Tag Archives: healthy snack

Malt loaf muffins! Dairy and Gluten free!

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After seeing a post of some delicious looking malt loaf muffins my friend Vicky made I decided I simply had to have a go at gluten and dairy-freeing them! I love the spicy richness of malt loaf so was sure these would be divine. These also super easy to make and make a great grab and go brekkie if you’re on the run. Thank you for the inspiration Vicky! 🙂

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You will need:

1 2/3 cups gluten-free Oat bran (if you don’t need to go gluten free then go with wheat bran)

1 cup and 4 tsp Coconut sugar (or other raw, unrefined sugar)

2 tsp Rice malt syrup (or Agave)

2 cups Raisins and currants

2 tsp ground Cinnamon

2 tsp Allspice

1/8 tsp ground Cloves

1/8 tsp ground Nutmeg

pinch of Himalayan rock salt

2 cups of Almond or other non-dairy milk

2 cups of Gluten free flour (or Spelt flour)

2 tsp Baking powder

This mixture will make approx 12 medium sized muffins and 6 mini ones.

Pop all the ingredients apart from the flour and baking powder in to a large bowl and mix well. Allow to soak for a couple of hours so the bran absorbs the milk and forms a wet mush!

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Mix the flour and baking powder together really well and then add to the wet ingredients. Combine thoroughly and then pop in to muffin cases, sprinkle some coconut sugar over the top and bake for 20 – 25 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean.

These are delicious straight out the oven while still warm or will keep for a few days in an airtight container. You can also freeze them to eat later.

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Peppermint Triple Chocolate Candy Cane Brownies – gluten and dairy-free

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I’m a bit late posting this but hey, what can I say – it’s been christmas and all that 😉

I actually re-made this over this weekend so thought it was about time I posted the recipe.

This was a birthday creation for myself, to be shared with my favourite cake-eating friend 🙂 We are both fans of chocolate and peppermint so what better than this delicious minty chocolatey combo! The crunch of the peppermint candy canes on top really make this something special (you can use any hard mint candy for this).

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You will need:

1/4 cup Rice flour

1/2 cup Ground almonds

1 cup unrefined Raw sugar (golden caster sugar, coconut sugar etc)

1/2 cup almond oil (or coconut oil)

1/4 cup raw Cacoa powder

2 eggs (or 2 tbsp chia seeds soaked in 6 tbsp water)

1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt

1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1/8 Tsp Pure peppermint extract

Milk, white and dark chocolate chunks (optional)

For Icing

100g Dairy free chocolate

200 – 300g Unrefined icing sugar (adjust quantity to depending how runny you want your icing)

drop of Pure peppermint extract

a dash of warm water

Hard mints or candy canes, silver balls, any other decorations

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Preheat the oven to 170C and grease a 20 x 20cm square baking pan with parchment paper.

Mix the ground almonds, flour, cacao powder, sugar, salt and bicarbonate of soda together in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl beat the eggs (or if using chia seeds instead then soak them in the water). Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg (or soaked chia seeds), vanilla extract, peppermint extract and oil. Whisk together using a hand mixer until well mixed. It should be thick and glossy when mixed.

If you are the chocolate chunks stir them in now. Pour in to the baking tin and place in the oven for 20 – 25 mins until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack

Take the hard mints (or candy cane) and bash with a rolling pin in to small pieces.

Then prepare the icing. Melt the chocolate and then stir in the icing sugar and peppermint extract.

Use enough icing sugar to get the consistency of icing you want (if it’s too thick add a little water). Spread quickly on to the brownies and sprinkle the crushed mint and any other decorations you want to use on to the top! Then enjoy (with a big old candle if it’s your birthday 😉 )

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and in case you’re wondering if they taste good… well this is all that’s left of this weekend’s creation!
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Frangipane Mince Pie tarts

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I know Christmas is over, but I never tire of mince meat! I did actually create these before the big day but didn’t get a chance to post the recipe until now. This was created on request from a special friend for her discerning hubby, and they seemed to go down well … in his words “this is the best thing you’ve ever baked”…! 🙂

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So if you have some leftover mince meat then give this a go! These include a layer of marzipan which is optional but I think adds a fab extra almondy loveliness! Make your own (recipe here) or buy a block of plain marzipan – but do buy the good stuff (Neideregger is a great brand).

The frangipane does contain egg but I’ve also posted an egg-free version below too! 🙂

If you fancy making up a batch of mince meat specially then the recipe is here

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For the pastry you will need:

4 oz Buckwheat flour

2 oz ground Almonds

5 tbsp Agave nectar

Up to 6 tbsp Water

For the frangipane you will need (this will be enough for 4 small tarts – 5 – 6cm diameter):

65g unrefined Raw sugar or Coconut palm sugar

100g Ground almonds

1 Egg

50 ml Almond oil (you can use mild Olive oil if you prefer)

1/8 tsp Vanilla extract

1/8 tsp Almond extract (if you have it)

Ground cinnamon (for dusting)

Flaked almonds (for decoration)

125g Marzipan (optional)

Make the pastry first. Put the buckwheat flour and ground almonds in a processor and add the agave. Pulse and gradually add the water until it forms a dough. You may find you need more or less water. If it is too wet add a little more flour. Once it is forming a firm dough remove, wrap in cling-film and place the mixture in the fridge for 20 minutes or so.

Preheat the oven to 175 C.

Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out as thin as you can. Line mini tart cases (or one large flan/tart tin) with the pastry (you will probably have spare pastry left over). Brush with a little almond oil and then place in the oven to blind bake. They only need a few minutes – just until they start to brown very slightly at the edges.

Meanwhile make the frangipane. Pop the sugar and almond oil in a bowl and mix well together. Add the egg and extracts and mix again. Gently fold in the ground almonds until well mixed.

Once the pastry cases are starting to brown a little remove from the oven. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then spread a thin layer of mince meat (enough to cover the base). Thinly slice the marzipan and layer over the top.

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Then cover with a generous layer of the frangipane.Sprinkle flaked almonds over the top and a dusting of cinnamon. Then place in the oven for 15 – 20 mins or until the frangipane is cooked and a lovely golden brown.

Delicious served with custard or soya yoghurt at any time of year! 🙂

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Egg free frangipane recipe:

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

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. This frangipane takes a bit more baking than the one above so keep an eye on the tarts and just remove when done.

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Mince Pies! Gluten and Dairy Free!

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It’s mince pie time again! whoop! This year I’m trying out some mini ones – almost as I type! 🙂 but for now I thought I’d post my recipe for mincemeat and gluten and dairy-free pastry in case you fancy making a batch this weekend 🙂

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For the Pastry:

4 oz Buckwheat flour
2 oz ground Almonds
5 tbsp Agave nectar
Up to 6 tbsp Water

For the Mincemeat:

3 oz Bramley apples, cored and finely chopped
6 oz Mixed dried fruit (I prefer raisins, currants, cranberries and apricots)
1 oz Vegetable suet
2 oz Raw sugar (coconut palm or dark raw muscovado)
Juice and grated zest of half an Orange
1 level tsp of ground allspice
1 pinch ground Cinnamon
1 pinch ground Cloves
1 pinch grated / ground Nutmeg
1 small handful chopped Almonds
1 tbsp Date syrup

Make the pastry first. Put the buckwheat flour and ground almonds in a processor and add the agave. Pulse and gradually add the water until it forms a dough. You may find you need more or less water. If it is too wet add a little more flour. Once it is forming a firm dough remove, wrap in cling-film and place the mixture in the fridge.

Put all the ingredients for the mincemeat into a saucepan. Cook on a low heat, stirring frequently. Cook until the apple is soft and the mixture is thick – it may take some time. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180 C/ gas mark 6.

Lightly oil & flour a 12 muffin tin with almond, coconut or hazelnut oil. Remove pastry from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Roll it as thin as you can – a few mm. Use a round biscuit cutter to cut out 12 bases. Place them in the tin. Lightly brush with oil and use a fork to prick the base. Place in an oven to blind bake for 5–10 mins. Keep an eye on them – this pastry browns quite fast. Once the edges are brown and the middle is firm remove them. While the cases are in the oven take a smaller circular biscuit cutter to cut out the “lids” or you could use star shapes/ holly leaf shapes/lattice pattern – whatever takes your fancy 🙂

Place a generous helping of mincemeat in each of the cases and place your chosen “lid” on top. Lightly oil and sprinkle with a little cinnamon and raw sugar. Place the pies back in the oven and bake until golden (10–20 mins). Keep a careful eye on them. You want the tops to brown but be careful the bases don’t burn. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 mins, then remove and place on a wire cooling rack.

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Fight that grump! Chocolate, Cherry and Chilli Biscuit balls! Dairy and Gluten free

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We all get a little grumpy sometimes don’t we? When I’m feeling the grump I usually reach for the chocolate (Willie’s Cacao is my chocolate of choice!) but I thought this week I’d try something a little different! It’s still chocolate but with a kick, and I guarantee this little beauties will cheer up even the biggest grump!

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This a modified version of my great balls of biscuit recipe but I’ve made these bigger – cos you need a bit more biscuit to fight that grump 😉

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To make about 16 biscuit balls you will need:

260g Ground almonds

4 tbsp Raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder)

30g Dark, dairy-free chocolate (I use the Willie’s Cacao Drops but any dark chocolate chopped up small will be fine)

30g Dried cherries

5 tablespoons Coconut oil (melted)

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt

1/4 – 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)

1/4 – 1/2 tsp hot chilli powder (adjust to taste)

1 tsp Vanilla extract

4 tbsp Maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener such as agave or honey)

Preheat the oven to 170 C.

Put the dry ingredients in to a mixing bowl and combine thoroughly. Start with a small amount of cayenne and chilli powder at this stage (unless you are confident in how hot you want it 🙂 ). Then chop the chocolate and cherries into small pieces and add them in to the mixture. Add the coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract and mix together. Have a little taste and add more of the cayenne and chilli is required. I like it pretty hot so I added quite a bit! Mix it in well if you’re adding more at this stage. You should find the mixture will stick together when you squeeze it between your fingers.

Take tablespoon sized portions of the mixture and form in to a ball. Pop on a greased baking tray and flatten a little. Place in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes (start checking at 10 minutes). Remove when they are starting to brown. They will feel very soft when you take them from the oven but just leave them to cool on the tray and they will harden.

Enjoy with a nice cuppa and feel that grump melt away! 🙂

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Apple and Cherry Cinnamon Biscuit Balls

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Tuesdays are long, tiring days for me so I have just whipped up a batch of these bad boys to get me through!

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To make about 24 small biscuit balls you will need:

260g Ground almonds

40g Dried apple

30g Dried cherries

5 tablespoons Coconut oil (melted)

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt

1 tsp ground Cinnamon

1 tsp Vanilla extract

4 tbsp Maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener such as agave or honey)

Preheat the oven to 170 C.

Put the dry ingredients in to a mixing bowl and combine thoroughly. Then chop the apple and cherries finely and add them in to the mixture. Add the coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract and mix together.  You should find the mixture will stick together when you squeeze it between your fingers.

Take tablespoon sized portions of the mixture and form in to a ball. Pop on a greased baking tray and flatten a little. Place in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes (start checking at 10 minutes). Remove when they are starting to brown. They will feel very soft when you take them from the oven but just leave them to cool on the tray and they will harden.

Enjoy with a nice cuppa!

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Gingerdead men! Quick and Easy Spooky Biccies!

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Happy Hallowe’en!

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I couldn’t resist whipping up a few little Hallowe’en biccies today!

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It’s been a bit of a challenge as my oven is broken (yes, broken – an absolute disaster!) but luckily I was able to get the little mini part of the oven working so can bake really really tiny batches of things! Phew!

So these are so easy and so fun! You can choose to keep them plain or add some spices. I have also iced them with a cinnamon icing but you could keep the icing plain or add any flavour you want. I had such fun finding some cool little hallowe’en cutters but obviously you could just use any shapes! For the gingerdead man I used a normal gingerbread man cutter and then iced on the bones.

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You will need:

2 cups of Spelt flour (or gluten free flour mix)

1 cup unrefined Icing sugar

6 oz Dairy free margarine

Optional: 2 tsp ground Ginger or 2 tsp ground Cinnamon

For the icing:

1 cup unrefined Icing sugar

1 tbsp Soya, almond or coconut milk

Optional: 1 tsp ground Cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Put the margarine in a large mixing bowl, sieve the flour, icing sugar and spices (if using) and cream it together using your hands. Try not to over mix but make sure the margarine is properly mixed with the dry ingredients.  Once it’s formed a dough wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins. If you find the dough is too sticky then add some more flour.

Once chilled, roll out and use biscuit cutters to cut out the shapes of your choice. Use a palate knife to transfer them carefully to a greased baking tray. Sprinkle with a little raw sugar if you like and bake for 8 – 10 mins, or until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray.

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Mix the icing ingredients together and then pipe the icing on to the biccies. Enjoy!

These won’t last long!

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Salt and Spice and all things nice! The smallest pumpkin in the world and a yummy pumpkin seed snack! Re-post :)

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As if you hadn’t noticed, it’s that time of year again – PUMPKIN TIME! So as part of my drive to post all things pumpkiny I thought I would re-post this little recipe from last year!

I’m getting my hands on another one of these little munchkin pumpkins for this year, but in the meantime – here’s last year’s delights! 🙂

Well, when I asked for a small pumpkin I wasn’t expecting something quite as small as this….

But anyone who knows me knows I love a challenge so not to be thwarted I decided I’d do my best with this little munchkin of a pumpkin and lo and behold look what I managed to create! Scary eh?

So there wasn’t much meat in this little pumpkin so rather than create the pumpkin-based hallowe’en cake I had planned I decided instead to do something funky with the seeds. It’s a sweet salty treat which sounds odd but combines some wonderful autumn flavours. I adapted it from the SNOG healthy treats book.

Salty and Spicey Sweet potato, raisin, pumpkin seed yumminess!

So I started off by creating some salted roasted seeds. Take your pumpkin seeds, remove all the stringy bits of pumpkin flesh and put in a pan. For every half cup of pumpkin seeds add 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of salt. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and allow to cool slightly.

Then spread them out in one layer on a baking tray and place in an oven at 200 degrees C for anything from 5 – 15 minutes. Just keep checking them as it will depend how big the seeds are. Mine took around 8 minutes 🙂

These are yummy as they are or you can hull (de-husk) them if you really want to (I couldn’t be bothered!). Eat them just like this or use them in the next bit of the recipe.

Take 1 sweet potato and cut it into 1cm cubes. Spread on a baking tray with 2 – 3 tablespoons of the salted roasted pumpkin seeds. Add a handful of raisins and then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of coconut palm sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Finally drizzle over some coconut oil (approx 2 tablespoons) and place in the oven at 190 degrees C for about 20 – 25 minutes until the sweet potato is cooked through and the sugar is caramelised. Stir occasionally.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Then enjoy on it’s own or spoon it over some natural yoghurt (or ice cream!). It sounds odd but trust me – the sweetness of the sweet potato and raisins go really well with the salty roasted seeds and the cinnamon adds a lovely autumnal twist! Divine and healthy too! 🙂

Happy Hallowe’en!

Goodness, gracious, great balls of…. biscuit!

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I love a good biscuit with a cup of tea and am always searching for gluten and dairy free recipes for biscuits / cookies that actually work! I’ve tried so many and so often they end up too soft or too crumbly or too much effort to make! But I think with these little beauties I’ve found the perfect biscuit! It’s so easy to make and so quick – you can whip up a batch in 20 minutes!

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To make about 24 small biscuit balls you will need:

260g Ground almonds

60g Cacao nibs

5 tablespoons Coconut oil (melted)

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt

2 tsp Vanilla extract

4 tbsp Maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener such as agave or honey)

Preheat the oven to 170 C.

Put the dry ingredients in to a mixing bowl and combine thoroughly. Add the coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract and mix together. You should find the mixture will stick together when you squeeze it between your fingers.

Take tablespoon sized portions of the mixture and form in to a ball. Pop on a greased baking tray and flatten a little. Place in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes (start checking at 10 minutes). Remove when they are starting to brown. They will feel very soft when you take them from the oven but just leave them to cool on the tray and they will harden.

Enjoy with a nice cuppa! 🙂

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Blackberry Chia Jam

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I have spent a few lovely hours for the past couple of weekends foraging for wild blackberries in the local parks near me. I’ve had the pleasure of thinking up ways to use them (some of which will follow!), but the first and (in my humble opinion) most exciting thing I did was make up a lovely batch of chia jam! This recipe is also up on Colette’s Fitness Kitchen 🙂

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This stuff is lovely, it’s easy to make and totally raw so doesn’t require any cooking or setting or anything difficult. It will last for about a week in the fridge but could also be frozen too. The beauty of this is not only is it delicious but it is a great way to boost your omega-3 and fibre intake 🙂

You will need:

1 1/2 cups Blackberries (or any soft fruit)

3 Tbsp Chia seeds

1/4 – 1/2 cup Water

1 – 2 Tbsp Maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener) – if required (personally I like my blackberries tart so didn’t add any!)

Place the blackberries or other fruit in a bowl and mash with a fork until smooshed up but not completely liquid. If you need sweetener then add it to taste and then add the chia seeds and mix well. Depending how juicy your fruit is you may need to add more or less water but start with half a cup and add more if required. The chia seeds take time to soak up the water, so once you have added it allow it to stand for 30 mins to an hour before seeing if you need to add more. If the chia seeds are still crunchy add more (unless you like them crunchy, in which case don’t!). The longer you can leave the jam the better – ideally overnight, but at least for an hour or so. Enjoy it spread on toast, dolloped on top of yoghurt or just eaten straight off the spoon!

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Experiment with different fruits depending on what is in season. Raspberries also work well and I was lucky enough to pick up some discounted, very ripe nectarines in the market which made a delicious change.

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