Perfect Pancakes - Gluten Free

Perfect Pancakes

I have always wondered at the popularity of pancake stalls since they are so simple to make and most purchased ones look so insipid and pale. For me the perfect pancake has a burnt look and is crispy on the edges. Gluten free pancakes are not as thin as they are much more delicate and not as elastic. They are great with any type of filling and are a good option if you want to take a break from added sugar.   

This recipe has more liquid then traditional recipes due to the relative thirst of the flours used. Gluten free flour mixes are much more thirsty and need more liquid to have the runny consistency required to make a pancake. 

Be careful not to make the pancake too large as it might make is difficult to flip over. I as a guide use 4/5ths of a ladle and leave enough of a gap between the pancake and the side of the pan to fit the top of a spatula underneath the edge of the pancake. 

Ingredients:

120g gluten free plain flour

2 eggs, beaten

400ml rice milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

30g butter/dairy free margarine plus extra for frying

Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the eggs and whisk. Gradually add the rice milk whilst whisking to avoid any lumps. Mix in the vanilla extract. Melt the butter/dairy free margarine in a small pan over a medium heat and pour into the pancake mixture whilst whisking.

Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and then add a knob of butter/dairy free margarine and a drop of oil. When the butter/dairy free margarine has melted swirl around the pan to ensure it is evenly coated.

Pour in 4/5ths of a ladle of the pancake mixture in the centre of the pan and gently tilt the pan to allow the mixture to spread a little. Cook over a medium/high heat for about 90 seconds on each side or until golden brown in patches. Repeat until all of the pancake mixture is used up.

Enjoy the pancakes with your choice of filling such as ice cream, fresh fruit, honey and lemon, jam or chocolate spread. 

  

Banana, coconut and honey bread

Banana, coconut and honey bread

My new focus is to make my gluten-free cakes even more healthy and cost effective. This is even more important when moving to a new country where ingredients are different and more scarce than you are used to. Making the most of what you have and using cheaper alternatives are important. This recipe can double up as a breakfast bread which is delicious lightly toasted with a cup of tea or coffee. 

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas

150g gluten free flour

70g buckwheat flour

10g baking powder

1 tsp ground cardamom

30g dessicated coconut

120ml olive oil

2 eggs

6 tbsp honey

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and greasde and line the bottom of a loaf tin. 

Mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl. Add the flours, baking powder, coconut,cardamom and honey and mix lightly to combine.

Measure the olive oil in a measuring jug, add the eggs and mix to combine. Pour into the mixing bowl and fold together to incorporate air.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour or until the top is firm to the touch and a knife comes out clean when poked in the middle. Place on a wire rack to cool. It will keep for a week and can be sliced like bread. If you are feeling naughty you can add your favourite topping or even just dairy-free margarine. This is a good breakfast alternative to expensive gluten-free bread. 

Honey chocolate cheesecake



Honey chocolate cheesecake

Honey chocolate cheesecake

Cheesecake is a great way of producing something gorgeous without too much sugar. Apart from the base which has sugar from the shop-bought biscuits, this recipe does not need anything more than some honey.

Ingredients:

175g gluten free digestive biscuits

35g dark chocolate

50g dairy free margarine

400g lactose free soft cheese

75g honey

2 eggs

20g cocoa powder

75g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the base and side of a 8 inch loose-bottomed cake tin and pop into the oven. This helps to ensure the cheesecake does not stick to the side.

Pop the biscuits into a processor and blend until you get a fine mix. Melt the chocolate and margarine together in a microwave for 90 seconds and mix to combine. Add the crushed biscuits to the melted chocolate and margarine and mix to combine. Pour into the prepared tin and using the back of a spoon or your hands, press evenly over the base. Pop the tin back into the fridge. 

Prepare the cheesecake mix, by blending the cheese, honey and eggs together. Melt the chocolate in a microwave and leave to cool a bit before adding to the rest of the mixture together with the cocoa powder. Do not over beat. 

Pour into the tin and pop into the oven for about 40 minutes. Do not worry if a crack forms in the cheesecake as this is normal and adds to its uniqueness. Leave in the oven for an hour with the oven door ajar. Once the tin is cool you can either leave in the fridge overnight to enjoy the next day with some coffee or if you cannot wait, pop into the fridge for a couple of hours before carefully taking out and having a slice.

Star Anise and Honey Rice Pudding Cake

Star Anise and Honey Rice Pudding Cake!

Star Anise and Honey Rice Pudding Cake

The dilemmas of sugar-free baking are complex. What to make for a birthday treat when the special person ought not to have too much sugar? Add the complexity of the fact that sugar alternatives are also to be avoided since they are after all like sugar. If I was blessed with ripe and sweet fruit the dilemma would be less fraught. So, for Mrs NMFS's birthday, one of the cakes I made was this rice pudding cake which ticked all of the books. I was slightly worried as I wanted something that was like a cake and my fear was something runny like rice pudding. The addition of the breadcrumbs though added an edge and solidity which gave me some comfort.

Ingredients

2 slices gluten free brown bread

3tbsp dairy free margarine

300g pudding rice

1300ml rice milk

2 star anise

grated zest of 2 lemons

salt

6 tbsp honey

2 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 180C. Rub the base and sides of a 10 inch loose-bottomed cake tin with some margarine. Pop the bread into a food processor and blend until you have fine breadcrumbs. Use just over a half of the breadcrumbs to coat the base and sides of the tin. Pop into the fridge whilst you prepare the cake.  

Melt 1 tablespoon of margarine in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat. Then add the pudding rice and stir until glistening and coated. Add the milk and star anise and leave to simmer over a low heat for about 35 minutes, stirring occasionally to stop the rice catching to the bottom of the pan. The rice should not be too watery but should be satisfyingly firm. Leave to cool.

Add the lemon zest, salt, honey and eggs to the rice pudding and mix to combine. Carefully pour into the prepared tin. Sprinkle the remaining breadcrumbs over the top of the rice pudding and dot small knobs of the margarine evenly on top. 

Pop into the oven for 45 minutes. Leave to cool overnight in the fridge before removing the cake onto a serving plate. You can decorate with your choice of fruit. Berries are my personal favourite.  The pudding should taste creamy with a subtle sweetness which should satisfy the sugar avoiders out there!



Rice pudding but a cake!

Golden brown - fit for a birthday

Sugar-free rusks

Sugar-free rusks

Sugar-free rusks

It can be hard at times when you have a sweet tooth to have a low sugar diet, especially on a day-to-day basis. With the cold, dreary days coming ever closer, a nice sugar free biscuit to enjoy with a warming cup of tea or coffee is a welcome daily treat. 

Ingredients:

200g dairy free margarine
70g Sweet Freedom syrup or other sugar-free syrup
1 egg
150g ground almonds
160g gluten free plain flour
3 tbs custard powder
1tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp rice milk

Preheat the oven to 200C. In a large mixing bowl, mix the margarine and sweet freedom syrup until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat to slowly combine. Fold in the almonds, flour and custard powder, then add the vanilla essence and rice milk and mix.

Place a piece of baking paper on a baking sheet and add spoonfuls of the mixture. These biscuits do not spread too much so do not worry too much about the space that you leave in between. Pop into the oven for about 30 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown. Enjoy hot or cold with a coffee or ice cream. 

Golden and guilt-free

So, how would you best enjoy these biscuits?

Golden Fruit Salad

Golden Fruit Salad

This fruit salad is inspired by the Pastel Fruit Salad from before and combines more of the juicier fruits out there.

 

Ingredients:

1/2 pineapple

1/2 cantaloupe melon

1/2 honeydew melon

2 plums

1 lime

Wash the plums and peel the pineapple. Cut together with the melons into bite sized pieces and place in a large bowl.

Wash the lime and lightly grate the peel over the fruit. Cut the lime into half and squeeze over the fruit. Mix to combine. Leave for some time for all the flavours to leap out at you!

So readers, do you prefer lemon or lime squeezed over fruit?

Thai Chilli Rice with Vietnamese Basil

Thai Chilli Rice with Vietnamese Basil

Thai Chilli Rice with Vietnamese Basil

Basil is a wonderfully fragrant herb which comes in many varieties. Thai basil is a favourite of mine since it is so full of flavour and lifts many a dish. I came across some Vietnamese basil and decided to make use of it in a Thai recipe for chilli rice. This is a quick recipe which makes use of cold rice that you might have left over. 

Vietnamese Basil

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion

2 tbsp red thai paste

1 tbsp tamari soy sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

5 tbsp water

450g cold rice

Vietnamese basil

2 eggs

Thai Red Curry Paste

Heat the oil in a pan. Add some chopped onions and fry over a medium heat for a few minutes. Add the paste and cook for 1 minutes. Add the sauces and water, mixing and cook for a couple of minutes. 

Too steamy!

Add the rice and mix together with the paste for a couple of minutes until the rice is hot. Wash and coarsely cut the basil. Mix in with the rice.

Essential Basil

Push the rice to one side of the pan and add the 2 eggs. Quickly stir the eggs and allow to cook. When the eggs are almost cooked, mix in with the rice. 

Eggs

Enjoy the rice hot or if having later, try to warm it first. 

Quick Rice

So, do you enjoy basil?

Golden Fruit Salad

Golden Fruit Salad

Golden Fruit Salad

This fruit salad is inspired by the golden lusciousness of pineapple, and combines more of the juicier fruits out there. I had originally wanted to use kiwi fruit but discovered upon cutting the fruit that it was not ripe so I made an executive decision not to use it. Which is a shame but did not distract from the juiciness.

Fruit galore!

Ingredients:

1/2 pineapple

1/2 cantaloupe melon

1/2 honeydew melon

2 plums

1 lime

Wash the plums and chop together with the other fruit into bite-sized pieces. Place in a large container and grate some lime peel over the fruit before squeezing the lime over. 

Lovely Lime

 Put the lid on and shake the fruit around. It tastes best after a few hours in the container.

Lusciously Golden

So, how do you test the ripeness of kiwi fruit?

Pastel Fruit Salad

Pastel Fruit Salad

Pastel Fruit Salad

I was aware when naming this blog that I may have been mistaken for being averse to fruit. This cannot be further from the truth! I love fruit but object to being offered insipid fruit as an alternative to a dessert just because I stay away from gluten. Some of my favourite memories of travelling feature the great taste of local fruit that has not had to travel across the world refrigerated. It can be hard to find sweet tasting fruit. I generally rely on the ‘ripe and ready’ range offered by most supermarkets now but even they are no guarantee.

Vanilla skin

This recipe also ensures that every part of a vanilla pod is used up since they are expensive pockets of flavour. I use vanilla pods mainly in my cheesecakes and always keep hold of the skins since they retain some of the vanilla seeds and it would be a waste to throw away. I put some with my golden caster sugar in a jar and keep others for recipes such as this.

Ripe fruits

Ingredients:

1/2 honeydew melon

1/2 cantaloupe melon

2 plums

1 kiwi fruit

1 peach

1 lime

1 vanilla pod skin

Melons

Wash the plums and peach. Cut all the fruit into bite size pieces.

Kiwi

Place in a large container. Grate some lime peel over the fruit and squeeze the juice over as well. Mix the fruit together to ensure the lime juice is spread evenly. Place the vanilla pod with the fruit. Put the lid on the container and mix the fruit inside to ensure the vanilla is spread around.

Leave in the fridge overnight to allow the vanilla flavour and fruit juices to infuse.

Enjoy the next day on its own without any sugar!

So, what fruit colours do you enjoy best?

Sweet potato and turnip doughnuts

I have a sweet jaw, not just a sweet tooth, but I am mindful of the wisdom of enjoying things in moderation. Judging by my posts, you may be fearing that I eat mainly sweet things. So I decided to redress the balance. If I had two blogs the other one would be called 'No More Rice Cakes!' So in honour of the blog that time does not permit, I will label all savoury recipes under this name.

Looking around the fridge I only really had a turnip and sweet potato so I decided to make a variation on a popular Indian street food called vada. They are essentially spiced balls cooked in a batter. Even though they sound sweet, they are deliciously light and spicy.

Sweet potato and turnip doughnuts

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato
1 turnip
2 garlic cloves
1cm ginger
1 tsp asafoetida
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
1 chilli

50g gram flour
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
50ml water

Method:

Peel the sweet potato and trim the turnip and cut into wedges. Boil for about 25 minutes until soft. In the meantime, chop the garlic, ginger and chilli.

Heat some oil in a saucepan and add the garlic, ginger, chilli and cook for 1 minute over a medium heat. Add the asafoetida, ground coriander and turmeric and cook for another 4 minutes remembering to stir. Take off the heat and keep to one side.

Drain the sweet potato and turnip and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the spicy garlic mix, some salt to taste and using a electric whisk, mix together until you have a smooth puree. Take tablespoons of the mix in your hands and shape into balls. Place on a plate and put in the fridge for 45 minutes to cool down and set.

In the meantime, prepare the batter mix by placing the gram flour, bicarbonate of soda and cumin seeds into a bowl and stir in the water.

Heat some vegetable oil in a small pan 5 minutes before taking the sweet potato balls from the fridge. When the oil is hot, place one sweet potato ball at a time and add to the batter to coat all around. Use a tablespoon to do this. Add each ball to the oil, perhaps three at a time, and cook for about 2 minutes on each side.

Drain on some kitchen paper and enjoy the doughnuts with your choice of chutney or ketchup.

Mango pancakes

Pancake day and it is sunny again! Although being London it is bitterly cold. My hands and ears have lost feeling so I decided to try something new following on from yesterday's mango custard tart, I decided to try making mango pancakes.

Mango pancakes

Ingredients:

1 ripe mango
250g plain gluten-free flour
1 heaped tsp gluten-free baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 can coconut milk
1 egg
25g dairy-free margarine

Method:

Remove the flesh from the mango and puree (sorry for the slightly iffy photo!).

Sift the flour, baking powder and soda to a large bowl. Add the coconut milk and egg to the mango puree and mix. Add the liquid to the flour and whisk in. Melt the margarine in a heavy-based frying pan and add to the mix stirring.

Over a low heat, cook 2 tbsp of the mix for about 2-3 minutes on each side.

Squeeze with a little lemon juice and enjoy. The pancakes will be sweet already but you can drizzle honey or maple syrup to taste.

So fellow readers, do you make pancakes on pancake day?