Sponge Pudding

My real food hero is my mum, who armed me with enough basic cooking skills to be able to fend for myself and know what will work by eye. Unfortunately, that makes getting recipes down to share more difficult as I often don't use scales. 

One of the most useful basic recipes I had when I left home was sponge pudding (second only to emergency bread, which I use regularly on the days I realise I have no bread for packed lunch). Even better is it works in the microwave for a fairly instant pud!

It's taken a while to perfect it without the egg or the wheat, but the boys never refuse it as a pudding option, and if there is any left, it's great in their packed lunch the next day.

Basic recipe:

60g Dairy and Soya Free Spread (e.g. Pure/Vitalite)

30g Sugar

105mls Milk Substitute (4 + 3 tbsp)

1 tsp Vanilla Paste

110g Gluten free/Wheat free Self Raising Flour (depending on the blend, you may need to adjust the fluid to get a dropping consistency) or 120g Self Raising Flour (if you don't need it to be wheat free)

Flavour options:

Fruit - add a couple of handfuls of frozen fruit to the bottom of the bowl and cover with the sponge mix (as in these photos)

Banana - add a mashed banana after whisking in the milk

Jam - add a couple of tablespoons of jam to the bottom of the bowl and cover with the sponge mix

Blueberry - add a handful of blueberries (or any other fruit) to the mix

Ginger and Chocolate Chip - add small pack of chocolate buttons and finely grated preserved ginger (or a little ground ginger) to the mix

Syrup - add a couple of tablespoons of syrup to the bottom of the bowl and cover with the sponge mix
Chocolate - swap 10g of the flour for cocoa powder

Whisk spread, sugar and vanilla together.

Whisk in 4 tbsp milk substitute (1 tbsp at a time) until well combined (don't worry if it looks curdled, just keep whisking until it comes back together).

Add the flour and the rest of the milk and mix until just combined.

Stir in other flavours/fruit/chocolate chips etc if using.

Spoon into a greased microwavable bowl (over jam/fruit/syrup etc) and smooth the top.

Microwave for 4-6 minutes (or until risen and spongy to the touch and just coming away from the sides of the bowl). It can also be cooked like a sponge in a normal oven, I'm just never organised enough to start it in time for pudding!

Usually I scoop straight from bowl, but it can be turned out onto a plate to serve

Spoon into bowls and serve with suitable custard/cream/ice-cream…

Enjoy!

Rosemary and Sweet Potato Scones

I baked a sweet potato today intending to have a go at making pasta, but then ran out of time for experimenting (I almost forgot to get the boys from school too, but that's another story…) so needed something else to use it in.

This is basically an adaptation of the dumpling recipe. It made 6 small triangles with a lovely crisp crust and soft middle. Perfect for dunking in tomato sauce, gravy or on their own fresh and warm from the oven (can I admit to having real butter on mine…?). 

120g GF Self Raising Flour (Orgran/Doves Farm)

50g Dairy and Soya Free Spread (Vitalite/Pure

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

100g Mashed Sweet Potato*

Chopped Rosemary (I used about a teaspoon of fresh, use less if dried)

1/2tsp Vinegar or Lemon Juice

30mls Milk Substitute

extra flour for kneading

Put flour baking powder and rosemary in a bowl.

Rub in the spread until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Add the sweet potato mash, vinegar and milk substitute and mix with a blunt knife until mixture comes together.

Sprinkle over a little extra flour so your hands don't stick and knead lightly into a ball.

Flatten onto a greased tray and mark top with a knife so it can be broken apart when cooked.

Bake at 220ºC for 40mins.

Cool slightly on a wire rack, then break apart along the lines.

Alternatively, Flatten out with your hand to about 2cm thick, cut into circles or rectangles, place on the tray and bake for about 20mins.

*prick all over with a fork and microwave until soft (about 4-6 mins depending on size - mine gave me 200g of flesh). Leave to cool slightly, cut lengthways the scoop out the middle and mash with a fork.

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!

GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 7 - Kouign-Amann

Ok, so I might be a little behind on the whole milk, egg, wheat and soya free technical challenges for this year's Great British Bake Off, but better late than never. I blame Paul and Mary, why do they insist on picking laminated pastries and whipped creams? Both of which are very difficult when you can't use any of the above ingredients. 

My puff pastry for week 5 seriously needs revisiting (hard, greasy, not remotely flakey) so I needed another plan for this week. Kouign-Amann, for those of you who don't know it well, originated from Brittany and is a crusty cake made up of dough with layers of sugar and butter. You know, the kind of thing that needs good stretchy gluten in the flour, and nice tasty buttery fat for flavour! Oh well, at least it doesn't contain eggs!

In a moment of inspiration, I remembered a recipe from 'Warm Bread and Honey Cake' that brushed thin sheets of dough with melted fat and rolled to give a flakey pastry for pasties. I used to use it a lot, pre wheat free days, and did have partial success using the same technique to make wheat free paratha. 

This made 6, plus some scraps…

15g Fresh Yeast (or a sachet of dried yeast) - sorry, experimenting with fresh yeast since I found out I could get it from Ocado!

200mls Milk Substitute and Water - hand hot (I used 150mls cold oat milk and 50mls boiling water)

1tsp Sugar

Add the sugar to the 'milk' and stir. Check the temperature is no hotter than your hand (or it will kill the yeast) and crumble (or sprinkle) in the yeast.

Set aside for 10-15mins until starting to froth.

250g Gluten and Wheat Free White Bread Flour

10g Arrowroot

Pinch Salt (optional)

25g Dairy and Soya Free Spread (Pure Sunflower/Vitalite)

1tsp Baking Powder

80g Vegetable Shortening (Cookeen/Trex)

1/2 tsp Vanilla Paste (optional - but helps give better flavour if not able to use butter)

Extra flour and/or polenta for dusting

2-3tbsp Caster Sugar

Muffin tin, lightly greased

Cling Film to allow for rolling out very thinly without sticking

Put flour, arrowroot, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.

Rub in spread.

Add yeast mixture and bring together with a blunt knife.

Kneed lightly to bring together (sprinkle on a little extra flour if too sticky).

Cover and refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the vegetable shortening, then leave to cool slightly until it turns opaque and spreadable and stir in the vanilla paste.

Gluten free dough is notoriously difficult to handle in large pieces, so I did this in 2 batches.

Lightly kneed half the dough, then place on lightly floured cling film (don't add too much flour as you want the dough as moist as possible).

Top with another sheet of cling film and roll out to a rectangle about 2mm thick. 

Remove top layer of cling film and spread evenly with half the vegetable shortening mix.

Sprinkle lightly with sugar, polenta and flour.

Use the bottom layer of cling film to help roll it up tightly and smoothly (it helps stop cracking).

Wrap in the cling film, flatten slightly and put back in fridge while you repeat with the other half of the dough.

Chill for at least half an hour.

Roll each piece into a rectangle about 30 x 10cm (still between 2 sheets of cling film).

Trim edges (otherwise you won't get your layers) and cut into  3 squares about 10cm square. 

Sprinkle with a little extra sugar.

Fold in the corners of each square (if you lift the cling film to help with this, it stops it cracking) and very carefully lift into the muffin tin.

Repeat with the other roll of dough.

Cover tin with cling film and put back into the fridge for at least 4 hours (or overnight), to allow to rise slowly.

Bake at 180ºC for 25mins until they are well risen and the sugar has caramelised. 

Remove from tin and cool slightly before eating.

Ha, Paul Hollywood, week 7 and I still haven't given up!

GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 1 - Cherry Cake 
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 2 - Florentines
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 3 - Ciabatta 

GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 4 - Tiramisu Cake

GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 4 - Tiramisu Cake

I always worry about new visitors to the site during the Great British Bake Off Challenge. Honestly, the recipes on the site are usually pretty straightforward, but for a few weeks a year I've been set a challenge… To recreate the technical challenges from the bake off, without using milk, egg, wheat or soya! And the contestants think they have a challenge!

Bear with me though, this one wasn't as tough as it seemed and was well worth the effort. I've already thought how to improve it for next time, I probably should have looked at Mary's recipe first, then I may not have forgotten the layers of chocolate/cocoa too!

I thought long and hard about which sponge recipe to use, then rather than using a tried and tested one, used the Victoria Sponge Recipe from the wonderful Ms Cupcake for the first time. Perfect! - although, I probably should have used a slightly larger quantity to get all four layers this cake should have had (I used 1/3, should have used 1/2 quantity)… I'm still not sure if it wasn't enough 'mascarpone' filling, or if I just ate too much while it was cooling… Will definitely make more of that next time too!

This was enough to make 3 layers of an 18x18cm cake. 

Sponge Layers

140g Self Raising or Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

80g Caster Sugar

2/3tsp Baking Powder

140mls Milk Substitute (plus 1-2tbsp if using GF flour)

50mls Vegetable Oil

1tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Add the milk substitute, oil and vanilla and mix to a smooth paste with a wooden spoon or hand whisk.

Pour into a greased lined tin and bake for 25-30mins or until firm to the touch and just coming away from the sides of the tin.

Leave to cool for 5-10mins in the tin, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Carefully slice horizontally into 3 layers.

Mascarpone Cream

200mls Milk Substitute

2tbsp Cornflour

1tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

1tsp Caster Sugar

100mls Dairy and Soya Free Cream (e.g. rice/oat/almond)

2 Leaves Gelatine (soaked in cold water for 10 mins)

1/2 - 1 tbsp Marsala Wine (or coffee or almond liquor) - optional

Mix sugar, cornflour and vanilla to a paste with a little of the milk substitute.

Add the rest of the milk substitute and microwave (or cook in pan), stirring every minute until boiled and very thick.

Stir on the Marsala  - If you're worried about adding alcohol if children going to eat it, add it before it's thickened, to allow the alcohol to boil off.

Add the soaked gelatine sheets and stir until dissolved.

Whisk occasionally as it cools to keep it smooth.

When warm, but not hot, whisk in the dairy free cream. Set aside to cool completely.

Topping/Filling

2tbsp Grated Dairy and Soya Free Chocolate (or Plamil Dark Chocolate flakes/Mortimer's Chocolate Powder)

1-2tbsp Cocoa

100mls Strong Coffee/Decaf Coffee 

Line the tin with cling film. put one layer of the sponge back in.

Brush with the coffee mixture to soak through.

Top with 1/3 of the custard mixture and spread out evenly.

Sprinkle over cocoa powder or grated chocolate and continue to layer up.

Leave in fridge for a couple of hours to set.

Mini Monster has requested this for his birthday cake this year, guess that means it was good!

GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 1 - Cherry Cake 
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 2 - Florentines
GBBO 2014 Challenge - Week 3 - Ciabatta