gluten free

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Raspberry & Pistachio Semifreddo (refined sugar free, gluten free)

A semifreddo is a fancy word for a ‘semi frozen’ dessert. It almost always has a base of cream, eggs and sugar, but when it comes to flavour, anything goes.

My boys and I agree that eating this one tastes like eating a frozen Creme Brûlée.

Another simple recipe that’s perfect for summer time entertaining, it only has 3 main steps – whip, fold and freeze and can be made many days in advance.

You will need electric beaters for this recipe, hand whipping won’t get you the desired thickness you need when it comes to whipping the egg yolks and honey.

This has made it to the top of our dessert menu for my family Christmas gathering – alongside my Mum’s Pudding of course.

A shout out to one of my fave’s, Bill Granger, for this recipe. His simple approach to cooking is one I love. I come back to his recipes time and time again. This is my version of his recipe from ABC Delicious magazine, November 2006.

Raspberry & Pistachio Semifreddo (refined sugar free, gluten free)

Created by on December 6, 2015

  • Prep Time: 15m
  • Cook Time: 6h
  • Total Time: 6h 15m

Ingredients

  • 6 egg yolks
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 250 milliliters thickened cream, whipped (1 cup)
  • 150 grams fresh raspberries, plus extra to decorate
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted, shelled pistachios, chopped, plus extra to decorate
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract

Method

  1. Beat the egg yolks and honey together with an electric beater until very thick, pale and double in volume. This will take at least 5 minutes.
  2. Fold in the whipped cream and vanilla.
  3. Line a loaf tin with plastic wrap, leaving enough to hang over the sides of the tin. You will use this to wrap over the top of the semifreddo.
  4. Spoon the mixture into the tin, fold the wrap over the top and place in freezer for 2 hours, until semi-frozen.
  5. Remove from the freezer and carefully stir through the raspberries and pistachios.
  6. Cover with the wrap again and place in the freezer for another 4-6 hours, or overnight, until completely frozen.
  7. 20 minutes before you are ready to serve, invert the semifreddo onto a platter, remove the plastic wrap, decorate as you wish and leave to sit in the fridge to soften a little before cutting and eating.
Source: cook fast eat slow

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Rich Chocolate Raspberry Cakes (gluten free, dairy free)

This is one of those recipes that came from a friend, who got it from a friend, who got it off a food blog (www.groovyfoody.wordpress.com) who had tweaked it from a recipe found in the cook book Quinoa 365 – The Everyday Superfood. 

Once this recipe was in my hands, it didn’t take long for it to become one of my favourites when baking for family and friends who can’t have dairy or gluten.

I played with the original recipe too, halving the sugar and making it completely dairy free. Taking out some of the sugar did leave it needing some extra sweetness, my answer to that was a simple raspberry in the middle of each cake. It adds just enough natural sweetness to make this a gorgeous cake to eat.

These moist, fluffy and rich cakes will silence any critics who think you can’t make a beautiful cake without gluten or dairy.

And even though my boys know these are made on Quinoa (which they don’t like!) they love these cakes.

Ingredients

Makes 24 cupcakes.

2/3 cup uncooked quinoa (follow instructions below to cook, which will give you 2 cups of cooked quinoa)

1/3 cup soy milk, almond milk or coconut milk

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup rice bran oil

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 punnet of fresh raspberries (frozen can be used too)

Method

To prepare the quinoa, rinse under cold water and then place in a saucepan with 1 1/3 cups water (basically the ratio when cooking is 2:1, water to quinoa)

Cover the saucepan and place on medium heat. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes or until most of the water is absorbed and it’s cooked. Turn heat off and leave for another 10 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid, fluff the quinoa with a fork and leave to cool.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.

Line 2 x 12 cupcake trays with cupcakes cases.

Place milk, eggs and vanilla in a food processor and blend until smooth and thickened. Add cooled quinoa and blend again till smooth. Add the oil and blend until smooth and thick.

In a separate large bowl, using a hand whisk, whisk together sugar, cocoa, baking powder and soda.

Add the contents of the food processor and stir until all combined.

Fill cupcakes cases 3/4 of the way up and press a raspberry lightly into the top of each one.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops bounce back when you press lightly.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

These will last for a couple of days in an airtight container and they freeze really well too.

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Forgotten Cookies (gluten free)

Don’t you just love the name?

When I first read about these delicate meringue cookies, I instantly fell in love with the name. These French cookies are a combination of meringue, dark chocolate and nuts. What’s not to love?

5 ingredients in total, these cookies are simple to make and get their name from the way they are cooked. You place them in a preheated oven, shut the door, turn the oven off, and ‘forget about’ them as they cook in a cooling oven overnight.

When I know we have a picnic or get together coming up the next day that I need to take something to, I will make these the night before, pop them in the oven before I head to bed and when I wake, take them out of the oven and put them in a container and I am good to go!

If you want to make them in the daylight hours, they just need to stay in the oven till it is cool. That will take approx 3-4 hours after you have turned the oven off.

Roast your hazelnuts in the oven for 10 minutes. While still warm, place them in a clean tea towel and rub them carefully to remove all of the skins.
Use a metal spoon to fold chocolate and nuts through until just combined.
Leave a small amount of space between each cookie

This recipe was from a French food feature in DELICIOUS magazine, June 2008.

Ingredients

2 egg whites

120gm (1/2 cup) castor sugar

150gm roasted nuts, chopped (I love hazelnuts, but you can use almonds, walnuts or pecans or a combination)

*see tip above on photo for removing hazelnut skins

150gm good quality dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius

Line 2 baking trays with baking paper

Whisk egg whites with electric beaters on high speed until stiff. (If using hand held beaters, this may take a little while). You will know when they are stiff, when you pick the beaters up out of the mixture and the egg whites are firm and don’t flop over.

Gradually add castor sugar, a little at a time, without stopping the beaters, until the mixture is a thick and glossy meringue.

Using a metal spoon, fold the nuts, chocolate and vanilla through carefully until just combined.

Drop small spoonfuls onto baking trays, leaving a little space between each one.

Place trays in the oven and immediately turn the oven off.

Once the oven is cool (or the next day), remove trays from the oven.

Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

I love to give these away too – place in a beautiful gift box or wrap in cellophane to make a lovely homemade birthday or simple ‘thank you’ gift.

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Chilli Con Carne with Sweet Potato Cornbread (gluten free)

Eating a big bowl of this reminds me of my childhood.

This is another one of those great meals my mum churned out on a regular basis and I am so glad that my family embrace it today too, except for one child who picks out the kidney beans….!

This is a slow cooker version of what my mum made. Anything I can make in the morning to get dinner done and dusted is always a winner in my books.

We grew up eating Chilli Con Carne with freshly baked cornbread. Some of us ate it on the side, others broke up the bread into chunks and mixed it through. Either way, it’s a delicious combination.

The original recipe was from the Women’s Weekly Slow Cooking cookbook, but I have made some small changes. If it was just my husband and I eating this, I would probably double the amount of chilli in the recipe. However, to keep this kid friendly, the amount below gives just enough heat to make it yummy, but still edible by small and sensitive taste buds.

Slow Cooker Chilli Con Carne

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 brown onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1kg beef mince

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 1/2 teaspoons dried chilli flakes

1/2 cup tomato paste

2 teaspoons vegemite

2 x 420gm cans of crushed or diced tomatoes

1 x 750gm can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon fresh oregano

chopped fresh coriander and sour cream to serve

Method

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan.

Add onion and garlic and cook until softened.

Add beef mince, cumin and chilli and cook, breaking up any clumps, until browned.

Transfer beef mixture to a slow cooker and add all other ingredients.

Fill 1 empty tomato tin with water and add it to the slow cooker.

Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 3-4 hours on high.

For the last 30 minutes of cooking time, take the lid off and let the sauce thicken a little.

Serve with coriander and sour cream, with steamed rice or cornbread.

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Sweet Potato Cornbread

This Sweet Potato cornbread is from Stephanie Alexanders ‘The Cook’s Companion’. One of my ‘go to’ books for food, it was gifted to me on my 21st birthday by two gorgeous food-loving friends and I have been so thankful for it over the many years since.

The sweet potato keeps this bread sweet and moist and unlike most corn bread recipes with 1-2 cups of sugar in them, this recipe uses only 1/4 cup brown sugar.

Ingredients

2 medium size sweet potato (approx 900gm), peeled, chopped and steamed, then mashed. You need 2 cups of mashed sweet potato.

125gm unsalted butter

4 eggs

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup plain greek or natural yoguhrt

2 cups fine polenta (cornmeal)

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.

Combine all ingredients, except yoghurt and polenta, in a food processor and mix until smooth and combined.

Stir through yoghurt and polenta.

Pour into a greased 20cm square cake tin.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Cool a little before cutting into squares.

These squares freeze really well too.

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Coconut Berry Chia Puddings (Dairy free, gluten free, refined sugar free)

My husband and I recently enjoyed a break away in beautiful Fiji to celebrate a special wedding anniversary. I’m not sure where the last 15 years have gone, but in what seems like a blink of an eye, we found ourselves enjoying some time by ourselves on the golden sands of Fiji, resting, reflecting and celebrating.

The beautiful spirit of the Fijian people just blew us away. An attitude of thankfulness and blessing flowed out of every one we met, despite having almost ‘nothing’ in terms of our standards here in Australia. From the little that we saw in the time we had, it was obvious that their priorities in life are their faith, providing on a daily basis the needs of their family for food and shelter, sharing all that they ‘earn’ each day with the people in their village. The highlight of their day is coming together to eat and celebrate, everyone contributing something, and everyone keeping an eye out for each other. They greet everyone regardless of whether they know them or not, making sure everyone feels welcome around them. They sing in almost any and every situation and the phrase that they are known for and which we came to love, is “No Hurry, No Worry.”

As we’re settling back into our full and crazy life, we are trying to remember some of these attitudes that contribute towards the Fijians being named ” The Most Happy People on Earth” (this quoted to us by many while we were there).

Our houses may be bigger, our food more fancy, our schedules more full, but I couldn’t help but come home, mulling over these ‘happy’ people and their way of not only simply ‘living’ but ‘enjoying’ life as they go about the journey.

On a few occasions I got the privilege of starting my day with a juicy, fresh drink of coconut water. Straight from the tree, the water from this young coconut was so refreshing and beautiful to drink. I know you can buy it in the supermarket these days, probably for a small fortune, but it just doesn’t quite taste the same as straight from the tree!

Our friend, King Solomon (great name hey?), scaled the tree, collected the coconuts and then got them ready for us to drink.
Nature’s perfect cup.
Who needs a spoon when you can use a piece of the hard coconut skin to scoop the flesh out for you?
This young coconut flesh was silky smooth with the texture of a pannacotta.

The Fijians drink it every morning and if they are going to work in the field all day harvesting sugar cane, they will simply take a coconut. That is what they will eat and drink to sustain them for the entire day of hard labour.  They call it their ‘natural sports drink.’

When you research the claimed health benefits, you can see that natural coconut water is quite an amazing drink with many health benefits, however, if you are not doing a lot of physical exercise and the supermarket variety is full of added sugar, you are probably better off with drinking plain water.

I think if I had a coconut tree in my yard and one of my boys could bring me one every morning, I would definitely drink it most days. But until that happens, I’ll stick with water as my drink of choice.

These Coconut and Berry Chia Puddings are an exceptionally easy dessert to make, with only 4 ingredients, they are low in sugar and are gluten and dairy free. Chia seeds are a great addition to any diet, high in omega 3 fatty acids, fibre and antioxidants, they are the ‘setting’ agent in this dessert, which my boys call ‘Berry Jelly’.

There are many versions of this dessert around the place at the moment, but this one I got from The Beauty Chef,  www.thebeautychef.com

You can make this with any berry of choice or a mixture of your favourite berries.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 cup coconut cream or coconut milk

1 cup frozen blueberries or raspberries or a mixture of both (you could use fresh berries, it will just take longer to set)

1 tablespoon of maple syrup

1/4 cup white chia seeds

Berries and shredded coconut to serve

Method

Combine coconut cream, berries and maple syrup in a food proccesor and blend until smooth.

Combine this mixture with the chia seeds, stir well.

Pour this mixture evenly into 4 dessert glasses and refrigerate until set and the chia seeds have absorbed all of the liquid. This will take at least 4 hours.

Serve with berries and coconut.

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