Dairy-free Blackberry Frangipane Tart

Dairy-free, Soya-free

Serves: 8 people

Calories per serving: 470

 

 

Autumn. Autumn is coming. And as much as I've loved the summer, autumn is still, and will always be, my favourite season. And the best thing about autumn, for me, is blackberries. Blackberries bring back happy childhood memories of foraging with my family as a kid, then coming home and helping my mum to make blackberry pie. It's a tradition I'm repeating with my own daughter. This year is the first time she's really been into it, and we've made the most of the early season.

 

So because I had a basket bursting full of blackberries I figured I would invent a new recipe... something a bit more exciting than a classic blackberry pie (though I will be having at least one of those this autumn too!). This is my first attempt at a dairy-free tart, and I have to say that you wouldn't even know it's dairy-free. It is really delicious.

 

I used blackberries in this recipe because I had lots to hand, but it would work equally well with raspberries or blueberries. You could even try experimenting with cherries and try using amaretto rather than almond extract. Playing around with flavours is fun.

 

Ingredients:

 

Pastry:

•  235g plain flour
• a pinch of salt
• 125g non-dairy, non-soya spread
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 medium egg (beaten)

Frangipane:

• 260g fresh blackberries
• 120g non-dairy, non-soya spread
• 120g icing sugar
• 120g beaten eggs
• 120g ground almonds
• 25g plain flour
• 3 tsp almond extract

Method:

 

Pastry:

• Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt.
• Rub in the spread until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
• Add a small amount of egg and bring the mixture together using a knife. If it's too dry to come together to a dough, add more egg, and if necessary a tiny amount of cold water. The dough should be wet enough that it's not cracking apart, but not sticky. (Making shortcrust pastry can take a little practice, but by adding the liquid gradually your dough shouldn't end up too wet).
• Chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling out. Preheat the oven to 190C/ Gas Mark 5.
• Roll the dough out on a floured surface and place into a 20cm pie dish. If you have gaps up the sides of the pie dish, patch up with excess pastry. Leave the pastry hanging over the sides (you can trim it later).
• Line with greaseproof paper, add baking beans or rice and blind bake for about 15 minutes.

 

Frangipane:

• Place the blackberries into the tart case and spread out.

 

 

• Place the spread into a large mixing bowl and put in a microwave for a few seconds until it is almost melted. Then cream the spread and icing sugar until mixed. The mixture will be very runny.
• Gradually add the beaten egg, mixing between each addition. Then add the flour and ground almonds, stirring them into the mixture.
• Stir in the almond extract.
• Pour the mixture onto the blackberries.

• Place the tart into the oven for around 40 minutes, until the top is golden and the frangipane is set. (It should still be moist).
• Allow to cool, then trim off the excess pastry and serve.





 

Dairy-free Birthday Cake

Dairy-free, Soya-free

Serves: Dozens

Photo courtesy of my friend Mel

This weekend it was my daughter's third birthday. I wanted to make her an epic birthday cake for her little party. She loves the film Wreck it Ralph, so after getting some inspiration and ideas from Pinterest, and watching the movie literally dozens of times, I knew the cake I wanted to make. As well as baking, decorating cakes is a little bit of a hobby of mine. I'm gradually teaching myself the skills.

Anyway, the bulk of this two-tiered cake is not dairy/soya-free. It's a full-blown buttery chocolately monstrosity! Ha ha. Nor is the chocolate drizzle I added. But as one of the children coming to the party is allergic to dairy and soya I decided to make the smaller top-tier dairy/soya-free. So this recipe is only for one 20cm lemon, fondant cake. The bottom tier is a 30cm cake, so if you wanted to make this exact cake to the recipe you would need the ingredients listed below, plus another two times as much for the bottom tier.

I should just add that this recipe is not really mine. It's a standard fondant cake madeira recipe with the addition of lemon juice and zest. You could make the cake vanilla, orange, almond, etc by changing the flavouring. But for a fondant cake you generally need to use a strong cake recipe, such as a madeira, so it can take the weight you're adding to it.

Ingredients:

(for one 20cm round cake. For the full cake add another two times these amounts)

Cake:

• 280g non-dairy, non-soya spread
• 280g caster sugar
• 5 eggs (beaten)
• 280g self-raising flour
• the zest and juice of 2 1/2 lemons

Buttercream:

• 220g non-dairy, non-soya spread
• 700g icing sugar
• 2-4 tbsp lemon juice

Plus:

• about 900g standard fondant icing
• food colouring paste of the colour you want the cake
• various sweets, lollipops and any other embellishments you want to add

Method:

Cake:

• Preheat the oven to 180C, Gas Mark 4. Grease and line two 20cm sandwich tines.
• Place the spread and sugar into a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until pale and creamy.
• Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a tablespoon of flour with each egg to prevent curdling. Stir in the lemon juice and zest.
• Sift the flour into the bowl and fold in using a large spoon.
• Divide the mix between the sandwich tins and smooth the tops. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. Check if they're cooked using a skewer or by pressing the top and seeing if it springs back.
• Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
• (Just a tip for anyone who decides to make the 30cm cake too. A cake that size will need to be baked in one deep tin, and will need about 2 hours to cook. When it comes to cutting the cake across to make the separate sandwiches, it's much easier if you first freeze the cake and cut while it's still partically frozen. I always freeze fondant cakes before using them).

Buttercream:

• Place the spread in a large bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add the icing sugar a little at a time and beat using an electric whisk. Continue to mix until the mixture changes colour.
• Add enough lemon juice to make the mixture a spreadable consistency.
• Spread over the cooled cake and between the layers, smoothing out with a palette knife.

To finish:

• Finishing a fondant cake takes practice and the right tools. If you've never done it before I highly recommend checking out some YouTube videos to get some tips. It's a lot harder than it looks (trust me). Colouring the amount of fondant needed on this cake also took a lot of time.

Dairy-free Strawberry and Almond Crumble Ice-Cream

Dairy-free, Soya-free

Serves: 8 people

Calories per serving: 324

 



So, ice-cream. I'd never made ice-cream before. Not even full dairy stuff. It's just never seemed worth the trouble. But as part of my adventures in dairy-free baking I figured, what the hell. Also, I'd just bought a huge quantity of delicious strawberries on the market (those traders and their irresistible deals!) and needed a way to use them up. So I thought, what goes well with strawberries? Almonds! And I had a lot of almonds in the pantry that needed eating. Great! I found some recipes and off I went, experimenting.

Credit for the basic dairy-free strawberry ice-cream recipe has to go to Angela's Kitchen. I had no idea where to start on this one and basically used this recipe with a few less strawberries. But the almond crumble recipe is one I heavily adapted from a Nigella Lawson almond crumble.

I don't have an ice-cream maker so the actual freezing and whipping took a long time. If you have a maker, great. If not, this will work, it just takes a long time.

So onto the recipe. And I should just add that this is delicious! I wasn't expecting it to be that nice, no dairy and all. But I was really pleasantly surprised (as were my friends). It tastes like a very creamy frozen yoghurt. It's lush!

Ingredients:

Crumble:

• 150g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 75g non-dairy, non-soya spread (diced)
• 90g flaked almonds
• 75g soft light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Ice-cream:

• 75g caster sugar
• 370ml almond milk
• 2 eggs
• 400g strawberries (diced)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 120ml full-fat coconut milk

Method:

Ice-cream

• Beat the sugar and eggs together in a mixing bowl using an electric whisk until they have thickened and turned pale.
• Place the almond milk in a saucepan and heat over a medium heat until just simmering. Keep the electric whisk going and whisk the almond milk into the egg mixture. Then place the contents back into the saucepan and put over a low heat. Stir constantly with a whisk until the mixture thickens. (This takes a LONG time. I was amazed how long. I think it took about 40 minutes. DO NOT BOIL!). Eventually it will resemble double cream. Then you can stop.

• Remove from the heat and pass through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Allow to cool.
• Place the strawberries into a blender with the coconut milk and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth. Add to the previous mix and stir. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator until cold.
• Once cool, place in the freezer and make the crumble.

Crumble:

• Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
• Place the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and rub in the spread using your fingers. It should resemble rough breadcrumbs.
• Stir in the flaked almonds, salt, cinnamon and brown sugar. Add the almond extract. Mix.
• Place the crumble mix into a ceramic dish. Grab small amounts and squeeze them together to make some chunks. (You'll want a mix of loose crumbs and big chunks).
• Bake the crumble mix until it is golden.
• Leave to cool.

Ice-cream:

• Once the ice-cream has been in the freezer for 30 minutes, take it out and beat it with an electric whisk until smooth again. (Make sure to get any ice-crystals mixed in that have started to form around the edge). Then put back in the freezer. You'll need to repeat this process every 30 minutes until the ice-cream is frozen to the consistency of soft-scoop ice-cream. (Mine took about 5 hours).

• Add the crumble mix to the ice-cream once it's at the above stated consistency and stir through (I found there was too much crumble and had some left over). Place back in the freezer and leave it there until you're ready to eat it.

Dairy-free Blackberry Pancakes

Dairy-free, Soya-free

Serves: 2 people

Calories per serving: 263

 

 

You might say I'm a little bit obsessed with pancakes. They're my ultimate favourite breakfast. I eat them probably five days a week. I just love them. From thin crepes full of strawberries and Nutella, to thick, fluffy almost-muffins jam-packed full of berries; pancakes are delicious, versatile and nutritious.

 

Because I love them so much I've experimented with pancakes a lot... different recipes, different fruits, adding something here, trying something there. And I've finally settled upon my favourite recipe. Blackberries work wonderfully in pancakes! Here's my dairy-free and consequently low-calorie recipe for blackberry pancake

 

Ingredients:

• 100g plain flour
• 15g soft light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 115ml unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 a medium egg
• 1 cup blackberries
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt
• Fry-lite oil or spray butter substitute

Method:

• Place the flour, baking powder and sugar into a large mixing bowl.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the almond milk, lemon juice and egg together. Add to the mixing bowl and whisk to make a smooth batter.
• Add the vanilla extract and salt and whisk. Add the blackberries and gently fold them in.
• Place a large frying pan on a medium heat and spray with oil or butter substitute. Heat until the oil has become transparent then ladle four dollops of batter into the pan. Cook for around 4 minutes on each side.
• Serve with maple syrup.

Dairy-free Squidgy Banana Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce

Dairy-free, Soya-free

Serves: 10 people

Calories per serving: 417

Photo courtesy of my friend Mel



So, here is my very first recipe, and it's one I created completely from scratch using my own knowledge of baking, taking a few hints from other recipes for the basic structure, and simply experimenting. This recipe is quite advanced, particularly the caramel. And judging the difference between an under-cooked cake and a cake that’s squidgy but cooked isn’t easy. But I’ll offer a few pointers along the way.

I should just add that this recipe is absolutely delicious! I've never tasted such a wonderful banana cake (even if I do say so myself!).

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 250g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 80g pecan nuts (broken up in a pestle and mortar)
• 350g over-ripe bananas (mashed)
• 160g non-dairy, non-soya spread
• 165g golden caster sugar

Salted Caramel Sauce:

• 120ml coconut milk
• 2 tbsp virgin coconut oil
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 155g light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Cake:

• Preheat the oven to 170C/ 150C fan oven. Grease and line a deep 20cm cake tin.
• Using an electric whisk, cream the non-dairy, non-soya spread with the golden caster sugar until it is turning slightly pale. This usually takes 3-5 minutes.
• Add the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of flour with each, to prevent curdling, whisking into the mixture until smooth. Add the bananas and whisk briefly to ensure they’re properly mixed in.
• Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture, folding in gently. Stir through the vanilla extract, vegetable oil (this makes the cake extra squishy) and pecan nuts.
• Place the cake mix into the cake tin and bake for around 1 hour 20 minutes. You’ll need to check the cake to see it’s progress… press gently on the top. It should spring back but still feel a little sticky. Stick a skewer into the centre. It should come out clean. As I said it’s not easy to judge a squishy cake, but if it’s not cooked enough when you take it out of the tin you can always put it in the oven for longer.
• Leave in the tin for ten minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Salted Caramel Sauce:

• Place the coconut milk, coconut oil, brown sugar, golden syrup and salt into a saucepan. Place on a medium heat and whisk continuously until the mixture starts to heat up. Whisk constantly! Do not allow to burn! Once the mixture starts to simmer, reduce the heat and boil for around 6 minutes. (When I made this I didn’t cook it long enough and it wasn’t thick enough and didn’t taste much like caramel. I put it back on the heat and tried for longer). Eventually the mixture will start to darken and the predominant smell will be caramel, not coconut. It will also be considerably thicker. Don’t take it too far or it will be ruined. (If in doubt, take it off the heat and allow to cool. If it’s not thick enough, put it back on the heat like I did). Once you’re convinced it’s cooked enough, remove from the heat and beat in the vanilla extract.

• Drizzle over the cooled cake whilst the caramel is still a little warm. Serve.

Welcome!

Why hello there. It's nice to meet you. I'm Linni, and this is my brand new baking blog. I've been baking as long as I can remember, but I've only recently started experimenting with flavour combinations and new ideas to create my very own recipes. I've also become intrigued by dairy-free baking. A friend of mine has a daughter who is allergic to dairy and soya, and through baking things for our weekly meet-ups that she can eat, I've learned a lot about baking without using dairy products. It's been quite a challenge at times, but I'm really inspired in a whole new way.


I'll aim to post a recipe per week... each week I take a new creation along to my friends and they taste it for me and give me (surely honest! ;)) feedback. And then my friend Mel takes very beautiful and professional photographs. (It's a great trade-off).

The recipes on this page will all be dairy and soya-free. I'll also aim to create some gluten-free recipes too.

I hope you enjoy discovering, and hopefully trying for yourself, my recipes. Feedback is always appreciated of course.

I'm so excited to get started! :D