Sticky Toffee Ginger Pudding

A combination of sticky toffee pudding and ginger cake, this is one of my favourite cakes. The perfect comfort food with or without the sauce.
Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 200g butter
• 200g of dark muscavado sugar
• 1 heaped tablespoon of black treacle
• 2 flat teaspoons of ginger powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of table salt
• 200g of gluten free self raising flour
• 2 medium eggs

For the sauce:

• 150g of caster sugar *Plus extra for greasing the tin
• 3/4 teaspoon of table salt
• 30ml of water
• 200ml of double cream 

Method:

For the cake first, preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan) then grease a 10″ round cake tin with butter. Add 30g of caster sugar into the center of the tin and shake it until the tin is fully lined with butter and sugar – I recommend you do this over a sink.

Place the butter, sugar, black treacle and ginger in a large sauce pan. Melt on a medium heat stirring regularly until the ingredients are melted and  combined evenly.

Add the salt and flour then whisk the mixture in sauce pan for a few minutes before adding the eggs and whisking again for at least 5 minutes, until the mixture is an even consistency and has cooled slightly.

Pour the mixture straight into the tin and place in the oven to bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when pushed into the center of the cake.

For the sauce place the sugar, salt and water in a sauce pan giving it a stir to mix the ingredients. Leave on a medium to high heat until golden brown. Do not stir it – however tempting. When golden brown, turn off the heat and add the cream in one go then stir it until smooth. Pour straight over slices of the cake or leave to cool then keep in the fridge until needed, you can then reheat it in a microwave for about 15 seconds.

Sausage Rolls With Silly Yak

I love this stuff!!

Hint: If you want to try it – which you really should, buy it now from Tesco delivery and its 2 for £2 at the moment. It is £1.75 anyway which is really good for ready to roll pastry.

Silly Yak is amazing all-purpose gluten free pastry making it very versatile. I will definitely be buying it again because it makes it so quick and easy to make snacks for uni.

So here is how I made them…

I rolled out the pastry using chickpea flour for a savory flavour. I would recommend using quite a lot of flour for this as it is quite a wet pastry and I found that it stuck to the surface very easily. I rolled the pastry out to the thickness of about a 50p coin.

I wanted to make quite a few sausage rolls as a light snack for uni so I cut 6 Heck sausages in half removing the skins and laying them onto the pastry with about 8cm between them width ways and 4cm length ways like below.

I cut in the center between each sausage and folded the bottom and top before pinching the sides together. I placed them join side down on a lined tray and brushed each on top with an egg wash (one egg whisked with 40ml of water). Finally I scored them before placing them in a 200C oven for 18 minutes.

I 100% recommend this to everyone who is gluten free!!

BFree Bread Rolls

Since finding this brand at a BBC Eat Well Good Food Show I have loved it, regularly buying it and their products when I see them. I’m not sure when they bought these rolls out but it’s the first time I have seen them and well, I would choose them of the Schar ciabatta any day!

Texture: As always with gluten free bread I would recommend toasting or warming in the oven, but even if you don’t the bread has such a lovely soft and slightly chewy texture with a slightly crunchy shell.

Flavour: Amazing!! not as sweet as other gluten free bread which is great. There is normally a lot of sugar added to gluten free bread to help it brown and rise but somehow they managed to find a different way.

Appearance: Not flat and with a golden brown finish – they look normal!!

Serving suggestion…

Saute a few  finely chopped spring onions and a small garlic clove in a knob of butter. Add some roughly chopped leftover meat or vegetables and heat until warmed through. I used some leftover roast pork from the night before. Cut a Bfree roll in half and place a slice of cheese on each, this will prevent the filling falling out when you are eating the roll. Place the filling on top of one half. Add the top half and place in a micowave or warm oven for about 30 or until the cheese is melted then serve.

Thank you BFree x

Perfect Pancakes

This is my favourite pancake recipe made perfect with the addition of chocolate chips, hope you like it!

Ingredients

100g of rice flour
1/2tsp of bicarbonate of soda
1/2tsp of baking powder
30g of butter melted
2 eggs
About 200ml of milk (enough to make a honey type consistency)
100g of chocolate chips

Makes 6-7 medium sized pancakes

Method

Whisk the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, butter and eggs then add in the milk slowly until the correct consistency. Stir in the chocolate chips then preferably leave the mixture at room temperature for 30-45 minutes or in the fridge over night.

Heat up a non stick pan until a drop of water will evaporate within a couple of seconds. You do not need any oil for this recipe as the butter will prevent them sticking. Use four table spoons of mixture per pancake frying until the side is golden brown and the mixture is bubbling on top before flipping, this should take about two to three minutes for each side. If the mixture starts to burn before it bubbles turn the hob down a little .

 Top with ice cream and maple syrup

Hattie x

Chips my Way

I have never been a fan of chips, but to me these chips have the perfect proportions of fluffy and crispy.

Ingredients

• Half a kilo of any potatoes
• 2 tablespoons of oil – I prefer to use rapeseed oil because it heats to a higher temperature making the chips crispier. Olive oil would also be good though for flavour if your don’t have rapeseed oil.
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 teaspoon of garlic granules

Method

Fill a large bowl half full of cold tap water. Using a mandolin, slice the potatoes into 6mm pieces. Once cut, place them into the water to stop them browning. Put the other ingredients in a large plastic food bag. Drain the potatoes, shaking them to dry them as much as you can then place them in the bag. Twist the top of the bag and shake the mixture to coat the potatoes in oil. Lay out the potatoes onto lined trays making sure they don’t overlap, use that Tetris skill. Put in a 220C oven (200C fan assisted) for 40-50 minutes or until golden brown.

Hattie x

Creative Nature:Chia and Mulberry Cake Mix

I’m not great at following recipes, so why I try to write them, I don’t know. I followed the muffin mix recipe mostly, but I may have added 150g extra of chocolate chips – it was defiantly an accident. I used the version with eggs however they also include a vegan version. I then iced them with a basic chocolate ganache using equal quantities of warm cream to chocolate then sprinkling with crumbled flake.

On the whole this recipe was great, it was easy to follow with no fuss. However, this meant the final cakes had a denser texture compared to what I am used to. Nevertheless I only manages to eat one of the eighteen I bought to camp before they were all gone. I really liked the  flavour of the cakes, they weren’t too sweet – even with the extra chocolate. The appearance was rather rock like, they didn’t really rise or go golden brown, but when iced this wasn’t obvious.

Summary: I would use this mix again if I wanted something quick and easy, particularly if I needed to make vegan gluten free cakes.

Gluten Free Focaccia

This is my delicious family favourite recipe for tear and share focaccia. Before I was gluten free (when I was about eight), tear and share breads were one of the first foods I would eat that weren’t pasta, grated cheese, ketchup or butter. It had to be the Waitrose garlic tear and share though!! I was too fussy to try any other brands for at least a few years. Anyway, it just blew my mind how many flavours could be in one bite without adding any gross textures.

I have been trying to develop a gluten free recipe for years now. Since visiting  Italy this summer and finding the best focaccia ever (pictured below), I am closer than ever before to my perfect recipe. I noticed the secret ingredient of psyllium powder in the Italian focaccia, one of the only translatable ingredients. From testing out Paul Hollywood’s gluten free pitta bread recipe using this secret ingredient, I have been experimenting to develop my focaccia bread recipe.

Ingredients

• 15 grams of Psyllium powder
• 300 grams of strong gluten free bread flour
• 2 teaspoons of dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon of garlic granules
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 10 grams of dried yeast
• 1 medium to large egg
• 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• about 400 to 500ml of water
• a few sprigs of fresh Rosmary to decorate (optional)

Method

 In a small bowl stir 200ml of water into the psyllium powder. Stir the mixture until it starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. In a large bowl, place the dry ingredients ensuring you place the yeast on the opposite side of the bowl to the salt and sugar. Make a well in the center of the bowl with a spoon and pour into it the wet ingredients apart from the water. Add the psyllium mixture. Using an electric mixer with a dough hook or a kMix with the K-beater as I do, mix the ingredients  slowly adding the water until a wet dough is formed. The dough should be thick enough that tracks are left from mixing, but wet enough that the mixture sticks to the bowl. It should take about 5 minutes to get this consistency. If the mixture is lumpy, continue to mix for a few minutes longer and add another 50 ml of water.

Cover the bowl and place it in a warm room for 1 hour. After this, remove it and place it in an oiled non-stick tray that is about 11″ by 8″ by 2″. Push in a few sprigs of fresh rosemary then cover and prove again for 30 minutes. Finally, remove the cover and drizzle the bread with a little more olive oil then place it in an oven 180C for about 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and 85C if you have a thermometer to hand. If not press the bread lightly on the top and if it springs back, leaving no mark then it is cooked.

Hattie x