Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies

Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies

These are the best brownies ever! I love really moist brownies made with almonds and this recipe is perfect. Cook for 35 mins for really moist and 40 if you do like them a bit firmer.

Gluten Free Brownies

150 grams  Dark Chocolate

170 grams  unsalted butter

3 large eggs

150 grams caster sugar

150 grams dark muscovado sugar

100 grams ground almonds

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

85 grams chopped walnuts

Instructions

1.     Preheat oven to 180 C. Lightly grease a 9 inch baking tin and place a piece of grease proof paper on the bottom.

2.     Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a heat proof bowl along with the butter. Place bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and leave to melt.

3.     Beat the eggs with a whisk in a large bowl until they are lemon coloured.

4.     Gradually add the sugars, beating continuously, until the mixture is thick (about 3 minutes)

5.     Stir in the melted chocolate mixture and the vanilla extract.

6.     Fold in the ground almonds and the chopped walnuts.

7.     Spoon mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes (for a really gooey brownie) or 40 minutes less gooey.

8.     Leave to cool completely in the tin before removing and cutting into squares.

Almond Cupcakes - Recipe - Vegan - Gluten Free

Almond Cupcakes

Vegan and Gluten Free

These little cupcakes are moist and have a lovely flavour of almond. You can choose to make a vegan buttercream of a simple white icing if you don't have any vegan white chocolate.

Almond Cupcakes

5 Tablespoons vegetable oil

4 Tablespoons gluten-free dairy free yoghurt

160 ml/5.5 fl oz gluten-free soya milk

160g/5.75 oz ground almonds

3 Tablespoons almond extract

40 g/1 ½ oz ground almonds

* 160 g/ 5 ¾ oz gluten-free plain flour

*½ teaspoon xanthan gum

1 ½ teaspoon gluten-free baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

*If you are using a blend of flours – white rice flour, tapioca starch and potato starch for example then you need the xanthan gum

*If using a store bought gluten-free plain flour it will have thickeners in it so no need for the xanthan gum.

Icing

60g vegan white chocolate

100g gluten-free icing sugar

1 ½ Tablespoons gluten-free soya milk

Toasted flaked almonds and crystallized ginger to decorate

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C or 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake tin with 10 paper cases.

Place the oil, yoghurt, milk, sugar, almond extract and ground almonds in a large mixing bowl. Sift in the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt then beat with an electric hand-held whisk until the mixture is well combined.

Divide the mixture between the cases in the prepared cupcake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until well risen and golden. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack and leave to cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, melt the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly. Beat in the icing sugar and soya milk and spread the icing over the cupcakes with a teaspoon while the icing is still a little warm and easy to spread. Top each cupcake with a few toasted flaked almonds and finely chopped crystallised ginger.

Lemon Gin Cake - Recipe - Gluten Free

Lemon Gin Cake

Gluten Free

This is my mother's favourite cake! It is moist, lemony and easy to make. It doesn't have a lot of gin but if you don't have any or not wanting any alcohol, a lemon syrup  is still very yummy. You don''t need it but I sometimes serve it with lemon curd and or yoghurt.

Lemon Gin Cake

1 lemon

200g sugar

250g self-raising gluten free flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

250g butter, softened

4 eggs

150g caster sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

1 Tablespoon gin

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and line an 18cm round cake tin.

Zest and juice lemon and place in food processor with sugar, mix until zest turns to specks.

Add sifted flour, baking powder, butter and eggs to bowl and mix until smooth. Tip into prepared tin and bake for 1 ¼ hours or until a skewer tests clean.

Mix the caster sugar, lemon juice and gin together.

Remove the cake from the oven, take out of the tin and sit on a shallow tray. Use a skewer to spike cake with a number of holes Spoon over the syrup and leave to sit.

Gluten Free Bakery - Bakery - Gluten Free - Christchurch NZ

Totally Gluten Free Bakery

290b Colombo St, Sydenham, Christchurch 8023

What a find! - a bakery where everything is gluten free so no cross contamination. It is located in a small group of shops in Sydenham near the Funky Pumpkin.


It has sweet and savoury with a large range of breads. Pete is very fussy re gluten free bread - longing for fluffy white bread asparagus rolls! While the white loaf from this bakery is soft, it doesn't reach his standard!

He chose a cherry slice that I thought looked quite dry but I was proven very wrong - was moist and very yummy.

I however, picked a date scone and it was dry and not that many dates.

A later visit before Easter I bought a packet each of fruit and chocolate hot cross buns as well as some shortbread. the buns were ok but a bit like cake rather than your usual hot cross buns. The shortbreat was delicious!

So all in all, fantastic that you don't have to worry about choosing something that isn't gluten free but be selective and it is pricey!

Flourless Chocolate Cake - Gluten Free - Recipe

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Gluten Free

There are many recipes for flourless chocolate cake. I like them as they are usually a lot more moist than cakes with flour and they are gluten free. This one has the addition of an apple.

Flourless chocolate cake

4 eggs, separated

100g sugar

100g dark chocolate, melted

1 dessert apple, peeled and grated

100g ground almonds

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease a 20cm spring form tin. Cream egg yolks and sugar until light in colour and sugar has dissolved.

Mix in cooled melted chocolate, apple and almonds.

Beat egg whites until stiff, then gently fold into mixture a third at a time. (Cut and fold egg whites in gently with a large metal spoon to avoid knocking out too much air. Pour into prepared tin.

Bake for 45 minutes.

You can sprinkle with icing sugar or ice with chocolate icing.

Vanilla Macarons

Vanilla Macarons

Gluten Free

These are one of my favourite sweet treats! They are time consuming to make but well worth it for a special occasion.

The shells should have 'feet' around the base. (if these do not develop during baking, either the shells were not left to form a crust for long enough , or the oven temperature was too low.)

Macaron Shells

Ingredients

225g (8oz) pure icing sugar

140g (5oz) almond meal

100g (3.5 oz) egg whites at room temperature

Line two trays with baking paper.

Combine the icing sugar and almond meal and sift together twice, discarding anything remaining in the sieve.

Beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. If colouring the shell, add the colouring to the egg whites now and beat in.

Fold the sifted sugar and almond meal into the egg whites, continuing to fold until the mixture is glossy and moves slowly when the bowl is tilted.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 5mm nozzle. Pipe rounds 3cm in diameter spacing 2-3 cm apart. Tap the tray firmly on the bench a couple of times to knock out any air bubbles.

The macron shells must now stand at room temperature until a crust forms – this will take 2 - 6 hours depending on the temperature and humidity. When they are ready you should be able to touch one lightly and have no mixture stick to your finger.

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C

Place macron shells into the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 130 degrees C. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until firm to the touch but not coloured. Remove from the oven and cool completely on the baking tray.

Pipe on a greased tray

or use a silicone mat

Filling

3 egg yolks

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

90g (3oz) caster sugar

2 Tablespoons water

125g (4.5 oz) softened unsalted butter, chopped

Beat egg yolks and vanilla seed on high for 10 minutes until pale and creamy.

Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer until the syrup reaches 121 degrees C (250 F)

Slowly pour the sugar syrup into the creamed yolks. Beat on high speed for 10 minutes until cool. 

With the mixer on medium speed, add the softened butter a cube at a time, allowing each piece to mix in before adding the next. Beat on high for 2 minutes. Spread onto macaron shell and join together.

Pizza - Gluten Free and Vegetarian - Product

Store Bought Pizza

Gluten Free and Vegetarian

This Mediterranean pizza is very tasty and ticks all the boxes for Pete.

It is available at a few supermarkets (Merivale Fresh Choice, New World as well as the Continental Bakery Rangiora). There is a bit of a price difference between stores but it is around $17 so not cheap but worth it to be able to have a pizza that you can have in the freezer for those quick weekend meals.

After cooking - slightly overdone after Pete forgot about it!!