Name: Raspberry Pistachio Cake {gluten-free}
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 60 min
Yield: 12 people
Ingredients: 110 g pistachios + 15g extra for decoration; 110 g caster sugar; 1 tablespoon golden syrup; 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract; 1 egg white; zest of 1 lemon; 210 g caster sugar; 210 g unsalted butter (room temperature); 5 eggs; 150 g gluten-free plain flour; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1½ teaspoons baking powder; 120 g raspberries + 75g extra for decoration; 100 g raspberries; 150 g icing sugar

Raspberry Pistachio Cake {gluten-free}

June 9, 2018 by Leave a Comment

This Raspberry Pistachio Cake is beautifully moist and fragrant. Pistachios are blended into a paste as the basis of the sponge and a handful of raspberries are baked into the batter. Finally a tangy raspberry icing is drizzled over the top with fresh raspberries and pistachios to scatter.

I went to a birthday party recently where the cake had to be wheat, egg and dairy free due to the birthday boy’s elimination diet. The mum who had baked the cake was very proud that she had produced a cake which adhered to this strict criteria whilst also being ‘edible’ (her words not mine).

I also read on our community forum a complaint about our local farmer’s market that they only have a free-from cake stall there (not my cake stall as I’m still on maternity leave). The complaint went on to say that although she hadn’t tried any of the cakes from this cake stall, in her opinion gluten-free and vegan cakes are inferior products, the market was only pandering to current trends and that she would only return to the market when they had a good cake stall.

It’s sad to me that gluten-free (and vegan) cakes have such a terrible reputation and mostly they are assumed to be inedible and inferior to wheat based cakes. I was a baker long before I became gluten-free and it’s true that when baking free-from cakes it is more difficult to achieve a delicious, beautifully textured and visually lovely cake than if you were using wheat flour. So yes, there are some poor gluten-free cakes out there and believe me I have eaten them. However, I pride myself on my commitment to my craft and unfortunately in my cake research I have also tried many terrible wheat based cakes. The same pitfalls of dry, overly sweet or compacted crumb can affect any cake. I have been baking exclusively gluten-free cakes for a few years now and am constantly learning new techniques for using alternative flours where results can rival and often surpass wheat cakes. Basically, like any baking, it’s all about the top quality ingredients you use. The better the butter, sugar, eggs and flour, the better the cake. You also need a good recipe and this is where I hope my blog can help.

I am on maternity leave at the moment and am in a state of flux in my career. I love doing the cake stall and besides bringing money in on the day it’s great to do to generate further business for cake commissions. People know I’m out there and it take me back into the world and out of my kitchen. However, the cake stall also steals me away from my young family. The precious weekends when Luke isn’t working and we could spend time together with our children are the times I thrust myself back into work.

One of my most important reasons to return to the cake stall is to continue to prove to everyone that gluten-free and vegan cakes can be absolutely delicious if they are baked correctly using the best ingredients and excellent recipes. It gives me a reach beyond the blog and social media. It’s kind of like a personal quest and it is thrilling to me that my regular customers are not all gluten-free, coeliac or vegan. They return time and time again because the cakes taste good.

Not every cake I bake is a success first time, a lot of them require a bunch of tweaking at the development stage before I’m happy to share them with the world but every single cake I publish on this blog and sell on my cake stall stands shoulder to shoulder with wheat cakes. Gluten-free cakes (and the few vegan cakes I do) are not pretenders to the throne but are their own unique product with their own identity. Cake is my most favourite thing in the world, I am extremely fussy about the quality of the cake I eat so if I couldn’t eat good cake because of my food intolerances then I would be a very unhappy person.

This Raspberry Pistachio Cake is an ideal example of how you can achieve the most glorious moist, evenly textured but not dense cake using a plain gluten-free flour blend that you can get in any supermarket. I don’t use any xanthan gum in my baking as it doesn’t agree with me but you don’t need these highly processed and hard to digest gums to bake an excellent gluten-free cake. To achieve the perfect texture in my gluten-free Raspberry Pistachio Cake I used pistachio nuts which I ground into a paste and used that as the basis for my sponge along with the gluten-free plain flour.

To read more about how to use nuts as an alternative flour do visit my post here.

I was a little stingy I think here with the raspberries baked into the sponge, so feel free to add more if you really want to pack those raspberries in. However, the raspberry flavour is still very punchy due to the zingy raspberry icing made with fresh raspberry puree and the mountain of raspberries piled on top of the cake.

This cake is a wonderful gluten-free cake, made with easy ingredients that you can buy at any local supermarket. I think it’s proof that it’s easy to make gluten-free cakes not just edible but absolutely delicious just as long as you know where to look for the recipe.

Oh, that’s here by the way.

Raspberry Pistachio Cake {gluten-free}

Raspberry Pistachio Cake sitting on a cake stand on a wooden table

Prep Time

25 minutes

Cook Time

60 minutes

Servings

12 people

Ingredients

For the pistachio paste:

110 g pistachios + 15g extra for decoration
110 g caster sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg white

For the cake:

zest of 1 lemon
210 g caster sugar
210 g unsalted butter room temperature
5 eggs
150 g gluten-free plain flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons baking powder
120 g raspberries + 75g extra for decoration

For the raspberry icing:

100 g raspberries
150 g icing sugar

Prep Time

25 minutes

Cook Time

60 minutes

Servings

12 people

Ingredients

For the pistachio paste:

110 g pistachios + 15g extra for decoration
110 g caster sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg white

For the cake:

zest of 1 lemon
210 g caster sugar
210 g unsalted butter room temperature
5 eggs
150 g gluten-free plain flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons baking powder
120 g raspberries + 75g extra for decoration

For the raspberry icing:

100 g raspberries
150 g icing sugar

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C and line and grease an 8 inch cake tin.
First make the pistachio paste by placing the pistachios in a food processor and blitzing until finely ground. Add the caster sugar, golden syrup, vanilla extract and egg white and blitz again until a paste has formed. Set aside for one moment.
Place the lemon zest in a food mixer along with the sugar and whisk for a minute together until fragrant.
Add the butter, one cube at a time and beat on high until light and fluffy.
Scrape the pistachio paste into the creamed butter and sugar and beat until combined.
Mix in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down after each addition.
In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add it to the rest of the batter until just combined.
Finally stir in the raspberries.
Pour into the cake tin, smoothing the top then bake for 60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from the tin then leave to cool completely before icing.

Raspberry Icing

Place the raspberries in a medium sized saucepan and heat gently until the raspberries have broken down into pulp.
Sieve the raspberry pulp, discarding the seeds.
Mix the raspberry puree with the icing sugar until a thick icing has formed and spoon onto the cooled cake, pushing the icing gently over the side so it forms droplets. Leave the icing to set for at least an hour
Pile the extra raspberries on top of the cake
Finely chop the extra pistachios and scatter over the top of the cake.

Recipe Notes

*I use Doves Farm Gluten-Free Plain White Flour which is really easy to find in almost any UK supermarket.

SHOP THE RECIPE

The cake tins I always use are these PME Anodised Aluminium Round Cake Pan 8 x 4-Inch Deep which are wonderful as they have completely straight sides so your cakes will be beautifully neat, the anodised aluminium means the heat disperses evenly throughout the cake without cooking the sides too quickly, which some darker cake tins do. The cakes slip out of the tins easily and they come in all the sizes you would need, although typically I use the 8 inch tins.

The links above are affiliate links which means if you decide you want to click through to buy then Amazon gives me a small commission at no cost to you whatsoever. It’s just a way for me to fund the blog so if you do click through then many thanks!! To learn more about how the data processing works when using these Amazon affiliate links then please visit my privacy policy page.

If you like this cake then you might like these other cakes:

Blueberry Basil Lemon Drizzle

Golden Beetroot Carrot Cake

Filed Under: Cakes Tagged With: cake stall, gluten-free, pistachios

Gluten-Free and Me

March 14, 2017 by 3 Comments

This is an odd post. There is no recipe involved and it feels self-indulgent. However, I’d like to explain why this blog and my business made the transition to be 100% gluten-free last year. My mum still doesn’t really get it so maybe this post is just for her benefit. If you can bear it I will be waffling on for longer than usual and I do hope you read on but if all you care about is more cake then perhaps have a look at this Bounty Cake from yesteryear instead – it’s an oldie but a goodie.

I have known about my gluten intolerance for the past nine years when I became quite sick in my early twenties. My symptoms were chronic nausea and the most debilitating fatigue. This led the way to horrible mood swings and depression which led to stress, weight gain and then more depression. I had every blood test under the sun, maybe I had an under-active thyroid gland? Maybe I had ME? I lost count of the times well-meaning friends and family asked if I might be pregnant.

I ignored my GP’s advice to consider taking medication for depression and instead decided to tackle my weight gain which I thought might help so I began to see a personal trainer and nutritionist. Straightaway she recommended I try cutting out gluten from my diet. It didn’t take long before my energy levels had picked up and the constant nausea I felt had vanished. Hand in hand with exercise my weight fell back down. I ate good nutritious whole food and I felt healthy and happy. Gluten-free bread and I lived happily ever after. The end.

Except it wasn’t.

See, I love to bake. At the time I worked as a TV Producer and only baked for a hobby, giving most of my efforts away to friends, work colleagues and neighbours. I ate a little myself to see how a recipe had turned out, and of course because cake is brilliant, but it was all under control and a touch of wheat every now and then didn’t seem to affect me so much.

After I stopped working full time as a TV Producer I began a food blog. Despite being known for my cakes by colleagues and friends I deliberately didn’t want to focus on that as I knew I had this gluten intolerance and baking and eating cakes every day didn’t make sense. So instead I wrote a little bit about everything and only included wheat based recipes once in a while. It was very reflective of how I ate at the time.

Then two things happened.

It was like my self-restriction on baking suddenly erupted into an intense desperate need to combine sugar, eggs and flour at every available opportunity. To combat the overwhelming amount of cakes I started producing I decided to start a cake stall. It seemed the perfect solution, I could bake all the time and then sell what I made thereby not eating any of it.

The other thing that happened was that on the weekend of my second cake stall I discovered I was pregnant.

Buttercream and morning sickness are not a happy combo. My dream of having my own cake stall in reality felt a little like a weird form of torture for nine months. Ah, nausea how I had missed you. As a result I barely ate anything I made but relied upon tried and true recipes that I had been baking for years. So I still kept to a mainly gluten-free diet and let the customers eat my cakes, which is kind of the whole point of a cake business anyway.

Despite my good health intentions I found life with a newborn difficult. I was so out of my depth (still am), tired and constantly terrified (ditto), so I did what any anxious sleep deprived zombie would do and turned to carbs and sugar to get me through the long days and nights. It turns out that for me an excess of carbs and sugar were just gateway drugs to gluten. Soon I had an endless packet of digestives in the pocket of my nursing chair, I ordered cake for breakfast at cafes alongside my new mummy friends and absorbed thick wedges of toast in lieu of actual meals.

A few months into motherhood I was excited to start up my cake stall again and began recipe testing for the re-launch. Something had changed though. These recipes were not making me happy, the cakes that I was producing were delicious but I had no appetite for them and recipe testing was proving a really unenjoyable task. It took me longer than it should to realise that the consistent exhaustion and illness I had been feeling of late wasn’t the normal side effects of having a baby, after all he was pretty much sleeping through the night by this point. It was all the gluten I had begun ingesting again in complete denial of my intolerance. What an idiot. It’s one thing feeling crappy when there is only yourself to look after but my permanent gluten hangover made looking after a growing child more difficult than it needed to be.

As I took a hard look at myself I realised that for years I had been embarrassed by my gluten intolerance. Although I ate well privately, when I was unleashed into the big wide world I couldn’t commit to revealing to friends that I was gluten-free or double checking with restaurants the ingredients of each dish. I don’t like to make a fuss or call attention to myself so I didn’t.

Actually I’m now finding freedom in being honest about my gluten intolerance. I don’t care if the naysayers think it’s a fad or fussy or want to question why I ate spaghetti bolognaise perfectly happily for the first twenty years of my life without any drama. I don’t need to explain science’s current thinking as to why gluten intolerance is on the rise. I just know how I feel and gluten makes me feel like crap, so if you don’t mind I think I’ll give it a pass.

One of my most important moments in terms of being a baker came last year when I read Flavor Flours by Alice Medrich and a lightbulb went off in my head. There were other flours out there besides wheat flour and what’s more, they tasted amazing. They may not behave like wheat flour but that was okay, they did other things which were just as interesting. It’s been a really fun challenge for me to devote myself to developing gluten-free recipes and transitioning my cake stall to be 100% gluten-free was really exciting. I had always included a selection of gluten-free cakes anyway and these had proved really popular so the prospect of changing my business model wasn’t so daunting.

In the next few months I will be converting a lot of my old recipes on the blog to be gluten-free. Of the ones I have done so far I have been amazed by how much I prefer the alternative versions.

So that’s me and my gluten-free self in a nutshell. It’s still early days for my cake developing but I have to say I haven’t really looked back since making the big change last year. It’s so much easier to be gluten-free than it was when I first discovered my intolerance nine years ago. Alternative flours are not as difficult to come by and people seem to be more informed about allergens and restrictive diets. Plus I am safe in the knowledge that if I stick to a gluten-free existence 99% of the time then once every few weeks I can allow myself a cheeky digestive from someone else’s packet, it’s just something I must not make a habit out of. Plus I’m also working on my gluten-free digestive recipe.

I sell my cakes at local farmers’ markets in London but lucky for those who don’t live nearby I also love sharing the recipes for all the cakes I sell and if you want to receive more of my cake stall recipes then I have a FREE mini e-book of the top 3 Favourite Gluten-Free Cakes which are on my stall including Fig, Almond and Salted Honey Cake, Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes and Minted Brownies. The recipes are really special to me and if you want a copy of them then just click the button below!

Download

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: gluten-free

Happiness Bread {gluten-free}

January 13, 2017 by 11 Comments

Happiness Bread is a soft savoury paleo bread, perfect for kick-starting your day, nay your year. It is also pretty much summing up the January I am having so far, I am feeling so positive and sunny that I really don’t recognise myself.

I feel like I have changed drastically since giving birth 18 months ago. Not just because I have become a mother and all that entails but I have become less tolerant, more irritable and my sense of humour has drained dry. Also since my downtime is non-existent I never really relax. Basically I am joy, hey come and meet me.

But the major thing that has changed about me is my appearance. There’s no discreet way to approach this but I have put on a lot of weight. Okay so I have never been a size zero. I have always fought a vicious battle with my body and only have to think about a Cadbury’s Caramel to put on another kilo. But since I ballooned during the first sleep deprived months of motherhood my body has been resolute in its new- found magnitude. Despite what my clothes size will tell you I am actually quite a healthy eater. Salads are an obligatory part of my day, I avoid gluten, I only drink in moderation and I don’t eat junk or processed food. So why have I been rolling around North London like a beach ball this past year?

Well, okay my food choices have relaxed slightly and I am eating more. Way more to counteract my everyday exhaustion and I do eat more cake than I used to due to baking for a living and recipe testing. Although what’s really changed is my fitness which has take a drastic nosedive. I am not a natural keep fitter but I have taken pride in the fact that since taking up training 8 years ago I have strived to subvert my tendency to curl up on the sofa with my cats by going for a run or doing a crossfit class. However after giving birth I have had two minor but significant setbacks. My back pain, caused by residual pregnancy issues, became so severe that I struggled to pick up Cole at all and I have a Morton’s neuroma which has meant running, jumping or any form of using the ball of my foot during exercise has been excruciatingly painful. I completely lost confidence in exercise as my body hurt too much, I stopped training and went downhill.

Well these past couple of months have seen a little improvement, thanks to the amazing work of my physio, osteopath and personal trainer. My back has finally begun to loosen up, my Morton’s neuroma, although not gone, has become more manageable with a rigid exercise plan and I have just started doing cardio and actually working out again. As my body has been feeling better I have had more energy. So much so that I am now taking control of my diet; meal planning, mindful shopping and food prepping at weekends for the coming week. Plus it has helped that Cole is currently happy to stand on a stool and watch mummy make dinner, as opposed to running around the kitchen ripping the knobs off the oven and turning the dishwasher on and off. With this small change I have been able to eat better, eat less and have given up drinking, caffeine and sugar this month. I feel almost terrific and vaguely saintly.

Having a loaf of Happiness Bread helps me out immeasurably during the week. Baking it is a two-step process as the sweet potatoes need to be cooked before you can begin. I have started making sure I chuck a few sweet potatoes in the oven every few days if I know I am going to be at home for the next couple of hours. Cole thinks sweet potato is the best food invented so it’s a must to have some for him on dinner standby and then if I have the baked sweet potato on hand it only takes about 10 minutes to get this loaf mixed and in the oven.

Happiness Bread is hearty and filling, packed with protein in the form of nuts and seeds and full of goodness thanks to the sweet potato, coconut oil and turmeric which is incredibly good for you. Tumeric is an antioxidant and has strong anti-inflammatory effects and is a great ingredient as you don’t need a lot of it for it to be beneficial. Plus the colour makes this bread so beautifully sunshiny. The coconut and turmeric flavour really come through and it is so delicious just slathered with butter or piled high with turkey and avocado – my current favourite way to enjoy it.

This is a paleo bread as well so ideal for anyone following that lifestyle and that means it is also gluten-free. The texture is almost cake like so cannot be used the same way you would use a sandwich loaf but it’s a great start to the day and will satiate you until lunchtime.

Since introducing this bread to my morning routine I have felt very happy, it’s not just about the bread but having an easy and filling breakfast has definitely contributed to my general feeling of well being. Plus to cap it off I have even just finished reading a book, a trashy thriller mind, but a book nonetheless – so take that no downtime!

Happiness Bread

A soft savoury gluten-free and paleo bread, packed with sweet potato, nuts, seeds, coconut and turmeric. Perfect for kick-starting your day, nay your year.

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

55 minutes

Servings

10 slices

Ingredients

400 g cooked sweet potato*
4 eggs
140 g cashew butter
60 g coconut oil melted to liquid state
75 g coconut flour
30 g tapioca flour
75 g walnut halves
30 g chia seeds
25 g flaked almonds
25 g pumpkin seeds
20 g sunflower seeds
20 g sesame seeds
15 g ground flaxseed
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon sea salt

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

55 minutes

Servings

10 slices

Ingredients

400 g cooked sweet potato*
4 eggs
140 g cashew butter
60 g coconut oil melted to liquid state
75 g coconut flour
30 g tapioca flour
75 g walnut halves
30 g chia seeds
25 g flaked almonds
25 g pumpkin seeds
20 g sunflower seeds
20 g sesame seeds
15 g ground flaxseed
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 170°C and line and grease a 9 inch loaf tin.
Beat the sweet potato, eggs, cashew butter and coconut oil in a large mixing bowl or food mixer.
In another mixing bowl combine the coconut flour, tapioca flour, walnuts, chia seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseed, turmeric, baking powder and sea salt.
Tip the dry ingredients into the sweet potato mixture and beat until well combined.
Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 50-55 minutes or until an inserted cocktail stick comes out clean.

Recipe Notes

*To prepare the sweet potato I bake my sweet potatoes by wrapping them individually in tin foil then placing them in a baking dish. I then bake them for between 1-1½ hours depending on how big the potato is. I then leave the potatoes to cool a little then unwrap the foil and peel away the skin with my fingers which comes away very easily. Then I refrigerate the potatoes until needed.

Filed Under: Breakfast Tagged With: bread, gluten-free, paleo, sweet potato, turmeric

Salted Date Caramel Banana Flapjacks

January 6, 2017 by 3 Comments

These Salted Date Caramel Banana Flapjacks are refined sugar-free and gluten-free for guilt-free snacking.

I have made these flapjacks what feels like a dozen times over Christmas to get the recipe just right for January snacking. I was looking for something oat based to have in the kitchen for the whole family to ward off mid-afternoon hunger pangs that didn’t revolve around refined sugar and think I have struck gold with these little lovelies.

I am spending the first few weeks of this year on diet reset. My sugar, caffeine and martini intake quadrupled over the festive period and my energy levels have seriously plummeted as a result. This is ironic considering I have been resorting to chocolate and builder’s tea to help me battle toddler induced sleep deprivation and focus on keeping him alive during the day. The martinis have been essential to celebrate the fact that my son has been delivered to his bed in one piece each night.

These Salted Date Caramel Banana Flapjacks are a lovely recipe for the whole family, although feel free to omit the salt if you are worried about the intake for children, it’s just there to boost the flavour. A lady came to my cake stall a few weeks ago worried about those of my cakes described as Salted Caramel or Salted Honey. Salt is the new enemy she informed me with a very serious tone. Out of all my cake ingredients it was the 1 teaspoon of salt per layer cake not the 500g of caster sugar which concerned her.

However, these flapjacks have no refined sugar at all. All the sweetness is derived from medjool dates and a banana. However, dates and bananas do have sugar in them so these are still definitely a treat. The flapjacks are chewy and almost fudgey in texture thanks to the banana. I have erred on the texture over sweetness side of things so don’t expect a match for match replacement to your usual flapjack. These satisfy rather than lead to further sugar cravings so at first bite you may think they need to be sweeter but I guarantee you will finish your snack feeling completely satiated. That is also not to say that they are not delicious. Oh by golly gumdrops they are.

You start off by making a salted date caramel which is really just a fancy way of saying dates, water, vanilla and salt whizzed up in a food processor. Although the caramel flavour is not at all misleading, it really is a delicious alternative to the refined sugar version.

When the date caramel is mixed with the melted butter, cashew butter and mashed banana though true magic happens and if you dare to dip a fingertip into this magic elixir before you smother it over the oats, then I warn you, there may be no coming back from it. The fact that these flapjacks made it into the oven at all was a miracle each time. In fact if you eschew the flapjacks entirely and just make a Salted Date Caramel Banana soup then I wouldn’t judge.

Salted Date Caramel and Banana Flapjacks

These flapjacks are refined sugar-free and gluten-free for guilt-free snacking

These Salted Date Caramel Banana Flapjacks are refined sugar-free and gluten-free for guilt-free snacking.

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

25 minutes

Servings

Ingredients

200 g medjool dates
60 ml warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
170 g cashew butter
175 g unsalted butter or use coconut oil to make this cake vegan
1 banana + 1 extra for decoration
350 g gluten-free oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

25 minutes

Servings

Ingredients

200 g medjool dates
60 ml warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
170 g cashew butter
175 g unsalted butter or use coconut oil to make this cake vegan
1 banana + 1 extra for decoration
350 g gluten-free oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 150°C and grease and line a 20cm square cake tin.
To make the date caramel pit the dates then place them in a food processor along with the warm water, vanilla extract and salt. Whizz together until completely smooth. You may have to scrap the sides of the processor a few times to help the process along.
Melt the butter in a medium pan over a low heat then remove from the heat and stir in the cashew butter, date caramel and mashed banana.
Pour the oats into a large mixing bowl then smother with the banana caramel mixture until it is all mixed well together.
Press the flapjack mixture into the tin so the top is even and smooth. Cut the extra banana into slices then place on the surface of the flapjack. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.
Once cool, remove from the tin and cut into squares.

Filed Under: Brownies and Bars Tagged With: gluten-free, refined sugar-free, snacks

Honey Chipotle Nut Bowl

December 30, 2016 by 2 Comments

This Honey Chipotle Nut Bowl is great for bringing out to a party. A smoky, spicy, sweet and salty snack which can be made with any combination of leftover nuts.

I am not one for celebrating New Year’s Eve. Save for trying to make the best of it at various dodgy house parties in my early twenties I prefer to avoid the whole event and skip to my January detox. One particularly poor New Year memory is the Millennium which I spent traipsing round after an inattentive boyfriend, dropping in on his mates at various raucous pubs, struggling to communicate in the cacophony and due to the impossibility of getting anywhere near the tumultuous bar, not drinking nearly enough to make the whole venture worthwhile. Does this sound familiar to anyone else’s experience? The evening ended on an even higher note though as I managed to lose everyone and cheered in the possible end of the world on a bench in a high street somewhere in Dorset.

These days I tend to steer clear of the crowds and am more than happy after a festivity fuelled Christmas to watch the end of year fireworks exploding over the London Eye from my sofa with Luke. If I’m feeling particularly spirited I might even flick over to Jools Holland’s Hootananny but by this point I will more than likely have fallen asleep.

New Year’s Day though is a favourite of mine and we’re bound to be spending it walking Billy Buddy around a frosty Hampstead Heath, swapping resolutions and making plans for our year. I’m very excited about 2017, I have a new look for the blog happening in January which I can’t wait to unveil, although you might have already seen my new logo on Instagram and Twitter. Luke has got a new job which he’s starting soon and Cole is changing every day, the amount of words he has mastered over Christmas is astounding and he has even just started singing which is so much fun.

However, before all that we will be ringing in 2017 with a sea of Prosecco and the last vestiges of Christmas chocolate and crisps for company in our little family living room party. And of course no party is complete without the obligatory nut bowl, a snack to cross the sweet and salty divide.

I always have odds and ends of nuts clogging up my cupboards and this is a great way to clear them all out for the new year. I have used all kinds of nuts in the past but this time I had a mix of pecans, cashews, pistachios, macadamias and hazelnuts I was keen to see the back of and this combo worked pretty deliciously.

This is basically a much nicer version than those honey roasted nuts you can get in the supermarket which have way too much sugar and feel so incredibly bad for you. The Honey Chipotle Nut Bowl is hotly spiced and smoky with chipotle powder, cumin and coriander seeds, plus sticky with honey and crunchy from its blitz in the oven. The perfect accompaniment to New Year, however you choose to spend it.

Honey Chipotle Nut Bowl

A smoky, spicy, sweet and salty snack which can be made with any combination of leftover nuts.

Prep Time

5 minutes

Cook Time

15 minutes

Servings

a crowd

Ingredients

300 g mixed nuts (I used pecans, cashews, pistachios, macadamias, hazelnuts)
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon chipotle powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds crushed
1 teaspoon coriander seeds crushed
15 g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey

Prep Time

5 minutes

Cook Time

15 minutes

Servings

a crowd

Ingredients

300 g mixed nuts (I used pecans, cashews, pistachios, macadamias, hazelnuts)
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon chipotle powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds crushed
1 teaspoon coriander seeds crushed
15 g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Mix the nuts, sesame seeds, salt, chipotle powder, cumin and coriander seeds together in a large bowl.
Melt the butter with the honey then pour over the rest of the ingredients, mixing well.
Spread it all out on a baking dish lined with greaseproof paper.
Cook for 10 mins, give the nuts a stir then cook for a further 5 mins.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the baking dish before transferring into a serving bowl.

Recipe Notes

Keeps well in a cool dark place for a couple of weeks.

Filed Under: Occasions and Festivities, Snacks Tagged With: gluten-free, new year, party

Christmas Morning Mince Pie Muffins {gluten-free}

December 23, 2016 by 2 Comments

These Christmas Morning Mince Pie Muffins are exactly what you should be treating your family to Christmas morning. They are light, fluffy, moist and full of Christmas spice and cheer.

I know where I am with a good tradition. Little routines and recipes that let my good conscience know that it’s the festive season. I’ve got my trifle, devils on horseback, stockings at the ready and Christmas Spotify playlist on a constant loop. I am thrown a little cock-a-hoop this year with not spending Christmas at home but with babies surrounding us these days and my sister having moved out of London this year, the family is getting bigger and more spread out so I do understand that I can’t hog Christmas anymore. Even if my inner toddler is throwing a mini tanty.

So that makes it even more important in my mind to solidify our own little family traditions where we can and introduce new ones now we have Cole at the centre of the festivities.

Of the three traditions I am welcoming in this year the first is our family advent calendar. Instead of chocolate hiding behind each window I have little cards with activities or special thoughts that I have carefully written for each day in mind. Cole has had great fun picking out the cards and re-arranging them much to mummy’s constant pleasure. So some days have been a little disappointing with empty air filling the windows and some a little overwhelming with Father Christmas to visit, presents to wrap and mince pies to make. I think I got a bit overambitious though with this tradition and might have hidden the advent calendar after the 10th on the realisation of how much work was involved in actually doing what was written on the cards.

The second tradition is our new memory box which I read all about on Pinterest. It seems a wonderful idea and I can imagine us all gathered around the Christmas tree, sharing anecdotes and cherished moments of this past year. No matter that I haven’t quite got round to buying the beautiful wooden boxes that are associated with this marvellous tradition. Instead we have a bit of scraggy old tupperware that I’m sure will be just as charming to hold our memories in until next year when I’ll order the wooden box by November at the latest.

The third tradition, which is probably the only one to be actualised, are these Christmas Morning Mince Pie Muffins. I think the title is pretty clear on when I intend to be making these bad boys. I don’t know why I haven’t made them before though as they are absolutely delicious, a cinch to make, without even requiring a food mixer, and best of all use up all the dregs of mincemeat that I always have hanging around my cupboards.

They are gluten-free, like all my recipes these days, made with a combination of white rice flour and chestnut flour. These Mince Pie Muffins are light and fluffy, but also deliciously moist thanks to the generous amount of apple puree and mincemeat in the batter. I have tried making them with all kinds of mincemeat, with suet, without suet, with nuts and without and they have all been wonderful. I must confess though, my favourite batch was made with my Cranberry and Cointreau Mincemeat which is so lovely fresh and fruity.

Do whizz up the apple puree the night before if you want to make these on Christmas morning as it saves you a boring job when you’d much rather be opening pressies and quaffing back Bucks Fizz, but apart from that they are very simple and I think an excellent new tradition addition.

Christmas Morning Mince Pie Muffins (gluten-free)

These Christmas Morning Mince Pie Muffins are exactly what you should be treating your family to Christmas morning. They are light, fluffy, moist and full of Christmas spice and cheer.

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

22 minutes

Servings

12 muffins

Ingredients

For the streusel topping:

35 g white rice flour
30 g chestnut flour
50 g soft light brown sugar
90 g unsalted butter
40 g gluten-free porridge oats
1 teaspoon mixed spice

For the muffins

200 g mincemeat gluten-free
175 g apple puree about 4-5 apples
120 g soft light brown sugar
80 ml light olive oil not extra virgin
2 eggs
150 g white rice flour
50 g chestnut flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

22 minutes

Servings

12 muffins

Ingredients

For the streusel topping:

35 g white rice flour
30 g chestnut flour
50 g soft light brown sugar
90 g unsalted butter
40 g gluten-free porridge oats
1 teaspoon mixed spice

For the muffins

200 g mincemeat gluten-free
175 g apple puree about 4-5 apples
120 g soft light brown sugar
80 ml light olive oil not extra virgin
2 eggs
150 g white rice flour
50 g chestnut flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

First line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin cases and pre-heat the oven to 170°C.
Prepare the streusel by placing the flours, sugar, butter, oats and spice in a large mixing bowl and rubbing together between your fingers. The streusel should come together but still be crumbly. Set aside whilst you prepare the muffin batter.
Pour the mincemeat, apple puree, sugar, eggs and olive oil into a large mixing bowl and beat together until combined.
In another mixing bowl sift together the flours, spice, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl, then tip into the liquid batter.
Beat together for a minute or so until everything is well mixed then evenly distribute between the muffin cases.
Crumble the streusel on top of the muffins then bake in the oven for 22-24 minutes.
Remove from the oven and immediately remove the muffins from the tin and leave on a rack to cool.