Comfort food

Yesterday was a grey, cool day, and I was feeling rather low thanks to my chronic illness, which flared up again recently. Mid-afternoon I found myself craving old-fashioned British style comfort food from my childhood. The craving was so strong I could almost smell and taste my grandmother’s wonderful treacle tart, which seemed to hover just the other side of my window glass.

Coming from British background, and with a Scottish grandmother who cooked most of our meals and was a dab hand at perfect light pastry, our food was solid, hearty meat and vegetable dishes, followed by the most delicious cakes and puddings, pies and tarts imaginable.

Shaking myself awake, I considered what comfort food I could have, given that I can’t have treacle tart, for a myriad of reasons connected with the dietary restrictions of my illness. Plus the fact  that a whole treacle tart is way too big for one person!

So I went browsing through my recipes, and knowing that I’d be finishing the last of the delicious garlic and rosemary roast lamb - a comfort food I wrote about before – I decided on basic baked egg custard, creamy but not bland, making good use of the oven, which could reheat the lamb and roast vegs under the custards.

Baked egg custard was staple pudding of my late 1950s childhood, and I learnt to cook it by the time I was 10. It’s high in calcium and protein, plus vitamins A, B, C and D, phosphorus and zinc from the eggs. When I had my children, it was a regular pudding, being nourishing and easy for small children to eat, while remaining delicious enough for adults to enjoy. It also went well with home-bottled or canned fruit. Of course that was a pudding for four of us, so in recent years I’ve adapted it to make two single servings.

Here’s my version of the classic Baked Egg Custard

For 4 people:

4 eggs
2 cups milk*
½ cup cream**
3 tablespoons sugar,
1 teaspoon vanilla essence***
nutmeg for sprinkling

Notes
*Any milk you prefer; I use soy, it’s a matter of taste, although almond or oat milk might be rather thin-tasting.
** If omitting cream, replace with another ½ cup milk
*** Since we didn’t have vanilla beans back then, I’m happy to keep using proper vanilla extract. If you prefer the pod/seed trick, infuse them in the slightly warmed milk for 10 minutes before adding to the beaten eggs and sugar.

Grease a 4-cup size dish and stand it in a larger baking dish. 
Beat together the eggs, sugar, cream and vanilla essence, until they are well beaten.  Warm the milk to blood heat, and pour into the egg mixture, whisking them all together.

Pour the custard mixture into your dish and top with ground or grated nutmeg. Fresh nutmeg smells divine as you’re grating it, and the ‘megs’ keep in an air-tight jar forever. Carefully pour cold water into the larger baking dish, to bring it halfway up the sides of the inner dish.

Bake in the middle of a 150C (300F) oven for about 40 minutes, or until just set. It’s easy to overcook – take the custard out while still a little wobbly, as it will firm up.  If your oven is fan-forced, set the temperature 20 degrees cooler. 

To make individual servings, divide the custard mixture between 4 1-cup ramekins, stand in cold water as before, and bake for 25-30 minutes until just set.

Boiled Chocolate Cake

Still on comfort food, here’s a rich, most, almost fudgey chocolate cake, still using the basic ingredients of the 1950s and early 1960s, before cake mixes and chocolate chips. It’s a tweaking of one put out decades ago by Cadbury cocoa. Like all my baking, this can be made with gluten-free flour.  Just take care when mixing the flour in, as it’s harder to mix through completely than wheat flour.

1 cup water
1 cup sugar, white or raw
¼ cup soft brown sugar
125 gm (4 oz/½ cup) butter
½ cup cocoa
½ teasp bicarb (baking soda)

1½ cups SR flour, or plain (all purpose) flour and 3 teasp baking powder.
2 eggs lightly beaten.

In a large saucepan, place the water, sugars, butter and cocoa. Heat this mixture gently, stirring until the butter and sugar have melted and the whole mixture comes together as a glossy dark brown liquid. Then bring to the boil and simmer for two minutes.  Take it off the heat and immediately stir in the bicarb (baking soda). The mixture will froth up, which is why you need a large saucepan to contain the volume. Leave to cool for 20-30 minutes.

 Meanwhile, heat the oven and grease a 20cm (8 inch) cake tin. Sift together the flour into a large bowl, beat the eggs.
When the cocoa mixture is cool, alternately stir in the sifted flour and eggs and mix together until blended, but do not beat.
Pour into your greased cake tin, and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.*
Leave cake to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, before turning out onto a cake rack.

* I bake this in a square Pyrex casserole, so I reduce the oven temperature by 10 degrees, to prevent the cake overcooking. It will also go on cooking in the Pyrex for a little  longer after it’s taken out of the oven.
  

Buon appetito!

More Gluten-free Festive Baking

I finally got my act together and made two batches of Burnt Butter Crisps, complete with the chocolate dollop on top. Here they are:



A colleague was talking about gluten-free biscotti, and I remembered I had a recipe for Christmas almond bread, which really is biscotti with an English name. Here’s the recipe:

Christmas Almond Bread

Like the Piparkakut, this needs forward planning, as the bread rests for a week before the final baking It may be too late for Christmas Day, but you can have it ready for Boxing Day, as something not sweet or chocolaty. Or as a New Year’s Eve nibble to go with the bubbly.

4 egg whites
125 grams (4 oz) caster sugar (superfine white sugar)
125 grams (4 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
125 grams (4 oz) whole blanched almonds

Beat the egg whites until stiff, stir in the sugar, and beat well, like making meringue. Fold in the flour and the almonds.

Bake in a greased and lined loaf tin at 180C (350F), for 30 minutes, or until a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean. Turn out onto a cooling rack, and when completely cold, wrap in a clean tea towel or foil and store in the pantry for a week.

With a very sharp knife, slice the loaf as thinly as you can. Cut each slice into fingers. Spread on a baking tray and toast in a low oven (66C, 150F) for about 20 minutes until pale golden and crisp. Store in an airtight tin. These keep for a long time, unless all eaten over the holiday weekend!

Have a wonderful festive season! More good food ahead in 2012.

Gluten-free Christmas Goodies

I was all fired up for a session of baking Christmas biscuits – not cookies, because these spicy delights are crisp and slightly chewy, not soft and cakey. But I ran into a problem, or rather two:

1: I couldn’t decide between making the Finnish ginger snaps (Piparkakut), which recipe I pulled from someone else’s cooking blog a few years ago, or my daughter’s variation on burnt butter crisps.
2: I didn’t have all the ingredients needed for the Piparkakut, nor enough gluten-free flour and sugar for both. Drat!

So, instead, I’ll give you the recipes for both, and after I’ve been to the supermarket and bought supplies, I’ll post a photo of whichever Christmas biscuit I decide to bake. They are very easy to make, and both recipes work well with gluten-free flour.

These spicy biscuits are perfect as little gifts, or just another sweet nibbly on the Christmas table. I’m not sure if they’re suitable for Hannukah, but if they are, that’s great. They’re also lovely at other festive occasions, or just for when you want something sweet and spicy.

V’s Burnt Butter Crisps

½ cup (100 gram) unsalted butter
1 cup castor sugar
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped into sugar, or 1 teasp vanilla essence
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup plain (all purpose) flour
¼ teasp cinnamon
½ teasp cardamom
½ teasp nutmeg (optional)
2 or 3 grinds fresh black pepper
pinch of salt

I’ve been calling these ‘burnt’ butter crisps, but actually, the trick is to brown the butter without burning it. Put the butter in a small, heavy saucepan, let it melt and continue to cook, watching the whole time, until it browns. Leave to cool slightly.

In a large bowl put the sugar and vanilla. In another, sift the flour and spices together. Pour the browned butter over the sugar and mix well, then stir in the egg. Add the sifted flour and spices, and mix until blended thoroughly.

Drop by teaspoonfuls on biscuit trays (cookie sheets) lined with baking paper. Put them about 2 inches apart to allow room to spread. Bake at 180C (350F) for about 12 minutes, or until edges are turning golden and the tops have begun to crinkle. Let cool on the trays for a few seconds, then remove and cool completely.

You can serve them plain like this, or go for the chocolate option. Alternatively, make one batch plain, one batch chocolate-topped and offer them together.

The Chocolate OptionMelt a handful of good dark, semisweet chocolate chips in a double boiler, or a heavy based saucepan over another pan of boiling water. Take off heat, stir in an extra ¼ handful of chocolate chips, stirring until they melt. Drop a dollop of chocolate on top of each biscuit and allow to set.

Finnish Ginger Snaps (Piparkakut)

These take a bit of planning ahead, as the dough has to rest in the fridge or somewhere cool for at least 12 hours (and up to 2 days) before baking.

125 gram (4 oz) golden syrup or light molasses
2 teasp cinnamon
2 teasp ground ginger
1 teasp ground cloves
Rind of 1 orange, finely chopped
150 gram (5 oz) salted butter
150 gram (5 oz) sugar
1 egg
1 teasp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
500g (1lb, 2 cups) plain (all purpose) flour


Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, then beat in the egg.

In a small pan, combine the syrup and spices and bring to the boil. Allow to cool slightly, then add to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and stir well.

Sift the flour and bicarb in to mixture and mix into a dough. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 12 hours.

Pre-heat the oven to very hot –250C (480F). Divide the dough into quarters and roll out very thinly (approx. 2mm or ¾inch). Cut with a biscuit (cookie) cutter into rounds, or stars, trees and other Christmas shapes, and place on a baking tray. Bake for 5-6 minutes until golden brown. Leave on tray for 5-10 minutes to cool before moving them to a cooling rack.

Nutritional value

These festive biscuits are not super healthy or brilliantly nutritious. There may well be microtherapeutic benefits from the spices. But they don’t claim to be super foods. Just cheery, spicy, seasonal treats from the Northern European midwinter to this year’s chilly Australian summer.

Buon appetito!

Gluten-free Baking

I had a query from a follower of Eat Well Every day, who said wistfully that she loved the sound of the ginger and almond cookies, but was afraid to make them as she has been advised to eat gluten-free, and wasn’t confident about substituting.

I know exactly her problem! I’ve been trying to eat gluten-free for some years, and have had to take it seriously in the past 12 months, once we discovered I have one gene for coeliac disease, and therefore can’t tolerate gluten. To compound the problem, as part of my diet to keep me strong and healthy while suffering ITP, I’m also on a lowish-carb diet and avoiding all grains (as much as possible).


So I can reassure this person – and anyone else with a gluten-tolerance problem – that every cake and cookie, quiche or slice I put up on this blog has been made gluten-free.


Gluten-free pear and almond loaf


Is it hard to substitute when cooking gluten-free?

The honest answer is yes – at first. I was fortunate in having a good friend who is both a nutritionist and married to someone with coeliac disease, so she was very experienced in cooking gluten-free. She passed on some basic cookie and cake recipes, which I still use. From them, I got the basics of substitution.

The main problem is that gluten-free flour does not respond in the same way as wheat flour. It has much less body without the gluten, and often doesn’t rise as well, take up the same amount of liquid as wheat flour, or cook in the same time. Some flours, like rice flour and corn flour (corn starch) are very light. Soy flour, on the other hand, is quite heavy, and has a strange smell, which fortunately disappears in cooking. Soy flour and besan flour (chickpea flour), another heavy one, are best combined with lighter flours.

So you experiment. Be prepared for failures, or more likely, not quite perfects. Once you get the hang of it and find a flour or combination of flours you like, gluten-free cooking is just as much fun and the results as delicious as cooking with wheat flour. (I say wheat, because that’s mainly what flour is, but if you’re avoiding gluten, don’t forget to by-pass rye and oats. No more rolled oats, but brown rice flakes make a perfect substitute.)

Commercial gluten-free flours

Commercial gluten-free flour mixes, while more expensive than wheat flour, are fairly easy to find at your supermarket or health food store. Before I had to avoid grains, I found a commercial mix of rice flour, soyflour and tapioca quite good, although it was rather lumpy and needed sifting two or three times.

Now I use Orgran all-purpose flour, which is made from maize starch (corn flour), tapioca flour, rice flour and guar gum. It’s a lighter mix, and the ratio of rice flour to other ingredients is lower. I don’t usually endorse commercial products, but I’ve found this mix very easy to use, with consistently good results.

For some recipes, such as the pear and almond cake, and the next recipe, I add a bit of extra body by substituting with a couple of tablespoons of besan flour.

So, to the recipe: Beetroot Chocolate Brownies

This is my take on Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall's Chocolate and Beetroot Brownies. I was quite taken by his idea of treating beetroot as a fruit, and copied the recipe a couple of years ago, before I got serious about baking gluten-free. Now I've modified it to omit the wheat flour.

250g (10oz) dark chocolate (preferably 70% cocoa solids), broken into pieces, or dark chocolate chips
250g (10oz) unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus more for greasing
250g (10oz) caster sugar
3 free-range eggs
150g gluten-free flour (1½ cups), plus 2 tablespoons of besan flour
baking powder (baking soda) to make flour mix rise
250g of beetroot, boiled until tender, peeled and grated or chopped very fine
A 20x30x3cm (8x12x1 inch) baking tray (known in Australia as a Swiss roll or lamington tray)

Turn the oven on to 180C (350F). Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl or jug, and put on a lower shelf in the oven to melt. When partly melted, stir, and put back for a few more minutes to melt completely.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs and sugar together, and in a separate bowl, sift the flours and baking powder together. Cut or grate your cooked beetroot.*

When the butter and chocolate are melted, mix them, a little at a time into the egg and sugar mixture. Then fold in the sifted flour very gently, and lastly, the beetroot. Do not beat, just mix together gently.

Pour mixture into a greased and lined tray, smooth the top, and bake in the top of the preheated oven until just cooked. According to H F-W “a knife or skewer pushed into the middle should come out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Don't be tempted to overcook them!”

He says 20 minutes should be long enough. However, whether because of the g-f flour, the fairly large eggs, or a slightly lower oven temperature, my brownies took 30 minutes. Test every few minutes after the 20 minute bell.

Leave to cool in the tray before cutting into squares. Makes 24.

*To cook beetroot: Scrub gently under cold water, but do not cut roots off or peel the vegetables. Put in a large pot with plenty of water, cover, bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes, or until tender. Allow to cool slightly, then, protecting your hands with rubber gloves, slip the peel off and remove the roots.

Buon appetito!