WIDE CIRCLE COOKING

Vegan and gluten-free peach tart

2022-01-31T11:49:00.003+00:00

This really is a tart to suit everyone – it’s not only gluten-free and vegan, it is also free from the 14 major allergens. That’s right – it’s a dessert with no wheat, soya, dairy, eggs, sesame, peanut, tree nuts, lupin or sulphites*. Not that you’d ever notice.

The vegan and gluten-free peach tart is really quick to make because the tart base doesn’t need any rolling out, while the topping is that store-cupboard favourite: a tin of peaches (no messy chopping needed!)

The main question, of course, is how does it taste? Well, first you get the tang of the lemony peaches, which is delicious right away. Then you notice the crunchy base with its gentle coconut flavour and chewy centre. The texture pairs really well with the acid juiciness of the fruit. Finally, you get the woody fragrance of the thyme, which is not only there to look good (though it does that too!)

Makes 8 slices

For the tart

60g coconut oil

75g gluten-free self-raising white flour blend, eg Doves Farm

50g caster sugar

35g desiccated coconut

pinch of salt

1 tbsp pure apple puree

1 x 410g tin of peach slices, drained

For the glaze

2 tbsp apricot jam, sieved

1 tbsp lemon juice

springs of fresh thyme

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Place the coconut oil in a saucepan and melt over a low heat. Stir in the gluten-free self-raising flour blend, sugar, desiccated coconut, salt and apple puree (by the way, the easiest place to find apple puree in the supermarket is in the babyfood aisle).

Take the coconut mix and press into a 20cm diameter tart tin using the back of a metal spoon until you have a uniform layer across the base of the tin. Arrange the peach slices on top. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

While the tart bakes, stir together the apricot jam and lemon juice until you have a smooth mixture (you might want to gently heat it if it seems too thick and lumpy). When you remove the tart from the over, brush the glaze mixture all over the peach slices. Allow to cool, then decorate with a few sprigs of thyme before serving. It’s delicious with a little coconut yogurt.

*check your ingredients carefully for allergens before use, for example some brands of desiccated coconut contain sulphites

Kneadable vegan and gluten-free bread with no additives

2021-12-01T11:50:00.001+00:00

Here’s an unusual vegan and gluten-free bread recipe I have devised using no additives and yet creating a springy loaf with a lovely crunchy crust. There’s no cakiness – instead the texture is thanks to the super seed gel made of chia and flaxseed. There’s also some quinoa for protein.

This is a bit of a project, the process takes about 24 hours in total, but it is satisfying to make, tastes good and keeps well.

Makes 1 small loaf in a 20cm x 10cm x 6cm loaf tin.

300ml water + 2 tbsp

2 tbsp brown flaxseeds (linseeds)

2 tbsp chia seeds

220g gluten-free plain flour blend (without xanthan gum or other additives)

½ tsp salt

30g quinoa flour

1 tsp gluten-free fast action yeast

1 tsp olive/sunflower oil

1. Measure the 300ml of water into a measuring jug.

2. Add the flaxseeds and chia seeds. Give it a stir. Leave for 12 hours, stirring well from time to time.

3. You will now have a your super seed gel. Give it a good stir and pour into a medium sized saucepan.

4. Bring to the boil, stirring (don’t use too high a heat or the seeds can burn). 5. Measure out the dry ingredients ready for use.

5. Keep stirring and boiling for 5 minutes. This thickens the mixture and changes it to become more slimy. Stir in the 2tbsp water.

6. Take the pan off the heat. Immediately pour in the flour and salt and mix well. You will have a fairly dry, crumbly mixture.

7. Tip the mixture onto a clean worktop and leave to cool for a few minutes.

8. Now add the quinoa flour and yeast. Knead everything together for about 5 minutes. You can use the dough to clean up any spare flour in your saucepan.

9. When everything is well kneaded you will have a springy dough. Fashion it into a fat rounded sausage the same length as your loaf tin.

10. Add the oil to the tin and roll your dough sausage to get it nicely covered in oil (this stops the top surface drying out and becoming hard and white when cooked).

11. Cut diagonal lines down the length of the loaf. Loosely add a sheet of cling film. Leave the dough to rise on your worktop for at least 6 hours (I do it for 12) until about 75% larger, obviously puffy and touching the sides of your loaf tin.

12. Place in an oven preheated to 220°C. Bake for 30 mins. After this time, turn the heat down to 180°C and bake for a further 20 mins. Cool on a wire rack.

You can watch the method in my video at: https://youtu.be/Kh04kz6Weso

Tomato, sweet potato and ginger soup

2018-11-29T08:32:00.001+00:00

Here's a simply wintry version of tomato soup – as a bonus it's vegan too! Adding the sweet potato and lentils makes it that bit thicker, while I love the slight gingery flavour as it's warming and makes me think of cosy things like open fires and snuggly blankets. Serve in a mug for that extra cosy-factor!
(By the way, if you want it guaranteed gluten free, leave out the lentils and check your vegan stock before use.)

Serves 4

800g fresh tomatoes
300g sweet potatoes
piece of peeled ginger about the size of your thumb
50g red lentils
2 tsp vegan powdered stock
500ml water
salt to taste

Roughly chop the tomatoes, sweet potatoes and ginger. Place in a large pan. Rinse the lentils and add those too, along with the stock powder and water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes until the sweet potato and lentils are completely soft and the tomatoes are starting to disintegrate.
Carefully blend until smooth, then sieve to get rid of all the most fibrous parts. At this point, you might want to add a bit more water if you like a runnier soup. Add salt to taste and then serve.

Cornflake flapjacks (vegan, gluten-free)

2018-03-19T08:31:00.000+00:00

These are the crunchiest, munchiest flapjacks ever, the cornflakes somehow imparting a fantastic caramel flavour that is quite different to normal flapjacks. Although I've adapted them to be suitable for vegan and gluten-free diets, the idea comes from a lovely lady called Pam who used to look after me when I was a child. She would come to the house on Wednesdays when my mother worked late, and I loved these flapjacks so much I made sure I got the recipe!
I've used some coconut oil here alongside the dairy-free margarine as the extra fat content is needed to give that lovely crunch (there's almost no coconut flavour, by the way). By all means just use 100g of margarine and omit the coconut oil, but be aware you'll end up with something denser and more akin to baked porridge.

Makes 16

75g dairy-free margarine

25g coconut oil

50g light brown soft sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

150g gluten-free porridge oats

75g gluten-free cornflakes

25g sunflower seeds

Preheat the oven to 170C.

Put the margarine, coconut oil, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan. Heat it on a low heat for about 5 minutes until the fats have melted and mixed with the sugar and syrup to create a toffee-brown liquid.

Weigh the oats, cornflakes and sunflower seeds into a big bowl. Pour everything into the pan. Stir well until everything has mixed together.

Pour the flapjack mixture into a 20cm square baking tin. Smooth the mixture using the back of a metal spoon.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. While the mixture is hot, mark out 16 squares using the end of a fish slice. Let them cool before using a sharp knife to finish cutting the squares and removing them from the tin.

Vegan blueberry and vanilla chia seed pudding

2018-01-31T22:29:00.000+00:00

I had always wondered what chia seeds were good for, apart from being fantastically high in fibre - there's only so much raw seed you can sprinkle over food, after all. But then I discovered chia seed pudding, and have become slightly obsessed by it. Here's my take on it - thanks to its long soaking time it ends up gorgeously thick, while the warm blueberry sauce at the bottom provides the perfect contrast.

Serves 2

2 tbsp chia seeds
250ml coconut drink (dairy alternative to milk)
2 tbsp dairy-free coconut yogurt
1/4tsp vanilla extract
1/2tsp maple syrup
50g blueberries

You need at least 24 hours for the seeds to plump up properly, so this is a dessert that needs a bit of planning. Start it one or two days before you want it. Whisk the chia seeds, coconut drink, coconut yogurt, vanilla extract and maple syrup together. Leave or overnight in the fridge, then whisk again. Give them another 12 hours or so, then whisk just before you want to serve.
Just before serving, crush the blueberries in a small cup and microwave for a minute to release the juice. Add the warm berries to the bottom of two dessert glasses, then distribute the chia seed mix on top. Serve.
(By the way, oat milk works really well in place of the coconut dairy alternative, if you can have oats.)

Gluten-free pumpkin pie

2017-11-24T10:55:00.000+00:00

This American classic is inspired by an old Pennsylvania Dutch recipe and combines the earthiness of whisky, the toffee flavours of brown sugar and the slight acidity of yogurt to make an irresistible dessert that will fill your kitchen with mouthwatering aromas. If pumpkin is out of season, butternut squash works just as well. Serve either hot or cold, with a little sour cream.

Serves 8–10

For the pastry case

1 portion ready-made gluten-free sweet shortcrust pastry (or use my recipe here)

Cornflour for rolling out

For the filling

300g (12oz) peeled pumpkin flesh

100g (4oz) unsalted butter

80g (1/2 cup) dark brown soft sugar

85ml (1/3 cup) plain yogurt

60ml (1/4 cup) whisky

2 tsp cornflour

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

3 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180C. Chop up the pumpkin, place in a saucepan and add enough water to cover the chunks. Boil the pumpkin until tender.

Meanwhile, roll out the pastry to about 3mm (2/16”) thick and use it to line a 25cm (10”) loose-bottomed flan tin, sprinkling cornflour on the worktop to prevent the pastry sticking.

Once the pumpkin is cooked, drain off the water and place the pieces of pumpkin in a food processor or blender. Melt the butter and add it to the liquidiser, along with the sugar, yogurt, whisky, cornflour, cinnamon and salt. Blend until completely smooth.

Separate the eggs. Add the yolks to the pumpkin mixture and combine. Whisk the whites in a large bowl. Pour the pumpkin mixture down the side of the bowl with the egg white, then carefully fold everything together. Tip the mixture into the prepared pastry case and bake for about 45 minutes until the pie is puffy and browned. It will collapse a little as it cools, but this is normal.

Plum crumble muffins (gluten-free, dairy-free)

2017-09-07T09:41:00.002+01:00

‘Autumn… season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ as Keats (and Mr Kipling) used to say – and one of my favourite seasons. In our garden, the plum tree produced one measly, slightly misshapen fruit. But over at my friend Ruth’s house the branches of their tree are practically snapping under the weight. What to do with so many plums? It was time for muffins…

Makes 12

150g (1 cup) gluten-free plain white flour blend (Dove’s Farm is good)

50g (½ cup) ground almonds

125g (2/3 cup) granulated sugar

125ml (½ cup) sunflower oil

1 tbsp Demerara sugar

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

3 eggs

¼ tsp vanilla extract

grated zest of half a lemon

pinch of fine salt

200g (1 ½ cups) fresh plums

1 tbsp gluten-free baking powder

Sunflower oil for oiling

Place the flour blend, ground almonds, sugar, and half the oil in a food processor. Blend until you get a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs (if you don’t have a food processor or blender, whisk everything with an electric whisk).

Remove ¼ cup of this crumble mix and place in a small bowl with the Demerara sugar and ground cinnamon. Stir.

To the mixture in the food processor add the rest of the oil, the eggs, vanilla extract, lemon zest and salt. Blend/whisk for 30 seconds until thoroughly combined. Now leave the mixture to stand for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 160C. Place 12 muffins cases in a 12-cup muffin pan. Lightly oil the top surface of the muffin pan with sunflower oil in case over overflowing cake mixture.

Slice the plums in half and extract the stones. If they are large plums, cut them into quarters. Set aside.

After the 15 minutes’ standing time, add the baking powder to the cake mixture and blend briefly to combine everything. You’ll have a smooth, yellow batter with the consistency of thick custard.

Distribute the mixture equally between the 12 cases. Add plum pieces to each case, followed by a level tsp of crumble mix over the top.

Pop the muffin pan in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the muffins are risen and golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.

Like my recipes? Try my books!

2017-08-15T20:35:00.001+01:00

If you've enjoyed these recipes, why not try one of my books? Whether you're avoiding gluten or sugar, both books have over 100 mouthwatering recipes for every occasion.

Buy now! Just click the title.... Gloriously Gluten Free or Sensationally Sugar Free

E-A-S-Y lemon and olive chicken (gluten free, dairy free, egg free)

2017-08-08T15:57:00.000+01:00

Ok, so here's why I love this recipe. It requires no cooking skill whatsoever, it's suitable for people who can't have gluten, dairy, eggs, soya, sugar and/or nuts, you can scale it up to suit however many you need to feed – and it's tangy and salty and tasty!
Serve with some seasonal veg and midweek dinner is sorted...

Serves 4

6-8 chicken thighs/drumsticks
1 kg new potatoes, washed
1 jar pitted green olives (these don't need to be fancy, any cheap ones will do)
1 1/2 lemons
handful of fresh thyme
3 tbsp olive oil

Heat the oven to 180C.
Remove the skin off the chicken, place the chicken portions in a large roasting tin. Add the new potatoes. Add 1tbsp of the brine from the olives, plus the drained olives.
Add the juice of 1 lemon, the olive oil and half the thyme (leaves/small stalks only).
Stir everything, so you have an even coating of lemon juice, oil and brine across everything.
Pop it in the oven. After half an hour, stir everything again, squeeze over the juice from the half lemon, turn the heat up to 200C and give it another half an hour. Done!

Perfect gluten-free, dairy-free crepes

2017-07-09T10:31:00.000+01:00

I've just had the pleasure of demonstrating these crepes in the Doves Farm kitchen at the Allergy & Freefrom Show in Olympia, London - showing just how quick and easy they are to make. It's my latest effort in evolving the gluten-free (and dairy-free) pancake, and I'm delighted to be the one at the global forefront of this particular art form! So what's the secret? Potato flour (also known as potato starch), which helps make them super-thin and yet robust, with a little added brown rice flour to give flavour and fibre. Eggs and rice milk finish off the batter, which just requires a quick stir and you're done. Dove's Farm has lots of gluten-free flours under its new 'Freee' banner - and my message at the show was not to be afraid to experiment with them. There's no one replacement for wheat flour, it's all a matter of finding the best flour for the job.

Makes about 6

35g rice flour

55g potato flour

pinch of fine salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

125ml rice milk (or other milk substitute)

Sunflower oil for oiling the pan

Place the rice flour, potato flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the beaten eggs and start to whisk. Gradually pour in the rice milk. Pour the resulting batter into a jug.

Heat your frying pan to medium hot. Lightly grease it with sunflower oil. Pour on a dollop of batter and swirl the pan so your batter forms a thin layer across the base of the pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes until golden underneath, then flip over and do the other side. Place finished pancakes on a plate under a clean tea towel while you fry the others. Serve warm.

Lush hummus

2017-07-04T20:27:00.004+01:00

I make hummus all the time. But I've only just managed to post this because taking a picture of it looking super lush, rather than a mass of mush, is easier said than done. I'm quite pleased with this shot – some of my other efforts, using peppers or cucumber, looked like something from a bad 1970s dinner party.
I haven't always made hummus. For years, I was strictly a readymade kind of girl, but since reading Joanna Blythman's excellent book on the food industry, Swallow This, I've been looking at ways to reduce the amount of processed foods I eat, however healthy they might otherwise appear. So, homemade hummus it is.
The trick is lots of water in the mixture, and a good helping of lemon too. This gives you the moussy texture and lovely tang, in contrast to the rather earthy chickpea flavour. Don't forget a little garlic and salt.

(Want sesame seed free hummus? No problem, just switch the tahini for 1 tbsp sunflower seed butter and 1 tbsp olive oil.)

Makes about 250g

1 x 240g can chickpeas, drained*
100ml water
2 tbsp tahini (use 1 tbsp of the oil, 1 tbsp of the paste)
1 clove of garlic, peeled
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 tsp salt

For serving: a few extra chickpeas, a drizzle of olive oil and a little paprika

This really couldn't be easier. Just pop all the ingredients in a food processor/blender and blend for a minute or so until it's smooth. You might need to give it a little stir, then blend again for a few moments. Store in an airtight tub in the fridge.

* Obviously there would be even less processing if you used dried chickpeas instead of canned, but I'm fairly last-minute so rarely get round to doing this, despite all my best intentions. You need 125g dried chickpeas soaked overnight in plenty of cold water. Next day, place in pan and cover with water. Boil for 10 minutes, then reduce to a simmer for 40 mins until tender. Drain and allow to cool.

Gluten-free baked cheesecake

2017-06-18T11:52:00.000+01:00

The older I get, the more I am trying not to waste anything, so when I discovered I could make cottage cheese from soured milk, I was quite excited. Even more so when I realised the cottage cheese made the perfect beginnings of a baked cheesecake.

We rarely have milk go off in our house, but the other day it did happen because I accidentally left a couple of pints in the fridge and went away for 5 days. The milk was definitely a bit off by the time we came home, so I heated it to just below boiling then added in about 2tbsp cider vinegar. It curdled, then I strained it through a piece of muslin, rinsed it a few times and ended up with this rather grainy stuff (pictured below). Its ricotta-like consistency made me think it would work beautifully in a baked cheesecake, and as I had some raspberries and limes lying around I reconfigured a recipe from my book, Gloriously Gluten Free, to make it. I was very happy with the outcome, particularly as it had a glow of virtuous non-wastage about it!

Serves 4-6

For the base

125g (5oz) gluten-free sweet plain hard biscuits

50g (2oz) unsalted butter

½ tsp ground ginger

For the filling

25g (1oz) unsalted butter

200g (8oz) cream cheese (or the cottage cheese you've just made!)

125ml (1/2 cup) single cream

75g (1/2 cup) icing sugar

pinch of fine salt

2 eggs

zest of one lime, plus extra for decorating

200g fresh raspberries

Preheat the oven to 200C. First make the base: bash the biscuits into crumbs by placing in a sealed plastic food bag and hitting them with a rolling pin (or blitz them in a food processor). Melt the butter and stir into the crumb mixture with the ground ginger. Tip everything into a 20cm (8”) deep loose-bottomed flan tin or springform tin and use the back of a metal tablespoon to compact the crumbs.

Now make the filling. Melt the butter and tip into a large bowl. Tip in the cream cheese and stir until you have a lump-free mixture. Gradually add the cream, followed by the icing sugar and salt. Separate the eggs. Stir the yolks into the cream cheese mixture; whisk the egg whites until they form firm peaks and fold into the cheese mixture. Stir in the lime zest, then pour the mixture onto the base.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 160C and cook for a further 35 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean and it has risen and browned all over. Remove from the oven. The filling will sink as it cools, but this is normal. You can either eat the cheesecake warm or chill it before serving.

Serve with a little extra grated lime zest and fresh raspberries.

A colour explosion

2017-06-18T10:59:00.002+01:00

This salad came to me in a moment of fridge-based-leftover inspiration, but I just love its bright colours. Simply throw together chopped cooked beetroot, supersweet peppers, Parma ham, mozzarella, rocket, baby tomatoes and pumpkin seeds, add some sunshine and serve!

My grandmother's elderflower cordial

2017-06-18T10:53:00.003+01:00

The elder bushes are in flower – so now is the moment to steep them in sugar syrup to make your own luscious elderflower cordial. This is a recipe handed down through generations of my family and uses brown sugar, hence the yellowy colour. The citric acid helps to preserve it (and gives a lovely tang), but if you are planning to use the cordial quickly and can store it in the fridge, then you could substitute the citric acid for the juice of 4 lemons.

Elderflower heads are best sourced on a dry morning, from a site away from roads. Simply snip them off the bush using scissors. You want ones that aren’t covered in blackfly (though a few bugs are inevitable and will be filtered off later) and don’t lose their little flowerlets when you shake them. Ideally, you want large heads, about the size of a side plate. Remove the thickest green stalks before moving onto the next stage, below.

Makes about 2.5litres

1kg granulated sugar

1 kg Demerara sugar

1litre boiling water

80g citric acid

2 lemons, washed and sliced

20 large elderflower heads

In a large pan, stir together the sugar and boiling water over a medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved (don't let the sugar burn). Add the citric acid. Once that is also dissolved, take the pan off the heat.

Stir in the sliced lemons and elderflower heads. Place a lid on top and leave for a couple of days.

Strain through a piece of muslin placed in a sieve and decant into sterilised bottles with tight lids. The cordial should keep for a few months in a cool dark place.

Dilute the cordial to taste - delicious served with some chopped fresh mint.

Cooking for allergies

2017-06-18T10:45:00.003+01:00

It’s good practice to ask anyone coming to eat if they have allergies of any type first – particularly since you may be making dishes that don’t usually contain things they’d watch out for – eg. the cakes from my blog sometimes contain lemon juice and soya, so not suitable for someone with a citrus or soya allergy.

If you are cooking for someone with an allergy, always read all the labels of the ingredients thoroughly before you use them to check that they are OK and don't contain food traces that might cause a problem (when you start really researching this you discover many seemeingly innocent foods could contain allergens because of the factory they’re processed in). You might even want to get your guests to check the ingredients too, just to make sure.

You’ll also need to ensure your surfaces, utensils. baking trays etc. are scrupulously clean before cooking in case there are a few stray crumbs that might cause a problem.

Beware also of jars of jam, pickle (and similar), that could be contaminated with butter, breadcrumbs or peanut butter, or whatever.

If you want any more advice, check out the Allergy UK website, which has many informative factsheets about dealing with food allergies (Click here)

Chewy strawberry meringue - dairy-free

2017-06-18T09:41:00.000+01:00

This possibly the world's best meringue.. the kind with that marshmallowy and chewy centre and crumbly outside. The real secret ingredient, however, is the elderflower vinegar, which lends a extra special dimension to the flavour (recipe below - if you'd like to make some, you might just find a few elderflowers still around or just use cider vinegar instead). This is suitable for both gluten-free and/or dairy-free diets.

Serves 6-8

For the meringue
6 egg whites
200g caster sugar
100g soft light brown sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp elderflower vinegar

For the topping
300ml coconut yogurt (or whipped cream if you can have dairy)
400g fresh strawberries, leaves removed

Preheat the oven to 140C. Line a baking sheet with silicone-impregnated baking parchment.
Whisk the egg whites until very stiff - you'll know you're at the right point if the whites don't slide around if you tip the bowl to the side. Gradually whisk in the caster sugar and light brown sugar to form a dense meringue.
In a cup, stir together the cornflour and vinegar until smooth. Now transfer the meringue mixture to a the baking sheet, using a spatula to smooth and shape it into a large circle. Bake for 1.5 hours until browned. Allow to cool on the baking sheet, then carefully peel off the baking paper and transfer to a large serving plate.
Just before serving, spread the yogurt over the meringue and top with the strawberries.

Elderflower vinegar
300ml white wine vinegar or cider vinegar
About 20 elderflower heads

Place the elderflower heads in a jar and pour vinegar over the top. Seal the jar, then leave for 10 days. After that time our the vinegar through a funnel lined with filter paper or piece of kitchen paper towel into a bottle. The vinegar will keep for up to a year in a cupboard.

Double chocolate muffins – gluten-free and dairy-free

2016-09-09T07:25:00.000+01:00

The poor chocolate muffin. So often consigned to plastic wrap and kept moist with who-know-what additives. But there is another way! Treat yourself to 12 magnificently light muffins made with real ingredients, that can easily be made dairy-free, as necessary. Part of what makes them so moist is the super sloppy batter, but this does mean the choc chunks don’t distribute evenly through muffin, not that this bothers me. If you prefer a more even chunkiness and don’t need them dairy-free, use 60g butter and 60ml (1/4 cup) oil instead of just oil.

Makes 12

150g (1 cup) gluten-free plain white flour blend

50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder

150g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar

180ml (3/4 cup) milk or soya milk

125ml (½ cup) sunflower/canola oil

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tsp gluten-free baking powder

100g dark or milk chocolate, chopped into small chunks

Place the flour blend, cocoa powder, sugar, milk/soya milk, sunflower oil, eggs and vanilla in a food processor and blend for about 10 seconds.

Now leave the mixture for 20 minutes – this is the magic step that prevent grittiness and avoids the need for additives like xantham gum. While you wait, preheat the oven to 160C and drop 12 muffin cases into a 12-cup muffin pan.

For the final stage, dust the top of the batter with the baking powder and whizz everything for a further couple of seconds. Pour the sloppy mixture equally between the cases, then drop in chocolate chunks into each one.

Pop the muffin pan in the oven for 20 minutes until risen. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.

Pea soup and tea brack - from British fields

2016-06-08T17:25:00.000+01:00

Above: Instant GF & DF pea soup

Hodmedod's is an up-and-coming name in the wholefoods world and rightly so. If you’ve not come across the brand before, it is based in Suffolk and works with British farmers to create a range of pulses and grains – some tinned, some dried, some salted as snacks, and some milled (like the ones I was sent to try out).

I love the packaging – retro brown paper bags, arty labels and a few suggestions for use as well. These came in handy. The quinoa flour, fava bean flour and yellow and green pea flours were undeniably pretty, but what would they actually be good for, I wondered? They are all gluten-free, so I did a few initial taste tests and decided to experiment with the fava bean and quinoa flours to make a classic from my mother’s kitchen – tea brack.

It’s the simplest cake ever: 1 mug of strong tea, 1 mug of raisins, ½ mug of sugar, 2 mugs of self-raising flour and an egg. I made two versions, one where I replaced the flour with fava bean, the other with quinoa. The results were baked, sliced and spread with butter… I can report that the ‘bean’ flavour of fava beans does not make it the best choice. The quinoa worked really well though – and to think that the healthy benefits of quinoa can be enjoyed mid-morning in a cake made it especially exciting.

The yellow pea flour and fava bean flour would make good gram flour substitutes, and I have a fab chocolate cake that they could be tried in (see here). But the green pea flour got me scratching my head a little more. It really is very green, and the pea flavour is pretty obvious. Luckily there were some suggestions on the pack – pancakes and soup. Yes, yes, I thought… I can see that you could add an egg and some milk, whip up some savoury pancakes and serve with eg. smoked salmon, sour cream and chives, lovely. But what of the soup…?

A few experiments later and I managed to create a fab alternative to a Cup-a-Soup for those days when you need something instant (and frankly, who doesn’t?). I’d happily have a stash of this in my cupboard and in fact I have just enjoyed some of it for lunch. Virtue and convenience… who can resist it?

Gluten-free, dairy-free tea brack

Serve sliced with butter or margarine, best eaten in the first couple of days.

1 mug of strong tea (cold)

1 mug of raisins

½ mug granulated sugar

2 mugs quinoa flour

1 egg

2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 160C, then oil a loaf tin with a little sunflower oil. Stir all the ingredients together until you have smooth batter and pour it into the loaf tin. Bake for 30 minutes until risen and golden. Leave to cool in the tin.

Dairy-free, gluten-free instant pea soup

2 tbsp green pea flour

½ tsp gluten-free and vegan vegetable stock powder

1 tsp humous (optional, but gives a creamier result)

approx. 300ml boiling water

Place the green pea flour, stock powder and hummous in a mug. Gradually stir in boiling water, taking care not to get lumps. Wait a minute while the soup thickens and the flour absorbs the moisture. Stir again…. You’re done!

The Great Gluten-free Muffin Experiment

2016-03-04T14:29:00.002+00:00

Aha, the great muffin experiment – which of my 8 featured gluten-free flours would work best when all baked to the same recipe?

Now, readers of my sponge cake experiment may recall that I deliberately used a) the recipe on the back of the pack, if it came with one, or b) a classic Delia Smith recipe for Victoria sponge because most of the flours liked to boast about how similar they are to wheat flour.

Personally though, I thought this approach was nonsense. Gluten-free flours are totally different in composition and behaviour to wheat flours although they may have a superficial resemblance. In the same way that I wouldn’t do a straight substitution between eg, mayonnaise and a Greek yogurt (which looks similar) in a recipe, neither would I do it with wheat flour and gluten-free flour.

So, for this experiment I have used my signature muffin recipe, specially developed for gluten-free flours. Its main point of difference is the thorough mixing followed by a 20-minute rest period. This is to take into account the fact gluten-free flours (specifically those based on rice flour) absorb moisture much slower that wheat flour. Raising agents are thus only added right before the mixture is baked (which caused a slight problem for the self-raising flours in my selection – more later).

FIRST: THE RECIPE

Orange Poppyseed Muffins (from my book Gloriously GlutenFree)

For the muffins

225g gluten free plain white flour blend

150g granulated sugar

180ml milk (or dairy-free alternative)

125ml sunflower oil

3 eggs

2 large unwaxed oranges, grated zest only

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of fine salt

20g poppy seeds

3 tsp gluten-free baking powder

For the icing

100g (2/3 cup) icing sugar

2 1/2 tsp orange juice

Place the flour, sugar, milk, oil, eggs, orange zest, vanilla and salt into a food processor. Blend for a good 30 seconds (if you don’t have a food processor, whisk everything for a minute with an electric whisk). Now leave the mixture to stand for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 160C. Drop 12 muffin cases into a 12-cup muffin pan.

After the 20 minutes standing time, add the poppy seeds and the baking powder and blend briefly to combine everything. You’ll have a runny mixture, but this is normal.

Pour out the mixture equally between the 12 cases. Pop the muffin pan in the oven for 20 minutes until slightly golden. Remove from the oven and leave them to cool in the tin.

Make the icing by mixing the icing sugar and orange juice together; place a dollop on the top of each muffin. If you like, grate a little extra orange zest onto the top of each muffin to decorate.

VARIATION

You can make a dairy-free version of this recipe by using soya milk in the place of the milk.

SECOND: THE FLOURS

This time I decided to test 8 gluten-free flours. They were:

1. Isobel’s Gluten Free and Dairy Free Sponge Cake mix

2. Juvela Gluten-free Harvest White Mix

3. Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free 1 to 1 Baking Flour

4. Mrs Crimble’s Muffin & Sponge Mix

5. Glutafin Multipurpose Fibre Mix

6. Orgran Self-raising Flour

7. Dove’s Plain White Flour

8. And a very exciting new wholegrain legume-free, rice-free flour by the FreeFrom Fairy which I like to call ‘Fairy Dust!’

For the flours that already included raising agent in the mix (Isobel’s, Orgran and Mrs Crimble’s), I added no further raising agent. In the case of Mrs Crimble's I didn’t add the sugar either (it has sugar added already). Otherwise, they were all treated the same and baked in the oven for 20 minutes as per the recipe. The colours varied from very pale (Isobel’s) to brownish (FreeFrom Fairy), though some of this was down to my oven. Some mixtures became very thick and gloopy, most notably the Orgran and Bob’s Red Mill. Otherwise, the batter was fairly sloppy. There was a variety of results when I opened the oven, as you’ll see on the pic.

THIRD: THE BAKED RESULTS

The most notable casualty of my delayed baking approach was the Orgran, which collapsed after it was removed from the oven and had an ultra-springy texture. Otherwise, though, I felt all the mixes performed well in that respect. The quality of the muffin sponge varied – some had quite obvious holes (such as Bob’s), some were very moist (Mrs Crimble’s) and some much dryer (Glutafin).

After our blind tasting, there were two that stood out, flavour-wise – the Isabel’s mix had a strong vanilla taste, but this was no doubt because I realised too late there was already vanilla added to the dry cake mix; and the FreeFrom Fairy flour which had a slight hint of buckwheat. The others all tasted pretty much the same, with textural and moistness differences the main variation between them.

Overall, our three favourites were the Mrs Crimble’s, Dove’s Farm and FreeFrom Fairy. Mrs Crimble’s was the kids’ favourite – mainly I think because it seemed more moist, possibly helped by the blend of additives, which didn’t endear it to me after reading the label*. My favourite was therefore Dove’s Farm, a straightforward blend of gluten-free flours**. FreeFrom Fairy’s blend performed really well too – it rose beautifully, looked good and didn’t crumble into pieces – for anyone wishing to cut down on/avoid rice I’d say give it a whirl.

Regardless of your favourite flour, try my recipe above. If you’d like to experiment with a few other alternative techniques, my book Gloriously Gluten Free has a number of different ones for you to try, which helps cut down (or even eliminate) the need for gums or other additives – even in yeast cookery.

*Mrs Crimble’s ingredients: Sugar, maize flour, rice flour, potato starch, emulsifiers (mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids and polyglycerol esters of fatty acids), raising agents (disodium dihydrogen phosphate and sodium bicarbonate), salt, stabiliser (xanthan gum), flavouring

**Dove’s Farm ingredients: Rice flour, potato flour, tapioca flour, maize flour, buckwheat flour

Pancakes – gluten-free, egg-free or dairy-free

2016-02-09T09:16:00.003+00:00

Yes, it's that time of the year again and one of my personal favourites - Pancake Day! I had my perfect job when I was 15, working in a pancake van at festivals, and I was allowed to eat as many as I liked (which definitely made up for the low wages).

The beauty of pancakes - and here I mean a thin, crepe-style pancake rather than an American thick one - is how adaptable they are. Your batter should be the consistency of single cream and you need a smear of oil/butter to get that pretty

Want your pancakes EGG FREE?
So easy - just mix wheat flour and milk together until you have batter of the right thickness. This might come as a surprise because it's always felt that eggs are needed as a binding agent. While this is true in some recipes (see my gluten-free pancakes, below), it's not true when you have wheat flour because the gluten in it acts like a brilliant binder with no extra help needed.

Want your pancakes DAIRY FREE?
This is even easier! The milk in pancake recipes could just as easily be replaced with a non-acidic alternative, eg. soya milk, rice milk, almond milk etc - even water!

Want your pancakes GLUTEN FREE?
As mentioned in my bit about eggs, it's the gluten in pancakes that allows you to get them super-thin. However, there is a way to replicate this effect without needing to use additives like xanthan gum. Here's my recipe, from my book Gloriously Gluten Free. They take a little longer to fry than regular pancakes, so make them in the biggest frying pan you have.

Gluten-free thin pancakes (crepes) - picture above and below

Makes about 8

35g brown rice flour
250ml milk or milk alternative
250ml water
55g potato flour (potato starch)
pinch of salt
2 beaten eggs
sunflower oil/butter for frying

Gently heat the brown rice flour and milk in a pan, whisking constantly, until you have a thick mixture. Remove from the heat. Slowly whisk in the water, followed by the potato flour and salt. Whisk in the eggs. Pour the batter into a jug.

Lightly grease your frying pan before use (I use a scrumpled-up piece of paper kitchen towel dipped in butter or oil). Pour on a dollop of batter and swirl the pan so your batter forms a thin layer across the base of the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes until golden underneath, then flip over and do the other side.

Place finished pancakes on a plate under a clean tea towel while you fry the others. Serve warm.

Recipes from my new book, Sensationally Sugar Free

2016-01-10T10:57:00.001+00:00

Cream cheese & apple twists, pistachio kulfi and sticky date & apple cake - just some of the recipes from my new book, Sensationally Sugar Free by Hamlyn. A handy recipe finder at the front lists which recipes are gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan or contain no eggs or nuts.

A 'free-from' Danish apple cake

2015-11-10T09:41:00.002+00:00

It’s tempting to think that gluten-free flours will behave similarly to wheat flour because they look the same. But it’s just not true. In many ways their properties quite different and therefore we can’t really expect recipes developed for wheat flour to give good results with gluten-free flour. Manufacturers would like us to think that we can – but this is why they end up loading their products with additives of one sort and other (gums, like xanthan gum, are an example).

If you’d prefer to avoid additives when you can, then I totally sympathise. But is it possible? Well, yes. I spent hours and hours developing new methods for my book, Gloriously Gluten Free, which included making non-gritty, non-crumbly cakes that contained no additives whatsoever. All that was needed was a new method. Most gluten-free flour blends contain rice flour as a major component, but it tends to give a gritty feel when baked and can be very crumbly. But cooked rice is not gritty and it gets really claggy! Using this flash of inspiration, I just pre-cooked some of my cake batter. Ta-da! The results I wanted…

This cake is based on the cover star of Gloriously Gluten Free, a delicious strawberry sponge. Here I’ve adapted it to a more autumnal theme, using mixed spice and apples. If you want it dairy free or egg free, just see my adaptations at the end. I think it’s great served with some CoyoVanilla dairy-free yogurt, or crème fraiche.

Serves 8

150g unsalted butter

150g light brown soft sugar

125ml water

200g gluten-free plain white flour blend (choose one with no additives, eg Doves Farm)

70g ground almonds

2 tsp gluten-free baking powder

½ tsp mixed spice

pinch of fine salt

4 eggs

300g peeled cooked apples, thinly sliced

1 tbsp flaked almonds

2 tsp Demerara sugar

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Sunflower oil for oiling the tin

Melt the butter with the sugar and water in a saucepan on a medium-high heat. Add the flour blend and then whisk constantly. The mixture will thicken – keep whisking to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan. Don’t worry about small lumps.

Once you have a thick paste, remove the pan from the heat. Keep whisking for a further 20 seconds or so. Now set the mixture to one side.

Preheat the oven to 150C. Lightly oil a deep 20cm/8” cake tin with some sunflower oil.

In a large bowl, measure out the ground almonds, baking powder, mixed spice and salt. Pour the mixture in the pan into the bowl and add the eggs. Whisk everything for a minute (use an electric whisk if you have one).

Spoon out half the mixture into the cake tin and gently smooth it out to make an even layer across the tin using a spatula. Arrange half the apple slices across the top. Spread the remaining cake mixture on top, smoothing it gently with the spatula as before. Arrange the rest of the apple slices across the top, then scatter the flaked almonds, Demerara sugar and cinnamon to finish.

Bake the cake for about 40 minutes until it has risen and the apple slices have started to brown. An inserted skewer should come out clean. Let the cake cool in the tin before serving.

MAKE IT DAIRY FREE: Use dairy-free margarine in place of the butter

MAKE IT EGG FREE: Stir 4tsp Orgran No Egg egg replacer into 125ml water. Use in place of the eggs.

Looking for the best gluten-free sponge

2015-09-09T15:28:00.004+01:00

With so many gluten-free flour blends on the market, it can be really tricky to know which performs best. I have done a lot of gluten-free cookery and I think the things to bear in mind are a) whether you want your finished result to taste like the regular wheat-based version, b) whether you are happy eating lots of additives and c) how important the fibre content is.

Pure brown rice flour has a fibre content of about 2% and has a rather distinct flavour that can be noticeable in delicately-flavoured cakes. Some gluten-free flour blends are lower in fibre because they contain pure starches, like tapioca, potato or corn. They may also contain additives, sugar and milk powder. On the plus side, they tend to taste more neutral and are a better choice for a Victoria sponge, as I have discovered while trying to create my own.

However, with gluten-free foods moving more and more towards convenience, there are now lots of mixes dedicated to cake-baking, as well as others that offer high fibre. The question is, which would perform best as a basic sponge? I chose six popular products and made a classic Victoria sponge with each. If a recipe for sponge was given on the pack, I used it because I figured the manufacturer knew how to get the best from its product (Juvela, Isabel’s and Mrs Crimble’s). If not, I used Delia Smith’s classic Victoria sponge recipe and replaced the wheat flour for gluten-free.

My testing crowd (all able to eat wheat, and therefore well placed to compare with a standard Victoria sponge) were told to judge by tastiness, appearance and lack of crumbliness. I know how difficult it is to make a tasty sponge – in my book, Gloriously Gluten Free, I ended up using a pre-cooking method to prevent crumbliness without the need for gums and used some ground almonds give it that can’t-resist-another-slice moreishness.

The six contestants were:

1. Juvela Gluten-free Harvest White Mix

Ingredients: Maize starch, rice flour, potato flour, modified potato starch, sugar, stabilisers (guar gum, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, sodium alginate), raising agents (glucano delta lactone, sodium bicarbonate), thickening agent (pectin), iron powder, niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, B6, folic acid

Sugar content: 4%

Fibre content: 2%

Bonus: Added b-vitamins, iron, folic acid and calcium

2. Glutafin Gluten-free Multipurpose Fibre Mix

Ingredients. Maize starch, potato starch, sorghum flour, dextrose, thickeners (powdered cellulose, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose), maize flour, vegetable fibre, pea protein, sugar beet fibre, teff flour, calcium citrate, rice bran, folic acid

Sugar content: 6.2%

Fibre content: 12%

Bonus: added calcium and folic acid

3. Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free 1-to-1 Baking Flour

Ingredients: Sweet white rice flour, whole grain brown rice flour, potato starch, whole grain sweet white sorghum flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum

Sugar content: 0%

Fibre content: 4%

4. Orgran Gluten-free Self Raising Flour

Ingredients: Maize statch, tapioca flour, rice flour, raising agents (glucano delta lactone, sodium bicarbonate), vegetable gum (guar gum)

Sugar content: 0.1%

Fibre content: 1.5%

5. Mrs Crimble’s Home Bake Muffin & Sponge Mix (needs just butter, water and egg to make sponge)

Sugar, maize flour, rice flour, potato starch, emulsifiers (mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids and polyglycerol esters of fatty acids), raising agents (disodium dihydrogen phosphate and sodium bicarbonate), salt, stabiliser (xanthan gum), flavouring

Sugar content of sponge, baked as per instructions: 19.8%

Fibre content of sponge, baked as per instructions: 0.5%

6. Isabel’sDairy-free Sponge Cake Mix

Ingredients: Brown rice flour, potato flour, cassava starch, disodium diphosphate, sodium bicarbonate, vanilla flavouring, salt

Sugar content: 3.4%

Fibre content: 0.8%

My cakes were baked, filled with jam and served to my testers. There was quite a variation in appearance (eg see four of the cakes, above), with most looking as you’d expect although Mrs Crimble’s gave a very yellow cake and Glutafin was more brown in colour. Texture-wise, five were light, moist and springy and Isabel’s in particular was very bouncy. Unfortunately Glutafin’s Fibre mix did not perform well and turned to crumbs at the slightest touch, no doubt because it did not contain any added gums so scored very badly for this reason (interestingly, neither did Isabel’s, but it is a very starchy mix and the recipe used more eggs than a standard sponge, so this may be why that cake worked well).

The flavour varied from cake to cake. While most were good, or just OK, in some cases we felt it would actually be difficult to eat a whole slice. The mouthfeel and textures also varied somewhat.

There were two stand-out performers: In second place was Juvela’s Gluten-free Harvest White Mix, which had a delicate flavour, and a bouncy and well-risen texture, placed in first or second place by five reviewers.

The obvious winner was Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free 1-to-1 Baking Flour – five out of six reviewers placed it first. It was golden, looked the part, had a good level of fibre and produced a tasty all-round sponge that resulted in one reviewer saying she “wouldn’t complain if it was served to me in a cake shop”. Well done Bob!

NEXT TIME: I compare this lot while making muffins!

A mess suitable for everyone

2015-07-05T09:39:00.000+01:00

Here's a great idea for a summery dessert or day in front of the tennis, inspired in a moment of slightly alcohol-fuelled brilliance: basically it's an Eton Mess with Pimms!
Even better, it can be made to suit just about anyone, simply follow my dairy-free/egg-free/vegan or low fat variations. I've deliberately been a bit vague about the ingredient quantities because this is a dessert that benefits from a rather laid-back approach - just fling some bits in a bowl and stir.

Gluten free
(Per person)
One ready-made meringue nest
Handful of fresh strawberries, roughly chopped
3 tbsp Greek yogurt (or whipped cream if you're feeling particularly indulgent)
1 tsp Pimms
1 tsp shredded fresh mint

Crush the meringue into chunks and stir with the strawberries and yogurt. Place in a serving bowl and pour the Pimms over the top, followed by a sprinkling of shredded mint. Serve immediately.

VARIATIONS

Dairy free
(Per person)
One ready-made meringue nest
Handful of fresh strawberries, roughly chopped
3 tbsp soya/coconut yogurt
1 tsp Pimms
1 tsp shredded fresh mint

Follow instructions as per gluten-free recipe.

Egg free
(Per person)
30g Orgran No Egg
1/4tsp pectin
80ml water
40g icing sugar
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
Handful of fresh strawberries, roughly chopped
3 tbsp Greek yogurt
1 tsp Pimms
1 tsp shredded fresh mint

Make the meringue by following instuctions on packet, or this method: Mix the No Egg and pectin in a bowl. Whisk together with the water for 5 minutes using a high speed electric mixer. Add the two sugars one tbsp at a time and then whisk for a further 5 minutes. The foam will increase in volume. Spoon nest shapes onto a baking sheet lined with silicone-impregnated baking paper and bake at 130C for 2 hours. At this point, switch the oven off but do not open the door. Leave until the oven has cooled. Excess meringues can be stored in an airtight container for another day.
Crush the meringue nest into chunks and stir with the strawberries and yogurt. Place in a serving bowl and pour the Pimms over the top, followed by a sprinkling of shredded mint. Serve immediately.

Vegan
(Per person)
30g Orgran No Egg
1/4tsp pectin
80ml water
40g icing sugar
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
Handful of fresh strawberries, roughly chopped
3 tbsp soya/coconut yogurt
1 tsp Pimms
1 tsp shredded fresh mint

Make the meringue by following instuctions on packet, or this method: Mix the No Egg and pectin in a bowl. Whisk together with the water for 5 minutes using a high speed electric mixer. Add the two sugars one tbsp at a time and then whisk for a further 5 minutes. The foam will increase in volume. Spoon nest shapes onto a baking sheet lined with silicone-impregnated baking paper and bake at 130C for 2 hours. At this point, switch the oven off but do not open the door. Leave until the oven has cooled. Excess meringues can be stored in an airtight container for another day.
Crush the meringue nest into chunks and stir with the strawberries and yogurt. Place in a serving bowl and pour the Pimms over the top, followed by a sprinkling of shredded mint. Serve immediately.

Low fat
(Per person)
One ready-made meringue nest
Handful of fresh strawberries, roughly chopped
3 tbsp fat-free yogurt
1 tsp Pimms
1 tsp shredded fresh mint

Follow instructions as per gluten-free recipe.

End of season soup

2014-11-02T14:42:00.002+00:00

It’s a blustery autumn day and I’ve just taken down the tomatoes vines and chilli plants in the greenhouse. In fact, the best crop this year came from a tomato that seeded itself among the strawberries outside and spread its verdant tentacles across most of the vegetable patch. I picked most of the 100+ tomatoes it produced some time ago and left them to ripen in the greenhouse. Today I have rinsed them, chopped them (pictured above) and mixed them with a few other ends of veg to create a warming soup. The recipe is loosely based on my tomato and basil soup, but this version is deliberately somewhat vague – but that’s because it can be easily adapted to whatever you might have that needs using up. It freezes well too.

Weigh a mixture of Mediterranean vegetables (eg. Onions, peppers, tomatoes, courgette, chillis)

The same weight of vegetable stock

A handful of herbs (eg. Parsley, oregano, rosemary, sage and thyme)

Soya cream/oat cream (optional)

Salt and pepper

Wash and chop the vegetables, add the herbs and stock. Allow to simmer for at least half an hour until all the vegetables have become really soft. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

Rub everything through a sieve so you remove all the skins and seeds. Discard that part. You’ll have a smooth soup remaining - add salt and pepper to taste and stir in a couple of tbsp. of soya cream/oat cream if you like a creamy taste. Reheat to nearly boiling before you serve.