Tag: treats

Gluten Free Easter Nest Cakes Recipe (Low FODMAP)
baking · celebrations · gluten free · low FODMAP · Seasonal

Gluten Free Easter Nest Cakes Recipe (Low FODMAP)

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Last year for Easter, my husband was following the low FODMAP diet to try to help us identify his food intolerances beyond just gluten intolerance. The year before, I had baked a delicious chocolate Easter Nest cake from a recipe by Nigella Lawson, but although we had really enjoyed it, clearly it wasn’t going to be suitable for a low FODMAP diet. So I set about adapting the recipe to ensure that everyone could enjoy it – and I also adapted it from a massive Easter cake into smaller individual cakes that would be suitable to bake with a young family. Presenting: my gluten free Easter nest cakes recipe! And if you still want to make one big cake, just double up the quantities and stick it all in one big cake tin…

Gluten Free Easter Nest Cakes Recipe

Ingredients For Your Cakes:

You will need the following ingredients for your gluten free chocolate nest cakes:

  • 3 eggs
  • 85g caster sugar
  • 75g salted butter (butter is low FODMAP but not completely lactose free, so if you need a completely lactose free recipe, then replace with coconut oil (75g) or vegetable oil (55g))
  • 125g dark chocolate (make sure it’s vegan dark chocolate if you need 100% lactose free)
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence

And for the topping and decoration, you will need the following ingredients:

  • 125ml vegan double cream (Elmlea do a plant based double cream which works perfectly)
  • 70g dark chocolate
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1 pack chocolate mini eggs or buttons
The finished product

Gluten-Free Easter Nest Cakes: The Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180 C.

2. Lightly grease the bases of a non-stick muffin or cupcake tray. A silicone cupcake tray is best, as you can easily pop out the cooked cakes. A metal cupcake tray will work too, but prepare yourself for a bit of an adventure getting the cakes out of the tray (however – even if you break them, they will stick back together again if still warm!)

3. Put the 75g butter and the 125g chocolate in a bowl and melt them down together either in a microwave (short bursts of 10 seconds at full power, stirring in-between, until melted) or over a saucepan of hot water.

4. Separate two of the eggs.

Separating the eggs

5. Whisk the two egg whites with a handheld or stand mixer, slowly adding in 50g of the sugar until the mixture forms soft, gleaming peaks.

6. In a separate bowl, whisk together the two egg yolks with the remaining whole egg (I mean… Not the shell, obviously), the vanilla essence and the remaining 35g sugar.

7. Gently add the chocolate mixture to the bowl and fold it in carefully.

Folding in the chocolate and butter

8. Next, start adding the whisked egg whites and folding them in gently. First, add about one-third of the egg whites, then once that’s all combined, add another third and so on.

9. Pour the mixture in to the cupcake tin, filling each cupcake hole about 3/4 full. Bake in your preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until the cakes are risen and cracked but not wobbly when you shake the tray (see the picture, below). Let the cakes cool in the tin on a wire rack, and don’t panic when they sink – that’s what makes the nests!

Fresh from the oven

10. Once the cakes are cool-ish, get them out of the cake tin. Don’t worry if they break – I promise that if you gently squash the separate pieces back together, they will magically re-combine through some incredible cakey voodoo.

11. Melt the 70g dark chocolate and set it aside while you whip the double cream until it’s forming soft peaks. Add the vanilla essence and slowly fold in the melted chocolate, but make sure it’s cooled down a fair bit first.

12. Dollop the cream into the sunken centres of your chocolate nest cakes, and add the chocolate eggs or buttons.

13. Enjoy your gluten-free, low-FODMAP chocolate Easter nest cakes!

Om nom Easter yum yums

Top Tips For Your Easter Nest Cakes:

These cakes are sort of like a brownie/meringue hybrid, which means a lot of folding various mixtures into one another. Usually, where whisked egg is involved, the idea is to combine the two mixes completely without knocking too much air out of the egg whites. Not confident on how to do this? Here’s a handy guide on folding in egg whites.

It’s also worth noting that the sugary shell on the outside of the chocolate eggs will melt over time, so if (for example) you’re preparing these the night before for a party the next day, don’t add the eggs until a few hours before you’re ready to serve, if you can.

More recipes for gluten-free chocolatey treats!

If you’ve enjoyed this recipe, why not try my favourite gluten-free Rocky Road recipe (no baking required!) or this delicious recipe for coffee-lovers – gluten-free chocolate cappuccino brownies. Yum!

Review: Biddy’s Tea Room, Norwich
afternoon tea · days out · reviews · tea

Review: Biddy’s Tea Room, Norwich

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Today’s tea review is of Biddy’s Tea Room in Norwich, located in Lower Goat Lane. Fortunately the locale is more attractive than the name suggests, featuring an array of boutique shops and a distinct lack of udders and goaty genitalia…

Review: Biddy’s Tea Room, Norwich

First impressions…

As we approached Biddy’s Tea Room in Norwich, the first thing that struck me was the old fashioned, apothecary style display in the big glass windows of the shop. But instead of displaying weird and wonderful pills and potions, it displays jar after jar of exotic teas. So far, so exciting… And as you step through the door, the oldey-worldy impression continues.

There’s not a theme, exactly, but if there was it would be something like Colonial Kitsch; Biddy’s is described on its website as a ‘vintage tearoom’, but you can forget the images of dainty pink lace and bunting that the phrase ‘vintage’ tends to conjure up. If other vintage tearooms tend to be designed with Miss Marple in mind, this is a tearoom for Sherlock Holmes or Phileas Fogg. The sofas are big, shiny brown leather affairs, and the walls and cabinets are stocked with curios and the occasional deer skull (although in fairness, the antlers are decked in fairy lights, presumably as a sop to any Miss Marple types passing through).

The enormous main counter is stacked with a huge variety of cakes, brownies, muffins and more to match the array of teas on offer. It’s hugely appetising and easily enough to lure even non-tea lovers into the shop…

Around the World in 80 Teas (…ish)

Once you’re seated, it’s time to pick your tea… Which is easier said than done, as Biddy’s tea menu includes over fifty different loose leaf teas. Most excitingly of all, they also promote tea “mixology” (i.e. blending different teas together) and while their menu gives a few different ‘house’ blend suggestions, they also let customers create their own blends off the cuff. Pretty cool and a bit of a unique selling point for the shop.

As well as tea, Biddy’s in Norwich offers an impressive variety of coffees, floats, milkshakes and FreakShakes (which I believe are like milkshakes but with more calories). We didn’t try any of them, because it was my birthday and that means TEA.

My husband and I actually were both originally going to go for the same tea, a black cherry tea. As it would clearly be ridiculous to both order the same tea from a menu of over 50 options – and did I mention it was my birthday? – my husband kindly swapped and ordered black almond tea instead. Both were fragrant, delicious and served in enormous metal teapots which ensured neither of us ran out of tea or needed a hot water top up.

A Cake Of Identity

And now: the cakes. As it was my birthday (did I mention it was my birthday?) the plan was always to have a piece of cake with our tea. Biddy’s Tea Room had a good selection of gluten-free cakes, which made my husband very happy; he settled on a gluten free chocolate brownie and I went for carrot cake. They also had a number of vegan cakes, so it felt like they catered well to special dietary requirements.

We realised our error when the cakes arrived, however, because they were straight up enormous. I tried to take pictures to show them to scale, but in fact it just looks like the teapot is small rather than showing how big the cake slices are. You’ll just have to take my word for it… You could easily build a structurally sound cottage for a wicked witch, using Biddy’s cake slices as bricks.

The cakes were delectable, and the buttercream that came with the carrot cake, complete with a salted caramel drizzle, was a particular triumph. I hate wasting food though, and there was just no way I could eat all that cake myself. I would happily have paid the same amount for a smaller slice or been forewarned to share a slice with my husband.

Biddy’s Tea Room Review: Conclusions

In fairness, cake sizing is a relatively minor quibble in the grand scheme of things. We spent a very contented hour or so lounging on the comfy sofas in Biddy’s, sipping tea, munching cake, and trying to work out what exactly was going on in some of the stranger Victorian-era artworks on the wall (I’m pretty sure the artist had never seen a hippo, for one thing). The staff were friendly without being overbearing, the atmosphere was relaxed and cosy, and there’s a surprising amount of space inside meaning you actually stand a good chance of getting a table. I’m planning to go back soon and curl up in a cosy corner with a fancy cup of tea, my latest gender swap book, and another enormous brick of cake…

If you love great loose leaf tea – or you’re in the habit of eating two slices of cake in one sitting – I can thoroughly recommend you check out Biddy’s next time you’re in Norwich. You can also find them online, with tea and cakes available to order from their website. Or, if you love a themed afternoon tea venue, why not head to my review of the Wizard’s Afternoon Tea at the Wands & Wizards Exploratorim…?

Review: Wizard’s Afternoon Tea at the Wizard Exploratorium, London Soho
afternoon tea · lifestyle · reviews · tea

Review: Wizard’s Afternoon Tea at the Wizard Exploratorium, London Soho

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Continuing on with my love of all things tea-related, today’s blog post is a review of the Arcane Wizard’s Afternoon Tea, currently available at the Wands and Wizards Exploratorium in Soho, London. I visited this tearoom in June as part of a mini hen party for one of my best friends, Cherry, after we had to rearrange her main hen do to take place after her actual wedding (thanks, coronavirus!). So happy hen, Cherry!

Review: Wizard’s Afternoon Tea at the Wands & Wizard’s Exploratorium

Harry Potter and the Unaffiliated Afternoon Tea

Right, first things first: this is a Wizard’s Afternoon Tea and definitely not a Harry Potter Afternoon Tea in London. If you’re looking for Harry Potter themed tea and confectionary, you better look elsewhere, friend – the Wands and Wizard’s Exploratorium is very clear that it is “broadly inspired by fantasy and science-fiction and is a place for fans of magic. It is not endorsed by, affiliated with or associated with Warner Bros. or J.K. Rowling or otherwise connected with Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. It is also not endorsed by, affiliated with or associated with Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Rivers of London, The Magicians, Dune, The Name of the Wind, Star Wars, or otherwise connected with any one specific text or series.” Phew. It seems the folks at the Wands and Wizards Exploratorium are understandably keen to avoid being the subject of a Bat-Bogey Hex from J.K. Rowling’s magical team of lawyers.

Our table (just a little bit crowded)

Now, onto the actual review…

A Magical Setting

When you step into the Wands and Wizard’s Exploratorium, the first thing you’re likely to notice in the downstairs shop area is the full-size unicorn’s head mounted on the wall, which dispenses (vomits?) a colourful punch drink – with a little encouragement from a real magic wand, of course. You’ll be led up a narrow staircase that’s more than a little reminiscent of some of the quirkier shops in Diagon Alley, to a teeny tiny room draped in flowers and buzzing to the sounds of a jaunty selection of folk tunes, where there’s just about enough space for three parties to sit down to tea at separate tables.

Your potion chest

Unfortunately, I do have to note at this point that this currently is definitely not an accessible experience. The tiny, very old-fashioned building in Soho features a steep and winding staircase. There is no wheelchair access and if you struggle with steep stairs or claustrophobia, I wouldn’t recommend it either. They do cater for different dietary requirements and allergies, although as my husband wasn’t with us, I didn’t try any of the gluten-free options (sorry).

Interactive Tea Brewing

Your table is crowned by an enormous multi-tiered cake stand, topped with a glowing dragon’s egg a la Game of Thrones. Your friendly out of work actor waiter wizard will show you how to use a glowing magical wand to unlock a chest full of potion ingredients, and then it’s time to get creative and brew your own wizard afternoon tea. This was actually my favourite part of the whole experience, and something that really sets it aside from other quirky afternoon teas on offer around London – the opportunity to pick and mix ingredients, add them to a teabag and brew up your own unique tea blend. The dried ingredients on offer are pretty diverse, including nettle tea, hibiscus, rose petals, camomile, and plenty more – and there are also a set of flavourings that can be added to the finished product, including honey and rose water. When you require hot water – sorry, I mean ‘magical elixir’ – you just wave your wand to summon a helpful waiter (very nearly as convenient as a simple aguamenti spell), and enormous Time Turners (a.k.a. hourglasses) are available so you can measure exactly how long your tea is brewing.

Our first attempt at blending tea

Using a magical QR code (okay, it’s not that magical) you can access a range of suggested blends that can be made with the ingredients. We made three different teas in total from our tea chest – the first one being a total wash out, because I added far too much black tea and the result tasted exactly like a completely normal cup of breakfast tea. Oops.

Oddly, probably the best blend was the final one, which we created by adding all the ingredients we hadn’t yet used into a teabag and seeing what happened. The resulting infusion of peppermint, lemon and ginger, nettle and camomile was actually surprisingly good.

Crushing rose petals in a pestle and mortar

As well as creating your own blends with the magical tea chest, there is a second interactive wizarding tea experience on offer as part of the standard Arcane Wizard’s Afternoon Tea at the Wands and Wizard’s Exploratorium; a series of three teas which start out a rather startling blue and then change colour before your eyes as you add the final ingredients – and wave your magic wand, of course. If you’re prepared to pay extra, you can also add a bottle of prosecco or a cocktail to your experience (and yes – we did get the prosecco, of course!).

Getting The Magical Munchies

And so – onto the food. We started with a round of sandwiches (or rather, sand-witches, as they’re referred to in the menu) which were certainly tasty and generously proportioned, but didn’t seem to come with any particularly magical gimmick. I can’t help but think that some slightly more unusual flavours or even shapes for the sandwiches would be a bit more in keeping with the theme – and with the level of effort put in to the rest of the menu.

Our second tea blend ended up unexpectedly blood red

The scones are a nod to elven lembas from Lord of the Rings, and come wrapped and tied neatly in banana leaf. They were perfectly tasty, but again it would have been fun to see the scones shaped and scored to look a little bit more like lembas and less like a scone that’s been randomly plopped into some foliage. Also worth noting: Cherry had to ask for extra clotted cream because the amount provided for three of us was wayyyy too small. This is a common issue with afternoon teas and offending tearooms should be ashamed – seriously, how much additional cost are you really incurring by adding an extra tablespoon of cream to your offering?

The other sweet treats ranged from fairly standard afternoon tea fare (raspberry mousse cake, macarons), to the more interactive (chocolate brownies with syringes of raspberry or chocolate sauce), to the downright quirky (freeze-dried salt water taffy in mystery flavours, freeze-dried skittles). Okay, so the quirky options leaned heavily towards the freeze-dried end of the afternoon tea spectrum, but they were actually surprisingly delicious and definitely felt like the kind of experience you wouldn’t get elsewhere. My only criticism is that the freeze-dried sweets didn’t seem to be available in the gift shop downstairs, which frankly felt like the company is missing a trick – I certainly would have bought some more of the taffy on my way out.

Freeze-dried taffy

Wizard’s Afternoon Tea: Overall Impressions

I would definitely recommend the Wizard’s Afternoon Tea experience at the Wands & Wizard’s Exploratorium in London. It’s all great fun – and certainly much more interactive and engaging than the average afternoon tea, where you just sit and slurp your way through pre-prepared drinks. I’d say it’s perfect for a small hen party or group of friends, or great fun with kids (and yes, a Little Wizard’s Afternoon Tea is on offer). Just make sure you remind the kids that it’s definitely not a Harry Potter afternoon tea. At £35 each (or £19 for under-11s), it’s not a cheap experience – but equally, afternoon tea at a nice hotel in central can easily set you back that much or far more, while being much less fun. The campy wizarding vibe is just right, the staff are fully committed to the experience, and most importantly – the tea and cake is pretty magical too.

Gluten-Free Portuguese Custard Tarts (Pasteis De Nata) Recipe
baking · food · gluten free · recipes

Gluten-Free Portuguese Custard Tarts (Pasteis De Nata) Recipe

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A few years ago, my husband and I went on holiday to Lisbon in Portugal, and we fell in love with pasteis de nata, the amazing Portuguese custard tarts. Made with a buttery puff pastry and Portuguese custard, they are just delicious. When we got back home, we even found a bakery in our home town that specialised in making pasteis de nata – and we were so happy to be able to continue enjoying them.

But when my husband was diagnosed with gluten intolerance, they just became yet another yummy treat that he couldn’t have. Until now! Using shop-bought gluten free puff pastry, I have succeeded in making gluten-free pasteis de nata that are delicious and taste really authentic. Read on to find out how!

Gluten-free Portuguese Custard Tarts Recipe

Ingredients for gluten-free Portuguese custard tarts:

To make these Portuguese custard tarts, you will need:

  • 1 packet pre-made gluten free puff pastry (you could use shortcrust, but puff pastry is more authentic)
  • 125g golden caster sugar
  • 80ml water
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • Lemon rind (a few pieces is fine, you don’t need the whole lemon!)
  • 2 egg yolks and one whole egg
  • 25g cornflour
  • 150ml milk

How to make your gluten-free pasteis de nata:

1. First prep that pastry! Unroll your puff pastry to remove the baking paper from the roll. Then re-roll it so you end up with a sausage of pastry (yep! I know it seems counter-intuitive, but this is most similar to how real pasteis de nata are made in Portugal). Cut the sausage into sections about 1cm – 1.5cm thick. You should end up with about 12 of these.

2. For each of the pastry pieces, turn them sideways, and place them between two pieces of baking paper. Then roll them out with a rolling pin until you end up with thin discs of pastry about the size of your cupcake tray holes. Pop them into the cupcake tray.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees C.

4. Next, make your custard! Proper Portuguese custard is made with a sugar syrup infused with cinammon and lemon rind. To do this, heat the water, sugar, lemon rind and cinnamon stick in a pan. You want to dissolve the sugar into the water and get the mixture hot, but not boiling.

5. Meanwhile, whisk the cornflour into the eggs. Heat the milk until it is warm but not boiling, and slowly pour over the egg and flour mixture, whisking as you go. Add the vanilla essence.

6. Remove the cinnamon stick and lemon rind from your sugar syrup (carefully!). Pour the sugar syrup slowly over your eggs, milk and flour mixture, whisking constantly to form a runny custard.

6. Pour the custard into your pastry cases until they’re about three quarters full (see picture below).

7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes, until golden on top.

8. Cool on a wire cooling rack. While the tarts are cooling, you can optionally sprinkle them with a mix of sugar and ground cinnamon, to really bring out the flavour. And voila! Your tarts are ready.

Tips and tricks for your gluten free pasteis de nata:

The instructions at step 2 might sound like a peculiar way to treat puff pastry! But they’re actually a reasonably close approximation of the way that pastel de nata pastry cases are made in Portugal. So don’t worry that your pastry will be ruined!

These gluten-free Portuguese custard tarts are definitely best on the day they’re made. They’ll keep overnight in the fridge, but much longer and you risk the pastry becoming very sad and soggy, which no one wants. In my household though, they rarely last that long!

More gluten-free recipes…

Looking for more recipes for tasty gluten-free treats? Why not check out our recipes page, or try baking these delicious gluten free pumpkin muffins?

Love, Corn Review – New Gluten-Free Snacks
gluten free · reviews

Love, Corn Review – New Gluten-Free Snacks

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I regularly blog about gluten free baking and share my favourite recipes. But today I’m sharing my review of a yummy new gluten-free snack I was kindly gifted to try out – Love, Corn – and including a code for 20% off your next order. Read on to find out more!

What is Love, Corn?

It’s a crunchy new savoury snack made from corn kernels – think roasted, un-popped popcorn. Not only are they gluten-free, but they’re also vegan, verified kosher, and non-genetically modified. There are four different Love, Corn flavours – sea salt, smoked barbecue, salt and vinegar, and habanero chilli – and the website says they’re a perfect swap for crisps, pretzels and crackers. But is that true? As a complete crisp addict, I was initially sceptical – and while I waited for my Love, Corn to arrive, I decided to find out more about the history of these new corn kernel snacks…

What’s the history of corn kernel snacks?

Roasted corn kernels are also sometimes known as corn nuts in the United States, as cancha in Peru or kikos in Spain. Although I’ve not come across this before as a snack in the UK, the corn kernel or corn nut apparently has a long and interesting history. Native Americans used to create a snack called ‘parched corn‘, by drying and roasting corn kernels. This created a lightweight but nutritionally dense food that could easily be stored or carried, and either eaten whole or ground into flour. Parched corn was such a great foodstuff that European settlers who arrived in the Americas quickly started making it too.

Years later, in 1936, an enterprising California resident named Albert Holloway started rehydrating the corn kernels before roasting them, to make them bigger and more delicious. He then discovered a giant type of corn from Peru called cusco gigante, and once he’d managed to start importing it, the business really took off. Holloway had originally (and somewhat inexplicably) named his product ‘Olin’s Brown Jug Toasted Corn’ but later (presumably after learning a little more about marketing) changed it to the much snappier Corn Nuts. And corn nuts have been a popular snack in the USA ever since.

Love, Corn: The Review

Having tried all four flavours, I can confirm they’re pretty awesome – much lighter and crunchier than you might expect. I think my favourite Love, Corn flavour is the barbecue, while my husband loved the spicy habanero chilli – but honestly they’re all delicious, and I was particularly impressed how they managed to get a real vinegary tang in the salt and vinegar corn. Much like popcorn, these corn nuts are really more-ish – once you start munching a few, you just keep going! Obviously the fact that they’re gluten-free is also a real bonus for us as a family.

Apparently Holloway originally created corn nuts to sell to tavern owners as a great snack to pair with beer, and that’s definitely also still true! We’ve been enjoying munching on our Love, Corn corn nuts with a cheeky beer in the evenings, while watching the last of this season’s football (just as well really, because Arsenal’s performances have not really given us much to enjoy in and of themselves…)

Something else I really like is that unlike crisps, Love, Corn doesn’t get crushed to pieces if you squash the bag… When we’re travelling, space is usually at a premium thanks to all the bits and pieces you have to cart around when you have a toddler, so it’s nice to have a delicious snack that you can just shove in a bag and not worry about it being ruined in transit.

Where to get your Love, Corn

Well, first off, if you haven’t tried corn nuts before, you can get a free sample pack of all four Love, Corn flavours and all you have to pay is £1.99 shipping. Just head to this link: www.lovecorn.com/sample and follow the instructions. Alternatively, you can get 20% off your entire order if you follow this link to the website and enter the code ‘CRUNCH20’.

Review: Making Matcha At Home With The Zen Tea Co.
reviews · tea

Review: Making Matcha At Home With The Zen Tea Co.

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So, it’s no secret that I love tea! My kitchen shelves are stocked with all kinds of tea from all over the world. But up to now, Japanese matcha tea hasn’t been something I’ve tried making at home. Until UK-based company The Zen Tea Co. came along, that is… Here’s my review of their organic ceremonial grade emerald matcha.

Making Matcha At Home With The Zen Tea Co.

What is matcha?

Okay, first things first: what actually is matcha? It’s become more popular in the UK in the past few years, but it’s still definitely a bit of a niche drink…

Matcha is a powdered green tea. It actually originates from medieval China, where tea leaves were steamed and formed into bricks as a way to make them easier to store and trade… in fact, tea bricks were even sometimes used as a form of currency! During the Song dynasty, it became popular to make a drink by powdering the tea bricks and whipping the powder into hot water.

These days, though, matcha is associated with Japan and particularly the Japanese tea ceremony. In the 12th century, a Japanese Buddhist monk called Myoan Eisai visited China, got hooked on that sweet sweet green stuff, and brought it back to Japan with him. Eisai and other monks believed that drinking matcha helped their meditation sessions, by producing a state of “calm alertness”. It was the Zen Buddhist equivalent of your morning coffee en route to the office.

Why drink matcha?

Well, obviously, as with any beverage, the first draw is the flavour! Matcha has a very rich, earthy, bitter flavour which can be a bit of an acquired taste – in the same way that coffee can. In Japan, to balance out the natural bitter flavours, it’s often served with little sweets, or used to flavour treats like cakes and mochi. It’s also got a lovely texture; as the powdered tea is whipped into the hot water, it has a much fuller, creamier texture than other teas.

As well as the flavour, though, matcha is high in antioxidants and a compound called L theanine which can help to reduce stress. Yum!

Making matcha at home

As my husband has a lot of family in Japan, I’ve drunk matcha over there in some beautiful traditional tea gardens in Tokyo and Kyoto. It’s very much always been something I’ve enjoyed as an unusual treat on holiday, and up to now it hadn’t occurred to me to try making my own matcha at home in the UK.

Matcha and sweets in Japan

But then The Zen Tea Co. kindly offered to gift me a box of their organic ceremonial grade matcha tea. Sourced from Uji, Japan, their organic tea is cultivated on a family-owned farm and processed locally to ensure a top quality final product. So I couldn’t wait to try making matcha at home!

The Zen Tea Co. also sent me a copy of their downloadable guide, which comes with lots of useful information about matcha and, most importantly, a tonne of different recipes to try – from traditional matcha to matcha lemonade, lattes and smoothies. Obviously I had to give a couple of their recipes a go…

Traditional ceremonial matcha

To make traditional ceremonial matcha, you sift two teaspoons of matcha powder into a bowl or cup, add about 60ml hot water, and whisk vigorously until the powder is dissolved. Then you add another 60ml (or so – it doesn’t have to be exact!) and keep whisking, until you have a lovely frothy, foamy green drink. See the pictures below for how mine turned out!

Traditionally, you would do this with a bamboo whisk and matcha bowl, but I made mine in a measuring jug with a small metal balloon whisk, and I can attest that it still tasted fantastic and incredibly authentic. Even before I had actually tasted the tea, just the smell of the matcha in our kitchen was enough to take me back to holidays in Japan. And my husband in the living room said the same thing.

Iced matcha latte

The Zen Tea Co. recipe for iced matcha lattes really intrigued me. You whisk three teaspoons of matcha powder into about 50ml hot water, until it’s lovely and frothy. Then you mix in a teaspoon of condensed milk, 200ml milk and pour over ice cubes.

I loved the end result! I’ve had condensed milk in coffee before and thought it was a great combination, and it really works well with matcha too – again it’s that bittersweet flavour that’s just delicious. I would definitely recommend iced matcha lattes as a really summery drink that feels like a proper treat for tea lovers. I’d think it’s also a great starting point if you’re new to matcha and want to try it out for the first time.

Iced matcha lattes

A Matcha Made In Heaven

Whether you already love matcha, or you’re interested in trying it – if a holiday to Japan isn’t on the cards any time soon, then I definitely recommend trying The Zen Tea Co. Their matcha is fantastic quality and I love their recipe ideas as well – I’m looking forward to trying some more of them!

If you’re based in the UK and you love Japanese food, I can also recommend Ai No Mochi, a London-based mochi delivery company. Yum!

Gluten Free Raspberry and Coconut Granola Slices Recipe
baking · gluten free

Gluten Free Raspberry and Coconut Granola Slices Recipe

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Today I thought I’d share this fab recipe for delicious gluten-free raspberry and coconut granola slices! It’s super easy, cheap, and also has the benefit of being put-downable… If you have to stop in the middle of making it, you can just leave it half-done and pick it back up later, and the outcome will still be good. This is especially important when baking with a baby around (as I’ve discovered!).

It’s also a great way to use up any raspberries that are a bit past their best!

Gluten-free Raspberry & Coconut Granola Bars

Ingredients Needed

You will need the following ingredients:

  • 100g oats
  • 100g golden caster sugar
  • 125g gluten free plain flour
  • 75g butter
  • 30g dessicated coconut
  • 1 tsp cinammon
  • 1/4 tsp xantham gum (optional)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Raspberry jam (about a quarter of a jar, or c. 6 tbsps)
  • Fresh raspberries (optional)

Key Information About This Recipe

This recipe should make you 12 – 16 granola slices (depending on how large you cut them!) so it’s perfect for entertaining or re-stocking the pantry.

Your raspberry and coconut slices will last about four to five days, if you keep them in an airtight tin (and if you can stop yourself from eating them all before then!).

This is a gluten free recipe, but if you don’t mind eating gluten, you can substitute normal plain flour for the gluten-free flour, and leave out the xantham gum.

How To Bake Your Gluten Free Raspberry and Coconut Granola Slices

1. Start by lining a 20cm X 20cm baking tray with baking paper and greasing the sides. Pre-heat the oven to 170 C.

2. Put all the ingredients except the jam and raspberries into a bowl. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients (didn’t I say it was easy?). You should be left with a mixture similar to crumble topping.

3. Press 2/3rds of the mixture into the base of the tin. You want it reasonably compacted, otherwise your bars will just fall apart! Spread the jam over the top of the mixture and optionally dot your fresh raspberries over the top.

4. Finally, sprinkle the remaining crumble mixture over the top, pop in the oven, and bake for 30 mins.

5. Let the mix cool in the tin, and serve! It really is that easy.

Gluten-Free, Low FODMAP Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cookies Recipe
baking · food · gluten free · recipes

Gluten-Free, Low FODMAP Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cookies Recipe

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I wanted to share this recipe for gluten-free, low FODMAP peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with you. We’ve known about my husband’s gluten intolerance for a number of years, so I’m well versed in creating gluten free recipes. But in the autumn he also went onto the low-FODMAP diet, to try to help us work out what other food intolerances he has. So I’ve also had the fun of trying out low FODMAP baking for the first time. I think these peanut butter choc chip cookies are a great treat even if you don’t have any dietary requirements! Plus they’re really easy to make.

This recipe will make around 9 – 14 gluten-free low FODMAP peanut butter choc chip cookies. It takes about fifteen minutes to prepare and another 12 minutes to bake. You can also freeze these cookies and reheat them later (10 minutes in an oven preheated to 160 degrees C).

Gluten-Free Low FODMAP Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cookies

The ingredients:

You will need the following ingredients for your gluten free low FODMAP peanut butter chocolate chip cookies:

  • 225g salted butter
  • 225g caster sugar
  • 2 egg yolks (or one egg – but two yolks gives a more chewy, cookie-ish consistency)
  • 2tbsp peanut butter
  • 250g gluten free self-raising flour (or add 3tsp baking powder to plain flour)
  • 1tsp xanthan gum
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • 50g gluten free oats
  • 100g dark chocolate drops or chopped dark chocolate

Gluten-free Peanut Choc Chip Cookies: The Recipe:

1. First, mix together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then mix in the egg, a little at a time.

2. Sieve in the flour and xanthan gum, add the peanut butter, oats and vanilla extract and mix well.

3. Lastly, add your chocolate chips and mix until well combined into a thick dough… See the picture of the cookie dough below.

4. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

5. Next, roll the cookie dough into balls, a little smaller than golf ball size. Put the balls onto a baking sheet, well spaced apart.

6. Bake your cookies for around 12 minutes, until they are slightly brown at the edges. They will look a bit undercooked in the middle – that’s okay.

7. Cool the cookies on the tray for 2 – 3 minutes, then transfer onto a cooling rack.

Tips and Tricks for your Gluten-free Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cookies:

The aim is to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with a slightly soft, chewy centre. This is harder to achieve with a gluten free recipe! The use of egg yolks, oats, peanut butter and xanthan gum should help to give more of a chewy texture, but the most important thing is not to leave them in the oven too long – if you do, they’ll still be delicious, but they’ll have more of a crunchy biscuit texture.

Another thing that helps with the chewy texture is putting the cookie dough onto the baking sheet in balls rather than dough that’s already rolled flat – so make sure you don’t skip that step!

To keep things low- FODMAP, make sure you use dark chocolate chips. Also ensure that your peanut butter doesn’t contain high-FODMAP ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup.

More yummy gluten-free recipes…

If you’re in the market for delicious gluten free treats, why not check out my recipe for gluten-free chocolate cappuccino brownies, or this one for yummy gluten-free pumpkin muffins?

Gluten-free Sugar Glazed Jam Tarts Recipe
baking · gluten free

Gluten-free Sugar Glazed Jam Tarts Recipe

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These bite-size gluten free jam tarts are great for a picnic, and the sugar glaze helps to keep them light and sweet with the salty puff pastry and tangy jam! It is such an easy recipe to bake with little kids, who will love cutting the pastry and spooning out the jam (fair warning, you will have jam everywhere). Little Man is still a bit small to get very involved in baking, but he enjoyed watching me drizzle the sugar glaze and sticking his hands into a lemon tart… Oops.

Plus, it’s so nice if you have a gluten free family member who doesn’t usually get to enjoy pastry treats! There’s virtually no washing up, and it only requires four ingredients. So let’s get going!

Gluten-free Sugar-glazed Jam Tarts Recipe

Ingredients for your gluten free jam tarts:

Genuinely you only need four ingredients:

  • Gluten-free puff pastry (available in most supermarkets these days – I use Jus-Roll gluten free pastry which you can find everywhere!)
  • Jam or lemon curd (or both!)
  • Icing sugar
  • Water

How to make your tarts:

1. Use a biscuit cutter to cut circles out of the pastry and put them into the cake spots in a cupcake tin. This creates a nice shape for your tarts. Using a fork, prick holes in the base of each one – this will stop it puffing in the middle and spilling jam everywhere!

2. Put a small teaspoon of jam or lemon curd in the middle of each tart. Don’t get too generous, as the filling will bubble up when baking!

3. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 200 degrees C, for 12 – 15 minutes (until the pastry is nice and golden).

4. Carefully remove your tarts from the tin and place on a cooling rack. Mix two tablespoons of icing sugar with two teaspoons of water to form a runny white glaze, and drizzle it over the tarts once they’re cool.

5. Try not to let your baby son stick his mucky hands all over them…

Ridiculously Delicious Pancake Day Inspiration and Ideas
baking · celebrations · gluten free · Just for fun · Seasonal

Ridiculously Delicious Pancake Day Inspiration and Ideas

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So the 16th February is, of course, Pancake Day. And let’s face it, what with lockdown and coronavirus, we’ve not got much to look forward to this year. Which means (in my mind) that Pancake Day should now be treated as a major holiday and celebrated as such. To that end, I’m bringing together some of my personal favourite recipes and ideas for incredible pancakes – including sweet and savory recipes, gluten free pancakes, and some slightly outlandish ideas as well… By the time I’m finished, I might just have to turn it into Pancake Week!

Pancake Day Inspiration and Ideas

Big Fat Pancakes

Ah, big fat pancakes. You know the ones. The kind of fluffy pancakes you find stacked up like the Empire State Building and smothered in syrup, on a plate that’s much too small, in a cheap American diner…. Om nom nom. Here’s a recipe for big fat pancakes from BBC Good Food – the normal flour can be directly substituted for gluten-free flour. And see below for ideas on how to make them a bit more exciting…

Savoury Pancakes

These kind of American pancakes really work well with additions to the batter. If you’re a fan of the Hawaiian pizza, I highly recommend scattering shredded ham and small pieces of pineapple into the pan along with the wet batter. They will cook into the pancake and, served with a little melted cheese on top, create a delicious (if slightly unorthodox) Hawaiian pancake treat! Unless you are my husband, in which case you will think it is the pancake of the devil. Fair enough.

If you are of my husband’s mindset, with regards to the combination of ham, pineapple and cheese, then there are of course big fat savoury pancake alternatives. Another great choice is to keep the shredded ham in the batter (but drop the pineapple!… not into the batter…) and then top your pancakes with smoked cheese and chives.

Sweet Pancakes

The obvious choice is, of course, to drop blueberries in your pancake batter and serve with syrup or, if you’re feeling especially extravagant, blueberry yoghurt and maple syrup. I think pretty much any fruit + yoghurt combination works – I’m not the biggest ever fan of blueberries but I love these pancakes with raspberries and yoghurt (in fact you can see that exact combo in one of the pictures on this page!). Ice cream is a more than acceptable yoghurt substitute if you don’t care about pretending that your breakfast is remotely healthy.

Another amazing big fat pancake is a cinammon swirl pancake. These are perfect breakfast pancakes! Basically it’s a normal American pancake but with an addition of sweet cinammon butter, swirled into the batter. I make them at home on a semi-regular basis and they are super delicious, but fair warning: I have never managed to get them looking particularly attractive (hence the absence of photos). To this day, I have no idea how the folks over at BBC Good Food managed to get theirs looking so perfect. But who cares? They don’t last long enough to photograph anyway.

I also weirdly love the combo of banana, bacon and maple syrup for the ultimate sweet and savoury twist.

Skinny Flat Pancakes

Let’s be clear. By ‘skinny’ pancakes, I mean pancakes that are physically slender, not ones that are in any way healthy to eat. That is not in the spirit of Pancake Day. The best thing about skinny flat pancakes, a.k.a. classic French crepes (basic recipe here, straight swap the flour for gluten free flour if needed), is that you can eat a lot more of them before you’re full! As we all know, on Pancake Day one should maximise the quantity, as well as the quality, of pancakes consumed…

Savoury Crepes

Crepes work super well with savoury flavours. My favourite is to spread the crepe with cream cheese, sprinkle with cracked black pepper, smoked salmon, a squeeze of lemon and a generous scattering of chopped chives. It’s sort of like a smoked salmon blini, but much much bigger!

Sweet Crepes

Having started with a savoury crepe (or two, or three) obviously you need to move on to dessert. When I was a kid, my mum always served up crepes spread with strawberry jam, and/or a sprinkle of lemon juice and sugar. Sometimes the classics are the best!

But these days I often dish up a range of sweet fillings, so people can pick and choose their favourites and maybe have a few different combinations. Strawberries and banana are the perfect versatile fruits to have available to fill your crepes, along with Nutella (other chocolate spreads are available…) or caramel sauce.

Fun and Fruity Pancakes

Speaking of fruit, my husband was the one to first introduce me to banana pancakes. Before he came along, I thought ‘banana pancakes’ were the same as ‘banana and pancakes’ – I clearly didn’t pay enough attention to Jack Johnson in my youth. Boy, was I missing out! Proper banana pancakes are now a staple in our house, and Little Man loves them too.

Making banana pancakes can be as simple as two ingredients – banana and egg – making them naturally gluten free, although I prefer recipes that include baking powder for a little extra lightness. My go-to recipe is here, but I usually add a tablespoon of gluten-free flour – because I find the addition of flour makes the pancakes much easier to flip! Banana-only pancakes can be very runny, and you end up with rather unattractive melty blobs (although to be fair, they are absolutely delicious melty blobs). I recommend serving them hot from the pan with either maple syrup or golden syrup – both are delicious.

I’ve heard a rumour that you can make other types of fruit pancake, but honestly why would you bother?

Boozy Pancakes

The classic boozy pancake is, naturally, the Crepe Suzette. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a delicious recipe, but also requires a certain amount of confidence and fancy chef-y skills like making caramel and then setting it on fire. The BBC conveniently have an easy version recipe which they call Cointreau Pancakes (other orange-flavoured liqueurs are available).

I have been religiously Googling alternative alcoholic pancake recipes for Pancake Day 2021 inspiration, because as we all know, lockdowns are vastly improved by the addition of booze. The ones that have caught my eye the most are these caramelised banana and rum pancakes (drool!), these Bailey’s red velvet pancakes with whipped cream (I love the idea of red velvet pancakes!), these pina colada pancakes (my favourite cocktail) and these strawberry lime margarita pancakes which just sound straight-up amazing. Will I get the chance to try all these recipes before Pancake Day? Clearly, no – so if you try one, let me know what you think in the comments!

More Pancake Day Inspiration

Do you have any 2021 Pancake Day inspiration of your own? Let me know your favourite recipes in the comments! Or check out my other recipes and gluten-free baking ideas here – or if you’re not much of a baker, why not try a ready-made pancake kit instead?