I have been trying to bake a great gluten free cake and to be honest, only managed it a couple of times. I've always thought mine are never as good as teashop ones and could do with some improving.
Well during my son's catering class at college he had to bake a chocolate cake. My goodness this is the cake of all cakes and I'm so jealous that he just cracked it first time. It is gluten free, spongey, light and completely cakey. I don't go in for chocolate cake so much but this is so light and fluffy it would be a temptation for anyone. So what did he do I hear you ask? What is the secret? Well according to his teacher it is the oil, it makes it spongey. Here is the recipe so you can give it a try. It is actually a recipe taken from the BBC Good Food website but we adapted the ingredients to make it gluten free. www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6652/naughty-chocolate-fudge-cake We used the Doves Farm self raising flour and instead of making the icing we whipped some cream up and used that instead. It tastes divine honestly. So a big well done to Mr T for making this gorgeous cake, I will definitely be using this recipe from now on. In fact I like the BBC Good Food site as it has some really good recipes and they are easy to follow too. I don't like anything complicated when baking and they also have so many good gluten free treats to make. You can print the recipes off and even set up a shopping list for your ingredients, great eh? I'm off to devour the rest of this cake. I will be back tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday but for now take care.
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It's a really popular time of the year when someone is bound to mention buffet or fuddle and how do we feel? Dread it or take a risk and suffer the consequences? Obviously the Coeliac's amongst us can't take any chances but the intolerant's may feel it's all too much trouble to insist on any gluten free at the table.
There is no excuse though as there is so much variety of party foods available now. Most supermarkets have introduced and great line of Christmas nibbles and treats for us to enjoy as well and no one needs to be left out. I bought a selection of food from Tesco's which I took along to a lovely Christmas fuddle today. A few of us Rock Choir members got together where we laughed, ate food, drank a bit of pop and yes we sang a little too. It was so nice and I have to say a big thank you to Rockie Lesley who was the hostess with the mostess, that lady knows how to make everyone feel so warmly welcome and she makes a top brew!!. It was a 'bring something along' kind of do so I packed plenty of essentials as you can see, all the party favs. There is a lot more in stores too including puddings, mince pies so 'cinder free fromers' you may go to the ball. I always used to be a bit nervous of needing to have the gluten free food options but it is really important, as who wants to be poorly unnecessarily? I know I don't. So forget about being beach body ready, we all attempt that later when Christmas is over. Well I'm still waiting for the beach to go with my body actually, not sure I care whether my body is ready for it I'd just like to see one.....a beach that is. We just need to be buffet ready at this time and with a little help from the supermarket people we can. Yes it's a little more pricey than the full leaded food as I call it but you don't have to go too buffet crazy. If you are anything like us today, the chatter and laughter take over the eating so there were plenty of doggy bags going out. I love that expression.....the doggy bag, makes me chuckle. It's a term that was made popular in the 70's apparently and actually refers to a container or bag provided initially by a restaurant to take home left over food. The leftovers were meant to be given to a pet but I think most people end up tucking into the contents themselves at a later time. It's a good idea especially if you paid for a meal and don't want to waste anything, we've all had cold pizza in the morning for breakfast surely? A great time was had and I feel great because I stuck to my diet, well not the Slimming World kind but the gluten free one. Although Rockie Di did bring along a Slimming World crustless quiche which I have to find the recipe for as it was blooming tasty so maybe I was a good girl after all. (yeah right). You all have a good time and enjoy your festive buffets and meals. I will be back tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday but for now.....take care and stay warm.....there's a cold spell coming. Love and best wishes xx Ok so it's not 'free from' completely, well of sugar that is or milk but 80% less sugar well I don't think that's too bad. It tastes ok as well. I'm always a bit iffy when it comes to low sugar or sugar free things as I think it's going to taste really awful but no, tastes like chocolate.
It may have sweeteners to compensate but it does state on the packaging that it contains 'naturally occurring sugars' so make of that as you will. I'm thinking if it says low sugar then is it low fat? Well it is 99 calories for two chunks and they are big chunks. The other thing is it isn't too moorish so you don't sit there and scoff the whole packet. That's what full sugar makes you do you see, it's like a drug, gets you hooked and then you've eaten it all and wave bye bye to those pounds you've lost in weight. If you are following Slimming World, two chunks of this will set you back 2.5 syns but like I say, I have had enough after those two chunks. If you don't fancy the milk chocolate there is a plain bar too. So where did I get this little sugarless treat? Aldi me lovelies and for the bargain price of 79p a bar.....not bad eh? have this instead of a box of Celebrations or Roses it may be better for you. Who am I kidding giving you that sensible advice? I won't heed that advice myself. I'm off to stock up on the Christmas chocolates. Save this healthy stuff for the new year, make a resolution to diet and keep fit and then you can limit yourself to two chunks of this. I do think it is nice so I would buy it with the rest of you in January but hey enjoy yourself for now.......IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!! You all take care and I will be back tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday. Bye for now. These gluten free flat breads are absolutely gorgeous. I have been searching for a good type of cracker that I can eat for ages and so I'm glad to have found these. Since giving up the gluten I have really missed the classic cream cracker and ryvitas as they were always nice with any type of cheese or fancy topping.
At this time of the year I have to walk very fast past the cracker aisle in the supermarket as they have those big selection box in. I used to love one of those at Christmas. Gluten free crackers always seem to be either too small or no where near anything like a cream cracker, so sad. These lovely flatbreads are just so tasty and plenty of room to put a nice bit of Wensleydale on Gromit, yes even Wallace would approve. They are available in original and the rosemary and salt salt which I purchased. Around £1.75 for a 150g box, can vary at some supermarkets and only 55 calories for each flatbread. If you are following Slimming World that is around 2.5 syns each. The only thing I find annoying is that inside the box the flatbreads are packed in two packets of six, I just wish they were packed in smaller handy size packs. This would just prevent me scoffing all six down because I can't be bothered to repackage them. It would be good though to have smaller packs for say, a lunch box or to take out as a snack. You could have these instead of bread, with all sorts of toppings or have them as an accompaniment with soup. So they have ticked the boxes for me as now I have something in between a cracker and a ryvita so I am really happy. Give them a try and see what you think. Let me know as I would be interested to hear your views too. Thank you for reading today, I will be back tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday but for for now you take care. I did promise you my follow up bake in my bread maker which is actually bread this time. I fancied a different type of bread though so I made a savoury sun dried tomato bread.
Again this is a recipe taken from the bread machine's instruction book so lets start with what ingredients I used...... 3 medium eggs ( I used two this time) 284ml buttermilk 6 tbsp semi skimmed milk 2tsp lemon juice ( I bought some fresh stuff - see last weeks post) 1.5 level tbsps clear honey 1 level tbsp gluten free sun-dried tomato paste 50g gluten free sound dried tomatoes (chopped) 1 tbsp oil from tomato jar 1 level tsp salt (they like everything level eh?) 470g gluten free white flour 1 level tbsp (9g) gluten free yeast (I used the fast action stuff) Method
It did turn out really nice and very tasty. I actually had a slice or two with a pasta bolognese dish so it was a fine accompaniment. The only criticism I have is that it does, again tend to be very dense so it may be an idea to reduce some of the wet ingredients or the yeast. I do tend to keep my flour in the freezer to keep it fresh and then forget to leave it out to warm up to room temperature before using so that may be another reason while the texture turns a bit dense. Also I'm not sure the buttermilk works as there was a bit of an after taste with that so I may change that in the future. I can recommend it though. It was really nice toasted with a bit of cheese on but maybe you have a different recipe that you would like to share. I am going to experiment more with different recipes and play around with the ingredients to see what works so I will keep you posted. Thank you for reading today, join me again tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday but for now.....take care and happy baking. I say 'brake' because I want to call it a brownie but it was in fact supposed to be cake. It does actually taste like something in between the two and very nice but I'm no Mary Berry, well not yet anyway.
It all started with me looking at my breadmaker and thinking that I hadn't used it in a long while so I wondered what I could create. I felt a bit in need of something chocolatey and found a recipe for chocolate cake in the breadmaker's instruction book which came with the machine. I've not done a lot of baking in this as you can tell but practice makes perfect eh? Here are the ingredients I used or was meant to use (no wonder it didn't turn out right)....... 150g unsalted butter (I used salted) 3 medium eggs ( I used 3 large ones) 1 tsp vanilla extract (got that right) 2tsp lemon juice (used jif lemon - could have been in the fridge a while) 60ml tepid water (what exact temperature is tepid?) 125g caster sugar (looked liked I'd robbed a sugar factory) 250g gluten free plain white flour 3 level tsp gluten free baking powder (got a spirit level out to make sure it was level) 3 level tbsp gluten free cocoa powder (again always use a spirit level) So I melted the butter in the microwave because I cannot fanny about with a pan and left it to cool slightly. I beat the eggs in a jug and added the vanilla extract, lemon juice and water. I placed the flour in a mixing bowl and sieved in the baking powder and cocoa powder. I made a well in the centre and poured in the egg mixture followed by the cooled down butter and I mixed well with a wooden spoon just like the instructions told me to do. I then poured this mixture into the breadmaker baking pan, selected the cake programme and let it do it's thing. When it had finished baking I left it to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes ( I'm not making this up, the book told me to do that). Sounding like a professional though am I not? My creation eventually made it out onto a wire cooling rack and I waited patiently for it to cool. It passed the test of the chef and two teenagers, one that would probably eat a plate of asbestos if put in front of him, not that I would because that's just cruel and very unhealthy. It was a bit dense in texture, the cake not the asbestos, but I'm thinking there may have been too much egg mixture and I did use my flour straight from the freezer instead of letting it to warm to room temperature. With all that though it tasted ok and nobody has been ill so that's a good sign. I'll give it another go and see what happens. I am more used to oven baking but I don't want my breadmaker to be one of these gadgets that sits in the kitchen unused, unloved and forlorn. Gluten free cake and bread can be a bit dense as it needs stuff to keep it together and prevent it from being a crumbly mess. With no gluten to keep it together it is sometimes difficult to get the right texture but I'll work on it. The thing is there was no picture in the book to see what it should look like. I hate that.....I need a photo of the masterpiece it should be so that I can compare. It is only the instruction manual so it maybe a good idea to look for other recipes elsewhere. If you have a bread machine give this a go and then put me to shame because yours came out a lot better. I hope you've enjoyed my cooking lesson for this week. Tune in next week as I also made a sun dried tomato loaf, I bet you can't wait for that. For now though you take care and I will return tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday. Be good and...... keeeeeeeeep baking. I'm still on my mission to go organic....free from pesticides and nasties on my veggies. I am still trying to get produce from farm shops or grocers but blimey you forget how convenient supermarkets really are.
I want to try and buy my fruit and veg in paper bags instead of the plastic but when I'm already shopping in Tesco it's so easy to say 'oh I'll just pop that in the trolley and go farming another day'. I'm passing the fruit and veg, it's right there in big shop but I can still buy organic at the supermarket. It's the blooming price as well that's chuffin hard. I mean if organic is going to better for your health which means less trips to the doctors then surely it should be cheaper than the stuff that's covered in nasty pesticides. Jamie Oliver likes me to eat organic, we don't have a conversation about it but he seems to pester me on the telly and I think well yes you're right Mr Oliver but you can afford it mate. He does do a lot to sort crappy food out though I'll give him that. I know pesticides have their purpose, they keep the bugs off the fruits and vegetables but seriously I'm not thinking it's good. I've probably been eating loads of non organic produce for years but something has just snapped inside me. No don't worry brewsters there's no broken bones here just a feel for wanting a healthier diet. There's nothing with that eh? Anyway wish me luck, I am going to be doing some research and I will keep you posted. I think organic tastes nicer but is that just psychological because we are told it is? I think I'm willing to pay a little bit more for more nutrients and less toxic chemicals. It's a wonder we are not walking around with a toxic layer around us with all the rubbish connected with processed food and non organic produce. Oh that reminds me, talking about a glow around us, can you remember the Ready Brek adverts when people walked around with a orange warm glow around them to give the idea it will warm you up in the cold winters? Well I'm still waiting for mine. I think there may be a problem as it isn't Ready Brek that I'm eating, just porridge but I haven't seen known Ready Brek eaters with their glow a glowing. Mmm mis sold Ready Brek....bet there's a claim for that. Well I'm off to organic land, don't forget Free From Friday covers anything which is basically 'Free From' not just gluten free, dairy free, meat free. Let me know if there is anything you would like to hear about and I'll see what I can do. For now though take care of yourselves, I will be back tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday...... Bye for now. Free from what I hear you say, well I'm not really ready for the meat free bacon yet, as I am a happy meat eater. I don't eat a lot of meat but after hearing various reports about processed meats I saw this Naked Bacon and decided to give it a try. Yes turn away, the bacon is naked, blimey give it some privacy. No silly it's not naked in that way but free from nasty nitrates and E numbers.
It's all a bit sciencey but nitrates are used in foods especially processed meats such as ham, bacon and sausages to preserve them, these nitrates also give the. meat it's pinky colour. Some of this stuff is not good though and has been known to be linked with cancer. I know there are food scares all over the place and sometimes it's easy to get tired and fed up with such reports leading us to think well is there anything we can eat? Well I can tell you this bacon was really quite nice. I'm not sure whether I was under a bit of a psychological spell because I knew it was free of the rubbish I didn't want to eat but it did taste light and fresh. They do have other products in the range such as ham and sausages and frankly if they are trying to make our food healthy to eat then it's worth giving it a go. I purchased these bacon slices from Aldi but they are available in most of the big supermarkets. After looking into the harm these nitrates can do I would be inclined to buy more of these products even if it means paying a little more. Nitrates can also be found in vegetables and water so what can we do to stay away from these harmful chemicals? You could buy organic fruit and vegetables, filter your water at home and eat less processed meat. There are some fruit and veg which are lower in nitrates, they include:
I don't really want to start a massive debate or campaign on what to eat as I originally saw 'naked bacon' and thought it could be good so by no means is this a post to tell you to stop eating stuff. We all manage our diets and eat what we feel is right and the controversy around processed food and it's link to cancer has been reported widely around the world. If you like eating a lot of bacon though I can recommend this 'naked'' version, it tastes just like the usual but for me I just feel it might be healthier to have it especially as my son loves bacon so I want to keep him healthy too. If you would like more information about these products from Finnebrogue then take a look at their website at www.finnebrogue.com Thank you for reading today, if you have tried any of these products then let me know or maybe you do follow an organic food diet and find it better, I would be interested in your thoughts. For now though take care and do join me tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday. Bye for now...... I've started my quest to be a bit savvy with my fruit and veg buying so instead of prepacked stuff from the supermarket I've gone a bit natural and bought from the farm.
But let me tell you before I even got to the farm for my potatoes and onions etc I got some yummy cooking apples from Rock Choir. I know what you're thinking.....Sue from the Brew do you not go to Rock Choir to sing or has it turned into a new edition of Bake Off? Well no, one of our lovely Rockies had brought in bags of apples she had collected and basically if we were not going to use them they were going to be wasted. I instantly thought, there is a pie or a crumble beckoning so off I went to fill my bag. Crikey they were yummy too. I stewed them up on the stove and decided to make a gluten free topping. So I grabbed the following ingredients:
So what did you do with that lot Sue from the Brew? Well I.....
So there we go, from obtaining the apples at lunchtime they were ready in a dish at dinnertime. My son gave it the seal of approval too. Homemade Gluten Free Apple Crumble with a Homemade Custard (made from scratch). So proud of myself. I did get to the farmshop eventually and purchased my vegetables. I picked them and put them in a paper bag, yep no plastic and they taste so good. I may just try and keep this up as it feels nice to buy fresh. I've been Sue from the Brew and you been a great reader, catch me again tomorrow for Autism Support Saturday for now though....... Take care. Now and again I feel as though I have to just explain why some people make the food choices that they do. This is mainly because people don't always understand that whether you choose to leave out certain foods, well there's a flippin good reason for it.
Some reasons why people may leave out certain foods:
The kind of things people will say to someone with one of these reasons for leaving out certain foods:
If you don't have a problem with any foods or decide to eat meat then that's absolutely fine but it's a good idea not to make judgement on anyone else who does have to eat a certain diet whether it be out of choice or necessity. I've come across it a few times since giving up wheat/gluten products. For me it took a while to find out what upset me and I've worked out what I can eat and how to feel good about what I eat. Without going into gory details or maybe I should to make people realise what it really is like to be upset by food. Basically I will get severe stomach cramps, diarrhoea, excessive wind and just feel unwell. By all means, make a comment about my diet but if I eat gluten you will not want to be around me I can assure you. So maybe instead of making any of those comments above, try learning about why someone has made that decision in the first place, it might be trivial to you, it may be to relieve a lot of discomfort or for some a matter of life or death. A lot of comments are because of a lack of knowledge. Of course we didn't have all these allergies and intolerances before because we hadn't exposed out selves to years of crappy toxic food before so if you do actually do some research about what actually goes into some of your food you would probably feel unwell too. I respect whatever food choices people make, there is usually a valid reason for it but frankly why do people have to justify it unless it becomes a threat to their life. We have to learn to respect a lot of things about all people we don't always agree with whether it's food, religion or politics but my advice is if you can't say anything nice then don't say it at all. I'm trying to learn this myself, not always easy but sometimes we have to just nod and accept things as they are. I hope that just clears a few things up, I feel we'll always be having to explain but I can only hope people will just understand. Thank you for reading today, please pop back tomorrow for Autism Support Sunday but for now...... Take care. |
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