Black banana cake

Black banana cake

Black banana cake

Bananas are wonderful things but there is a certain fear of bananas which ripen until they turn black. Whilst they might be too soft for some to eat as they are, they provide a wonderful natural sweetness for cake. This recipe is a useful one to keep when one has too many bananas!

Ingredients:

200g dairy free margarine

100g light brown sugar

2 eggs

170g self raising gluten free flour

5g baking powder

1 tbsp rice milk

80g ground almonds

3 or 4 overripe bananas

Preheat the oven to 180C. In a large mixing bowl mix the margarine and sugar together until light and creamy. Mix in the eggs, one at a time and do not fret too much if it curdles. Next fold in the flour, baking powder and ground almonds. Add the rice milk to lighten the mixture. Break the ripe bananas into pieces into the mix and combine carefully being careful not to over mix.  

Looks better in real life!

Pour the mixture into a greased 8” loose-bottomed cake tin and pop into the oven for 45-50 minutes.

Looks better?

Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out. Can be enjoyed straight away or the next day toasted for breakfast with some coffee!

Nicely toasted

Great with fresh figs

Rhubarb and apple crumble

Rhubarb and apple crumble

Rhubarb and apple crumble

After reminiscing about rhubarb and custard I decided to make a quick rhubarb and apple crumple since I had some rhubarb left over and some apples were falling from the tree outside. Using dairy-free margarine instead of butter can make for a different kind of crumble mix at times but I have tried this combination a few times and it provides enough crunch to get away with it.

Wonderful colour!

Ingredients:

400g rhubarb trimmed and cut into 3cm pieces
5 apples peeled, cored and cut into 3cm pieces
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar
1 stem ginger, finely chopped
160g dairy-free margarine
180g gluten-free plain flour
60g light muscovado sugar
25g gluten-free oats

Preheat the oven to 180C. In a large pan, place the prepared rhubarb, apple, sugar and ginger and heat over a medium heat until the apple softens and the rhubarb begins to break (about 5 minutes). Place into an oven proof dish.

Deconstructed rhubarb

Softened apple

In a large mixing bowl, add the flour and margarine (in this order) and using your fingertips, rub together until you get large breadcrumbs. Add the muscovado sugar and oats and mix in with your finger being careful not to work the crumble mix too much as this will remove the breadcrumbs. 

Freefrom crumble

Sprinkle the crumble mix on top of the rhubarb and carefully spread to cover evenly. Pop into the oven for about 40 minutes or until the crumble browns and you can just start to see the rhubarb and apple bubbling through at the sides. Serve warm with custard and enjoy!

So good and colourful

So, would you mix apples with rhubarb?

Sticky ginger and rhubarb pudding with rice milk custard

Rhubarb and custard

Sticky ginger and rhubarb pudding with rice milk custard

Rhubarb and custard is a combination which you either love or hate. As a lover of sour as well as sweet, rhubarb conjures up fond childhood memories of rhubarb crumble with lashings of custard. Now that I am supposedly more grown-up I decided to try something a little bit different. Since tartness is not to everyone’s liking I decided to try to incorporate rhubarb into a pudding with ginger to compliment the flavours. 

Alas, making custard with rice milk is fraught with problems due to the thinness of the rice milk. Hence I decided upon using custard powder as a way around this problem.

Rhubarb

Ingredients:

6 tbsp of the syrup from stem ginger in syrup

2 pieces stem ginger in syrup

400g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 2.5cm lengths

2 tbsp caster sugar

90g caster sugar

150g dairy free margarine

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

175g gluten-free self-raising flour

250ml rice milk plus a little extra

2 tbsp custard powder

1 tbsp caster sugar

In a large pan over a medium heat, place the rhubarb, 2 tablespoons of ginger syrup and 2 tablespoons of caster sugar. Stir occasionally until the rhubarb begins to soften and bubble. Reduce the heat to low and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes, remembering to stir to avoid the rhubarb catching. Leave to cool.

Rhubarb puree

Meanwhile, prepare the sponge mixture. Dice the ginger finely.

Stem ginger

In a large mixing bowl, beat the remaining sugar and margarine together until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and then fold in the flour, chopped ginger, cooled rhubarb and vanilla. 

Chopped!

Grease a pudding basin and then add 4 tablespoons of ginger syrup into the base. Pour the mix into the prepared pudding basin then pop into the oven for 45 minutes until golden brown on top. Leave in the basin for 10 minutes before popping out. 

Not great looking...

In the meantime prepare the custard. Pour the milk into a saucepan and over a medium heat bring to almost boiling point. Mix the custard powder, 1 tablespoon of sugar in a cup with enough milk to cover the custard powder and mix until all the lumps have gone. When the milk is just about to reach boiling point, pour in the custard paste and continually mix together to avoid lumps. Continue to mix until the custard has thickened.

Serve slices of the pudding with the custard. This pudding actually tastes better the next day after the ginger and rhubarb have has time to infuse fully. 

...but tastes heavenly!

So, are you a fan of rhubarb and custard?

Crab and lemon thyme quiche

Crab quiche!

Crab and lemon thyme quiche

Fresh ingredients with no sign of a processed can are always preferable but sometimes location and circumstances dictate otherwise. Hence whilst I love crabs, this recipe makes use of tinned crab meat.

A quiche is essentially a frittata in a pastry case and can be a simple and quick way to feed more than two. 

This recipe also makes use of an underused ingredient, lemon thyme, to add a lovely burst of flavour to compliment the crab.

Lovely lemon thyme

Ingredients:

240g plain gluten-free flour

170g dairy-free margarine

3/4 tbsp cold water

1 onion

2 spring onions

3 eggs

handful of lemon thyme (washed and stalks discarded)

2 tins of white crab meat in brine (170g each and drained)

120ml dairy free single cream

Seasoning to taste

Preheat the oven to 190C and then prepare the gluten free shortcrust pastry. Pastry is always a problem to make since the gluten is not there to add the elasticity. 

In a large mixing bowl rub the cold margarine together with the flour with the tips of your fingers to produce a breadcrumb texture. Add the cold water and combine until the mixture comes together into a dough.

Press the dough into a loose-bottomed flan tin evenly covering the base and sides. Pop into the oven for 10 minutes to bake. 

Meanwhile for the quiche mix, chop the onion and spring onions and add to a large frying pan with some dairy free margarine and sauté until the onions start to brown. Leave to one side and check on the pastry and once it browns slightly, take out to cool and arrange the onions on the pastry.  

In a large mixing bowl, mix the eggs together lightly then add the lemon thyme, crab meat, cream and seasoning to taste. Combine and pour carefully into the pastry case. Pop into the oven for 35 minutes or until it browns slightly. 

Enjoy for lunch or a light dinner with salad and sweetcorn! 

Enjoy!

So, do you ever use an ingredient even if it comes in a tin?