HomeMade Bread Day – CornBread

Posted on November 18, 2011 by rubyophelia

Here’s the corn bread recipe I looked at (it seemed pretty similar to the one I used before, so I went with this as the start-off):

http://www.dietandfitnesstoday.com/recipe.php?recipeid=279

And then, I went ahead and made my own up! Woop!

Ingredients

2 Cups fine Cornmeal (check the label as some are now showing allergens!!)

2 Cups Dove’s Farm Gluten Free Plain White Flour

6 tsp Baking powder

1.5 tsp Salt

2 Eggs

1 and 3/4 Cup Milk (I used Skimmed, but i’ve made it with soya before and it’s fine!)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170 C and spray a deep baking tray (A brownie baking tray is the best way I can describe the size and depth) with spray oil (my top tip at the moment to avoid messy greasing of trays!)

1. Sieve in the cornmeal, plain flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir through with a fork to combine the ingredients.

2. Break the eggs into the dry mixture, pour over the milk and mix it all up.

3. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tray.

4. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

5. Remove and either enjoy warm with my Vegatable Chilli or with my homemade Chilli Jam.You can also serve it re-heated! I don’t recommend it cold as it is a little dense, so either warm in the microwave for a minute or back in the oven at 50 C to warm through.

Additions

1. Add a small chopped chilli to the mixture for a spicy kick.

2. Add a tbsp of red pesto for an italian twist.

3. Add 3 or 4 chopped sundried tomatoes for a really delicious addition.

4. Add your own and let me know about it!

Enjoy!

Rubelle’s Moon

Christmas Gifts for Gluten Free Guys

Posted on November 16, 2011 by rubyophelia

Here’s the guys list (with help from the boyfriend… ’cause I’ll only go and put loads of fancy stuff in here that you guys really don’t want/need!!) Ladies, this is a man’s list, written with man help, for men (but i’m not going to lie, some of the stuff is quite lovely… Pantone cups!!)

The Whisky Set above is obviously one for your own discretion… I know that I cannot have whisky, however I have heard some people with wheat/gluten allergies and intolerances can, so please be cautious if considering this as a gift! If in doubt ask - it’s always part of the fun trying to come up with subtle ways to ask about things that are to be gifts!!

Hope that gives you a few ideas!

Enjoy!

Rubelle’s Moon

Christmas Gifts for Gluten Free Girls

Posted on November 16, 2011 by rubyophelia

I’ve decided to come up with a list of lovely treats that us Gluten Free Girls would love this Christmas (don’t worry, I have a Guys and a Kids one coming up soon too! And I’ll also be doing my own Dream Wish List, so keep a look out!) These are treats for you, for your kitchen and your home. Let me know if you have any other suggestions (click on the images to go straight to the shops!)…

Guys if you’re reading, take note, girls, if you’re reading, push this under the noses of those who need to know!!

Enjoy!

Rubelle’s Moon

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Bread

Posted on November 15, 2011 by rubyophelia

I’m not going to talk too much here, i’m just going to let you admire the bread I baked this weekend. We are undecided… is it a bread? Is it a cake? Either way it tasted amazing.

Oh… but I used sweet potato puree instead… here’s how to make it… click this link and scroll down to the Pumpkin Scones.

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Bread using this recipe and my sweet potato puree.

Slice it up and serve with a cup of tea, and some jam on it, or serve it savory as regular bread! We really enjoyed it with my homemade Chilli Jam on top – perfect balance of sweet vs. savory with a nice spicy kick to it! I also had ham and cheese with mine and the boyfriend had his with soup. But then, later on we had another little slice… me plain and he with margarine, and still – amazing! This is a recipe you need!

If you love it as much as we did, you may need to make double! It won’t be around for long!!

Enjoy!

Rubelle’s Moon

Gluten Free Katsu Curry

Posted on November 15, 2011 by rubyophelia

I’ve never tried regular katsu curry and everyone raves about it in Wagamama. I even think it became some kind of university staple when they built a Wagamama right near university and I was always jealous of everyone having it as it smelled so good! But as amazing as Wagamama are at gluten free options (go there, you won’t be dissapointed!) I could never try this curry… Until I discovered this recipe! So, with my Doves Farm cornflakes in hand (not literally, please do not think I walk around with handfuls of cornflakes) I will be making this curry and passing on the recipe to you all! I’ll be making it gluten free by using the gluten free cornflakes (quite excited for this use of them as i’ve had bowls of cornflakes, tarts with cornflakes on top, even sprinkled a handful on my rice pudding back when I could eat the stuff, but never given them a savory use!).

Also, this recipe is low-fat, so that’s great news as I’m attempting to be healthy at the moment and even though i’m still baking and eating cakes, it’s great to find treats that aren’t laden in calories! This recipe comes by way of the wonderfully glamorous Gizzi Erskine so i’ll post the recipe up once i’ve given it a gluten free go!

So, that’s what I wrote before I made it… and now? Amazing!! I would definitly make this easy recipe again. The taste was fantastic, and that’s coming from someone who has never tried the original version in the restaurant. The boyfriend confirmed the amazing taste and said he was surprised by how close to the original it actually was, so, massive success all round! Now I’m off to the book shop as I need to investigate the books that Gizzi has, because if they’re all as healthy and low-fat as this one, then this is amazing!

Here’s the original recipe:

http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/tv-show/cook-yourself-thin-recipes/chicken-katsu-curry-recipe

And, here are my gluten free alternatives and substitutes:

1. Dove’s Farm Gluten Free Corn Flakes for the cornflakes required in the recipe

2. Dove’s Farm Plain White Flour for the flour coating

3. Chicken stock – I used the Knorr stock as it is gluten free

4. Soy Sauce – make sure you use a wheat and gluten free one as most soya sauce contains wheat, so either buy it in the Free From section for nearly £3(I couldn’t believe this!!) or if you’re lucky enough to live near a Chinese supermarket, you should be able to pick one up for about £1.00!!

5. If like me, you can’t eat rice then you could go for a naan bread – check out my recipe by clicking this link (I also made one in my gluten free challenge at Haloween, but for some reason it was a much heavier bread, so I would say my original recipe)

6. In the original recipe, at point 3, Gizzi says to: “…then pass the sauce through a sieve. (if you like a chunky sauce so feel free not to strain it.)” but, I took out the bay leaf and blended the sauce with a food processor as I thought this would make a thicker, creamier sauce, and it did, I wanted all the flavours in the sauce and thought if I put it through a sieve, I would lose those!

6. Also – we halved the recipe as there was just the two of us!

Here’s the process of cooking-

Adding the stock bit by bit (I treated it like I was adding flour to butter for a cheese sauce and it worked out well, so add it, let it completely evaporate and add more until a thickened sauce is created):

The sauce once it was cooked and blended:

This is how fine you need the cornflakes to be (we tried bashing them up by hand, but in the end, the food processor worked the best, and it meant the crumbs at the bottom were super-fine, so it was a good mix of crunchy and fine crumbs):

Here’s the curry with rice (the boyfriend’s plate, I thought his looked better and besides, you’ve seen my naan bread already,.You reeeeally want to look at it again? Here it is!)

Enjoy!

Rubelle’s Moon

Gluten Free Cheese Straws

Posted on November 14, 2011 by rubyophelia

Since I had some of the gluten free puff pastry left, that I had frozen last week, I made a handful of ‘trial’ cheese straws.

First thing to report – the puff pastry freezes fine, it just needs defrosting (but not in the microwave or you’ll ruin the butter!). We decided the best place for mine was the fridge as the temperature is so up-and-down at the moment, I didn’t want to rely on leaving it out on the work top while we were out!

Ingredients

200g Puff Pastry

100g gradted cheese (for more puff pastry use 50g cheese per 100g puff pastry)

1. All I did was take 100g grated cheese and sprinkle a little between each layer of the pastry and then flatten it down. If that doesn’t make sense, then remember the folding like a letter steps from the gluten free puff pastry recipe? Well, the pastry should unfold again after defrosting, so sprinkle cheese, fold over, sprinkle cheese, fold over then just flour the top, roll out to 5mm thickness, slice into rectangles or cut out whatever shape you like using pastry cutters (I’m thinking of using Christmas cutters when it comes to the ‘real thing’… I know, i’m crazy!) I made mine quite thin, but you could make them double or triple thickness! it’s up to you really.

2. Brush the tops with milk or egg for a glaze that will help give the crunchy outside you’re looking for with puff pastry.

3. Place on a greased baking tray and pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Here’s the cheese straws after baking (they had that proper crunch to them):

CHALLENGE 4 – Gluten Free Puff Pastry (rubellesmoon.wordpress.com)

The weekend ahead… ooo challenging!

Posted on November 12, 2011 by rubyophelia

This will be my third weekend of Rubelle’s Moon’s Gluten Free Challenge. First up, before I go giving you all the break-down, low-down of what i’ll be making (’cause that’s what I’ve done for the past few weeks) I thought I’d shake things up a bit and give you some pictures that inspire me, give me a little bit of a boost and generally pictures which I think some up the word ‘Challenge’. I wanted to give you some visual treats as I’m feeling in a inspiring mood, so here you go lovely people (don’t worry, Challenge Plan is below all the pics, just think of the pictures as the opening credits to a wonderful weekend of cooking, baking and generally pushing the boundaries of Gluten Free cooking):

I hope those images gave you a little bit of inspiration and you’ll join me in cooking up some eats and treats in the kitchen this weekend. Here’s what I’ll be making:

Pumpkin Bread

A La ‘Pig in the Kitchen’ (check out her blog – pure banter, amazing recipes, you’ll love it – the stories are brilliant and the recipes are the kind that make you go ‘ohmygod i need to be in the kitchen right now’, so go read!)

Katsu Curry

Delicious Magazine’s Strudel

As soon as I saw this recipe I was already thinking of how I could fit it into the week and couldn’t see it fitting in without lots of people joining us as it looked pretty big! And then the big problem- puff pastry! These were problems until I made puff pastry last weekend and had some to use up so I can make us a mini-strudel and, of course my pastry was gluten free, so problem solved there! I’ll post this recipe up when I’ve made it! Can’t wait as it looks all delicious and wintery… Apples, raisins, cinnamon… Im already thinking of how amazing the kitchen is going to smell!!

Cheese Straws

Hopefully I’ll get time to make these… If I do this is purely for test-run purposes as I want to make mini cheese straws to put in the hampers at Christmas! These won’t be with puff pastry as most people expect, they will be with my family-favourite recipe I’ve been making since I was 4 from the Be Ro cookbook (that book is the stuff of legends… I googled it today! I now challenge you not to do the same!)

Slow Cooked Beef Stew

I have a packet of Mrs Crimbles dumpling mixture in the cupboard that is just calling out for a stew to be made to accompany them! So I’m going to get the slow cooker on the go and make a lovely stew for this weekend’s alternative to a Sunday roast!

I’ve had some brilliant suggestions for the stew, so I’ll try to incorporate everything into it!

Also… I’m really excited to make this one as the boyfriend seems to think stew does not go with dumplings! Is his a Southener thing? Please let me know! Where I’m from stew and dumplings are best friends!! Let me know if you agree!

Piccalilli

I’m making this http://gluten-freek.blogspot.com/2011/08/pickling-party.html

But I’m also going to combine it with a recipe from my mum (I had to include the original hand-written recipe):

I’m looking forward to this weekend… new recipes and lots of adapting of old ones!

Rubelle’s Moon

CHALLENGE 4 – Gluten Free Puff Pastry

Posted on November 10, 2011 by rubyophelia

I’ve been wanting to make gluten free puff pastry for SOO long now. And now I realise why it takes so long to make! Wow! But, it is totally worth it, and i’m looking forward to perfecting my recipe! There are some tweaks, bumps and hiccups along the way, but I really enjoyed today as it felt like one of those points where you achieve something! So i’m really happy.

The puff pastry day…

Rubelle’s Moon‘s Puff Pastry:

Dough:
1/2 Cup Sweet rice flour (see my photo for what the packet looks like)
1/2 Cup Flaxseed
1/2 Cup Soya flour
1/2 Cup Gluten Free Plain Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 x tsp Xanthan gum
3/4 cup cold water

Here are the flours (in order of the list)

Butter:
3/4 Cup Unsalted butter (take it out the fridge when you set out your ingredients, so it’s somewhere between cold and room temp.)
1 x tbsp Sweet rice flour (see my photo for what the packet looks like)

Instructions:

The Dough-

1. Sift all of the flours into a large mixing bowl with the gum and salt.

2. Make a well in the middle of the flours (etc.) and pour in a little water at a time like this – pour water, gather together, pour water, gather in flour and so on, until you have a dough. Then knead it all together into a ball (don’t over-work it though! This isn’t bread, it just needs gentle encouragement). Tip – keep your hands cold during this so the dough doesn’t become claggy (clogged up/sticky/whatever word your area of the world uses?)

3. Once you’ve got a ball of dough, cover it in cling film and put into the fridge for 1 hour.

The butter:

1. Take a sheet of greaseproof paper about 30x30cm and sprinkle the flour onto it. Place the butter straight on top (not cutting or flattening, it just needs to be a pile o’ butter – see picture). Sprinkle more flour on top of the butter.

2. Put another piece of greaseproof paper on top, take a rolling pin and in stages, flatten down the butter (I gave this lovely task to the boyfriend who enjoyed – I think – this part as it was obvs the most manly part of making puff pastry!!). One flattened to about hand size, remove the top sheet of paper, fold the butter in half on itself and repeat the flattening stage. Repeat this process until you have a finger-thick pat of butter.

3. Shape the butter so it resembles something like the picture below, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 10 minutes maximum – you don’t want the butter to get too cold or too hard! If you make the butter too soon before the pastry is done, just leave it out and then put it in in the last ten minutes (I speak like a pro on this part as this is what we did… I got way too over-excited for the pastry!!)

Assembling the dough and butter:

1. Roll out the dough to 1cm thickness (the pic is halfway through rolling).

2. Put the butter pat into the middle of the rolled out dough and score around it.

3. Cut into the dough up to the corners.

4. Fold the pieces over the butter (be careful as the dough is a little crumbly!)

5. Smooth down the edges.

6. Smooth down the edges of the parcel some more with a little water (that’s floury water there in the shot glass, not murky vodka! Come on!!! This was tricky, but not that bad!)

7. Roll out the pastry – be really careful about this (the butter peeking through the dough is where I was testing to see how much force I could put on the dough, and it really is hardly any, so be so careful and do the rolling little bit by little bit, gradually moving up the dough rather than going from top to bottom!! Bet you’re glad I tried it as now i’m expecting perfect pastry from you!)

8. Finally, fold the dough in three as you would a letter, wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge for one hour.

9. Remove from the fridge and roll out to 1cm thickness, then fold over three times again. Wrap back in clingfilm and put back into the fridge for one hour. Repeat this three more times. On the final time after rolling, leave in the fridge for two hours or overnight (I think overnight would be best as mine was still a little crumbly after a few hours!)

My notes:

1. Try different flours (need to find a sweet one so think i’ll go to the Chinese Supermarket)

2. No flaxseed – think this made is crumble too much

3. Try to use cornflour for a different texture

3. Leave overnight in the fridge (we only had a day to make this, so I would like to try it again for the time-scale)

The recipes that I researched:

http://www.tarteletteblog.com/2010/04/recipe-gluten-free-puff-pastry.html

http://glutenfreegirl.com/gluten-free-rough-puff-pastry

Here’s the first recipe I tried out with my puff pastry (which I really wish of left in the fridge for longer, but i ran out of time on Sunday -it was already last dinner time- so I’m hoping when I try out the other half it will be better after a night in the fridge):

Beef Wellington

So, it’s a little uneven? So it isn’t all golden and shop-bought-fantastic? I’m proud of my gluten free puffed up pastry! It tasted yum! And i’m going to get better!

I used the recipe from Gordon Ramsay aka Chef Ramsay on the Channel 4 website. Here’s the original recipe:

http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/gordon-ramsay/beef-wellington-07-12-21

I then adapted this recipe to be gluten free by making a few changes! It was absolutley delicious! I know my pastry needs some work, which I’ll be working on soon, but at the moment, i’m happy with my first attempt as it was light and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside (I got that tip from watching the Britain’s Best Dish section on Saturday Kitchen!) So, give it a go! Definitly one to serve up on a Sunday as an alternative to a roast beef.

Gluten Free Changes:

1. Gluten free puff pastry

2. Gluten free mustard

Serving tips:

1. Served with veg as I thought any potato dish would have been too heavy, and i’m glad I did this as I was full but not too full.

2. This dish serves two with veg or I think 4 if you did potatoes and all the trimmings!

Enjoy!

Rubelle’s Moon

Gluten free dark chocolate Christmas Cake

Posted on November 7, 2011 by rubyophelia

This is part of the Christmas section of my Gluten Free Challenge so if you’re looking for the other Christmas bits and bobs, head over to the ‘Rubelle’s Moon’s Gluten Free Challenge’ and Scroll down to ‘Challenge 10- Christmas’ or click this link.

So, as I mentioned before in my pre-challenge write-up, I was going to be making Christmas Cake. Here’s what I said in that post:

“Christmas Cake -I’m going to be making my own take on the famous Delia Smith Christmas Cake… well I was going to… but I realised I really don’t like some of the ingredients in Christmas Cake (candied peel being one… blehhhh) So, i’ve conjured up my own exciting recipe which i’ll be sharing with you when I post it up! Hope you’re excited…” Here’s Delia Smith’s recipe (click this link) and then below is mine, you’ll notice that in comparison to regular fruit cakes there’s a lot less ingredients in mine, that’s because I didn’t want to make such a deep cake as, i’m making one large cake at the moment, that a week before Christmas I will cut into four smaller cakes for my hampers and ice separately, but for the brand to soak in properly and to keep all the flavours together i’m keeping the cake whole for as long as possible!

The cranberries I used were sprinkled in cinnamon and available from Sainsbury’s. You could use the same, or take a tsp of cinnamon, sprinkle it into a bag of cranberries, give it a shake and you have your own coated cranberries (I think it adds to the Christmas taste and smell!) Heres the ones I used:

And, here’s the recipe (oh, and i’ll be doing this in grams rather than cups for a change!):

Ingredients

220g Currants

100g Cranberries

85g Raisins

25g Glace Cherries, quartered

2 tbsp Brandy (you will also need some in the weeks to come to top up the cake – you do this by pouring two lids of brandy into a dish and brushing it over the top of the cake with a silicone pastry brush, don’t use those hairy ones, they’re useless and your cake will look like it’s balding/malting depending on which way you look at it… either way, no one likes a hairy cake!)

110g Gluten Free Plain Flour

1 x tsp Xanthan Gum

1/4 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg

1/2 tsp Mixed Spice

110g Unsalted butter

110g Soft, light brown sugar

2 x Large beaten eggs

25g Chopped almonds

100g Dark Chocolate, Chopped/Smashed/Broken into little pieces

2 x tsp Golden syrup

1/2 Zest of a lemon

1/2 Zest of an orange

Instructions

DAY 1. (there are two days to this cake… so make some time, it’s worth it, you’ll be so proud of yourself for making it, you’ll be glad you made the time!)

1. This is my favourite part, it’s the bit where you get to begin the Christmassy smells… Pour all of the dried fruit into a bowl or tub, add the brandy and stir it all up so that everything is all nicely mixed together and smelling delicious. Set the tub/bowl/container aside with a lid or cloth over it, in a safe place for 12 hours minimum. I did mine on Friday night and made the cake on Sunday afternoon, and the smell was aaaamazing when I opened the tub, so i’d say if you can, give it a couple of days to get really brandy-fied!

DAY 2. (don’t worry this is the only other day you’ll be making this cake, but feel free to announce in Big Brother house style or David Attenborough voice-over style… however you get through your days is up to you…!)

Before anything… Preheat the oven to 150 C, grease and line a round (or square… you crazy Christmas Cake maker you!) with greaseproof paper – important otherwise you’ll have Christmas Cake in your oven by the end of baking, not in the spring-form tin where it should be OR just use a regular non-spring form tin, this is okay to do because you are lining the tin, so it won’t need coaxing out or springing out!

1. In a large mixing bowl, sift in the flour, salt, xanthan gum and spices and then, once sifted, whisk through everything really lightly with a fork, just to be sure that there is loads of air through everything and the spices are really mixed with the flour.

2. In another large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar.

3. Slowly, tbsp by tbsp, spoon the beaten eggs (which should be really light and fluffy and have air bubbles in), into the creamed mixture. With each spon, whisk the mixture. Don’t worry if it looks like it’s going to separate, this happens, it’s totally fine. Also, if it doesn’t, great, you have the gentle cooking hands of a gentle-cook (I couldn’t think of a decent analogy there?!) but, sometimes if your kitchen is hot (mine was as I was baking all day), things can go a little differently.

4. Using a wooden spoon, carefully fold the flour and spice mixture into the egg and butter mixture, making sure everything is done soo slowly as you don’t want to upset the mixture (seriously!) and you need all the flour to be combined.

5. Finally, fold the brandy-soaked fruit, dark chocolate, nuts, golden syrup and zests into the mixture giving everything a really good mix until there is an even looking batter (even in terms of how evenly the mixture is covered in all the fruity-goodness)

6. Scoop the mixture into the prepared tin, cover the tin with tin foil and pop a 20p-sized hole in the top of it. Put the cake into the middle shelf in the oven and bake for 2 hours WITHOUT CHECKING OR OPENING THE DOOR – this is important as the cake needs to bake right through otherwise it will dip and this is not the desired look!!

7. Check on the cake after 2 hours, if it is still golden, put it back in for another 1/2 hour. If it is a deep brown colour, it’s done. Check after the 1/2 hours point and give it another 15 mins if needed.

8. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool for 1/2 hour. After this time, take a fork and make 6 light holes in the top in the 12, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 o clock positions. Then, brush with the measure of brandy (this is your first ‘feeding’ of the cake.)

9. Cover the tin with foil and leave overnight. In the morning, take your cake out of the tin, wrap in foil, then in a tea towel and place in the cupboard until the same time in 7 days when you will unwrap the cake cake ‘feed’ it once more! Continue to do this every 7 days leading up until Christmas.

I’ll post up the icing the cake instructions nearer to the time!

Enjoy!

Rubelle’s Moon

Be impressed, this is homemade

Posted on November 7, 2011 by rubyophelia

I made my own mincemeat! Call me crazy (no don’t, I’m still glowing with home-maker pride so I’ll probably just deflect your harsh words with my glow) but i’ve done it! It want even hard!

So… Here’s the thing, I’m wheat and gluten intolerant and I want to make home made mince pies. Yes I could go to the shop and buy them, but that’s boring and they’ll be all claggy with dough and the mince meat will be over worked so it’s some strange little teaspoon full of currant paste won’t it? At least that’s what I remember store bought mince pies to be. And since I can’t eat the regular ones anymore, and I’m not exactly keen on some gluten free pastry products I thought I should start out on my own merry mission of being a bit of homemade christmas cheer into the day! So I made mice meat.

I followed the simple recipe I was given by Kate of Katie-Boo Baker, added in a few cranberries and a handful of hopped almonds and I had my own beautiful, pride of place jar of mincemeat ready to show off to anyone willing to listen to my aiming my own praises… Visitors to my kitchen beware! I’m like a proud mum who’s kid just got the lead role of Mary in the nativity! Seriously!

Here my step-by-step photo guide to making the mincemeat and for the original recipe, follow this link.