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Frances's gluten-free shortbread

Wed, 16 May 2012 23:55:16 +0100

I can't remember which US website I got this recipe. Has some handy tips at the end for GF baking.

1 1/3 cups white rice flour

1/2 cup sweet rice flour (I just used the same rice flour)

1/2 cup cornflour

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum (this prevents the cookies from spreading)

7 ounces (14 tablespoons) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 150°C. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In small bowl, whisk together rice flour, cornflour, salt, baking powder, and xanthan gum. In another bowl cream butter, sugar, and vanilla extract together, on medium-low speed with an electric whisk, until a thick paste forms, about 30 seconds. Add dry ingredients. Turn on mixer and mix until a dough forms, about three minutes.

Lightly white rice flour your countertop. Turn dough out onto counter and shape dough into a disk. Using a rolling pin, roll dough out, about 1/4-inch thick. Cut using a round cutter and place cookies on prepared baking sheet, about two inches apart. (I added half a blanched almond on top.) Bake until cookies are lightly golden brown on the edges and aromatic, about 30 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for five minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool.

Tips

1. Don't overmix. Shortbread cookies are dense affairs. Over-mixing the butter causes their texture to become too light and crumbly. When preparing the dough, don't cream the butter and sugar so much that it becomes light and fluffy.

2. Take your time. Since these cookies contain no eggs, there's no moisture to coax the ingredients quickly into a dough. Once the dry ingredients are added to the butter and sugar paste, it takes a little while for a dough to form. At first the dough seems incredibly sandy--you might even worry that it's not coming together—don't fret like I did the first time I made a batch! The dough does come together after two or three minutes of mixing. Don't rush it and don't give up. The wait's worth it.

3. Re-rolling is welcome. With no gluten to make things tough, you can roll and re-roll this dough until every last piece is used. Since these cookies are so rich, I make about two dozen 2 1/2-inch cookies from one batch, gathering and re-rolling the dough as needed to get this many cookies.

Kara's luscious chocolate tart

Tue, 15 May 2012 21:15:49 +0100

Welcome to Bake Club, Kara! Kara has her own blog, http://kazascakes.blogspot.co.nz/
and she'd like to share the recipe she made on Mother's Day.

This tart is really luscious - it's at its best when it's been well chilled. Recipe from Helen Jackson's book.

Sweet Chocolate Pastry

1 3/4 flour
1/4 cocoa
1/4 sugar
125g butter well chilled and roughly chopped
1 egg
1-2 tbls cold water

Place flour and sugar in food processor. With motor running, drop butter in piece by piece until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add egg and pulse until pastry forms a ball. Add a little water to help bind. Wrap in glad wrap and keep in fridge or freezer until ready to use.

1 1/2 cups cream
3/4 cups milk
200g Nestle dark choc buttons
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbls cocoa

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease 28cm tart pan, preferably loose bottomed.
Roll pastry out to a thickness of 3mm and line tart pan. Prick pastry a few times with a fork. Cover pastry with baking paper and fill with uncooked rice and blind bake for 12-15 minutes until just cooked. Remove paper and rice and cook a further 5 minutes until pastry is dry and firm. Remove tart shell from oven and reduce temperature to 150C.
Gently heat together cream and milk in a saucepan until almost boiling. Remove from heat and add chocolate, stirring until smooth.

In a separate bowl whisk together egg yolks, sugar and cocoa. Once chocolate mixture has cooled slightly, pour into egg mixture and mix well. Pour filling into prepared pastry shell and bake for 20mins until filling has just set around the edges but still has a little wobble in the centre. Once cool place in fridge for 2 hours or over night. Enjoy.

Frances's lemon polenta cookies

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:55:46 +0100

These cookies feature on the cover of May's Healthy Food Guide.

100g reduced-fat spread (I used regular butter)
75g caster sugar
1 lemon, zest finely grated
2 egg yolks
1 cup flouro (I used gluten free)
1/2 cup polenta
4 Tbs icing sugar

Beat butter, sugar and zest until light and creamy. Add yolks one at a time. Beat well. Sift flour and pinch of salt into a bowl. Stir in polenta. Add dry ingreds to egg mixture and combine well. Knead lightly for 1-2 min, shape into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 mins.
Preheat oven to 200C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of baking paper. Cut shapes with your favourite cookie cutters. With a spatula, transfer cookies to baking tray.
Bake 10-12 min until lightly golden. Check at 8 mins (my first tray bit brown on the edges). Cool on a wire rack.
When completely cool drizzle with icing made by mixing icing sugar with a little water or lemon juice.

Never fail fudgey chocolate cake by Frances

Mon, 14 May 2012 04:03:07 +0100

This is from the May Skywatch magazine - didn't know they had recipes! I have never made a cake with so many eggs - it turned out deliciously rich and intense and I used less sugar.

400g dark choc (I used Whittaker's Dark Ghana)

360g unsalted butter

360g caster sugar (I used under 350g)

6 heaped Tbs plain flour (could easily be gluten free)

pinch cinnamon or cardamom, optional (I used about 1 tsp of each)

6 eggs

icing sugar

Preheat oven to 200C. Melt chocolate, butter and sugar in a double boiler over a gentle heat, stirring often until the mixture is smooth then remove from heat. Add flour and stir. Add eggs one at a time, beating with whisk or electric beater. Pour into line 20cm sq tin. Bake for 15 mins then turn oven down to 150C, bake for further 40 mins. Turn off oven, leave door closed and allow cake to slowly cool. Turn cake out, lay spoons across the top and dust with icing sugar.

If you slightly undercook the cake it will set like fudge in the fridge.

Walnuts or other nuts, prunes, cranberries would also work well in this cake if you want a less intense bite, a more brownie-type cake. But it's great as a mighty chocolate hit, or with yoghurt.

Ruth B's pumpkin whoopie pies

Mon, 14 May 2012 03:09:14 +0100

Frances says: I've never tasted homemade whoopie pies, only store-bought ones which always seem too sweet. These were perfect, as good as the ones I had in NYC, thanks Ruth!

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
125g butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup mashed pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

filling:
250g cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt in medium bowl.
Beat butter and sugar for 2 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add pumpkin and vanilla extract; beat until smooth.
Stir in flour mixture until combined.
Drop by heaping measuring teaspoons onto prepared baking sheets..
Bake for 10 to 13 minutes at 180C or until springy to the touch.

Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract until fluffy.
Gradually beat in powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
Sandwich cookies together with heaped teaspoons of filling.

April Sweet NZ round up!

Tue, 15 May 2012 21:20:48 +0100

Feast your eyes on this mouth-watering selection! Thank you to all the bloggers who contributed this month. I hope you can have a browse and be inspired.
May's Sweet NZ will be hosted by Jemma from Time for a Little Something so please send her your next entry.
From April we have:

Vegan cape-pops by Alessandra Zecchini. Chocolate dipped Cape gooseberries then rolled in yummy nutty and sweet toppings.

Butterscotch cupcakes by Arfi at HomeMadeS. Gluten free with caramel sauce - now that's what I'm talkin' bout.

Sunny muffins by Shirleen at Sugar & Spice...and all things nice. Orange and honey make a beautiful bright hue.

Feijoa curd by Genie at Bunny Eats Design. A perfect way to preserve those excess feijoas dripping off their bushes. Sweet and tart - ideal for crumpets.

Scott's Farewell Square by Jemma at Time for a Little Something. Now this is interesting - a slice made for the farewell of Robert Scott's expedition to the Antarctic at a Dunedin church, as seen in Alexa Johnston's Ladies, A Plate. It includes Weetbix, walnuts, dates and coconut to sustain many a long journey.

Beetroot, prune, chocolate chia cake by Amy at On the Monkey Trail. A gluten-free superfood cake. What a great combination!

Slow-roasted quince with cinnamon and orange by Sue at Couscous & Consciousness. Have always wanted to try fresh quince - now's the season.

Boysenberry honey yoghurt cake by Alli at PeasePudding. Just can't go wrong with honey, yoghurt and ground almonds in a cake. Fresh or frozen berries work well.

Galliano tart by Alessandra Zecchini on her Only Recipes blog. Alessandra makes it looks so easy with sponge biscuits, shortcrust pastry and tasty Galliano liqueur.

Feijoa and lemon zest cordial by Alessandra Zecchini on her Vegan blog. Another great way to use up this special fruit.

Forgot to add these chocolate chunk oat cookies by Lydia at Grace Cakes. A good old-fashioned bite great for dunking.

And then there's my dark chocolate self-saucing pud from Bake Club. Always pays to use real chocolate and not just cocoa.

Happy baking everyone!

Frances's dark chocolate self-saucing pudding

Wed, 02 May 2012 04:40:43 +0100

I'm sorry this doesn't look that pretty after being dealt to before the pic was taken, but sure tasted gooood. This saucy little number is from the June HZ House & Garden magazine. And this is my entry into the April Sweet New Zealand, hosted by myself this month!

1 cup self-raising flour
2 tablespoons good-quality dark cocoa
½ cup caster sugar
½ cup milk
1 large egg
60g butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g dark chocolate melts, buttons or pieces
1 cup boiling water
Icing sugar for dusting
Thickened cream or vanilla ice cream to serve

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a medium (4-serve size) baking dish. Sift flour, cocoa and sugar into a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together milk, egg, butter and vanilla. Fold wet mixture into dry ingredients until combined. Pour mixture into dish or divide between ramekins and place on a baking tray.
Put chocolate in a jug, pour over boiling water and stir until melted and smooth. Pour sauce over the back of a spoon onto the pudding. Bake 12-18 minutes until puffed and spongy to the touch (my large pudding took a little longer). Dust with icing sugar and serve with cream or ice cream (lashings of!).

Serves 4

Ginny's chocolate sour cream raspberry cake

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:38:28 +0100

This is from Marian Keyes' Saved By Cake. Delicious and very easy (if not the cheapest cake to make!)

100g dark (70%+) chocolate
250g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (seems a lot!)
250g caster sugar
125ml sunflower (or other non-flavoured; I used grape-seed) oil
250ml sourcream
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g (approx) frozen rasberries, defrosted

The recipe says to make 2 23cm cakes, and stick together with rasberry jam; I made one, in a bundt tin, it just needed longer to cook...

Oven to 180C
Melt the chocolate (eg in a bowl over boiling water), let cool slightly
sieve flour and baking soda into a large mixing bowl, add salt and sugar, then stir in the oil and sour cream.
Mix in the melted chocolate. Add in the beaten eggs, vanilla, and 60ml of hot water.
Finally, stir through the rasberries.
Pour into oiled tin (or tins), bake 25 mins (more if single cake). Wait till the cake is fully cooled before remoiving from the tins.

Serve with something like cream!

Frances's gingery cookies

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:01:53 +0100

These cookies are adapted from the coffee snaps recipe. They're not gingernuts, but gingery.

125g butter, softened
1 cup (275g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup (110g) plain flour
3/4 cup (110g) self-raising flour
3 teaspoons powdered ginger
walnut halves

Preheat oven to 180°C (350° F). Line cookie/oven tray with baking paper.
In a bowl, beat butter, sugar and vanilla extract until pale and fluffy. Add egg and beat until just combined.
Stir in sifted flours and ginger.
Plop rounded teaspoons of mixture onto the tray about 3cm apart. Press half a walnut onto the top of each. Bake for 12 min. The cookies will spread out nicely. Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 40 cookies approx 5-6cm in diameter.

Frances’s tower of super fudge

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:26:31 +0100

I went to an inspiring raw chocolate demo by Chef Rene at Wise Cicada in Newmarket, Auckland. He showed us how to make lots of chocolate recipes and we tasted them all! The energy in the food was amazing. Here’s his recipe for super fudge, which keeps nicely in the fridge. Just one piece in the afternoon is a great pick-me-up - packed with super foods!

3.5 c date paste (dates soaked in enough water to blend into a paste)
1 c chia seeds
1 c sultanas
1 c goji powder (I used dried goji berries soaked in a bit of water and added to the dates)
4 Tbs mesquite powder (didn’t have)
1 tsp vanilla powder (or extract)
2 c raw cacao powder (I get the Navitas brand from livingfoodslifestyle.co.nz)
1 c sesame seeds
2 c sunflower seeds
2 Tbs maca powder
2 tsp camu camu powder (didn’t have)
2 tsp spirulina powder (optional)

Mix all ingreds in a bowl by hand. Press evenly into a lined baking tray. Set aside at least an hour in the fridge to set. Cut into small pieces (I made 64).

If you have a dehydrator you can dry the fudge for a few hours at 115F.