Star Biscuits

You can use these as individual biscuits, or pile them on top of each other to make a star tree (as shown in picture) or sandwich them together to make melting moments.


Happy Baking :-)


Ingredients:
250g nuttelex, at room temperature
1/3 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 3/4/ cup flour
1/3 cup custard powder

Preheat oven to 180C.
Beat nuttelex, icing sugar & vanilla together with an electric mixer. Beat until light & creamy. Add flour & custard powder gradually & stir slowly with a mixing spoon until all combined.
Place dough on a piece of baking paper & knead til the dough holds its shape. Wrap in cling wrap & leave in the fridge for half an hour.
Return dough to baking paper & flatten. Place another piece of baking paper on top and roll out with a rolling pin til approx 5mm thick. Using a cookie cutter, cut out the dough & place on the baking tray lined with baking paper. (Depending on what you want to make you should use all the same size cutter or different sizes.)
Bake for 12-15 mins until a light brown colour. Cool completely on tray.

Options:
1/ Melt some Sweet William white chocolate over a double boiler. Pile stars on top of each other starting with the largest stars at the bottom. Place a small drop of chocolate between each star. (NB: do not put too much chocolate between the layers or else they will slide off.) Decorate the star tree with remaining white chocolate, Christmas coloured sprinkles, or icing sugar.

2/ Beat together 1 1/4 cups icing sugar, 60g soft nuttelex & rind of one lemon. Spread a little onto each biscuit & place two together. Dust with icing sugar.

Dairy & Gluten free shortbread

This recipe is sooooo tasty :-)


DAIRY & GLUTEN FREE SHORTBREAD
Ingredients:
250g nuttelex (at room temperature works best)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 1/12 cups gluten free flour
1/2 cup rice flour
2 teaspoons vanilla essense

Preheat oven to 170C.
Place nuttelex & sugar together in a bowl & cream until light & fluffy (sugar should dissolve).
Gradually add the flours to the creamed sugar mix. Stir gently until combined.
Place mix onto a piece of baking paper and knead until smooth.
Press into a baking dish 30 x 20cm. Bake for approx 35 mins until light brown.
Cool in tin.
Cut into pieces.

Can be dusted with icing sugar or dipped into dark cooking chocolate.
For a festive look I quite like to dip one side into cooking chocolate & stack them on top of each other & decorate with silver cachous.

Christmas decorations!

Couldn't resist the urge to put a picture of the Christmas place-mats & coasters I made!   

Vegan Christmas High-Tea 

YUMMO!

Delicious Salads

Here's a few of my favourite salads.
Both of these salads are also gluten free.


Brown Rice Salad with Currants

1 1/2 cups brown rice
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup pine nuts
120g currants
5 shallots (ends trimmed)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
parsley to decorate

Cook rice according to packet directions. Then drain & rinse under cold water.
Place pine nuts, sunflower seeds and cumin on a baking tray and roast at 180C until you can begin to smell them - approx 10 mins. Shake tray during cooking to move nuts & seeds around.
Place rice, seed & nut mix, currants & shallots into a large bowl. Stir.
Whisk together in a small jar the orange juice & olive oil.
Pour over rice mixture & stir.
Use parsley or other green herb to garnish.
Can be serve room temperature or cooled.


(picture far left)

Bean Salad
This makes a small amount (what is shown in centre) to make a larger amount simply use 4 tins of whichever beans you choose, and triple the other ingredients!
So easy!

Mix together:

•  four bean mix tin 
• 1/2 small tin of corn
• 1/4 chopped green capsicum
• 1/4 chopped red/spanish onion. 

In a small jar whisk:

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• pinch of oregano, marjoram, garlic flakes & black pepper

Pour dressing over bean mix. Decorate with parsley or coriander.
For best results chill before serving to allow flavours of dressing to be absorbed.

A FEW TASTY TREATS

This is the best banana cake recipe I've ever tried!
It was really moist & very tasty.
It has much less fat & sugar then the regular banana bread you buy from a shop so worth having it in the breadbox!!!!

 BEST BANANA CAKE

Picture: See right side of cake stand.

Ingredients:

2 large over ripe bananas - mashed well

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons rice bran oil (any other oil is fine also)

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

2 1/4 cups wholemeal flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a loaf pan with baking paper.

Place flour, baking powder & soda in a bowl & stir until well combined.

Add the mashed banana, maple syrup, oil & essence. Stir until well combined. Ok if the batter is thick.

Bake for approx 30 mins until skewer comes out clean.

Cool before cutting.

Option: ICING

For an easy icing- mix in a food processor tofu, coconut, maple syrup & vanilla, blend til smooth - very tasty! Note that this icing DOES NOT keep out of the fridge. 

CHOCOLATE PLUM COOKIE CAKE

Picture: Left side of cake stand.

Ingredients:

1 cup self-raising flour

1 cup raw sugar

1 teaspoon allspice

175g nuttelex

100g almond, ground (either make your own or buy ground almondmeal)

2 teaspoons egg-replacer

1 cup dried plums

200g dark cooking chocolate

Preheat oven to 160C. Line a 20cm round baking pan with baking paper. (Or you can use a slice tin if you're rather cut it into squares later.)

Cream nuttelex & sugar together in a bowl. Beat until light and creamy. Add egg replacer & continue beating. Add sifted flour, allspice, sugar & ground almonds, a bit at a time. Mix until just combined - do not overmix.
Chop the chocolate and the plums into little bite size pieces and then fold them into the mixture.

Pour mixture into the pan you are using & bake for about one and a quarter hours until cooked.

Allow to cool. Sprinkle with cocoa powder.

This will come out quite hard & not look like a cake that has risen! Don't fear, it tastes DIVINE! The mix of chocolate & plums is magical.
It will be a bit crumbly when slicing so I don't recommend a serrated knife .

This can be sliced into pieces like a cake or into squares.

(Stand by for the recipe for the bells that you see ;-p)

Cauliflower stack

This is a nice quick easy one! 

I often do it for lunch if I have some leftover cauliflower - or on those lazy nights for dinner :-)

It's quite tasty - even if it doesn't look the best! I was just experimenting one day trying to make a "cheese" sauce and it worked :-)

Ingredients:

1/2 head cauliflower

about 1 cup soy milk

cumin - approx 1 teaspoon

curry powder - approx 1 teaspoon

garlic powder - half teaspoon

nutritional yeast - 1 tablespoon

salt - sprinkle

corn flour - 1 tablespoon

(you can add more of less of the herbs/spices to suit your personal taste)

Mix corn flour into soy milk while still cold until completely dissolved. Add nutritional yeast and stir til dissolved.

Add other herbs/spices.

Lightly fry cauliflower in a non-stick frying pan for approx 10 mins until partly cooked.

Add the milk mixture. Stir constantly while thickens.

Serve over toast, turkish bread or other bread of your choice.

Sprinkle with black pepper and parsley.

Best ever muffins

Everyone loves muffins! But sometimes they just don't work out right!
These muffins are never fail! They are always light, fluffy & totally delicious!
It's a great basic recipe also & you can just replace the apple with any other fruit or whatever flavour you love your muffins! :-)
Happy Baking

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup raw sugar

egg replacer, equivalent to one egg

3/4 cup vanilla soy milk (plain works great also - just add 1/2 tsp vanilla essense)

400g tin of pin apples, chopped
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180 C. Lightly spray a muffin tin with oil, or use casings. (either 12 tray or a large 6 tray)

In a large bowl, mix the flour with the baking soda and cinnamon. Then add the applesauce, sugar, egg replacer, and milk. Stir together until just mixed - do not overmix.

Divide batter into the muffin tray. Sprinkle the tops with vanilla sugar. Bake for approx 20 mins until a toothpick comes out clean.

Painting

My latest painting that I did just before we moved into our new place:

Apple Pineapple Pudding Cake

Want a quick and easy cake recipe that still tastes yummy?!?

Best thing about this cake is that its FAT FREE & SUGAR FREE! 
(Does that mean I can eat the whole thing?)

All you need is:

          1 x 440g can pineapple pieces

          2 cups plain flour
          2 teaspoons baking powder

          1/2 cup apple sauce
          2 Tablespoons agave nectar
          1 teaspoon vanilla

Mash the pineapple pieces with the juice from the can.
Mix the baking powder into the flour. 

Combine all ingredients together and mix well. 
Spread mixture into a cake tin lightly sprayed with oil.

Bake at 180C for 35 minutes.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and slice to serve.

This also works really well served as a pudding because it is not fluffy/airy like a cake but quite dense.

Great topped with whipped coconut cream.

This recipe also works well with pie apples in place of the pineapple.

For individual cakes the mixture also works well in ramekins but reduce cooking time.
Tip: This cake doesn't keep well as it has no preservatives in it. Best consumed close to time of cooking or within a day.