Sticky Gooey Chocolate Marshmallow Sandwiches - Smores(ish)

After a recent trip to Scotland where I introduced the boys to the joy of toasting marshmallows over a fire, we've been using more at home.

L, whose never been bothered by his allergies before, came home from Cubs a bit upset as they'd made Smores one evening. Had they told me in advance I would have sent in safe biscuits, chocolate and marshmallows so he could be included, but when he'd joined a few weeks earlier, they told me they don't do a snack while the boys are there. I've asked them to let me know when there are exceptions again!

Having just come home to an empty biscuit tin after a chilly winter walk, I thought I'd try our own variation...

Cinnamon Cookies (You could skip this step and use any suitable biscuits, I would have used Free From digestives but have run out)

100g Dairy and Soya Free Spread

100g Soft Brown Sugar

1tbsp Golden Syrup

1tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

150g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

*Apologies for lack of images, my App crashed overtime I tried to upload more

Whisk all ingredients, except flour, together until light and fluffy.

Add flour and whisk again until well combined.

Place scoops of mixture onto a lined baking sheet.

Bake at 180ºC for 12mins.

Leave on tray to cool for a few minuted before moving as very soft.

Cool until easy to handle

Assembly

Top the base of a cookie with marshmallows (I used sliced giant ones) and suitable chocolate.

Repeat for number you are making.

Put back in oven for 1-2minutes, until chocolate is melted (but still holding it's shape) and marshmallows squishy.

Top with another cookie.

Leave to cool slightly or warm cookie will crumble.

Serve on a plate to grateful children...

Chocolate Caramel Fingers

I'm not very good at doing nothing. After a weekend of being unwell and mostly neglecting my children, I wanted to make them a treat on the Monday. Still not feeling great, I didn't really want to bake. I got this idea, in a round about way, from a fellow judge from the Free From Food Awards. She'd tried a chocolate bar last week that had puffed amaranth in and said it tasted like a Blue Riband. 

I tried puffing some, slightly out of date, amaranth I had in the cupboard, in the same way I would pop corn. That didn't work. Then I found a box of gluten free crispbreads in the  snack box and thought of making chocolate wafer bars.

Sort of followed this for a toffee recipe but the 'cream' you use may affect the hardness at this temperature. I used about half this quantity, but it made far too much so I used the rest for making pecan toffees. 

Makes 10

200g Dairy & Soya Free Chocolate

10 Gluten Free Crispbreads (I used Amisa, but Le Pain de Fleurs have a large variety & would work too)

1/2 cup (100g) Dairy & Soya Free Margarine

1 cup (plus a bit more) (160g) Soft Light Brown Sugar

1/2 cup (150g) Golden Syrup

1 cup (225mls) Dairy & Soya Free Cream (or milk substitute)

1/2 tsp Vanilla Paste or extract

Make the toffee according to the above instructions.

Line a tin with foil and grease well.

Lay out wafers in the base of the tin.

Pour over toffee to form a thin layer, spread evenly to edges if necessary.

When set, but still slightly warm, cut crispbreads along centre to form two rows. Stack one on top of the other to form a double layer. 

Put another layer of greased foil over the top and press down with another tin to flatten and stick the layers together.

Cut into fingers with a sharp knife.

Coat each one in melted chocolate and leave to set on greaseproof paper.

Decorate by marking with a fork. 

Or drizzle with melted white dairy & soya free chocolate.

Boys were home in time to help with the decorating,
just didn't like waiting for chocolate to set!

Christmas Pudding Fudge

Well, I didn't quite get this one posted here in time for Christmas, but at least it will be ready for next year…

This was just a batch of Vanilla Fudge, with crumbled Christmas Pudding mixed through. I really wanted to make several batches with different flavours (ginger, cinnamon & orange, amaretto, etc…), but didn't have any more coconut cream.

225g Caster Sugar

45g Dairy Free Spread

160ml Can Coconut Cream 

1/2 tsp Vanilla Paste

100g Crumble Christmas Pudding (I used Coles gluten free one, which is milk, egg, soya, and nut free too) 

Put sugar, spread and coconut cream into a heavy based pan. Heat gently, stirring frequently until the sugar has completely dissolved (do not allow to boil until sugar dissolved).

Bring to the boil without stirring. 

Continue to boil, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 116ºc on a sugar thermometer (or until it forms a soft ball when a small drop is added to a glass of cold water).

Remove the pan from the heat.

Add the vanilla extract and beat with a wooden spoon until thick.

Stir in the Christmas pudding (or other flavouring).

Pour into a greased foil lined tray.

Smooth out to an even thickness (mine didn't quite fill the tin, but just straighten the edge when its the thickness you want).

Use a sharp knife to cut into square and leave to cool completely.

GBBO15 Week1 - Frosted Walnut Layer Cake

Having only posted about 2 recipes this year, I really wasn't going to do the milk, egg, wheat and soya free (MEWS free) versions of the technical challenges from The Great British Bake Off this year… Unfortunately, my 8 year old is hooked, remembered I did it the last couple of years and as soon as they showed yesterday's cake started talking about it and discussing what we could use instead!

So today, with 2 children in tow, we went shopping for ingredients (stopped at the Games shop to buy Pokémon cards and Lego Mixels) and came home to bake (and play and build…).

Week 1 - For Mary Berry's version, clic here: Frosted Walnut Layer Cake  

This week's main challenge for the MEWS free baker is an alternative to the 'boiled icing' (as it's attractively described in the original recipe!). Lucy's Friendly Foods has a great Italian Meringue recipe. Sadly, for us, it's made with another of Mini Monster's allergens, chickpeas… I opted for a marshmallowy coating instead.

Walnut Sponge (adapted from the basic cake recipe in our Milk, Egg, Wheat and Soya free diet sheet)

90g Dairy and Soya Free Spread

100g Golden Syrup

100g Caster Sugar

1tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

320mls Milk Substitute

1tsp Vinegar or Lemon Juice

350g Gluten Free Plain Flour (I used Dove's Farm White Bread Flour, you may need to adjust the liquid for different flour blends)

2tsp baking Powder

1/2tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

100g Walnut Pieces (I caramelised mine with 30g sugar, but this is optional)

Melt spread, sugar and syrup in a pan or microwave.

Stir in vanilla, milk substitute and vinegar.

In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

Mix in the contents of the other bowl (don't over mix or cake will be tough).

Stir in the nuts. 

Divide mixture evenly between three cake tins (18cm, greased and lined).

Bake at 180ºC for 20-25mins.

Turn out of tins to cool.

Buttercream

50g Hard Vegetable Margarine (Stork, Trex etc)

100g Icing Sugar

1tbsp Milk Substitute

1tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

1tsp Corn Flour

Whisk everything together until light and fluffy.

Spread on first two layers of cake.

Marshmallow Frosting

110g Caster Sugar 

40g Golden Syrup

1 1/2 Leaves Gelatine

30mls Water

1/2tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

5mls Lemon Juice 

For method, follow instructions for marshmallows, the reduced amount of gelatine makes it softer and easier to spread

Caramelised Walnuts (for decoration)

100g Caster Sugar

10 Walnut Halves

For assembly and how to caramelise the nuts, follow the original recipe above.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

I know I've been neglecting the site recently, so I thought I'd start with a quick adaptation to save me writing out the recipe in full. This vegan chocolate fudge cake recipe from Sainsbury's Magazine was posted on Twitter yesterday. It's already milk, egg and soya free so with only one more thing  (wheat) to change, I thought I'd give it a go.

I know from experience, that unlike biscuit recipes you can't just do a straight swap for wheat free flour in cake. rather than just upping the fluid, I decided to reduce the quantity of flour as well. I still can't just follow a recipe, so I reduced the sugar too…

As it was an experiment, and I've recently had a bad experience with a blondie recipe, I just made half quantity. This was enough to fill an 18cm cake tin, which I cut in half before filling and icing.

I didn't have any avocado either (well, I did, but it's been lurking in the back of the fridge for so long, it really wasn't usable!) so haven't tried the icing. Mine was made with an apple and apricot fruit pot and the cake filled with apricot fruit spread. 

Amended ingredients:

1 small banana, or half a large one (mashed well) - mine was 47g

4 1/2 tbsp (75mls) Milk Substitute

2 1/2 tbsp (45mls) Vegetable Oil

120g Sugar (I still found this a bit sweet, despite using less than the original, would probably try with 100g next time)

1 tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

1 tsp Vinegar (I increased this as acid helps the rise in gluten  and egg free cakes)

25g Cocoa Powder (mixed with 75mls water)

175g Wheat Free Self Raising Flour

1/2 tbsp Baking Powder

35mls Maple Syrup

For method, please follow link

As it is a wetter mix, please adjust the cooking time by about 5 mins, or until it feels firm in the middle.

Jam Tarts

Who doesn't like a jam tart? The problem with the free from ones is they either contain egg, or the few that are really milk, egg, wheat and soya free, contain nuts, making them instantly not suitable for packed lunch (school nut ban).

Key Stage 1 party tomorrow afternoon, with the usual helpful 24hours notice about what food I need to provide! Fortunately, this year, they helpfully suggested that rather than me providing food for 8 children (sausages/carrot sticks etc), I have only been asked to provide a plate of food for Mini Monster. Now I just need to figure out what the others will have and make sure he gets an equivalent…

Obviously, I've started with pudding...

Makes 12 tarts

200g Gluten/Wheat Free Plain Flour 

70g Hard vegetable fat (Stork(the hard one not the spreadable, which contains milk)/cookeen/trex)

5-6tbsp Dairy and soya free cream/milk substitute
Extra Fruit Jam, or Clearspring fruit spread for no added sugar ones

Put flour in bowl and rub in fat until resembles breadcrumbs.

Slowly mix in the milk substitute, using a blunt knife, until the mix begins to come together.

Kneed well.

Roll out thinly between 2 sheets of cling film (means you don't need to add extra flour and risk it drying out).

Cut rounds and place in a greased tart tin.

Fill with 1tspn fruit spread/jam.

Bake at 200ºC for 15-20mins.

Stained Glass Window Biscuits

Feeling guilty for my complete lack of updates over recent months (blame it on illness, bereavement, work, life…) so thought I'd pop a quick seasonal one on before Christmas!

I'm going to bite the bullet and let Mini Monster have the school Christmas Dinner on Wednesday, the Dietitian at Cambridge Catering has reliably informed me which bits of the main meal are safe, but the pudding is ice cream, so I'm sending in a treat (fruit is not a pudding…).

You will need:

1 Batch of Basic Biscuit Dough (I added 1tspn cinnamon and  ground seeds from 3 cardamom pods to mine)

1 bag of clear boiled sweets

Unwrap sweets and place on lightly greased foil on a baking tray.

Add caption

Place in oven set to about 200ºC until melted (check every couple of minutes, you don't want it to boil or they will be full of bubbles.

I put mine a bit too close together and it was still a bit too thick (clearly my oven isn't level either!)

Set aside to cool.

Roll out biscuit mix (between 2 sheets of cling film, to reduce cross contamination and stops the dough sticking to anything!).

Cut out shapes and place on greaseproof paper on baking tray.

Cut shape out of middle (if you try to do this before putting on tray, they are quite fragile and likely to break).

If you are going to hang them on a tree, remember to make holes before baking...

Bake for 10 minutes at 180ºC.

Break 'glass' into small pieces (remember to leave enough space on tray for it to spread, if it's too thick it will be difficult to break).

Put biscuits onto greased foil (the sweets will stick to the  greaseproof paper) and place coloured pieces into the holes.

Put back in oven for a few minutes until just starting to melt.

Add more to fill gaps, or use a skewer to move into corners.

Put back in oven for a couple more minutes to melt and flatten.

Remove from oven and leave to cool.

Thread string through the holes and hang on tree.

This was supposed to be a christmas tree in the middle, think it would have worked better in a smoother shape!