Lunchbox Bakes – Banana Cranberry Cookies

These cookies are a little weird; there’s no flour, oats act in place of the usual dry ingredients.  So, they are a bit gooey.  But yum.  Really yum.  Guess what, they are also gluten, egg and sugar free.  How brilliant is that?  They are like little breakfast in a cookie ball.  And, they are easy; a one bowl, chuck everything together and you are done deal.  I like them a lot.

Makes about 30 cookies.

3 medium ripe banana, mashed
⅓ cup butter, melted
2 cups uncooked gluten free oats
¼ cup milk
½ cup craisins (dried cranberries)
½ walnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, then let the batter stand for 5 minutes.
Scoop out teaspoons of the dough onto the baking tray.  Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned. Let stand for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

For more lunchbox food ideas or how you too can take part in ‘Lunchbox Bakes’, check out the Lunchbox Bakes page!

Gluten Free Orange Cake

This cake has a very strong orange flavour.  It goes great with ice cream or custard.  The cake uses almond meal instead flour making it gluten free.

2 oranges
3 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
3 cups almond meal
1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder

Orange Syrup:
1 orange
¾ cup caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 170°C.  Grease and line a round 22cm round springform tin with butter and baking paper.

Place the oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water.  Bring to the boil over medium heat. Cook for 15 minutes or until tender, then drain.  Return to pan and repeat the process.  Refresh under cold water, and drain.  Coarsely chop the oranges, removing and discarding any seeds.
Place the orange (skin included) in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth.

Use an electric beater to whisk the eggs and sugar in a bowl until thick and pale.  Add the orange, almond meal and baking powder and gently fold until just combined. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for one hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Set aside for at least 15 minutes to cool.

Meanwhile, to make the orange syrup, use a vegetable peeler to peel the rind from orange.  Cut the rind into thin strips (see our candied lemon peel post for more info).  Juice the orange.
Place the rind in a saucepan of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes or until soft.  Drain.  Return to the pan with the orange juice and sugar. Place over a low heat and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens.

Turn cake onto a serving plate.  Use a skewer to gently prick the top, then spoon over syrup before serving.

Spiced Chocolate Dessert Cake

Max and I had a lovely but very busy weekend up in Auckland, visiting Shane who is working up there while I stay in New Plymouth selling our house as we are re-locating (yup, again). We also had the bonus of catching up with some of family and having a family dinner with two of my three sisters at Mum’s house. This cake is what I whipped up for our dessert and YAY(!!) if you are gluten free as this is one you can all enjoy too!

Ingredients:
100 grams dark chocolate
100 grams butter, chopped into pieces
75 grams almond meal
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 heaped teaspoon masala spice
1 teaspoon coffee powder
1 tablespoon hot water
3 eggs, whites and yolks separated

Method:
Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin. Pre heat oven to 160°C fan bake.
In a double boiler melt chocolate and butter and stir occasionally to combine.
In a large bowl place almond meal, sugar, masala and stir to combine. In the centre drop in coffee and hot water.
Add chocolate mixture to almond meal mixture and stir to combine.
Add in egg yolks one at a time.
Beat egg whites into soft peaks with an electric mixer and fold through chocolate mix.
Bake in your pre-heated oven for 45 minutes. Remove and place on a wire rack until cooled and then place in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours before serving (can be made a day ahead).
Serve with berry sauce and cream.

Gluten Free Chocolate Pecan Brownies

I got to catch up with Kim (a friend Mel and I made while we completed our teaching diplomas) last week as she now resides in New Plymouth too.  She also has the most gorgeous baby boy!  Kim’s gluten free so I got to try my hand at making a “GF” treat.  These were delicious, probably the best brownies I’ve ever made!

Ingredients:
120g butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup caster sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla paste (or extract)
3 large eggs
¾ cup gluten free flour
½ cup gluten free cocoa powder
½ teaspoon gluten free baking powder
⅓ cup pecans, chopped
½ cup dark chocolate drops

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C, line a square 20x20cm baking tin with baking paper.
Mix butter (I used the delicious butter sent to us from Lewis Road Creamery), sugars and vanilla until combined.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Sift in cocoa, flour, baking powder and mix until just combined.
Stir through pecans and chocolate drops.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until just cooked. Remove from oven and cool for a further 10 minutes in the baking time before removing the brownie to cool completely on a wire rack.
Cut into pieces and dust with icing sugar to serve.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip & Peanut Butter Cookies

I found this recipe at Sabato when Simon and I went shopping there on Saturday.  It’s a gourmet food shop in Mt. Eden, Auckland and it is stocked full of delicious tasting things.  They have a whole stand of recipe cards you can take which use the products they sell and this is one of the recipes that jumped out at me.  These cookies taste really indulgent even though I used Whittaker’s 50% Dark Chocolate as we had some in the pantry at home, rather than the ‘Valrhona’ brand of dark chocolate that the recipe recommended (I think I might have to go back and get some of this chocolate to try though, the official website makes it seem so luxurious).  I baked my cookies so that they are soft and chewy in the middle, yum!  The recipe makes approximately 12 cookies and is super easy :)

1 cup peanut butter (I used a mixture of smooth and crunchy)
1 egg
¾ cup brown or white sugar (I used half of each)
½ teaspoon baking powder (gluten free)
85g dark chocolate, chopped into pea sized pieces

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Mix the peanut butter, sugar, egg and baking powder together in  bowl.  Mix in the chocolate bits.
Take dessertspoon sized amounts of the dough and roll into balls.  Place them on a baking paper lined tray.  Bake in the oven for 12 minutes for a soft-centred chewy cookie, or 15 minutes or slightly longer for a crunchier cookie (just be careful not to burn them!).  Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a wire rack.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

I went to the first of this year’s Christmas gatherings today, my coffee group arranged a catch up for the families from our ante-natal class to get together before it all gets too hectic with kids 1st birthday parties, husband’s work functions and family Christmas’. In true Kiwi fashion we all took along a plate. My contribution was a gluten free chocolate cake (as one of the Mum’s in my coffee group has a severe gluten allergy). I was a bit nervous about it having never done any gluten free cooking before but it turned out well and was the most moist chocolate packed creation I have ever made!

Ingredients:
Cake:
170 grams dark chocolate (broken into squares or chopped)
115 grams butter
¾ cup white sugar
3 large eggs
½ cup cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Glaze:
80 grams chocolate (broken into squares or chopped)
25 grams butter
1½  tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon honey
¼ teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180°C.  Spray a 7” round spring-form cake tin with cooking spray, line the bottom with wax paper and spray the top of the wax paper as well.
Melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir until chocolate and butter are melted and smooth.
Add sugar and salt, reduce heat to low.  Cook while stirring for about one minute, until sugar starts to dissolve.
Remove pan from heat.  Whisk in eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla and whisk. The mixture should look smooth and glossy.
Sift cocoa into mixture.  Whisk until the cake batter is smooth.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for about 25 minutes.  The centre of the cake should be just firm to the touch, but be careful to not over bake the cake or it will be dry.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
Invert the cake on a plate.

To prepare the glaze, melt chopped chocolate and butter in a saucepan.  When melted and smooth, remove the pan from heat.
Add milk, honey and vanilla and stir until smooth and glossy.
Let the glaze cool for about 5 minutes before pouring it on the cake.
Pour all of the glaze in the middle of the cake.  Use a silicone or rubber spatula to spread the glaze evenly over the cake, allowing the glaze to evenly run down the sides of the cake.