Category Archives: Gluten free

Lime and Coconut Snack Cake (gluten free)

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I have been dreaming about this cake since last Saturday. The sky was stormy, the wind was cool, and I was moving briskly through the farmers market to avoid the cold. The bright crisp green of the limes was a siren call to me. I imagined the burst of acid-sweet citrus on my tongue, and it called me back to a summer day with lime slices in my lemonade and a warm breeze stirring the air. But it’s winter, and the breezes are chilly and really when I got home from my run yesterday I didn’t feel like lemonade: I felt like cake. I felt like moist lime and coconut cake studded with strands of shredded coconut and coated in a sweet and tart lime glaze. 

She put the lime in the coconut and baked 'em both up

She put the lime in the coconut and baked ‘em both up

So I took a break from writing and took to the kitchen. With Molly at my feet and ‘Romancing the Stone‘ playing away in the background I was completely in my moment. About an hour later after the cake had cooled and been glazed I took the first bite of its dense but not soggy cake-flesh and sighed. Perfect.

Put the lime in the coconut, and call me for morning (tea)....

Put the lime in the coconut, and call me for morning (tea)….


Lime and Coconut Snack Cake (gluten free)

If you don’t need this to be gluten free you can use 100 grams of plain flour in place of the quinoa and brown rice flours. I do recommend hunting down the coconut flour (Aussie residents, I found mine at Flanneries) as it imparts a unique texture and flavour to the cake. Otherwise, just use a total of 150 grams of plain flour and don’t add the 1/2 cup of milk.

Ingredients:

  • 75 grams butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup caster sugar
  • 2 tablespoons finely grated lime rind (about two limes)
  • 2 lightly beaten eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon coconut essence
  • 1/4 cup lime juice
  • 1 cup low fat ricotta 
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 25 grams quinoa flour
  • 75 grams brown rice flour
  • 50 grams coconut flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and line an 8-inch square baking tin with baking paper.
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together quinoa flour, brown rice flour, coconut flour, baking powder, and shredded coconut. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl beat together butter, caster sugar, and lime rind until pale and fluffy. This mixture will be a pale ethereal green, actually quite pretty.
  4. Add lightly beaten eggs one at a time and beat well between additions.
  5. In  a small bowl mix together coconut essence, lime juice, ricotta, and milk. 
  6. Add flour mixture to butter and sugar mix in three parts alternating with the ricotta mixture. Begin and end with the flour.
  7. Spoon mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top down. The coconut flour soaks up a lot of moisture so the batter may appear gluggy. Don’t worry I assure you that this glugginess become a dense, moist crumb upon baking.
  8. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, rotating every 10 minutes or so. The cake is done when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it.
  9. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool completely before adding glaze.
  10. To make the glaze whisk together 3-4 tablespoons of lime juice and 1 1/2 – 2 cups of icing sugar until smooth. Pour this over the cooled cake.
  11. Slice and serve. Whilst eating imagine yourself in a warm foreign locale lazing under a palm tree. I know I did.

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Woo woo, it will relieve your belly ache

Tell me dear reader, what reminds you of summer in the grey days of winter? Are you a lime and coconut lover like me, or perhaps not? 

Let’s Talk Family, and Muffins, Definitely Muffins

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It’s Tuesday. Let’s talk about muffins. But first let’s talk about family. Let’s talk about my family.

Muffins, but first - family.

Muffins, but first – family.

My family: we are a circus without a ringmaster; we are loud – intimidatingly loud; we are emotive – every emotion, all the time, from ecstatic to furious and back again in barely a sentence; we are so, so different to one another, and a homogeneous lump of genetics at the same time; we are, well, we are a family.

My Dad at the time I sat down to write this post was standing next to me with two baseball caps on top of his head giving me his impression of a ‘gangsta’, before he made himself a slice of apple pie for dessert, and drafted another angry letter – see: a funny, homespun, and cranky old man all tied up in one package.

My Mum is currently ensconced on the couch with the cat on one side of her lap and Molly the malamute’s head on the other side. No doubt she is working on one of her detailed quilts all the while  watching crime shows and solving the case before a CSI cast member can say ‘mass spectrometer’.

My sister and her husband no longer live here but when I last saw my superwoman of a sister we gave each other lectures on our various personality faults (mostly calmly) and then discussed our next baking challenges – we’re just like that, and sometimes people get freaked out that we can go from yelling and crying to best of friends, but people, that’s the way these sisters roll, m’kay?

When a newcomer is introduced into the fold of our family they had better brace themselves. Sometimes it is funny to watch people’s reaction to the way that four people can uphold eight different conversations at once all while paying attention to what’s on television and which of the animals requires feeding or letting in/out. Most of the time though I feel sorry for the initiate. My brother-in-law is a sensible and quiet young man and I think it was truly a test of his mettle that he lived with us all for three years and didn’t run screaming into the night. In fact, he bound himself to our circus wagon forever when he married my sister. We’re like that – get attached to one family member and you get the whole clan.

Over the years I have brought various friends home who have then become like family – Casey, Caroline, Josie, Shane – all of them have been through the trial by fire that is dinner with my family, and survived (I hope) mostly unscathed and mentally un-scarred.

Chris, bless his mismatched cotton socks, fits into this mess perfectly. He pays attention to Dad’s work stories and hands out IT advice free of charge, compliments Mum’s cooking or bonds with her over her action movie collection, and he even likes my dog and is super cute when handling our fairy-sized cat.

Mum, Dad, my Aunty Lone (in the middle), little me (brunette) - and little Jess - see that smirk, still has it.

Mum, Dad, my Aunty Lone (in the middle), little me (brunette) – and little Jess – see that smirk, still has it.

So yeah, that’s my family. We may have to apologise when we leave shops because the sales attendants are either visibly shaking with trauma or laughter;  we never know which it is. We may have to pack an entire boot of food, chairs, books, gardening equipment, an industrial-size first aid kit, and a laptop computer whenever we go anywhere – just in case. We may snack endlessly on whatever lies around the house and hide our sweets from each other (like the time Mum started hiding her Chico babies in her unmentionables drawer because my Dad is a sweet-tooth beyond compare). We may sing Christmas carols in Woolworths in the middle of April, and share forkfuls of food, ask for the special dietary menu, and order milkshakes with low-fat milk and whipped cream, and cry in public, and laugh louder than is acceptable, but that’s okay with me, because they are my family. And I love them.

We also bring things when we visit. There is always too much baked goodness happening in our house for one family to digest in a reasonable amount of time, so we bring things.

Today, I am bringing you, my Thoroughly Nourished Life family, my recipe for Tropical Carrot Muffins (p.s. the whole family can enjoy them because they are gluten-free).

Muffins to share

Muffins to share

Tropical Carrot Muffins (gluten free)

This recipe makes about 14 standard-size muffins. If you don’t require these to be gluten free, simply replace the buckwheat and brown rice flours with 160 grams of wholemeal plain flour or white plain flour. Keep the almond meal as it adds a great texture and healthy fats.

For the pineapple: drain first and then measure. Keep the juices to drink with breakfast – delicious.

Ingredients:

  • 80 grams almond meal
  • 80 grams brown rice flour
  • 80 grams buckwheat flour
  • 80 grams brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder (gluten free if required)
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup shredded coconut
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tablespoons rice bran oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1 medium carrot, grated
  • 1/2 cup drained crushed pineapple
  • 1/3 cup sultanas

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 200C (390F) and line 14 cups in two 12-cup muffin trays.
  2. Into a medium bowl weigh the almond meal, brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, and brown sugar. Whisk in the salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and shredded coconut. Make sure everything is well mixed and no lumps of brown sugar remain.
  3. In a measuring jug measure the milk and add the eggs and vanilla essence. Whisk together well.
  4. Add milk mixture to dry ingredients along with the crushed pineapple. Mix well.
  5. Add grated carrot and sultanas and mix to distribute.
  6. Spoon mixture equally among the muffin cups and slide trays into the oven.
  7. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops are golden and spring back when lightly touched.
  8. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  9. Share with your family, or those friends who are like family.
Take a big bite

Take a big bite

My dear readers, what makes your family unique? What is a stand-out trait that everyone shares? Any favourite family recipes?

Chocolate Cardamom Fete Cookies

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Do you remember the joy of a school fete? I do.

Not my own school actually (we had an ‘arts festival’ – not quite as good really for reasons that shall soon become apparent), but I remember with particular fondness the school fetes of my cousin’s primary school. Every year we would go along one Saturday morning and see the school and churchyard transformed. Stalls would be set up in the grass and line the concrete paths, a miniature Ferris Wheel would spin around those under four feet, and items of all natures would be for sale: the second hand book stall, which I always came away from with a heavier bag and lighter purse; student artwork that had been completed over the semester; and, my favourite of all – the homemade sweets and baked goods.

(This is where it becomes apparent why my school fete/ arts festival wasn’t as good – there were never any baked goods. What?!)

Before glaze, and still yummy

Before glaze, and still yummy

There upon the wooden trestle tables festooned with plastic tablecloths would be the offerings of the parents and grandparents of the pupils: buttery shortbread rounds their tops patterned with forks, splodge-shaped jam drops with sweet raspberry jam, sugary caramel fudge, pink and white coconut ice, ANZAC biscuits, patty cakes with pink butter icing decorated with lollies, and always, always, chocolate slice – my favourite.

I would search among all the other treats, wrapped in plastic packets, or little cardboard boxes, to find the chocolate slice. Sometimes with coconut, sometimes without. Always with a thin cocoa glaze. And always, always, my favourite.

Many years have passed since the last school fete of my cousin’s primary days, and many years have passed since I have eaten chocolate slice (too many other treats to spoon/fork/hand-shovel into my mouth).

To be honest, when I made these biscuits I didn’t even have chocolate slice in mind. I had four egg yolks to use up and a yen for something with a chocolate content. But, when I took the first bite of this puffy, lightly-spiced, cocoa and hazelnut treat I was transported back to those fetes – back to the damp schoolyard lawn on a Saturday morning clutching a plastic bag burgeoning with books in one hand and a crumbling piece of chocolate slice in the other. They are a little dry, a little cake-like inside, and infinitely better with a tea/coffee/milk.

Enjoy.

Glazed and ready to devour

Glazed and ready to devour

Chocolate Cardamom Fete Cookies (gluten free)

Makes 9 large cookies, or 18 smaller ones. I suppose it depends how greedy you are feeling really. I made this using four egg yolks I had left over from a batch of seven-minute frosting, but it also works with whole eggs. Oh yeah, and these are gluten free!

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 75 grams brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1/2 cup no fat natural yoghurt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 80 grams hazelnut meal
  • 80 grams buckwheat flour
  • 50 grams cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and line a cookie sheet with baking paper.
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together the whole egg, egg yolk, olive oil, sugar and vanilla essence until smooth and thickened slightly.
  3. Add yoghurt and incorporate well.
  4. Weigh hazelnut meal, buckwheat flour, and cocoa powder into a small bowl then measure in ground cardamom and baking powder. Use a clean whisk to beat together until no lumps remain.
  5. Add dry ingredients to the egg and yoghurt mixture and beat well.
  6. Use an ice-cream scoop or tablespoon to measure out mounds of dough onto the cookie sheet. Leave some room between scoops as they will spread slightly during cooking.
  7. Place tray in oven and cook for 10-12 minutes. Rotate tray 180 degrees halfway through cooking time.
  8. Remove cookies from the oven and cool completely on a rack.
  9. Once completely cooled mix up glaze and spoon on top of the cookies and allow it to dribble enticingly down the side. This is about childhood sweets, not perfection, after all.
  10. Eat.

Glaze: Beat together 1 cup icing sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of milk.

Oh yum.

Oh yum.

Tell me, dear reader what were school fetes like at your school?

More importantly, what was your favourite homemade treat?

Lunchbox Love: Roast Pumpkin, Mushroom, and Brown Rice Salad with Soy-Sesame Dressing

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This salad is absolutely delicious. Please forgive my immodesty, but I have a deep and abiding love for the soy-sesame combination, and for anything with roasted pumpkin in it. Not only is this salad delicious; not only does it last three days in the fridge (cook once, eat lunch all week long); but it’s also full of healthy, energy-enhancing, tummy-filling ingredients. Given my semi-nomadic lifestyle I even had the chance to test the appropriateness of the salad in different locations.

I had it for dinner on Tuesday night after a long night at university talking about travel writing and the dirtiness of Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale. I ate it curled up next to Chris while watching The Colbert Report and reading A Clash of Kings (so in love).

I packed this lunch on Wednesday when I headed into my internship at the Australian Writer’s Marketplace and ate it at my desk while I lost myself in articles about the winner of the 2013 Stella Prize (Carrie Tiffany), the daily routines of famous writers, and dealing with being a book abandoner (I got most of the way through Gone Girl but I just couldn’t finish it).

I packed this lunch on Thursday when I went to work at the research centre and it powered me through data analysis, meetings, and talking to patients (along with a cookie and a coffee), and gave me the energy to go running after work and make orange and poppyseed cupcakes for Chris to take to work.

Wherever you find yourself eating lunch, remember to take a moment to pause in the middle of the day and breathe. Be thankful for something that has happened in your day already, and think of all the adventures that still await in the post-lunch world.

Dear reader, what does your favourite lunch spot look like? Do you like to secret yourself away and read during lunch, or are you a social butterfly?

Big batch of salad.

Big batch of salad.

Roast Pumpkin, Mushroom, and Brown Rice Salad with Soy-Sesame Dressing

This salad is gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and tastes wonderful made ahead. My omnivorous friends might want to try this with some shredded roast chicken. 

Ingredients:

  • 400 grams peeled and diced butternut pumpkin
  • 1 cup small mushrooms, quartered
  • 1/3 cup brown rice
  • 2 cups baby spinach
  • 400 gram tin brown lentils
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Method:

  1. Heat oven to 210C (410F). Line baking tray and spread out diced pumpkin and quartered mushrooms.
  2. Roast pumpkin and mushrooms for 15-20 minutes or until pumpkin is soft. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
  3. Meanwhile, prepare the brown rice as per packet instructions. Allow to cool.
  4. Drain and rinse brown lentils well.
  5. Mix pumpkin, mushrooms, rice and lentils with baby spinach in a large bowl.
  6. Pour over sesame oil, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. Toss salad well.
  7. Allow to rest in the fridge for a few hours as the flavours will develop even more.
Dig in!

Dig in!

 

Life Happened, and So I Made Cookies Instead (and then ate 2)

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Welcome, friends.

I know I promised you a recipe for a cake today. A carrot-y, nutty, moist, gluten-free carrot loaf that makes a rather pleasant breakfast for both rushed mornings and calm; however, when I tested the recipe (and my memory as I hadn’t written the recipe down the first time I made the loaf) the result was, well, tasty but just a little lack-lustre. (if you really want a breakfast-appropriate loaf cake see here, here, and here; or, go for these scrolls if you have the time)

And lustre is something that a thoroughly nourished life (and, by extension, a thoroughly nourished recipe) should never lack. So, in the spirit of fortitude (and greed) I turned to a cookie for comfort. Upon first bite the skies cleared (actually no, it was raining), the roses bloomed, and all was well in the world again. All memory of the (almost) failed carrot cake was gone.

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I am sure that when you taste these you will agree that a cookie is a great comfort in a world where sometimes your cake recipe kinda sucks, or you get a run in your stockings when you hop out of your car at work, or you spill your tea all over your laptop and printer minutes before you have to call a patient (hello 9am), or you forget to return your library books for the third week in a row (hello 11am), or sleep in an hour past your alarm and your boyfriend only makes it to work 15 minutes before his boss (hello Thursday morning).

A cookie reminds you that despite these (rather minor) disasters this is also a world where you have jam to make the cake (or anything really) taste better, no-one expects you to wear stockings and if you have hairy legs people shouldn’t be looking that close anyway, your patients are sweet and understanding and your laptop is somehow miraculously semi-waterproof, the library understands that you have never (like, ever) returned a book on time in your entire 22-year library history, and your boyfriend’s boss doesn’t care that he was 15 minutes late (and your own co-worker – the sweetest Jenny – makes sure you get a coffee just as you are about to defenestrate your computer, which you can’t anyway because you have a window-less office).

Cookies are good. Life is good.

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Softly-Comforting Coconut and Sultana Cookies

Makes about 14 cookies. You can use 100 grams of plain flour in place of the rice and coconut flours if you do not need these to be gluten-free. They will be just as delicious.

Ingredients:

  • 75 grams butter, softened
  • 60 grams brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1/4 teaspoon coconut essence
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
  • 1/3 cup moist shredded coconut (use dessicated if you can’t find this)
  • 80 grams almond meal
  • 50 grams brown rice flour
  • 50 grams coconut flour
  • 1/3 cup sultanas

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and line two baking sheets with baking paper – now you’re all set, time to get mixing.
  2. In a medium-size mixing bowl weigh in the butter and brown sugar and add vanilla essence and coconut essence. Cream these together until light and fluffy.
  3. Add the egg and beat until fully incorporated.
  4. In a separate bowl whisk together the salt, baking powder, coconut, almond meal, brown rice flour, and coconut flour.
  5. Add flour mix to the egg-and-butter mix and stir until the dough forms.
  6. Sprinkle in the sultanas and mix these through.
  7. Scoop out rounded tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. Place on baking sheet and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Make sure you distance the cookies as they will spread slightly.
  8. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
  9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the sheet (you may need to eat one at this point for quality control purposes of course…)
  10. The cookies will keep in  an airtight container for a few days – if they last that long.

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Of course, as a scientist I must give the last word to an expert in the field.

Tell me, dear reader, are you a cookie for comfort person, or cake, or do you have a healthier way of dealing with first-world problems? On a different note, who was your favourite Sesame Street character? (I think we can all guess mine…)

Lunchbox Love: Quinoa, Chickpea, and Capsicum Salad with a Lime-Honey Dressing

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I have a confession: as much as I love salad even I get bored of the same leaf, tomato, legume and antipasto combination. This often leads to me resorting to my next option: cottage cheese and crackers or avocado sushi.

In an attempt to revamp my lunch situation, and to ease night-before-work decision-making fatigue, I made a big batch of this quinoa salad. Full of bright vegetables, healthy protein (from the chickpeas and quinoa), fibre, and complex carbohydrates (slowly broken-down for longer-lasting energy and fullness) it will last in the refrigerator all week long safely divided into four lunchbox-ready containers.

I have also made this salad for a work function and a family barbecue. It makes a perfect pot luck dish because it suits so many different special diets (gluten-free, vegetarian, dairy-free) while still tasting delicious (I’ve had reports). I simply doubled the amount and it made a healthy side dish for 10-12 hungry people. Vegetarian friends, this is a complete protein meal; omnivorous friends, I have reports that it goes rather nicely with grilled chicken or fish.

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Quinoa, Chickpea, and Capsicum Salad with a Lime-Honey Dressing

Gluten-free. Vegetarian. Dairy-free.

Serves 4 as a main dish. 6-8 as a side dish.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup uncooked quinoa (I used red, but any colour will be delicious)
  • 3 cups salt-reduced vegetable stock
  • 1/2 medium red capsicum
  • 1 400 gram can of corn kernels
  • 1 400 gram can of chickpeas
  • 1 small cucumber
  • 2 stalks of spring onion
  • 3 cups baby spinach leaves

Dressing:

  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1-2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Method:

  1. Rinse quinoa thoroughly and add to a small saucepan with the vegetable stock. Heat on a medium-high stove until it comes to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover pot and cook for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain well and return to pot to cool to room temperature.
  2. Meanwhile dice cucumber, capsicum, and spring onions. Drain corn kernels. Drain and rinse chickpeas well.
  3. Add quinoa to a large bowl and add diced and drained vegetables. Toss mixture together with spinach leaves.
  4. To make the dressing whisk together all dressing ingredients.
  5. Add dressing to bowl and toss well.

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Serving suggestions: Perfect the way it is, although sometimes I crumble some feta over the top of mine, or add a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds. Omnivores may like to add grilled chicken or fish (dressed with some extra lime perhaps). Vegans you can substitute agave for the honey.

Nutrition Information: (Per serve. 4 serves per batch.) 315 cals | 1315kJ | 5.55g fat | 0.9g saturated fat | 13.8g protein | 57.8g carbohydrates | 7.8g sugar | 5.2g fibre |

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A Little Piece of Calm and Zucchini, Hazelnut, and Cranberry Bread (Gluten free)

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There is much to be done. The freight train of the year is gathering speed and the scenery is flashing by. Why, it’s already the middle of March don’t you know. My little desk is gathering stacks of paper – lectures and journals to read, books to fill with assignment-worthy words, receipts and bills to be filed, story ideas to be tucked safely away until I have a moment to flesh them out more. Every day I wonder which bags I need to pack into the back of my car, which role am I acting in today? Am I the dietitian/runner/university student (Monday and Tuesday)? Am I the runner/social-media intern/writing race co-ordinator (Wednesday)? Am I the dietitian/runner (Thursday)?

I am lucky to fill my life with so many wonderful things; I am lucky that every day I get to play the role of daughter, sister, girlfriend, and pet owner. Sometimes it helps to have a moment to sit back and look at the scenery that surrounds me. Just a few minutes in the garden in the late afternoon, when the sun is slanting through the palm trees and dancing in patterns on the grass and the breeze ruffles my hair away from my face just right, there is a deep sense of privilege in affording myself a moment like that. I breathe in and all sense of stress falls away. My shoulders straighten and a smile blooms unbidden on my face. I sit on the paving stones with my feet in the grass that has become overgrown after our record rain the past few weeks. I nibble on a slice of cake and sip at my tea and just listen to the faint sounds of life gathering in the houses surrounding ours. The suburb is coming home, settling in for the afternoon, anticipating the weekend and all its pleasures. The time comes for me to return to my desk, but before I leave the garden I tuck away a little piece of the calm that has washed over me for when I need it later in the week.

 

Fresh out of the oven.

Fresh out of the oven.

Zucchini, Hazelnut, and Cranberry Bread (Gluten Free, Naturally Sweetened)

If you are gluten-able then you can use 150 grams of wholemeal plain flour in place of the buckwheat and rice flours. Don’t be tempted to replace the hazelnut meal with flour or you will miss out on the nutty, dense texture in the crumb of the cake. Also, ensure that you use real maple syrup, not maple flavoured syrup; one is a product of nature the other is a product of a lab. If you can’t get your hands on maple syrup you can use honey or agave nectar, or my fellow Aussies can use golden syrup instead (this may yield a sweeter result).

 Ingredients:

  • 100 grams buckwheat flour
  • 50 grams brown rice flour
  • 80 grams hazelnut meal
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • 3/4 cup low fat milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons rice bran oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or extract)
  • 1 zucchini
  • 1/2 cup cranberries
  • 1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and line the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5-inch loaf tin with baking paper.
  2. Prepare your zucchini by coarsely grating it using a box grater. Bundle zucchini shreds into a few paper towels and squeeze over the kitchen sink until you have removed most of the liquid. This will ensure that your dough doesn’t get sloppy. Set aside for later.
  3. In a large bowl weigh in the buckwheat flour, brown rice flour, and hazelnut meal. Measure in the salt, baking powder, and mixed spice and then whisk all the ingredients together until well incorporated.
  4. In a separate bowl combine maple syrup, milk, eggs, rice bran oil, and vanilla bean paste.
  5. Add milk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until nearly all combined. Add zucchini, cranberries, and hazelnuts to the batter and mix until fully incorporated.
  6. Pour batter into the prepared tin and slide into the oven.
  7. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean then remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.
  8. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then remove from the tin and cool to room temperature before slicing.

 

Sliced and ready to take to the garden.

Sliced and ready to take to the garden.

The last step in this recipe isn’t really necessary though. You can allow the cake to cool in the tin for the amount of time it takes to boil the jug for a cup of green tea, then remove it from the tin, slice yourself off a heal of bread from one end, and then pop out to the garden and enjoy the fading light of the sun. I am also planning to have a slice for breakfast in the morning. It should go perfectly well with my Saturday morning skinny cap.

Sit a while and notice the small things that make you smile.

Sit a while and notice the small things that make you smile.

So my dear readers, do you feel like you play many different roles from day to day? I know I get dizzy just thinking about how many hats my Mum wears every day (and how many more she must have worn when we were little).

Where do you take yourself for a moment of peace and gratitude (and perhaps a slice of cake)?

Promise Me This: Gluten-free Coconut Banana Bread

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In two weeks she will be gone. Out of the home we have shared for nearly twenty-three years and into her own nest. As I watched them erect the floor, the walls, the roof, and then fill the inside with bathrooms, kitchen, laundry, and every tiny finishing touch, I started to learn how to let go, how to not hold on so tightly. You see, I have held on so tightly, and sometimes when you hold someone that close, they only yearn to be free even more. So I will watch you go, and help you make your new house into the cosy castle you deserve.

Just promise me this. Promise that you will still think of me when you are craving Peanut m&ms. Promise me you won’t watch Steel Magnolias with anyone else. Promise me that you will still come over at Christmas time and help me put up the tree (I can’t do those lights on my own). Promise me that when you have ‘nothing to wear’ you will drive over and steal something from my wardrobe, or text me ‘help’. Promise me that you won’t be too grown-up and responsible to bust out a Beyonce impersonation. Promise me that we will still find time to make cookies together and eat most of the dough before it makes the oven. Promise me that you’ll save a little space in your life, and a little time in your week, just for me.

Little sis and me in the kitchen

Little sis and me in the kitchen

Gluten-free Coconut Banana Bread

Jess and I take slices of this to the markets every Saturday morning for breakfast. Once the cake has cooled, slice into portions and wrap each piece tightly in plastic wrap, then freeze and remove the night before you would like to eat it for breakfast.

Ingredients:

  • 80 grams coconut flour
  • 50 grams almond meal
  • 100 grams brown rice flour
  • 100 grams caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
  • 2 large bananas
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 250mL milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
  • 1/2 teaspoon coconut essence
  • 2 tablespoons rice bran oil (or other flavourless vegetable oil)

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C and line a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with baking paper.
  2. In a small bowl mash bananas with lemon juice and set aside. This will soften the bananas and stop them from browning as well.
  3. In a medium mixing bowl whisk together coconut flour, almond meal, brown rice flour, caster sugar, salt, baking soda, and dessicated coconut.
  4. In a separate bowl beat together eggs, milk, vanilla, coconut essence, and oil. Add bananas and mix to combine.
  5. Add banana and egg mixture to dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
  6. Spoon mixture into lined loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Check loaf every 10 minutes; you may need to cover the top with aluminium foil if it is browning too quickly.
  7. Once cooked remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin then turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before slicing.
Gluten- free coconut banana bread

Gluten- free coconut banana bread

I suppose I am a little anxious about the change and what it means for my sister and I. No one can live in Neverland forever and I have been lucky to have her so close for so long. If, as the Danish proverb says, ‘the road to a friend’s house is never long’, then the road to my sister’s home will never truly be more than a heartbeat away.

me dear reader, how do you cope with someone you love moving away? Are you better at dealing with change than I am?

Cottages and Cookies

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When I was a little girl surrounded by my colouring pencils with nothing but blank white paper and empty hours to fill my afternoon I dreamed of a cottage to call my own. A dark grey pencil sketched the outline of thick stone walls. Walls that would keep me warm during the long, cold winters, which I imagined essential for a landscape where such a cottage would exist. A chimney, too essential, poked up from one end of the house with a little puff of smoke to indicate that the colouring-pencil Amy was home somewhere within and baking something delicious in the hearth. Windows with diamond panes and rounded tops. Lead glass that would colour the sunlight streaming in on my wooden floors. A red front door, always a red front door, would greet any guests who meandered up the winding cobblestone path.

Out and about in Hobart

Out and about in Hobart

Every brightly-hued pencil was recruited to create the garden of my dreams: cerulean bluebells blossomed next to spears of lavender; fuchsia peonies unfurled their baby-soft petals under swaying smiley-faced sunflowers; and tall, leafy trees surrounded the borders of the property lending shady spots perfect for summer picnics and populations of birds and squirrels.

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Bright flowers on a dreary morning

I imagined that I would tread the boards of this house with an apron tied over floral skirts that would swish about my knees as I crept barefoot out to my vegetable garden to harvest produce for dinner. I would spend long afternoons walking over the emerald green hills and down to the ocean that always appeared in the background of my imaginary home. Evenings would be spent curled up in my favourite red tapestry wingback chair with a book in one hand, and a cup of tea balanced beside a pile of volumes yet to be read. I would fall asleep in my white-curtained canopy bed listening to gentle rains fall down to nourish my garden.

Friends would be always welcome to my scarlet door, and there would be tea parties galore. Especially in the heady days of late summer when all you ever really want to do is wear a big hat, lie in the garden, and sip iced tea while nibbling on dainty treats.

While I don’t have the cottage quite yet, I do have the perfect sweet treat to whisk me off to colouring pencil dreams again.

I couldn't resist a bite before I took the shot...

I couldn’t resist a bite before I took the shot…

 

Cranberry, Orange and Poppy Seed Cookies (gluten free)

If you aren’t catering for a gluten-free diet you can of course replace the gluten-free flour with 300 grams of ordinary plain flour.

Ingredients:

  • 150 grams butter, softened
  • 150 grams caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • Zest of one orange
  • 1 large egg
  • 300 grams gluten-free plain flour (I used Orgran brand)
  • 1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and line two cookie sheets with baking paper.
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, poppy seeds, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl cream butter, sugar, vanilla, and orange zest until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat to combine.
  4. Add flour mixture and cranberries to the batter and mix until completely incorporated.
  5. Pinch off tablespoons of mixture and roll into balls. Place on lined cookie sheets and press down gently with your fingertips to flatten slightly. Leave a few centimeters between cookies because they will spread a little during baking.
  6. Place in preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. The tops may crackle a little.
  7. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on cookie sheets before storing in an airtight container.

 

Davey Street, Hobart

Davey Street, Hobart

Tell me dear reader, where did you dream yourself away to as a child? Any treats that bring back tea party memories?

Monday Night Dinner Date: Summer vegetable, herb, and cheese fritters (gluten free)

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A Monday night. A quiet house. Just Chris and I and a beautiful summer night to spend in each other’s company. We lazed the afternoon away lost in books: food for me; sci-fi for him. There is great comfort in the company of someone who loves to read as much as I do. Both of us caught up in our separate worlds, but only a heartbeat away. I smile when he turns the page and reaches across to touch my hand.

The night hours draw close, and we start to think about dinner time. I move around the kitchen, chopping and beating and frying, and listen to laughter in the living room. It’s been a month, and I can’t believe the power that laugh has over me. The bacon sizzles in the pan. I watch ethereal strands of egg white change from translucent to opaque while he fetches beverages for us. We talk of travel, the places we have been, the places we are longing to go. We make plans for the upcoming Australia Day weekend. Talk about food and an Aussie-themed playlist to set the tone for the day. These are the everyday moments that make up a life. These are my everyday moments, and my life. I am learning even more about the way that the minutes that make up hours are the essential particles of our lives. The Monday night dinner dates are the precious moments that buoy us through the hours we spend apart. The company of the one we care for is the craving that keeps us moving through our day.

A walk in the park, hand in hand.

A walk in the park, hand in hand.

Summer vegetable, herb, and cheese fritters (gluten free)

Makes about 8 fritters. These are great the next day either warm or cold. I nibbled on some with a salad for dinner, and they are the perfect after school or lunch box snack for kids (and adults) too. Or try them as a weekend brunch when you need a sturdy start to the day.

 Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup chickpea (besan) flour
  • 1/4 cup brown rice flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 large egg
  • 3/4 cup corn (fresh or canned)
  • 1/2 cup peas (if frozen, defrost and drain well before using)
  • 2 spring onions, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup finely diced zucchini
  • 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
Fritters, his style (before salad)

Fritters, his style (before salad)

 Method:

  1. In a medium bowl whisk together the chickpea flour, brown rice flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, and herbs. In a small bowl whisk together the milk and egg.
  2. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
  3. To the batter add the corn, peas, spring onions, zucchini, and cheddar cheese. Mix carefully to incorporate vegetables into batter.
  4. Heat a non-stick frypan over medium heat, and grease with a little spray cooking oil.
  5. Spoon about 1/3 cup of batter onto the pan for each fritter. Cook until golden brown. This will be about 1.5-2 minutes per side. Remove from pan to a covered plate to keep warm while you cook the remaining batter.
Fritters her style (sans bacon)

Fritters her style (that is, sans bacon)

Serving: I love having someone to cook for. Someone who loves food as much as I do. These fritters are a perfect ‘his and hers’ dinner. Given my vegetarian and gluten free requirements I like to make things that can be slightly altered or added to that will suit both of us. I poached eggs for both of us, and fried some bacon to accompany Chris’s fritter stack. Served with a freshly tossed salad we both had empty plates and happy stomachs at the end of our meal.

Tell me, dear readers, what are some of the everyday moments that stand out in your life? What make up the minutes, the moments, the strands of the fabric of your day?