Pecorino biscuits

Hi, prepare for a few bake off posts in a row, I had planned to bake along with the bake off and of course as soon as it came on TV I went off to do volunteer work. I am catching up over the weekend and should be back on track by the episode on Wednesday.

I decided to make savoury biscuits for biscuit week, I have already made Florentines and to be honest did not have time to make a 3D creation, why you ask? because I HANDED MY THESIS IN!!! Anyway I genuinely liked the sound of a savoury nibble.

As an added bonus I used pecorino and pumpkin seeds and so I will enter these into this months alpha bakes.

These are gluten free and lactose free, I used lactose free pecorino, if lactose is your issue these are fab but not suitable for other dairy allergy sufferers. If you do not have an issue with gluten feel free to use plain flour and they will work perfectly too.

Pecorino rounds

50g GF plain flour
pinch of cayenne pepper
15g semolina
50g DF spread (I use pure)
50g pecorino cheese, grated
1 medium egg yolk
1 tsp olive oil

1 egg yolk
15g pecorino cheese grated
pumpkin seeds
pinch of cayenne

Put the flour, cayenne pepper and semolina into a bowl and mix. Rub the spread with your finger tips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Dairy free spread is softer than butter so work quickly and don't worry that your 'breadcrumbs' are large. Stir in the 50g of cheese using a metal spoon. Briefly beat the egg and then add the egg and olive oil to the dry ingredients and bring together into a dough using a metal knife and cutting motion. Form the dough into a fat disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN/GAS MARK 4 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the chilled dough to a thickness of 3mm. Cut out small rounds and place them on the prepared sheet. Push remaining dough together, re roll and cut more biscuits.

Brush the biscuits with a little beaten egg, sprinkle over the 15g of cheese, place a couple of pumpkin seeds on top and add a small dusting of cayenne pepper. Bake for 8-12 minutes until golden, transfer to a wire rack to cool a little before consuming.

We had these warm with a glass of prosecco before a light evening meal and they were delicious, we also had the leftovers later that evening, cold but still delicious... I therefore have no idea how well they keep!

Swiss Roll

The bake of is back! I know for a fact that I am not the only one thrilled by this, the cakes, the drama, Paul and Mary’s scrutiny and the soggy bottoms make for tasty TV!

Last year I wanted to bake along with the bake off but fell along the wayside thanks to illness and diagnosis with dairy intolerance. Well this year I can no longer eat gluten or dairy. Which poses some challenges for a baker but I am finding I am managing quite well. This year I am going to attempt again to bake along with the bakes off AND adapt their bakes for anyone suffering with any dairy or gluten intolerance/allergy.

The first week saw the 12 new hopefuls make signature swiss roles, tackle Marys cherry cake and produce 36 identical mini bakes… some of the contestants could have done with a dictionary to look up ‘mini’ but everything looked delicious.

I made a swiss roll, I have never made one before and was a little nervous. A swiss roll sponge is naturally a fatless sponge so that solved the dairy conundrum right off! I used gluten free flour and it worked like a charm. I filled it with a strawberry jam, classic and simple.

I was really proud of my first swiss roll, I was a little hesitant when rolling and feel that the swirl could have been tighter but saying that I think Paul and Mary would have not been too unkind… it did taste scrummy!

Jam swiss roll

3 eggs

75g caster sugar, plus extra

½ tsp vanilla paste

75g plain GF flour

1 tsp GF baking powder

½ tsp xantham gum

Strawberry jam to fill

Preheat the oven to 180C/160 FAN/GAS MARK 6. Grease and line a brownie tin, If you happen to have an actual swiss role tin all the better, simply increase the eggs to four and the flour and sugar to 100g each.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until very pale and thick, when thick enough a ribbon of mix will sit on the top of the mix. This took me about ten minutes with a powerful handheld mixer so be patient! Next very gently fold in the remaining ingredients (except the jam), do not over mix but do make sure all the flour is thoroughly combined. Gently pour the mix into your prepared tin and tilt the tin so that the mixture spreads to the corners. Bake in the preheated oven for ten minutes.

While in the oven sprinkle a piece of parchment, a little bigger than your tin, with caster sugar. When the swiss roll is ready remove from the oven and invert onto the parchment paper.  Trim the edges with a sharp knife, and score a grove an inch from one of the short edges, be careful not to cut all the way through. Spread with jam (its easier to do this if you soften your jam by beating it with a spoon) and then starting with the side with the grove tightly roll up the swiss roll.

A crack is nothing to worry about, it looks lovely and homemade, lots of cracks suggest that your sponge is a little on the dry side.

This is best eaten relatively soon, ours was finished 28 hours after baking. 

Raspberry frangipane traybake

Another gluten free and dairy free bake, this time a simple tray bake to satisfy a cake craving that did not want to wait around forever to be satisfied.

The cake is icing free but does not need any, the sponge is moist with almonds and the sharpness of raspberry is an amazing flavour pairing.

This is a good cake to have in the tin ready for partnering with a cup of tea and a book!

Raspberry frangipane traybake

200g DF spread (I use pure)

200g caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla paste or extract

Tsp almond extract

3 eggs

250g plain GF flour

1/2 tsp xantham gum

2 tsp GF baking powder

50g ground almonds

200g rasperries, halved

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN/GAS MARK 4 and grease and line a traybake tin.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until creamy, add one egg at a time  along with a tablespoon of the flour, add in the almond extract and beat until combined. Add the remaining flour, xantham gum, baking powder and ground almonds and fold in. 

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and level the top. Line the raspberries, cut side down, on top of the frangipane, no need to press in. Bake in a preheated oven for 40-45 minutes until golden and beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin.

Allow to cool in the tin for 30 minutes -1 hour then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate orange cake (Dairy and gluten free)

I have braved making a cake in my new oven (well not NEW new, I just moved flat)! A different oven is a mystery of a thing, is it a 'hot' oven, a 'cold' oven, is there hot spots? As well as this I had to get used to a gas main oven as opposed to electric.

I have worked out that it is cool oven, I actually prefer this to my old 'hot' oven that used to really brown the edges of my cakes!It has a little hot spot but not as bad as my last oven, so now my cakes rise ever so slightly unevenly as opposed to completely uneven So all in all a bonus.

This cake tastes like a terry's chocolate orange in cake form, really it does. The frosting is amazing I could literally eat it straight from the bowl forgoing the cake BUT if I did that I would miss out on cake so I managed to restrain myself.

I have made this cake completely dairy and gluten free, obviously if you do not have these requirements you could use butter and regular flour and leave out the xantham gum.

Chocolate orange cake

3 eggs, weighed with shells, room temperature
Same weight of dairy free spread (I use Pure)
Same weight of sugar

Tsp vanilla paste

zest and juice of one orangeSame weight of gluten free plain flour minus 30g

30g cocoa powder2 Tsp gluten free baking powder baking powder

1/2 tsp xantham gum

100g dairy free spread

zest of one orange

30g cocoa powder

200g icing sugar

1 tbsp Boiling water

Grease and line the base of two  20cm cake tins, if like me you do not have two make the cakes in batches. Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN or Gas mark 3.


Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy then beat in the vanilla, orange zest and eggs for a further minute. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and xantham gum and beat until just combined. Do not overbeat


Divide the mixture equally between the tins and bake for. 25-30 mutes until springy.
Leave to cool in the tins for 15 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cakes are cool sandwich them together with the frosting, method below.

To make the frosting melt the butter in pan over a gentle heat then add in the orange zest, add the cocoa powder and cook for 1 minute whilst stirring. remove from the heat and beat in the icing sugar, it will look terrible, like it has split, never fear, add in a tablespoon of boiling water and beat well,  the frosting should now be thick  and smooth, with no sign of splitting, add a tiny touch more water if you feel it necessary. 

Rose lemonade marshmallows

I am a bad blogger. First I chose to do a PhD and had to write a thesis, when you spend all day writing you DO NOT want to write a blog post. Then I had to organise moving house. Then I got told by the doctor no dairy OR gluten. Then I moved house, and still have no internet.

Well I am now just doing corrections on my thesis so I am happy to write blog posts again. I am all moved (hurrah), still no internet but starbucks has come to the rescue with free wifi. The dairy and gluten thing can be tricky when out and about but actually with a few tweaks baking is absolutely fine, and I actually quite like the challenge of making delicious cakes that do not make me sick and that nobody else can tell are free from dairy and gluten.

As an aside my mum is amazing, she loves baking, I think I get that gene from Her, and when I was down last weekend she made an amazing lime and coconut cake, dairy and gluten free, Thanks mum!

I present today some rose lemonade marshmallows. The letter for alpha bakes this month was R and I realised yesterday this was due... oops.

I decided to use rose as I do like it but find some things made with rose are a tad overpowering. I have previously made champagne marshmallows and decided to adapt the recipe. My idea was to mix rose cordial with lemonade and use in place of the champagne. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across the is rose lemonade by Fetimans in Waitrose. My mixing was already done for me! By the way, I drank the extra, its delicious.

This recipe makes oodles and oodles but they will keep well in an airtight container. I love packaging them up in cute bags and tying with pretty ribbon to give away as gifts!

Rose lemonade marshmallows

3 sachets gelatine
250ml rose lemonade
340g caster sugar
325g golden syrup
Pink gel colouring
30g icing sugar
30g corn flour

Combine the icing sugar and corn flour in a bowl. Lightly oil a 13 by 9 inch pan (I used my brownie tin) and thoroughly coat in ~ 1/2 the icing sugar mix, reserving the rest.

Put the gelatine into the bowl of a free standing mixer. Add 125ml of the rose lemonade and allow to soften.

Meanwhile put the sugar, golden syrup and remaining rose lemonade into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Warm over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to medium/high and cook until the syrup reaches 240F on a sugar thermometer.

Remove from the heat and immediately start the mixer on slow. Carefully pour the hot syrup down the side of the bowl onto the gelatine.

Increase the speed of the mixer and beat for 12 minutes. Add a little colouring (a little goes a long way!) and beat for a further couple of minutes.

Scoop the sticky mass into the prepared pan, smooth over and sprinkle with the remaining icing sugar mix.  Leave for a least 4 hours or overnight then cut into squares.

More blog posts are on the way.. I am going to bake my first cake in the new oven this afternoon... wish me luck!