Showing posts with label orange. Show all posts
Showing posts with label orange. Show all posts

Thursday, 7 March 2013

Rebel Bakery Cupcakes

'Contains cocktail stick'

I paid my first ever visit to Whole Foods Market last week. The lovely Alex (@HealthJourno) invited me to join him, Gluten Free Mrs D and Gluten Free B at a gluten free tour of the Kensington branch. It was a really interesting tour and Krystal, our guide, knew her stuff when it came to nutritional advice and gluten free diets. She showed us where the various gluten free products could be found in the store and even chatted about sources of extra dietary fibre and the best way to prepare grains and lentils.

An abundance of gluten free goodies!

After the tour left us all rather peckish, we headed upstairs for a vegan dinner at Saf Restaurant and to catch up on each other's news. Even after an enormous helping of massaman curry and being practically force-fed half of Alex's cheesecake (forced, I tell you! I would never steal someone's dessert), I was still thinking about all the exciting baked goods downstairs. With delicious treats from my favourites, Sugargrain and Perk!er, on offer I couldn't leave empty-handed. Thankfully, we all felt the same way and we spent a happy ten minutes picking up new finds and showing each other interesting cakes, all accompanied by a soundtrack of "ooh"s and "yum"s. I finally left the store with (among other items) a cupcake from gluten free Rebel Bakery, a new product for me. 

Decisions, decisions...

I opted for the Old Fashioned cake, in part because of the warning on the packaging, which read, "Contains cocktail stick," and it tickled me. Mostly, however, it was because the combination of whisky, orange and cherries was just too good to turn down. 

The very exciting inside of my cake!

When I tasted the cake, I knew I'd made the right decision, it was fantastic. The orange flavour was very clear and it was definitely enhanced by the whisky in the icing. Biting into the cake was a wonderful surprise, because the centre was filled with cherries! The cake was moist and not too sweet and there was just the right cake-to-icing ratio. I am really impressed by these cakes and I will be making another pilgrimage to Kensington to get my hands on some more! Unfortunately for all you nut-allergic people, these cakes aren't for you (but in my house that just guarantees that The Husband can't steal it before I get a chance to eat it!).

Monday, 23 July 2012

Sticky Cardamon Cake

Some of the best discoveries happen by accident. I'm not claiming that this cake is anywhere near as life-changing as penicillin, but it is still pretty great! 

I was planning to make cardamon and rose water cakes, but I couldn't find my rose water anywhere so I resorted to using orange flower water instead. Cardamon has a lightly citrus scent anyway, so the orange flower water just enhances that, giving you a gently fragrant cake. The sticky bit happened because the Husband wanted to take the cake on a weekend road trip, so it had to stay moist for a few days. In the same way that lemon drizzle cake stays moist because of the lemon-y syrup poured over it, the honey meant that this cake was still good to eat four days after I baked it! 



Sticky Cardamon Cake

10 green cardamon pods
a pinch of salt
175g butter, softened
175g granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 tbsp orange flower water
100ml runny honey

  • Remove the seeds from all but 2 of the cardamon pods. Grind the cardamon seeds and salt together with a mortar and pestle. (You don't need the salt, it just makes it easier to finely grind the cardamon seeds)
  • Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to beat.
  • Pour in the orange flower water and combine. Sift in the flour mix and fold in, until smooth.
  • Pour into a 20cm x 20cm cake tin and bake in a pre-heated oven for 25 minutes, at 180°C.
  • Meanwhile, bruise the remaining cardamon pods and add them to the honey and warm gently. I find the best way to do this is to put the honey in a heat proof bowl and rest it in a pan of boiling water.
  • When the cake is lightly golden and springy to the touch, remove from the oven and prick all over with a fork. Drizzle the warm (now cardamon infused) honey all over the cake, allowing it to soak in.
  • Leave to cool completely in the tin before cutting into about 20-25 squares.

Sunday, 15 July 2012

Mrs Crimble's Macaroons

Anyone with Coeliac Disease will have heard of Mrs Crimble's, from baking mixes to savoury snacks, I'm a fan of their products. Until now, I've never really tried their macaroons. 

Cranberry Macaroons
I've not been able to eat coconut for years, thanks to Crohn's Disease, but since my Ileostomy surgery, I've rediscovered  foods that were previously off the menu. Imagine my delight when the wonderful people at Mrs Crimble's sent me a box of their macaroons to try. I particularly enjoyed the Cranberry Macaroons, which were surprisingly sweet and soft and overpoweringly tart, like cranberries can be.  If you love chocolate and orange, you have to try the Mini Choc Orange Macaroons, but be warned - they are incredibly moreish!

Mini Choc Orange Macaroons
Something you might not know about Mrs Crimble's is their wonderful Share the Love scheme. You can nominate someone who you think deserves a treat and Mrs Crimble's send 1,000 lucky people a free teatime treat, every month! I'm sure we can all think of someone who we don't get in touch with often enough, that we'd like to surprise with a wee treat. If you want to nominate someone, you can do it at www.letsbakelove.com.


Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Bagels - Gluten Free!

Bagel related injuries account for around 2,000 visits to the emergency room in the USA, every year. Admittedly, the incidents are usually due to the act of slicing them, not making them - but that didn't stop me from approaching this month's Gluten Free Ration Rally with caution!




I'm not really a bagel person and even before going gluten free I only ate them occasionally.  Fortunately, Morri (our host for this Ratio Rally) sent us a link for a great article and recipe from Bruce Ezzel which demystified the process somewhat. I'm not experienced in what constitutes a great bagel - what with living about 3500 miles from my nearest New York deli -  but, I still had fun making them and I was pleasantly surprised by the results.  For bagel-purists, this is not quite a classic recipe, however, I love the combination of orange and caraway and I'm sure you will, too.


The bagel starts life as a sponge base, this is water, flour and yeast combined and left to prove.  The ratio for this worked out as 7:5 - 7 parts water to 5 parts flour.

Orange and Caraway Bagels (Adapted from a recipe by Bruce Ezzel)

For the sponge
1tbsp ground flaxseed
2 tbsp just boiled water
25g psyllium husk powder
225g gluten free bread flour mix (I use Doves Farm)
350g water 

  • Mix the flaxseed and boiled water together to make a slurry, set aside to cool.
  • Weigh the psyllium husk powder and bread flour mix into a large bowl and stir with a whisk to mix.  Pour in the water, stirring as you do so, and combine well.
  • Cover the bowl with a clean tea-towel and leave at room temperature for at least 4 hours

To make the bagels
1 tsp salt
18g honey
1 tsp orange extract
225g gluten free bread flour mix
1 tbsp caraway seeds
  • Add the salt, honey, orange extract and flour (flour last) to the sponge.  Mix with your hands until you have a smooth, slightly wet - but not sticky - dough.  
  • Oil your worktop and hands and turn the dough out on to the worktop.  
  • Divide the dough into 6-8 pieces and mould each piece into a ball.  Use your thumb to make a hole in the centre of each and flatten each slighltly to make your bagels
  • Preheat your oven to 230°C and 3/4 fill a large pan (a wok or deep frying pan would be best) water.  Bring the water to boil (some recipes call for baking soda to be added to the water, but Kent water is pretty hard so I didn't feel the need to make it more alkaline!).
  • Drop the bagels into the water 3-4 at a time and simmer for about a minute on each side.
  • Remove the bagels from the water and place on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle caraway seeds over the bagels and bake for 15-20 minutes.





For more bagel ideas, check out the rest of the Rally-ers:

Morri at Meals with Morri made Blueberry Oat Bagels
Jenn at Jenn Cuisine  made Sundried Tomato Parmesan Bagels
Mary Fran at FrannyCakes made Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
Adina at Gluten Free Travelette made Garlic Egg Bagels
Heather at Discovering the Extraordinary made Gluten-Free Bagels, with variations
gretchen at kumquat made Cinnamon Raisin Teff Bagels
Jean Layton at GFDoctorRecipes made Gluten-Free Sourdough Bagels
Meaghan at The Wicked Good Vegan made Vegan Gluten-Free Bagels
Meg at Gluten-Free Boulangerie made Classic Poppyseed Bagels (Vegan/Food Allergy-Safe)
TR at No One Likes Crumbley Cookies made Classic Gluten-Free Bagels
Angela at Angela's Kitchen made Gluten Free Bagels with variations
Caneel at Mama Me Gluten Free made Just Plain Bagels
Pete and Kelli at No Gluten, No Problem made Faux Pumpernickel Bagels



Monday, 12 March 2012

The Great Gluten Free Recipe Challenge!

Welcome, to the very first Great Gluten Free Recipe Challenge.

What is it?

I have gathered together some brilliant gluten free bloggers to cook or bake with a key ingredient.  With just a few restrictions on what they can make, each blogger must create a recipe to share with all of you.

Why?

Quite simply, I thought it would be fun!  More than that, however, I love a challenge, something to make me think outside of my routine, to cook something I wouldn't normally try.  Additionally; many people with Coeliac Disease, or other issues with gluten, have intolerances or allergies to other food types as well.  For most newly diagnosed Coeliacs, dairy products can pose a problem since the part of intestine that reacts to gluten is responsible for the digestion of milk, too.  Then, there are the difficult ones, like me, who have other health issues that can restrict their diets.  I have involved my other blogging friends in order to give you (and me) a wonderfully wide repertoire of recipes to try for yourself.  But, mainly because I thought it would be fun...

The Challenge.

For this first challenge, I chose oranges as the key ingredient.  Seville, blood, clementines, satsumas, tangerines, there are certainly enough to choose from!  The recipes could be sweet or savoury, as long as orange was the main ingredient.  The creations must also be dairy free and free from almonds, hazelnuts and chestnuts (as well as being gluten free, of course).


If life gave you oranges, what would you make?

Annie at Annie's Supper Club made Ginger and Orange Cakes
Bunmi at Foods You Can made Chocolate and Orange Mini Cupcakes
Christine at Christine's Healthy Kitchen made Coconut Dahl with Cauliflower, Pea and Chickpea Pancakes
Claire at Gluten Free Notebooks made Chocolate and Blood Orange Tarts
Hazel at Flicker of Fully Fun made Orange Jaffijelly
Hilary at Eat Free From made Lady Randell's Pudding
Jo at Diary of a Coeliac's Mother made Orange Drizzle Cake
Mrs D at Adventures of a Gluten Free Globetrekker made Orange Polenta Cake 
Ruby at Rubelle's Moon made Sticky Orange Tart
Saara at The Gluten Free Student Cookbook made Orange Flavoured Cupcakes
Sarah at The Gluten Free Blogger made Dark Chocolate and Orange Muffins

And I made...


Duck Braised in Orange Juice

This started life as a furiously scribbled down recipe from Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey, on BBC TV, but the recipe was never published online - so I watched the show on iPlayer to catch the main ingredients. The "original" recipe has changed a fair bit since then as I've tweaked and substituted things, but it's still one of my favourite dishes.  Serves 4

4 duck legs
5 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
4cm piece ginger, cut into matchsticks
400ml freshly squeezed orange juice (about 6-8 oranges, depending on their size)
1 tbsp gluten free tamari (I used Kikkoman)
1 tbsp sugar
4 star anise
2 red chillies, sliced into rounds (de-seed if you don't want it too hot)
a bunch of spring onions, whites cut into 2cm lengths, green parts sliced into 1/2cm rounds)

  • Heat some oil in a pan and add the duck legs, skin side down, for 5 minutes to start browning the skin.  Remove from the pan and place, skin side up, in an oven proof dish.
  • Gently sautĂ© the garlic, ginger and white parts of the onions to just soften.  Add them to the oven proof dish, around the duck.
  • Stir together the orange juice, tamari and sugar, until the sugar has dissolved.  Pour around the duck legs and add the anise and chilli slices (save a few slices for serving).
  • If you have a large dish, add some water so that the liquid is about 3cm deep.  Cover tightly with foil or a well fitting lid and place in a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees Celsius (lower in a fan oven) for 3 hours, uncovering for the last 30 minutes.  The orange juice will have cooked right down to a syrupy sauce, take care it doesn't burn!
  • Before serving, sprinkle the green parts of the spring onions over the dish.

If you want to take part in the next Great Gluten Free Recipe Challenge, for more details.