Here is a quick, easy recipe for a dessert-type of cake, that you can make gluten free. It's from an old magazine clipping from 'That's Life' magazine, and the recipe is by Darlene Allston.
Ingredients:
1/3 cup plain flour (you can use gf flour)
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup almond meal
100g butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 egg whites
1 cup frozen or canned cherries, well drained
2 tablespoons flaked almonds
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a 20cm spring-form pan (I used a quiche tin instead).
2. Sift plain four and icing sugar into a bowl. Add almond meal, melted and cooled butter and vanilla. Place egg whites in a mixer bowl and beat until loose, soft peaks form. Fold egg whites into other ingredients with a metal spoon.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan and top with cherries and almonds. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Serve with a dollop of cream and a dust of icing sugar.
Note: If you make this cake gluten free, it will not rise very high.
This is a lovely recipe that I found via pinterest, but I can't locate the website address! :S I've modified it slightly anyway....
The trick to this dough is to let it refrigerate for several hours, even overnight if you like. It is also freezable. The author notes that by chilling the dough, the cookies don't flatten out and 'melt' like they would if you put them straight in the oven after making the dough.
Ingredients:
1/2 a cup of unsalted butter, softened
1/4 a cup of full-fat cream cheese, softened
3/4 a cup of brown sugar
1/4 a cup of caster sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 and 1/4 cups of gluten free, plain flour
2 teaspoons of cornstarch
1 teaspoon of baking soda
pinch of salt
1 pack of nestle baking bits (I prefer milk, but in this instance, I used dark chocolate-it's up to you)-about 2 cups worth of chips
Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees (if you are cooking straightaway, otherwise, wait til you're ready to cook).
In a mixer, combine butter, cream cheese, sugars, egg and vanilla and beat on medium speed until creamed (about 5 minutes).
Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and pinch of salt and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips using a spatula.
Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto a lined tray, about a centimetre apart. Press each down slightly with a fork. Put your tray/s in the fridge for several hours, to chill the mixture.
When ready, bake in the oven for about 8 or 9 minutes, no more than this-otherwise they will not be soft. Don't do what I did, which is to wander away, and forget about them, and overcook them! They still tasted nice, but you lose that beautiful soft texture. Let the cookies cool on a cooling rack before serving, and keep for 5 days in an airtight container.
Enjoy!
Here's a great winter recipe from Better Homes and Gardens magazine, May 2013, page 93. It's not quite a slow-cooker recipe, but it is similar, it must cook for quite some time (you'll need about 4 hours for cooking). I'm not really a big fan of red meat, but I'm trying to increase my iron. The meat in this recipe is low-fat and very tender, it just falls apart.
Ingredients:
20g dried mushrooms (they say porcini, but I couldn't find them, so I used dried shiitake-no big deal)
1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup olive oil
1.6g chuck or gravy beef (I used some quite lean gravy beef pieces, but you can trim the fat from the meat if you need to)
3 large red onions, diced (I left these out, bvt chopped up some spring onion instead)
3 carrots, diced
4 sticks of celery, diced
250g mild, flat pancetta, diced
2-3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tsp caster sugar
750ml red wine (I used shiraz)
400g can diced tomatoes (plus, I added some whole vine-ripened mini roma tomatoes to the pot)
1 beef stock cube (Aldi's stock cubes are gluten free)
800g small chat potatoes (I used canned new potatoes instead)
125g butter, softened
40g peppadew, hot whole sweet piquante peppers, chopped (I left these out and just added some chilli flakes)
1/4 cup of fresh, chopped parsley (flat-leaf)
Put mushrooms in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let the mushrooms rehydrate until you can feel that they are soft. Drain the mushrooms, collecting the liquid in a bowl. If required, chop mushroom into smaller pieces.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large, heatproof casserole dish, over a medium heat (I ended up using a stockpot). Add beef, several pieces at a times (depends on the size of your meat pieces-I could fit about 5 pieces in the pan at once). Cook for about 4 minutes on each side, or until browned. Transfer to oven tray or plate, repeat for remaining beef.
Heat remaining oil in the dish, add onion, carrot, celery, pancetta and bay leaves. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomato paste and sugar. Cook for 1 minute, then add mushroom, mushroom liquid, wine, canned tomatoes and crumbled stock cube. Bring to the boil then add beef. Reduce heat to medium/low and cover. Cook for 2 and a half hours, stirring occasionally.
Remove the beef from the pot and shred, using a knife and fork. Return beef to dish, increase heat to medium and add potatoes. Cook uncovered for 45 minutes (you might want to crumbled the potatoes up a bit). Top stew with parmesan and parsley leaves and serve! I put some homemade gluten free, garlic
Hello! My boyfriend, partner, whatever you want to call him, has been told to up his vegie intake. So I thought, what kind of food does he love? Mexican. I decided to make some soup, and found this mexican themed soup at 'Three on Food' and fiddled around with the ingredients a bit (like I do). :) It tastes really good! Here's the recipe, my way:
Ingredients:
3 spring onion stalks, sliced
2 teaspoons of minced garlic
1 teaspoon of chilli paste (chilli in a tube, you can get it from the supermarket, for when you don't have fresh chilli)
2 cups of chicken stock
A couple of pinches of dried oregano
1 400g can crushed tomatoes
3 medium sized zucchini, sliced
1 400g can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
freshly chopped coriander
1 packet of Warnambool Cheese Company's Garlic and Pepper Cheddar, diced (this wasn't deliberate, it was what I had in the fridge, you can use normal chedder)
Chilli flakes
Salt and pepper
In a pan, in a teaspoon of olive oil, add spring onion, garlic and chilli paste. Sautee until the spring onion is soft, season with oregano. Add the chicken stock and tomato and bring to the boil. Add the zucchini and kidney beans and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until zucchini is soft. If you like, add some chilli flakes, to your level of spiciness! Add the cheese, and stir so that it melts through. Add the coriander and season with salt and pepper to taste! I suppose you could top this soup with guacamole or sour cream or something, if you wanted, but it's nice just on it's own!
If you love berries, then this pie is for you! It's beautiful.
In honour of 'Great Australian Bake-Off' and their pie-themed episode the other night, I made cherry berry pie. Don't get me started on the pastry, that awful judge on the show would 'take me down a peg or two' for it! I have tried so many gluten free pastry recipes and they are all very odd. My advice is, if it's a special occasion, lash out and buy the darn gluten free pastry! I'm not going to give you a gf pastry recipe on here, because I can't find one I like...But now, the pie...I have changed the recipe again (what a surprise) from the original at 'Taste of Home,' adding more berries.
Ingredients:
1 large jar (about 2 cups worth) of pitted morello cherries (they are tangy), drained of juice
1 cup of frozen blueberries
2 cups of fresh, sliced strawberries
1 cup of frozen raspberries
3/4 cup of sugar
3 tablespoon of cornstarch
2 teaspoons of lemon juice (I add a dash more)
Pastry (bought or handmade)
2 tablespoons of butter
1 egg
1 tablespoon of water
Method:
In a large bowl, combine the berries, sugar, cornstarch and lemon.
Line a 9 inch pie plate (I used a quiche tin) with crust, trim edges. Fill with fruit, and dot with butter. Make a lattice with your remaining crust. Trim and seal edges. Beat egg and water and brush over pastry.
Bake at 200 degrees for 45 minutes, or until crust is golden and filling is bubbling. Cover with foil for the last 20 minutes if the pie begins to over-brown. Cool on a wire rack. Serve with cream or vanilla ice cream!
It's very easy. Just separate your cake batter into a few bowls. Dye each batch a separate colour. Then add your batter to the cake pan, and swirl it around! Now..How should I ice it?
I was in the mood to bake..Just because! So what better than a flourless chocolate cake? Except this one has vanilla marbled through it! This recipe comes from a magazine called 'Fine Cooking' (issue 54). I've changed some of the measurements over so you don't have to look up how much 8oz is!
Vanilla batter:
250g cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup castor sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate batter:
250g dark chocolate, chopped
150g butter, chopped
3 large eggs
1/3 cup castor sugar
1 tbsp. dark rum or espresso (I used espresso)
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees celcius.
Grease a round, 9 inch cake pan, and line.
To make the vanilla batter: In a medium bowl, beat the softened cream cheese with an electric mixture until smooth. Add the sugar and continue beating until well blended and no lumps remain. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until just well blended. I coloured my batter red, for no reason at all really other than I like red. Set aside.  It looks orange here, but it's red!
 A good gel-based dye gives a better colour than the supermarket brands. Go to your local homewares/cooking utensils kind of store, and have a look.... Btw, you only need a tiny bit for colour, it's very potent.
To make the chocolate batter: In a medium, HEATPROOF bowl, melt the chocolate and butter over a pan of simmering water. Make sure not to get any water into the chocolate mix, or the chocolate will seize, and you will need to throw it out. Whisk until smooth and set aside to cool slightly. Use your mixer to beat the eggs, sugar, rum or espresso, vanilla and salt, on medium, until the mixture is pale and thick. With the mixture on low, gradually pour in the chocolate mixture and continue beating until well-blended.  To achieve the 'marble effect,' spread about half the chocolate batter in the bottom of the pan. Then, alternately, add scoopfuls of each batter into the pan.
 Next, use a knife, or, like me, the curved tip of a skewer, and swirl the mixture into itself, so it is marbled, but not completely blended. Rap the pan against the benchtop several times to settle the batters.
Bake for about 40 minutes, or until your cake tester comes out with a bit of mixture on it (gooey, but not runny). Let the cake cool before loosening from pan.  When I tasted some of the cake, it was very rich, so I cut it into bite-sized pieces, although you could do very thin slices, and top with a little bit of cream, if you like....
If you don't like to eat a lot of meat (like me), here is a beautiful lasagne that is vegetarian, and you can make it gluten free too. This lasagne is very popular with my family! Give it a try! I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.au, and it's attributed to Robbie Rice. I have altered it a fair bit, as time has gone on (yes, I have made it many, many times!).
Serves: 6 (but depends on how big you cut the pieces of lasagne)
Ingredients:
1 box of San Remo Gluten free lasagne sheets (do not pre-cook them)
Olive oil
1 large punnet of sliced brown mushrooms
Minced garlic
Half a packet (about 2 cups) of fresh baby spinach leaves
About a kilo of light ricotta cheese
1 cup of pecorino cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
1-2 teaspoons of dried oregano
1 egg
Grated Mozzarella cheese (I used about 1 large bag, maybe a bit more, depends how cheesy you like it)
1 packet of grated parmesan (fresh, not the powdery stuff)
1 jar of tomato pasta sauce OR make your own (I prefer to make my own, no formal recipe really)
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
To make your own tomato sauce, lightly brown some minced garlic (I'm a bit heavy-handed, maybe a teaspoon or two?) in a large pan. Add a punnet of cherry or baby roma tomatoes and toss them through the garlic. Use a potato masher and gently squash the tomatoes. Next, add two tins of crushed or diced tomatoes to the pan. Let this begin to heat up and season it with salt and pepper, plus a tablespoon of castor sugar (to counteract the acidity). Add some finely chopped basil leaves (about a handful), and stir through. Let the sauce simmer for about 15-20 minutes, to get it to reduce down. Take the pan off the heat, and let it cool. In a frying pan, saute the mushrooms with a teaspoon of garlic, and season with salt and pepper. You will see the mushrooms start to brown, and the moisture released will begin to cook away. Take off the heat and drain the mushrooms, to get rid of any excess moisture. In a pot of boiling water, boil the spinach leaves for about 5 minutes. Drain, and allow to cool, squeeze liquid from the spinach (you may need to do this several times) then finely chop the cooked leaves.
Next, combine ricotta, pecorino, spinach, salt, pepper, oregano and egg in a mixer bowl. Add mushroom mixture. Beat with electric mixer on low for about 1 minute.
Spread some tomato sauce on the bottom of your lasagne dish, and lay 3-4 sheets across it, pressing them into the sauce. Spread about a third of your ricotta mixture across the lasagne sheets. Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan on top. Then begin layering again, starting with your tomato sauce. I usually get 3-4 layers out of this recipe. Once you have used all your ingredients, tear some basil leaves up, and place them on top of your lasagne. Cover dish with aluminium foil and bake in the oven for 1 hour. I like to cook it a bit more than this (I like a nice, browned top), so I remove the foil at about 55 minutes, and then cook for another 10-15. Warning: The lasagne will be VERY hot when first out of the oven, so let it cool a bit before serving.
This month, one of my favourite magazines, Better Homes and Gardens, had a special CARAMEL theme going, with a range of caramel-based recipes. I decided to test out their 'Caramel Dumplings with Clotted Cream' (except I did not have clotted cream).
Serves: 4 (3 dumplings each)
Ingredients:
1/3 cup of milk
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 and a 1/2 cups of (gluten free) s.r. flour
40g butter
Extra self-raising flour, for dusting
300ml pure cream (I used light cream)
Extra 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup boiling water
Extra 40g butter, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
Thick clotted cream, to serve (I used pouring cream)
1. Put milk and brown sugar in a small saucepan over a medium heat and cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to a simmer. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
2. Put flour and butter in a large bowl. Using your fingertips, rub together until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Make a well in centre and stir in cooled milk mixture until a dough forms. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. Divide into 12 even-sized balls. Put on a large plate.
3. Combine cream, extra sugar, water, extra butter and vanilla in a saucepan. Cook, stirring over a medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to a simmer. Add dumplings and cook for 20-25 minutes or until light, fluffy and cooked through.
4. Transfer dumplings to serving plates. Spoon over sauce and serve with cream.
These dumplings, once made gluten free, are quite dense, so you may not be able to eat 3! But they are delicious! :D
I was feeling a bit blue today, so what to do? Baking always seems to distract me, and makes me feel better in the process. So I made some cookies for my boyfriend to take to work to share. These cookies are really good, when they are cooled. I say that because I made them last week, and ate one once it came from the oven. I thought it was fairly ordinary. Then later in the week, I ate one that had cooled, and they were so much better! They are very soft, almost cake-like. Store them in an air-tight container to ensure they stay soft. You can frost them, or not, the cookies are good alone or with frosting (or icing, as we say in Australia!).
The recipe comes from desktopcookbook.com too...I have modified it slightly.
Makes: About 20? Depends how big you make them
Ingredients:
2/3 cup of butter, softened
1 cup of brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 and 1/2 cups of plain, gluten free flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of sour cream (I used light sour cream)
Frosting (optional):
1/4 cup of butter
1 and 1/2 cups of powdered sugar (I use pure icing sugar)
2 tablespoons of milk (I use light milk)
Method:
Blend together butter, sour cream, eggs, brown sugar and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking powder and salt. Mix.
Drop rounded tablespoons onto greased or papered baking trays. Bake for 10 minutes (I baked for 5, turned the trays around, then baked for another 5).
Let cool.
To make frosting, melt butter on medium heat, until it turns golden. Remove from heat and stir in icing sugar and milk. Ice the biscuits!
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