Amazing American to English Conversion Calculator

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the age-old problem of trying to use American recipes. Everything's in cups!

Or, as happened to me the other day, your scales run out of battery in the middle of baking a cake...

A quick google search rescued me from a trip out to the shops: gourmetsleuth.com.

Gourmet Sleuth allows you to search for any ingredient, select the exact ingredient you need to measure, and choose your conversion factors. So I discovered that 150g granulated sugar is 0.75 cups (3/4 a cup)!

It's this simple: go to http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cooking-conversions/cooking-conversions-calculator.aspx, and:

1. Type in the ingredient and press enter.
2. Narrow the results by selecting a category (sugar is in "Sweets").
3. Select the right ingredient.
4. Enter the amount you know, and the conversion measurement you want.
5. Click convert - and the answer appears at the top!

Genius!

Gluten Free Crackers...Perfected!

I have finally hit upon the perfect recipe for gluten free cheese crackers!

After much trial and error, here it is:

Gluten Free Crackers

• 1 cup flour (1/2 a cup each of two types for the best flavour) - make sure you pick smooth flours, e.g. rice flour works well, but maize flour is gritty!
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp margarine
• 1-2 tsp seasoning - I usually do Italian Herb Crackers, e.g. oregano and basil, but try out finely grated cheese, onion powder and finely chopped chives...whatever you fancy!
• 3-4 tbsp water

Mix all the ingredients except the water together. Then, 1 tbsp at a time, work the water in slowly (best done manually). You're aiming for a dough that you can push your knuckles into and form an imprint without cracks appearing in the dough and without the dough sticking to your hands. Depending on the flours you use, you may need more or less water.

Once the dough is formed, pull off a handful and put it on a well-floured wooden board. Lay a sheet of grease-proof paper over the dough and roll out as thin as you can - the thinner you roll the dough, the better the crackers will be. 1-2 mm thick is ideal!

When your dough is rolled out, gently peel the greaseproof paper off, get your cookie cutter and cut circular crackers. Pop them onto a greased tray, brush with olive oil (to make them brown) and put in a pre-heated oven at 210 C for 10-15 minutes, until browned.

And that's all there is to it! A couple of tips:

• Each time I roll and cut out a new handful of dough, I collect the spare dough together. Then, when I've rolled out and cut all the dough, I rebind the leftovers by dipping my fingers into water and working it together again. The dough is surprisingly resilient to being rerolled over and over again, but it does need encouraging a bit!
• Experiment with flavours! I would really like to make onion and chive crackers, so my next task is to buy some powdered onion and give it a go! If you hit upon a winning combination, please let me know!
• These crackers will keep for a couple of weeks in an airtight tin, so although they're a bit fiddly to make, doing a big batch is really worth the effort.
• I initially made these with all olive oil rather than some margarine, but the crackers came out teeth-breakingly crunchy! However, you might want to make them crunchier or softer. The key is that you need 2 tbsp of oil/margarine. Oil makes them crunchier, marg makes them softer. Play with the amounts of each until you get the right texture for you!

I hope you enjoy this recipe and love these crackers - now that I've got them right, I'm going to be making them all the time!

Making Gluten Free Pasta

I don't know about you, but I find dried gluten free pasta rather disappointing. Some of the pasta I've had has produced the most horrible starchy fluid as it's cooked, making it rather difficult to drain and not particularly tasty to eat! After a rather dramatic disaster with some GF spaghetti, resulting in me throwing it all in the bin out of frustration, it finally reached the point where I had to consider making my own.

I hear you gasp in amazement at my culinary dedication... But hold your breath for a minute! I was very blessed this Christmas to receive the pasta maker attachment to my Kenwood from Granny. So, for the first time today, I got it all out, read the instructions, and...made pasta.

The recipe that Kenwood supplies is obviously not gluten free. However, instead of plain flour, I used rice flour, figuring that a very fine grain would make the best pasta (pasta flour is very fine-ground wheat flour). In went the eggs, salt and flour, mixing in the Kenwood for 2 minutes to a breadcrumb consistency. Then on went the attachment, with a tagliatelli screen. I put in the first few spoonfuls of the mixture... And out came tagliatelli!

But the real test is in the tasting, obviously! I decided to make Carbonara, following a Good Housekeeping recipe. Pasta cooked for about 5-6 minutes, while I fried the bacon and prepared the sauce, it all got mixed in together, went on two plates...and it was delicious!! You wouldn't have even known it was the same food as the dried GF pasta, and it was streets ahead of dried wheat pasta! (Even my husband said so!)

So my pasta making adventure was successful! And not only is it quick, easy and cheap, the pasta also keeps in the fridge for a couple of days. I have yet to try freezing it (an experiment for another day, I think!), but I am assuming that, as you can freeze fresh wheat pasta for up to a month, GF pasta won't be any different.

I would absolutely recommend any GF cook getting an electric pasta maker, either the Kenwood attachment (which allows you to do tagliatelli, spaghetti, penne, lasagne, macaroni & large macaroni) or a stand-alone one. The results are wonderful!

Thank you Granny!

5. Philippa's No-Flour Chocolate Fudge Cake

I needed a great cake recipe for a girly weekend away, and my good friend Philippa gave me this recipe - it is very tasty!

Philippa's No-Flour Chocolate Fudge Cake

300g broken chocolate
225g caster sugar
180ml boiling water
225g salted butter, cut into cubes
6 eggs, separated
1tsp vanilla essence

1. Grease and line a cake tin (23cm round / 20cm square). Preheat oven to 180 C / 160 C fan assisted.

2. Put the chocolate and caster sugar into a food processor and pulse until fine (I don't have a food processor, so I shaved the chocolate with a knife as finely as I could - it takes much longer, but it works!)

3. Add the boiling water, butter, egg yolks and vanilla essence, mixing until smooth.

4. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, and then add to the chocolate mixture and combine until just mixed.

5. Pour into the prepared tin and cook for 45-55 mins. The top will crack like a desert, and the cake should no longer be wobbly when you move the tin.

6. Allow the cake to cook, then refridgerate overnight. Serve from the fridge with ice-cream, creme fresh, or fruit coulis.

As ever, there are various ways of adapting this recipe! Personally, I think a bit of crunch would complement the gooey, fudgy texture really well - I will add about a cup of crushed walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans or almonds next time I make it. And these are a few other ideas I'd like to try:

• Add a tablespoon of instant coffee powder to the chocolate mixture, before you mix in the egg whites (Philippa's suggestion!)
• Add a cup of frozen fruit, such as raspberries, blueberries or blackcurrants.
• Add the rind of an orange and do 150ml boiling water and 30ml orange juice, for a chocolate-orange variation.
• Add a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon for a spicy kick to the cake.

And I'm sure you can come up with some of your own adaptations! Let me know if you hit upon a dream combination!

4. Orange One Minute Pudding with Chocolate Orange Sauce

One Minute Pudding is a favourite of my family's for after a Sunday roast - it's really simple to make (it takes 1 minute!) and tastes great, and you can do so many variations, simply from what's in the cupboard!

This is my gluten free version, with an orange and chocolate twist!

Gluten Free One Minute Pudding

5 oz gluten free self-raising flour (I use Dove's Farm) 5
3oz butter
4oz sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp orange juice
rind of one orange
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp xanthan gum

For the chocolate sauce:
1 tbsp orange juice
200g plain chocolate, broken into pieces (or dark for a richer taste)

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees / Gas Mark 4.

2. Mix together all ingredients in a large bowl until well-combined.

3. Put into a greased oven-safe serving dish and cook for 30 min.

4. Whilst in the last 5 minutes of cooking, put the chocolate and orange juice in a glass bowl and melt together (either microwave or over a pan). I like to add about 1 tbsp of sifted cornflour to the chocolate mixture, as it makes it extra thick and creamy.

5. Serve immediately!

The best thing about the basic sponge recipe above is that it can be so easily adapted. For example, taking away the 1 tbsp orange juice and doing an extra tbsp milk, you can then add mixed spice and sultanas for a completely different feel to the dessert. Or you could put thinly sliced apple and red berries at the bottom of the dish, sprinkled with some brown sugar and with the cake mixture poured on top, and you get a kind of crumble, but with cake topping! (Otherwise known in our house as Mother Eve's Pudding.) There's loads of variations to be had with this recipe - so go ahead and experiment!

Tips and Tricks: Gluten Free Sausages!

Just a quick note about an exciting discovery of mine - Marks and Spencer have changed their basic sausage recipe to NOT include gluten! Obviously check the packets, as it seems that some of the flavour combinations they offer do include gluten, but the majority were gluten free... Made even better by the 2 for £4 price tag! That's 34p per sausage!

Although you can't order online, I'm definitely going to drop by on my way past every now and then to pick some up - it's worth it!

3. Muesli

I hate the fact that gluten free cereal is so expensive, but it took browsing through one of my favourite local shopes, Nutcase, to give me the push required... Yes, I am now making my own muesli!

The basic recipe I'm using is as follows:

75g puffed rice (I used Rude Health, but there's also Kallo)

125g GF oats (Sainsburys do GF oats! If you can't tolerate oats, use Sainsburys GF Porridge or Kelkin GF Porridge)

From this point on, it's a free-for-all! Add fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts and seeds according to your taste and preference! This is what I did:

50g sultanas
50g dried apricot

50g dried pear (from Nutcase!)

25g sunflower seeds

25g crushed pecans (also from Nutcase!)

25g flaked almonds

The best thing about making your own muesli is that you can tweak it to your own tastes, and vary it each time you make it. And I worked out the costings for the above recipe using all Sainsburys ingredients: it's about £2.40 for what I reckon is 10 bowls of cereal. And it's even cheaper if you use GF porridge, Tesco and local shops like Nutcase!

2. Walnut Teabread

If anyone loves baking like I do, they will also love Mary Berry's recipes...simple, delicious and seemingly never-fail! So I was determined when I went gluten free that I was going to adapt Mary Berry's recipes to gluten free. And the first one I tried - Walnut Teabread - worked beautifully!

Gluten Free Walnut Teabread

100g granulated sugar
175g golden syrup
200ml milk
50g sultanas
225g gluten free self-raising flour (I use Dove's Farm)
1tsp baking powder
50g walnuts, rougly chopped
1/2 tsp xanthan gum*
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 180C; grease a 2lb loaf tin.

Put sugar, syrup, milk and sultanas in a heat-proof bowl and warm gently until the sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool.

Put dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix. Add the liquid and the beaten egg, and stir until the mixture is smooth.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 50-60 minutes. (Cover the top with foil towards the end if it becomes too brown.)

Leave to cool for 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely.

*Xanthan gum essentially does the job that gluten did - it works as a binder, preventing breads, cakes and batters from becoming crumbly. Xanthan gum used to be difficult to find on the high street (the only place I could find it was in Whole Foods Market), but Tesco have recently started stocking Dove's Farm xanthan gum. Unfortunately, xanthan gum is very expensive and only seems to come in small quantities. But because you use only a small amount per recipe, it is worth the investment. For your personal experimentation, here's a few guidelines:

for bread, use 1 tsp per 100g flour
for cakes, use 1/4 tsp per 100g flour (as in this recipe)
for pizza bases, use 2 tsp xanthan gum per 100g flour

So there it is! A simple but effective adaptation of a wonderfully tasty Mary Berry recipe!

Recipe Number One!

There's this fantastic French bakery around the corner from my workplace, and every time I walk past it, it reminds me that I can't eat bread. Lunch has become either expensive or time consuming to prepare, and is undoubtedly the most depressing meal of the day for a new-comer to the gluten free diet.

This is why my first recipe is for bread. I must hand most of the credit to Dove's Farm for this recipe - I first made the recipe on the back of their white bread flour. However, if you have also tried this recipe, you'll find that the bread is a little bit tasteless. Hence my experiment below:

Pesto and Pine Nut Bread

450g / 16oz White Bread Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Quick Yeast
2 tbsp Sugar
325 ml / 11 floz Warm Milk
1 tsp Vinegar
2 Eggs
5 tbsp Oil
1 tbsp Red Pesto
A Handful Pine Nuts

1. Mix together the flour, salt, yeast and sugar.
2. In a large bowl beat in milk, vinegar and eggs.
3. Add the flour and mix to form a sticky dough.
4. Continue mixing adding the oil and pesto.
5. Place the dough in an oiled 1kg/2lb bread tin, cover and leave to rise for 1 hour.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 220C / 200C Fan Oven / 425F / Gas 7 for 45 mins.

I was really pleased how this experiment turned out! Like the original Dove's Farm recipe, the bread only really lasts at its best for a few days, and is nicer warm. However, the flavours make it a great bread with some strong cheddar, or dipped in soup. Yum!

Next time, I think I'll try 4tbsp oil and 2tbsp pesto. I'm also intrigued to see if it's possible to make little rolls in a muffin tin - especially if you can freeze them and they still taste good when defrosted!