Fruity "Pouch" Muffins

I love doing baby led weaning with our DD and she seems to really love food so we've never had to do purees at all. So when someone kindly gave me one of those fruit puree pouch thingys I wasn't sure what to do with it! But then I got thinking that it would go quite nicely in some muffins... And here's the result!

Forgive the american cup measurements, it's (heavily) adapted from a recipe for Apple and Coconut Muffins in "Superimmunity for Kids" by Leo Galland.

Pouch Muffins

Ingredients
1 cup plain floud
1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp vanilla powder (or use more vanilla essence)
1 egg
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
1/4 cup flaxseed oil
2 tbsp apple juice concentrate
2 tbsp sugar free apricot spread
2 tbsp milk
One pouch of fruit puree (I used a blueberry, vanilla and banana one)

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to gas mark 6 (400 degs F). Line a 12 cupcake tray with cupcake cases.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together.
3. In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients (except for the pouch contents).
4. Combine the wet and dry, mixing enough to blend together but not over beaten.
5. Put 1 tsp of mixture in each cupcake case. Squeeze over approx 1/2 tsp of pouch contents in each case. Top with 1 tsp of muffin mixture. Swirl with a skewer to make a nice pattern!
6. Bake for approx 10-15 mins until lightly brown.
7. You will probably have some of the pouch contents left so now you have to find something else to do with it; mixed into yoghurt is quite nice.

Sugar free Stewed Rhubarb

I love rhubarb and as soon as I saw some at the market I brought some..... but then I couldn't think how to cook it without sugar! So I experimented a little and came up with this recipe which tastes really nice. Lovely on it's own or just added to your muesli for breakfast. The bicarb tip I found in a World War II cook book and it works! It does fizz rather a lot but don't let it put you off!

Stewed Rhubarb
Ingredients
Approx 600g Rhubarb (four large stalks)
10 Pitted dates
100 ml Apple juice
1 tsp  Ground ginger
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
Recipe
1. Chop the rhubarb into approx 1 inch lengths and add to saucepan with apple juice and ground ginger.
2. Finely chop the dates and add to the pan.
3. Bring to a boil and then simmer gently until the rhubarb and dates have softened and disintegrated.
4. To neutralise the acidity (and reduce the need for sugar) stir in the bicarbonate of soda when the fruit is cooked. It will fizz a lot!
5. Eat hot or cold.

Sugar free Spice Bread with Vanilla Frosting

Just made another lovely recipe from the Superimmunity for Kids book; a lovely spice bread (or cake really) with vanilla frosting. And you really wouldn't know that it hasn't any refined sugar in! To be honest I found the icing too sweet so would probably add the apple juice concentrate gradually next time until it is to my taste. I'll post some photos soon.... if it doesn't get all eaten before then!

Spice Bread
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Wholemeal flour
1/2 cup Wholemeal spelt flour (or soy flour if you have it)
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp Grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp Ground allspice
1/2 cup Raisins
1/2 cup Chopped nuts (I used a mixture of almonds, cashews and walnuts)
1/2 cup Linseed (or sesame seeds)
3 eggs
3/4 Yoghurt
1/4 cup Butter, melted
1/4 cup Flax or Walnut oil
3/4 cup Apple juice concentrate
Recipe
1. Preheat oven to gas mark 4 (350 degs F/ 180 degs C). Grease a 2lb loaf tin.
2. Sift together the flours, bicarb and spices.
3. Add the raisins, nuts and seeds and mix well.
4. In another bowl beat the eggs, yoghurt, melted butter, oil and apple juice concentrate until blended.
5. Combine both mixtures until blended (but don't over mix).
6. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40 mins.

Vanilla Frosting
Ingredients
6 oz Firm tofu
2 tsp Lemon juice
3 tbsp Apple juice concentrate
2 tsp Vanilla essence
1 tbsp Powdered vanilla (if you have it)
Recipe
1. Put the tofu in a blender and mash with a spoon.
2. Add the other ingredients and blend until a smooth mixture.
3. Chill to thicken the frosting.
4. Spread on your cake!

Easy Jam Tarts for BLW!

For those who haven't heard of it BLW stands for baby-led weaning which is what we've started doing with our daughter in the last month or so. Basically it involves skipping the purees involved in weaning and just letting your baby feed themselves. If you're interested in finding out more Gill Rapley has written a great book and the baby led weaning forum is full of useful advice.

But back to cooking...the point of baking for your baby is that you should avoid giving them sugar, hence all the experimentation recently! So here's a recipe which I made last night and proved very popular with the little teacup this morning. It's a very easy recipe to scale up or down as the quantities are the same.

Jam Tarts

Ingredients
100g butter
100g plain flour
100g wholemeal flour
a few tablespoons of cold water
a few tablespoons of sugar free jam (I used cherry St Dalfour)

Recipe
1. Combine the flours and rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Use a little water to form a dough. Wrap the dough in a plastic bag and chill in the fridge for half an hour or so.
3. Grease a patty tin and preheat the oven to gas mark 6 (200 degs C / 400 degs F).
4. Roll out the pastry and stamp out circles using a pastry cutter. If you fancy it also cut out the same number of stars to put on top.
5. Put the circles in the tin and top each with a few teaspoons of jam and a star (if using).
6. Bake in the oven for 15-20mins til lightly browned.
7. Leave to cool before eating.

And here's the results being enjoyed for breakfast!

Chocolate Brownies

Today I thought I'd try out this recipe I found on the Vegetarian Society website. It sounded simple enough but I admit I was dubious that chocolate brownies could be made without sugar. However, I'm now convinced, they taste lovely! Quite sweet, although as a bit of a chocoholic I'd probably like them a bit more chocolatey. We had some for desert with some nice thick plain yoghurt and they were delicious.

Chocolate Brownies 

Ingredients
8 oz\250g dates
4 oz\100g butter
1 egg, beaten
1 very ripe banana, mashed
2½ oz\60g wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp cocoa powder
3 oz\110g walnuts, roughly chopped
1 tsp\5ml vanilla essence

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 (180°C / 350°F). Grease a square cake tin (about 18cm x 18cm/7" x 7").
2. Put the dates into a saucepan and add water to just cover them. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until softened. Puree the dates until smooth and allow to cool a little.
3. Cream together the dates and the butter/margarine while the dates are still warm, until light and fluffy.
4. Add the egg, the mashed banana and vanilla essence and mix well.
5. Sieve the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder and add to the mixture.
6. Fold in the walnuts and turn the mixture into the prepared tin.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the brownies feel fairly firm to the touch.

I used a 8" round tin as I didn't have a convenient sized square one. This took an additional 5 mins in the oven.

Finally... some chocolate!

I wouldn't have thought it possible but this weekend we had chocolate moose for pudding! It was a rather unusual recipe and I was slightly dubious but it was very nice. It had a lovely smooth texture and did taste chocolatey. Nice time though I really have to use a much riper banana as you could taste that it wasn't that ripe! The recipe is vegan but we added a teaspoon of honey to make it a little sweeter (due to the aforementioned unripe banana!). Makes enough for two people

Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
1 ripe avocado
1 ripe banana
1 tbsp cocoa powder
flavouring of choice - vanilla essence, grated orange rind, peppermint, etc

Recipe
1. Blend all ingredients together.
2. Serve and eat!

The recipe was from Star Khechara's "Holistic Beauty Book".