Coconut Muffin Cakes

Thes are dense, moist heavy and sweet. Nom!




1 cup white flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vanilla sugar
1 1/2 cups coconut
150g butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup water

Bland dry ingredients.
Add butter and water.
mix into a ball.
Divide into 12
put into 12 muffin cups
bake in a pre heated oven at 200 for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out dry.

serve warm or cool

Pumpkin Scones

These are delicious and almost bread-like. They're not particularly sweet, and they're not overly pumpkiny, which I was a bit disappointed by, but any more 'liquid' in the mix and it would have been too wet, I think. The mixture will be very wet, too wet to work with the hands, but not at all runny.

Ingredients

400mls/1½ cups pumpkin, pureéd

3½ cups spelt flour

100g butter, melted

2 tbsp vanilla sugar

4 tbsp sugar

3 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

½ tsp mixed spice

Method

Preheat oven to 215ºC.

Combine dry. Add wet. Mix to combine.
Spoon eight evenly sized blobs onto a baking tray.
With floured hands, shape and flatten each scone to a height of about one cm.
Bake in the middle of the oven for twenty minutes or until hollow sounding when tapped.

Serve warm with butter and tea!

Chocolate Butter Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (250g) butter

1 1/3 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1tsp baking powder

Method

Cream sugar and butter.

Sift in flour, cocoa and baking powder.

Work together, to an even dough.

Variation A

Roll into a ball and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Cut dough into 30 evenly sized pieces.

Work each piece into a ball and place on a baking tray, about 10 centimetres apart - you should get 12-16 on an average size baking tray.

Flatten each ball with your thumb or the back of a spoon, then use a fork to add texture.

Variation B

Roll the dough into a 'sausage', about 10cm in diameter and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Cut rounds off the sausage, just less than 1cm thick.

Place on a baking tray, about 2-3cm apart.

Bake at 150oC for15-20 minutes.

Carefully transfer from the baking tray to a cooling tray - they are very fragile when they first come out of the oven. Or, you can leave them on the baking tray for a while, but this will yield crunchier biscuits.

Cheese-less veggie pizza

Makes six medium pizzas (as shown below) or one large pizza

1) Make the dough

Dough ingredients

3cups flour

3tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup olive oil

3/4-1 cup water

Method

Combine well, knead, roll out. Place on a flour dusted baking tray or pizza stone.

2) Heat the oven to 200-225C

3) Prepare toppings

Topping ingredients

Tomato sauce (use the Slow Tomato Sauce recipe or any shop bought, vegetarian, dairy free pizza sauce of your choice)

Slices of any vegetable of your choice.

My staples are:

courgette slices

fresh tomato slices

mushroom, chopped or sliced

bell peppers

olives

capers

finely chopped or grated carrot

4) Put it all together

Spread a generous amount of sauce onto your base. (to your own taste, obviously... some people like a thin layer of sauce)

Spread your prepared veggies evenly over the sauce.

Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until veggies are tender.

Breakfast Pancakes

Ingredients
1 cup water
2Tbsp sugar
1½ -2 cups flour*
1½ -2 tsps baking powder
Pinch salt

Method
Add water to a bowl
Add remaining ingredients
Combine well
Heat your pan to medium hot and ladle dollop of batter into the middle.
Spread it out into a round,
After a few minutes turn – the top should be golden brown.
Do the same for the other side – the pancake should expand and be a fluffy inside.

This will make 3-4 pancakes. Batter keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days.

*Flour.
Flour varies in absorbency, depending on how fine it is, and what type of flour it is.
For everyday pancakes, I use a combination of coarse ground wholegrain and fine ground spelt flour, with a handful of porridge oats, some wheat bran and wheat germ.
For desert pancakes, I use fine ground wheat flour, with an addition of 50g melted butter.

Slow Tomato Sauce (and soup)

Ingredients

400g tomatoes (1 can or fresh tomatoes)
150g tomato purée
1 half medium onion, chopped finely (optional)
2-4 cloves garlic, crushed (optional)
1 Tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1Tbsp honey
1/2 - 1Tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 - 1 tsp each dried oregano, basil, any of your favourite herbs
pinch of chili or Cayenne pepper
(For soup, add a can water)

Method
*put everything in a heavy based pan (not iron)
*bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for an eternity (minimum 1.5 hrs)

For soup or a smooth sauce, blend in a food processor.

10 minutes before serving you can add any raw vegetables, increase the heat and simmer/cook until veg is tender.
Try:
carrots
swede
turnip
parsnip
beetroot
cauliflower
broccoli
pumpkin
squash
sweet potato
courgette
bell peppers/paprika
aubergine
anything you like really...

Oat Crispy

Breakfast cereal, snack or dessert topping.


Ingredients
300g porridge oats
200g jumbo oats
200g butter
4Tbsp molasses, malt extract, honey or a mixture of all three
100-150g sugar
1Tbsp flour
1tsp cinnamon (optional)

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
Melt together the butter, molasses and sugar. Stir until a uniform, homogenised mass, which should be like runny toffee.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a big bowl, add the liquid and stir until all the oats are coated. This takes a while. Don’t be tempted to add more liquid!

Spread onto a lined baking tray and bake in the middle of the oven for 10-15 minutes.

For a chunks, mix up half way through the bake. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, and then loosen up the chunks before allowing cooling completely. Store in an airtight container.

For flapjacks, press the mix firmly into the tray before going into the oven and don’t mix. Leave to cool in the tray for 5 minutes, then cut into squares. Leaving it longer than 5 minutes will make it harder to cut.