River Cottage Light & Easy Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered to win a copy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's new Wheat & Dairy Free cookbook, River Cottage Light & Easy.

I have used a random number generator to pick the winner from the entries and can reveal that... comment number 2 is the winner! Congratulations Kate!

Kate said for her own take on Oat-otto (savoury oat porridge/risotto) she would "pop in cubes honey-roasted butternut squash, fresh from the garden and some roasted pumpkin seeds all herbed up with a little fresh chopped oregano or basil."

Sounds delicious Kate. I hope you enjoy the book.

Mushroom Oat-otto: Savoury Porridge from River Cottage Light & Easy: and a Giveaway!

I was recently sent a copy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new book: River Cottage Light & Easy. From the title it sounds like a regular, traditional style cookbook from a much loved chef – yes? However, there is a twist to this cookbook. Every recipe is both wheat and dairy free!

Now, from any other chef I would probably have rolled my eyes and mumbled something about jumping on the ‘special diet band-wagon’, but not from Hugh, instead I was intrigued and excited. Hugh has done a great deal to raise food awareness in recent years, both with battery farmed chickens and sustainable fish. He also did a recent series where he went veggie for a few months in order to highlight the gloriousness and versatility of vegetables. I have always loved his recipes and tv programmes which focus on local, seasonal, fresh produce and so was excited to see what his new book would bring to the table.

While every recipe in the book is wheat and dairy free, they are not always guaranteed to be gluten free, as quite a few of them do use rye flour, or ingredients containing gluten such as Worchester sauce. That said I should think 85-90% are also gluten free which is fantastic. The approach to the book is recipes that are ‘Light’ and ‘Easy.’ This by no means this is a low fat or weight loss book. Instead the term ‘light’ is used to represent food that is fresh and light on the digestion. You know if you eat a lunch of soup and salad compared to a heavy stodgy pie and mash, you feel more light, alert and full of energy. This is the premises behind this book, food that is delicious, fresh and energy boosting. Again, why wheat and dairy free? In the intro in the front of the book, Hugh reveals why he has chosen to go down this route. A few years ago he was diagnosed with high cholesterol and rather than go on statins, he decided to control his cholesterol through diet, by reducing the amount of dairy he ate. He still wanted to enjoy the wide range of foods and recipes he loved and so began experimenting with alternative non-dairy ingredients and found a whole new set of ingredients and flavours opened up to him, almond milk and rapeseed oil etc. At the same time he began looking more into ancient grains and alternative cereals to wheat which opened up ingredients such as buckwheat, quinoa and rye. He says he never excluded wheat and dairy from his diet and does not encourage people to do that either, merely to open your eyes and your tastes buds to the range of different alternatives out there, and discover some new delicious, nutritious recipes along the way. This is something I agree with wholeheartedly and was so excited to try out a few recipes!

The book is filled with recipes for all occasions, from breakfast, main meals including meats, fish, veggie and not forgetting desserts. Each recipe is beautifully laid out and is accompanied by a tempting looking photo. The recipe that caught my eye was for a savoury porridge with baked onions. Hugh described this as a lighter version of risotto and as porridge is one of my favourite comfort foods I was intrigued to try it myself. White rice is high on the glycemic index and quite low in fibre meaning you will have a quick rise in energy followed by a crash in energy soon afterwards. Oats on the other hand are high in fibre and low on the glycemic index meaning they will keep you feeling fuller for longer with more sustained energy. Oats have also been shown to help lower cholesterol so it’s a win-win.

As the weather last weekend was rather wet and dismal, I decided a big bowl of comforting savoury porridge was just what was called for. I didn’t have any large onions for roasting, but I did have plenty of mushrooms and so decided to use those instead.

I love the woodsy earthy flavour mushrooms bring, and they worked so well with the porridge/risotto. Both risotto rice and oats contain starch that are released during cooking, while help thicken up the surrounding liquid to create a thick, creamy and comforting dish. The other bonus with oats is that unlike rice, they are ready in just a few minutes meaning the whole recipe only took me about 15 minutes from start to finish. Perfect!

I fried the mushrooms off first, before adding the oats and giving them a gentle toast in the pan before adding veg stock. This created a fabulous dark earthy flavour and colour to the porridge. It looked so autumnal and comforting. I added garlic and thyme which always enhance the flavour of mushrooms.

I know lots of people serve risotto with a grating of parmesan, but of course that was off the menu here. Instead grate over a few toasted nuts (I chose almonds) for a nice visual appearance and subtle nutty undertone which went so brilliantly with the woodsy mushrooms. I also added a dried sage leaf at the end, which also enhanced the savoury comforting flavour of the oats and mushrooms.

This was such a delight of a meal. Warming, comforting, creamy, thick oaty risotto with a slight bite to the oats and intense woodsy mushrooms with their strong savoury umami flavour. It was fabulous. I enjoyed it so much I would have no qualms serving this up to friends and the fact it was ready in a mere 15 minutes means its perfect mid week meal food. Hugh calls it a savoury porridge, which it is, but I think Oat-otto sounds more fun.

Fresh, light, easy, comforting, nutritious and delicious. What more could you want from meal!? I enjoyed it so much I’m not sure I’ll ever make risotto with rice again. I can’t wait to try out some of the other recipes.

Giveaway!

Now if you weren’t excited enough to try the recipe below, then I am thrilled to be able to give you the chance to win a copy of the book for yourself! To enter just leave a comment below and tell me how you would flavour your own Oat-otto – keeping to the wheat and dairy free theme.

Only 1 entry per person. The giveaway will close at midnight Friday 17^th October with the winner picked at random. Entrants must be a UK resident and must leave me a way to contact you, within your comment, should you win. Best of luck.

I’ve given you my version of Hugh’s recipe below. For his Baked Onion version, you’ll have to buy the book (or win a copy)!

Mushroom Oat-otto: Savoury Porridge

(Recipe adapted from River Cottage Light & Easy by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall)

Ingredients

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

250g chestnut or white capped mushrooms

1 red onion

3 springs fresh thyme

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

350ml vegetable stock

80g porridge oats (I used gluten free oats)

10 skin on hazelnuts or almonds

Salt & pepper

Thyme or dried sage to serve (optional)

Method

Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Slice the mushrooms and red onion and add to the pan. Strip the thyme leaves off their stalk and sprinkle over the mushrooms along with the garlic. Cook until the mushrooms and softened and are a light golden brown colour around the edges.

Heat your stock in a jug and have close to hand.

Add the oats to the pan and stir to mix them through the mushrooms, allowing them to absorb any of the juices.

Add a third of the stock and allow to simmer, stirring often until the stock is absorbed. Pour over half the remaining stock and again cook until the liquid is absorbed. Add the rest of the stock and allow to simmer until the oats are softened and have broken down to create a thick creamy textured porridge/risotto. Season generously with freshly milled pepper and a pinch of salt to taste. (Add a little extra water if you want a thinner texture).

Set aside 2 of the nuts before chopping the rest and stirring into the oat-otto.

Spoon into warm bowls and grate the 2 reserved nuts over the top using a very fine grater, this gives a parmesan cheese appearance and provides a lovely nutty aroma and taste.

Garnish with some extra sprigs of thyme or sage leaves.

Eat and enjoy

Serves 2

Veronica’s Gluten Free Baked Crisps: A Review

I was recently sent some gluten free baked crisps by an entirely gluten free brand called Veronica’s. All their crisps are gluten free, and come in a range of interesting flavours. No plain or salt & vinegar standard flavours here. I was really pleased about this as it’s always nice to discover brands offering more exciting flavour combos that are suitable for those of us on a gluten free diet. ‘Normal’ crisps often have the flavours combined with wheat flour, so I’m often left with a limited range I can choose from. Not that ‘normal’ people wouldn’t happily devour bags of these crisps too. They are also 60% lower in fat than regular crisps, mostly because they are baked rather than fried and they also claim to be lower in salt. Bonus. I was sent three big sharing bags and one smaller bag aimed at children.

Baked Potato Sour Cream, Herb & Onion Crisps

I was initially surprised when opening the bag to find perfectly uniform shaped crinkle crisps. I was expected slices of actual potato but they turned out to be reformed potato flakes with corn rather than potato slices. After the initial surprise I suppose this makes sense as this is how they are able to make them lighter and ‘healthier’ than normal crisps. They crisps were very light in both weight and texture. Crisp and almost airy in texture, and when bitten into you could see all the tiny air bubbles inside. I liked how you could see the specks of herbs. Thicker than a normal crisp but much lighter. A cross between a crisp and those corn crispbreads you see in the cracker aisle. They had a very clean aroma, nothing artificial smelling. You could really taste the sour cream flavour with just a subtle hint of onion giving a garlicky flavour. I liked the ridged shape and this also added texture.

Baked Potato Barbeque Crisps

These had a lovely smoky BBQ aroma on opening the bag. They were quite a bright orange-red colour which turned out to be from paprika. This gave them a subtle sweetness and great smoky earthy flavour. Again they were nicely light and crisp with the characteristic ridges. The aroma was stronger than the actual taste of paprika. It was quite subtle at first although did build up as you ate. The flavour lingered nicely after eating them too, giving a wonderful smoky woodsy paprika flavour. There was also a hint of onion. I’m not sure it was quite BBQ, I think smoked paprika might have been a better name, but very tasty all the same. Of the two baked potato crisps, this was the flavour I kept going back to.

Baked Veggie Crisps – Roast Tomato & Spanish Paprika

These were a mix of potato flakes combined with carrot, beetroot, broccoli and spinach in a tomato, garlic and paprika seasoning. Another paprika offering, this time with veggies. I was expecting either slices of the actual vegetable or shaped crisps combining all of the veggie ingredients in one, but I was again surprised, in a good way, on opening the bag to find there were 3 different shades of crinkle crisps within the bag. I think there was a carrot one, a beetroot one and broccoli & spinach all on a potato base. I liked how you got a range of veggie flavours within the same bag, rather than them all being mingled into one crisp. It made them much more fun to eat, as well as looking quite attractive. It was a sort of crisp lucky dip.

The plainer looking one I suspect was carrot; it had a subtle sweetness and a slight smokiness form the paprika seasoning. The darker orange one I think was beetroot. This too was faintly sweet with a lingering flavour that reminded me of something I couldn’t quite remember. The mild green hued one was my favourite. It had a definite broccoli ‘green’ flavour to it. I was surprised, and loved, how strongly the flavour came through. It was subtle, but you could definitely detect a hint of green about it. I suspect this one had the spinach mixed in too, which probably helped the green element.

I loved the mix of flavours but did find the crisps to be a little too salty for me. I know they are crisps but I only ate a few and did go hunting for water afterwards.

Crunchy Creatures – Cheese

Unlike the other bags this one was a single serve bag and definitely aimed at children with its bright yellow packet and fun bubble writing. The pack had a cartoon dinosaur on the front and I was delighted to open the bag and find the corn puffs were all dinosaur shaped too. Not just cut outs either, but whole puffed almost 3D dinosaurs and all of them where whole – no broken limbs or crumbled away tails to be seen. I was impressed.

The bag had a pleasant cheese aroma and a mix of light and well coated cheesy powdered dino’s. I found the flavour to be almost that of a toned down wotsit (those cheesy brightly orange coloured puffed corn snacks). Not too strongly flavoured with a lovely crisp initial bite and texture that somehow seemed to dissolved, soften and disappeared within seconds of biting, almost like magic. Bite, huge crunch and then poof…gone. I can imagine little children loving these, and what a fun shape! My only gripe with these was that again I found them overly salty. I was also surprised to find they had the same salt level as all the other crisps. I would have expected crisps directly aimed at children to have a much lower salt level compared to the adult orientated ones.

Overall I enjoyed all the crisps. It was nice to see some different, interesting flavours being offered to the gluten free market. I found them all to be a little too salty for my tastes, despite the packs saying they are lower in salt than regular crisps. I feel the children’s ones in particular could do with being less salty. I don’t think it would affect the quality. Despite the saltiness, I enjoyed the smoky BBQ flavour and loved the veggie ones. So unique both in flavour and texture, I’d buy the veggie ones again. I was also impressed that practically all of the crisps were intact, despite being sent through the post. They have got the balance of lightness, crispness and texture just right. It’s great to see some more tasty and original gluten free choices enter the gluten free market.

After tasting them myself I then took the bags into work to see what my colleagues thought. All the crisps disappeared very quickly, but the veggie ones, were the ones that disappeared first.

Note: I was sent the samples for free, but all the opinions expressed here are my own.

Gluten Free Profiteroles with Peanut Butter Cream & Chocolate Ganache

Today marks 4 years since my coeliac diagnosis. It’s funny how the knowledge and awareness of coeliac disease and gluten free diets has grown so much in just the 4 years I have been actively conscious of it. This has had both a positive and negative effect. The positive is that more people are aware of it and there are becoming a lot more options for food when eating out and choices in the shops. On the negative, people now consider it a fad, which means some people think you are being picky when you say you need a gluten free diet, I’ve seen many a waiter eye roll or else people start a gluten free diet who are simply jumping on band wagon and loudly proclaim they too are eating gluten free but then tuck into the office birthday cake or enjoy a few beers down the pub. This gives a confusing message to people who don’t really understand and lessens the actual severity of ensuring foods are gluten free. On the whole it’s a positive progression though.

What better way to celebrate 4 years gluten free than with some delicious profiteroles inspired by my gluten free pastry course fromLeiths. I tweaked the recipe a bit from the one they gave us on the course, as the flour mix they used was a bought brand and I wanted to make my own. Also the recipe we used on the course were for super cheesy Gougères and I wanted a cheesless profiterole.

I have tried making gluten free choux pastry once before and it was a bit of a disaster, but fresh from my training I was willing to give them another go. I am so pleased I did as they turned out brilliantly (even if I do say so myself)!

To save on some arm muscles, I used a food mixer for part of the mixing method, but I think it may have been simpler to do it by hand – not to mention less washing up. I was worried my choux would either be doughy in the middle, or else not puff up, but they puffed and hollowed just as they should. They were very light and airy little puffs.

I am not a fan of plain cream, to me it’s just tasteless and a little greasy tasting, but flavour that cream with some creamy peanut butter and you are on to a winner. Top it off with some warm chocolate ganache and a sprinkling of peanut brittle and I quite happily devoured 5 in one sitting – don’t judge me, it was my first gluten free profiterole in 4 years!

The mix of light choux pastry, airy but creamy peanut butter filling and warm bitter chocolate ganache was divine. Peanut butter and dark chocolate are a match made in heaven and to have it all wrapped up within little treat of a dessert was delicious. I used a mix of ricotta and double cream for the filling, which resulted in a wonderful thick, almost moussy peanut butter cream. I can see many more profiteroles on the horizon!

Profiteroles with Peanut Butter Cream & Chocolate Ganache

Choux Pastry

50g rice flour

20g cornflour

10g tapioca starch

¼ tsp xanthan gum

120ml water

50g butter

3 eggs

Peanut Butter Cream

150g ricotta cheese

150g double cream

2 tbsp smooth peanut butter

Chocolate Ganache

100g dark chocolate

80g double cream

1 tbsp golden syrup

Decoration

Peanut brittle

Method

Combine the 3 flours and xanthan gum together in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.

Place the water and butter into a medium sized pan and heat until the butter is melted. Bring the mixture to a simmer then remove from the heat and quickly add your flour mix in one go. Immediately start to beat the flour into the butter mixture, you need to work quickly and stir vigorously. Continue to beat it until the mix comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick dough. Keep beating until all lumps of flour are mixed in.

Then tip the dough out onto a plate and smooth out into an even layer. This helps cool it down quickly. (At this stage the dough is known as a ‘Panade’ a paste mixture of a soft dough).

Leave it to cool slightly for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220C and line a tray with silicone paper.

Once the mix has cooled slightly, return it to the pan. Whisk the eggs together in a jug and pour this into the choux dough, a little at a time, beating well between each addition. The mix will go sloppy, greasy and slimy looking at each addition of egg – this is normal. Keep beating until it absorbs the egg and then add a little bit more. Continue this until you have a batter that reluctantly drops from the spatula when lifted. If it’s too thick and sticky to fall off without shaking, then you need to add a little more egg. You also don’t want it too sloppy and runny as you need to pipe it, so if you have particularly large eggs, you may not need all of it.

It’s a hard arm workout, but keep beating until you have a smooth sticky batter.

Scoop the batter into a piping bag fitted with a large plain tube nozzle.

Pipe rounds of batter onto the baking tray, leaving an inch between each one. You want them to be about the size of a large walnut.

Dip your finger in water and dab the tops of the piped choux to flatten out any peaks formed from the piping bag.

Sprinkle a few drops of water all over the baking tray, as this will create steam in the oven which will help them rise.

Bake in the oven at 220C for 15 minutes. Then reduce the oven to 150C and bake for a further 8-12 minutes until they are puffed, golden brown and lightly crisp to the touch.

Remove the choux buns from the oven, remove them from the baking tray and make a little hole in the base of each one to let the steam out. Cool them upside down so the steam can escape up out of the hole (or else they go soggy)

Make the cream by beating the peanut butter into the ricotta until smooth and well combined. Lightly whip the cream until its just beginning to thicken, then stir this through the ricotta mixture to make a mousse-like texture.

For the chocolate ganache, heat the chocolate, cream and golden syrup together in a small pan. Stir gradually until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Do not let it boil. Remove it from the heat and set aside to cool and thicken slightly.

To serve, either pipe or spoon the peanut butter cream into the choux buns (I like to pipe it in using the hole created in the bottom so they stay hole.) Then dip the top of each profiterole into the warm chocolate sauce and arrange on a plate. Roughly chop up some peanut brittle and sprinkle a little over the top of the profiteroles.

Best eaten on day of baking. Assemble just before eating as they will go soft if left to stand for too long.

Eat and enjoy.

Makes 16-18 profiteroles

Leiths School of Food & Wine: Gluten Free Pastry

After my Gluten Free Bread course, next day was Gluten Free Pastry. Gluten free pastry is a tricky one to master. It’s got to be sturdy enough to roll out and shape, and yet also be short and nicely crumbly once cooked. If you add too many gums or starches to replace the gluten it holds together and rolls our well, but then becomes tough and dense like cardboard when baked – not so tasty. Equally if you don’t get the right mix of gums and starches it becomes far too fragile and you end up with a pile of crumbs rather than a crisp pastry base.

On the plus side however, as there is no gluten to overwork, if your pastry falls apart when trying to line the tin then simply scoop it back together and re-roll it without too many issues. One of the best tips I know about how to easily roll out pastry is to roll it out between two sheets of clingfilm. This not only stops it sticking to the work surface and requires no extra flour, but also means you can use the base layer to help you lift and flip the pastry into the tin. (We were shown this on the course but I have been doing it myself for years).

On the course we learnt not only standard pastry, but also a few different types of pastry! Flaky Shortcrust which we turned into an amazing roast vegetable quiche for lunch

Pâte Sucrée with which we made delicious cherry Bakewell tarts

Hot Water Crust Pastry for sturdier meat pies and sausage rolls and even….Choux Pastry which we made into very cheesy Gougères!

The Choux and Hot Water Crust pastry were completely new to me so I was very excited. I have previously attempted a gluten free choux pastry and well… it was sort of a disaster so I was eager to see how it’s done. I’ve made my own gluten free Shortcrust and Pâte Sucrée before, but the techniques we were shown were new to me and produced fantastic results.

For the shortcrust pastry we were shown a very nifty technique for achieving ultra smooth pastry with the butter and flour evenly distributed in layers. It’s known as 'fraisering’. You start by rubbing the butter into the flour as normal and then squishing it into a rough log shape. Don’t kneed or over-handle it. You should still have a few lumps of butter mixed in. You then take your log of pastry and, using a pallet knife, cut off a slice about 5mm thick, almost to the base of the log. Then tilt your pallet knife to 45 degrees and drag it towards you, smearing out the pastry onto the work surface. Then carefully run your pallet knife back over it three times, each time collecting a little more of the pastry while you draw it towards yourself. (Almost like when making chocolate curls along the back of a block of chocolate). This smoothes the flour and butter into layers. Then place your smooth pastry piece to one side, cut another 5mm slice and repeat. At the end gather your pastry together (don’t kneed it), place it in some cling film and chill for 30 minutes before rolling it out between two large sheets of clingfilm and lining your tin. Such a simple technique but it really does produce the most smooth and evenly worked pastry. Plus you handle it very little so it stays nicely cool and the butter doesn’t melt.

Here the technique is beautifully hand modeled her by my friend Kizzy, who I met on the first day bread course and was back for the second day too!

The Pâte Sucrée (French sweet pastry) also had a very different technique. This was made almost like making fresh pasta. You start by pouring your dry ingredients on the work surface and making a well in the middle. Into this you add small cubes of butter and sugar, and squish them into a paste using the very tips of your fingers. You then add some egg yolks and again work them into the butter/sugar mix using your fingers until you end up with rather a soft and sloppy mixture. You then switch to a pallet knife and draw the flour into the butter mixture using a cutting and sweeping motion with the blade of the pallet knife. Once it begins to form a dough, keep chopping it with the blade and folding it back together with the knife almost like chopping fresh herbs. It will be too soft to handle with your hands.

Scoop the dough into a mound, wrap in clingfilm and chill before rolling out between two layers of clingfilm again. So clever! It produced the most amazing pastry. Really light, buttery and perfectly short. It held together beautifully but crumbled deliciously in the mouth.

Just look at the lovely little cherry Bakewell tarts we made with it. I took one of mine home and fed it to my parents. They can both be quite critical of gluten free food, but said they would never have known these were gluten free – hurrah!

We were running a bit short on time so in the afternoon we quickly made cheese gougères which are savoury cheesy choux buns. You eat them as they are, no extra filling required, the astonishing amount of cheese incorporated into the batter adding the flavour. When eaten warm the cheese is wonderfully melty. Kizzy and I decided to also added a pinch of paprika and chilli powder to ours for a bit of background heat. It also explains why ours came out a little orange!

They were delicious and certainly very cheesy, although sadly not as perfectly formed as we’d have liked as we ran out of time and had to take them out the oven before they were fully cooked. The top tip for this one is to let the batter cool before beating in the eggs to form the paste. (I think this is where I went wrong when I attempted them previously) It’s hard work beating in the eggs, you have to do it gradually and the mix is very thick and stiff, so you need a friend to help you or else some strong arm muscles!

Overall I had a fantastic day, the food was delicious, the company amazing and the techniques I learnt are invaluable. I can’t wait to try some out myself at home. At the start of the courses I was most looking forward to the bread day, but I think after doing both, the pastry has the edge on knowledge, skills and overall deliciousness value for me. I would really really recommend this pastry course to anyone struggling with gluten free pastry.

Note: As with the bread course, I attended this gluten free pastry course of my own accord. I was not invited by Leiths to attend, I received no discount on the fees and they never knew I write a food blog. 

Leiths School of Food & Wine: Gluten Free Bread

Last week I spent two very exciting days attending a gluten free baking course at Leiths School of Food &Wine! I’ve was diagnosed coeliac nearly 4 years ago, and although I’ve never allowed it to stop me from baking, I’ve never had any kind of training or professional advice about the best ways of creating gluten free dishes and foods and so decided it was high time I did.

I wanted to learn some special techniques for some of the more complicated/advanced aspects of gluten free baking, rather than just a general beginners gluten free cookery course, which would probably have covered things like cakes and biscuits, which I feel I have mastered pretty well on my own. Instead I selected two individual day courses to combine for a more in depth knowledge of some of the most problematic foods to create when baking gluten free. Day 1 was Gluten Free Bread and Day 2 was Gluten Free Pastry.

The bread course was great fun. We were a fairly small group of only 7 students, meaning we all got to work around the one big table, chat and get to know each other. Being a gluten free course everyone there was either coeliac or had a wheat intolerance. It was so nice to be in a group of people and feel ‘normal’ while we all chatted about our favourite recipes and restaurants and the little bug-bears we have about gluten free. We were 6 girls and 1 male, who along with the female cast of teacher and 2 female assistants was a little outnumbered. David was lovely though and reminded me a bit of Howard from the previous series of Great British Bake Off.

What I enjoyed the most was how hands on it was. Our teacher over both days was a lovely lady called Adriana, a past Leiths student, who started specializing in gluten free after her daughter was diagnosed coeliac. Adriana would show us a recipe, describing the techniques to use and the reasons behind why certain ingredients were used. We were then let loose to create the same recipe ourselves.

First up was gluten free focaccia. When baking gluten free bread you need a sough that it is a lot wetter and softer than regular bread dough. It’s more like a thick paste and you can’t knead it as you would for wheat bread. This is because the wheat flour (and gluten) is replaced with a range of starches and gums that absorb a lot more water, and it needs to be wet enough to allow these starches to become hydrated and rise without being too heavy and dense.

The focaccia recipe also used some ground almonds as one of the ingredients that I thought at first was a little odd, but Adriana explained that this was to help improve the breads protein content. This wasn’t done for health reasons, but for structure. Gluten is the protein found in wheat and so if this is removed, they the structure that makes up the texture of the bread will also change. Adding gums can help replicate the elasticity of gluten, but adding another protein source can also help the structure and texture of some breads – top tip! Makes sense once you think about it.

We shaped our focaccia breads by smoothing out the dough with very wet hands, left it to prove, dimpled the top with our fingers to create the characteristic hollows in the top, drizzled with olive oil and decorated with sea salt and fresh rosemary sprigs. A short bake later and we were all bring fantastically crisp and golden focaccias out of the oven. The aroma from the fresh rosemary was mouthwatering.

As always happens it was interesting to see how the same recipe could produce slightly different results for each of us. I was very proud when I was deemed Star Baker for my focaccia!

We hungrily tore off pieces to taste and I was very impressed. The crust was crisp with a great salty flavour and the inside was soft and springy, with well defined air holes that are characteristic of focaccia. The rosemary had given it a wonderful fragrance too. After a quick taste we set them to one side to cool and began work on our pizza bases which would be our lunch.

I worked next to a lovely girl called Kizzy and as the day wore on we discovered we had a lot in common including a love of food and baking. It was such a treat to find a kindred spirit and we helped each other out throughout the day. The recipe for the Focaccia is below and the course also included Pizza, Seeded Crackers, Chai Multi Seed Loaf, Teff Bread, Corn Tortillas and…Brioche!!!

Some of the recipes I felt were more successful than others but the hints and tips and knowledge I picked up throughout the day was wonderful. Adriana and all the staff were so friendly and open with their knowledge and encouraged questions that it was a great day. We got to take all our breads (that we hadn’t previously devoured) home with us.

I was most excited by the brioche. It was meant to be orange and cranberry, but they ran out of ingredients and so instead I improvised with a chocolate chip, sour cherry and freshly ground cardamom version. My brioche loaves were still hot from the oven when I had to run for my train home and so I ended up perfuming the train with the heady scent of cardamom (I got a little over excited and added far too much to my brioche) but it smelt and tasted lovely. The texture was not quite like regular brioche but for a soft buttery yeasty sweet bread it was divine!

Note: I’d highly recommend the course and wanted to point out that I attended the course of my own accord. I was not invited by Leiths to attend, I received no discount on the fees and they never knew I write a food blog.

Next up pastry!

Gluten Free Focaccia (also egg and dairy free)

Ingredients

110g gluten free plain flour (we used Doves Farm plain)

220g cornflour (corn starch)

55g ground almonds

2 tsp salt

2 tsp xanthan gum

2 tsp caster sugar

14g quick active dry yeast

350g/ml tepid water

2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

Fresh rosemary sprigs

1 tsp sea salt for sprinkling

Method

Preheat the oven to 220C. Place a large baking tray into the oven to heat up. Lay a sheet of silicone paper onto your work bench.

Combine the flours, ground almonds, salt, xanthan gum, sugar and yeast into a bowl. Mix well to ensure all combines.

Weigh out the water and add the olive oil. It should be warm but not hot.

Pour most (not all) of the water over the dry ingredients and beat with a wooden spoon until everything is combined. It should be thick but wet to the touch. A few lumps are fine. Beat for 1 minute. You want a wet dough without it being runny, it must still hold a little shape without oozing. Add a little more water if needed.

Turn the dough onto the silicone paper and form into a mound. Dip the whole palm of your hand into a bowl of water and you’re your hand to gently shape and smooth the dough into an oval shape, around 1 inch thick. Keep dipping your hand into the water to smooth it out, it should look very wet and smooth on top when done. Don’t worry its looking too wet.

Once formed, set aside to prove for 20 minutes.

Once slightly puffed, dip your fingers into water and dock the dough to form dimples in the surface, only make the hollows about halfway into the dough, don’t press to the base. Be gentle as the dough will be soft and airy.

Brake off sprigs of rosemary and place some inside each of the hollows. Sprinkle over a generous amount of coarse sea salt and drizzle with a little extra olive oil.

Remove the hot baking tray from the oven and slide the focaccia onto it, still on its silicone paper. Return to the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.

Remove from the oven and tap the base of the bread, it should sound hollow. If not, bake for a further 5 minutes and test again.

Transfer to a cooling rack to cool. Eat or freeze on day of baking.

Banana & Chocolate Marble Loaf Cake

Since last weekend I have had 3 bananas sitting on my counter which were specially bought with the sole intention of making banana cake. During the week they were becoming a little overripe, even for banana cake, so I put them in the fridge to slow down the ripening process.

Last week was very stressful. I’ve been having a few health issues which combined with a hectic time at work and trying to buy my first house has led to a few weeks of very poor sleep. Come Friday evening I felt exhausted and grumpy. Then to top it all I had an awful nights sleep (or rather complete lack of it) so was feeling thoroughly fed up and tearful by the time Saturday morning arrived. Which was why at 6:30am in the morning I was snuggled in my dressing gown mashing bananas for banana cake. Ah solitude and tranquillity.

There is something soothing about licking banana batter off a spatula early in the morning when you’re tired and irritable. I decided to bake my banana cake as a loaf cake, as I was craving something simple and homely.

I was going to go with a plain banana batter, but I suddenly remembered the chocolate and banana marble cakes I used to bake years ago. I hadn’t baked one for years and as I was feeling nostalgic I decided to split my batter in half, add cocoa powder to one part and create a banana marble loaf cake. On the spur of the moment I also decided to add cardamom to the batter rather than my usual cinnamon or mixed spice. This added a lovely aromatic undertone against the sweet banana and went brilliantly with the chocolate too. I love the feather effect created by swirling the two batters together.

The cake isn’t overly sweet, the main sweetness coming from the ripe bananas, and even then it’s still definitely less sweet than normal cakes. I actually preferred this as it meant I could eat a slice for breakfast without feeling guilty and meant when I had another slice later on, I could spread it with some nut butter or Nutella without it being too sweet. I used some homemade sesame & honey almond nut butter which was really good with the banana.

The cake sliced and kept well. I love how each new slice reveals a different chocolate and banana marble pattern. It was soft, moist and packed with banana flavour. I loved being able to cut off a slice and then snuggle into the sofa and nibble at it with my fingers. No need for fancy forks here. It was almost like two cakes in one, as you had the lighter softer banana sections interspersed with the richer, slightly bitter chocolate parts. Mmm delicious.

Next time you’ve had a bad day, why not treat yourself to the deliciously simple baking bliss that is banana & chocolate marble loaf cake.

Banana & Chocolate Marble Loaf Cake

Ingredients

280g ripe banana (peeled weight, around 3)

80g light soft brown sugar

200g plain flour (160g rice flour, 25g cornflour (or potato starch), 15g tapioca starch)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp cardamom

2 eggs

120ml vegetable oil

20g cocoa powder (for only half the mix)

Method

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease a loaf tin and line with one long strip of greaseproof paper, so it lies over the base and up the two sides in one long strip. My tin was approx 22cmx11cm and 6.5cm deep (top edge measurments).

Mash the banana with a fork until very soft but a few lumps remain. Place into a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients, expect the cocoa powder.

Beat together with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Divide the batter in half, pouring half into a separate bowl. Add the cocoa powder to one half and beat again to incorporate. The batter will become thicker, this is fine.

Add alternating tablespoon blobs of the chocolate and banana batter into the lined loaf tin. Then repeat with another layer, alternating the chocolate blobs so it sits on top of a banana blob. I ended up with three layers of alternating batter blobs.

Run a skewer through the batter in alternating vertical lines to create a swirled feather effect.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until well risen and lightly springy to the touch. A skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for at least an hour before removing from the tin and leaving to cool completely.

Serve in generous slices. Delicious on its own or spread with a little nut butter or Nutella for extra indulgence.

Makes 1 loaf