is another recipe from The Great British bake off: how to turn everyday bakes into showstoppers.

This is a yummy bread that is good by itself, toasted and, my personal favourite, toasted and topped with sliced banana. It is perfect for breakfast but just as good as that got in from work snack before dinner!

It is not too difficult to make and just requires a little forward planning to allow the bread to rise.

Cinnamon swirl loaf

Makes one loaf

500g white bread flour
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsps caster sugar
7g sachet fast action yeast or 15g fresh yeast (I actually used the dried stuff that needs activating to no ill affect)
125ml milk
50g butter
1 large egg at room temperature

For the filling

50g caster sugar
tsp plain flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Mix together the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl, if using dried yeast stir it in. If using fresh yeast stir it into 7 tablespoons of the measured milk.

Gently heat the milk (either all or the remaining) with 125ml water and the butter until lukewarm an the butter melted. Remove from the heat and beat in the egg with a fork until combined, add to the flour mix, along with the fresh yeast if using.

Work the ingredients together with an electric mixer on low until a soft dough is formed. Turn on to a ightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and pliable. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with cligfilm, leave to rise in a warm place for an hour or so until double in size.

To prepare the tin, cut  strip of baking paper the same width of your tin and long enough to cover the two short sides. Lightly grease the tin and then line with the paper.

Punch down the dough then pat into a rectangle about 2 cm thick, cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for 5 minutes. 

Roll out the dough to a rectangle as wide as the length of your tin and 48cm long. Keep the sides as straight as you can. 

Brush the dough liberally with milk, mix the filling ingredients and sprinkle evenly over the dough leaving a 1cm border at one short end.

Roll up the dough nice and tightly from the short end without the clear border, pinch the seam to seal it. 

Lift the rolled dough into the tin, folding the ends under to make it neat. 

Slip the dough into a plastic bag, inflate the bag slightly then tie the ends. Leave the loaf for about an hour again until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Take the dough from the bag and brush with milk. Bake in the preheated oven for ~35 minutes until golden brown, It should sound hollow when tapped on the base. If it does not sound hollow return to the oven (straight on shelf not back in the tin) for a further 5 minutes. 

Transfer the loaf to a wire rack and rub with a knob of butter to create a shiny top. 

This bread will last up to 5 days in an airtight tin, ours did not make it past day 3!

Cinnamon buns

So I promised you another American themed post and here it is.

 I cannot explain why I had such a cinnamon bun craving but I did, cinnamon is not even my favourite spice, mind you it has gone up in my estimation since I made these.

I found this recipe on happyhomebaking, the author had adapted it from a recipe posted by ‘Kitchenmage’ who had adapted it from ‘The pioneer women’, and I myself have tweaked it just a little. That’s the best thing about baking, it’s the little tweaks that make it personal.

There are only two of us, myself and the 'live in chief taster' (M) but the recipe below is easily doubled if you have a family to feed.

Warning you will need to start this recipe the day BEFORE you want your cinnamon buns for breakfast.

Cinnamon buns

For the dough:

125ml skimmed or semi skimmed milk
25g light brown sugar

30ml vegetable oil (I used ground nut oil)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
125g + 15g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt

for the filling:

1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
25g light brown sugar

25g unsalted butter

30g currants


Method:

Mix milk, sugar and vegetable oil in a pan. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar, then leave to cool for 15 minutes.

Place 125g plain flour and instant yeast in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the above mixture. Stir with a spatula until the mixture comes together to form a thick batter. Cover and let the batter sit for at least 1 hour.

Add in the remaining 15g flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until the mixture comes together.

Cover and leave to chill in fridge for at least four hours. (Note: dough will be more firm and easier to work with if left to chill in fridge).

When ready to make the rolls, melt the butter sugar and cinnamon together in a pan.

Dust the work surface with flour, dust the dough with flour too. Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape. Then roll out as thin as possible. Dust the dough and work surface with flour when necessary.

Brush the rolled out dough with melted butter mix. I used a pastry brush, even a palette knife was too rough with this very delicate and soft dough. Sprinkle the currants evenly over the surface.

Start from the opposite end of the dough, roll the dough neatly in a line towards you. Roll as tightly as possible. Dust fingers with flour if the dough feels sticky. Pinch the seams to seal.

Cut into 1 inch thick slices and arrange on baking pan (I used my brownie tray) greased with a little butter. Place the rolls close together but not touching.

Cover and leave to rise overnight in the fridge. The next morning, if rolls have doubled in size, bake them right away. Otherwise leave to sit on counter until double in size before baking

Bake in preheated oven at 180^oC for 20mins until golden brown.

For me this made 8 smallish buns, you could easily cut into 6 bigger ones. I also cooked all 8 at once, not all were eaten that morning, so some got reheated the next day. They were fine like this but definitely better fresh. Next time I may leave 4 in the fridge till the next morning and have fresh baked buns the next day too!