Dairy/Soya/Gluten/Egg-free Pumpkin Polenta Pancakes

Dairy-free, Soya-free, Gluten/Wheat-free, Egg-free, Nut-free

Serves: 2 people

Calories per serving: 350

 

Smothered in strawberry jam!

 

Pumpkin season is upon us. Pumpkin isn't something eaten much in the UK unfortunately. Thankfully I discovered how wonderful it is some years ago as a student with my first exploration of pumpkin pie. This recipe is a perfect autumnal affair!

It actually came about as part of some experimentation. Some time ago I had a huge bag of cornmeal that needed using up, after making some cornbread, not really liking it, and not knowing what to do with the rest. I googled some recipes, found a recipe for polenta pancakes, tried it and instantly fell in love! I mean, seriously! These were one of the most amazing things I have ever tasted! So of course I needed to come up with my own, allergen-free, version. 

It took a lot of experimentation! The crucial thing was replacing the egg. I tried a few different replacements, none of which worked, before finally trying pumpkin purée and gram flour. And they were heaven! I just needed to improve the consistency, which took a little more experimentation, and I finally came up with the perfect recipe! Honestly, these are AMAZING! If you have some leftover pumpkin this autumn you just HAVE to make them!

Ingredients:

• 55g gram flour (sieved)
• 45g fine cornmeal (polenta, maize flour)
• 65g pumpkin purée
• 35g non-dairy, non-soya spread (melted)
• 100ml almond milk
• 15g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 3/4 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp gluten-free baking powder

Method:

• Combine the cornmeal and almond milk in a large bowl. Whisk in the spread, gram flour, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and baking powder.
• Stir in the pumpkin purée.
• Heat some oil in a large frying pan. Ladel four drops of the mixture into the pan and fry for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden.
• These taste really delicious spread with strawberry jam. Enjoy!

Dairy/Soya/Gluten/Egg-free Coconut Ice Fudge

Dairy-free, Soya-free, Gluten-free, Egg-free

Makes: 25 pieces

Calories per piece: 158

Ever since I started this allergen-free culinary journey, I've wanted to try making fudge. I love fudge making. I think it's because I enjoy eating fudge and always figured it would be really really difficult, but then one day I had a go and discovered it's not difficult at all! I've made it lots of times since then, but was always a bit concerned about how dairy/soya-free spread would work in place of butter, given it can be a bit watery and greasy. I was also unsure of the milk. Most fudge recipes use evaporated milk, but I have made it with whole cows milk before... you just have to up the sugar. I figured coconut milk, with its high fat content, might make a good substitute.

Anyway, this week I had some coconut milk on the shelf, and not much else by the way of ingredients, so figured it was the perfect time to have a go. I pulled out a few fudge recipes I have around, read them, and then improvised. I used slightly less spread than I'd use butter, as I was worried about the watery-ness, and had to up the sugar content half way through because it wasn't thickening properly. In the end I've ended up with quite a delicious-tasting product. It's not as "fudgy" as conventional fudge, and with a consistency that resembles coconut ice... but it sure is scrummy!

As an aside, honestly, don't be scared of trying to make fudge! It's not difficult. There are a couple of ways you can mess it up, but I'll take you through the steps. Even if you do mess up, it's so quick and cheap to make you can always try again, and the "mess up" will still taste delicious to eat yourself!

Ingredients:

• 90g non-dairy, non-soya spread
• 650g granulated sugar
• 300ml full-fat coconut milk
• the zest of 1 lime
• 50g toasted dessicated coconut

Method:

• Grease a 20cm square cake tin.
• Place the spread, sugar and coconut milk into a large pan. (I use a jam-making pan for this. The bigger the pan, the quicker the fudge cooks.)

• Heat gently, stirring, until the spread has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
• Continue to heat, stirring occasionally, as the mixture bubbles and turns over. Don't have the heat too high or it will burn. It should look like this:

• Now, there are two ways to check when it's ready. You can use a sugar thermometer, and take it to "soft ball stage", but I prefer the bowl of water method. Fill a bowl with water, and after 10-15 minutes drop a small amount of the mixture into the water. Try to roll it into a ball with your fingers. If it falls apart, cook the mixture for another 5 minutes before trying again. If it comes together into a slightly sticky ball it's ready. Simple!
• When the fudge is ready, remove it from the heat, stir in the lime zest and dessicated coconut, and then leave to cool for 5 minutes! This is where you can mess up your fudge. If you leave it too long it will start to set and the consistency will be all wrong. 5 minutes! And if you notice it start to set, and when you stir it it cracks, you've left it too long.

• After 5 minutes you need to vigorously beat the mixture. Beat the crap out of it! You're breaking up the crystals and creating the consistency. Once the mixture starts to thicken and lose it's shine, it's ready. Don't worry, you can't really over-beat it. Just pay attention to the change and use your instinct. It should take about 5 minutes.

• Pour the fudge into the prepared cake tin as quickly as possible. It will start setting immediately.

• Then leave it to cool. Once coolish, mark out 25 squares with a knife. And once completely cool and set, cut the fudge into its pieces and store in the fridge.
• See! Easy peasy!

Dairy/Soya/Gluten-free Honey Polenta Cake with Homemade Fig Jam

Dairy-free, Soya-free, Gluten/Wheat-free

Serves: 10 people

Calories per serving: 650

Jam. This week I made jam for the first time. I had a batch of figs I'd picked up cheap on the market, and my blogging friend Lily had given me some brilliant instructions on how to make any jam at all. So I figured I'd take a crack at it. I was surprised at how easy it was and how delicious it was! SO worth it!

Anyway, once I'd made all this jam I was just itching to make something with it. Honey, I thought... something with honey would go well. So I had a think for a few days, milling a few recipe ideas around in my mind, and I finally settled on some sort of honey polenta cake. I love polenta, but I've yet to use it to make a cake. So I found a basic polenta cake recipe, played around with it a little to make it my own, and walla! And it's an amazing combination! This cake went down a storm at the homeschool group where I take my recipes to be tasted. :)

Of course, other jams would work well too if you don't want to make your own or you can't get hold of fig jam. Strawberry jam would work beautifully. Or you could always just make the jam and eat it on toast, which is how I'm eating the rest of the batch I made! :)

This jam recipe is pretty basic. You just take some fruit, weigh it, add about 40% of the weight of cooking apples, add the equivalent total weight of sugar, and boil until it makes jam. I'll give the specific weights I've used in the recipe, but feel free to tweak it based on how much fruit you have to use.

Ingredients:

Fig jam:

• 485g fresh figs (diced)
• 200g cooking apples (peeled and diced)
• 700g granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Honey polenta cake:

• 190g non-dairy, non-soya spread
• 110g clear honey
• 60g demerara sugar
• 4 1/2 medium eggs
• 180g ground almonds
• 130g cornmeal (fine-milled polenta/maize flour)
• 3/4 tsp  gluten-free baking powder
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• Icing sugar (for dusting)

Method:

Fig jam:

• First, sterilise your jars. Wash them using warm soapy water, dry them, place them on an oven tray (with the lids) and put into an oven at 130C/110C fan/Gas Mark 1 for at least 20 minutes while you make the jam.
• Place a side plate into the fridge to go cold.
• Place all the fruit and sugar into a large pan and boil gently, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar has dissolved, leave to simmer gently, stirring occasionally. After 15 minutes put a small amount of the jam onto the cold plate and leave for a couple of minutes. Slide your finger along the jam... if it's setting and has formed a "skin" the jam is ready. If it's not put the plate back in the fridge and continue to simmer, repeating the checking process every 5 minutes. (It took my jam about 40 minutes to set). Once the jam is setting on the cold plate remove it from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, remove the jars from the oven, and fill them. It's easier if you use a jam funnel (I don't have one so got jam everywhere and just washed the closed jars later).
• Place a waxed disc on top of each jar and leave until cooled a little. Then put on the lids. Walla!

Honey polenta cake:

• Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas Mark 6. Grease and line two 20cm cake pans.
• Place the spread, honey and sugar into a large saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted.
• Add all the other ingredients and mix thoroughly. Then divide the mix between the cake pans and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. (This is quite a dense cake... don't expect it to rise very much).
• Remove from the oven and turn the sponges out onto a wire rack to cool.

• If you've made the cake straight away after making the jam, you can just use the still-warm jam straight from the pan. If you've made it after jarring the jam you'll need to warm it a little to make it easier to spread on the cake. Just put it in a saucepan and heat gently. I used about 100g of jam in this cake, but use as much as you like. :)
• Spread the jam on the cooled sponges, put together, and then dust with icing sugar by putting it through a sieve.