For my Stuffed Baked Apple recipe, I have used a cranberry and hazelnut filling. This is a very seasonal, delicious filling combining the crunch of the hazelnut with the tartness of the cranberries and the sweetness from the agave nectar oozing into the apple – yum!

Stuffed Baked Apple Ingredients: serves 4

• 4 x Bramley Apples (1 per person)
• 100g fresh cranberries
• Handful of chopped hazelnuts
• Splash of Orange Juice
• 1 tbsp of Agave Nectar

Stuffed Baked Apple Recipe:

Add the fresh cranberries to a saucepan, squeeze in the agave nectar and enough orange juice up to the level of the cranberries. Place on a medium heat until the cranberries begin to simmer, turn the heat to low and leave to stew for 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Taste and add more agave nectar if required.

Meanwhile, prepare the apples. Using an apple corer, remove 3/4 of the apple core, ensuring all the pips are removed whilst leaving a base layer of apple to keep the filling in. If you do not own an apple corer, you can use a knife and teaspoon instead.

Once all the apples are cored. Pierce the skin of each apple, all the way around to aid the cooking process.

When the cranberry mixture is ready, remove from the heat, place in a mixing bowl and stir in the chopped hazelnuts.

Place the apples on a baking tray and pour the cranberry mixture evenly between each apple.

Place in the oven for approximately 30 minutes. Remove from the oven when they are soft / your desired texture. Overcooking the apple will cause them to collapse so keep a watchful eye on them!

Serve with a dollop of Oatly Cream, Vanilla Booja Booja Ice Cream.

Stuffed Baked Apple – delicious, seasonal, heart warming english food fussy foodie style!

So far so good I gave some egg free muffins a try this morning and the results were good.

“Egg free, gluten free, saturates free, with no added sugar, no artificial flavourings, colourings of preservatives.”

Ener-G Egg Replacer is a culinary egg substitute a blend of raising ingredients and stabilizers in a potato starch and tapioca flour base.

Ener-G Egg Replacer ingredients: Potato Starch, Tapioca Flour, Leavening (Calcium lactate, Calcium carbonate, Citric acid) Carbohydrate Gum.

Unbelievably 1 packet of Ener-G Egg Replacer replaces 100 eggs in baking! However don’t think of it as an egg, it’s powder based and is not nutritionally the same as eggs, just a means to get baking for people who cant have eggs. Watch this space for more egg free baking ideas!

Egg Free Muffins Ingredients (6-8 muffins):

• 8oz Gluten free flour – I used 50% Rice Flour 50% Gram Flour
• 2 1/2 tsps Gluten free baking powder
• 2 tbsps dessicated coconut
• 1 tbsps Agave Nectar (2 big squeezes)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1tsp Ener-G Egg replacer (beaten in 2 tbsps of water)
• 1/2 pint milk ( I used 50% rice milk 50% soya milk)
• 3 tbsps oil

To make the egg free muffins, preheat oven to 200 degrees C (Gas mark 6). Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Stir in the dessicated coconut and agave nectar.

In a separate bowl combine the egg replacer, milk and oil. Add at once to the flour mixture and stir to combine thoroughly.

Pour the muffin mixture into greased muffin or fairy cake tins then bake in the over for 25 or until done. Pop the muffins out of the tin to cool, or if like me eat straight from the oven.

I am really excited to try lots of different flavours of egg free muffins, as this recipe can really form the basis of any muffin flavour. Give them a try, as I would love to know what you think.

Egg free pancake ingredients:

600-700mls (1-11⁄4pts) sparkling water / appletiser
300g (11oz) gluten free flour

NB I used combo of buckwheat flour and gram flour

Egg Free Pancakes recipe:

Sift the flour into a bowl, then whisk in the sparkling water. I used appletiser for my recipe as I didn’t have any sparkling water in, a bit naughty when avoiding sugar as its high grape juice, but it worked a treat. If required add more liquid to thin down the batter ready for cooking. I used a few spoons of soya milk here rather than more appletiser.

In a non stick pan heat a small amount of oil, when hot add a few spoons of the batter and gently move the pan to spread the mixture evenly and thinly over the pan. Cook the pancake until brown , then toss the pancake to cook on the other side.

That’s it gluten and egg free pancakes done.

• 1 mug of rice flour
• 1 tsp Gluten free baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/4 mugs of water
• 1 mug of chopped dates
• 1 mug of raisins, sultanas and cranberries
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 mug of grated carrot
• ¾ mug of soya milk (or other milk e.g Oatly)
• 1 egg
• 1 mug of chopped nuts – (pecan and almond are favourites but also good with walnuts
• Small half sized tin of pineapple (cut into small pieces)

No Added Sugar Cake Recipe:

In a small bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder & baking soda and set aside.

Combine the water, dates, raisins, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Place in a bowl with the shredded carrots – can allow to cool.

Whisk egg till light and fluffy and then whisk in the soya milk about 80% so can play with consistency later. Then add this to the flour mix and fruit mixture and stir.

Add the chopped nuts and pineapple and mix well – adjust at this point with soya milk or flour to get a cake-like consistency.

Pour mixture into a lightly greased cake tin.

Bake at 180 degrees for 50 mins (fan oven), or until a toothpick comes out clean.

This No Added Sugar Cake works really well to cut and freeze for when you fancy a treat and even sugar fans love it too!

Gluten free pizza recipe:

• 1 small butternut squash or other variety
• 300g Gluten-free flour
• 2tsp gluten free baking powder
• 1tsp herbs
• 2tbsp olive oil

Pizza topping:

• 3 tbsp tomato puree
• herbs to taste
• 2 chopped tomatoes
• salt and pepper

Optional topping ideas: thinly sliced peppers, buffalo mozzarella, parma ham, thinly sliced chillies.

Place squash in oven on a baking tray and roast for 45 mins until very soft.

Pizza Topping

Whilst the squash is cooking you can make the pizza topping, which is a simple tomato sauce. combine the puree, herbs, chopped tomatoes and season to taste. Chill in the fridge until ready.

Once the squash is ready, remove from oven and cool.Peel the skin and remove the seeds from the squash. Transfer to a bowl and mash well. Season to taste. You will need around 375g of squash for the ingredient rations above, so adjust ingredients where required so as not to waste any squash.

Add the flour, gluten free baking powder and herbs to the squash and mix well. Add mix to a food processor and blend. Add in olive oil and enough water to make a doughy texture (65ml water). Remove mix from food processor and place on a lightly floured board and knead until soft and spongy. Adding a little more oil or flour to get the right texture.

Gluten Free Pizza Dough

Once the dough is ready shape into small ball. On a floured board flatted the dough ball to make a pizza base. Top each small pizza with a spoonful of the tomato topping and then any of the optional toppings. N.B You do not need cheese to make a pizza dairy free ones taste great too.

Gluten Free Pizza - shown with mozzarella and fresh basil topping

Once the bases are prepared place the gluten free pizzas on a baking tray for 20-30mins, 200c or gas mark 6.

Give them a try these gluten free pizzas, are really simple and tasty too. Love to know what you think and any topping suggestions.

Low GI Cake: Banana Cococake

Low GI cake ingredients (makes 8-10):

• 100g oats
• 40g dessicated coconut
• 2 small or 1 large banana, mashed
• 6 tbsp oil (i used rapeseed)
• 6 tbsp orange juice
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• 1tsp ground ginger

Low GI cake Recipe:

Mix it all the ingredients together, spoon into 8-10 cake cases (or could be done as a tray bake) and bake at 180C for 40 minutes.  These Low GI cakes really are simple as, love to know what you think.

Egg Free Bread, Gluten Free Bread, Wheat Free bread and Dairy Free Bread.

So it’s a truly Free From bread. Food can be fun and tasty again, with some few tweaks. So here goes this is my Yeast Free Bread Recipe:

Yeast FREE bread

Yeast Free Bread Ingredients:

• 3 cups of Gluten and Wheat Free Bread Flour (could do a mix of rye flour,  rice flour – depending on intolerance’s)
• 2tsp Gluten Free Baking Powder
• 1tsp Salt
• 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
• 1 1/2 Cups Liquid (Soya Milk, Rice Milk etc)
• Optional: seeds, 2 tsp Free From Tomato Pesto

NB I did 1 cup of Rye Flour as I am trying a little in my diet (hence the breads colour)

Yeast Free Bread Recipe:

In a bowl mix the dry ingredients.

Then slowly add the olive oil and chosen liquid, stirring add, until you get a dough slightly sticky consistency. For extra taste at this point I added a dolop of Free From Tomato Pesto (small experiment).

I then placed all my ingredients in a bread baker and sprinkled over a few sesame seeds. I baked the dough mixture on the bake only option for 40 mins, using instructions for a Yeast Free bread; encasing the breadmaker bowl in grease proof paper.

If you want to bake in the oven, place the dough in a rounded shape on grease proof paper and bake at 200 oc for 40mins

For both options cook the Yeast Free Bread until the crust is hard and you can poke a knife cleanly into the bread (I am sure there is a more techy way to say that but my mind is blocked).

That’s it place the Yeast Free Bread on a wire rack to cool. Or if you love hot bread then cut a slice and enjoy!

I will let you know how my toast goes in the morning, can’t wait to try it but for my lunch this Yeast Free Bread Recipe has been a great success, one I will be trying again.

One thing to bear in mind when using this flour is its really absorbent so make sure you add extra moisture in recipes where needed, other than that it works like a normal flour.

Gluten Wheat Free Bread Flour

Gluten and Wheat Free Bread Flour Ingredients:

• Flour Blend (Rice, Potato & Tapioca)
• Xathan Gum

Useful link: Free From Bread

I have had this Gluten and Wheat Free Bread Flour in my cupboard for a while and tried in out today in my new Yeast Free Bread Recipe and so far so good, I will keep you posted with more recipes etc and ideas for this Free From Bread Flour.

Gluten free baking powder

Baking Powder Ingredients: Mono calcium phosphate Corn starch Sodium bicarbonate

 
Dietary Status (by Doves Farm):Vegetarian, vegan, organic, wheat free, gluten free, nut free, soya free.

I got my Gluten Free Baking Powder in a local health food shop but have also seen it in Waitrose. I will update once i have given it a try.