Monthly Archives: October 2015

Gluten free white chocolate blondies with dark chocolate chunks

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Filed under Baking, chocolate, desserts, egg free, Egg free desserts, Gluten free, tea time treats, white chocolate

blondie

It’s late, I’m tired, I’ve been to Manchester and back to today and have only just finished working, but I promised someone I’d blog this very tasty blondie by tomorrow and at ten o’clock tomorrow morning I’m going to deepest, darkest Devon with no wifi or phone signal (the reality of this is just sinking in..) so it’s now or never. As you know the daughter has coeliac disease; she’s a very fussy eater; she likes chocolate (no fussiness with that foodstuff – what a shocker) and she’s also allergic to eggs. I’ve developed a blondie recipe that she can eat and actually doesn’t taste like it’s gluten AND egg free (it’s not crumbly and it has a decent rise) so here it is. (I made it with my new miracle egg replacer discovery – whipped chick pea brine, but I’ll give you directions for using the real thing too). It’s yum. When I left this morning the whole cake was intact as per the photo above; on my return this evening there were a few crumbs left. Mr Arabella Cooks and three lively children had demolished almost all of it (and I’ve just polished the rest off).

blondie 3_edited-1blondie 4

Ingredients:

  • 1 x 150g bar of gluten free white cooking chocolate (I use Green and Blacks) broken up.
  • 200g unsalted butter, cut up into small chunks
  • 150g of caster sugar
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt
  • 150g of gluten free plain flour (I use Doves)
  • 50g of gluten free BREAD flour (it has xanthan gum added to it which helps to bind your bake)
  • Half a bar of dark gluten free cooking chocolate (I use Green and Blacks)
  • 200 ml of milk (full fat)
  • 9 tablespoons of aquafaba (the liquid left when you drain a can of chickpeas), whipped to stiff peaks OR 3 large eggs

Method:

  1. Pre heat the oven to 180 (160 fan) degrees
  2. Grease and line a square 18cm/7 inch cake tin with baking parchment
  3. Melt the chocolate and the butter together in a large bowl over a small saucepan with a small amount of water in it, on a low heat. White chocolate (which isn’t really chocolate) does not react well to being heated too quickly or too much so watch it.
  4. Whisk your aquafaba to stiff peaks with a hand held or free standing mixer; if using eggs, whisk them to soft peaks then add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat until it looks like mousse.
  5. (With aquafaba): Mix the flours, sugar, salt and baking powder together in another bowl.
  6. Make a well in the centre and add the melted chocolate and butter mixture. Stir to combine.
  7. Fold in the whipped aquafaba using a metal spoon (you want to try and retain as much air as you can; it’s difficult as the aquafaba collapses more easily than real eggs).
  8. You want a nice ‘dropping consistency’ batter, so now add as much of the milk as you need to achieve this.
  9. Add the dark chocolate chips to the batter and stir. Add the batter to the prepared tin.
  10. Bake. In my oven it took 45-50 minutes to cook. All ovens vary so test it with a cake skewer at 25 minutes in and then every 5 minutes until it’s done. It’s OK for this to be a bit gooey in the middle – the best brownie/blondies are; it’s better for them to be under than over baked, but you don’t want too much floury taste left (esp as it’s gluten free flour) so make sure it’s got a good colour on the top and is done sufficiently.
  11. Remove from the oven; allow to cool in the tin then remove very gently and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
  12. If you’re using real eggs to make this:
    1. You’ve melted the butter and white choc; you’ve whisked the eggs and added the sugar.
    2. Add the butter and choc to the eggs and keep whisking.
    3. Add the flours and baking powder directly to the egg and chocolate mixture and fold it in.
    4. You shouldn’t need to use the milk if you’re using eggs, but if your batter is too thick, add a little to loosen it
    5. Stir in the chopped up dark chocolate
    6. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake in the oven. I didn’t use eggs so couldn’t say for sure how long to cook it for but I’d say between 25 and 35 minutes; check it after 25 minutes as above..

Enjoy x

blondie 2

Chocolate cake in a cup

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Filed under Baking, cake, chocolate, dessert, Dinner party pudding, easy puddings, Easy recipes, mug cake

mug cake 1

I love making mug cakes. I love how easy they are – no weighing, melting or creaming, just measuring and adding spoonfuls into a cup. Last night Mr Arabella Cooks and I fancied a quick dessert after our evening roast so I knocked one of these up. We stood with our noses pressed against the microwave door oohing and ahhhing at the magic of the rapidly rising pud and it’s gorgeously thick, intensely chocolatey smell. When they work these are as good as any fancy restaurant or dinner party fondant.  Overcook them however and they are disgusting – like rubbery cardboard. Every microwave oven (bizarrely) cooks differently, so you might have to make a couple before you discover the exact time it takes to achieve mug cake perfection in your own oven. My first attempt last night didn’t work.  The recipe I used called for far too long in the oven. The second one, though, after a few tweaks, was utterly gorgeous.

They don’t photograph terribly well. The feature picture here is essentially just a mug. Sorry about that. But cooked perfectly they taste divine. So get a dozen or so eggs in, find someone to sample the ones that don’t work (our two year old is very handy in that regard) and enjoy the research.

Serves two (or 1 greedy person)

Equipment:

  • A mug
  • Some measuring spoons (these are a really useful thing to have in your kitchen; dessert spoons all differ in size so to be really accurate you need these)

Ingredients:

  • 4 tablespoons of plain flour
  • 4 tablespoons of sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 3 tablespoons of milk
  • 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil or melted butter (I use oil)
  • 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla essence
  • a  handful of dark chocolate pieces (I used Dr. Oetker dark chocolate chunks; chop up a small bar of chocolate if you don’t have any chips or chunks to hand)
  • Optional – a teaspoonful of peanut butter

Method

  1. Put the dry ingredients into the mug and stir with a fork
  2. Add the milk, oil or butter and vanilla. Stir to combine
  3. Add the egg and stir until you have a smooth, glossy batter with no pockets of flour
  4. Stir in the chocolate pieces and if you’re going to use it put the teaspoon of peanut butter into the middle of the batter and scrape in the peanut butter using another teaspoon
  5. Put the mug into the microwave. In mine, which is 900W, it takes exactly 1 minutes and 30 seconds to achieve fondant nirvana.
  6. Let it cool slightly, then either eat it straight from the mug or run a palette knife around the edge and tip it out gently onto two plates. There should be a natural break in the middle where it’s still gooey, giving you two perfect melting middle chocolate fondant puddings. It’s delicious with ice cream, especially my raspberry ripple. Yum!

Chicken Soup

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Filed under Chicken, Soup, Starters, Winter warmers

chicken soup

Mr Arabella Cooks doesn’t consider soup to be substantial enough for his evening meal. He makes an exception however, when I make this chicken soup. I hate wasted food and when we’ve had a roast chicken at the weekend I always make stock from the carcass, and with the leftover meat either sandwiches, fajitas, or this delicious chicken soup. What makes it substantial enough to meet Mr AC’s needs is a large amount of veg and some teeny weeny pasta stars from the Heinz baby weaning range. They add texture and bulk but their teeniness means they’re still delicate and don’t overpower the soup as I find anything larger pasta-wise is apt to do. I’ve tried to find another brand of pasta that’s as small as the Heinz baby stuff but so far without success, so whenever I see it in a supermarket I tend to bulk buy it.

I don’t know if chicken soup can cure colds, but winter is nearly upon us and this version will nevertheless fill you with warmth and cheer you up enormously upon eating. I like it best with several slices of cheap, sliced white bread, spread thick with salty butter. Yum!

pickerimage

Recipe (makes roughly enough to serve 3 or 4 people):

For the stock:

  • A chicken carcass (leftover from your Sunday roast)
  • 2 or 3 carrots (I often bung in the ones that have gone a bit flabby to use them up)
  • 2 onions
  • 10 black peppercorns
  • 2 fresh bay leaves
  • 2 parsnips
  • A leek
  • One Kallo organic chicken stock cube

For the soup:

  • The meat from the chicken carcass, chopped into chunks. (If there was hardly anything left use a fresh free range chicken breast)
  • A packet of Heinz baby pasta stars
  • A carrot, peeled and diced into small squares
  • A leek, finely sliced

Method:

  1. Make the stock:
    1. Place the chicken carcass, roughly chopped carrots and parsnips (John Torode recommends peeling the carrots and parsnips as the skin makes the stock bitter but I don’t usually bother), the leek (cut into thirds), onion (leave the skin on as long as it’s clean, but cut it into quarters), peppercorns and bay leaves into a large stockpot.
    2. Cover with cold water.
    3. Bring to the boil; skim off any scum that forms on the surface (this is necessary as the scum definitely will make your soup taste bitter).
    4. Add the Kallo stock cube.
    5. Boil for about an hour or until reduced slightly and cloudy in colour with a good flavour of chicken when tasted.
    6. Strain the stock into a large clean pan (don’t empty it over the sink as I have done in the past. This is liquid you need to keep!
  2. Place the pan of stock on the hob. Add the veg and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pasta stars [I haven’t given a quantity here as I usually do it by eye; I would say about 2 tablespoonfuls is plenty] and chicken and simmer for another 3-5 minutes until the pasta is soft. [If using a fresh chicken breast, chop it into chunks and add it before the veg; once it’s opaque and cooked through add the veg and then the pasta].
  3. Add a few twists of black pepper then taste and add salt if it needs it. Serve with bread and butter. Delish!

chicken soup 2_edited-1