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Craisin, pecan and white choc cookies

On February 24, 2012 in Baking, biscuits, celiac, comfort food, gluten-free, Nigella Lawson

Has the cult of celebrity ever struck you as weird? The way masses of seemingly sane people can go hysterical in the presence of a rock star, actor or reality TV star? Or how women can go weak at the knees at the mere sight of their idol. Think Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Lady Gaga, Madonna – all these mere mortals have been known to cause this effect. Indeed, if you were an alien observing Earth from afar, surely you would come to the swift conclusion that we’re all completely nuts!

Hero worship doesn’t stop at rock stars and Hollywood A-listers. The foodie world is currently basking in the glory of its newfound celebrity status.  Many refer to it as the “Masterchef phenomenon”, and they’re not wrong. Cooking was cool long before reality TV, but shows like Masterchef have put culinary pursuits well and truly back on the radar, and transformed previously unknown chefs like Adrienne Zumbo into household names.

Internationally speaking, the cult of celebrity chefdom is positively brimming at the rim. While most of us aren’t likely to go into a crazed frenzy at the site of Jamie, Nigella or Heston (okay, so I probably would), we are all on first-name basis with them. When these cooking gurus aren’t dazzling us with their latest cookbook release, they’re lighting up our screens with yet another cooking series. And as for Jamie, well he’s a special case, but his foodie empire is expanding faster than I can type this blog post. Speaking of which, have you checked out Jamie’s Ministry of Food Australia?

Of all the celebrity chefs out there, Nigella is my favourite. Truth be told, I just want to look like her, but that’s not the point. For someone who’s not a chef, she does a very good job of inspiring me to don my apron. Sometimes I wonder if there’s a food guru sitting behind the camera telling her exactly what to say and when to say it, but let’s not break the enigma shall we.

Without further ado, today I’m sharing my wheat-free interpretation of Nigella’s cranberry and white chocolate cookies (from Feast cookbook). My recipe actually strays quite a distance from Nigella’s version, but the results are good and gluten-free to boot. This brings me to the topic of oats. These cookies contain oats. While oats are deemed “no go” by the Australian Coeliac Society, they are on the gluten-free list of equivalent societies in other countries. They don’t upset my tummy, but I’m not a Coeliac, so you need to make your own call on whether these cookies are right for you.

Craisin, pecan and white choc cookies

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes: 20

Cranberry, pecan and white choc cookies

Craisin, pecan and white choc cookies

Ingredients:

125g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (loosely packed)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
pinch salt
1/2 tsp gluten-free baking powder, sifted
11/4 cups gluten-free plain flour, sifted
3/4 cup rolled oats (please see note above about oats)
1/2 cup dried craisins (you can buy them from the supermarket)
1/3 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup white chocolate, roughly chopped (or you can use choc chips)
Method:
1. Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer until creamy. Add vanilla essence and egg then mix until light and fluffy.
2. Add sifted flour, baking powder, oats, salt (please see note above about oats) and mix lightly until combined.
3. Stir in the choccie, pecans and craisins until evenly distributed.
4. Roll tablespoonfuls into balls and bake on two greased trays (they will spread so leave enough room) at 150ºC for about 15 minutes or until cooked and lightly browned.
5. After about five minutes, remove the cookies with a spatula and let them cool on a wire rack.
Cranberry, pecan and white choc cookies

Cranberry, pecan and white choc cookies

Notes:

  • Don’t worry if the mixture is sticky. My mixture was gooey and the finished product held together well.
  • I used White Wings gluten-free plain flour, but I found it to be very salty. Next time I’m going to make my own gluten-free flour mix using rice flour, soy flour and cornflour. In fact, there’s a great flour recipe in ‘Gluten-free Dessert Bible’. I will contact its author, Fiona Hammond to see if she’s happy to share it with you.

So, tell me. What’s your favourite biscuit recipe? And do you prefer your biscuits crunchy or chewy or both?

 

 

 

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Gluten-free banana choc muffins

On December 2, 2011 in Baking, brunch, cakes, comfort food, cooking, food, food sensitivities, gluten-free, recipes, snacks, wheat-free

Remember Goldilocks? The chick who broke into the home of three unsuspecting bears and ate their porridge, sat in their chair and slept in their bed? What exactly a young girl was doing walking into a stranger’s home unannounced and ransacking their stuff is another blog post altogether. But the point is, Goldilocks was quite a fussy lass. She liked things to be “just right”. While I can’t relate to gatecrashing a bear’s house, I can relate to her fussy tendencies. Take bananas, for instance. I won’t go near them unless they’re just right. And when I say “just right”, I mean not too ripe and not too green, but somewhere in between.

That’s not to say there isn’t a place in my kitchen for over-ripened bananas. The riper the bananas, the better the baked goods and the sweeter the smoothies. I whipped up some gorgeous gluten-free banana choc muffins last week with a sad old banana that looked ready for the scrap heap. Needless to say, just as you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, don’t judge a banana by its skin. Here’s the recipe.

Banana choc muffins

Makes 12

 

Banana choc muffins

Piece of cake to make

Dry ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup caster sugar
  • 2 cups gluten-free plain flour
  • 1 tsp xanthan gum
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 tsp gluten-free baking powder

Wet ingredients:

  • 11/4 cups soy milk (gluten-free)
  • 1 egg, lightly whisked
  • 3 tbs canola oil

Flavourings:

  • 1 large ripe banana, mashed
  • 1 tbs crushed walnuts
  • 1/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped (I used Lindt)

Toppings:

  • 1 tbs crushed walnuts

Method

  1. Sift the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine.
  2. Mix the wet ingredients in a small bowl, and add to the dry ingredients.
  3. Add the chocolate, banana and walnuts and stir until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.
  4. Fill a 12-hole muffin tray with cases (or lightly grease with oil) and fill with the mixture.
  5. Sprinkle with walnuts and bake at 180 degrees celsius for approximately 25 minutes.
  6. Remove from oven and allow to sit in tray for five minutes before placing on a cooling rack.
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Blueberry, maple and mascarpone tart

On October 28, 2011 in Baking, cakes, comfort food, dessert, entertaining, food sensitivities, gluten-free

Fridays are for celebrating, and what better way to celebrate than with dessert. Today’s recipe hails from my new favourite cookbook, Indulge by Rowie Dillon. It’s a ‘Blueberry, maple and mascarpone tart’; a fitting end to a busy week or a decadent dinner party.  Indulge will come as a welcome relief to anyone feeling jaded by the lack of glamour in gluten-free cookbooks. Its colourful pages of big and stylish dishes turn ‘gluten-free’ on its head and inject it with a bit of an edge. I’m dying to don my apron and whip up more of its 100 savoury and sweet recipes. For your chance to win a copy of Indulge, check out my review on Taste.

Blueberry, maple and mascarpone tart

Blueberry, maple and mascarpone tart

Blueberry, maple and mascarpone tart

Adapted from Indulge by Rowie Dillon

Serves 6

Ingredients:

170g (11⁄3 cups) buckwheat flour
100g unsalted butter, chopped and chilled
30g (1⁄3 cup) desiccated coconut
1 tablespoon pure icing sugar, plus extra, sifted, for dusting
3 tablespoons chilled water

Filling:

500g mascarpone
40g (1⁄3 cup) pure icing sugar
250g blueberries
100ml maple syrup

Grease a 10 x 34cm rectangular loose-based flan tin.

To make the pastry, pulse the flour, butter, coconut and sugar in a food processor to combine.

Add the chilled water and pulse until the dough just comes together to form a ball.

Roll out the pastry to 2mm thick on a lightly floured surface.

Line the prepared tin with the pastry and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Line the pastry shell with baking paper and pastry weights or uncooked rice. Blind bake for 10 minutes until the pastry just starts to go golden on the edges.

Carefully remove the baking paper and pastry weights.

Return the pastry case to the oven for a further 10 minutes, or until golden and crisp.

Set aside to cool on a wire rack.

To make the filling, process the mascarpone and icing sugar in a food processor until smooth. Spoon the filling into the pastry case and smooth the top.

Cover with the blueberries and drizzle with the maple syrup. Serve.

RRP $39.99

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Gluten-free blueberry muffins

On July 22, 2011 in Baking, celiac, comfort food, dairy-free, dessert, gluten-free, muffins, wheat-free

They say leopards don’t change their spots, but can people change their palates? Can a sweet tooth embrace their inner salty tooth, and vice versa? As a long-suffering owner of a sweet tooth (or two), the prospect of becoming a salty tooth seems like a great idea. Unless, of course, I replace my love of chocolate with a hankering for hot chips, it would be an entirely useless exercise.

So, chocolate and chips aside, do you think it’s possible to change your culinary persuasion? I decided to put this experiment to the test over a year ago after receiving an earful from my doctor about my high sugar intake. I felt like a naughty schoolgirl as she wagged her finger at me and warned me about the associated risks of high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes, so much so that I vowed to never eat sugar again.

I wouldn’t say I’m a reformed sugar addict, but I’ve made some massive inroads in my pursuit of a healthier diet. I’ve even kissed goodbye by morning chai lattes and 4pm Freddo Frog break. And, shock horror, I still have Easter eggs leftover from April. That is unheard of in my household! These days, my main vices are dairy-free 70% cocoa dark chocolate, red wine, salami and the occasional pack of chippies.

So, have I given up my sweet tooth altogether? In short, the answer is no. I’ve suppressed it more than anything and toned it down a notch or two - kind of like a smoker who has kicked their nicotine habit but would still kill for a ciggy given half the chance.

I got back in touch with my sweet tooth on the weekend by whipping up a batch of gluten-free blueberry muffins. I hung up my baking apron around the same time that I gave up sugar, but in the interests of writing interesting blog posts, I decided to get back in the swing of it, and boy was it fun.

Gluten-free blueberry muffins

Gluten-free blueberry muffins

Gluten-free blueberry muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups rice flour
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon xanthan gum
pinch salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 ½ cups frozen (I don’t defrost them) or fresh blueberries
½ cup gluten-free soy milk
½ cup canola or safflower oil
2 large free-range eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla essence

Crumble topping:

1½ cup pecan nuts, finely chopped
1/3 cup brown sugar (loosely packed)

Method: 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Spray muffin pan with cooking spray.

Mix sifted flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt and cinnamon in large mixing bowl. Add blueberries; stir to coat evenly.

Combine milk and oil in small bowl. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add liquids to blueberry mixture and stir until just combined.

To make the crumble topping, mix the pecans with brown sugar.

Spoon mixture into muffin pans. Sprinkle each muffin with crumble topping. Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove muffins from pan and serve immediately or cool on a rack.

The muffins can be frozen and taken to work for morning-tea treats!

The moral of the story is that you can take the girl out of the sweet tooth, but you can’t take the sweet tooth out of the girl.

So, tell me readers, are you a sweet tooth or a savoury tooth? 

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Chicken soup

On July 5, 2011 in chicken, comfort food, dairy-free, dinner, egg-free, gluten-free, healthy recipes, recipes, wheat-free, winter warmers

There’s two types of eaters in this world – those who live to eat and those who eat to live. No prizes for guessing which camp I fall into. What type of eater are you? Is your relationship with food based on passion or necessity?

Sometimes I wish I was one of those people who regard food as fuel and regularly forget to eat. It would save me from having to constantly think about food. It would probably save my waistline too. But on the downside, it would mean the death of this blog. A food blog written by a food hater? Forget it.

A surefire sign of a food lover is a healthy preoccupation with comfort food. In other words, eating when you’re not hungry. Comfort eaters are masters of the art of eating for the sake of it. They’ll find any excuse to put food in their mouths. The most frequently cited reasons being boredom, sickness, procrastination, heartache, depression, joy and tiredness.

Ice-cream, biscuits and chocolate are popular forms of sweet comfort food. Hot chips, pizza, burgers, bangers and mash, anything involving carbs are highly sought after in the savoury department. A common misconception with comfort food is that it has to be unhealthy. This is not the case. Take chicken soup, for example. It’s one of the best comfort foods around and happens to be very good for you. Some even go as far as saying it cures sickness.

In the interests of curbing my reliance on unhealthy comfort foods, I decided to soothe my soul with a big pot of homemade chicken soup. I made the whole thing from scratch, including the broth. This isn’t a mid-week meal as you need to leave the soup in the fridge overnight so you can skim the solidified fat off the surface the next day. It’s really worth the effort. I’ve never tasted soup this delicious.

chicken soup

Classic chicken soup adapted from Taste

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 x 1.4kg (size 14) chicken (make sure it’s free-range)
2 large brown onions, finely chopped
2 cups loosely packed fresh continental parsley leaves
4 garlic cloves, crushed
60 mls (1/4 cup) fresh lemon juice
2 tbs soy sauce
5 celery sticks, cut into l cm pieces
5 medium carrots, cut into l cm pieces
2 medium tomatoes, halved
salt and ground black pepper, to taste
1.5L (6 cups) water

Method:

Rinse the inside of the chicken. Remove the tail and neck, and as much skin as possible from the chicken.
Combine the onions, parsley, garlic, lemon juice and soy sauce in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 5-8 minutes or until the onions are soft. Add the chicken, celery, carrots and tomatoes and season with pepper. Add the water and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 1 hour or until the chicken is tender and comes away from the bones easily.
Remove from heat, cool for 10 minutes and place the soup in the fridge to chill overnight. (This allows the fat to rise to the surface and set.)
Next day, remove the soup from the fridge and use a large metal spoon to remove the layer of solidified fat from the surface.
Remove the chicken from the soup and place in a large bowl. Use your fingers to remove the meat from the bones and shred into pieces.
Discard the bones. Return the chicken meat to the soup.
Bring the soup to the boil over medium heat and simmer until the chicken and vegetables are heated through. Remove the soup from the heat and skim a piece of paper towel over the surface to absorb any excess fat.
Season with salt and ladle the soup into deep soup bowls. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.

 

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