Gluten Free and Dairy Free Anzac Biscuits

Michael's favourite biscuits are Anzacs. 

When we first started dating, I regularly made them for him, swapping out the butter for dairy free substitutes. But, he still somehow ended up sick from eating them! 
It wasn't until a few years later, when we found out he also couldn't have gluten, that the mystery was solved! This meant finding a way to still have Anzac biscuits without the flour, oats and butter..

I think this recipe needs a little bit of tweaking. Michael and I both think it's missing something. But, if you can't have gluten, then I think they're a pretty close replica to the real deal. 

I took my traditional Anzac biscuit recipe, and swapped out the ingredients for gluten free ones and swapped the butter for a dairy free spread. I also added a bit more golden syrup.

Ingredients
1 cup gluten free plain flour
1 cup quinoa flakes
1 cup dessicated coconut
3/4 cup caster sugar
125 grams dairy free 'butter'
80 grams golden syrup
40 mls water
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees celsius and line 2 cookie trays with baking paper.

Combine the flour, quinoa flakes, coconut and sugar into a mixing bowl.

In a saucepan, place the butter, golden syrup and water. Stir over medium heat until the butter is completely melted and the mixture is smooth.

Stir the bi-carb soda into the butter mixture. (My favourite bit! I love when it bubbles!)

Add the butter mixture to the flour and stir until well combined. 

Roll level tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place onto your prepared cookie tray and flatten to about 1cm thick. 

Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Until the biscuits are golden brown in colour. You may need to swap your trays halfway through to have even cooking throughout.

Once cooked, let cool for 10 minutes before moving onto a wire cooling rack. 

Easy Vegan & Gluten Free Lemon & Lime Curd

Do you love lemons and limes in the summer? Their citrusey smell always reminds me of a warm sunny day. Or when my brother used to make lemonade from fresh lemons and entire bags of sugar! Lemons and limes are available all year, but the best are usually available January to April.

Making curds is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to use them up if you have lots of lemons and limes laying around! I even threw in whole sections of the fruits for extra flavour. 

This curd is dairy free, egg free and even gluten free. So if you've been missing lemon curd due to all the egg yolks and butter that its traditionally made with, miss no more!

If you don't have both lemons and limes, you can just use one or the other.

Ingredients
1/2 cup cold water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lime zest
1/3 cup tapioca flour

Method
Put all your ingredients into a saucepan on low-medium heat. Optional - you can also throw in the lemons and limes that have been juiced and zested. 

Mix all ingredients together until the tapioca flour dissolves.
Let come to a rolling boil and the mixture will thicken.
Once mixture is thickened, pour into glass jars and let cool.

Mixture will thicken more overnight as it cools down. You can see the difference between the above photo and the below photo after it had cooled down over night.

Anzac Biscuits

I've been reading a few things around the internet about how ANZAC day is now just treated as another public holiday and people in the same generation as me, don't give it the respect it deserves.

It's important for Australians to remember the contributions and sacrifices of all the servicemen and women who have served our country. I think it is important that their stories are told and passed on to future generations, so that we will always remember them and remember the sacrifices they made.

Here's a recipe for Anzac Biscuits. It's said the recipe for Anzac biscuits came about when the families of soldiers wanted to send something that wouldn't perish quickly. 
Anzacs are eggless and were traditionally hard biscuits. Over time the recipes have definitely changed, with some people preferring hard Anzac Biscuits and others preferring soft and chewy Anzac Biscuits. What's your favourite?

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup dessicated coconut
3/4 cup caster sugar
125 grams butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 tablespoons water
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees celsius and line 2 cookie trays with baking paper.

Combine the flour, oats, coconut and sugar into a mixing bowl.

In a saucepan, place the butter, golden syrup and water. Stir over medium heat until the butter is completely melted and the mixture is smooth.

Stir the bi-carb soda into the butter mixture.

Add the butter mixture to the flour and stir until well combined. 

Roll level tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place onto your prepared cookie tray and flatten to about 1cm thick. 

Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Until the biscuits are golden brown in colour. You may need to swap your trays halfway through to have even cooking throughout.


Once cooked, let cool for 10 minutes before moving onto a wire cooling rack. 

Black and White Cookies

I've never heard of a Black & White Cookie before I watched an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen a few weeks back. (I love Alton Brown by the way!) 

AND THEN, I got asked if I could make some for an order. So went home and promptly started practicing! Most of the recipes I found were in american weights and measurements, which made it a bit harder to understand what I really needed. So the below is hopefully correct after I converted measurements and weights from an assortment of recipes!

I don't know if these are meant to be darker - are they meant to be black? Or is dark brown sufficient? My research also showed that you are meant to spread the icing on top, but I didn't like the messiness of it, so I piped my icing on. I also didn't like that the icing had drizzled over the edges, and wanted them a bit neater, so I used my cookie cutter to neaten them up a bit. You do what works for you though!

I'm also not sure if I really like these. They were so so sweet, and reminded me of a scone, but also a flat cake. A bit like shortbread as well..

Maybe I'll have to make them again to see. 

You Will Need

For the Cookie

125 grams butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

For the Icing

2 cups icing sugar

1/4 cup water (you may not need it all)

1 tablespoon melted dark chocolate

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line two trays with baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together until pale and thick. 

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add in the vanilla and milk. (It's ok if your mixture is looking a bit curdled).

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, then gently fold into the butter mixture to form a soft cake like batter.

Place level tablespoons of batter on the prepared trays and smooth.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until golden in colour.

Once removed from the oven, you can even up the cookies using a round cookie cutter to create a perfect circle. Or leave them as is for a more rustic look.

Mix together the icing sugar and boiling water until a smooth paste is formed (don't add all the water at once, as you may not need it!) You want your icing to be fairly fluid, but you don't want it to be so thin and runny that it runs right off the cookie.

Spread one half of the cookie with the white icing.

Using the remaining white icing, mix in the melted dark chocolate.

Spread the other half of the cookie with the brown icing.

Let the cookies dry on a wire rack for minimum of 30 minutes. You can then use your cookie cutter again to trim off the sides where the icing has dripped down the sides, or leave as is.

Vanilla Bean Almond Milk Custard

I was sent some vanilla pods from Carly at Vanilla Queen a little while back, and have been slowly using them up in various recipes. 

This almond milk custard is made with only 4 ingredients and is so so simple!!

All you need is almond milk, arrowroot flour, maple syrup and vanilla beans. 
You could omit the maple syrup if you wanted and it would only be 3 simple ingredients!!

It's vegan, dairy free, egg free and gluten free. If you needed it to be nut free you could also use a different type of milk like oat, or rice.

It's also delicious! What more do you need to know? Go make it now!

Ingredients
2 Cups almond milk
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Half a vanilla pod. Seeds and pod.
2 tablespoons arrowroot flour (mixed with a little water to create a paste)

Method
Scrape the seeds out of the pod, and place the seed and pod into the milk with the maple syrup.
Heat the milk mixture until almost boiling.
Mix together the arrowroot flour with a little water to create a paste. This will help to keep any clumps forming when you mix it into the heated milk.
Mix the arrowroot mixture into the milk until the mixture thickens.
Remove from heat, the mixture will thicken slightly more as it cools.
Serve with your favourite desserts, fruit or eat on it's own.

Gingerbread and Salted Caramel Wreath Cake

I found some cute little bundt cake moulds at Coles, for a bargain price of only $3.00 and thought they would be perfect to create little Christmas wreath cakes with!

This recipe is pretty easy to master! If you don’t want to make mini bundt cakes, you could also use one big bundt cake tin and make a larger cake for the whole family, or make smaller individual ones using a little donut cake pan. 

Ingredients

1 ½ Cupcakes Plain Flour

¾ Cup Self-Raising Flour

1 Teaspoon Bicarb Soda

1 Tablespoon Ground Ginger

1 Teaspoon Mixed Spice

1 Cup Brown Sugar

¾ Cup Vegetable Oil

1 Cup Golden Syrup

2 Eggs, lightly beaten

¾ Cup Milk

Your favourite salted caramel (your own, or purchased - for drizzling on top)

100 grams of melted white chocolate (for drizzling on top)

Red M&Ms, smarties or jaffas

Green lolly mint leaves

Method for the Gingerbread Cake

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and grease your pans.

Sift together the flours, bicarb soda, ginger and mixed spice into a bowl. Add the sugar and stir until all combined.

In a separate jug, combine the oil, golden syrup, eggs and milk.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Pour the mixture into your prepared pans. If you’re making one big cake, bake for about 35 – 40 minutes. If you’re making the smaller bundt cakes, bake for about 20 – 25 minutes. If you’ve decided to go for the small individual gingerbread donuts, bake for approximately 15 minutes.

Let cool in the pan and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cooled completely, drizzle your salted caramel over the top of the cake, followed by the white chocolate. The best part about the little bundt cakes is the pool in the middle that can be filled with salted caramel and chocolate!

Place two red M&MS and a lolly mint leaf next to the red M&Ms to create holly.

This would make the perfect Christmas Gift, Secret Santa present or delicious Christmas Dessert for everyone!

Vanilla Baked Donuts

Remember this recipe for yeast baked donuts? Remember how I mentioned that I had found lots of recipes that required a donut pan? I ended up buying one.. I'm slowly running low on space for new pans and trays, but I felt it was a necessity. I highly recommend buying one if you don't already have one! In my defence, they're healthier because they're baked!!!

I ended up just using my favourite butter cake recipe to make the donuts and then made a pink glaze icing to make it look like a stereotypical donut! 

Makes approximately 24 donuts.
You will need
Donuts
250 grams butter
1 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
2/3 cup milk
Icing
1 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup milk (more or less depending on the consistency you would like)
Pink food colouring
100's and 1000's.

Method
Donuts
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and lightly spray your donut pan.
Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating to combine.
Alternate adding the flour and milk, stiring to combine after each addition.
Place mixture into a piping bag and snip off the end. Evenly pipe out the cake mixture into the prepared donut pan. 
Place in the oven for 15 minutes until lightly golden. Allow to cool in pan, then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Icing
Start with 1 cup icing sugar in a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon milk at a time until you reach your desired consistency. You want the icing to be smooth so you can dip the top of the donut into the icing. (You can see in the picture below my first lot of icing was a bit thick).

Upside Down Pineapple Cake (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

I decided that I wanted to go on a 3 day juice detox.. and I also decided that if I had to do it, Michael had to do it with me.. There are plenty of companies with readily available, delicious juices out there, however I further decided that I wanted to make our own juices.. not really sure of the fruit quantities needed for making a juice, we ended up with a lot of leftover fruit at the end of 3 days! 

I was also looking forward to eating something...

So I made this Gluten Free Upside Down Pineapple Cake.

You Will Need

For the Cake

1/2 Pineapple cut into even slices. (Or 1 tin of canned pineapple, drained)

125 Grams Dairy Free Butter

3/4 Cup Brown Sugar

2 Teaspoons Vanilla Essence

2 Eggs

1 1/4 Cups Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

1/2 Cup Gluten Free Plain Flour

2 Teaspoons Mixed Spice

1/2 Cup Dairy Free Milk

For the Caramel

75 Grams Dairy Free Butter, Melted

1/3 Cup Brown Sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180degrees and line a 22cm cake tin with baking paper. Do not use a springform pan, as the caramel will leak out the bottom while it is baking, and that is not something you want to clean up!

Make the topping by whisking the melted butter and brown sugar together. Pour into the base of the prepared cake tin.

Arrange your pineapple over the sauce as best you can. You may need to cut some pieces to fit it all together.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence together until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flours and the milk and stir to combine.

Pour the mixture over the pineapple and smooth the top.

Place in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour until a skewer inserted in comes out clean. You can cover the tin with alfoil if it looks like it might be browning too much. Let cool in the pan, then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Bounty Bars

These bars are one of the easiest things I've ever made. I haven't had a Bounty Bar in a very long time, so I couldn't remember what they tasted like before making these.. But they got the nod of approval from everyone at work!!

They only require three ingredients! What's simpler then three ingredients?

You will need
3 cups shredded coconut
1 cup condensed milk
200 grams chocolate

Method
Place the coconut and condensed milk in a bowl and mix together until coconut is completely covered.
Scoop out the mixture in 30 grams lots and mould into log shapes and place on a tray or plate lined with baking paper. It will be easy to mould the logs if your hands are slightly wet. So every few bars, wet your hands slightly. You should get about 18 logs from the mixture.
Place the tray/plate into the fridge to let the bars firm up. This should take about 30 minutes.
Melt your chocolate in the  microwave, in short bursts, stirring each time to prevent the chocolate from burning.
Drop the coconut bars into the chocolate and cover completely.
Place back on the baking paper lined tray and let the chocolate set.

I recommend not putting the bars in the fridge once the chocolate is on, as they coconut filling drys out very quickly. Store in an airtight container in a cool location.

I'm not sure how long these last, as I can honestly say they were devoured in less then one day! I'll be sure to update this post when I make them again and test how long they last!

Sweet Potato Brownies

Don't be put off by the main ingredient in these brownies! You can barely taste the sweet potato at all, and it makes for one of the moistest, most delicious brownies I've ever eaten. I think half the tray was eaten before I could even ask if they tasted good.. that's how good they were! But don't be fooled by the 'healthy' title.. they are still required to be eaten in moderation... 

Who am I kidding.. eat them all before anyone else does!

You Will Need
For the Brownie
600 Grams peeled & grated sweet potato
2 Eggs
125 Grams Dairy Free Butter, melted
125 Grams Brown Sugar
1/3 Cup Cocoa Powder
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
2 Teaspoons Gluten Free Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Tapioca/Arrowroot Flour
For the Icing
1 Cup Icing Sugar
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
3-4 Tablespoons Water (you may need more or less)

Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a brownie pan with baking paper. 
Place the grated sweet potato, egg, melted butter, sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla essence into your food processor. Blend until the mixture is smooth and free of lumps.
Add the baking powder and tapioca flour and blend until just combined. Try to not over mix!
Pour the mixture into your prepared pan and smooth. 
Place in the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in comes out clean. (approximately 30 - 40 minutes)
Let the cake cool in the pan, then remove and place on wire rack to cool completely.
Once completely cooled, mix together your icing sugar, cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon at a time of the water. The goal is to make a running/pourable icing that you can spread over the top of the brownies.

Lemon & Lime Coconut Cake

What do you do when you go on a shopping spree at the markets and come home with so many lemons and limes that you have no idea what to do with them? You scroll the internet for lemon and lime recipes that look delicious! I stumbled upon this recipe for Lemon & Lime Syrup Cake from Cakelets & Doilies and thought it would be perfect! Plus it had meringue frosting, which I've always wanted to try make! PLUS the fact that Bella is also from Perth made me want to make this even more! 

You Will Need
Coconut Cake
150 grams dairy free butter
150 grams caster sugar
5 eggs
140 grams coconut flour
1 1/2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
150 grams desiccated coconut
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Zest and juice of 1 lime
430 ml almond milk "buttermilk" (If you don't have any buttermilk, you can create your own by placing 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice into a measuring jug, and then filling with milk until you reach 1 CUP).

Lemon Lime Syrup 
200 grams caster sugar
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Zest and juice of 1 lime
125 ml water

Meringue Frosting
100 grams caster sugar
40 ml water
2 egg whites
Pinch of salt

Method
Coconut Cake
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celsius and grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (this could take up to 10 minutes). Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift the coconut flour and baking powder into a bowl and mix in the desiccated coconut. Mix together the lemon and lime juice and zest with the buttermilk, then fold the coconut mixture and buttermilk mixture into the egg. 

Pour the mixture into your prepared cake tin and bake for 1 hour or until firm on top. Cool in the tin while you make the syrup.

Lemon Lime Syrup 
Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes without stirring.

Pour one third of the syrup over the cake and let it seep in. Wait for 5 minutes and then pour another third of the syrup over the cake. I poured all of my syrup on the cake and thought it might have been a little too moist, so use caution with your syrup pouring!
Let cake rest in the fridge overnight.

Meringue Frosting
Put the sugar into a saucepan with the water and bring to the soft ball stage (115 degrees celsius on a candy thermometer). It will take about 10 or so minutes.

While waiting for the sugar syrup, start whisking your egg whites until they look frothy - don't let soft peaks form.

Once your sugar syrup has reached the soft ball stage, pour down the side of your bowl in a thin stream while egg whites are being whipped. Continue to whisk until the egg whites are glossy and stiff. 

Spread the glossy meringue mixture over the top of your cake. Don't be fancy! If you have a blowtorch, use it to toast the meringue. I don't have a blowtorch, so I put the meringue under the grill to toast it a little, then topped it with shaved coconut and edible gold glitter!

Almond & Coffee Cake

I stumbled upon this gluten free recipe in the May issue of the Coles magazine. The original recipe for this cake called for hazelnuts, which I didn't have, so instead opted for almonds. I also cooked it in 3 loaf pans to get even layers, however I think I would only recommend 2 layers or no layers at all.

The photos I took don't do the cake justice.. Trust us when we recommend that you make it as soon as possible!

You Will Need
For the Cake
3 Eggs
1 Cup Caster Sugar
200grams Almond Meal
2/3 Cup Plain Gluten Free Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Gluten Free Baking Powder
1/3 Cup Coffee (mix 2 Teaspoons Instant Coffee powder with 1/3 Cup Boiling Water)
200ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil

For Icing
100grams Dairy Free Butter (such as Nuttelex)
250grams Gluten Free Icing Sugar
2 Tablespoons Coffee Liqueur
Small Handful Dairy Free Chocolate Chips

Method
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius and line your baking pan/s with baking paper.
Beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, approximately 10 minutes.
Place the almond meal into a bowl and sift over the flour and baking powder.
Once egg mixture is fluffy, gently pour the oil into the eggs until full incorporated.
Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, then gently stir through the coffee.
Pour into the prepared pans and bake for approximately 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in comes out clean.
Let cool, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, whip the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then add the coffee liqueur until combined.

Spread icing mixture evenly over the top of the cake. If you have decided to bake more than one layer, divide the icing evenly for each layer of cake, saving enough for the top. Sprinkle the top with dairy free chocolate chips.

Baked Sugar Cinnamon Donuts

Did you know the first Friday in June is National Donut Day!? That means that this past Friday was national donut day. Apparently donut stores like to give out free donuts on this day. Sounds like the perfect day to me!!

This is a recipe for baked donuts. I've seen lots of recipes that are for baked donuts that are based on cake recipes and require a donut pan. These are yeast based donuts and created the same way you would make traditional donuts, however they're then baked in the oven and not deep fried! I guess with that logic, you can eat more than one and not feel so guilty!

They do involve a bit of patience and require waiting for the dough to rise. Make them when you have time to wait and then if you're like me, and all your patience has been used up, quickly eat them all that same day.

Recipe from taste.com.au

You Will Need

For Donuts

1 Cup Milk

1 Tablespoon Butter, melted

2 1/2 Cups Plain Flour

1 1/2 Teaspoons Instant Dried Yeast

1/4 Cup Caster Sugar

1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon

For Sugar Cinnamon Topping

50 Grams Butter, melted

1/2 Cup Caster Sugar

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

Method

Place milk in a heatproof jug and microwave for 30 seconds until heated through. Do not boil. Stir in 1 tablespoon butter.

Sift flour into bowl. Stir in yeast, sugar and cinnamon.

Make a well in the centre and add milk mixture. Mix to form a soft dough, then turn out onto lightly floured surface.

Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap, then let sit for an hour in a warm place to double in size. While you're waiting for the dough to rise, line a baking tray with baking paper.

Using your fist, punch the dough down then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Gently roll dough out until approximately 2.5 cm thick. Cut out rounds from the dough, then use a smaller cutter to cut out the donut holes. Place on the prepared baking tray and cover again with lightly greased plastic wrap. Set in a warm place for 30 minutes to double in size.

While you're waiting for the donuts to rise, preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Cook donuts for 12 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. Combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Brush the donuts with butter then dip in the sugar mixture. 

Don't forget that the holes can also be baked and dipped in cinnamon sugar! Bake them after you've finished baking the donuts - they won't take as long as the donuts.