Healthy treats
Everyone likes to indulge in sweet treats from time to time, but is it possible to bake a ‘healthy’ cake? Yes, I think it is. Here are some guidelines.
•Replace standard white flour with either a good-quality unbleached white flour, such as Doves Farm, or well-sieved wholemeal flour.
•Replace white sugar with dried fruit, fruit purée or honey.
•Fat should be kept to a minimum and taken in the form of unrefined oils or unhydrogenated margarine (such as Pure). Replace 1 egg with 2 fat-free egg whites.
•The addition of nuts makes cakes even more nutritious and grated carrot gives a lovely moist texture.
Here’s an example of healthy baking that even people with a sweet tooth like.
Honey Oat Bars
HED VEG VG
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup sultanas
¼ cup chopped dried apricots
½ cup self-raising flour
½ cup coconut flakes
⅓ cup unhydrogenated margarine
¼ cup honey
Preheat oven to 190 ºC (375 ºF, gas mark 5). Mix together oats, sultanas, apricots, flour and coconut flakes.
Melt margarine and honey in a glass bowl or microwave saucepan in a microwave and mix in the other ingredients.
Grease a 175-mm (7-in) diameter sponge cake tin and pour mixture in. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Cut into wedges while still warm and in the tin. (Don’t worry if it seems soft – it will harden up as it cools.) Leave to cool before removing from the tin.
Gluten-free baking
Cooking with gluten-free (GF) flour requires a different technique from those used in conventional baking. This is because gluten is the binding agent in the grain; it helps the crumbs to stick together and makes dough elastic enough to knead. Here are some tips for making gluten-free bread, cakes or pastry.
As a general rule . . .
For best results, use a mixture of different GF flours, such as a blend of 3 parts brown rice flour, 2 parts tapioca flour and 1 part maize flour.
You can compensate for the lack of gluten by adding one of the following:
•1 tsp xanthan gum to every 170 g (6 oz) plain GF flour;
•1 part Orgran No Gluten to 5 parts plain GF flour.
Some GF flours deteriorate quickly so, once opened, store your packets of GF flour in plastic containers in the freezer. They won’t solidify and will keep for up to three months.
Bread and cakes
Soda bread (bread made without yeast) and cakes made without sugar will not stay fresh as long as their conventional counterparts. Soda bread may be cut up into individual portions and stored in sandwich bags in the freezer until required. Cakes and muffins will keep up to five days in a plastic box in the fridge or up to a month in the freezer.
GF bread and cakes taste better if they have been ‘refreshed’ in the microwave before eating. Heat two muffins or two slices of bread on medium high for 1 minute or, if frozen, on defrost for 2 minutes.
Pastry
To ‘rub in’, lightly use your fingertips to rub the margarine into the flour, lifting the mixture as you do so, until it resembles breadcrumbs.
To make pastry dough, add the exact amount of cold water specified and bring water and crumbs together with a palette knife. Use your well-floured hands to finish forming the dough ball. Add a little extra water if it’s too dry or a bit more flour if it’s too sticky.
Chill the pastry in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling out. Dough can be wrapped in cling film and kept in the fridge for two to three days before use.
Lifting up a large sheet of GF pastry without it breaking is a near impossibility as it is very fragile. Small individual pies are fine as the circle of pastry is small enough to be picked up on a large spatula. Turn large pies into a ‘cobbler’, forming the crust by overlapping small circles of pastry. You can use an upturned tumbler to cut these out.
Gluten-free Soda Bread
HED LFD BBD OMSD V
If you can’t find millet flour, use millet flakes and blitz in a food processor to form flour.
300 ml (½ pt) milk
1 tsp vinegar
1¾ cups plain GF flour
⅔ cup millet flour
¼ cup Orgran No Gluten
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 200 ºC (400 ºF, gas mark 6). Grease a baking sheet. Mix milk and vinegar and leave for 10 minutes. Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add the milk and vinegar mixture. Mix with a metal spoon to form a ball of dough. If the mixture is too dry, add more water a little at a time. Flour your hands and roll the ball on to the greased baking sheet. Flatten slightly and form a cross on the top with a knife. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, until a knife inserted into the centre comes out dry. Leave to cool for 30 minutes before slicing.
HED LFD BBD OMSD VEG VG
1⅔ cups maize flour or polenta
⅔ cup brown rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 small red pepper, finely diced
1 cup milk
½ cup water
3 tbsp olive oil
Preheat oven to 200 ºC (400 ºF, gas mark 6). Grease and flour a 450-g (1-lb) loaf tin.
Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl and add diced red pepper. Whisk liquid ingredients together and add to bowl with dry ingredients. Mix well. Put mixture in the prepared loaf tin and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Leave to cool for 30 minutes before cutting.
Apricot Tea Bread
HED LFD OMSD VEG VG
1 x 400-g (14-oz) tin apricots in fruit juice
300 ml (10 oz) plain yogurt (OMSD and VG, use soya yogurt)
250 g (9 oz) brown rice flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
140 g (5 oz) currants or raisins
Preheat oven to 180 ºC (350 ºF, gas mark 4). Grease and flour a 450-g (1lb) loaf tin.
Empty apricots and fruit juice into food processor and whizz to a purée. Add yogurt, flour, spices and baking powder and mix well.
Mix in currants or raisins by hand, then pour mixture into prepared loaf tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 40–45 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool for 30 minutes before turning out.
Peach Muffins
HED LFD BBD OMSD VEG VG (Makes 6 large or 9 smaller muffins)
This simple method for making muffins uses canned fruit to provide flavour and sweetness, so you don’t need to add either sugar or eggs. I find them quite sweet enough as they are, but you can add a dessertspoon of honey to the recipe if you prefer. For best results, heat gently in a microwave before eating.
1 x 400-g (14-oz) can peaches in juice
1½ cups Orgran self-raising GF flour
3 level tbsp unhydrogenated dairy-free margarine, such as Pure
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup sultanas
Preheat oven to 200 ºC (400 ºF, gas mark 6). Lightly grease a muffin tray.
Make a purée of peaches and their juice in a food processor.
Add flour, margarine and vanilla extract and blend again. Mix in sultanas by hand. Spoon mixture into prepared muffin tray and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing muffins from the tray.
Pear and Carob Muffins
HED LFD OMSD VEG VG (Makes 6 large or 9 smaller muffins)
Replace peaches with a can of pears in juice and add 2 dsp of carob powder.
Apricot Muffins
HED LFD OMSD VEG VG (Makes 6 large or 9 smaller muffins)
Replace peaches with a can of apricots in juice and add 1 tsp ground cinnamon to mix.