Tag: gluten free

Grain Free Chocolate Torte (also GF, DF, SyF, SF, PF)

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#GF #DF #glutenfree #dairyfree #celiac #coeliac #grainfreeSome days, it’s perfectly acceptable to eat cake for breakfast.

Seriously, look at the ingredients list and tell me why not? I know there are a bazillion GF and grain-free chocolate cake recipes out there, but this time, I didn’t want the sugar rush or the prep time. I wanted a quick, grown-up, I-can-eat-it-for-breakfast-Nutella-cake. So I used the Nutty Date Cake 2.0 as a base recipe to get creative, and here is the fruit of my labour. Perhaps I could try and conjure up an after-school babysitter, too?

INGREDIENTS

  • ½ cup ground almonds
  • ½ cup ground hazelnuts
  • 1 cup ground/finely chopped dried apricots or dates
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa powder (I used Equal Exchange Fairtrade & Organic Cocoa)
  • 1 tsp GF baking powder OR 1/4 tsp baking soda + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 4 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon milk (dairy or non)
  • 3 tablespoons melted butter or coconut oil
  • 2 medium eggs (equally sized)

Methodchoccake2

Preheat oven to 180C/375F.

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another.

Mix wet ingredients into dry.

Pour batter into prepared cake tin or muffin liners (I baked mine in two layers to make a sandwich).

Bake for 20-25 minutes, check with a skewer/clean knife.

Frost or not, to your taste. I used creme fraiche and icing sugar for my ‘frosting’.

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Domesticated MomsterFree From Farmhouse

Mother Mands tried the recipe successfully…

Re-Adjusting Focus

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Yesterday, I wrote about meeting potential after-school carers/nannies, and throwing my worries to the wind (or putting my trust in the Lord, if we go with ma-in-law). Today, it’s back to the drawing board. So what went wrong?

Weeeeellllll…..the first candidate was OK: pleasant, educated, not the most fluent English speaker, but seemed competent. I ranked her a 15/20. The second gave me serious cause for concern. She seemed tired, confused and I had to repeat myself every second sentence. Also, she had a very wet, limp handshake. One of my pet peeves is a wet, limp handshake. Shudder. If the option was her or nothing, well, as I told husband on Skype, let’s just say I’d trust DD on her own.

Instead of this experience truly throwing me, and sending me into a panic spiral, I was just annoyed that they didn’t work out. Breton Bestie and the neighbour have reminded me they can help in a pinch. My old assistant who’s in between jobs has agreed to cover all next week, and another nanny emailed this morning, asking if I still needed help. So maybe this whole ‘worries to the wind’ thing works! I wrote about the compounded effect of a thousand small adjustments and corrections, and the power of small wins and slow gains in a PTSD-recovery post in February. Today, I feel like I’m reaping the benefits of CBT: I think I’ve finally had a ‘normal’ reaction to a setback.

Disclaimer: I still wanted to resort to baking this morning (I went up 4 sizes due to PTSD-related baking after DD was born), but I opted to make one batch of aubergine dip and one batch of chicken liver pate to nourish, rather than numb, myself. Tomorrow, I will experiment with a gooey, gluten-free chocolate something, ready for the #FoodPornThursdays link-up. 

How are you doing? Have you made any small adjustments which have resulted in huge gains? How do you get yourself out of a panic spiral?

Nutty Date Cake, version 2

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Quick blurb to get my new followers (Hi!) up to speed: I’ve been tagged with two auto-immune conditions in the last 18 months. I kicked the first one into remission with steroids and an adapted diet. High on my own success, I started sneaking in trigger foods, which resulted in my feeling sicker and sicker, to the point where I was exhausted all the time. Tests confirm I have almost no Vitamin D in my body, as well as coeliac disease. Shopping in supermarkets and eating out have acquired a whole new level of insanity (socially phobic, I am). Who knew treats like chocolate mice and French fries in most restaurants have wheat in them (whaaaaa?). Another discovery? To make gluten-free foods palatable, a lot of them are loaded with sugar. Which makes me think I can live without them. I’m not trading one illness for another, thank you very much. So it’s back to basics, and the experimentation in the kitchen.#glutenfree #dairyfree #GF #DF #almond

Last week, I made a delicious (I say so myself) Nutty Date Cake, and this week, I adapted the recipe a little more. I wanted a fluffier result, so that I could slather it in purple fig jam.  I used what I had in the cupboard…

  • 1/2 cup dates and walnuts, ground pretty fine
  • 1 cup ground almonds
  • 1 medium egg
  • 1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil

Heat oven to 180C/360F.

Mix all the dry ingredients, add the oil, then the egg (I just used a fork and did it by hand).

The batter/dough should all come together beautifully in a ball. Put in a small loaf tin, gently press down with the fork, and bake for 20-25 minutes. It came out with a lovely moist, cakey texture.

I think I may use this as my base recipe mix when I try adapting my Carrot Cake recipe. If you have any gluten-free/coeliac-friendly recipes you use, or have seen but haven’t tried, leave me a link and I will happily experiment for you.

Domesticated Momster

Nutty Date Cake

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The original recipe Moelleux noisettes de Lola was given to me by the Breton Bestie. She made it for a gathering which included my GF husband. As usual, I have put my unique adaptations on the recipe, because I’m trying to reduce the amount of sugar we eat.

#almond #glutenfree #dairyfree #GF #coeliac #celiac

Prep time: 10 mins / Cook time: 25 mins / Serves 6

Ingredients I used today:

– 200g ground almonds & walnuts (or hazelnuts)
– 60g ground dates – more sweetness, less sugar
– 60g melted butter (or coconut oil)
– 1 tbsp xylitol (or brown sugar or coconut sugar)
– 2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180C / 360F.

Mix the eggs, butter/oil & sugar. Blend in the dates and nut mix. The batter should resemble cupcake batter. If it’s too runny, add more ground almonds.

Pour into a non-stick cake pan and bake for anywhere between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on your oven. Mine took 25 minutes for a skewer to come out clean. Cool before serving.

Domesticated Momster

Grain-Free Tahini Waffles

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Adapted from the original recipe which uses cashews: Grain-Free Waffles by Danielle Walker

If you tried my Tahini Cookie recipe, or are thinking about getting a jar of tahini and wondering what to do with the rest of it, look no further! As always, my recipes are tweaked, so use your judgement on the consistency of the batter; you may need a little more flour or non-dairy milk.

PREP TIME: 12 mins / COOK TIME: 10 mins / TOTAL TIME: 22 mins

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 eggs for almond meal, 3 eggs for coconut flour (I used medium)
  • 1/3 cup (75g) tahini
  • 1/3 cup (75ml) almond milk 
  • 3 tablespoons honey, maple or date syrup
  • 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ teaspoons baking soda
  • 3 tablespoons coconut flour (1/5 cup) or 1 cup (115g) almond meal
  • A pinch of cinnamon & nutmeg (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Preheat your waffle iron.
  2. Combine the eggs, tahini, non-dairy milk, honey/alternative and melted coconut oil in a blender. Pulse & blend until the batter is smooth & creamy. 
  3. Add the salt, baking soda, and chosen flour, then pulse & blend again for about a minute until the dry ingredients are mixed in.
  4. If the waffle iron requires oil, brush on a little coconut oil (both sides). Pour the batter into the waffle iron so it just covers the bottom portion of the iron. DON’T overfill as I did; these waffles rise nicely and you’ll waste valuable eating time doing clean-up!
  5. Cook the waffles for about a minute or so, depending on your waffle iron. If they lift easily with a fork when you open the lid, they are ready!
  6. Repeat until you run out of batter. 

Serve with date syrup, honey or maple syrup.

Tahini Cookies (gluten free)

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Because I’ve had waaaaaaay too much sugar this week (I turned a year older), I’m now feeling the urge to detox a little and was experimenting in the kitchen today. The result is a mildly exotic, not-too-sweet tahini cookie, tweaked from my peanut butter cookie recipe. Tahini is a sesame seed paste, similar to peanut butter, and very popular in the Middle East, especially to make hummus. Here are instructions from The Kitchn so you can make some at home!

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup tahini (I used Meridian Organic Light)
  • 1/3 cup coconut flour
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar (I had to!)
  • 1 tablespoon honey (with nothing but the honey)
  • 2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil or ghee, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (you could also use orange essence & some zest)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder (gluten free)
  • 1 medium egg

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F.

Mix the oil/butter with the tahini. Add in the vanilla extract and honey. Whisk the egg gently (too hard and the cookies go stiff). Stir the egg into the tahini base.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder.

Add this to the tahini base and fold gently till you have a smooth dough (check my PB cookie recipe photos).

Roll into balls, flatten with a fork on a lightly greased baking tray or tray lined with baking paper.

tahini

Bake for 10-12 minutes till the edges are golden. Cool on wire rack. Enjoy!

I might try these with some almond flour next time. And maybe some chai spices, like cardamom & cinnamon. Let me know (below) if you have any tweaks you could suggest or have tried!