Category Archives: low gluten

Lemon Chia seed cookies (dairy free, low gluten)

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I know I know – not ANOTHER lemon and chia seed recipe but I’m really loving this combo at the moment and having fun trying out some recipes with them 🙂

This cookie recipe is a departure from my normal suite of ingredients as I’m using some Soya yoghurt. I’ve seen it in recipes before but never used it so thought I’d have a go! It can be substituted for silken tofu if you can’t have soya though.

These need to be flattened out really thin before you bake them otherwise they end up cakey and not crispy (but if you like your cookies like that then go for it!)

1 1/4 cup Coconut palm sugar/ raw unrefined sugar
3/4 cup Olive oil
3/4 cup Soya yogurt (natural or lemon flavoured works best)
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
2 1/2 Cups Spelt flour or gluten free flour blend
3/4 tsp Himalayan rock salt
3/4 tsp Bicarobonate of soda
Zest of 1 large Lemon (plus juice of half a lemon if desired)
1/3 cup Chia seeds

For decoration: Raw golden icing sugar and a few drops of lemon juice

Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees.

Mix the oil and sugar together until well combined. Add the Soya yoghurt and vanilla extract and stir well. Sieve in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix well. Finally stir in the lemon zest and chia seeds, and the lemon juice if you like your biscuits lemony!

The batter will be quite sticky and not like a traditional biscuit dough but don’t worry. Drop small spoonfuls onto a greased baking tray. Using the back of a fork flatten these out until they are only a few mm thick (unless you like your cookies cakey in which case don’t!). Bake in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them, if they start to puff up then just flatten them a bit with a fork. Bake until they are golden brown. Remove and allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cool you can ice them if you want to – just mix up the icing sugar with a few drops of lemon juice or water until you get a thick consistency then pipe over the biscuits 🙂

Lemon and Chia seed biscuits / cookies (dairy free, low/no gluten)

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They say better late than never eh? well I do anyway, and that’s certainly the case with this post. As you’ll see from the shapes I cut these biscuits out in these were designed as Easter biscuits but with everything I had going on this weekend with my sponsored cycle I just didn’t manage to get this post up before Easter sunday! I don’t think it really matters though. These are a nice light, crispy, biscuit that is great for any occasion. The lemon and chia theme is running through from my last recipe (lemon and chia seed muffins) – I’m a huge fan of lemon flavoured bakes and I’m loving chia seeds right now so apologies for that! 🙂

These biscuits are super easy to make and you can cut out any shapes you like. The dough can be a bit crumbly but it is just about manageable. This would be a good thing to try with the children over the holidays and they can have lots of fun decorating them. You can use any nut butter you like. If I’d had it I would have used almond I think as it works well with lemon, but the cashew is also pretty good – you get a hint of cashew but it doesn’t over power the lemon flavour and i complements the chia seeds nicely. These could be modifed with other flavours too – ginger, almond (using almond extract and butter), cinnamon – the world is your flavour oyster!

1 1/4 cups White spelt flour / gluten-free flour blend / Rice Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Himalayan rock salt
2/3 cup Cashew butter (or almond butter)
3/4 cup Coconut palm sugar / raw unrefined sugar
1/4 cup Almond milk, or other non dairy milk (soya milk, rice milk, coconut milk)
1 – 2 tsp Natural lemon extract
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup Chia seeds

If you are icing them – raw unrefined icing sugar and lemon juice

Preheat oven to 175 C. Sieve the flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl. Beat the cashew butter and sugar together until well combined (ideally use a hand beater, but if not then just stir a lot!). Beat in the milk until fluffy, followed by the chia seeds and lemon extract and zest. Stir in the dry mix with a spoon (or the beaters on a slow speed) until just combined. The dough will probably be quite crumbly. Gather it together with your hands and knead into a ball. At this point if the dough seems too dry then add a tablespoon of warm water. You don’t want the dough to be too moist, but it does need to be handleable. I found it best to leave the dough a bit crumbly and just roll out small amounts at a time. If your nut butter was very runny you may need to chill the dough before continuing. The dough can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days if wrapped well so you can make this in advance if necessary.

Roll out the dough until it’s a few mm thick and then cut out using cutters of your choice. You will probably need to use a palette knife to carefully move the biscuits to a greased baking tray. Bake in the oven for 12 – 15 minutes. I like my biscuits very well done so I tend to leave them in as long as possible! 🙂 They will be a bit soft when you remove them so allow them to cool for 5 mins on the tray, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Once cool mix up some icing – use enough lemon juice to create a pipeable paste and then use a piping bag to decorate the biscuits. If you don’t have a piping bag just use a small plastic sandwich bag – out the icing in to one corner then snip the end of the corner off and you can use it as a piping bag. Allow to set and then enjoy with a cup of tea!

Fun Fairy No-dairy Cakes – for you and the kids (or just you..!)

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Everyone loves a fairy cake don’t they? And I bet you all remember the first time you made them with mum, or dad, or gran or the cat! 😉 I certainly do and whenever I see them now they take me right back to those days – the excitement of watching them rise in the oven, getting to lick the bowl, and the best bit – icing and decorating them! So I thought, as spring is in the air, Easter is coming up, and school holidays are on the horizon that it was about time to post a fun recipe for fairy cakes that’s dairy free and low gluten for you to make with the kids. It’s not just for kids though – I don’t have kids and I still loved making them (not sure what that says about me though 😉 ) and better yet they’re only about 125 kcals each!

These went down well with my tasters Colette (from Pure Form Fitness Kitchen) and her hubby Rod, “better than normal cupcakes” apparently :). My Gran (who is 97 and an amazing baker) told me it was the best cake she’d tried so I take that as a good thing 🙂 See what you all think 🙂

1 cup of non-dairy milk (I used Soya milk but you could use almond milk or coconut milk if you prefer)
1 tsp Cider apple vinegar
1 1/4 cups Spelt flour
2 Tbsp Cornflour
3/4 cup Raw unrefined sugar/ coconut palm sugar
3/4 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt
1/3 cup Olive oil
2 1/4 tsp Vanilla extract
Raw golden icing sugar/normal icing sugar – enough to ice them!
Juice of half a lemon (if you want lemony icing)
Decorations – mini eggs, flake, smarties, your choice of non-dairy chocolate, sugar balls etc
Kids (optional 😉 )

Preheat oven to 350 F. Put the soya milk and vinegar together in bowl and whisk together, then leave to curdle for a few minutes. Add the soya milk mixture, oil, sugar and vanilla extract to a large bowl and mix together. Sieve the flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the liquid mixture and stir well until no large lumps remain. Pour into cupcake liners in a muffin pan – this should make approximately 15 cakes. Place in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Once done place on a wire rack to cool.

Easter fairy cakes 🙂

Wait until they’re really cool to ice them. Mix up some icing using the icing sugar and a few drops of fresh lemon juice (if desired) and water until you get a paste-like consistency. Ice the cakes and then let the fun begin – decorating! The world is your oyster – you can do whatever you like. For Easter why not try making some little chocolate birds nests or flowers, or you can have a go at a little bunny. To make the ears slice the top off one of the cakes (inevitably you will have one that has risen too high so you can use that) and carve into ear shapes. Ice lightly and then stick on with more icing. They tend to flop a bit but I kinda like that! 🙂 Then eat!

Dairy-free, Spelt Shortbread

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I have some friends who love shortbread so I thought I’d try to make some dairy-free, “healthier” shortbread for them. I’ve stuck with spelt flour here as it’s easier to work with than the gluten free flours but I may have a play around with gluten free blends later 🙂 This recipe was a little too sweet for my primary taster so if you don’t like things too sweet reduce the sugar to 1/3 cup. If you like things sweet then up the sugar to 3/4 cup 🙂

wholewheat shortbread

For my first attempt I used white spelt flour and olive oil, for my second batch I lowered the sugar to 1/3 cup and used wholewheat spelt flour and a mix of almond and hazelnut oil. I think I prefer this version – it’s nuttier and the wholewheat gives it a real crunch. It would be better with only almond oil I think but I didn’t have enough! 🙂

1 1/2 cups and 1 tbsp Spelt flour
1/4 cup and 2 tbsp Rice flour Rice Flour
1/2 cup Raw unrefined sugar (golden cane sugar or coconut palm sugar)  (plus some to sprinkle on top)
1/8 tsp Himalayan rock salt
1/4 tsp Baking powder
2/3 cup Olive oil / Almond oil / Hazelnut oil/ Canola Oil  (Or butter 5 1/2 Oz)
2 tsp Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line an 8″ sponge tin (or shortbread tin) with greaseproof paper. Put the sugar in a food processor and pulse until it’s more of a powder. Don’t worry too much if you can’t get it really powdery – just make sure it’s broken down a bit. Mix the flours, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and add the sugar. Make a well in the centre and pour in the oil and vanilla extract, then combine well using a metal spoon. Keep going until you have a smooth dough then transfer it to the pan and press it down firmly. Using a fork make holes in the top and with a knife score the shortbread lightly into 8 segments. Sprinkle the top with raw sugar if using.

Place in the oven for 40 – 45 mins. Remove and allow it to cool in the pan for 15 minutes then score it again. Take it out of the pan and break the wedges apart and leave to cool on a wire rack. Stored in an airtight container. It can also be wrapped in clingfilm and frozen at this stage – just make sure when you defrost it you defrost it on a wire rack, outside the container you froze it in.

These are perfect with a cup of coffee and also make a fab gift for Easter, Christmas or any time in fact! 🙂

Marmalade Loaf – low gluten, dairy-free

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My mum makes excellent marmalade, marmalade so good even Paddington Bear would be licking his little furry lips 🙂 Soooo as it’s mother’s day weekend and in honour of my amazing Mum and her expert culinary skills I’ve decided to use her yummy marmalade and make a marmalade loaf! This is dairy-free and low-gluten. The oil makes it super moist and the tanginess of the marmalade really goes well with the sticky sweetness of the loaf. If you liked my scrumptious carrot cake or Banana bread you will definitely like this 🙂 If you find marmalade a bit too bitter for your liking, just up the amount of icing sugar in the glaze, or use a different preserve for the glaze.

200g Spelt flour (you could use a gluten-free flour mix if you prefer)
100g Raw golden caster sugar
1 tsp ground all spice
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
zest of 1 Orange
zest  of ½ Lemon
100g Currants, raisins and sultanas
140ml Olive oil or Almond oil
5 tbsp Homemade seville marmalade
125ml Soya milk
1 tsp White wine vinegar
2 tbsp Raw golden icing sugar
1 tbsp Coconut Palm Sugar/ raw unrefined sugar

Pre-heat oven to 150 – 160C. Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper.  Put the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, ground allspice, caster sugar, orange and lemon zest and dried fruit into a bowl with a pinch of salt and mix together. Put the oil and 2 tbsp of the marmalade in a pan and heat very gently to soften the marmalade. Don’t let the mixture get too hot. Once the marmalade has melted stir in the milk (it won’t combine properly but just give it a good mix). Pour all this into the flour mixture, add the white wine vinegar and mix well. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and place in the oven for an hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

While the loaf is cooking you can make the glaze. Add 3 tbsps marmalade and 2 tbsp water to a pan. Heat gently and add the icing sugar. Stir and continue to warm gently until it’s bubbling and syrupy. You may need to add more icing sugar to taste and to ensure it goes sticky. Whilst warm it will be runny though so allow to cool slightly if unsure. You can always reheat to make it liquid again.

When the loaf is cooked remove from the oven and pour the glaze onto the top of the load and sprinkle with the coconut palm sugar. Let it cool in the tin and don’t try to cut it until it’s cool (or if you’re like me, ignore that last bit of advice and have fun picking up all the crumbly bits as it falls apart 🙂 )

Better Buns! Hot cross ones that is…

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Last week I posted a recipe for dairy-free, gluten free hot cross buns. The taste was spot on but they were a little dense for my liking. I’ve still not worked out the best gluten-free flour mix to use but I had a go with spelt flour and tweaked the recipe just a tad and these are great! They’re not gluten-free, but they are low gluten and spelt flour is often tolerated much better by people with gluten intolerance than normal flour so they’re not awful 🙂

So basically I used white spelt flour, instead of the rice flour, corn flour and xanthan gum and upped the yeast a bit…and….. we have… yummy buns! 🙂 woohoo! 🙂

 

Almost “healthy” Sticky Toffee Pudding

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Ah sticky toffee pudding, possibly one of my favourite childhood desserts! A classic school dinner pud that always brightened the coldest, wettest school day. I’ve not had a sticky toffee pudding for years though, so when my favourite vegan, Mel, suggested I have a go at making one this weekend I jumped at the chance.

This one’s perfect as a comfort pudding on a cold evening, served with some dairy free custard. It definitely needs to be served warm, and you definitely need the sauce with it – and lots of it! The pud itself is not over-sweet, if you’re looking for something sweeter you might want to use unrefined sugar instead of the agave. but once you pour the sauce over it I’m sure you’ll find it will satisy any sweet tooth.

As a nice twist you can soak the dates in rooibos tea and make an earl grey caramel sauce (I’ll explain below!). If you don’t have the rice and quinoa flour you can substitute it for an all purpose plain gluten free flour mix (you also need to leave out the xantham gum if you do this), or if you just want to make it low gluten you can use white spelt flour (and again, leave out the xantham gum).

1 1⁄4 cup Dates, pitted

3⁄4 cup Warm water or rooibos tea

1 tsp  Baking soda

1 cup Rice flour

1⁄4 cup Quinoa flour

1⁄2 tsp Himalayan rock salt

1 3⁄4 tsp Baking powder

1⁄4 tsp Xantham gum

1⁄4 cup Coconut oil (melted)

1⁄3 cup Agave nectar or Sweet Freedom (or 1/2 cup Coconut palm sugar or unrefined raw sugar)

1 Tbsp Date syrup

1⁄2 tsp Vanilla extract

2 tbsp Ground linseed (flax seed) mixed with 1/2 cup water (or rooibos tea)

For the sauce:

1⁄2 cup Coconut oil

1⁄2 cup Coconut palm sugar or unrefined raw sugar (or Agave)

1⁄2 cup Coconut milk or Soya milk (infused with earl grey tea if you want – details below)

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 tbsp Cornflour or Arrowroot powder mixed in a small amount of cold water (to form a loose paste)

Preheat the oven to 175 C and grease 5 – 6 small ramekins. This recipe filled 5 of these mini loaf tins (which are brilliant by the way!) but you could use a larger tin and create one big pud!

Put the dates and water/tea in a small pan and simmer for 5 mins. Then let it sit for 15 mins until the dates are nice and soft. Meanwhile sieve all the dry ingredients (except the bicarbonate of soda) into a bowl. Put the coconut oil, agave, date syrup, vanilla and flax mix in another bowl and mix until well combined. Once the dates are soft add in the bicarobonate of soda and let it foam. Then lightly mash the dates before adding to the wet ingredients. Mix it all together and add in the dry ingredients and combine well. Pour into the greased tins. Place the tins in a bain-marie – I used a roasting tin with enough water in to go up to half the height of the load tins.

5 little puds in my version of a bain-marie just waiting to go in the oven

Bake for 30 – 40 mins until a skewer comes out clean. Keep an eye on the puds – if they start to get too brown on top then lightly place a sheet of tin foil over them to prevent burning. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack.

Now for the sauce! If you want to go for an earl grey (or any flavoured tea) sauce then you need to infuse the coconut or soya milk with the tea first. Put the milk in a small pan on the hob, add 1 tbsp of loose tea or 2 tea bags and gently warm it. Do not let it simmer or boil. Let is sit for a good 15 mins, then strain it for use.  To make the sauce melt the coconut oil in a small pan over a low heat. Whisk in the sugar, stirring continuously until it dissolves (approx 3 – 4 mins). You may find it won’t completely dissolve – don’t worry about this, it will still work. Ad the milk a little at a time. When you first add it it will spit and fiz and you’ll panic like I did and think you’ve mucked it up! Just stir quickly and then add the rest in one go, stirring all the time. You’ll find this will instantly create a smooth sauce.  At this point keep stirring to combine the oil (it does tend to want to separate out). If you like your sauce runny leave it as it is, but if you want something thicker then add the cornflour/arrowroot mix – stirring continuously whilst still on the heat. Stir until it thickens and then remove from the heat and pour into a jug for serving.

This pud NEEDS to be served warm so either eat it right away or re-heat it later 🙂 Enjoy the stickiness! 🙂

Pear and Almond Frangipane – Gluten and Dairy Free

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I absolutely LOVE almond and whenever there’s a frangipane or almond tart on offer somewhere you can bet that that will be the cake I choose. So when I came across this awesome recipe I just had to try it! It’s from Isa’s website but I’ve modified it to make it gluten free and substituted the margarine for coconut oil which is much healthier and less processed. My tasters almost didn’t get any of this as I pretty much inhaled it as soon as it came out the oven!

For the pastry:

2/3 cup Ground Almonds
1 cup Rice Flour / Gluten Free Plain Flour Mix / Spelt Flour (for low gluten not gluten free option)
2 tbsp Coconut Palm Sugar / Unrefined Raw Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt (ideally Himalayan Rock Salt)
6 tbsp Olive Oil
3 – 4 tbsp Cold Almond Milk

For the frangipane:

6 tbsp Coconut Oil (don’t melt it)
2/3 cup Coconut Palm Sugar / Unrefined Raw Sugar
1 and 1/4 cup Ground Almonds
2 tbsp Cornflour
pinch salt
1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
2/3 cup Almond Milk
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Almond Extract
4 Pears (I used conference pears as it’s what I had in my fridge!), peeled, cored and sliced

Preheat the oven to 175 C.

Start with the pastry. Put the ground almonds into a food processor with the flour and salt and pulse to combine. Keep pulsing and add in the olive oil gradually. Add 2 tablespoons of almond milk and keep pulsing. The mixture should hold together when pressed, if it doesn’t then add some more almond milk, pulsing all the time, until it does. At this point have a taste. If you want a sweeter pastry then add some more sugar until you get the desired flavour. Press it into a pie dish. This amount should do a 9 inch pan. Using a fork prick the base of the pastry shell and place in the oven for 15 minutes to blind bake.

Now for the frangipane (my favourite bit! 🙂 ).Put the coconut oil, sugar, ground almonds, cornflour, cinnamon and salt in a food processor and pulse until well combined and all crumbly. Slowly add the almond milk, vanilla extract and almond extract whilst still pulsing the food processor until it forms a thick batter. Pour the batter into the pre-baked pastry shell. Peel and core the pears, slice them in half and then into thin slices (about a 1/4 of an inch thick). Lay the pear slices in the batter – overlap them and push them in so about 2/3 is under the batter and the top is sticking out (so you need to put them in at an angle if that makes sense!). Bake the tart for 40 – 45  minutes or until the top is golden brown, then move the tart onto a cooling rack and cool for 20 minutes.

warning - this is seriously addictive

Because I used coconut oil, not margarine, for the frangipane this came out as rather like a treacle tart in texture. Now I quite liked that but if you want something a little more cakey then you might want to use vegetable shortening instead. I’ve not tried it yet (though I will be!) but a more solid fat should help with that. Personally I love the flavour the coconut oil gives and I can cope with a nice sticky tart! 🙂

Almond, Pear and Tahini Cake – gluten and dairy free!

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This is a recipe that a friend very kindly sent me from a newspaper clipping. I was a little dubious how this would turn out but I actually really like it. It’s got a lovely mix of richness and sweetness from the pear, some crunch from the almonds and then a fab very slightly savoury note from the tahini. I think you could probably reduce the amount of tahini and up the amount of date syrup if you prefer things sweeter. I tried this out on a couple of people without telling them what was in it and they all loved it so I think it’s a winner! 🙂

240g Tahini

260g Date Syrup

220g Rice flour/ gluten -free plain flour mix / spelt flour (if you want low gluten not gluten free)

100g Whole Almonds, chopped roughly (or pulversised in a pestel and mortar for a bit!)

150g Pears, peeled, cored and diced

250ml Pressed Apple Juice (the best you can get)

1tsp Gound Cinnamon

1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Preheat the oven to 170 C and grease a 23 cm cake tin (a smaller one will also work, you’ll just have a deeper cake!)

Make sure the tahini is well stirred as the oil tends to separate out in the jar. Add to a bowl with the date syrup and mix until well combined.  In a separate bowl add the flour, cinnamon, almonds and pear and mix together. Add the bicarbonate of soda to the tahini mix and stir well. Then add a third of the flour mix and mix well. Add half the apple juice and mix again. Add another third of the flour mix and the final half of the apple juice and mix. Then finally add the rest of the flour mix.  Stir well until combined then pour into a the tin.

Place in oven and bake for 45 mins. Then turn the oven down to 160 C and bake for a further 30 mins. For the final 10 mins loosely cover with foil. Keep an eye on this cake – because it’s dark it’s hard to see when it’s starting to be a bit too well done (aka burnt!), if it starts to look too done just pop the foil on sooner, otherwise it will look like mine! I like burnt edges on my cakes though so I was happy! 🙂 Once done remove from the oven and let it cool in the tin for 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack.

fresh out the oven!

As I said before, the people I tried it on who didn’t know what was in it loved it! My loyal tasters also liked this cake, though some thought it needed a bit of something to sweeten it up. You could add more date syrup and remove some tahini, or some chopped dates or prunes would liven it up a bit too. I’d say adding a good handful of dates would do the trick! I’ll be trying that next time 🙂

Raw chocolate truffles! :)

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As it’s valentine’s day I just had to give this recipe for raw chocolate truffles a try. I modified the recipe a bit – I subsituted the honey in the original recipe with Agave and because they tasted a bit sweet to me I added in a tablespoon of carob powder too. They’re not half bad for a healthy truffle and very easy to make!

a perfect post dinner treat

This will make loads! I cut the ingredients down by a third and it made 10 decent sized truffles, but I’ve put the original amounts here so you can decide for yourselves how many to make! 🙂

3/4 cup Raw Cacao Powder

2 cups of Ground Almonds

1/2 cup Agave Syrup

3 tbsp Carob Powder

1 tbsp Coconut oil

Dessicated coconut for rolling

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. If the coconut oil is too solid you may need to soften it first in the microwave. Once combined roll into truffles and roll in dessicated coconut. They can be eaten immediately but are best if chilled first – either in the freezer or fridge for as long as you can wait! 🙂