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. 

 

Earl grey and lemon scones

Picture the scene, perfectly brewed earl grey, a slice of lemon and a freshly baked scone. Hmmmm, a perfect match. So perfect in fact, how about if we merged them? This idea came about as 1) I wanted fresh scones for breakfast and 2) the letter for this months alpha bake is 'E'.

I decided to soak raisins overnight in earl grey tea, before incorporating them into my scone along with plenty of lemon zest.

Earl grey and lemon scones

Earl grey tea bag

60g raisins

120ml almond or soya milk

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

185g plain flour

120g oats

50g golden caster sugar

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

110g dairy free spread (I use pure)

Zest of a lemon

1/2 tsp vanilla paste/ extract

The night before you make the scones, make a strongish small cup of earl grey tea, and soak the raisins in it overnight. Come morning they will be plump and infused with earl grey.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN and dust a baking sheet with flour. Mix the milk and vinegar together and set aside to curdle.

Mix the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Rub the dairy free spread in with your fingertips until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. Stir through the zest of a lemon. 

Add the vanilla to the milk and stir the milk mix into the dry ingredients until just combined, do not overmix. Dollop 8 equal blobs onto the baking sheet and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden. 

Transfer to a wire rack to cool a little before enjoying warm with butter, lemon curd, marmalade or jam.

Enjoy any leftovers the next day refreshed in a warm oven for five minutes.

The lemon and earl grey complement each other beautifully, the earl grey adds a fragrance and takes away a little of the sweetness of the raisins. For an experiment I was very pleased and would definitely make them again.

Jumble cookies

I absolutely love to bake. Since I have been diagnosed lactose intolerant I have managed to keep baking pretty well, tweaks include using almond milk, lactose free spread, soya yoghurt etc.

When searching for dairy free recipes I more often than not come across vegan baking. Vegan baking is a whole new challenge that scares me though, why? The lack of eggs, eggs are normally a glue that binds everything together, how will my baking turn out? Still some of the pictures of the vegan recipes made me want to eat my computer screen, they loked so good. Mind you looking good is all very well but what about the taste.

I decided I wanted cookies and so looking round a few blogs I ended up making these jumble cookies. A mix match of a few recipes and what was in my head.

Oh my god. These are one of the best cookies I have eaten. I can't say for certain that it is solely down to the fact that they are vegan. The flavours together are simply divine. Oats, pecans, chocolate, raisins, vanilla. I am very surprised that the texture is so good without any dairy but I am so so pleased with them.

They are so insanely good that the two of us have managed to polish off 28 in 4 days.

Jumble cookies

makes ~28

100g pecans
180g oats
75g plain flour
tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of sea salt
100g light brown sugar
30g coconut oil
tsp vanilla paste/extract
100ml maple syrup
2 tablespoons almond milk
35g dark chocolate
50g raisins

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Toast the pecans in a frying pan until they are releasing their fragrance. Add the pecans and half the oats to a food processor and pulse until the texture is that of coarse sand.

Tip this into a mixing bowl along with the remaining oats, plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and light brown sugar.

Gently warm the coconut oil in a pan until it melts. Remove from the heat and add in the vanilla, maple syrup and almond milk. 

Mix the wet ingredients briefly into the dry ingredients. Add in the raisins and chocolate and mix until evenly distributed. 

Roll tablespoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets and then flatten with you hands. 

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden. When done remove from the oven and transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

I am really rather sad that these cookies are gone and will definitely be making them again. Perhaps with different nut and fruit combinations.

Now I am all out of cookies, its time to bake again and I might just get adventurous and try some more vegan baking very soon.

Florentines

The letter for this months alpha bakes is F. I had a few ideas, none of which were initially florentines. However whilst flicking through John Whaites book I saw his version and realised a) I have never made one and b) I have never eaten one.

So florentines it was. I did change his recipe a little so have my version below.

Florentines

makes ~15

60g butter
50g light brown sugar
15g golden syrup
50g sultanas, chop any big ones
30g dried apricot, roughly chopped
100g salted peanuts, roughly chopped
25g plain flour
50g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN and line two/three baking sheets with baking parchment.

Mix the dried fruit, nuts and flour in a bowl. Gently melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup, when fully melted tip into the dry ingredients and stir until fully combined.

Drop heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes until golden. Leave to cool on the baking sheets.

Once cool they can be peeled from the baking paper. Melt the chocolate and drizzle over the florentines.

These were pretty simple to make, I have a few different sizes, clearly I did not heap my teaspoon very evenly!

My first ever florentine did taste pretty good. Personally I think I would prefer my fruit, nuts and chocolate in an actual cookie but that is personal preference I guess.

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?

Danish pastries

Danish pastries take time and effort to make yourself  Would I say they were worth it? That would be a definite YES.

I thought that I did not like them and only made some for two reasons. Firstly my boyfriend loves them and secondly they begin with D, this months alpha bakes letter. So I decided to earn extra girlfriend points and make them. They looked rather enticing as they emerged from the oven and so I tried one, and what do you know, another thing I like when made at home and not bought in shops. I think I have lost girlfriend points however for eating half instead of letting him have them all...

The Danish pasty is a little time consuming to make. It is interesting in that the base is like an enriched dough, similar to brioche, but then the butter is incorporated as a block and folded in, similar to puff pastry. 

The baked result is a fantastic texture, soft, light dough in the centre with a flake on the outside.

I followed Paul Hollywood's recipe for Danish pastry. It is lengthy description and I could not phrase it any better, nor am I going to copy it word for word. Though I do urge you to look up his recipe and give it a go. 

The Danish I made contained raisins and pastry cream (a pain aux raisin, if you prefer) mainly as I had raisins in the cupboard but I definitely want to try a few others , such as apple and apricot. 

Interestingly I learnt something about pastry cream. If you do not quite cook it enough and even once it is cooled it is not quite thick enough all is not lost. It turns out that you can put it back in the pan and cook it out a little more. I figured it was worth a try before making a new batch, and it paid off!

I imagine these are very nice for breakfast but its Saturday and snowy and I did not want to come out from the duvet. I can confirm that they are just as delicious with a cup of tea as a post lunch dessert!

Raisin and chocolate biscotti

So this is perhaps not your traditional biscotti, as it contains no nuts, but not eveyyone likes nuts and indeed many people are allergic and I see no reason why they should not delight in these yummy treats.

They are however twice baked in the traditional way and are still very crunchy indeed, so perfect for dunking in your choice of hot beverage.

They are very quick to whip and do not require any strange ingredients, I had all I needed in the cupboard and made them after they were requested without any extra shopping trips.

Raisin and chocolate Biscotti

makes ~24

140g plain flour
150g caster sugar
tsp baking powder
2 eggs
tsp vanilla paste
50g raisins
50g dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 150C/130C FAN and grease and flour a large baking sheet.

Mix the flour sugar and baking power together. Whisk together the eggs and vanilla and add to the bowl. Mix until it has all just about come together. Add the raisins and chocolate and mix until they are well distributed and everything is incorporated.

Spoon the dough into a log shape on the baking sheet, about 20cm long and 5cm wide. It will spread so do not make it too wide, it does not spread length ways so much.

Bake for 35 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and using a sharp knife cut into slices 1cm wide.

Lay the slices baking on the baking sheet and cook for a further 10 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven and turn the slices over. Put back in the oven for a further 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

As I said these are very crunchy and so perfect for dunking in the drink of your choice, They are very moreish though and 24 lasted a grand total of two days with only two of us in the house...