Finger Rolls

Anyone who has visited my site before will be familiar with my love of Iced Gem Bakes bread recipe, which even adapted to be egg free, consistently turns out great bread or rolls. 

For anyone in need of a nut free version, I've successfully made it with a variety of alternatives. This is my latest version. They freeze really well (I usually split them first to make filling from frozen easier), making a really useful packed lunch standby.

200g Gluten Free White Bread Flour

100g Corn Flour

50g Oat Flour (I have also used Sorghum flour or just extra bread flour if you can't have oats)

50g Polenta (cornmeal)
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
2 tsp Sugar
4 tsp Dried Yeast
30mls Olive Oil (or any other vegetable oil)
300mls Milk Substitute
120mls Boiling Water

Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Mix the 'milk', water and oil together and check it is just warm to the touch (if it is too hot it will kill the yeast).

Pour it into the dry ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon or electric whisk.

Put into a disposable piping bag, snip the end to give a hole about 3cm in diameter (or bigger, if you want larger rolls).

Pipe onto a greased baking tray (remember to leave room for rising).

Smooth ends of rolls with wet fingers.

Drizzle with olive oil.

Leave to rise for 45-60mins, or until doubled in size.

Bake at 200ºC for 20-25mins or until lightly browned.

Orange and Chocolate Drizzle Tart

My boys love looking through my BBC Good Food Magazine  and were particularly excited by the cover photo when this month's copy came through the door (subscription is a present from my lovely big brother). I still live in hope that one day they will stop at one of the savoury recipes and ask me to make that... Fortunately, there is always something in there that's easy to adapt to suit our milk, egg, wheat and soya free need.

My version on top of the magazine picture

This is basically just a tweak on the custard tart recipe, but, oh, so worth the effort. It was light and refreshing and very very tasty. There was enough pastry left over to make animal biscuits to restock the sadly neglected biscuit tin too. Both boys particularly liked the filling, so I plan to make more for packed lunch pots (orange panna cotta…). 

Pastry

25g White Veg Shortening (Trex/Cookeen)

100g Dairy and Soya Free Spread ('Pure' Sunflower/Vitalite)

80g Sugar

20g Golden Syrup 

60ml Dairy and Soya Free Cream (Oat/Almond/Rice)

210g Wheat Free Plain Flour (or Plain flour if don't need to be wheat free)

45g Cocoa Powder

35g Wheat Free Self Raising Flour

Filling

1 tbsp Custard Powder (can use all corn flour, but will be lighter in colour)

3 tbsp  Corn Flour

Juice and zest of 2 oranges (or 200mls fresh orange juice)

1tsp orange flower water (optional)

2 tbsp sugar

200mls Dairy and Soya Free Cream (Oat/Almond/Rice)

300mls Milk Substitute

4 leaves gelatine (or equivalent veggie gel - follow instructions on pack)

Sauce

45g Dairy and Soya Free Chocolate (I use Mortimer's powder as dissolves easily)

1 tbsp Golden Syrup

50-100mls Dairy and Soya Free Cream (Oat/Almond/Rice)

I used a round 20cm loose bottom tin to make this in. The deepness of the filling was good, but the straight edges of the tin make it difficult to line with pastry. One with sloped sides would probably be easier with fragile wheat free pastry, but fortunately, even with patching up and cracking in the oven (as you can see in the picture), the filling is thick enough not to leak out.

Pastry:

Put the shortening, spread, sugar, 'cream' and syrup in a bowl .

Whisk until light and fluffy.

Add the cocoa powder and flour.

Fold in the flour with a spatula or wooden spoon until mostly combined.

Kneed lightly until smooth.

Roll out to about 3-5mm (depending how thick you want your pastry). Doing it under cling film means it doesn't stick and reduces risk of cross contamination from rolling pin.

Line your tart tin with the pastry.

Patch up any gaps or tears.

Trim the top using the back of a knife.

Blind bake for about 10 mins at 200ºC to stop the base puffing up (wet a piece of greaseproof paper and scrunch it up, put it in the pie crust and fill with baking beans/rice/dry beans etc).

Remove greaseproof paper and baking beans and bake for a further 15mins, or until dried out (Don't worry if it cracks).

Leave to cool while you make the filling.

Filling:
Soak the gelatine in cold water for 10 mins, or until soft.

Meanwhile, put the orange juice and milk substitute in a pan and heat gently.

Mix the cornflour, custard powder, sugar and a little water to form a smooth paste.

Add to the warmed liquid, mixing well all the time.

Continue to heat, mixing constantly, until boiled and thick.

Remove the softened gelatine from the water and stir into the hot orange custard until dissolved.

Add the zest and 'cream' (and orange flower water, if using) and mix well.

Pour into the pie crust and leave to set (I left mine in the fridge overnight).

Sauce:

Bring the 'cream' and syrup to a boil (I used a microwave).

Stir in the chocolate until dissolved and well combined.

Drizzle some onto the top of the tart and serve the rest warmed in a jug to pour over.

Lemon and White Chocolate Cookies

I'll be the first to admit I have a biscuit habit. My children have also inherited the biscuit gene… I don't have a favourite and I'm always on the lookout for something new. This gave a fresh, tangy change to the usual dark chocolate cookie.

 

For anyone not yet familiar with Mortimer Chocolate Company, check out their website here. The perfect chocolate for baking and they even do a milk and soya free white chocolate version! 

80g Dairy and Soya Free Spread (e.g. Pure Sunflower/Vitalite)

80g Caster Sugar

Zest of an Unwaxed Lemon (or well washed clementine)*

3tbsp/45mls Juice from the Lemon (or Clementine)

50g Mortimer's White Couverture Powder (chocolate)

140g Wheat Free Self Raising Flour

*I'd run out of lemons when we did a second 'test' batch, this flavour was lovely too!

Whisk the spread and sugar until pale.

Add the zest and slowly whisk in the juice until well combined.

Whisk in the white 'chocolate' powder.

Whisk or fold in the flour.

Put tablespoon size balls (these were made using a cookie scoop) onto a tray lined with greased proof paper.

Bake for 15 minutes at 180ºC.

Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.

For flatter biscuits, flatten the balls with the back of a wet spoon before baking and reduce time to 12 minutes.