So, we've given up refined sugar again... this time for the entirety of Lent! Hopefully we won't go over the top when we can eat it at Easter again, all the chocolates in the shops are already tempting me....
Anyway, so we wanted a nice snack to keep us going in the afternoons and I found this recipe in the "Superimmunity for Kids" book (can you tell I'm working my way through all the nice recipes!). It's not too sweet but is really good and much better for you than the shop brought ones. An easy to remember recipe too when you use the American quantities.
Muesli Bars
Ingredients
3 cups Muesli (sugar, salt and milk powder free)
3 Eggs
3 tbsp Apple juice concentrate
3 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 to 1 cup Raisins/Sultanas (depending on how many your muesli already has)
Recipe
1. Mix the eggs, apple juice concentrate and cinnamon in a bowl.
2. Add the muesli and raisins and stir well.
3. Leave to infuse for ten to fifteen mins.
4. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 (350 degs F/ 180 degs C)
5. Grease a large tin (9" square) and and add the mixture.
6. Bake for 25 mins or until set and lightly brown.
7. Cut into squares whilst still warm.
Showing posts with label biscuit/cookie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biscuit/cookie. Show all posts
Friday, 11 March 2011
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Yummy Sesame Spice Oatmeal Cookies
I made these lovely cookies yesterday for some mummies and babies to eat and they went down very well! The recipe is from an american book "Superimmunity for Kids" by Leo Galland and Dian Dincin Buchman which I recently brought.... after seeing all the recipes in the back I then went and brought some american measuring cups so I could make them easily!
Sesame Spice Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup / 8oz pitted dates
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup raisins
1 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup flaxseed (or walnut) oil
Recipe
1. Put the orange juice and dates in a saucepan over a low heat and leave to soften.
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and add the sesame seeds and raisins.
3. Puree the date mixture with the melted butter and flax oil.
4. Add the pureed mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Drop tablespoon size cookies on baking sheets and cook in the oven (350 deg F / Gas 4 / 180 deg C) for approx 15 mins til lightly browned.
6. Try and resist eating them when they come out of the oven!
Sesame Spice Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup / 8oz pitted dates
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup raisins
1 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup flaxseed (or walnut) oil
Recipe
1. Put the orange juice and dates in a saucepan over a low heat and leave to soften.
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and add the sesame seeds and raisins.
3. Puree the date mixture with the melted butter and flax oil.
4. Add the pureed mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Drop tablespoon size cookies on baking sheets and cook in the oven (350 deg F / Gas 4 / 180 deg C) for approx 15 mins til lightly browned.
6. Try and resist eating them when they come out of the oven!
Friday, 12 November 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Fruit and Nut Slice
Over the weekend I made (and ate most of!) this lovely fruit and nut slice. It is very easy to make in between looking after my lovely little daughter and tastes excellent! I would describe it as somewhere between a flapjack, a cereal bar and one of those nice Rawr bars you can buy. It uses pear and apple spread to sweeten it, which looks disturbingly like marmite but doesn't taste like it! The recipe is from Jane Sen's "Healing Foods Cookbook" which also has some other nice sugar-free cookies and cakes... looking forward to trying them soon :-).
Fruit and Nut Slice
Ingredients
150g (5oz) raisins
150g (5oz) nuts (I used hazelnuts but any would do)
4tsp pear and apple spread (or other fruit concentrate)
85ml (3fl oz) sunflower oil
75g (3oz) oats
150g (5oz) plain flour
85ml (3 fl oz) water
Recipe
1. Grease a 7" flan case. Preheat oven to 190 degs C (gas 5 / 375 deg F).
2. Blend the dried fruit and nuts til finely chopped.
3. Mix all the ingredients together til well combined.
N.B. the recipe calls for everything to be added to the blender, mine wouldn't have coped with that so just mixing it in a bowl worked fine! I guess you'd have a smoother mix if you blended everything.
4. Pour/press the sticky dough into the flan case.
5. Cook for 30 mins or until browned.
6. Cut in case and leave to cool before serving.
Sorry no photos... it got eaten too quickly!
Fruit and Nut Slice
Ingredients
150g (5oz) raisins
150g (5oz) nuts (I used hazelnuts but any would do)
4tsp pear and apple spread (or other fruit concentrate)
85ml (3fl oz) sunflower oil
75g (3oz) oats
150g (5oz) plain flour
85ml (3 fl oz) water
Recipe
1. Grease a 7" flan case. Preheat oven to 190 degs C (gas 5 / 375 deg F).
2. Blend the dried fruit and nuts til finely chopped.
3. Mix all the ingredients together til well combined.
N.B. the recipe calls for everything to be added to the blender, mine wouldn't have coped with that so just mixing it in a bowl worked fine! I guess you'd have a smoother mix if you blended everything.
4. Pour/press the sticky dough into the flan case.
5. Cook for 30 mins or until browned.
6. Cut in case and leave to cool before serving.
Sorry no photos... it got eaten too quickly!
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Garibaldi Biscuits
Due to their appearance Garibaldi biscuits have always been known as 'squashed fly' biscuits in my family but they taste much nicer than their name implies! Relatively simple to make too, if you can manage pastry then you'll manage these!
Garibaldi Biscuits
Ingredients
100 g plain flour (I used half plain, half wholemeal spelt)
50 g butter
1 tsp apple juice concentrate
a little water
a generous amount of currants
Recipe
1. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs.
2. Add the apple juice concentrate and enough water to form a dough.
3. Chill the dough in the fridge for half an hour or so.
4. Divide the mixture into two. Roll one half out as thinly as possible in a rectangular shape and transfer to a greased baking sheet. (N.B. Use a baking sheet with no sides so that you can roll over it with the rolling pin.)
5. Sprinkle generous amounts of currants over the rolled out dough.
6. Roll out the second half of the dough to roughly the same size and thickness.
7. Using a pastry brush wet the edges of the dough on the baking sheet with water.
8. Place the second piece of dough on top of the first. Roll with a rolling pin until the currants are just showing through.
9. Score with a knife into rectangular pieces (but don't cut through).
10. Bake for fifteen minutes at gas mark 5 (375 deg F / 190 deg C) until golden brown.
11. Cool and then break along the score marks.
Garibaldi Biscuits
Ingredients
100 g plain flour (I used half plain, half wholemeal spelt)
50 g butter
1 tsp apple juice concentrate
a little water
a generous amount of currants
Recipe
1. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs.
2. Add the apple juice concentrate and enough water to form a dough.
3. Chill the dough in the fridge for half an hour or so.
4. Divide the mixture into two. Roll one half out as thinly as possible in a rectangular shape and transfer to a greased baking sheet. (N.B. Use a baking sheet with no sides so that you can roll over it with the rolling pin.)
5. Sprinkle generous amounts of currants over the rolled out dough.
6. Roll out the second half of the dough to roughly the same size and thickness.
7. Using a pastry brush wet the edges of the dough on the baking sheet with water.
8. Place the second piece of dough on top of the first. Roll with a rolling pin until the currants are just showing through.
9. Score with a knife into rectangular pieces (but don't cut through).
10. Bake for fifteen minutes at gas mark 5 (375 deg F / 190 deg C) until golden brown.
11. Cool and then break along the score marks.
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Day two - cookies and cake!
Well, to keep us going I tried a couple of recipes on day two and I have to say they have both vanished pretty quickly now! So quickly that I'm afraid there are no photos but I'll try and remember next time...
Firstly some cookies, the original recipe was courtesy of this excellent blog but I have adapted it slightly. These tasted great! Slightly less sweet then perhaps we're used to but the jam and the fruit does make it quite sweet enough. I took the cookies round a friends house and no-one even realised they hadn't any sugar in! I also made another version with ground ginger, sultanas and spelt flour and these were good too.
Walnut and Sultana Cookies
Ingredients
1. Cream butter and jam together.
2. Add the egg and beat well.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients to make a sticky dough.
4. Spoon dollups of the mixture onto a baking sheet (I made twelve cookies) and flatten slightly with a fork.
5. Bake at gas mark 4 (180 deg C/ 350 deg F) for 15-20 mins til golden.
And I wanted something to take on a picnic to share. So I found this recipe for a fruit cake (from Rose Elliot's "New Complete Vegetarian" cookbook). This was really good too and surprisingly sweet, I don't think anyone would realise that it has no sugar in. I think it would make an excellent Christmas cake, perhaps with some pretty dried fruit put on the top before you cook it. The cake went down really well at the picnic and a couple of people asked for the recipe so it must have been good! The cake is also vegan.
Fruit Cake
Ingredients
1. Preheat oven to gas 3 (160 deg C / 325 deg F). Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.
2. Chop dates and add to saucepan with the water. Cook over a low heat til soft. Then remove from heat and mash to break up.
3. Add all the remaining ingredients (except for the flaked almonds) and mix well. Spoon into the tin and sprinkle the flaked almonds on top.
4. Bake for 1 1/2 hours until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
5. Cool slightly in tin and then turn out onto cooling rack.
Firstly some cookies, the original recipe was courtesy of this excellent blog but I have adapted it slightly. These tasted great! Slightly less sweet then perhaps we're used to but the jam and the fruit does make it quite sweet enough. I took the cookies round a friends house and no-one even realised they hadn't any sugar in! I also made another version with ground ginger, sultanas and spelt flour and these were good too.
Walnut and Sultana Cookies
Ingredients
- 100 g butter
- 3 tbsp sugar free jam (I used St Dalfour apricot jam)
- 1 beaten egg
- 50 g ground almonds
- 50 g sultanas
- 30g chopped walnuts
- 100 g wholemeal flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp mixed spice
1. Cream butter and jam together.
2. Add the egg and beat well.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients to make a sticky dough.
4. Spoon dollups of the mixture onto a baking sheet (I made twelve cookies) and flatten slightly with a fork.
5. Bake at gas mark 4 (180 deg C/ 350 deg F) for 15-20 mins til golden.
And I wanted something to take on a picnic to share. So I found this recipe for a fruit cake (from Rose Elliot's "New Complete Vegetarian" cookbook). This was really good too and surprisingly sweet, I don't think anyone would realise that it has no sugar in. I think it would make an excellent Christmas cake, perhaps with some pretty dried fruit put on the top before you cook it. The cake went down really well at the picnic and a couple of people asked for the recipe so it must have been good! The cake is also vegan.
Fruit Cake
Ingredients
- 225 g dates
- 275 ml water
- 450 g mixed dried fruit (I used sultanas and apricots)
- 175 g plain wholemeal flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- grated rind of one orange or lemon (I hadn't any so just used a dash of lemon juice!)
- 40 g ground almonds
- 4 tbsp orange juice (again, I hadn't any so used apple juice)
- a few flaked almonds
1. Preheat oven to gas 3 (160 deg C / 325 deg F). Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.
2. Chop dates and add to saucepan with the water. Cook over a low heat til soft. Then remove from heat and mash to break up.
3. Add all the remaining ingredients (except for the flaked almonds) and mix well. Spoon into the tin and sprinkle the flaked almonds on top.
4. Bake for 1 1/2 hours until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
5. Cool slightly in tin and then turn out onto cooling rack.
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