Jam and Rolls

You know why I love Borders? Because every once in awhile they do something great...like give out 40% off one full-price book vouchers. And as long as you keep printing them, you keep getting them. HOW WONDERFUL!

But seeing that I had bought 2 books 2 weeks ago, I only had reason to buy one-really. And with the looming shift to the new house approaching, I really didn't want to pack an extra book. Trust me, if you had this much stuff, you'd understand too. =) So I bought Nick Malgieri's Perfect Light Desserts and ohboy ohboy am I excited!!! I felt like something jam filled. So duh, Jam Swissroll? I used the swissroll recipe from the book, but made it gluten free by using 1 cup rice flour + 1 tbsp cornstarch as a substitute. Worked like a charm though the rolling bit was a little tough. Yummy nonetheless! A little too sugary for me, so I might cut down on the sugar in the sponge. However this time I just made a tangy sour lemon icing (juice of 1/2 lemon + 3 tbsp icing sugar) to cut the sweetness. And just because it's pretty, I HAD to sprinkle that icing sugar on top. WHOOPEE! =) I would really love to type the recipe here but I'm killing myself thinking about a deadline. So off I go... sorry guys! =)

All toasty inside

I love bread. I love bread with sugar and a generous sprinkling of raw sugar crystals. I love bread with jams boasting giant sized fruit pieces. I love bread with nutella and peanut butter together. I love bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I love bread smothered with baked beans and a sunny side up, with the yolk still runny. YUP! I love all of it. ALL OF IT.

But then I became gluten free (mostly) and bye-bye bread. No more bread basket, no more buns filled with custard, no more no more no more.

BUT THEN! A whole plethora of creative people became gluten free too. So they solved this major problem. and HELLO BREAD!!!

I tried out this recipe from recipezaar, apparently it was taken from Roben Ryberg. Somehow it didn't work out for me. I didn't have the potato starch so I substituted it with sweet rice flour and tapioca starch. My mixture looked like pancake batter, goopy. So I figured why not, and I added a whole other bunch of things like cornmeal (polenta) and besan flour. Mix mix mix. Then I forgot the xantham gum. And I was kinda in a i really don't care kinda mood so I shoved it into the oven to bake and WHOAAAA it rose and rose. haha, it was pretty funny. Like the batter was creeping out of the muffin holes and kissing each other. heh. They stopped short of the edge of the pan and that's all I ask for, really.

And it was yummy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. YUMMY. =) I had them fresh yesterday with tuna and avocado. But as with all/most gluten free baked stuff, they taste better warmed up the day. So I cut one into half, toasted it and had it with my fig & vanilla jam on one half. And tuna on the other. I think I might've had one bite with both jam and tuna but you didn't need to know that. =)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
2 eggs
1 packet dry yeast
1/2 cup water
1/4 c sweet rice flour
1/4c tapioca flour
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
dash of salt
3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar (any will do)
1/4 cup besan flour
1/4 cup cornmeal (polenta)

1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees fanforced
2) Mix all ingredients together.
3) Pour into well-oiled muffin tin (1/2 full) and bake for 10 minutes, check if cooked, if not bake further. Sorry I wasn't paying too close attention to the time. =)

They look kinda like crumpets once you slice them open. yummers.

Bad Day

You know those days, you wake up and you instantly know you're just not quite ready to meet the world. Yeah, kinda like today. Looking for apartments to rent is killing my brain and everytime I make that phone call to enquire, I'm pretty sure the property's already been leased or it's a 12 month lease only (just when I needed 6). So what do you do? You thank god that at least the muffins turned out right. And you fool yourself by saying that they're packed chock full of fibre and other good stuff. And that they're actually not too bad. So now I can admit, I've had 8 of these things since 12noon.

I know. Don't judge me, I've had a bad day. Ending with a mighty headache.

Morning Glory Muffins (makes 13-15) adapted from here
(Gluten Free and Vegan)
Whisk Together:
1 tub (reg. serving) vanilla soy yoghurt
2 tbsp soy milk
2 tbsp flaxseed meal mixed in 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup veg oil
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/3 cup sugar

Add In:
3/4 quinoa flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1 generous tbsp rice flour
1/2 cup corn flour
1/2 cup potato starch
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

Finally, Mix In:
1 cup grated carrot
1 1/3 cup grated courgette
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
1/4 cup sun dried muscatels/raisins
1/4 cup crushed pecans/walnuts

Stir until well blended and spoon into muffin tins. Bake for 15 minutes then check for doneness. I can't remember how long mine took so check at 15 mins and estimate from there. Frost after they have cooled.

To Frost, Mix:
1/4 cup vanilla soy yoghurt
1 tbsp honey

Bad day = lazy = no photos. Sorry guys. But trust me on this, I love these muffins. I'm off to get my eighth.

(Almost) Raw Chocolate Tartlet

I've been been fascinated with the different types of diets people adopt. There's the vegetarian diet, vegan diet and now, the raw diet. It's not something new and it basically revolves around the idea that food heated above 116 degrees Fahrenheit destroys the beneficial enzymes present in our food. The diet is vegan but brought to the next level. I know I'd probably never be able to live on raw food (despite it's yumminess) because I really do love my grandma's cooking, none of which, are raw. But nonetheless, it doesn't stop me from trying recipes from the wondrous pool of raw recipes out there. I was rummaging through Heidi's 101cookbooks and decided to use her raw peaches and cream pie recipe, with a slight change.

I followed the pie crust recipe but had trouble with it turning as wet as I would've liked it to so I added 1.5 tbsp of water just to help reach the desired consistency. I left half of the nuts out of the food processor, while processing the rest with the water, then I added the rest in and just mixed it with a spoon so it wouldn't be too wet and still remain chunky.

For the filling, I decided I really needed a chocolate hit and my peaches weren't in the best condition so I did this:

In a food processor, place 1 cup cashews (soaked in water for 30 mins and drained), 1.5 tbsp honey, pinch of cinnamon, pinch of salt, 2.5 tbsp cocoa powder, juice of 1/4 lemon. Process for 2-3 mins. Add 1 teaspoonful of water and process again, continuing the adding of water until you get a paste like, spreadable consistency. My tartlet is ALMOST raw because I added choc soy milk instead. Use chocolate spread to fill tartlet shell/s.

And because I'm a greedy giant, I placed my tartlet in the freezer for 10 minutes before transferring it to the fridge. It held VERY well, much better than some of my gluten free tarts and was incredibly yummy although I would use a milder tasting honey or maybe maple syrup instead. I halved the recipe and got 2 bountiful tartlets. It serves about 4. =)

Diners, Pancakes & Lisa Loeb

Now she sits in a booth in a diner,
Waiting for someone to take her order,
Waiting for someone to come and sit down.
She rubs the smudge off the photograph, puts it back into her purse.
The grey sky was romatic cause he was holding her hand,
He was her man.

I'm so bummed, I typed out this gorgeously long entry only to foolishly delete it. FUMBLING FINGERS! And, word from the street is that my boyfriend is out having dinner so he can't rush here in time to have icecream with me (it's NOT dairy-free but I promise I'll be ok). It is better to always have your own cuppa icecream but in this case, it's just too big a task for me to do and my tummy will agree (so will the thighs and hips and...) SO ANYWAY, let's talk about something good.

Apart from the new job (hiphipHIPHOORAY!), I made pancakes for breakfast this morning. Somehow, when I spend my last few thoughts before i go to bed thinking really hard about something (in this case, PANCAKES), I wake up craving it. AND I MUST HAVE IT! So I did. =)

I used GlutenFree Girl's recipe for Blueberry-Polenta Pancakes but I didn't have any blueberries so mine shall just be called Polenta Pancakes. They were yummy but I didn't realize that they would actually border on the salty side. Not that I minded it much since I was having a savoury treat craving and the awesome maple syrup & fresh cherries balanced it out. But for those who'd prefer a sweeter pancake, just follow her instructions and use 2 tbsp of sugar (I only used 1 tsp). Also, I was unsure whether the gluten free flour called for in the recipe was for a mix or just any flour so, I made up a quick mix. =)

Also, because pancakes remind me of diners and jukeboxes, waitresses in pink striped uniforms and plump chefs with greasy sausages, I thought of the song Falling In Love by Lisa Loeb, that's where the lyrics from the top of the entry came from (fear not, I am not heartbroken) sooo I think I'll enter this entry into Eat to the Beat! hosted by Elly Says Opa!. All entries have to feature a dish that is inspired by a song/artiste/album. So here's my contribution. Pancakes & Diners

Polenta Pancakes
2 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp potato starch flour
1 tbsp cornflour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp flax meal
2 eggs, whisked
1 cup soy milk + 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar to sour, let sit for 10 minutes
1 tbsp veg oil

1) Mix all dry ingredients together
2) Whisk soured milk & oil into eggs
3) Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix to just combine
4) Oil a skillet and drop batter by 1/3 cupfuls, cook until bubbles appear on the surface or until desired brown-ness
5) Serve with real maple syrup and whatever else that floats your boat (ICECREAM!!!)

like, OH WOW!

HELLO! I have finally returned. I have a thousand excuses as to why I've been missing but I think I'll pick the best few I could come up with.
1) I've been busy travelling to Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai
2) I've been too busy eating and since my mouth works so fast, the food gets devoured before I can take photos of them
3) I have been quite lazy.

Yeah, I think I'll settle for that. Laziness, the disease many of us suffer from. Fortunately though, the other wonderful bloggers have no such illness so the rest of us are lucky, because we'll always have something yummy to read about. =)

But I am back. And i will blog often, or at least make a big effort to. =) So how has everyone been? Today I officially baked the first sweet treat since my return to Melbourne. Gluten free sugar cookies. I got the original recipe from here but I had no shortening or baking powder or gluten free flour mix. And i was too lazy to pre-mix the flour blend so I changed the recipe almost entirely. and I'm glad to report that this is probably the first gluten free sugar cookie that I actually like. I used expeller pressed coconut oil and normal veg oil to substitute the shortening. Replaced sugar with half icing sugar and half raw vanilla sugar (for crunch and coz I had no other sugar). I also added 1/2 tsp of xantham gum and 1 tsp lemon juice for added 'flair'.

I don't know how it'll settle tomorrow since alot of cookies are so promising when they first step out of the oven but then loses all their sparkle after sitting around for abit. I used my new cookie cutter that I got from the Harvest Picnic at Hanging Rock yesterday. It was really eye opening, bought some gluten free plum pudding (since Easter is coming) and this amazingamazingamazing peach and vanilla chutney thing. Ohgosh it's absolutely stunning, with notes of apple and thick luscious syrup just dripping off the edges of the chunks of peach.

Here's Spot trying to get friendly with the cookie! Spot fits snugly in the middle of my palm, so you can pretty much imagine how darn big the cookie is. I realized we didn't have a container big enough for the cookie so I had to snap it in two before packing it away. Least I got a photo of it.

Needin' some Puddin'

I could re-tell the story for the...tenth time, about the horrible start of the day but it's allright. I think the previous nine times sufficed. 'Nuff with the whining, on with the pudding.

I'm a religious reader of Delicious. I read it every month without fail and will proudly announce that it is the best food magazine I've come across. *YAY!*. This month just made their status skyrocket when they rocked up to the newsagent's shelves with a gluten-free special (and the awesome Shaun wrote me a note just in case I missed it). So I flip through it every other morning over breakfast, dog-earring the pages holding recipes I just have to try. I usually don't end up trying them because when I have a craving I forget...forget to look through my stash of mags. Luckily this time I remembered! CHOCOLATE SELF-SAUCING PUDDING. Exactly what a girl needs when shes down with somesort of sickness, feeling slightly ghostly and neck high in assignments. oh and plus, she doesn't know what to dress up as for Halloween.

Pirate, anyone?

Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding by Sue Shepard from October 2007 Delicious Magazine
(This is the half the recipe) serves, 3-4

45g fine rice flour (from Asian Grocers)
1.5 tbsp soy flour
1.5 tbsp g.f.cornflour
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp g.f. baking powder
1/2 tsp xantham gum (optional)
70g caster sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder

1) Triple sift the ingredients in a bowl

95ml soy milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp olive oil

1) Mix all together in a bowl and pour into the flour mixture
2) Pour mixture into a 3 cup capacity baking dish
3) If it is too shallow it might overflow

215 ml hot water
70g brown sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder

1) Mix altogether
2)Pour over the chocolate cake mixture, do not mix!
3)Bake at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a crisp spongy top develops (I baked mine until the fudge sauce started bubbling over the edge of the pan...think I overfilled)