Overnight seedy bread rolls

My friend A-L makes delicious no-nonsense overnight bread rolls (morgenboller). I have a theory that every Danish person does this...

One of my lockdown goals, I decided, was to figure out my own overnight bread recipe. I asked A-L for her recipe, and she gave it to me, but it turned out she didn’t really have a recipe, it was more like the bake off technical challenges (‘add flour to make a dough’)...

I didn’t believe in my skills enough to start from her recipe, so I googled a bit and decided to try this one. I’ve made them a few times now and we love them!

(makes 12 medium-small buns)

250 ml water (1 cup)
250 ml milk (1 cup)
15 g fresh yeast (1/2 oz) - approx. 1/3 of a 50 g pack
2 tsp sugar
100 ml wholemeal flour (2/5 cup)
100 ml oats (2/5 cup)
100 ml mixed seeds / grains (e.g. sunflower seeds, linseeds, pumpkin seeds, hulled hemp seeds, poppyseeds, sesame seeds) (2/5 cup)
500 g plain flour (1,1 lb)
1/2 tbsp salt

In a large bowl, dissolve the fresh yeast and sugar in the cold water and milk. Add the rest of the ingredients and knead everything into a smooth and nice dough. Cover the bowl loosely and place it in the fridge for 8-12 hours (i.e. overnight).

Dip two tablespoons in cold water and use them to set buns on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Try to make them a little pointy - when they raise, they will flatten out a little.

Let the bread raise for an extra hour at room temperature. Heat the oven to 200C.

After the final raising, brush the bread with some beaten egg and decorate them with different seeds or grains.

Bake for 20-25 min, until golden brown. Move to a cooling rack to cool.

Flourless oat and seed bread

This was one of those recipes that cropped up one too many times. Eventually I could no longer resist and bought some psyllium seed husk, despite the fact I am supposed to be only using things up in the pantry these days. It is a sort of a gluten-free bread, but with no flour at all - it is packed with seeds and oats and the binding is purely by chia, flax and psyllium seed husk.

I made this shortly before leaving for Scotland (ten days ago), and froze some slices. I remembered it on the journey home and looked forward to its deliciousness all the rest of the way.

The first time I saw this recipe was here (thanks to LB), and the deciding time, the one that precipitated me making it at last (and the one I followed), was here.

2 1/4 cups (235g) oats (GF oats if you want it to be properly gluten free)
1 cup (160g) sunflower seeds
1/2 cup (65g) pumpkin seeds
3/4 cup (90g) almonds, roughly chopped
3/4 cup (120g) flax seeds
1/3 cup (25g) psyllium seed husks (I bought from Trader Joe's)
3 tbsp (25g) chia seeds
2 tsp (12g) sea salt
2 tbsp (40g) maple syrup
1/4 cup (55g) olive oil
2 1/2 cups (600g) water

Oil a loaf tin. If you like, toast the almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the oil, maple syrup and water and mix well with your hands. Transfer to the oiled loaf tin and put in the fridge for somewhere between two and 24 hours (overnight might be convenient).

Take the loaf tin out of the fridge and let come to room temp. Heat the oven to 400F / 200C. Bake for about an hour, then take out and let cool a bit before tipping out onto a cooling rack and allowing to cool completely (at least two hours).


This reminds me of a seedy soda bread I used to make - dense and full of crunch and delicious toasty seeds. Basically, if you like toasted seeds, you'll like this. Toasts well (including from the freezer); good with hummus or avocado. I pretty much decided that toasting seeds is unnecessary faff. Lots of substitutions possible - the flax, chia and psyllium have to stay but the sunflower and pumpkin seeds could be mixed with other seeds, the almonds switched for hazelnuts or other nuts, dried fruit would probably be interesting, honey or brown sugar instead of maple, coconut or other oil instead of olive...

Chocolate rosemary biscuits

We went to the Pembroke sauna for the first time in ages. I wanted to take something in case we needed a post-sauna snack. Biscuits seemed like a sensible, easily portable, easily eatable, quick to make option. I didn't have much time before we had to go, so I had a quick look at ppk and immediately settled upon these. I didn't have fresh rosemary so I used dried.

(makes ~15)

1/2 cup refined coconut oil, solid state (room temperature - not cold)
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (used 3/4 tbsp crumbled dried rosemary leaves)
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup fake milk
1 tbsp ground linseed
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/3 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup roughly chopped dark chocolate (or chips)

Heat oven to 350F. Lightly grease two large baking trays. In a large bowl, beat the coconut oil and rosemary with a fork until fairly smooth. Add the sugar, and beat a bit more. Add the milk and linseed and beat. Mix in the vanilla. Add about half the flour, as well as the salt and bicarb, and mix with a spoon. Add the rest of the flour, along with the chocolate, and mix to combine. Take out walnut sized pieces of dough, round them up, flatten and place on the baking trays (they will spread a little). Bake for 10-15 min, until bottoms are golden brown. Take out and let cool for 3 minutes or so, then transfer to cooling racks to finish cooling.


These were good - decent texture and taste. I find refined coconut oil a little dull (thus it needed using up!), might prefer these with real coconutty coconut oil. I'd also like to try these with olive oil - could imagine chocolate, rosemary and olive oil being beautiful together. Difficult to get the balance of rosemary and chocolate quite right - some bites I couldn't find the rosemary, others missed chocolate, others it was bang on. Quite salty - could reduce the salt. Nice and quick and easy though, and a pretty good post-sauna snack.

Muesli muffins

I have had to come in to work before 6 am a few times lately. It doesn't make sense to eat my usual muesli breakfast in the wee, dark hours somehow. I just had a brainwave though: what if I transform the muesli into easily-portable muffin form?! It would make a great, practical breakfast for those days and for any other days when I have to have breakfast (or a snack) on the go. My basic muesli bowl contains oats, linseeds, sunflower seeds, flaked almonds, raisins, almond milk, blueberries, banana, a little cinnamon and a splash of maple syrup - I would hardly have to add anything (perhaps some raising agent; perhaps some oil but sunflower oil would effectively be covered already)...

(makes 10)

1 cup oat flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar*
1/4 cup flaked almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup raisins
2 tbsp toasted linseeds
1 banana, mashed roughly with a fork
2 1/2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 tbsp boiling water
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1/4 cup frozen blueberries

Heat oven to 380F and prepare a muffin tin. Mix oat flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, flaked almonds, sunflower seeds, raisins and toasted linseeds in a medium mixing bowl with a fork. In a separate bowl, mash the banana, then add linseed-water mixture, maple syrup, almond milk, brown sugar and oil and beat together with a fork. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix until just combined, adding the blueberries in the final strokes. Dollop into prepared muffin cups and bake for ~25 min.

*consider leaving out brown sugar and increasing maple syrup


I made these exactly as above and they were dreamy. Exactly as I wanted. Seriously - perhaps one of the best recipes I have ever made up. They held together and rose excellently and were packed with deliciousness. I took them to the woods with D, K and A and we tested them, and they were good. Might reduce the sunflower seeds to 1/8 cup but apart from that wouldn't change a thing.

Edit: Also, I ate one before aerials one night and it gave me loads of energy. I think it was the muffin anyway, it might just have been adrenaline or who knows what. Will repeat the experiment.

Dehydrator granola: almond, seed and spice

Another granola variation: the ones I've been making in the oven come out very toasty, which is nice, but I wondered about trying it in the dehydrator. This version is following the same super simple formula as the other granolas I have tried recently, but drying in the dehydrator instead of the oven. Could be good for those sweltering Summer days when turning on the oven seems like the worst idea ever (we're not quite there yet).

3 cups oats
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup toasted flaked almonds
1/4 cup dried unsweetened coconut
3 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp ground linseed
1 tsp mahlab
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
3 tbsp clear honey
3 tbsp refined coconut oil
1 tbsp grape molasses
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp almond milk

Mix the oats, seeds, coconut, ground linseed and spices in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix the honey, coconut oil, grape molasses, brown sugar and almond milk until they are well combined and any lumps of sugar are gone. Add the wet stuff to the oat mixture and mix until everything is coated. Transfer the mixture to dehydrator sheets (the ones with no holes; I used two sheets for this quantity). Spread it out evenly and put it in the dehydrator at 115F. Dry for ~20 hours, until completely crunchy, with no remaining softness.


Nicest thing about this version is that it clumps really well. However, it never goes really crunchy and is not very toasty. One thing to try would be toasting the oats/seeds/coconut separately in pan or oven before dehydrating (would kinda defeat the point of granola-making, as it makes it much more complicated). Another would be a higher temperature in the dehydrator - perhaps that's next...

Pumpkin in June (M's birthday): Pumpkin and spice granola

It is M's birthday this weekend and she loves pumpkin, so I thought of making her some pumpkin stuff. Granola sprang to mind: it keeps for a good while, and if I pack it in a jar and label it, it should make a pretty gift - for snacking and for breakfasts. Ever since I made granola for the first time a week or two ago I keep thinking of potential variations - it seems like such an easy, adaptable thing to make. So I thought I'd try it using some pumpkin as part of the wet stuff, and adding pumpkin spice (cinnamon / ginger / nutmeg / allspice - also cloves but I didn't feel like grinding any), pumpkin seeds, pecans, maple and brown sugar to max out the pumpkinny/autumnal-ness. Happily I still had pumpkin puree in the freezer from last Autumn, so us being totally out of season for pumpkin was no big deal.

3 cups oats (old-fashioned)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup pecan pieces
good pinch (1/4 tsp) desert (or sea) salt
1-2 tbsp ground linseed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup pumpkin (or squash) puree
3 tbsp refined coconut oil (liquid state)
1/2 tbsp maple syrup + 1/2 tbsp maple cream
2-3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp date molasses
1 tsp vanilla essence

Heat the oven to 350F. Mix the oats, pumpkin seeds, pecans, salt, ground linseed and spices in a medium-large bowl. Put the pumpkin puree, coconut oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, date molasses and vanilla in a small bowl and beat with a fork until smooth. Add this liquidy mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with your hands until well combined. Spread onto a large baking sheet (with edges) and put in the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, taking out every 10 minutes or so to move the granola around with a wooden spoon and check it is not burning. When it is lightly browned it is done. Take it out of the oven and allow to cool completely before transferring to an airtight container to store.


Came out yummy. I was a little underwhelmed by the pumpkin / spice flavour at first: it tastes good (toasty) but not intensely pumpkinny. But the next day it smells lovely when I open the jar, and the taste is definitely there.

Granola (coconut, pecan, pumpkin seed, banana)

I'd never even considered making granola before, because I prefer muesli and it's so much quicker to make. But S has been buying granola quite regularly of late, and he likes it, so I wanted to try making it for him...

There are lots of granola recipes out there. It seems to be one of those things where you can just chuck a bunch of stuff together and it will work out. I looked at a lot of recipes: here, here, here, here... And then got a little overwhelmed, decided all I needed was some oats and seeds, a little fat, stickiness and sweetness, and some time in the oven, and made something up from there.

3 cups oats (old-fashioned)
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/8 cup sesame seeds
1/8 cup unsweetened dried coconut
1/3 cup pecan pieces
good pinch (1/4 tsp) desert (or sea) salt
1-2 tsp mahlab
1-2 tbsp ground linseed
1 1/4 large, ripe bananas
3 tbsp coconut oil (liquid state)
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp carob molasses
1 tbsp date molasses

Heat the oven to 350F. Mix the oats, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, coconut, pecans, salt, mahlab and ground linseed in a medium bowl. Put the bananas, coconut oil, maple syrup, carob molasses and date molasses in a blender and blend until smooth. Add this liquidy mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with your hands until well combined. Spread onto two baking sheets (with edges) and put in the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, taking out every 10 minutes or so to move the granola around with a wooden spoon and check it is not burning. When it is well browned it is done. Take it out of the oven and allow to cool completely before transferring to an airtight container to store.


Notes:
This makes a delicious, toasty granola. But I always love the big, stuck-together lumps in granola the best. So ever since first making this I have been trying to figure out how to make a lumpier version - I tried dehydrating, which kind-of worked. My latest experiment involved chucking in a bit of psyllium seed husk and using a lower temperature (300F), which maybe helped a little bit but not that much.
This recipe allows for endless variations. I made a pumpkin granola by subbing pumpkin puree for the banana and using pumpkin spice, which came out delicious. Pretty much everything can be varied. But I do love this combination - toasted pecans, pumpkin seeds, coconut, sesame, banana and maple make a wonderful granola. I cannot express how much I love oats.

Biscuits (or cookies?): chocolate-pecan vs brazil nut

I was bemoaning the lack of biscuits while I took a teabreak with my labmates yesterday. Last night, on reflection, I decided I should stop moaning and take action: just make some! The obvious place to find effective biscuit recipes was ppk, so there I looked and there I found - happily without margarine, I dislike that stuff (palm oil) - decided to try two, slightly different methods - choc-pecan with ground linseed, and brazil nut with tapioca. I guess these may be cookies really, but I still want to call them biscuits...

Chocolate-pecan
(makes ~ 20)

1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa
2 tsp ground linseed
1/2 cup pecan pieces
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup fake milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Heat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl with a fork. Add the oil, milk and vanilla and mix until well combined, going in with your hands to make sure it's all together. Make into 1 inch balls and flatten into discs, arranging on the sheets so they have enough room to spread a little. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit on the sheets for 5 min, then remove to a cooling rack and leave to cool.

Brazil nut-brown sugar
(makes ~24)

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup coconut oil (liquid state)
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup brazil nuts, chopped

Heat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Mix sugars, oil, milk and tapioca flour in a mixing bowl with a fork: beat for about 2 min,until it resembles smooth caramel. Mix in the vanilla. Add 1 cup of flour, bicarb and salt. Mix until well incorporated. Mix in the rest of the flour. Fold in the brazil nuts. Make into 1 inch balls and flatten into discs, arranging on the sheets so they have enough room to spread a little. Bake for about 8 minutes – no more than 9 (+less if they are small) – until they are just a little browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and let sit on the sheets for 5 min, then remove to a cooling rack and leave to cool.


The chocolate pecan ones were super simple and came out really, really good: rich and intensely chocolatey, masses of pecans and chocolate pieces, sweet and slightly salty. I followed the recipe to the word.

The brazil nut ones didn't go so well. The batter was really oily and sticky so I added a little more flour (total ~2 cups instead of 1 1/2), so then I could shape them, but they didn't really spread or brown in the oven. They taste OK but the texture is kinda cakey instead of biscuity, and they don't look so nice as they are really pale all over. Perhaps this is all because I used coconut oil instead of canola? Dunno, but if looking for a quick, effective biscuit recipe the choc-pecan assembly is the way to go... Edit: although... I took the first half of each batch to woodturning clean-up and the boys pounded the brazil nut ones and left almost all the choc-pecan ones. Different tastes? Also I ate a brazil nut one about 6 days later and thought they had really improved with age.

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...

Beetroot seed cake

I'd bookmarked this cake a while back, then ended up with some eggs (beautiful multi-coloured ones, thanks to D+K's tempura making), and was daydreaming about making it when along came Alvin with a bag of beetroot among this week's bounty.

'Frankenstorm' Sandy is due to hit us tomorrow, in fact today already felt wild and stormy - the winds are rising and squalling, and showers are whipping our apartment building - so I am getting apprehensive about what tomorrow might have in store for us. I've moved all my plants down off the roof and filled all the large plastic bottles I can find with water. S was concerned we might run out of food: this cake should, as well as satisfying my love of beetroot and nagging urge to follow that recipe, keep us going in the event of mishap.

For the cake:
butter or oil, for greasing
225g/8oz self-raising flour (used plain, plus 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
(1/2 tsp ground ginger)
180ml/6¼fl oz sunflower oil (used veg oil)
225g/8oz light muscovado sugar (used a mixture of brown and granulated)
3 eggs, separated (used 2 large eggs plus 1 tbsp linseed / 2.5 tbsp hot water mix)
150g/5oz raw beetroot, peeled
juice of half a lemon
75g/3oz sultanas or raisins (used golden raisins)
75g/3oz mixed seeds (such as sunflower, pumpkin and linseed) (used golden linseed, pumpkin seed and poppy seeds)

For the icing:
8 tablespoons icing sugar
 a little lemon juice or orange blossom water
poppy seeds, to garnish

Heat the oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease a rectangular loaf tin (20cm x 9cm x 7cm/8in x 4in x 3in), and line the base with baking paper.

Mix together with a fork the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger.

In a separate bowl, beat the oil and sugar until well combined, then mix in the linseed mixture, followed by the egg yolks one by one. Grate the beetroot coarsely and fold it into the egg mixture, then add the lemon juice, sultanas / raisins and the assorted seeds, and mix. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Beat the egg whites until light and almost stiff. Fold gently but thoroughly into the cake mixture, using a large metal spoon (a wooden one will knock the air out). Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 50-55 minutes, covering the top with a piece of foil after thirty minutes. Test with a skewer for doneness. The cake should be moist inside but not sticky. Leave the cake to settle for a good twenty minutes before turning out of its tin onto a wire cooling rack.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in enough lemon juice or orange blossom water to achieve a consistency where the icing will run over the top of the cake and drizzle slowly down the sides (about three teaspoonfuls), stirring to remove any lumps. Drizzle it over the cake and scatter with the poppy seeds. Leave to set before eating.


It's quite lovely: bejewelled with deep pink beetroot, golden raisins, emerald pumpkin seeds... They taste great together too - layers of sweet earthiness. Only thing is, it is a little greasy (another time try less oil / a little more linseed mixture, beetroot, lemon or milk). During the assembly process I kept thinking it was going wrong as it often seemed unfamiliar in texture and consistency, but it came out ok. Might be good with orange zest+juice instead of the lemon juice. I iced half and left the rest un-iced (it makes a big loaf cake, a half quantity would be loads for just us in non emergency situations), both were good. I usually wouldn't bother icing a cake like this but fancied trying the orange blossom water. I've generally found orange blossom water perfumey and hard to work with, but here it actually works out being quite pleasant.

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!

Soy+linseed bread / blackberry jam / summer fruit compote

Another exciting-looking bread recipe from the Guardian.  And several bags of blackberries in the freezer since last fall, needing to be used.

Soy and linseed bread

50g rolled oats
50g golden linseed
275ml lukewarm soya milk
1½ tsp easy-blend yeast
325g strong white bread flour
50g wholemeal or rye flour (used wholemeal)
1½ tsp fine salt
Olive or sunflower oil


Put the rolled oats and linseed in a large mixing bowl, stir in 100ml of boiling water and leave for 30 minutes to soften. Add the warm soya milk and yeast, and mix well. Measure out the two flours and the salt, add these to the soya mixture, then stir everything together into a big, soft and sticky dough. Cover and leave for 10 minutes, then knead on a lightly oiled worktop for about 10 seconds. Cover and leave for another 10 minutes. Repeat this knead-and-rest sequence twice more at 10-minute intervals, then leave covered for 30 minutes.

Brush the inside of a deep, 19cm long loaf tin or similar with oil. Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 2cm thick, roll it up tightly and squash it seam-side down into the tin. Cover with a cloth and leave somewhere warmish for about an hour and a half, until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 220C (190C fan-assisted)/425F/gas mark 8, slash the top and bake for about 45 minutes. Take the tin out of the oven, remove the loaf from the tin, and leave to cool on a wire rack.


Blackberry jam

3lb blackberries
75ml water
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick
3lb sugar



Wash and pick over the blackberries (can freeze at this point if desired).  Put the fruit in a big pan.  Add the water, lemon juice and cinnamon stick and boil until the fruit is softened and reduced (~30min at a good fast bubble).  Add the sugar and bring to a rolling boil.  Meanwhile, put a saucer in the freezer.  Wash jars in hot soapy water, rinse well and put in a low oven to dry.  When you think it's nearing set point put a dribble (~1/2 tsp) of hot jam onto the cold saucer and put it back in the freezer for 10min.  Take it out and push your finger through the jam puddle.  If it wrinkles up the jam has reached set point.  When this happens switch off the heat and let the jam stop bubbling / cool for 10 min or so.  Then fill the jars.  Be careful not to get hot jam on your hands.  Put the lids on right away and leave to cool.  When cool, wipe off the jars and label.

Notes:  The cinnamon was an experiment in making more interesting flavoured jam.  Will have to see if can taste it.  The lemon juice is not necessary if your berries are reasonably sour, but helps with set so I put some in.  It becomes a point of judgement how much lemon juice (if any) to add to achieve a good set, and I don't always get it right.  Based on recipes from my AFRC Institute of Food Research preserving book from Grandma.



Summer Fruit Compote

handful of each (all frozen): raspberries, black raspberries, mulberries, blackberries.  couple of handfuls blueberries, 150ml tub stewed unsweetened sour cherries.  sprinking (~25g?) sugar, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 bay leaf, few drops vanilla essence...

Put all in a pan and heat until all the fruit is defrosted.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Or, Delia's recipe:

3 peaches
6 apricots
6 large plums
8 oz blueberries
6 oz raspberries
2 oz sugar

Slice peaches, apricots and plums and put in an oven dish with the blueberries.  Add sugar.  Bake uncovered for 25-30min at 180C, until tender.  Remove from the oven and stir in the raspberries.  Check the sweetness and add more sugar if it needs it.


The bread was good again - the crustiest one yet, and tasty but with relatively simple ingredients.  S said it was his favourite for those reasons.

The jam turned out well.  The blackberries held up well, and the set was pretty much perfect.  Haven't decided yet whether I can taste the cinnamon or not.  Made 5 and a bit jars.

Compote was good.  Think it is nice to have some bigger, juicier fruit in with the berries though.

Peanut butter and flax seed cookies (vegan and gluten-free)

Based on this recipe - added more flax seed and made them gluten free. These were to take to another garden work day - lots of the garden people seem to eat GF.

1 3/4 cups gram flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground flax seed
1 1/4 cup brown sugar (or a mixture of brown and white)
2/3 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy - I had smooth so used that)
1/2 cup fake butter
3 tbsp fake milk
1 tbsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 tbsp whole golden flax seed

Put flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and mix with a fork.  In a separate, large bowl beat together the sugar, butter and peanut butter.  In a small bowl, mix together the flax powder, fake milk and vanilla essence.  Add the milk mix to the beaten peanut butter mix and beat.  Then add the flour mix and whole flax seeds and mix until well combined.  Separate out the dough into walnut-sized pieces and roll and flatten into flattened balls.  Put on a greased baking sheet (well spaced out) and bake at 375F for 10min.  Remove from the oven, allow to cool a little on the sheet and then lift off with a flat knife and cool.

Quite decadent, nice combination of sweet / salty / savoury.  They didn't seem to lose anything by being GF

Muesli

I moved to the USA about a year ago.  Since then I have spent a fair chunk of time in cereal aisles, trying to find anything without added sugar.  Some of them have 'natural' sugars like cane syrup, but every single one is sweetened.  I like sweetness, I just don't see why I can't be trusted to modulate it myself... The sole exception was an expensive muesli imported from the UK I found in Wholefoods.  So I decided I should really just start making my own muesli.  This is the basic recipe:

Flakes:
oats (use the 'old-fashioned' type - not quick-cook - ~2 cups)
barley and/or wheat flakes (~2 cups)
rye flakes (~1 cup)
(oats are easiest to find so I tend to upregulate their content. until recently I only found the other flakes in coop shops far from home, but found 'pressed barley' in a japanese shop nearby last weekend.  the flakes have a crispier / less starchy texture than the oats, and the rye ones are quite crunchy - that's why there's less of them)

Nuts:
flaked almonds / Pecan pieces (3/4 cup)
flaked coconut (sprinkling to taste)

Seeds:
pumpkin seeds (1/2 cup)
sunflower seeds (1/2 cup)
flax seeds (1/2 cup)

Whole dried fruit (1 cup total).  So far have tried:
raisins (brown or golden)
cranberries
cherries
mulberries
blueberries
strawberries
goji berries

Chopped dried fruit (1/2 cup total) So far have tried:
figs
apple
peaches
apricots
pears
prunes
pineapple
banana

Mix it up and store in an airtight container.  Eat with real or fake milk, and add fresh fruit (grated apple or sliced banana are favourites, nectarine, strawberries, blueberries all good) and/or frozen wild blueberries (defrost almost instantly and turn the milk blue!) and/or honey / maple syrup to taste.

I vary the combinations every time I make a fresh batch.  It's more economical if you use a higher flake to fruit/seed/nut proportion but the beauty of make-your-own is that you can have as much or as little of anything as you like.  I could never have cereal before as I always picked out all the good bits: I never do that with this.