Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Tag: home baked

  • Gluten and Dairy Free Oat Scones

    Gluten and Dairy Free Oat Scones 1

    The oven is doing double time round here. Cooking dinners and baking tasty treats. My latest creation is gluten and dairy free savoury scones based on this recipe. I switched out the wheat flour for oat and used soda water instead of the lemonade to turn it from savoury to sweet. It was so simple that I can't believe I haven't made scones before.

    I ate these with some red chilli tapenade the Lovely G scored at the supermarket. The kids had theirs with butter and jam. Mmmmmm, tasty!

    Gluten and Dairy Free Oat Scones 2

    Gluten and Dairy Free Oat Scones

    3 1/2 cups oat flour, sifted

    1 cup coconut cream, runny

    1 cup soda (or carbonated) water

    1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

    pinch of salt

     

    Pre heat oven to 210 C (190 C fan forced).

    Line a baking tray.

     

    Sift the flour into a large bowl.

    Make a well in the centre and add the water, coconut cream and apple cider vinegar.

    With a butter knife, mix it into a rough dough.

     

    Spoon the dough out on to the tray (it’s going to be super sticky).

    Flatten the tops a little with wet fingers.

     

    Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

     

  • Double Choc Bliss Bombs

    IP -Double Choc Bliss Bombs 1

    IP -Double Choc Bliss Bombs 2 IP -Double Choc Bliss Bombs 3

    Still sugar free and still loving it. Especially when I can manage to concoct something as scrumptious as these double choc bliss bombs. Mmmmm.

    Think rich and velvety with crunchy nuggets of cacao nibs and bursts of dried cranberries. Rum balls without the rum (or sugar). Vegan, dairy and gluten free. What more could you want really? (Apart from world peace and an end to the climate emergency of course). In the meantime, eat cake, I mean, bliss bombs.

     

    Double Choc Bliss Bombs

    2 cups of pitted dates

    ¼ cup dried cranberries

    ¾ cup of desiccated coconut

    ¼ cacao nibs

    ¼ cup cacao powder

    extra desiccated coconut for dusting

     

    Soak the dates in boiling water for at least 30 minutes to make them soft and squishy. Skip this step if you're using fresh dates – just remember to remove the pips!

    Drain the dates and squeeze out the excess moisture.

    Throw the dates and dried cranberries (make sure to buy the ones sweetened with apple juice not sugar) into a food processor and blitz.

    Once they've become a paste, add in the coconut, cacao powder and cacao nibs.

    Blitz again until it all comes together.

     

    Sprinkle the extra coconut on to a plate.

    Dip your hands in cold water (this reduces the amount of mixture that sticks to your hands).

    Spoon out some mixture and roll it between your palms to make it into balls.

    Roll the ball in the extra coconut and then put it on a plate.

    Repeat for the rest of the mixture.

     

    Refrigerate for an hour or two before devouring.

     

  • Gingerbread

     

    IP - Gingerbread 1

    IP - Gingerbread 2

    IP - Gingerbread 3

    IP - Gingerbread 4

    One of my favourite things about the festive season is all the baking of yummy treats. This year we're not going to Canberra to spend Christmas with my parents and my youngest daughter is very sad about not seeing her Nana and Seeya. She's been missing them dreadfully. She's determined to make Christmas at home as much as fun as it is with them. We've been decorating our place and she wanted to make a gingerbread house like the one Nana makes. A whole house felt a little beyond my abilities (and hello, witch?) so we compromised on these little guys.

    I was feeling pretty tired the day we made these but Miss P insisted we all sit down together after dinner and ice them. She didn't want to be sensible (and let's face it, boring) and wait until the next day. Oh no, she was excited and full of joy and wanted to do it now! So we did.

    And I am glad she insisted because it was so much fun to sit around our kitchen table, decorating gingerbread shapes. It's funny, I've been missing all the spontaneity and excitement that very small children bring and then when one of mine does, I get all resistant! Note to self- remember to follow the joy!

    What holidays do you celebrate and what are your family traditions?

     

  • Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

    IP - Peanut Butter Cookies

    I was reading a Ruby Redfort book by Lauren Child which I borrowed from my daughter. I'm not sure which one it was. Either Pick Your Poison or Blink and You're Dead. In it Ruby was eating peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. She's always drinking banana milk (which incidentally was my absolute fave when I was a teen) and eating cookies.

    I'm highly suggestible at times and this was one of those times. As soon as I read that she was eating peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, I just had to have some. Right now! So it was off to the kitchen to check out the state of the pantry and then online to find a recipe.

    I started with this recipe because it only had three ingredients (what's not to like about that?) and no flour which is amazing for someone like me who tries to avoid flour. Of course they didn't have choc chips so I added them in. The batter tasted amazing (everyone knows the batter is the best bit right?) and the cookies weren't too bad either. 

    When I was searching for recipes I also came across this one which used oatmeal. Oats is one of the grains I do eat (quinoa and buckwheat are the others although I think buckwheat is technically a grass) and I thought it could be cool to include them and make the cookies even better.

    So here's my recipe. Sorry there aren't any pictures of the finished cookies, they were all eaten before I could take a picture!

     

    Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

    1 cup oatmeal or quick oats

    1 ¼ cups rapadrua sugar

    1 cup salted peanut butter

    2 eggs

    2-3 tbsp chocolate chips

     

    Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

    Line a baking tray with baking paper.

     

    Mix together the sugar and oats in a large bowl.

    In a small bowl, whisk the eggs then whisk in the peanut butter a bit at a time.

    Put the peanut butter mixture into the large bowl and combine with a wooden spoon.

    Then add the chocolate chips.

    Place spoonfuls on to the baking tray.

    With wet fingers, flatten the top of each cookie.

     

    Bake 8-10 minutes or until done.

    Cool on a wire tray.

     

    Notes: to make this recipe grain free (makes 24 cookies):

    2 cups sugar

    2 cups peanut butter

    3 eggs

    4 tablespoons chocolate chips

     

    And follow the above steps.