The Cake Slice September 2011: Chocolate Gingerbread

This month was extra special for the Cake Slice Bakers as it marks the end of our year baking from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman. As of next month, we will now be baking from a new cake book for the upcoming year! Each month the cakes are chosen by a member vote, but as this was to be our last cake from our current book, we were all allowed to select which cake we would like to bake. As the weather had been dull, cold and wet I felt in the need for something spicy and warming and settled on a recipe for Chocolate Gingerbread.

I’d never tried a chocolate gingerbread before, but was intrigued by the idea of adding a chocolaty note to this spicy cake. It sounded wonderfully warming and autumnal.

The cake was also a little different to other gingerbreads I’ve made as along with the usual spices it also contained chocolate chips, ground black pepper and espresso powder. I decided to leave the espresso out but loved the addition of the chocolate chips. I forgot to add mine into the batter and so ended up sprinkling them on top instead which created little pools of molted chocolate which were delicious.

The cake had a very strong flavour of molasses and that paired with the cocoa powder made for one very dark, rich smelling cake. I loved the colour but found the flavour of the molasses to be too overpowering. I didn’t really get much of a cocoa flavour, apart from when I hit a chunk of chocolate, and found the spices were sort of lost against the strong treacle molasses flavour. It was definitely a spicy tasting cake, but I would have trouble knowing it was a ginger cake. Next time I’d reduce the black treacle and increase the amount of ginger I used.

The cake itself was light and moist with a lovely sticky surface. It had a soft, slightly damp texture which gave it a pudding feel. It tasted fabulous warmed with a little custard, the perfect thing to tuck into on a cold evening.

Strangely enough, after a couple of days the cake went a little dry instead of going even sticker like traditional gingerbread. All in all it was a very nice cake, but I feel with a few alternations it could become something really special

Click here to see what other cakes the Cake Slice Bakers selected.

Now for some exciting news! As this was our last cake from our current cake book, we are now opening up group to fellow cake baking enthusiasts who wish to bake with us for the upcoming year. Places are limited and you will need to buy a copy of the new cake book to participate, so dedicated bakers only please.
Anyone wishing to join us can email me at (appleandspice[AT]hotmail.co.uk) along with their name, blog name, blog URL and email address for details. Please put ‘New Cake Slice Member’ in the subject box.

Chocolate Gingerbread
(Recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)

Ingredients
120g black treacle or molasses
120g plain flour (I used 100g white teff flour & 20g brown rice flour)
170ml hot water
30g cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
50g butter
110g light soft brown sugar
1 egg yolk
50g dark chocolate chips
½ tsp espresso powder (I left this out)

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and flour an 8inch/20cm square baking tin.
Stir together the hot water and black treacle and set aside to cool.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, espresso and all the spices into a bowl and set aside.
Combine the butter and sugar in a separate large mixing bowl and beat together until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the egg yolk and beat until incorporated. Pour in half the molasses mixture and carefully whisk until combined. Scatter over half the flour mixture and whisk again, followed by the rest of the molasses mixture and finishing with the rest of the flour.
Fold in the dark chocolate chips and pour the mixture into the tin.
Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until firm and springy to the touch. Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a rack and leaving to cool.
Cut into squares and serve.
Makes one 8inch/20cm cake. Best eaten within 2 days.

Notes:
I baked my cake in a 9inch tin and got a thinner cake. It took 20 minutes to bake.
I would reduce the molasses to 80g, as I found the flavour very overpowering
I would double the ground ginger stated in the recipe as it was quite subtle.
I’d also line the tin as well as greasing it, as some of my cake stuck to the base when I tried to turn it out.

Zesty Red Grapefruit, Cranberry & Walnut Biscotti

A few days ago I was hunting in the cupboards for something crunchy to nibble on for my mid morning snack, but nothing really appealed. I suddenly got the image of biscotti drifting into my head and I realised that was exactly what I’d been craving. Biscotti! I hadn’t made or eaten those for ages. They used to appear on blogs almost on a weekly basis and yet I’ve not seen them around for a while. I checked my blog and realised that the last time I baked biscotti was December 2009!!! Yikes! It was certainly time for a biscotti revival.

I decided to try a new recipe, and the one that most appealed to me was from Prue Leiths Baking Bible, a wonderful book that I really don’t use often enough. The reason it caught my attention was that it used some cornmeal/polenta as well as the flour in the dough. As biscotti and polenta are both Italian this seemed quite fitting. I used the base of this recipe but changed the flavour of the dough and add-ins to be my own.

I had open bags of both dried cranberries and walnuts sitting on the counter and so they seemed the ideal additions to my biscotti dough. My hand was reaching for an orange to zest into it too, when I spotted a red grapefruit lurking at the back and decided to use this instead. Red grapefruit has a stronger, sharper citrus flavour than orange, but I loved the idea of it with the sweet cranberries.

The cornmeal gave the dough a very sunny yellow colour that made the glossy red cranberries shine out. I used a gluten free flour mix in place of wheat flour and realised that biscotti are the perfect gluten free cookies. Biscotti’s very characterises call for it to be crispy and crunchy rather than soft and chewy, the latter can often be hard to achieve with gluten free baking.

After baking, slicing and baking again I was rewarded with a tray of delicious biscotti. The cranberries and walnuts looked so pretty scattered throughout the dough and the cornmeal had retained some of its golden colour and lent a pleasant light texture to the biscotti along with a slight grittiness. This was a good sort of grittiness though, similar to the grains you get in shortbread, rather than nasty “I’m eating sand” grittiness!

The cranberries stayed wonderfully chewy and the chunks of walnut were soft and nutty, providing a great contrast in textures and flavours.

The aspect of the biscotti that most surprised and pleased me was how strongly the red grapefruit flavour came through. At first there was just a hint of zestiness, but once you were more than two nibbles in this developed into a really intense zingy grapefruit flavour that danced across the tip of my tongue, lingering on for several minutes even after I’d finished munching. Woooh it was definitely zingy!

Biscotti are so addictive; I’ve been finding myself nibbling at them at all times of the day. The great thing about them is that they keep for several weeks in an airtight container meaning they make great gifts for friends and even survive trips through the post. Come on everyone, its time for biscotti revival!

Zesty Red Grapefruit, Cranberry & Walnut Biscotti
(Recipe loosely based on a recipe from Leiths Baking Bible)

Ingredients
200g gluten free flour* (I used Doves brand, a mix of rice, maize, potato, buckwheat and tapioca flours)
55g fine ground cornmeal/polenta
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
40g dried cranberries
40g walnuts
Zest of ½ red grapefruit
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method
Heat the oven to 180C. Line a large baking tray with baking parchment or a silicone sheet.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla extract and zest of the red grapefruit together until well combined.
Roughly chop or break up the walnuts into large chunks and add to the bowl along with the cranberries. Stir briefly.
Scatter the flour, cornmeal and bicarbonate of soda over the top and mix it all together using a spatula. It should be quite soft and sticky.
Wet your hands before transferring the dough to the lined baking tray and shaping into a thick long log shape.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until puffed and lightly golden brown.
Remove from the oven, dampen a tea towel (it should not be too wet) and drape over the top of the biscotti and leave for 10 minutes (this keeps the top soft and makes slicing easier – my own discovered tip!)
After 10 mins, remove the towel and slice the biscotti into 1cm slices on the diagonal.
Arrange the slices back on the baking tray, laying them flat.
Bake in the oven for a further 15 minutes before removing from the oven and transferring to a wire rack to cool.
Store in an airtight container. Keeps well for around 3 weeks!
Make great gifts, packed in little boxes or bags.
Makes around 25 biscotti

*If not making gluten free then replace with an 170g of plain flour

Tomato Ricotta Tart

This is a variation on the yummy spinach and ricotta tart I made a few months back. At the time, I cut it into slices and froze it, which made a great standby lunch or dinner. I went to retrieve a slice recently and found it was all gone. I’d enjoyed it so much that I decided to bake another one, only adapting it slightly to incorporate some of my other favourite flavours.

I’ve always enjoyed making my own pastry but it used to hold a slight fear that it would shrink on baking. However, since having to go gluten free, this is no longer a problem. As there is no gluten in gluten free flour (how surprising) to overwork, this means no fear of shrinkage when baked. Gluten free pastry is very easy to work with and actually benefits from a gentle kneading like you would a bread dough. The resulting pastry is silky smooth and results in a crisp pastry that is light in both colour and texture and one I actually prefer to the old regular pastry.

Anyway, back to the tart. I think of ricotta as a very Italian cheese, with green, white and red being the colours of the Italian flag. As I went down a green spinach route last time, I decided to go red by incorporating tomatoes, which resulted in a beautifully blushing red coloured tart.

Ricotta is very light, soft and milky which results in a wonderfully light and fresh tasting tart. I used tinned tomatoes and a generous spoonful of sun dried tomato paste (not to be confused with tomato puree) for a bright bold tomato flavour. I also added some mushrooms which I lightly fried with garlic and thyme along with a few asparagus spears that I had left over the previous nights dinner.

Once baked all the flavours tasted wonderfully together, tomato, garlic, mushroom, thyme, asparagus, balsamic vinegar and the softly set ricotta held in a crisp pastry crust. Delicious. You could use whatever filling you liked for the tart. It’s a sort of lighter version of a quiche.

After making the tart I had a little leftover pastry and so make a few jam and berry tarts, which bought back fond memories of my childhood, when I used to help my mother and grandmother make apple pies. Making jam tarts with the scraps of leftover pastry were always a treat.

Tomato Ricotta Tart
Gluten Free Pastry
225g gluten free flour mix (I used 100g white rice flour, 80g potato flour, 50g white teff flour)
1 tsp xanthan gum
110g butter
1 egg
1 tbsp cold water

Tomato Ricotta Filling
4 spring onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
6 chestnut mushrooms
8 asparagus spears
100g (½ small tin) chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp sundried tomato paste (not tomato puree)
250g ricotta cheese
2 eggs
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Method - Pastry

Have an 8inch/20cm tart tin ready.
Mix all the flours and the xanthan gum together in a bowl to combine.
Make sure you butter is soft, if not blast it in the microwave for a few seconds. Add to a seperate mixing bowl along with half the flour mixture, the egg and water. Beat with a spoon or spatula to form a paste. (Yes I know this goes against all traditional pastry making!) Add the rest of the flour and bring the mixture together to form a dough, switching to your hands at the end. Knead the dough gently for 1 minute to ensure everything is well combined.
Roll out the pastry between two large sheets of clingfilm to the size and shape of your tart tin, plus an extra 1-2 inches for the sides.
Peel off the top sheet of clingfilm, and use the base sheet to help you flip the pastry into the tin and press it down gently. Trim off the excess. Patch up any cracks with the off-cuts of pastry.
Place in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Tomato Ricotta Filling

Preheat the oven to 190C.
Slice the mushrooms, heat the oil in a frying pan, and gently fry the mushrooms until beginning to brown. Crush the garlic and add it to the mushrooms along with the spring onions and the leaves from the fresh thyme. Cook until the mushrooms are golden brown. Slice the asparagus in half and add to the pan at the last minute.
Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and balsamic vinegar to the pan and allow to bubble away until any excess liquid has evaporated and you have quite a thick intense tomato mixture left. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Remove from the heat and stir through the ricotta cheese. Lightly beat the eggs and beat them in too.
Spread the filling into the chilled pastry case and bake for 30 minutes until set, slightly puffed and the pastry is lightly golden brown.
Allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the tin and serving.
Tastes great warm or cold the next day when it goes more quiche-like. Also freezes well in slices.
Makes 1 x 8inch/20cm tart

Daring Baker August 2011 Challenge: Chocolate Candies

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

This month’s challenge was fun. We were instructed to make two sorts of sweets/chocolates/candies of our own choosing. The only requirement was that one of them had to incorporate chocolate to make a truffle or bonbon, either in the outer shell or in the filling. The other sweet/candy was up to us.

I decided to incorporate chocolate into both my sweets, but using different varieties and in different forms. My first chocolate comprised of using white chocolate to form the outer shell of a filled bonbon. The filling of the bonbon was sweetened black bean paste that I snapped up a few weeks ago from an oriental supermarket. I’ve had red bean paste in Chinese pastries before and loved it, but I’d never seen the black bean variety. It comes in a can and was jet black in colour. It was rich and thick, with a slightly granular texture from the beans, yet sweet with a hint of rosewater that gave it a very delicate flavour. It resulted in a wonderful smooth sweet centre to the crisp white chocolate shell and I loved the black and white colour contrast too.

I used a silicone chocolate mould which helped create the shape and smooth glossy exterior to the chocolates. Plus, it meant they popped out easily when set.

My second sweetie was a thin dark chocolate disc topped with a whole pecan, some dried cranberries and slivers of crystallised ginger. I used a very bitter 85% dark chocolate which gave a wonderful rich chocolate flavour, delicious against the sweet tangy cranberries and the spicy ginger. The nut on top added another texture contrast and worked well with all the other flavours. They were so easy and quick to put together and looked quite stylish. I’ve seen similar things selling for extortionate amounts in shops, so it’s good to know I can produce similar results at home. They’d be great to serve to guests after dinner.

I really enjoyed the freedom we were given with this challenge and it was perfect for me this month as I have been so busy that I wouldn’t have been able to manage anything too time consuming. I love both the chocolates, both very different but equally delicious.

Click to see what tasty chocolate creations the other Daring Bakers made this month.

White Chocolate & Black Bean Truffles

Ingredients
100g white chocolate
10 tsp sweetened black bean paste (from oriental supermarkets)

Method
Melt 80g of the white chocolate and use a small pastry brush to coat the base and sides of small chocolate moulds. Make sure they are generously coated.
Place in the fridge for 5 minutes to chill and set.
Spoon a little of the black bean paste into the centre of the moulds, leaving a tiny gap at the top to allow you to seal them with extra chocolate.
Melt the remaining white chocolate and use to seal/cover the filling to create a white chocolate base to your chocolates.
Place back in the fridge for 10-15 minutes before turning out.
Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Pecan, Cranberry & Ginger Dark Chocolate Discs

Ingredients
50g dark bitter chocolate (I used 85%)
10 pecan nuts
3 chunks of crystallised ginger, shredded
20g dried cranberries

Method
Draw small circle onto a sheet of paper. Place the paper on a baking tray and cover with clingfilm, so the circles show through underneath.
Melt the dark chocolate and spoon a little into the centre of each of the circles. Use the back of a teaspoon to spread the chocolate into the circle shapes.
While the chocolate is still soft, scatter over your choice of dried fruit and nuts.
Place in the fridge to set for 10 minutes.
Once set, carefully peel the chocolate discs off the clingfilm and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Kulfi Inspired Pistachio, Saffron & Cardamom Rice Pudding Ice Cream

Kulfi is a milk based frozen desert of Indian origin that is similar to ice cream, only a little denser and richer. It often comes in gorgeous exotic flavours including mango, rose, saffron and cardamom. I have been fortunate enough to sample traditional kulfi a couple of times and always loved its rich creaminess and exciting flavours.

Indian rice pudding (I don’t know the proper name) is another one of my favourites. Often served cold, flavoured with cardamom and topped with slivers of pistachios. Last weekend I was trying to think of new ice cream flavours and decided to see what would happen if I used rice pudding as my base along with saffron, cardamom and a few chopped pistachios to create a kufli inspired ice cream.

I’m not ashamed (too much) to admit that I used a canned rice pudding. You could of course make your own but this would have taken more time than I had allocated myself and so I cheated/improvised. To get the best flavour and colour out of the saffron I steeped it first in a little warm milk. This created a lovely sunny yellow colour which gave the ice cream a rich creamy golden hue and helped the flavour develop.

The chopped pistachios added little nuggets of buttery texture along with their pretty green colour. They stayed quite soft in the ice cream, not going too hard or brittle which was nice. Cardamom is one of my favourite, yet often underused spices. It’s so distinctive and aromatic and worked brilliantly with all the other flavours.

Once churned all the flavours were apparent, with the earthy complex saffron and cardamom being most prominent. I loved how you could still clearly see the streaks of golden saffron scattered throughout. Saffron is quite distinctive (and expensive) so a little goes a long way.

The rice pudding itself got a little pulverised during churning, lending a thicker, creamier texture to the finished ice cream, but not quite as much ‘rice texture’ as I’d originally hoped.

I adored the finished ice cream, it was so different to anything else I’ve had before while having definite Kulfi overtones. It was quite rich and aromatic so small single serve scoopfuls were enough to satisfy the taste buds. It’s probably not at all authentic and I apologise to anyone who is horrified at my ice cream creation, but it tasted delicious to me.

Kulfi Inspired Pistachio, Saffron & Cardamom Rice Pudding Ice Cream

Ingredients
2 x 400g tins rice pudding
100ml milk
½ tsp ground cardamom
50g shelled pistachio nuts
40g caster sugar
Pinch saffron strands

Method
Place the saffron strands in a small bowl and pour over the milk. Place in the microwave and heat on defrost for 30-60 seconds until the milk is just warm. Stir and leave the saffron to steep in the milk for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, pour the rice pudding into a bowl and stir in the cardamom and sugar.
Roughly chop the pistachios and add to the rice mix along with the saffron milk, including the strands of saffron, which will be a vibrant sunny yellow colour.
Stir to combine and place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes before churning in an ice cream maker until thick. Alternatively, transfer it into a large container and place in the freezer; stir the mix every hour until set.
When thick and almost frozen, serve at once or freeze until required.

The Cake Slice August 2011: Hungarian Coffee Cake a.k.a Monkey Bread

I was really excited when this cake won this months vote. I’d never heard of Hungarian Coffee Cake before, but apparently it is also known as Monkey Bread which I have been seeing for years popping up on various blogs. Its something I’ve always longed to try, yet never got round to, so now was my chance.

The idea behind the strange name of Monkey Bread is that the cake is made up of balls of dough, which are rolled in cinnamon sugar, before being stacked into a Bundt tin and baked. The rounds of cinnamon crusted dough can then be pulled off in their ball shapes, like a sort of tear and share bread. I assume the logic behind the name is that you can pick at it with your fingers, like a monkey. Click here, here and here to see some great examples.

I had high hopes for this cake but I ended up being quite disappointed. I’m not sure if it was a bad recipe or if I did a bad job at adapting it to be gluten free but it ended up more scone-like in texture than doughy balls of cake/bread. Looking at the recipe, I strongly suspect it’s the recipes fault. The cake part itself contains no eggs and no sugar. The dough is rolled in a cinnamon sugar and topped with a sugar/butter sauce, but the balls of dough were a little bland, making them appear even more scone-like. I’m sure its meant to also contain yeast.

Once baked, the cake was very crumbly, causing it to break and collapse slightly when I released it from the tin. It also disintegrated when I tried to take a bite, meaning I had to eat it with a fork and spoon rather than my fingers. The ball shaped pieces of dough also expanded and merged together, meaning it was impossible for me to break off a clean piece, it sort of fell how it wanted, crumbling away like an old ruined castle.

Despite its crumbly texture and poor appearance, the actual flavour of the cake was delicious. I used dried cranberries and sultanas in place of the raisins which added bright little dots of ruby colour throughout the dough and provided a lovely tangy bite against the sweet caramel topping. By mistake I also used salted butter instead of unsalted in the caramel topping, which meant every bite was a mix of sweet and salty, which worked brilliantly. I think this was one of the best bits about the cake.

The cake itself had a dense textured crumb, but was very moist with a slightly grassy flavour due to my use of Teff flour. I enjoyed it and its scone-like texture which made a change to the usual soft and light cakes. I actually ended up devouring over half of it myself in only 2 days! It was just so easy to keep picking at it, especially as chunks kept falling off, just waiting to be picked up.

So this months cake had mixed success. In terms of Monkey Bread it was a complete failure, but it did however produce a….mountainous giant scone thingy…that I enjoyed eating so all was not lost. I wouldn’t recommend this recipe as it stand though.

Click here to see what the other Cake Slice Bakers thought.

Hungarian Coffee Cake – a.k.a Monkey Bread
(Recipe from KeeCakeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)

Topping
100g butter, melted and cooled
170g light brown sugar

Cinnamon Dusting
110g caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Cake
100g butter, cold
360g plain flour (I used 200g white teff flour & 160g brown rice flour)
1 tbsp gluten free baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
(1 tsp xanthan gum – if GF)
255ml buttermilk
50g walnuts (I used pecans)
70g raisins (I used mix of cranberries & sultanas)

Method – Topping
Whisk together the melted butter and light brown sugar. Set aside.

Method – Cinnamon Dusting
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a nonstick 12cup/8inch Bundt pan and dust with flour.
Combine the caster sugar and cinnamon in a zipper top bag or small bowl and set aside.

Method – Cake
Cut the butter into 1/2cm dice. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the chilled butter pieces and, with an electric mixer mix on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in the buttermilk until the mixture just comes together, adding an extra tablespoon or two if the mixture is too dry.
Use a small ice cream scoop or spoon to scoop up balls of dough and transfer them to the zipper top bag. Shake the bag to coat the balls with the cinnamon sugar.
Place the coated balls of dough in the prepared pan, sprinkling the walnuts and raisins over them as you go. Pour the melted butter brown sugar mixture over the cake. Bake until the cake is firm and well risen and the caramel is melted, about 35-40 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto a serving platter and serve immediately.
Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for 1 day.
Makes one 12 cup/8 inch Bundt cake

Breakfast Scone for One

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. There are such a lot of interesting and exciting options open for breakfast and it makes me sad that so many people overlook them. I cannot understand why some people (other members of my family included) eat the same thing every single morning. I don’t just mean they always have cereal, it’s the fact they always have exactly the same cereal, day in day out! That would be so dull and boring to me. You wouldn’t eat exactly the same thing for dinner every night would you?

Cereal, yoghurt, fruit, scones, muffins, bagels, eggs, porridge, toast, smoothies, wraps, pancakes etc. Even if you just pick one of these categories, at least add some variety with different variations – e.g. porridge. It may sound boring but consider you could make it sweet or salty, topped with a little sugar or drizzled with chocolate chips, banana and walnuts, or how about stirring in some natural yoghurt and fresh berries at the end? I’ve even made it using smoothie instead of half the milk/water for a very delicious and fruity tasting alternative. I’m all for being a bit adventurous with my breakfast fodder, especially since being diagnoised as coeliac, as a lot of my favourite breakfast items are now off limits. The only thing I insist on is that it does include some kind of fruit somewhere.

One of my favourite things to make for breakfast is a breakfast scone. Before you roll your eyes thinking this sounds like far too much work, it’s actually very quick and easy. The breakfast scone is a single serve, one person portion scone and resembles more of free form rock cake, than a dainty little afternoon scone. Its simply made by mixing together a small amount of flour, milk, butter and a pinch of sugar with any additional ingredients you have on hand to form a thick dough which you then scoop out onto a baking tray and bake for a few minutes. No rolling out, cutting or egg washing, it bakes simply in a heap that cracks and puffs into a lumpy looking mountain as it bakes. It’s not the most attractive breakfast, but it is very tasty, quick and makes me feel like I’m having a treat despite its humble appearance.

I had some cold stewed apple leftover from the night before which I decided would be the perfect accompaniment to my breakfast scone. I kept to the cream and jam train of thought by used thick natural yoghurt in place of cream and the freshly cooked fruit instead of the jam. This kept it lighter, fresher and healthier for breakfast. As I planned to use the apple as a topping, the scone itself was studded with chewy sultanas and a pinch of cinnamon. It smelt wonderful as it baked, almost like a cinnamon sultana cookie.

The outer crust was cracked and slightly crusty while it stayed soft and tender inside. They are not as dainty and sophisticated as afternoon tea scones, but eaten hot straight out the oven with the chilled fruit and yoghurt it made a delicious start to my day. It doesn’t really take any extra time than a standard breakfast as it takes moments to put together and while it’s baking you can be getting ready for work or making packed lunches etc.

I love how adding just a few different add-ins or using only one or a mix of flours can create such different tasting results. Judging by the wafts of overripe banana smell that are being emitted from the fruit bowl I think some sort of mashed banana, chocolate chip combo will be called for tomorrow. It might not be in scone form, maybe stirred into my porridge or mixed into a pancake batter – I’ll see how I feel in the morning.

Ok, rant over. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so whatever you eat make sure you enjoy it and remember that variety is the spice of life!

Breakfast Scone for One

Ingredients
1 tbsp fine ground corn meal
1 tbsp brown rice flour
2 tbsp gluten free flour mix (or 2tbsp buckwheat flour)
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
Small handful sultanas
Small blob (approx 10g) butter (very soft or melted)
40-50ml milk
½ tsp caster sugar

To serve
Stewed apple or fruit compote
Natural yoghurt

Method
Heat the oven to 180C. Have a small baking tray lined with silicone paper ready.
Mix the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, sultanas and sugar together in a small bowl.
Add the very soft or melted butter and mix it into the flour along with the milk, using a small spoon, until you have a very soft dough/thick batter. It should be too wet to handle.
Scoop the dough onto the baking tray and place in the oven for 12 minutes.
Once baked, remove from the oven and enjoy while still warm, accompanied by a spoonful of stewed or fresh fruit and a generous dollop of natural yoghurt.

Note: Works well with other flavours and flours too, so be creative or simply use what you have on hand. Try adding a little mashed banana or a few fresh berries to the batter along with some dark chocolate chips, nuts or spices for a delicious alternative. Try flavouring the yoghurt too. Stirring through a little honey or peanut butter creates a great tasting yoghurty dip