Gluten Free Yorkshire Pudding

Yorkshire Pudding. It's one of those things I always saw in recipe books and on menus and assumed I would never be able to eat it. For the uninitiated it's a savoury bready thing that is served with a roast dinner and is the pudding part of the Brittish classic "Toad in a Hole" (the toad being a sausage...)

So it turns out to actually be really easy to make as a gluten free version. If you swapped the milk for say, soy milk you would have a gluten and dairy free version.
My kids think they are fantastic and they are very quick and very easy to make. Bonus.

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
100g plain gf flour mix
100ml milk
oil to grease the pan.

You need a mini muffin tin or small cupcake pan. At least, that is what I use to make individual serves. Traditionally it's made in a single tin so a loaf tin or square tin would do too.

Preheat your oven to whatever the highest temperature is that you are able. It needs to be very hot.

Whatever tin you are using, grease it thoroughly and pop it into your very hot oven to preheat.
Meanwhile throw all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl and beat them. You need it to form a smooth batter., scrape down the sides a couple of times to make sure it is all mixed in evenly.

Jamie Oliver says you should let your oil start smoking when making yorkshire pudding, my firefighter husband says not to do that under any circumstances. When the oil is obviously hot but not smoking, very carefully remove the tin from the oven and pour/spoon the batter into the tin. Try to do this fairly quickly so you don't loose too much heat.

Return the tin to the oven for about 10-12 minutes. Don't open the oven during the cooking time. The yorkies will puff up dramatically and bronze off. Remove the cooked puddings from the oven and serve hot. Excellent for sopping up gravy.

For a bit of variety you can add things to the batter. My kids love me to add grated cheese. Chopped chives were good too. Feel free to experiment.

Gluten Free Toblerone Cheesecake

This is another recipe I made to take to Easter lunch. It is also very rich. Unfortunately I don't have many photos because I got a bit time pressured and distracted (my in-laws were visiting) but I think you can get the basic idea from this. The original recipe came from family friends Robyn and Steve Holland but I don't know how closely it resembles theirs anymore.
Depending on the biscuits and chocolate you use (remember, substitution is the key to successful special diet cooking) this can be soy, egg and nut free but obviously not dairy free.

For the base:
1 cup gluten free chocolate biscuit crumbs (use whatever you like but try for choc coated ones, I used some that resembled a g/f version of Tim Tams) pulverise the biscuits in a food processor.
80g melted butter
1/4 cup ground almonds

For the filling
500g cream cheese, softened.
1/2 cup caster sugar
200g Toblerone melted or grated
1/2 cup thickened cream

For the topping
200g Toblerone, grated or shaved into curls

Method:

Lightly grease a 22cm round springform cake tin
Combine biscuit crumbs, butter and almonds and press the mixture into the base of the prepared tin, chill.
Beat cream cheese until smooth, add sugar, cream and chocolate. Continue beating until well combined.
Pour filling into the tin on top of the base. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours but preferably overnight (you can't turn it out until it is really set).

If you melt the Toblerone you will get a very smooth, sweet cheesecake that is very child friendly. If you grate it you get a much sharper, more adult dinner-party type cheesecake. I prefer the grated version.

To serve, remove the tin from the fridge, allow it to warm up a little to make removing the sides easier (wiping the outside of the tin with a warmed tea towel may help). Release the hinge and gently ease the side away from the cream cheese, if necessary you can run a knife between the side of the cheesecake and the tin but be careful not to take chunks out of it. To remove the base of the tin you will almost certainly need to use a blunt knife to ease it away from the biscuit crumb base, be careful and try to handle the actual cheesecake as little as possible. The chilled cheesecake base is strong enough to support the whole thing as you remove the tin, slide the knife between the tin and the cheesecake and as the gap gets bigger, slide your hand into the space. That probably sounds harder than it actually is.

Transfer the cheesecake to your serving platter and dust liberally with chocolate shavings.
Serve with whipped cream to cut through the richness a bit.
Serves 10-12

Easter Egg Nest Cake (gluten free)

Now I know I've been slack. I've been meaning to come online and actually post the recipes I've photographed over the last few months and just never quite got around to it... not having internet connection on at the house anymore makes it slightly less convenient but not really all that difficult. Truth is I don't really have an excuse.

Anyway I made this cake to take to an Easter Sunday lunch.
It's a Nigella Lawson recipe, brilliant for being a recipe that is actually gluten free without me having to do any fiddling at all. It is rich.
Actually it would be hard to overstate that. Nigella is the queen of rich, decadent desserts and this cake is exactly that. I have actually been accosted in the supermarket by people who had a sliver of this cake at that lunch. It evidently made an impression.

If you are looking for something very rich and decadent to serve and don't mind being known as the "lady who made that incredibly rich chocolate cake" then this is the one for you.

The leftovers (there were some) spent the night in the fridge and actually were much nicer the next day although the eggs didn't look so good by then. I'm not sure why that was but my darling husband agreed so it wasn't just my imagination. If I were to make this again I'd probably leave it in the fridge overnight and serve chilled the next day for something akin to an amazing chocolate cheesecake. It wouldn't be so pretty but it would be divine.
It serves 8-10. Nigella says she would make it if there were only 4 of them to feed, I think you could easily stretch it to 12 or even 16. You really don't need much.

For the cake:
250g best quality dark eating chocolate, chopped
125g unsalted softened butter
6 eggs: 2 whole, 4 separated
175g caster sugar: 75g for the yolk mixture; 100g for the whites
1tsp real vanilla extract

For the topping:
125g best quality dark eating chocolate, chopped
250ml double cream
1tsp real vanilla extract
1-2 packets of small sugar coated easter eggs as desired (check the ingredients list to make sure they are actually gluten free, you could substitute with foil wrapped ones if necessary)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Line the bottom of a 23cm round springform cake tin with baking paper. Do not grease the sides of the tin.

Melt the 250g chocolate together with the butter. Nigella recommends a double boiler or microwave but I just throw them into a non-stick saucepan and stir, the butter protects the chocolate a bit as it melts so you can get away with it. Set it aside to cool slightly.

Whisk the 4 egg whites until firm, then gradually add the 100g of sugar and whisk until the whites are holding their own shape and peak gleamingly - but not stiff.

In another bowl whisk the 2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks with the 75g sugar and the vanilla extract, then gently fold in the chocolate mixture. Lighten the mixture with some of the egg whites - just dollop a large spoonfull in and stir briskly - and then fold in the rest of the whisked whites gently, in about 3 goes.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40mins or until the cake is risen and cracked and the centre is no longer wobbly on the surface.

Cool the cake in it's tin on a wire rack; the middle will sink as it cools and the sides splinter. You want this to look like a cake with a crater in the middle, so do not panic at the vision of imperfection in front of you. That's one of the reasons this cake is so unstressful to make. (I love that bit!)

To finish the cake, carefully remove it from the tin and place it on a plate or cake stand, not worrying if bits fall off here and there. Put them back in a loose fashion.

Melt the chocolate for the topping and leave it to cool a little. Whip the cream until it is firming up and aerated but still soft, and then add the vanilla and fold in the melted chocolate. Fill the crater of the cake with the chocolatey cream, easing it out gently towards the edges of the cake with a rubber spatula, and then arranging the little easter eggs on top.

Ours was served with whipped cream with some vanilla bean through it and that was perfect.

I have to admit that as I was assembling it I was thinking how everyone would assume I had messed it up and tried to hide it with the cream... I kept telling people that it had turned out exactly like the one in the book. Nigella Lawson is possibly the only person on the planet who could whip up a "crater cake", serve it at a dinner party and then publish it in a recipe book complete with instructions to stay calm as it collapses and not feed it to the dog and serve something else. She is an incredible woman.