A new normal

~ Cakes by Noah ~ Leave a comment

I’ll try and not make a habit of this; a blog post!

I know it’s been a while and I thank those who have been visiting the site over the last few months. Whilst the World is on pause for a while, whilst a solution or solutions are being sort for the virus, there have been a lot of people searching the internet for recipes. Baking at home has become a new normal for most across the world. I hope those that have visited this site have something that has inspired them or has been useful. After all, that’s what I set out to do. I hope to be able to continue to provide something for you, for as long as I can.

I also feel fortunate enough to have been able to source ingredients. I know some people have been having difficulties and now, some 10 weeks or so since lockdown began in the UK, groceries across the country are beginning to appear more regularly in supermarkets. So hopefully you will be able to recreate these recipes once again very soon. And if not, the page isn’t going anywhere; so when you can, you’re welcome back any time.

If you feel you can afford to buy me a coffee, to contribute to the site, please do so via the ‘contribute’ page. It will be very much appreciated.

And I’m not one for these long intro’s into a recipe, on the why’s and wherefores of mixing it this way or that, that ingredient over that or any such dribble, that no one really wants to read… just give me the ingredients and recipe.  But while i’ve got you………

An actual crisp biscuit that is gluten free! It took a couple of goes but I got there in the end. Especially after the first go had no vanilla essence in!

Pre-heat the oven to Gas 5, 180c fan, 200c and line 2 or 3 Swiss roll trays with greaseproof paper

50g soft butter

60g caster sugar

1 medium egg

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

150g rice flour

50g gluten free plain flour (if your flour contains xanthan gum, DO NOT add any more)

half a level teaspoon of xanthan gum (only if it’s NOT in the flour)

1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

For the buttercream;

60g soft butter

130g icing sugar

splash of milk to make it pipe-able

80g raspberry jam ( or your favourite jam)

Simply beat the butter and the sugar in a bowl with an electric whisk until, light and fluffy, no more than a minute. Then add the egg and the vanilla and continue to beat until you have a smooth batter.

Sift in the gluten free plain flour, rice flour, bicarb and xanthan (if using) then using a spatula just mix this in until all the flours etc are fully mixed and the mixture forms a soft, ‘pastry’ dough ball.  Using your hands continue to bring together by ‘kneading’ for a few moments. You can’t really over work this dough, but it will help in the rolling out and keep it from crumbling.

Leave the dough for about 10 minutes in the fridge to firm up.

Remove the dough from the fridge and using a scattering of gluten free flour on your kitchen surface, roll out the dough to the thickness of a one pound coin (2 – 3mm).

Then, using a specific jammie dodger cutter, or similar 5cm flutted cutter, cut out roughly 36 – 40 discs, placing them on the lined baking trays in rows of 4. You will need to gather up the remaining dough, bring it together again into  a ball and re-roll, in order to get the desired amount of biscuits.

Then using a smaller cutter ( a small heart shaped cutter that allows for the jam to be seen, once the biscuits are assembled) cut out the middle of half the biscuits. One will form the base the other the top.

Place one tray in the fridge and place one in the oven to cook for 6 – 7 minutes.  Remove from the oven to cool; then repeat with the second tray and cook that for 6 – 7 minutes as well. Allow both trays to cool and you can start to make the buttercream.

Beat the butter with the icing sugar until you have a smooth paste. At this stage you could also flavour the buttercream; I’ll leave that up to you.

Once the biscuits are completely cooled, and using a piping bag filled with the buttercream, pipe a ring of buttercream on the half of the biscuits without the hole in the top.

Then with a couple of teaspoons, place in the middle of the ring, the raspberry jam. Top with the ‘holey’ biscuit and you’re done. You should have around 18 biscuits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No time like the present..

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You may need to take a seat. 😀

And, yes, there is a recipe attached to this post!

I thought it about time to both update and and write a new recipe.  As you will have noticed from some of my social media posts recently, it’s been a difficult couple of months and you begin to see things through a different lens. You pull together, close in and heal each other. Share the pain, the grief and the sorrow. You also turn the corners and build each other up; you become a little stronger.  But it does give you time to reflect.

The Book? Yes, well. Who knew these tings could take so long!? Probably a lot of people. It’s been an interesting journey and I can safely say that I have written the recipes and taken the photos. The manuscript is in some semblance of order and I think I’m fairly happy with the end result. The next steps are to find a graphic designer (that doesn’t cost the earth!) to create a new document that can be turned into something that can be published. A little exciting ? Yes, I guess it is 😀

Back to the recipe. A lovely cake (if I do say so) and made in 3 stages. Look to make the jam first, so it cools and so that you have time to enjoy the sweet smell of the raspberries cooking. Then the simplicity of the lemon sponge, followed by the making of the rather light and refreshing Cheesecake frosting.  All in, and quite mornings’ project. Ideal for anytime or even for Mother’s Day or even Easter.

Plus I’m now writing this in a pair of glasses being held together with Gorilla Glue. Because time is of the essence, 😂

Begin by making the jam;  place 250g of raspberries into a large enough solid base saucepan, with 200g granulated sugar. Place over a low heat to slowly dissolve the sugar and use a potato masher or fork, to crush the raspberries into a pulp.  Stirring as you go with a spatula, bring to a slow boil, turn up the heat and fast boil for about 4 minutes – keep stirring so the jam doesn’t stick to the base and burn. After 4 minutes turn off the heat and allow to cool in the pan. Put this to one side for now.

Preheat the oven to 160c fan/180c/Gas Mark 4 and line 3 x 7” cake tins with greaseproof paper.

5 eggs

230g sunflower oil

250g caster sugar

zest of 3 lemons

300g gluten free self raising flour

Place all the ingredients into a large enough mixing bowl and whisk (using an electric whisk or stand mixer with a whisk attachment) until light and fluffy and well combined – about 2/3 minutes. Remember to scrap down the sides of the mixing bowl half way though whisking.

Stop the machine and divide the cake batter between the 3 cake tins, place into the preheated oven and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to fully cool before removing from the tin tins and lacing on a wire rack until required.

For the cheesecake frosting:

360g full fat cream cheese

210ml double cream

juice of 1 of the lemons

150g lemon curd

Additional raspberries for decoration

Place all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisk until firm and pipable. You won’t be piping but it’s a good indicator  of firmness in texture.

To assemble the cake, place one sponge on your cake plate, smoother with half of the raspberry jam, place a second cake on top and cover this with the  remaining jam. Taking your cheesecake frosting, cover the tops and sides of the cake, as in the photo. For the lemon curd drizzle, place the lemon curd into a small microwaveable container and  just warm it through, on full power, in 2 short power bursts of 10 seconds.  Then either using a disposable piping bag or spoon, drizzle the top and sides and slightly the cover the top of the cake as shown.

Finish with the additional raspberries, place in the fridge for at least an hour or so before serving. Serve within a couple of days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gluten free Spiced Chocolate Cake

~ Cakes by Noah ~ 2 Comments

Here is one I made earlier.

After another fantastic Foodies Festival appearance, its about time the recipe for the cake got written. So without further ado and much waffle…..

For the dehydrated orange –

2 oranges sliced approximately to 4mm thick

For the Truffle balls –

200g dark chocolate broken into small pieces

180ml double or whipping cream

20ml mulled wine

40g cocoa

For the cake –

5 eggs

240g vegetable oil

240g caster sugar

280g gluten free self raising flour

40g Food Thoughts Cocoa

2 teaspoons orange essence

1 teaspoon baking powder

30ml water

For the buttercream –

150g soft butter

35g Food Thoughts cocoa

270g icing sugar

approx 30ml mulled wine

for the chocolate filling –

140g dark chocolate broken into small pieces

100ml double of whipping cream

Planning is key here as the oranges will take at least 3 hours to dry out in a typical oven. Pre heat the oven to cool, so around 90c in a fan assisted oven.

Once you have sliced the oranges into slices, place them onto a greaseproof lined baking sheets, large enough to accommodate all of the orange slices, placed together, but not on top of each other. Allowing for the heat to get around them. Place into the pre heated oven for 1 and a half hours, before turning the slices over and returning to the oven for a further 90 minutes, or until completely dry. Remove from the oven to cool and finish drying out. Leave to one side.

To make the truffle mix, place the cream (double cream will give you a thicker, richer texture; whilst whipping cream will be lighter) into a large enough saucepan and place the chocolate pieces into a glass bowl. Gently bring the cream to a simmer, stirring occasionally so as stop the cream catching and burning. Once the cream is simmering, pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Leave this for about 30 seconds to allow the chocolate to start to melt. Then stir so as to melt the chocolate and create a thick chocolate sauce. Add the mulled wine and stir to combine all the ingredients. Once cool enough place into the fridge to set.

Once set, remove the truffle from the fridge and roll into balls, using a teaspoon as a guide for size. Once made, roll the balls in the cocoa and place back in the fridge to set further.

For the cake.

Preheat the oven to gas 4/180c/160c fan and line 3 x 7” cake tins.

Place all the cake ingredients into a large enough bowl (I used a stand mixer) and whisk it altogether for about 3 to 4 minutes until you have an amazing cake batter, ready to pour into the 3 cake tins. Place into the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, before removing from the tins and placing on a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Whilst cooling, you can make the filling. As for the truffle mix, heat the cream to a simmer and pour over the broken chocolate pieces, leave for 30 seconds again before stirring to combine the cream and chocolate and then add in the mulled wine.

 

You can also begin to make the buttercream. By adding the cocoa and icing sugar and mulled wine to the butter in a large enough mixing bowl and beating to a smooth paste. Scrap the sides of the bowl once and beat again for a couple of minutes.

To assemble, place one of the cakes on the cake board/cake stand and pour over half of the sauce, top with a 2nd cake, pour the remaining sauce over and then top with the 3rd cake.

Cover the cake sides and top with the buttercream and using a fork create the look as per the photo. As you would when making a Yule Log.

Decorate as you please using the truffle balls and dehydrated oranges (and an indoor sparkler if you want)

 

 

Sticky Toffee Ginger Pudding

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I know. An actual recipe! its been a while, but its getting towards an actual pudding season; the autumn and winter months.  The nights start to draw in and the sun begins to shine a little less. Comfort food time. Although having said that, anytime is comfort food time 🙂

This is a fairly easy recipe to make and bake; add the sauce and hey presto a soft, moist and moreish pudding, fit for any time or day of the week.

I was though lucky enough to have been approached by a company called Global Foods UK who manufacture date products. Who knew? I think largely for the wholesale/trade market, they produce and supply dates, date pastes and date syrups from some of the worlds tastiest dates – Deglet Noir from North Africa and Zahidi from the Middle East. Really easy to use; the paste can be used in much the same way as dates – without the stones! The syrups can be used instead of ‘normal’ refined sugars.  There are some health benefits I believe – check their website for their details

Now for research purposes I made a batch of chocolate muffins, substituting out the sugar and using the exact same amount of the date syrup. Like any other liquid sugar substitute it works fine. Mixes fine and cooks just as well.  The problem we have is the taste, its just not the same as sugar.

Now the date paste is another matter. Having made this pudding I can safely say that the paste is really easy to use.  Use in the same way you would dates, but the easy bit is that you don’t have to de-stone them!

I used the Deglet Noir date paste which has been put through a 3mm mincer.

Ingredients – enough for 12 people.

For the pudding;

250g date paste/chopped dates

300ml water

70g butter

140g black treacle

170g gluten free self raising flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 eggs

For the sauce;

300ml double cream

160g soft brown sugar

50g butter

Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180c or 160c fan and lightly grease a container that holds at least 1.7L and is c26cm long, c20cm wide and c5cm deep.

First off put the chopped dates (the date paste will still actually need chopping into small pieces, the water, butter and treacle into a saucepan and bring to a slow simmer for 2 minutes. The treacle will soften and the butter will melt and the dates should also soften and absorb the liquids, plus soften to make them easier to mix.

Leave to one side to cool for about 10 minutes, then tip in the flour, ginger and the eggs and beat the mixture together to form a batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared dish and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cut, whilst hot, into 12 pieces.

Put to one side whilst you make the sauce.

Pour the cream, butter and sugar into a large enough saucepan and bring to a slow boil for another 2 minutes – stirring whilst it heats. The sauce should thicken a little and have a lovely ‘saucey’ look to it… Pour this over the slightly cooled ginger pudding and serve – on its own or with (more) cream.

 

Holiday time to France

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As the leaves begin to fall from the trees, so the end of the school holidays draw to a close and we prepare for the autumn/winter term and the slow road into Christmas and the New Year! Where does the time go???

France. A holiday destination of our youth but as a current family, not one we have been to on our own. So with some trepidation we embarked on what we described as a little experiment. How would it go? Could we get by speaking next to no French? And how would we get by with Noah? How good were the French at catering for those with gluten free diets? Sans gluten?

Sadly we had heard before we went, that, on the whole, France is possibly not the best destination for those with Coeliac Disease. Great! What a start!

We decided to take our time down to the La Loire valley. Take a little road trip and explore some of the French countryside and not rush around. It was all to easy to come off Le Shuttle, drive south, unpack, have holiday and drive straight back.

So we took a fairly longish way down, stopping first in Dover (at a rather nameless Premier Inn, with. Beefeater attached, that did provide an allergy menu) before catching Le Shuttle the next day, driving down  via Rouen (we had to laugh at Mrs Sat Nav’s pronunciations) and into our booked first night in France, in a small gites in a little village; Boscherville.

Having emailed ahead, we ensured that our hosts were very much aware that we had someone who needed a ‘sans gluten’ breakfast. What we would get, we would have to wait and see.  Needless to say, it would appear that our hosts went out of their way to provide something for Noah to eat. Sadly, Noah was having a no-eating breakfast, but our confidence grew with sans gluten provisions. Other than that, we had a little picnic for tea from a nearby supermarket and the gites was pretty, simple and charming. Coffee in traditional bowls for breakfast 🙂

We then needed to make our way to our base camp; a Eurocamp, near la Loire. Being self catering we had of course needed to find a supermarket and stock up on supply’s. And why is it, that when you need to find something, you can’t find it? After a somewhat 30km round trip we found one hell of a supermarche! Super U. And the amount of ‘sans gluten’ product was outstanding. It was a little hit and miss after this, but on the whole, self catering in France for those needing to eat gluten free, is relatively easy. At least it is in la Loire.

We did of course bring some stuff over with us, but we could easily not have bothered. Even the camp site shop had a very limited stock of the basics – pasta…. We shall say very little about eating out, as that wasn’t our greatest success, but we didn’t expect it to be, so we pretty much ate of our own doing.  At least we knew what Noah was eating and not gambling on cross contamination in food outlet kitchens.

Then before heading back after a fantastic week of doing not very much but hanging by the pool (I didn’t bring enough books!), visiting a couple of traditional and amazing Chateaux we headed back north. But again we headed back to Calais via very circuitous route to Dieppe and a lovely B&B! Hotel de la Plage. Quite basic, but we just needed a bed for the night, a walk on the beach and a simple breakfast in the morning. And we are pleased to say that, again, there was a ‘sans gluten’ provision (Noah again having a no eating breakfast – good job we had some gluten free cereal left in the room!).

Our final stop, Cite Europe and the Carrefour supermarket just outside, literally, Le Shuttle terminal. And wow! What a fantastic array of gluten free products! No picture would have done it justice. Simply fantastic. Why these products are not available in the UK I have no idea, but if you get the chance, go and stock up. Noah felt like it was Christmas and we came back with loads of things for him to try.

So on the whole a rather successful trip all round, both in terms of travelling, driving and gluten free provision. Next year? A road trip to Italy?

What to look for – own shop brand ‘sans gluten’ can be hit and miss in some supermarkets, but the larger the store the larger the selection (not unlike in the UK I suppose) Carrefour do their own brand, but on our trip we found plenty of Schar products, Regain and Super U had their own products.

Look our for – d’orge = barley. dont ble = wheat. Glucose de ble = wheat glucose. Peut contenir = can contain. Fibre de ble = wheat fibre. Farine de ble = wheat flour. Google translate was VERY helpful 😉