Tag Archives: healthy snack

Mini Christmas cake – gluten free, dairy free cake, marzipan and fondant icing!

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A little while ago I posted a recipe for a gluten and dairy free christmas cake. I said I’d have a go at creating some marzipan and icing to go with it and I’ve managed it! Now, I know my icing skills are pretty poor so just over look that! I’m certain you guys can do a better job at laying the icing but this is my first attempt and I was going more for taste than looks….! 🙂

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I’ve used a rollable fondant icing and a royal icing for the decoration. Read the instructions for the fondant icing before you start as once the sugar is boiling you can’t really leave it to check the instructions! 🙂

The recipe for the cake is here.

For the marzipan (this will cover 4 small cakes – approx 3 inches cubed) – :

200g Ground Almonds
100g Raw icing Sugar
1 tbsp  Lemon Juice
2 tbsp Maple Syrup
1 tbsp Cold Water
1 tsp Almond extract

Put the ground almonds and icing sugar in a bowl and mix well. Make a well in the centre and add the liquid ingredients. Mix thoroughly. You should end up with a pastry-like dough. If it is too dry add a drop of lemon juice but be careful you don’t make it too moist. Wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least an hour.

For the fondant icing.

5 tbps water
1 tsp agar-agar powder or “gelatine” substitute (kosher gelatine is often non-animal based so can be used)
225g Raw icing sugar
1 tbsp glucose syrup
1 tsp glycerine (optional)

Put the agar-agar powder or gelatine substitute in a small bowl and add 1 tbsp of water and leave to soak. In a heavy-based saucepan, put the icing sugar, 4 tbsp water and the glucose syrup. Heat over a medium heat until sugar has dissolved, stirring gently all the time.

When the sugar mixture comes to the boil, boil for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the syrup has reached soft-ball stage. Now if you’re like me you don’t know what that means! It’s actually quite straight forward – it’s the point at which if you take a spoonful of the mixture and drop it in a bowl of very cold water that you can form a ball with the syrup using your fingers (once it’s in the water!). At this stage it will easily form a ball in the water and will flatten when you remove it. For me it was almost eactly 3 minutes of boiling so you could just go by that. If you happen to have a sugar thermometer it’s when it reaches 112 degrees C.

While the sugar is boiling warm the bowl that the the soaked agar-agar or “gelatine” is in (over a saucepan of simmering water is easiest) until it dissolves.

When the sugar has finished cooking, remove from heat and dip the saucepan’s base in cold water to stop it from cooking. Leave to cool for a few seconds and then add the agar-agar/”gelatine” and glycerine and mix well.

IF you have a marble slab or suitable work surface then grease it and pour the mixture out onto the marble slab, and begin turning and mixing with a palette knife until it becomes a paste and clay-like. If, like me, you don’t then you can leave the mixture in the saucepan and just keep turning and stirring it in the pan using a wooden spoon (you need to mix vigorously!).

At first, the fondant will be very fluid, but it will gradually harden. After 5 – 10 minutes of  mixing, the fondant will become very stiff, crumbly and hard to manipulate. At this point, lightly grease your hands, and knead the fondant into a ball. The fondant will begin to come together and become softer and smoother. Stop kneading when it is smooth.

Wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for at least an hour.

For the royal icing:

125g icing sugar
2 tsp soya milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1 tsp glucose syrup mixed with 1/2 tsp boiling water

Mix the icing sugar with the milk and stir until smooth. Add the glucose syrup and mix well. If it’s too runny add more icing sugar, if too dry add a little more milk.

Now to put it all together!

Roll out the marzipan on a greased board. Lay it over your cake. Roll out the fondant icing and lay that over the marzipan making sure you press it down firmly. Finally decorate using the royal icing. You can use a fork to create a “snow-like” appearance. Add silver balls, edible glitter or whatever you like to finish it off. Then place in the fridge to set! Enjoy! 🙂

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It’s CHRISTMAAAAAAASSS! :) Gingerbread christmas tree

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Christmas is getting near so I thought I’d have a bit of fun this afternoon, radio on, baking utensils at the ready.. and the end result…… me and my kitchen are now covered in icing powder and glitter, but it was worth it!

Gingerbread Christmas Tree! (gluten and dairy free, of course!)

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Something fun to do with the kids, or on your own!

To make the gingerbread biscuits (this quantity makes LOADS – probably enough for a whole gingerbread house! so if you are only making a few then halve the recipe or even quarter it):

1/3 cup Olive oil

3/4 cup unrefined raw sugar (golden raw caster sugar, coconut palm sugar, or dark raw cane sugar)

1/4 cup molasses

1/4 cup soya milk

1 cup amaranth flour / quinoa flour

1 cup gluten free flour mix (make your own or you can use an organic pre-mixed one. If you want low gluten not gluten free then go for spelt flour instead of the amaranth and gluten free flours)

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 and 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt salt

Whisk the oil and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the soya milk and the molasses and whisk all together. Sieve the flours, spices and baking powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda in to the wet ingredients and mix until it forms a dough. The dough may seem quite moist. You want it to be workable but not so sticky that you can’t lift it. Add a bit more flour if it is too wet. Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge to chill for an hour (the dough can be left in the fridge for several days so you don’t have to use it all at once. It can also be frozen).

Preheat the oven to 175 C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Roll the dough out on a floured surface. It’s worth trying small amounts of dough at a time and be generous with the flour. It will stick a bit but don’t worry. You want it to be rolled out fairly thin but not too thin – maybe 5mm thick or so.

To make the tree you need at least 3 star cutters of different sizes. If you don’t have them don’t fret. Draw some stars out on a piece of card and use them to draw around 🙂 If you want to make a massive tree then you could use more stars, I only had 3 sizes so 3 it was! You want at least 3 of each sized star. I used a tiny christmas tree shaped cutter for the very top, but you could use another star.

Cut out the biscuits and transfer to the baking tray. Bake for 8 minutes. Then remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. They will seem soft when they come out the oven but as they cool they harden. If you want super crispy biscuits just pop them back in the oven for another few minutes.

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For the icing:

1/2 cup raw icing sugar

1 tsp soya milk (or any non dairy milk)

1 tsp liquid glucose (not essential)

Mix the icing sugar with the milk until it’s smooth. If you are using the liquid glucose add that and stir well. If the icing is too runny just add more icing sugar until you get the consistency you want. Transfer to a piping bag (if you don’t have one then use a plastic freezer bag and snip the corner off to pipe through).

Assemble the tree!

This is the fun bit 🙂

Start with your biggest star and place it on the plate. Add a glob of icing to the centre and stick the next star on top (arranged so the points don’t overlap). I found it easiest to decorate each layer as I went, so pipe icing on to the points of the bottom star and decorate with silver balls, gold balls, edible glitter etc. Then add a glob of icing to the top of the uppermost star and stick the next one one… continue, going down in size until you get to the top! I then added a glob of icing and popped the tree shaped biscuit on the top. If it won’t stand up then break a small piece of biscuit and just pop it behind it to keep it upright 🙂

Finally dust with icing sugar so it’s all snowy-looking!

yay! 🙂

 

 

Limited Edition Christmas Bakes! :)

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I’m selling a limited number of my favourite Christmas bakes! 🙂

All gluten free, dairy free and suitable for vegetarians and vegans  (products do contain nuts though).

All orders must be placed by 14th December (orders will be posted by 18th December or available for pick up/delivered on 17th/18th) and numbers are limited, once they’re sold out they’re sold out so get your orders in quick 🙂

1. Mince Pies (pack of 6) – £3 (2 packs for £5)

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Generously filled, homemade mince pies. Cranberry and apple mincemeat and a buckwheat based pastry. Totally gluten and dairy free and only 164 kcals too! Deliciously sticky and full of flavour.

Delivery options – local pick up (free) (I can also do local delivery for free), 1st class post £2.70

2. Festive Tree Decoration Biscuits (pack of 6) –  £3 (2 packs for £5)

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Spicy and sweet christmas biccies. These biscuits are a great christmas treat and can even be hung on the tree. You could also get the kids involved and get them to ice them before they are hung up (or you could just eat them!). Totally gluten free and dairy free.

Delivery options – local pick up or delivery (free), 1st class post £2.70

3. Ginger Biscuits (pack of 6) – £2 (2 packs for £3.50)

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Crunchy, spicy ginger biscuits. Perfect for dunking in a cup of tea while you wrap the christmas pressies or put up the tree! 🙂 Totally gluten and dairy free.

Delivery options – local pick up or delivery (free), 1st class post £2.70

How to order:

  • Email me at pureandsimplebakes@gmail.com and I will send you a paypal invoice
  • OR if you are local to me then cash is fine
  • For orders of more than 1 pack I can combine postage 🙂

You can also order via these links:

Mince Pies: paypal cart button

Festive Decorations Biscuits:  paypal cart button

Ginger Biscuits: paypal cart button

Baking-tastic! :)

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This is how I will be spending most of tonight…

 

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To create these! 🙂

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Festive Biccies!

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deliciously spicy and full of festive cheer!

Originally featured on Colette’s Fitness Kitchen 🙂

I’m just baking up a big batch of these for the Xmas fayre tomorrow 🙂

These biscuits are a great christmas treat and can even be hung on the tree. They’re simple and easy to make – perfect for making with the kids!

a tasty tree decoration!

4 oz Buckwheat flour

2 oz ground Almonds

5 tbsp Agave nectar

Up to 6 tbsp Water

1 tsp ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Allspice

1/4 tsp ground Nutmeg

Pinch ground Cloves

Small amount of Coconut palm sugar or unrefined Raw sugar to sprinkle on the biscuits before baking

Preheat oven to 180 C. Add the flour, almonds, spices and agave to a food processor. Pulse and gradually add the water until it forms a firm dough. Adjust spices to taste if necessary. Once it forms a dough remove, wrap in cling-film and place in the fridge for 30 mins to chill.

Roll out on a floured surface and use biscuit cutters to cut out. If you are hanging them on the tree then use a sharp knife to cut a small hole near the top of the biscuits to thread a ribbon through later.

Place on a baking tray and bake, sprinkle with a little sugar and cinnamon and bake for 10 – 15 mins or until very brown. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

Thread ribbon through the hole and hang on your tree! 🙂

Heaven in a tub! CoYo coconut yoghurt review

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I am so so excited! I’ve been waiting to publish this post for a while now. I’ve mentioned this yoghurt a couple of times before so this review should come as no surprise! I first discovered this wonderful product in my local health food store but the fantastic news is that they’re now being sold through Ocado so everyone can get their paws on it! Wooohoo! 🙂

The wonderful people over at CO YO sent me some samples to review. I was sent the Natural, Raw Chocolate flavour, and the Mango one (in a rather nifty little cool bag – thank you! 🙂 ). There is also a mixed berry flavour and a pineapple one (which I’ve tried separately so I’ll give an overview of all of them!).

Firstly the thing I love most about these yoghurts, aside from the fact that they are dairy free, is that they are also totally free from added sugar. They do contain xylitol which is a low GI naturally derived sweetner though, but it’s low calorie and natural so I’m ok with that. They’re also gluten free (they contain tapioca starch but nothing else), nut free and soya free. To top it off they’re also probiotic, so all in all they’re just a little pot of amazingness!

My favourite comfort dessert of stewed apple, berries and toasted nuts and coconut with some natural CO YO! Yum!

All the flavours, apart from the raw chocolate one, are essentially the natural coconut yoghurt with a layer of fruit at the bottom (or not in the case of the natural one). The yoghurt itself is just so good – it’s rich, thick and creamy but still retains that yoghurty tang you’d expect from any natural yoghurt. They obviously have a coconuty taste about them but it’s not at all over-powering. The natural one is perfect on it’s own, or with nuts and seeds for brekkie, or in place of cream or ice cream with dessert. It works really well with my salty spicy pumpkin seed recipe I posted for hallowe’en too 🙂

The fruit flavours are all lovely. I think my favourite is probably the mixed berry but they’re all good. The layer of fruit is just about right – not too much, not too little. The fruit tastes lovely and natural, without that fake flavour you sometimes get in layered yoghurt products. Stir it in to the yoghurt for a yummy full flavoured treat 🙂 Again this is great as a snack or with your breakfast. I particularly like the mixed berry one sprinkled with some roasted hazelnuts as a dessert (or mid afternoon snack!).

The raw chocolate one is joint favourite with the mixed berry. This is simply divine. It tastes like an indulgent chocolate mousse and really hits the spot if you’re having a chocolate craving.

Look at that chocolately goodness! 🙂

These yoghurts are full fat, but there is increasing evidence that the fats in coconut products are “good” fats not bad so consuming more coconut-based products could actually bring you health benefits. In fact coconut is rich in medium-chain fatty acids which are processed by the body differently to other saturated fats and there is evidence that they help with maintaining weight without raising cholesterol. So if you’re worried that these yoghurts might be high in fat, then I really wouldn’t worry too much. We need fats in our diet, fat isn’t always a bad thing, and if you’re going to consume fat then this is a very good way to do it! The product is all natural and also delicious!

They cost a couple of pounds for a small 125g tub (they’re also available in 250g and 400g tubs for most flavours) but they are totally worth the price and you definitely get what you pay for, and in this case it’s heaven in a tub! 🙂

Salt and Spice and all things nice! The smallest pumpkin in the world and a yummy pumpkin seed snack!

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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!

Chocolate hazelnut Biscotti – Dairy Free, Gluten Free and yet more chocolate!

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As the end of chocolate week draws near I thought I’d finish with this little recipe which is another I’ve had for a while and not got round to posting. These do require double baking but it’s less of a faff than you think – honest! and it’s very much worth it!  I guarantee you won’t be able to tell these apart from “normal” (gluten filled, dairy filled) chocolate biscotti and they’re perfect with a cup of coffee over the weekend 🙂

I hope you enjoy it and do let me know if you try out this recipe and what you think of it (that goes for all my recipes!).

1/3 cup Almond milk
2 tbsp Ground linseed
3/4 cup and 2 tbsp Raw unrefined coconut palm sugar
1/2 cup Almond or Hazelnut oil
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Almond extract
1 and 1/4 cups Spelt flour (wholewheat or white) or Gluten free flour blend
1/2 cup Quinoa flour (if you don’t have this add more spelt flour)
1/3 cup Raw cocoa Powder
2 tbsp Arrowroot powder or Cornflour (also known as cornstarch in the US)
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt
1 cup Whole, Raw Hazelnuts (these can be toasted first if you want really crunchy nuts!)

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C and grease a large baking tray very well.

In a large bowl, whisk together the milk and ground linseed for about 30 seconds. Add the sugar, oil and extracts and stir until smooth. Sieve in the flour, cocoa powder, arrowroot or cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Stir to mix and just as the dough starts to come together, knead in hazelnuts. Knead very briefly to form a stiff dough.

Transfer the dough to the baking sheet and form it into a rectangle (approx 12 inches long and 3 – 4 inches wide). Push in the nuts if they pop out! Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. It will rise and get a bit puffy and the top may start to crackle. Keep an eye on it from 20 minutes onwards as it can start to burn. Obviously remove if it starts to burn (this can be hard to see because of the chocolate colour so give it a good sniff if in doubt!) 🙂

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes until very firm.

Turn up the oven to 375F/190C. Carefully transfer the baked dough to chopping board and using a serrated knife, slice 1/2 inch slices. Push the knife down in one go, don’t use a sawing action as you will find the biscotti crumble. They are extremely delicate at this stage so you need to be gentle. I ended up with a fair bit of crumbling and breakage but that’s not the end of the world, it just meant I had lots of bits to taste! 🙂

Place the slices on the baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes until brown and crispy. Don’t be tempted to over bake – they will still seem quite soft when you remove them from the oven but they will crisp up as they cool – I promise (Trust me, I’m a Dr 😉 ). Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring the slices to a cooling rack. When completely cool, store in an air tight container and enjoy with a cup of your favourite coffee 🙂

Spicy chocolate chewy cookies – dairy free, gluten free goodness

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It’s grey and windy here in the UK at the moment (well it is where I live!) so it just makes me want to have lots of warming, spicy foods and we all know how well chilli and chocolate go together so I thought it was time I wheeled out this recipe. I actually made these ages ago but just never got the chance to post the recipe. It’s modified from the amazing Isa Chandra’s recipe

1/2 cup Almond oil

1 cup Raw unrefined coconut palm sugar

1/4 cup Maple syrup

3 tbsp Almond or Soya milk

2 tsp Vanilla extract

1 and 2/3 cup Spelt or gluten free flour blend

1/2 Raw cacao powder

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp Himalayan rock salt

For the topping:

1/3 cup Raw golden caster sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease and line a baking tray (or 2!).

Put the oil, sugar, maple syrup and milk in a bowl and mix together using a fork. Add in the vanilla extract and mix well. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and sieve in to the wet ingredients. Mix until you have a dough. The dough will be quite moist and sticky.

Put the topping ingredients on a plate and mix together.

Take small, walnut sized, balls of the dough and pat into the topping sugar to make discs about 2 inches across. Make sure they are well covered in sugar. Put them on to the baking tray with the sugar facing up. Cook for 10 – 12 minutes until they are crackly on the top and have spread a little. Allow to cool on the baking tray for 5 mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy! 🙂

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Super healthy chocolately goodness – dairy free, sugar free just not actually free!

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Continuing my chocolatey theme I thought today I’d leap in with my current favourite chocolate treat. I’ve shared this delight before but not in it’s chocolate form! This stuff is amazing and such a blessing for anyone trying to avoid dairy (for whatever reason) but still wanting something yoghurt/mousse-like in their diet.

It’s Coyo! the raw chocolate variety 🙂 It’s basically just coconut milk and raw chocolate! It’s great on it’s own or really good with some fresh berries 🙂