Snack

Merry Christmas (and Royal Icing Recipe)

~ libbityl ~ 7 Comments

I love gingerbread and when put in house form with royal icing, it’s even better. Since making one a year at church Christmas events a number of years ago, I’ve tried to make one each year for our family. This year I happened to be in Ikea and checked their ingredients on their gingerbread house kits – no egg and no dairy! So I grabbed it – not having to make a house myself this year was very enticing!

[Please note that the tags for this post are to do with the royal icing not the house.]

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Ingredients list (apologies for the depth of field blur!)

The next issue was the royal icing – I love its lemon tang but it’s traditionally made with egg whites so I needed a replacement. I could have used No Egg but I wasn’t sure how it would go so I had a search online and found that someone else had done the experimenting for me. She decided that the glycerine worked better in the hardening factor – rather essential for a gingerbread house (less so for just decorating cookies) and since I had some in the cupboard, that’s what we went for. I did also look up whether or not it was safe to be eating something I’ve always just used in making homemade bubble mix or on dry skin but I guess if you can use it on your lips, it’s ok to ingest too!

Here’s the recipe:

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Mine ended up slightly more runny than I wanted it but it still worked well, even for attaching decorations

The BBC’s egg free royal icing

500g / 1lb 2 oz icing sugar (You can use icing mixture too)
2 lemons
3 – 4 teaspoons glycerine

Sift the sugar into a the bowl of a mixer.
Juice and strain the lemons.
Beating continously, gradually add the juice and glyercine to the sugar

Sourced at:
http://hoppobumpo.blogspot.com.au/p/bbcs-egg-free-royal-icing.html
Originally sourced at:
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/eggfreeroyalicing_77309.shtml (link now defunct)

I halved this recipe and had enough for my house and decorating with a little left over.

My main tips for construction are to build the walls and wait a while for them to set before putting the roof on. Ensure you’ve reinforced the inside corners with extra icing. Hold the roof pieces for a few minutes until you are sure they won’t slide.

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Construction complete. Next time I will put the chimney together and then attach it to the roof instead of trying to do both at once.

Our decorations are dairy, egg, and nut free (and quite a few are wheat free too) – skittles, musk sticks, mint leaves, jelly babies, licorice (black and strawberry), marshmallows and edible glitter.

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Decorating with edible glitter!
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The final product and my cheeky monkey sneaking into view 🙂

Wishing you a Merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour. I’ll have a blogging break until late January.

Banana Bread

~ desertcook ~ 3 Comments

Banana bread sounds good in theory right? It’s fruit – it must be healthy.

Nope, sorry. Most banana breads that you find in cafes are pretty well just glorified cake …. don’t get me wrong – they are super delicious, but just the healthy choice people think they’re making!

This recipe is a lot lower in sugar and has lot of extra goodies added to it. Still super delicious, but I am really happy to pop this one in lunch-boxes or enjoy at brunch or with an afternoon cuppa.

See below the recipe for a coeliac friendly option.

  • 2 cups flour (Plain flour is fine but I have used mixes of spelt, barley and rye and they all work well too)
  • 1/3 cup sugar (optional, but add it in if you’re a sweet tooth!)
  • 2 rounded tsp GF baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon/mixed spice
  • 1/2 cup milk of choice (oat, almond and rice work well)
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 2 medium, very ripe, bananas, mashed
  • 75g vegan butter/tasteless coconut oil
  • 50g maple syrup or honey*
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 3 tbsp seeds (use whichever are your favourite – process these first if you’d like less obvious bits). A small handful of chopped walnuts also works well here.
  • 3 tbsp aquafaba (liquid drained from a can of chick peas) OR 1 whole egg
  • rolled oats to top (or more sliced banana)

Into a large bowl add all of the dry ingredients. I don’t do sifting (ever if at all possible!), so I use a whisk to gently mix this dry mixture until it’s even.

In a large measuring jug, mix the milk and the vinegar and whisk vigorously for a minute. It should become slightly thicker and have lots of frothy bubbles on top. Then set aside for a few (3-4) minutes. Or blitz in your blender/nutribullet for a few seconds.

To the milk mix, add the mashed banana, oil, syrup, aquafaba/egg and vanilla and whisk until well combined. (or another few seconds in the blender/nutribullet)

*If you’d like an alternative to the honey or syrup, you can blend in 6 medjool dates to the wet mix

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Add the wet ingredients to the dry, folding them in until just combined – don’t over mix.

Pour into a large greased loaf pan, sprinkle oats on top and bake at 180C for about an hour, or until a skewer, inserted in the middle comes out clean.

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Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack for another 10-15 minutes.

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I also make these into muffins when I don’t have as much baking time – makes 18-20.

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This is yummy as is, or with a bit of butter, or even toasted. It freezes and defrosts well, just slice and wrap individually before freezing.

Enjoy … as I currently am, with a cuppa 🙂

To make these coeliac friendly, use 1 2/3 cups of GF flour mix (I like Bobs Red Mill All purpose baking flour) plus 2 flat tsp of psyllium and make sure you use a gluten free milk then top with rolled quinoa or use the extra banana option.

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To make these in a thermal cooker:

Whisk the milk and vinegar and set aside (Speed 4, 10 seconds).

Place the bananas, oil, vanilla, aquafaba/egg and syrup in the bowl and process on speed 5 for 8 seconds.

Add in milk mixture and process on speed 4 for 8 seconds. Then set aside the wet mix.

Add all of the dry ingredients to the machine and process on speed 4 for 8 seconds.

Add the wet mix back into the dry and process on speed 4 for 6 seconds, the scrape down and repeat.

Bake as per regular method.

Gingerbread Cookies

~ libbityl ~ 6 Comments

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I love cooking gingerbread at Christmas time. I am looking forward to making a gingerbread house with my kids soon too! I’ve adapted an already adapted recipe based on Sheriden Rogers ‘Entertaining at Home’ (1994 p143 – I think!) that my friend gave me. After the results of my recipe, I can only imagine how yummy the ‘normal’ version is. The kids loved helping with the cookie cutters.

This gingerbread is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. It’s hard to even tell it doesn’t have ‘normal’ ingredients in it. This is a big amount of dough so I usually divide it in half and get about 50 small cookies (I use the Tupperware cookie cutters as pictured).

250g dairy free spread
185g brown sugar
2 eggs worth of egg replacer
300g honey
750g plain g.f. flour
pinch salt
3 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
3 tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in
125ml boiling water

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celcius (325F)
Cream dairy free spread and sugar until light and fluffy (use a large bowl and a mixmaster/kitchenaid is best)
Beat in egg replacer
Add honey and mix
Sift together dry ingredients and then add to mixture in parts alternating with dissolved bicarb soda
If dough feels too soft, add a bit more flour
Refrigerate for 2 hours – overnight
Roll dough out and cut out with cookie cutters
Place on trays with baking paper lining
Cook until lightly browned (about 20min)
Remove from oven but leave on tray for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack.

Tips – I found the dough got easier to work with after it had been out of the fridge for a couple of minutes.
– If you are using normal flour you might need a bit more to make it into a dough. When I made it this week, I had to add quite a bit. I would add more of the spices next time too.

Hugh’s muesli bars

~ desertcook ~ 3 Comments

I mostly pack my own snack for our morning outing when I pack the boys lunch boxes the night before, that way there’s not as much temptation to cave in and buy pre prepared stuff that isn’t so great for me – especially when I know how yummy the snacks ready waiting for me are.

To aid in my baking adventures, I was given the River Cottage ‘Everyday’ cookbook for mother’s day (I have to confess that I am a little bit in love with Hugh and I often wish I lived at River Cottage … but given that I live in the middle of the desert and that I am a real veggie growing novice, I am just making do with some of his amazing recipes for now!). This muesli bar recipe is adapted from one of the recipes that I first saw on his show.

It is probably more of a ‘grown ups’ recipe but I have taken to packing some for my boys when I have them because otherwise they just pinch mine!

  • 250g nuttelex/butter
  • 250g Sunflower seed butter 
  • 1/2 cup honey/maple syrup
  • zest of 2 oranges and 2 lemons (I mix and match with lime too, depending on what’s hiding in my fridge)

Mix all above ingredients in a large saucepan and cook over low heat until all melted and mixed together.

Remove from heat and add;

  • 2 1/2 cups diced dried fruit (I’ve just used sultanas, dates, apricots and cranberries)
  • 75g sunflower seeds
  • 100g pumpkin seeds
  • 75g flax seeds
  • 75g chia seeds, and
  • 400g rolled oats.

Stir in thoroughly, press the mixture down firmly into a greased baking pan and cook in a preheated oven at 160 C for approx 45 mins, or until golden.

Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.

I find it’s best to leave it in the fridge for an hour or so before I cut it up, then store it in the fridge in an airtight container and it keeps well for a fortnight.

This makes a large batch and it is quite calorie dense, but because of all the protein and good fats it is filling and you don’t need a huge serving to be satisfied. Great for school lunchboxes when you’re at a ‘nut-free school and it can also serve as a quick and filling breakfast.

To make this Coeliac Friendly replace the oats with equal weight of a mix of puffed rice, rolled quinoa and desiccated coconut.

Chocolate ‘mousse’

Chocolate 'mousse'
~ desertcook ~ 7 Comments

I’m not going to lie … I love chocolate and I really, really miss it!!

So, here is my way to get a bit of a chocolate fix in an allergy friendly way … and sneak some goodness in on the side! I really know that you can’t tell that it is avocado based because even my 2 little avocado haters wolf it down!!

Chocolate 'mousse'

  • 2 large very ripe avocados
  • 3tbsp cocoa
  • 4tbsp honey/maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 1/3 cup milk of choice

Whizz it all together in the food processor until smooth. (Speed 6 in 10 second lots, scraping down between each time).

Best served chilled. It keeps for a few days in the fridge or you can freeze it to make chocolate ice-creams.

Enjoy … I know I will!