Hazelnut strawberry macaroons (Haselnussmakronen)

My second cookie recipe in my Christmas treat boxes is Luisa Weiss's Hazelnut Raspberry Macaroons - or, in my case, Hazelnut Strawberry Macaroons.  The recipe again was in The Guardian.  They are the perfect colours for the season, in red and white.

These cookies, like the Cinnamon Almond Stars, are gluten free and dairy free, so they are perfect for people who are intolerant of or just want to avoid either gluten or dairy or both.

The hazelnut macaroons are much simpler to make than the Cinnamon Almond Stars, with no cutter required and no fiddly meringue topping to apply.  If you are looking for bang for your time buck, these cookies are the money pick.  Just be aware that they don't travel as well as the Cinnamon Almond Stars because the jam stays sticky. (I wrapped these in Glad Wrap to ensure that they didn't coat everything else in the treat box in jam.)

I saved even more time by buying roasted skinned hazelnuts.  Hazelnuts can be a pain to skin so I was happy not to have to do it.

If you love a festive looking, totally delicious cookie that is easy to make, these are the ones to make.  
To bake them, you will need:

230-290g hazelnuts, roasted and skinned 
2 egg whites
¼ teaspoon salt
150g white sugar
150g red jam

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line two baking trays with silicone mats or baking paper.

Grind the nuts in a food processor into a fine meal..

Whip the egg whites and salt in a mixing bowl until frothy, then gradually add the sugar to the bowl, beating until soft peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, fold in all but ¼ cup of the ground hazelnuts. Add some or all of the remaining ground hazelnuts only if needed to make a thick mixture that keeps its shape when dolloped onto a tray.

Place heaped teaspoons of cookie mixture onto the baking trays, leaving around an inch between them. Bake in the oven, one tray at a time, for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and immediately press a hollow or "thumbprint" into the middle of each cookie with the back of a teaspoon. Cool on a wire rack, while repeating with the second tray of cookies.

While the cookies are still warm, heat the jam in a microwave until liquefied. Spoon a small amount of liquefied jam into the hollow of each cookie. Allow the jam to set and the cookies to cool completely.

Cinnamon-almond meringue stars (Zimtsterne)

Christmas is not far away now.  A lot of people in my workplace finish up today to commence their Christmas holidays, and for those of us who are still working, things seem jollier and lighter.

Long-time readers will know that every year, I make Christmas treat boxes for colleagues and friends, stealing the idea from some American bloggers that I read back in the early days of my blog (can you believe it, 10 years ago!).  Half the fun is deciding what to put in the treat boxes from the myriad choices that I could make.  

This year I did not spend a lazy afternoon planning what to put in the treat boxes, as life has seemed very fast this year.  I just randomly noted recipes of interest in my head as I saw them, and when the time came to actually make the treats, I seized on the top few recipes plus a Dorie Greenspan recipe that  I had to make for Tuesdays with Dorie, and lo, I had my treat boxes.  I belatedly added in a savoury item, as I had selected all sweets with no savoury, and I know that most people like a little of both. 

The other interesting thing this year is that a few items that have been staples  in the past did not appear in the treat boxes.  There was no traditional style Christmas cake, no plum pudding, no rum balls and no apricot balls.  There has been a lot of change in my life in the last 18 months, not all of it by choice, so I feel that in an unconscious way, my treat box choices reflected that.

On my mother's side of the family, I am of staunchly German heritage, with both sets of great grandparents being German immigrants to Australia in the late 1800s.  I can't imagine how they might have felt, taking a very long journey on a ship half way across the world, to a place sight unseen with a climate dramatically different to what they were used to.  Today, travel is faster and safer, and there is a wealth of information about other countries, so we have so many advantages over my ancestors.

Despite only possessing some rudimentary German vocabulary learnt in Grade 8 German and having only visited Germany once on an Insights tour, I enjoy exploring my German heritage through baking.    When Luisa Weiss published some recipes for German Christmas cookies in The Guardian, they went "straight to the pool room" of recipes for my treat boxes. The beauty of the majority of these recipes is that they are gluten free - I had three gluten-free people to make for this year, so as a result, everyone received gluten free goodies.

First up, I made Luisa's recipe for cinnamon-almond meringue stars.  I foolishly did not study the recipe in advance, and airily believed that the snowy white tops on these cookies were white icing.  After all, the recipe contained icing sugar, didn't it?  Nope, wrong.  The snowy white top of these cookies is meringue that is painstakingly coaxed over the top of the star-shaped cookies to cover them in a pristine white blanket.  

Other things to note abut making these cookies is that the dough is very, very sticky and unco-operative, so do take Luisa's tip about dipping the cutter in water to stop it from sticking - and keep the dough cold!  Also note that once the cookies are formed, you need 12-24 hours to dry them before baking - they only bake for 3-4 minutes.  I only dried mine for about half that time and they turned out fine (I am in Australia in summer where things dry quicker than in wintery Europe), but regardless, you will need a few hours of drying time.

However, these cookies are worth the effort - so good!  Chewy, nutty, not overly sweet and very pretty.  If you want to take the plunge and make these cookies, you will need:

3 egg whites
pinch of salt
200g icing sugar
300g almond meal 
2 tsp cinnamon

Whisk the egg whites and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer, then slowly add the sugar, whisking until the mixture forms stiff peaks. Remove three heaped tablespoons of the meringue mixture from the bowl and set aside.

Using a rubber spatula, fold 225g of almond meal and the cinnamon into the large quantity of meringue. Add the rest of the almond meal until a firm but sticky dough forms. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for half an hour.

Roll the chilled dough out to 6mm thick between two sheets of cling film. Cut cookies from the dough with a 4cm star shaped cutter. Dip the cutter in cold water every so often to keep the dough from sticking (very important!). Put the cookies on baking trays lined with baking paper.

Why making Christmas treats beats buying every time

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Spoon small blobs of the reserved meringue on top of each cookie, and spread it evenly over the top of the cookie with a wooden skewer. Allow the cookies to dry on the trays at room temperature for 12-24 hours or until the meringue is dry to the touch (but don't poke too hard or you'll crack the surface!).

Preheat your oven to 180C, and bake the cookies, one tray at a time on the bottom shelf, for 3-4 minutes or until the meringue is set but still white.

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking trays on a wire rack.

Slow Cooker Whole Chicken and Cranberry Maple Pecan Pudding for Christmas in July

On Sunday, I invited four friends over to my place for Christmas in July dinner.  For the uninitiated, Australia's seasons mean that July is winter, making it the perfect time to indulge in Christmas treats which are more suited to cold weather than December, when Christmas is celebrated around the world.  This means that in Australia, we really can have two Christmases - one in July with roasts and Christmas pud, and one in December with seafood and icecream.

We started off with cheese (washed rind, triple cream brie and cheddar), dips (sweet potato and cashew and guacamole) and crackers to start the conversation while dinner finished cooking: 

Here is the table all laid in expectation:

For dinner, we had slow cooker roast chicken with roast pumpkin, potato and carrot, and steamed asparagus:

I had never cooked a whole chicken in the slow cooker before, so I was pleasantly surprised.  the recipe for the chicken that I used (including a spice rub) is online here at Tori Avey's website.  The meat stayed beautifully moist and tender, and the spice rub gave the meat a nice flavour.  For the gravy (not pictured), I drained off the juices that cooked out of the chicken and thickened them up in a saucepan with a dessertspoon of cornflour dissolved in water to make a paste.

Two of my guests are gluten and dairy sensitive, so I made this Cranberry, Maple and Pecan Pudding from BBC Good Food:

You can see that when I turned out the pudding, the base of it caved in a little.  I can only guess that the crumbly texture of the pudding is at least in part due to its gluten free status.  Next time, I would leave the pudding to cool in the pudding basin for a while before unmoulding.

I didn't have fresh  cranberries (they are virtually impossible to obtain in Australia), so I used frozen cherries in the  sauce instead:

For the dairy lovers, there was also raspberry ripple icecream to go with the pudding.

The pudding doesn't taste like regular Christmas pudding - it is nowhere near as rich for a start.  However, it is very fruity, and reminds me of a light fruitcake. 

It was a fun evening and a great way to celebrate Christmas in July.

Chocolate Chip, Coconut and Banana Bread

Bananas are good to eat, but in warm weather, they have a nasty tendency to become overripe (hence not good to eat!) very quickly.  In that situation, don't throw out your bananas - you can put them in the freezer until you are ready to use them in a delicious recipe. The skins will go black and when you thaw the frozen bananas, they will be mushy, but if you are baking with them, that is the perfect state.  Banana bread is an obvious choice for using up those bananas after they have been thawed.

I like to try out different recipes, so when I had some bananas to use up recently, I happened upon a recipe for Chocolate Chip Coconut Flour Banana Bread from Ambitious Kitchen.  This recipe attracted me because it was gluten and dairy free, I already had the ingredients, and it allowed me to try something a little different (in this case, a paleo cake). 

This banana bread is very easy to make, and the resulting product is wonderfully moist.  The chocolate chips also elevate it to another level of deliciousness.

I would definitely make this recipe again - it is a good one to have in your repertoire, especially if you are cooking for gluten or dairy intolerant friends and family.

Paleo Chocolate Celebration Cake

Regular readers will know that I don't subscribe to the paleo diet; however, that does not stop me from being attracted to some of the paleo recipes that I see, which sound delicious.  One such recipe was Lola Berry's recipe for Paleo Chocolate Celebration Cake, from The Happy Cookbook, also published online here. 

This cake has quite a prominent coconut flavour as well as chocolate, as the cake ingredients include coconut milk and coconut oil.  This was a positive for me, but may not appeal to all.

The flavour of the cake was deliciously chocolatey, despite there only being cacao powder used as flavouring.  However, the key drawback for me is that the cake is quite crumbly when compared with standard cakes, which makes transporting and cutting it a little more difficult than the norm.  However, that in itself is not enough of a reason not to make it if you are looking for a gluten-free, dairy-free cake for a celebration.

Lola Berry's Fig, Peach and Cardamom Paleo Loaf

I am an avid reader of the food columns in newspapers.  There are, of course, recipes published that I would never try in a million years, but they are interesting to read about.  However, I am quite often inspired by a recipe that I have found in the newspaper, and provided that I print it off immediately and don't let it languish too long in my pile of recipes, I will make. 

This was the case with Lola Berry's recipe for Fig, Peach and Cardamom  Paleo Loaf, in The Age.  The name of the cake immediately appealed to me, and because of my flirtations with a diet prescribed by a naturopath at one point, I had all of the ingredients except for the fresh fruit on hand.  Perfect!

This cake is quite easy to make, because it is basically a one bowl and one jug number, with no mixer or fancy equipment required.  I had bought some gorgeous fresh figs and a fresh peach from South Melbourne market especially for the occasion.  It took about 20 minutes in the oven than the recipe stated, whether this was due to the size of my pan, my oven or otherwise. 

The end result was quite pleasing:

Unlike some gluten free cakes that I have tried, this cake was quite moist inside.  The flavours melded pleasingly, and the appearance of the cake was quite attractive.  The only drawback is that I found the cake crumbled fairly easily - whether this was because of its inherent moistness, the lack of gluten, the presence of so much fresh fruit or all of the above, I cannot tell.

However, the cake tasted really good, and I would make it again, crumbliness and all.   There is no need to top it with anything - it tastes great on its own.

Hazelnut meringue cookies (Haselnussmakronen)

My friend Craig is allergic to gluten and dairy, so for his Christmas gift this year, I baked him a batch of traditional German cookies called Haselnussmakronen, or hazelnut meringue cookies.  The recipe for these cookies is online here.

I actually forgot to toast the hazelnuts, but I don't think that it mattered.  The cookies turn out quite dry and crisp, so would be good for dunking in tea or coffee.

While I prefer buttery cookies, these make a nice change and are perfect if you are gluten or dairy intolerant.

Avocado and banana cake

Sometimes, even though something doesn't look pretty, it tastes really good.  So it was with this Avocado and Banana Bread, the recipe for which I found here.

The inspiration for making this cake is that I had two avocadoes and two bananas that I wanted to use up before I went on vacation.  In the end, I needed one and a half avocadoes, and I omitted the nuts. It is also a cinch to make, as most of the work is done by a food processor.

This bread is really moist and is surprisingly not very dense.  The overwhelming flavour is banana, so if you love banana bread, and wanted to try a paleo version, this recipe is for you.

Verdict - I'd make it again.

Toffee-Topped Almond and Rhubarb Cake - Gluten Free and Dairy Free

Recently, I had a minor day procedure, and even though I only live two blocks away from the hospital, I was not permitted to walk home or leave alone.  My friend Craig saved the day and picked me up so that I was allowed to leave.  To say thank you, I made him a cake all for himself. 

As Craig is gluten and dairy intolerant, his cake had to be gluten free and dairy free.  I was pretty excited, as this gave me a chance to use my scrumptious new book, Honeybuns Gluten Free Baking by Emma Goss-Custard. Honeybuns is a UK bakery that started in Oxford but is now based in Dorset.  One flick through the delicious looking pages of the Honeybuns book, and I knew I had to have it in my library.  The recipes in Honeybuns are not dairy free, but it doesn't take a genius to make them that way.

For Craig, I chose the Toffee-Topped Almond and Rhubarb Cake (p21 Honeybuns).  How could I not - it has rhubarb cooked two ways, oodles of caramel-like brown sugar and  almonds.  Yum!

Although you need to prep the rhubarb before you can make the cake, it is fairly easy and quick to make.  So that I could taste the end result, I made myself a mini cake:

And the verdict? Delish!  Unfortunately, I did not have any toffee on top of mine, but otherwise it was a replica of Craig's cake.  Because the cake contains polenta and almond meal, it has both texture and crunch, and the polenta gives the crumb a lovely golden hue.  The rhubarb adds moisture and flavour, and the brown sugar gives a glorious caramel flavour to the cake.  There is also rhubarb on top of the cake in the recipe, but because I didn't want to make the cake soggy to give to Craig, who obviously wouldn't be eating it straight away, I left it off the top.  However, there is plenty of rhubarb in the cake itself.

 To make this cake with my adjustments, you will need:

Baked rhubarb

100g rhubarb cut into 5 cm lengths
25g brown sugar
1 tablespoon brandy

Toffee Rhubarb

75g dairy free spread (I used Nuttelex)
70g brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon golden syrup
100g rhubarb cut into 5cm lengths

Cake

225g dairy free spread, melted
3 eggs
140g ground almonds
70g polenta
70g sorghum flour (I just used a commercial gluten free flour mix)
1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
140g brown sugar
140g chopped toasted almonds (I left these out)
1teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Toffee almond topping

55g roughly chopped almonds
90g white sugar

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper, spray with non-stick cooking spray and dust with rice flour.

For the baked rhubarb, put the rhubarb onto an oiled or lined baking tray, sprinkle with brandy and bake for 20 minutes, stirring half way through.  Remove the rhubarb from the oven and allow it to cool, but leave the oven on and reduce the temperature to 170 degrees Celsius (I didn't reduce it).

To make the toffee rhubarb, melt the dairy free spread in a saucepan, and add the sugar, golden syrup and rhubarb.  Stir until a toffee sauce forms, then simmer for around 5 minutes or until the rhubarb is soft but still maintains its shape.  Take off the heat.

Break the eggs into the bowl of a stand mixer and add all the dry ingredients, the extracts, the melted dairy free spread and the toffee rhubarb and baked rhubarb.  Beat with the paddle attachment until well combined.  Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until cooked through.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin for an hour.  Unmould the cake onto a cake board or plate. 

Make the almond toffee topping by putting the almonds and sugar in a saucepan over low heat and stirring continuously until the sugar has dissolved and turned golden, and the almonds are coated with the liquid.  Pour the toffee over the top of the cake and allow to cool and set before serving.

Lemon and Saffron Tea Cake - Gluten Free and Dairy Free

On Monday, it was my friend Craig's birthday.  Craig is gluten and dairy intolerant, so I wanted a recipe that was free of both, but was not something typical of gluten free cakes (eg almond meal/chocolate).

Indulge by Rowie Dillon contains a recipe for a gluten free Lemon and Saffron Tea Cake (which can be made dairy free by using margarine, or in  my case, vegetable oil).   You can find the recipe online here (see p5).   Rowie describes this cake as "exotic", which seemed to fit the bill for a birthday.   I made a small cake just for me so I could try it - here is a peek inside:

The cake has a glorious yellow colour from the saffron.  However, I am not so sure of the flavour - it may have been the saffron, the soy milk or the quinoa flour, or a combination of all three, but the taste of this cake was on the unusual side - definitely exotic!  It was much nicer than the muffins I made out of the same book (which Sandra and I were not that keen on, but which Tim liked), but the flavour was not what you would usually expect from a cake.  It's hard to describe, and you will have to try the cake for yourself to decide if you like it.

My cake was nowhere near as tall as the one in the photo - I can only assume that they used a smaller tin than was specified in the recipe, or had some mighty kickin' baking powder.  (I don't think the spoonful that I made into a cupcake for myself would make the cake that much smaller.) 

As this was a birthday cake, I iced it with lemon icing and wrote Happy Birthday on it with piping gel:

I am having dinner with Craig tomorrow night, so I will have to ask his verdict on the cake then!

Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies - Gluten Free, Dairy Free

As you will know from previous posts, my friend Craig is gluten and dairy intolerant.  Accordingly, my regular Christmas box goodies full of dairy and gluten would not be approriate for him.

After a flick through Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies (2010), I came across the perfect Christmas cookie recipe for Craig - Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies.  You can find the recipe online here.

 These cookies are made with icing sugar, egg whites, cocoa, pecans (I substituted walnuts) and chopped chocolate.  The cookies are quite large, and are chewy, soft and very chocolatey.  They are great, not just for those with dietary intolerances, but for anyone who loves chocolate. Best of all, they are very simple to make!

Chocolate and apple cake - gluten free, dairy free

On the weekend, I went to stay an Angelsea, on the Great Ocean Road, with a group of friends.  We rent a big house which comes equipped with a TV, DVD player and a tennis court, bring lots of food and beverages, and spend the weekend just enjoying it all.

One of my friends is gluten and dairy intolerant, so when Dressed and Eaten reposted a recipe originally from Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella for a gluten free (and incidentally, dairy free) chocolate and apple cake, I knew this was the dessert for me to make for the weekend.

My only tip for this easy to make cake is to line the bottom of your pan with baking paper.  I used a pan where some of the non-stick covering had come off, and despite my oiling it liberally with cooking spray, my cake still stuck to the bottom, resulting in another session of "cake makeup" - that is, chocolate icing to cover the flaws.

The resulting cake is moist (presumably from the grated apples) and has an interesting texture from the almond meal.  The boys seemed to enjoy it, and that is the proof of the pudding for me.  Accordingly, next time you are looking for a gluten free, dairy free cake, this one is definitely worth a go. 

Gluten free, dairy free spice cookies and sesame crackers

Last weekend, I had the most wonderful time away with friends at Anglesea, along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.  It was gorgeous to leave behind all my cares and chores for a couple of days, and really just do - well, nothing.  We talked and watched TV and walked along the beach, and grocery shopping, cleaning, washing and vacuuming did not even enter my head.  Here is a view of Roadknight Beach at Anglesea:

Isn't it stunning?  The weather was just glorious on Saturday morning when we went for a walk along the beach, but turned to rain in the afternoon, so we turned to cooking TV for entertainment while the rain bucketed down outside.  Bliss!

As you can imagine, plenty of eating was also done.  Saturday morning was a highlight, with Sian making a bang up fry up breakfast of blueberry pancakes with honey, bacon and eggs.  It was fabulous!

One of my friends, Craig, is gluten and dairy intolerant, so I brought along a couple of treats that I baked to make sure he wouldn't miss out.  The first of those treats was the spice biscuits pictured at the top of this post - or the "nipple biscuits", as they became known.  The recipe came from the Fisher & Paykel website here.  These biscuits were very easy to make and tasty to boot - they would be particularly good at Christmas, when spice cookies are a given.  I used hazelnuts on top of my biscuits instead of almonds or walnuts, hence the reason for their "nipple" moniker.

I also made Craig these sesame crackers from Elana's Pantry:

They may not look like much, but they pack a punch - the sesame seeds make these crackers crunchy and flavoursome, and don't be tempted to add more salt - the recipe contains the perfect amount of salt.

Both of these treats were delicious, whether or not you have food intolerances.  I would definitely make them both again.

Banana Cake

After 3 weeks, the boys are back from holidays tomorrow, and my stint Russell-sitting will be over. I have to say that I will miss him. Sure, he gets me out of bed every morning by 6.15am to feed him, plaintively mewing until I give in, even on weekends. However, I love him chatting to me when I come home - it doesn't matter that I don't know what he's saying. I also love him jumping on my lap for a cuddle, asking to be brushed, and purring like a little motor as I tickle his tummy on both sides while he flips from side to side on the floor, presumably so that I don't miss a spot.

To welcome the boys home, I have made them a banana cake. I used a recipe that I found here. Hilariously, I left out the brown sugar, and I didn't even realise it until I came to write this post. The cake was plenty sweet enough without that extra half cup, so it just goes to show that you can take tremendous liberties with some recipes and still end up with a good result. It's gluten free and dairy free so that both boys can enjoy it - I subbed in gluten free plain flour, soy milk and Nuttelex for plain flour, milk and butter. I also used lime juice in the icing instead of lemon juice, as I had half a lime in the fridge to use up.

I was rather bemused to find on my final baking outing at the boys' place that they have baking powder. I had been studiously avoiding recipes with baking powder or using self-raising flour instead, and had even found out how to use baking soda and cream of tartar as a substitute, when all along, I could have been using baking powder.

I made two little muffins out of the batter as well as the cake so that a friend and I could try it without me cutting the cake itself.

My verdict on this cake, even sans the brown sugar, is that it was delicious. It is light and fluffy and not overly sweet, but the icing gives it that extra little sugar and citrus kick to lift the cake from pedestrian to really good.

I had some incidents while the boys were away - the fuse in one circuit flicked and I couldn't find the fuse box and had to ask the nice lady across the way where it was; I had a grand argument with the boys' ailing vacuum cleaner; I set off the burglar alarm a couple of times, including once when I couldn't get the device to switch it off to work for about 20 minutes at 10pm (the neighbours would have loved me!); I continually bruised my leg for the first week on the pointy edge of the bed; and as a grand finale, last Sunday afternoon, the safety switch in the power box burnt out and failed, so I had to pronto find an electrician to come in and fix it (not easy on a Sunday!) before the tropical fish I am also looking after and the boys' freezer full of meat became history.

However, I also had a marvellous time with Russell, having a friend over to dinner, drooling into the beautiful shop windows on Armadale High St every day on the way to work (Amaline Vitale is a favourite, with her gorgeous dresses), and on my last Tuesday night, finally having the $18 chicken schnitzel and wine special at Morri's Place (which was wonderful by the way - it was served with chips, salad and sauce, and there was so much food I barely made it). Here's hoping that I have some good times in my new flat, which at the moment resembles a warehouse full of boxes more than anything else.

Have a great weekend folks!!

Gluten free, dairy free chocolate and pecan brownies

I am still baking dairy free, gluten free. This week's treat is brownies, found here at Taste.com.

These brownies are very rich and fudgy. Even without the white chocolate chunks (which I skipped), they were fabulous, and you'd never know they were gluten free. The boys (and me!) loved them.

I think these brownies speak for themselves, so this post is short and sweet.

Craig's gluten free, dairy free orange cake

Last Thursday, our work held The Biggest Morning Tea to raise funds for cancer research. To participate in The Biggest Morning Tea, you bring in a plate of food, and make a gold coin donation to feast at the table.

At our city office, they had lovely yellow flowers to set the scene:



For my contribution, I made housemate Craig's gluten free, dairy free orange cake. It is really simple to make, and looks and tastes a treat:

To make this cake, you will need:

2 medium oranges
200g almond meal
1 cup sugar
5 eggs

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius and grease and line a 9" cake pan.

Pierce the skins of the oranges with a fork, and microwave each one separately on high for 3 minutes each. Top and tail the oranges, then cut them into eighths and remove the pips. Place the oranges into a blender or food processor, and blitz until smooth.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until they are light and fluffy. Add the almond meal and oranges, and stir until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and bake for 1 hour or until cooked through when tested. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Once the cake has cooled, you can slice and eat it as is, or ice with a simple icing made of icing sugar and orange juice (which is what I did). Enjoy!

Gluten free, dairy free lasagne

For my cooking contribution for the boys this week, I made gluten free, dairy free lasagne. It was inspired by this recipe, but with my sous chef Craig helping out, it took on a life of its own and became our unique take on it.

I was really dubious how this lasagne would turn out - especially with soy cheese! - but it was actually very nice. It is a little different to ordinary lasagne with bechamel sauce, but is still very much worthy of the name "lasagne" - and there's no tofu in it!

It is also healthier than normal lasagne, due to the lack of dairy and bechamel sauce. It's definitely a dish to consider if you love lasagne but are worried about the fat.

Our recipe is as follows:

9 sheets gluten free lasagne
1 jar gluten free tomato sauce (we used Craig's homemade sauce)
500g mince (we used beef mince)
1 chopped capsicum
1 chopped brown onion
1 chopped carrot
110g non-dairy cheese (we used soy cheese with chives)
100ml soy milk
1 tablespoon non-dairy spread (we used Nuttelex)
1-2 tablespoons cornflour
cold water to make a paste with the cornflour
hot water to soften lasagne sheets


Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Put the lasagne sheets in a bowl with a glug of oil, and pour over hot water sufficient to cover the sheets. Leave the lasagne sheets to soften in the water, then drain.

Brown the onion in a frypan. Add the mince, and cook until the mince is browned. Add the remaining vegetables, and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are soft. Add the tomato sauce, and cook, stirring, until the sauce has heated through and coated all the other ingredients. Remove from the heat.

Grate the soy cheese and set aside.

In a small saucepan, add the milk and non-dairy spread, and stir over medium heat until the spread has melted. In a small bowl or cup, mix the cornflour with just enough cold water to make a paste, then pour into the milk, stirring continuously to avoid lumps. Add the grated cheese, then bring the sauce to the boil, and simmer until it has thickened. Remove from the heat. If the mixture doesn't thicken sufficiently, just add more cornflour paste.

Layer the base of a 9" x 13" pan with lasagne sheets. Spoon one third of the mince on top, and one third of the sauce on top of that. Repeat another two times.

Place the lasagne in the oven, and bake for ~35 minutes. Allow to sit for 10 minutes out of the oven before slicing and serving.

Gluten and dairy free applesauce cookies

I am on a gluten-free, dairy-free roll at the moment. As the peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies are now a distant memory, I made the boys a new batch of cookies.


This time, I selected this recipe for gluten free applesauce cookies, substituting the butter for Nuttelex (a dairy free spread), and I included the nuts, which I recommend for texture. I also skipped the icing, as I feel it is unnecessary.


The batter was more like a traditional biscuit dough than the peanut butter cookies, and everything can be mixed by hand, which saves on washing up!


These cookies are quite moist and cake-like, so if soft cookies aren't your thing, these cookies aren't for you. Personally, I liked the crispy peanut butter cookies better, but variety is the spice of life, and these are pleasant tasting cookies.

Gluten Free Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

You may have noticed that I have been a little more absent than usual from blogging. This is because I have just made the gut-wrenching move to a new job and a new state. My life is still in transient mode, as I will be staying with friends until almost the end of June. This means a whole lot less baking and blogging until my life is in order. I am in that phase at the moment where it feels nothing will ever be settled again, but experience tells me that this should pass.

One of the friends that I am staying with is gluten and dairy intolerant, so this has brought me to think a little more about alternative baking. A few nights ago, I searched for a biscuit recipe that I could make for both of my friends to enjoy, and I stumbled across this recipe on Taste for gluten and dairy free peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies.

On a first read of the recipe, I thought it was nuts and would never work - after all, how can one cup chocolate chips, one cup peanut butter, one cup sugar, 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and one egg come together to make biscuits? The batter seemed like peanut butter gloop. But weirdly enough, the batter was transformed in the oven to form wonderful, light peanut butter cookies. My gluten intolerant friend loved them, and was not keen to share with his partner!

My only tip is to space the biscuits well on the baking trays, as they spread quite as bit. You can see mine on the pizza tray are starting to cojoin into a huge peanut butter chocolate chip pizza!

Have a great weekend.