Cranberry and Apricot Honey Traybake

 Preheat your oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Line an 8 by 10 inch grill pan with greased baking paper , dust with a little cornflour.

Have ready a second grill pan or similarly sized baking tray .

Measure out and sieve your flours into a bowl:

50g precooked cornmeal

50g gram flour

100g rice flour.

(Keep aside a tablespoon of this rice flour to add to your chopped fruit.)

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.

Add 120g sugar.

In a large jug:

beat 2 eggs, add 200g greek yogurt, 120 ml olive oil for baking, mix it all well,

add 50 ml well flavoured thick honey.

in a small bowl: mix 50g dried cranberries, 50g chopped dried apricots, 50g finely chopped prunes,

shake all this with the reserved tablespoon of rice flour.

Stir the fruit into the flour mix, then fold in the contents of the jug.

Pour into the lined grill pan and bake for 30 minutes. Cover the cake with the second upturned grill pan and bake for another 15 minutes.

Check cake temperature with a cooks thermometer: it should be 93 degrees centigrade. 

Leave cake to cool in the tin on a cake wrack.

Dad's Italian Strawberry cake

Whisk 200 g sugar with 2 eggs.

Whisk in 60 g olive oil for cooking and 150 g plain greek yogurt.

fold in 250 g self raising gf flour

and zest of 1 lemon.

Fold in 350 g diced strawberries.

Spoon into 20 cm round cake tin, greased and floured,

place some halved small strawberries on the top.

Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 50 minutes, check internal temperature .

 Aim for 93 degrees centigrade. 

Cool in the cake tin.

Mincemeat muffins

Heat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

200 g cassava flour

50 g dried instant potato

3 teaspoons baking powder 

100 g sugar 

Stir it all together.

Mix 1 50 ml egg, 170 ml milk, 3 tablespoons mincemeat.

Stir this into the dried ingredients. 

Spoon into a muffin tin.

Makes approximately 10 muffins.

Bake for 17 minutes.

If you want to just use standard supermarket gluten free flour:

use 250 g of this flour in place of cassava and potato,

if using self raising flour cut the baking powder to 1 teaspoon

add 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum.

Baking time may be 5 minutes longer.

Coeliacs need to check particularly the labels on mincemeat and cassava flour.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Scald 70 ml milk
Add this to 3 egg yolks beaten with 110 g sugar
Pour it all back in the pan through a seive.
Heat and stir till thick.
Cool to room temperature.
In an ice cream maker: 
Pour in this mixture and 
300mg chopped strawberries in 10 ml lemon juice,
plus 250 ml of cream.
Run the ice cream maker till the mixture is very thick.
Scoop it into a polythene tub and freeze.

Strawberry Cream Tea Scones

Summer 2020.

June is strawberry time here, and these make the perfect treat for an afternoon in lock-down.

Heat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade.(180 for a fan oven)

Look out a muffin tin and ice cream scoop.

Make scones :

250 g gluten free self raising flour.

50 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

Rub in 50 g cold diced butter till the mix looks like fine breadcrumbs.

Stir in 1 egg which has been beaten into 170 ml milk

This will give a soft mixture.

 Scoop the mix into the muffin tin- it should make about 10.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Whip up 50 ml of whipping cream.

Whisk  2 tablespoons of redcurrant jam, thin with a little water if necessary to make it spreadable.

Split each scone in two when cold.

Spread on a generous amount of cream.

Halve the strawberries,

Spread with jam and place firmly on the cream. 

Serve with your favourite cup of tea.