Chocolate-Fudge Brownies (wheat and gluten free)

Ingredients

1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup plain gluten-free flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
150g butter melted

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a 4cm deep, 20cm x 30cm (base) slab pan. Line with baking paper.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa into a large bowl.
3. Add sugar, stir to combine.
4. Made a well in the centre, add eggs and melted butter. Using a metal spoon, mix until just smooth.
5. Spread mixture into a prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan. Cut into squares.

I found this recipe on Taste.com.au to make for a friend who has coeliac disease. It is a wonderfully easy recipe to make for any of your gluten/wheat intolerant friends for an Easter gift. BTW: it tastes amazing. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the brownies so I might have to make some more :-). Clearly it was so good it got eaten before I could take the photo.

Red Tomato Chutney

I was at the supermarket the other night and saw a huge bag of cherry tomatoes for quick sale, $3 for 2kg so I thought, well here is the perfect opportunity to try a chutney recipe as I LOVE having tomato chutney on toast with scrambled eggs.

Here is the recipe that I used:

Ingredients

1kg ripe tomatoes
2 large cooking apples
250g onions (2 medium sized)
1 cup sultanas (the recipe had 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup sultanas)
250g brown sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon ground all spice
1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Roughly chop the tomatoes, onions and apples (the smaller the better for onions and apples) - I couldn't be bothered chopping all of it so I pulsed it a few times in the food processor.
2. In a stainless steel pot, put in all the ingredients except the brown sugar. Bring to the boil.
3. Once boiling, add sugar and once dissolved, reduce the heat to a simmer.
4. Simmer for about 1 hour or until reduced and thick. Stir every so often.
5. If it is not thick enough, using some of the liquid from the pot, combine with cornflour (around 1-2 teaspoons) and stir in.
6. Clean glass bottles and put into oven to sterilize.
7. Place the chutney straight into the glass bottles and immediately put the lids on.

I felt that it was a bit sweet so next time I will use a little less sugar but apart from that, it tastes great. So quick and easy and NO preservatives.

Easy fudge

Over Easter I tried this easy fudge recipe which mum emailed to me from what I can see was a website called kidspot.com.au.

Extremely easy to make and everyone loved it!!

Ingredients

125g butter, chopped
395g (can) Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white chocolate melts

Method

1. Grease and line a 7cm x 25cm bar tin.
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan.
3. Add the sweetened condensed milk, golden syrup and brown sugar.
4. Stir over low heat until boiling then summer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly (I found it took quite some time before it boiled).
5. Remove from the heat, stir in white chocolate melts.
6. Mix until smooth.
7. Pour into prepared tin, cool in fridge until firm (about 2 hours)
8. Curt into slices or squares.
9. I melted some chocolate and drizzled over the top. 

I am thinking of giving the recipe a go with coffee. Perhaps putting instant coffee in with the melted butter before the rest of the ingredients.

Picture below also includes Mars Bar slice. I will upload the recipe for that one soon.

Choc chip choc muffins

Still on the challenge of gluten-free, my latest attempt was chocolate muffins with choc chips.

Last weekend I had an amazing coffee muffin from a local cafe and while I was driving home from the velodrome I decided that I had completed a good workout and deserved that muffin again. Unfortunately the cafe was not open. Instead I went home and quickly cooked these muffins to take to work. I got the thumbs up from all in the office.

Next time I would halve the recipe as I didn't notice how many it cooked until I was part way through quickly cooking them. It made around 20 muffins so I did freeze the leftovers - they defrost quite well.

Also, make sure that all of the additional ingredients don't have gluten (for example, the choc chips). I didn't double check all of the ingredients but my colleague didn't have a problem with them (luckily).

Ingredients
3 cups gluten-free SR flour (I added an extra half cup of flour because I didn't think the mixture was thick enough)
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
200g choc chips
1 1/2 cup milk
120g butter (melted)
2 eggs (beaten)

Method

1. Add flour, sugar, cocoa, choc chips (if you are the sort of person who sifts, sift the flour and cocoa but I didn't bother)
2. Add milk, butter, eggs until just combined.
3. Place into muffin papers in muffin trays
4. Bake for 180 degrees C for 20-25 minutes.

The original recipe was from bestrecipies.com.au

Gluten Free Date and Sultana Rock-Cakes

Oh my, it has been way too long since I have added a new 'tested and true' recipe to the blog.

I have a friend in the office who has been told she is gluten free so I have been having fun with the challenge by changing some of my 'tested and true' recipes by adding gluten free flour. I am not up there completely with gluten free so I have not checked all of the rest of the ingredients but she has not had a problem with my cooking (yet).

Ingredients

2 cups gluten free self-raising flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice (I also added about 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon)
90g butter, partly melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/3 cup milk
1 egg

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Place flour and spice into a large bowl. Add butter (this is where you are meant to rub the butter in but I partly melted the butter and when I put it with the gluten free flour it turned into breadcrumbs (score!)).
3. Add sugar, sultanas and dates.
4. Add milk and egg.
5. Drop dots of mixture onto tray with baking paper. I made about 18 biscuits.
6. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

You can also sprinkle a bit more brown sugar on the top of the biscuits before you put them into the oven.

The office approved of these and I hope you also enjoy them.