Date balls

Date balls is kind of a bad name for these - they are nicer than that - also containing cacao, coconut, almond... Based on this recipe.

(makes approx 12)

1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 tbsp cacao powder
1/2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp almond butter
3 medjool dates
Extra cacao and cinnamon powder for rolling (or coconut)

Grind coconut and almonds together in a blender. Add cacao, coconut oil and almond butter and blend to mix. Add the dates and blend until well mixed*. Scoop approx tsp sized pieces of mixture, roll into balls, and coat by rolling in extra cacao powder (and/or cinnamon and/or more desiccated coconut). Best kept in the fridge (or freezer).


* I couldn’t get the dates to grind in my blender at all - they just stuck in big pieces... later realised the blender broke (it was ancient). So I ended up chopping and mashing with a knife and fork instead: old school. The fork solution worked out ok but was more work than I was expecting! But good to know you could make them without blender at all if needed.

These would also be lovely with ground pecans instead of almonds... but I liked the symmetry of using almonds plus almond butter, and coconut plus coconut oil, for this time. And they are good - best after chilling overnight. Would be quite kid friendly without the cacao.

Tahini chocolate cookies

I came across this recipe and it marries two of my favourite things (dark chocolate and tahini), and everything I’ve ever baked with tahini I have loved, but there hasn’t been nearly enough, and so clearly I had to make it. Then I looked at the cookbook it came from and realised it is some kind of cancer diet cookbook... I am not sure how I feel about diet advice for cancer, mostly I try and trust my body to tell me what it needs. But sometimes it is nice to think there is something within your control, like the food you eat every day, that can make a difference. Anyway, I haven’t done anything drastic with diet, although I have found it comforting to cook and to try and make appetising, varied food for my wee family, even when I didn’t feel much like eating. Weirdly, my appetite during chemo was often similar to when I was pregnant, so I had some practice already of figuring out what to eat when I don’t feel like eating. Also, I am a consummate snacker / grazer, which I think has helped stave off nausea in both situations.

Anyway, back to the topic: tahini! dark chocolate! As I made these I was reminded of happy gluten-free baking adventures in Boston, making gluten-free vegan treats for A, H and me. These cookies are fundamentally really similar to the sunflower butter gf cookies I used to make - I have no idea why I didn’t think of replacing the sunflower butter with tahini before, given how much I love tahini and how much easier it is to find...

1 large egg
½ cup tahini
½ cup almond flour (used normal almond meal)
½ cup coconut sugar (used normal sugar)
½ tsp baking powder
One 3½ oz / 100 g 70% (or higher) dark chocolate bar, coarsely chopped
pinch coarse sea salt

Heat the oven to 350F / 180C and line a baking sheet with baking paper. In a medium bowl, beat together the egg, tahini, almond flour, sugar, and baking powder to make a thick, sticky mixture. Fold in the chopped chocolate. Scoop about 1 tbsp of batter and place it on the baking sheet. Continue, spacing each cookie about 2½ in apart (they will spread a bit), until you have used all of the dough. Sprinkle cookies with the coarse salt. Bake 8-9 min, keeping an eye on them as they can burn easily - they should be just lightly browned on top (nb mine took longer: c 20 min). Let cool for 10 min on the baking sheet, then finish cooling on a rack.


These were simple and delicious! They seemed a bit greasy when shaping but baked up ok. There was maybe a bit much (!) chocolate, I used almond meal, which I suspect is a bit different from almond flour but was what I had, and they still came out looking like cookies and tasting good. Could be good with an oat-raisin-cinnamon situation instead of chocolate. Probably easily veganised with a flax egg, although I didn’t try it (just checked, and my favourite Lidl chocolate is vegan - hurrah). Also, might be interesting to try them with black tahini - I have some...

S's birthday cake from 2018

Was just looking back and enjoying how this is, if nothing else, a repository for all the birthday cakes I have made S (and now small S too) since 2011. Gosh, 9 years: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 + small S 2018 (we've been together for 13 - I guess a few cakes are missing from back in the mists of time). Then I realized that last year's is missing - I did bake a cake, even though he was away at a conference on his birthday and we were deep in baby fug... But I guess I didn't manage to write it up / decided not to... But I really think I ought, for completeness, so here we are...

For my birthday in 2017, I was still in hospital after giving birth to small S, so my birthday cake from Sebastian was a book of German baking recipes and a promise to bake me whichever one I liked when we were home. I made him a cake from that book for his birthday too... Luckily small S was going through possibly his best-ever napping phase then, so I had a little time for cake baking. I chose to make a mohntorte, with walnuts from the garden. It was pretty epic, I had to grind the walnuts and the poppyseeds before even starting on the cake, and it's kind of a long recipe. But here goes...

175 g butter, softened
50 g icing sugar
5 eggs, separated
2 tbsp rum
zest of 1 lemon
180 g ground walnuts (or almonds, or a mix)
210 g poppy seeds
pinch salt
125 g granulated sugar
100 g redcurrant jelly

Heat oven to 180C. Line the base of a 9 in / 23 cm springform tin with baking paper and grease the sides.

Cream the butter and icing sugar. Mix in the egg yolks one at a time and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the rum and lemon zest, and beat until thick and glossy. Fold in ground nuts and poppy seeds until just combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they start to form large bubbles. Add the granulated sugar 1 tbsp at a time, whisking all the time, until the mix is stiff and glossy.

Scrape 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the nut mixture and fold in to lighten. Then fold in the next 1/3; then the final 1/3, until no white streaks remain. Scrape the batter into the prepared baking tin and smooth the top.

Put in the oven and bake 50-55 min, rotating halfway through (pretty sure mine took longer). It is ready when the cake is pulling away from the edges and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack for 5 min before turning out, peeling off the paper, and letting cool upside down on rack.

When ready to assemble (and the cake is completely cool), heat the jelly in a small saucepan until runny, then remove from the heat and let cool briefly. Slice the torte in half horizontally. Spread the jelly evenly over the bottom layer, then put the top layer on top. Sift icing sugar on top (use a stencil if you like). It will keep, lightly wrapped in clingfilm, for several days.


It was a good combination; different from anything I had before, not too sweet, as often the case for German cakes. How could I forget?!

Vanillekipferl

Christmas is approaching, and so is the birth of our own baby boy. Every day that he doesn't make a move to appear, is another day for projects like making Christmas biscuits. So yesterday/today I decided to make zimtsterne, as has become traditional... And this time I decided to try vanillekipferl (vanilla crescents) as well. This was initiated by thinking it might be a good way to use up the egg yolks left from the zimtsterne - I read that somewhere... but then I also read that traditionally vanillekipferl shouldn't have any egg in them to maximise their crumbliness. So anyway, once the seed was sown I wanted to make them, and having reviewed a few recipes decided to follow this one - with one egg yolk.

Makes c. 48 biscuits

For the dough:

120 g butter, at room temperature
50 g icing sugar
175 g flour 
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
100 g ground almonds
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt

For dredging after baking:
125 g icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar

Beat together butter and 50 g icing sugar. Add the flour, 1 tbsp vanilla sugar, ground almonds, egg yolk and salt and mix until it comes together as a smooth dough. Split the dough into three equal parts and roll each into a cylinder with a diameter of 1 in. Wrap each cylinder in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least one hour, and up to 2 days.

When ready to bake, heat the oven to 163C and line two baking sheets with paper. Take one roll from the fridge and cut it into slices 1/2 in long. Roll each slice between fingers until about 2 in long, with slightly tapered ends. Curve to make a crescent, and place on the baking sheet. Leave approx. 1 in space between biscuits on the sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough, taking one roll out of the fridge at a time, until the sheets are full. Bake for 10-15 min, or until just lightly browned.

After removing from the oven, allow to sit on the baking sheet for c. 5 min. Mix 125 g icing sugar with 1 tbsp vanilla sugar in a shallow bowl. Carefully dredge each cookie in the icing sugar and place on a baking rack to cool.

Orange, almond, cardamom, honey and polenta cake (gluten free)

It's my cake baking time of year again - both my lab cake making duty (for N, who is leaving this week, so probably the last time I will make one for him), and then S's birthday in a few weeks. Winter birthdays have their disadvantages but the enjoyment of time spent indoors baking on cold days is not one of them! N suggested nuts or fruit, so I decided to use both and make this.

This is a cake I haven't made for ages. My sister T used to make it, and I used to love it. I begged her for the recipe years ago, promptly lost, misplaced or forgot it. It took me a while to track down the source on the internet, but I am pretty sure I found it - Nigel Slater, here. I considered not adapting it, but couldn't help myself (/ had no butter and eggs in the house), so here is a veganised version. It is actually also gluten free.

For the cake:
220g refined coconut oil (or margarine)
220g sugar (for prettiness try and get golden caster)
100g slivered almonds (for prettiness use ones without skin)
200g ground almonds (for prettiness try and get blanched ones)
3 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 9 tbsp boiling water (for prettiness use golden flax)
150g polenta (optional for vegan version - add 1/4 tsp xanthan gum and 1/4 tsp turmeric to the polenta)
1 level tsp baking powder
finely grated zest and juice of a large orange
12 green cardamom pods

For the syrup:
Juice of 2 lemons
juice of 2 oranges
4 tbsp honey

For decoration:
1 whole orange, peeled neatly with a sharp knife and then sliced thinly

Line the base of the cake tin with a piece of baking parchment. Set the oven at 180C/360F.

Beat the coconut oil and sugar together til light and fluffy. Grind the slivered almonds in a blender til finely chopped, then add them, together with the ground almonds, to the cake mixture. Stir in the linseed-water mixture. Mix the polenta and baking powder, then fold into the cake mix, together with the grated orange zest and juice. Extract the black cardamom seeds (discard the green outer shells), grind them to a fine powder, then add to the cake mixture.

Transfer the cake mixture to the lined tin and smooth the top level. Bake for 30 minutes, turn down the heat to 160C/320F for a further 25 -30 minutes or until the cake is firm.

To make the syrup, squeeze the lemon and orange juice into a small saucepan, bring to the boil and dissolve in the honey. Keep the liquid boiling until it has formed a thin syrup (4-5 min). Spike holes into the top of the cake (still warm and in its tin) with a skewer (or thin knitting needle) then spoon over the hot citrus syrup.

Leave to almost cool, then lift out of the tin*. I decorated by arranging thinly sliced orange (1 whole large orange sliced into cross sections as neat and thin as I could manage with a sharp knife) on top.


*this was fairly unsuccessful - I had to leave paper and tin base stuck on for decorating and serving


This comes out dense and sticky and delicious. I suspect a little fat came out the base and burned on the bottom of the oven - prob a good idea to put it on a baking tray. Perhaps the cake could use a touch less coconut oil - could help with the sticking of the base as well as any leakage. Lining the sides and base with a continuous sheet of paper (or base+long strips) should also help with both sticking and leakage.

Gluten-free bread

I went to the woods today with A, D and K. We planned to have a picnic in the woods. I wanted to take something straightforward to eat, considered making these cookies again since everyone liked them and I wanted K to try them. But fancied something savoury. I realised I had never made a yeasted GF bread - I have made some excellent accidentally GF breads, but never one that was intended to take the place of a regular bread, to be sliced and toasted and so forth. I decided to try this recipe as a first pass (note, I had eggs from A's CSA needing used so the egginess was fine this time).

(makes one loaf in large loaf tin)

2 tsp dried yeast
pinch of raw sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) fake milk
3/4 cup (185ml) water
2/3 cup (115g) brown rice flour (subbed TJ's GF flour mix for brown rice flour and potato starch)
1/2 cup (85g) potato starch (subbed TJ's GF flour mix for brown rice flour and potato starch)
1/3 cup (60g) cornmeal
1/2 cup (62g) millet flour (ground millet seeds in spice grinder)
1/2 cup (56g) ground almonds
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp fine desert salt
2 eggs, beaten lightly
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
sesame seeds to sprinkle on top

In a small bowl combine yeast and sugar. Add warm water to the fake milk so that it reaches body temperature. Pour the milk mixture over the yeast/sugar and mix to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes to ferment.

Place all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well with a fork. When the yeast starts to bubble, add it to the dry ingredients along with the remaining ingredients and mix to form a smooth batter. It will not become kneadable (more like cornbread batter), but will thicken slightly after you have mixed it for a few minutes. Pour into a greased loaf tin with a lined base, scatter the top with sesame seeds and set aside to prove.

Once the dough has nearly risen to the top of the pan (around an hour) turn your oven to 220C/425F. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown, then turn the oven down to 180C/350F and cook for a further 20-25 minutes or until done (should sound hollow when turned out and tapped). Cool on a wire rack. Slice when cold and store in the fridge.


I had trouble turning it out of the pan - would recommend lining the base. It bakes up well, with a nice crust. Slightly sweet - I might leave out or reduce the honey as the cornmeal is sweet on its own. Quite moist - perhaps it was slightly under (could also explain difficulty turning it out?). Pretty satisfactory though, and I always enjoy mucking around with different flours. I sliced it and took it to the woods along with some lentil dip and muesli muffins. Also ate some with this amazing Speculoos-cocoa vegan (but not GF) spread I found on a foray to TJs - too pretty to eat for about 5 sec (above), then too good to leave alone.

Spicy cocoa and almond cookies (gluten-free)

It was A's birthday last week and I wanted to do something for it. But he didn't want. Quite emphatically. However, he was excited about going to volunteer at Drumlin Farm (where our friend D works) on Saturday, so I decided to try to make his day there as awesome as possible. Obviously a birthday needs sweet treats. Cake wouldn't have been practical, but I was daydreaming about cocoa-spiced cookies. A doesn't eat gluten so they needed to be gluten-free, but I had some eggs left he'd given me from his farmshare so an egg was do-able. I browsed over at this blog to see if there was anything that would save me making up a recipe (my time was short!), and found exactly what I was looking for, so followed that recipe.

We ate these on our lunchbreak at the farm, along with some peaches from a neighbouring farm and a whole yellow watermelon that was so ripe it had split during harvest that morning. The cookies were good: everyone seemed to like them. They were also very quick and easy to make - I threw them together in half an hour before going out on Friday evening, leaving them to cool til I got back (nb my almonds were pre-toasted). It felt good to give something back, both to the farm by volunteering and to D and A via cookies - all of them have given me a lot!

(made 11 big ones - would make more if smaller)

1/2 cup (55g) ground almonds
1/2 cup (60g) rice flour (brown or white)
1/4 cup (25g) cornstarch
1/2 cup (55g) cocoa powder
1/4 cup (55g) brown sugar
1/4 cup (50g) demerara sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/4-1/2 tsp chilli powder / cayenne
1/2 cup (65g) lightly toasted almonds, roughly chopped
1/2 cup ( 60g) chocolate, roughly chopped
1/4 cup (60ml) veg oil (used safflower)
1 egg (or 1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 2 1/2 tbsp boiling water)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1-2 tbsp fake milk

Heat oven to 180C/350F. Line a oven tray with baking paper or grease with oil. Put dry ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well together with a fork. Add chopped almonds and chocolate and mix. In a separate, small bowl mix together the oil, egg and vanilla. Add wet to dry and mix to form a soft dough, adding 1-2 tbsp of fake milk until a moist (but not wet) consistency is obtained. Roll 2 tbsp of mixture into a ball, flatten and place on oven tray. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake for 12-15 min until just cooked. These cookies do not flatten out much more once cooked. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool on the tray.


Big thumbs up from everyone: gorgeous balance of sweet, spicy, bitter, crunch and squish - not too dry or too crumbly. Note, I want to try out making cookies with roasted cocoa as described here - didn't have time to experiment this time but another batch soon!

Hot cross tart (little marmalade tart with tahini-almond crust)

Easter. This weekend feels strange. These last couple of days have really felt like Spring. But it is not a long weekend here - think those extra holiday days really make the end of Winter feel real.

I didn't feel like making hot cross buns this year, much though I love them. But, still racked by guilt at the vast quantity of marmalade I've made over the last couple of months and the slow rate at which we seem to be eating it, I'd got into the idea of baking with marmalade, and had noted this recipe as a potential way to do it.

I figured that since orange zest / candied peel is one important component of a hot cross bun, perhaps if I added all the hot cross bun spices (cloves, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg) and made the topping into a cross shape it would feel festive? My usual favourite (slightly weird) way to eat marmalade is layered with tahini, either on toast or just off a teaspoon. So couldn't resist putting tahini in the pastry.

Makes a little (6 inch diameter) tart.

50g ground almonds
65g plain flour
75g light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 cloves, ground
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
pinch salt
25g tahini
25g mild-flavoured olive oil (plus 1 tbsp)
1 tsp almond milk
100g marmalade

Mix almonds, flour, sugar, ground spices and salt in a bowl with a fork. Add oil, tahini and milk (withholding the last tbsp oil to see if you need it), then mix up into a dough (it will be a little crumbly), adding that last tbsp of oil if the dough doesn't come together. Break off a 25g piece and wrap in cling film. Press the rest into a greased 6 inch cake tin with a removable base, making a firmly-pressed, even layer with a slight lip at the edge. Put the ball and the tin in the fridge for 30 min. In the meantime heat the oven to 340F.

When ready to bake, spread the marmalade out from the middle of the tart, leaving a gap of about half an inch at the edge. Use the remaining dough ball to make a cross on top. Bake for 30 min / until the edges and top are golden brown. Let sit on a wire rack for 5 min, then remove from the tin and let cool completely.


I really like this: like a cross between a jam tart and a biscuit; crunchy, crumbly and gooey in all the right places; sweet yet not too sweet yet also sharp; bold flavours that go well together. S says the marmalade is too bitter. I think it is good. A little divisive...

The more I eat of this, the more I love it: it is getting better as it sits in a box for a few days - the marmalade-y bits are deliciously gooey, while the outer pastry remains crunchy. Although I think this may be a child only I could ever love - the tahini-marmalade-spice combo is very much tailored to my own weird tastes.

Gluten-free baking

Photo by Alvin

My friends A and K asked me to teach them what I knew about GF baking. I was unsure at first: unconvinced that I knew any more about it than they did. But they persuaded me that even what little I knew would be helpful to them, and I figured it would be fun whatever happened - I like hanging out and drinking tea and cooking, and they are good company. So we got together for a day of GF baking.

I think the main thing I have figured out about GF baking is that you often need a combination of flours - something like glutinous rice flour or tapioca flour or cornstarch or potato starch to stick it together, and then a combination to give good texture: rice flour alone is light but tastes dusty, gram flour is heavy and its taste is overpowering (although lends a pleasant eggy flavour when used in small quantities), oat flour I like, others such as quinoa or millet flour are different again, and some combination (varied depending on the taste you are looking for / what goes with the other stuff in the mix) is what will make it good. Getting a good rise is doubly challenging when doing vegan+GF (no eggs, no gluten).

I thought of three things:

1) Oat-sunflower-raisin biscuits
(I knew these would work (and they did), also thought they were interesting because of the lack of flour / most of the fat coming from the nut/seed butter)

2) Savoury corn muffins
Wanted to do a basic muffin type thing. A mentioned he got coarse cornmeal from his CSA and this idea suggested itself - though it would be nice to do something simple and savoury as most of the GF things I have baked are sweet... I also recently noticed that Trader Joe's started doing a GF flour blend (brown rice flour, potato starch, white rice flour and something else), so thought it would be fun to try something with that. This is based on my favourite basic cornbread recipe, made in a muffin form and with lots of additions.

2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with ~5 tbsp boiling water
1 TJ’s GF flour mix (see above)
½ tsp xanthan gum
1 cup cornmeal
4 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
2 tsp paprika (note, spice combination is very flexible; adding dried chili or finely chopped fresh chili would also be good)
1 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
2 tbsp honey (or sugar)
1 cup fake milk + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
¼ cup oil (used grapeseed, any oil would work here really - even stronger flavoured ones - as these are savoury)
Handful sweetcorn kernels, defrosted
~4 spring onions, cleaned, trimmed and chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Heat oven to 425F*. Prepare muffin cups by lining with paper cases. Mix flour, cornmeal, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, dry spices and seeds (and sugar if using) in a bowl. Add vinegar to the milk, then mix this with the linseed mixture, oil and honey (if using). Add the sweetcorn, coriander and spring onions to the dry ingredients and toss. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until just combined. Bake for 20-25 min.

These came out well: pleasant, savoury, corny taste, with a robust texture from the cornmeal and a slight sweetness from the kernels. Quite dense, but held together well and rose enough to give a nice shape. *Could perhaps try a slightly lower temperature next time: they browned up on top quite quickly (not a problem really).


3) Little nutty cakes (an educational semi-disaster)
I'd seen these a while ago, and thought they sounded interesting: liked the nuts and the olive oil. But noticed the reliance on eggs and thought maybe they'd be too difficult to adapt. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to try anyway - I think partly because I got into the idea of mixing nut flour and buckwheat flour.

3 tbsp linseed mixed with 7.5 tbsp boiling water (or 3 eggs)
1 cup (200g) sugar
2/3 cup (90g / 3 ¼ oz) ground almonds (or hazelnuts)
1 ½ cups flour – sub ¾ cup oat flour plus ¾ cup buckwheat flour plus ½ tsp xanthan gum
1 tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp (200 ml) mixture of extra virgin olive oil and grapeseed oil
About ¼ cup (25g) mixed chopped untoasted nuts for sprinkling (used hazelnuts)

Heat oven to 400F. Prepare muffin tins. Beat linseed (or eggs) and sugar together with a whisk, a lot – til doubled in volume. Mix ground nuts, flours, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt in a bowl with a fork. Add olive oil to the linseed-sugar mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fill muffin cups halfway. Sprinkle mixed chopped nuts on top. Bake for 15 min / until springy (might take a bit longer without muffin tins).

These kind of rose up massively and spilled out of the muffin cups across the surface of the tin, leaving a sunken middle - ended up looking a bit like little bird's nests. But they actually tasted delicious: the top parts were all crispy and like a nutty meringue or something, the middle/bottom was squishier but also lovely and nutty, with a hint of grassiness from the olive oil (although quite well stuck to the paper liners). Could have been fun as Easter nests with Greek yoghurt and fresh fruit (grapes to look like eggs?) in the hollows.

My guess as to what went wrong: they rose due to the baking powder and the air from the beating, but lacked enough of anything (no gluten, no eggs) to hold them up and give structure, so sank right back down again. I forgot to add the xanthan gum, so that was probably part of it, but I feel like that might not have been enough anyway. Perhaps adding some cornstarch or glutinous rice flour would have helped (or using eggs instead of linseed, if that's an option). I also found them a bit too oily and a bit too sweet (reminded me a bit of these) - try dialling down the sugar and oil if making again. And, I wondered how the mixture would have fared in a cookie form: perhaps they would have turned out as delicious, nutty, meringue-like things like the top parts tasted like...

Valentines Biscuits II: Mahlab, almond and orange blossom hearts+rhinos

I saw something labelled 'mahlab' in the Armenian stores the other week, and had no idea what it was. I looked it up when I got home and discovered that it is powdered cherry kernel. Which sounded wonderful: I love the taste of apricot or plum kernels in jam, and sour cherry is delicious - that sour-sweet thing is really excellent. So when I saw a small packet in the Turkish store in Allston I couldn't resist trying it. It tastes just as good as I had hoped: it really is reminiscent of both bitter almond (also apricot kernel, also cyanide, I assume it's fine) and sour cherry.

Wasn't sure what to do with it, but it seemed like a natural fit with almonds and orange blossom, and spiced, flowery biscuits seemed like a good idea for some pre-Valentines baking. Cinnamon, ginger, almond essence or vanilla essence would also work well if the weird ingredients are not available. This recipe is based on one in my WI Book of Biscuits.

Biscuits:
3 1/2 oz plain flour
3 oz margarine
1 oz sugar
1 1/2 oz ground almonds
1 tsp ground mahlab
few drops orange blossom water

Icing:
1 tsp orange blossom water
4 tbsp icing sugar
a few toasted flaked almonds

Heat oven to 300F / 150C. Mix flour in a bowl with a fork. Add marg and rub until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add sugar, almonds, mahlab and orange blossom water and knead to a stiff paste.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to a thickness of 1 cm. Cut into rhinos (or whatever other shape you want) and place on greased baking trays. Bake for 30 min, then cool on a wire rack.

When the biscuits are completely cool, mix icing sugar and orange blossom water in a small bowl to a good consistency, then ice the rhinos little hearts and finish with toasted flaked almonds.

Marzipan balls

Grandma and I were excited to find a 1920s cookery book when we were sorting through a box of books that used to be Mum's: Miss Tuxford's Cookery for the Middle Classes (9th Edition, 1927) (see also Green Tomato Jam). A lot of the recipes that I bookmarked were, predictably, in the chapter 'Bread and Cakes'. One I was most interested in trying was for 'Almond Paste'. Elsewhere, the almond paste was used to make 'Marzipan Potatoes', which I thought sounded utterly silly but also kind of delicious.

4 oz ground almonds
2 oz icing sugar
2 oz caster sugar (used granulated)
1/3 tbsp orange blossom water
1/3 tbsp rum (note: in the book, rum is included in the recipe for almond paste but not for marzipan potatoes)
few drops almond essence
1/3 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 3/4 tbsp hot water
cocoa and (optional) gold dust for rolling

Mix the ground almonds and sugars in a bowl with a fork. Add the orange blossom water, rum and almond essence and mix in with a fork. Add the linseed mixture and continue to mix with a fork, finally bringing everything together with your hands. Break off small (cherry sized) pieces and roll into balls. Put 1-2 tbsp of cocoa powder in a small bowl along with optional gold dust, then roll the marzipan ball around in the cocoa until covered. Transfer to a baking tray lined with baking paper and leave to dry out.

I made 1/3 of the marzipan recipe (with a few minor adaptations), and that made 16 marzipan balls. They were never really going to look like potatoes, I can't call them that. But they are quite delicious and look quite luxurious (a bit like truffles), and appropriately seasonal (if a little quirky). It's good to know how to make marzipan / I was glad to use some of my collection of little bottles of big flavour (rum, orange blossom water, almond essence, yummmm).

These kept quite well: at least a month at room temperature. The cocoa becomes less dusty but other than that they are the same.

Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars)

There is a wonderful array of German Christmas biscuits out there: we've been eating our way through lebkuchen and chocolate covered lebkuchen herzen from Lidl and from Trader Joe's already. Then there's Pfeffernusse, Vanillekipferle... so many beautiful things. They really know that they are doing when it comes to Christmas, those Germans. S's favourite are Zimtsterne, so I wanted to make some. I've never made these before, but I've been feeling like doing some Christmas baking, especially since visiting the Christmas market in Edinburgh.

I got this recipe from my colleague Nik, who is German and a consummate baking pro. It appears deceptively simple: just almonds, cinnamon, egg whites and sugar - they're delicious and it's quite fiddly to make and ice all the little stars.

3 egg whites
250 g icing sugar
400 g ground almonds (plus more flour or ground almonds for dusting)
2 tsp cinnamon

Beat the egg whites to shiny peaks, then fold in the icing sugar a tablespoon or so at a time. Set aside ~80g to use as icing.

Mix the cinnamon and almonds, then fold into the remaining sugar mixture.

Dust your surface with flour or ground almonds, then roll out the mass until ~1 cm thick. Cut out star shapes and transfer them to baking trays.

Thinly (1-2 mm) spread the icing set aside earlier onto the biscuits. You should not be able to see through the icing.

Allow cookies to dry over night uncovered at room temperature.

Bake at 325F / 160C for 8 minutes on medium rack. Allow to cool. They should keep for several weeks in a container.

I thought these were lovely.  I was too chicken to take some in to Nik for testing, but S liked them. I took advantage of their long keeping time and sent some to each of my stepsisters back in the UK.


Now I am trying to think of something to do with the three egg yolks - custard is one option; egg yolk ravioli is another, more exciting option...

4th July: No-bake chocolate pie

Independence Day is another one of those American holidays we never really know what to do for - we just don't have the back-history with it.  What I hear is you're supposed to have barbeques and eat pie and watch fireworks.  We failed to go out as I have a crappo summer cold, but we had a barbeque on the balcony (featuring the awesome marinated tofu and courgette again, plus a few mushrooms and potatoes, and S toasted bread on the grill).  And we did watch the fireworks from the Summit Park, which was hilarious: an awkward juxtaposition of middle-class families with pockets of super-drunk college students in Stars n Stripes bikini tops etc, all standing neatly organised in two long lines to see between the trees.  A huge lightning / rain storm started up pretty much the exact same time as the fireworks, it was awesome (we had an umbrella).

And, I decided we should have pie.  It had to be be a super simple pie, and should not involve switching on the oven, because it's still very hot and sticky, esp in our apartment under the heat-absorbing roof.  So that meant a raw-style pie crust, which I was totally in the mood for anyway.  And I felt like it should have fruit in it somewhere, although we didn't have much fruit in the house.  I daydreamed about pie while looking back through recipes I made before and at ppk, and ended up doing this...

Note: Today I made enough crust for a mini pie plus a half quantity of filling as I just wanted a wee one for S and me to share.  So quantities below haven't been fully tested, but should be about right for a full-size (8 in) pie.  If just making the filling for a quickie pudding snack a half quantity should be plenty.


Crust:
1/2 cup pecan pieces
1/2 cup almond meal
3 tbsp linseed meal
pinch salt
1-3 tsp mulberry molasses

Filling:
3 cups fake milk
1/4 cup cornflour
1/3 cup sugar (half quantity = 2 tbsp)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
pinch salt
3 tbsp chocolate, chopped
1 tsp vanilla essence

good handful raspberries, fresh or frozen (or chopped fresh strawberries)

First, prep the crust: put the pecan pieces, almond meal, linseed meal and salt in a blender and grind til smooth.  Add the mulberry molasses bit by bit and pulse til the crumbs are just starting to stick together. Empty out of the blender and then press the crust into a pie tin or dish lined with foil.  Put in the fridge until needed.

(Note, the molasses is just to stick the nuts together and add sweetness, alternatives could be soft dates or frozen banana, or maple syrup.  Be careful when adding not to add too much as it would become too soft and sticky and make the finished pie not come out of the tin properly).

Next, filling: put 1 cup of fake milk in a pan with the cornflour and whisk together until the cornflour is distributed and there are no lumps.  Then add the cocoa, sugar, salt and the rest of the milk and whisk together.  Bring to the boil, whisking constantly until it thickens.  Remove from the heat, add the chocolate and mix until it is melted.  Then add the vanilla and mix.

Assembly: take the prepared crust and sprinkle the raspberries evenly over the base.  Then pour the chocolate mixture all over the raspberries and fill up the crust (any extra can just be poured in a separate bowl).  Leave to cool, then transfer to the fridge and leave for a couple of hours or so.


I actually used both frozen banana and mulberry molasses as sticky stuff in the crust, and ended up with something a bit too sticky but very tasty.  I went ahead and used it anyway - the pie didn't come out of the dish very easily but it still tasted good.  So the quantities described above reflect what I was aiming for rather than what I actually did.  The chocolate pudding mix was great - super easy, using stuff I always have in the cupboards / fridge, good just on its own as well as as a pie filling.  It's a good alternative to the silken tofu based chocolate pudding I've made often, perhaps even a more pudding-y texture (and doesn't require silken tofu, which I don't have any of at the moment).  Really into cornflour thickening in desserts right now - nice smooth texture with no flavour distraction.  All in all the pie was really yummy - S had thirds - and with a little tweaking of the crust mix I think it could be awesome.  Perfect for a hot day's pie craving!

Gluten-Free Wedding Desserts: Carrot+Pinenut Cake, Chocolate Black Bean Brownies, Lime Tart

Our friends Hannah and Orion got married this weekend.  So we were at Earthlands in Western Mass for the party (+camping Sat night).  H asked me to bring some gluten-free desserts as my contribution (she eats GF).  S and I decided that first up would be as many cherries as we could get from the Haymarket for $20 (below is about 2/3 of them).

I also decided it would be a good opportunity to test out some gluten-free dessert recipes I was curious to try.  Another advantage of vegan food, I have realised, is that it is typically pretty resistant to going off - all this stuff was kept at room temp on a sunny day and was absolutely fine. 

1) Nigella's carrot and pine-nut cake

I found this one on the BBC website, and figured Nigella would know good cake.  I got doubly excited when I realised I could use some carrots we harvested from the community garden last weekend (H+O and I met through the garden).  I also used 2 eggs Sadie gave me the other day when she had loads from her CSA - I feel like eggs are OK if I know they come from a good source, especially if they would otherwise go to waste!

3 tbsp pine nuts
2 medium carrots (approx. 200-250g/7-9oz)
75g/3oz golden sultanas
60ml/2¼fl oz rum (used Pimms instead)
150g/5oz caster sugar
125ml/4½fl oz regular olive oil, plus extra for greasing
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 free-range eggs (used 2 plus 1 flax egg (=1tbsp ground linseed+3tbsp warm water); reckon would work fine with 3 flax eggs)
250g/9oz ground almonds
½ tsp ground nutmeg, or to taste (forgot to put this in)
½ lemon, finely grated zest and juice

For the carrot cake, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line the base of a 23cm/9in round springform cake tin with baking paper and grease the sides with olive oil.

Toast the pine nuts by browning in a dry frying pan; set aside.  Or use pre-toasted ones and skip this.

Coarsely grate the carrots, then sit them on kitchen paper to soak up excess liquid. Set aside.

Put the golden sultanas in a small saucepan with the rum / Pimms, bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer for 3 minutes.

Whisk the sugar and oil until airily mixed.

Whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs and, when well whisked, fold in the ground almonds, nutmeg, grated carrots, golden sultanas (with any rum that clings to them) and, finally, the lemon zest and juice.

Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula. The batter will be very shallow in the tin.

Sprinkle the toasted pine nuts over the cake and put it into the oven for 30–40 minutes, or until the top is risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out sticky but more or less clean.

Remove from the oven and let the cake sit in its tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then unspring and leave it on the rack to cool.  To serve, transfer the cake to a plate.

This was dense and sticky and yummy.


2) Chocolate Black Bean Brownies

Stumbled across this recipe (liked the blog too) and thought it would be worth testing...  Here's an alternative that might also be worth a try.

~1 1/2 cups black (or black-eyed) beans, defrosted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup applesauce (edit: tried subbing this with blended silken tofu plus a little more sugar - worked fine)
1/4 cup flour (rice flour for GF)
1/4 cup ground linseed
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
good handful walnuts, coarsely chopped
handful chocolate, coarsely chopped

Heat oven to 350F, and lightly oil a baking pan.

Blend the beans until smooth.  Measure the dry ingredients (except nuts and chocolate) into a bowl and mix with a fork.  Add the applesauce and black-eyed beans and mix thoroughly with a fork.  Add 3/4 of the nuts and mix.

Spread mixture in pan, and bake ~35 minutes, until the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Sprinkle the top with chopped chocolate and nuts, and cool well so that the chocolate re-sets before eating.

These were really simple, and really, surprisingly tasty (quite solid though).  Might need to find an alternative to the applesauce as that's the one thing I don't often have in the cupboard.  I used black-eyed beans as I discovered I didn't actually have any black beans in the freezer, and they were fine.  Often rice flour can impart a nasty gritty texture to baking, but here I think it is in a small enough proportion that it doesn't matter.  I made this again already (since I'd opened the jar of applesauce...)!  This time I sprinkled some chopped walnuts on top as well as the chocolate, so it looked prettier.


3) Lime Tart

I was interested in making something with agar and found this recipe on ppk.  I needed a GF, vegan piecrust, and remembered a nice-looking pie here.  So...

For the crust:
2 cups ground almonds
1 cup ground linseed (used a mixture of linseed and chia)
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp water

For the filling:
1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest (~2 limes)
2/3 cups fresh lime juice (~6-8 limes)
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk, at room temperature
2 tablespoons agar flakes (or two teaspoons agar powder and skip the soaking step... used powder)
1 16 oz can coconut milk at room temperature
2 tablespoons tapioca flour (used cornstarch)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Heat the oven to 350F.  Mix the almonds, linseed and cornmeal with a fork, then blend as well as possible, while adding salt and cinnamon. Keep going until the mixture becomes forms crumbly clumps. Then add in the water and maple syrup and keep mixing until well combined.  Transfer the mixture to a 9 inch pie plate (lined with foil) and press it into the bottom and sides to form the crust. Make sure the tops of the sides are not too thin.  Bake the crust for 10 minutes, remove and set aside.

Mix the almond milk and agar powder in a saucepan (or soak agar flakes for 15 min).  Separately, mix together coconut milk, cornstarch, sugar and vanilla.  It’s important that the coconut milk is at room temperature so that it doesn’t affect the agar when you add it.

Turn up the heat on the agar and bring to a boil.  Keep a close eye so that it doesn’t boil over.  Immediately reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes, until agar is dissolved.  If using powdered it will only take about 5 minutes to dissolve.

Once dissolved, slowly whisk in the coconut mixture and then the lime juice and zest (don't add too quick - that'll make the agar gel too soon).  Then whisk often for about 10 minutes, until it has thickened.  If it isn’t thickening, turn the heat up, but you don’t want it to boil.

Pour into the pie crust and let cool for about half an hour.  Then move to the fridge for at least 3 hours, until fully set.  Garnish with lime slices, if you like.

I wound up with about twice as much pie crust as I needed, so froze the other half.  I also had too much filling so poured the rest into a bowl and added some pink food colouring.  Probably half quantities would be fine for making one tart in future.  When it was all set I cut the pink stuff into 2cm cubes.  Then I cut some of those into thin hearts to make kitschy decorations.

I liked it, but the jellyish filling and robustly textured crust might not be to everyone's tastes?  The colour was a bit off - could have been more green.  I expected the crust to fall apart but it was fine.  It was quite a lot of work squeezing the limes!


Everything disappeared without trace, so I take that as a good sign!