Date & Malt Bisuits

In grappling with the rather diminutive size of my littlest one (at two, she's still barely fitting in size one clothes) I started looking at nutritious ways I could up her calorie intake. We had peanut butter & honey ice creams (amazing and dangerous because I just wanted to eat them all myself), lots of banana based treats, and malt extract, liquid, in its purest form. 

I was attracted to malt because not only is it high calorie and high carb, it's also filled with nutrients, and boasts some great side effects. According to the folk over at livestrong, malt "contain vitamins B2, B3, B6 and B12, iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, as well as some amino acids that can be used by your body to build protein...Drinking malt extract beverages at night might help you get to sleep more easily because of the mineral content, which relaxes your muscles. The maltose in malt extract is easy for your body to digest and provides a quick source of energy. B vitamins are needed for metabolism and energy production. Minerals are needed for normal muscle tone and strong bones."

And so, today, we set about baking some snacks using malt and dates for the sweetener. In fact, these awesome little guys have five ingredients (six including the optional 70% dark chocolate I finished them with). 

(Measuring and mixing is a SERIOUS business!)

Ingredients: 

1 cup sifted spelt flour plus a little extra for kneading

1/2 cup LSA

1/2 cup roughly chopped dates

1/3 cup liquid malt

75g butter, melted

Dark chocolate (optional)

Preheat oven to 125'c fan forced, and line a baking tray with baking paper.

In a bowl, combine all ingredients except the chocolate and mix with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. Turn it out onto the baking tray and shape into a rectangle. 

Bake for twenty minutes then increase the temperature to 180'c and finish for five minutes. 

Remove from oven and cut into bite sized pieces immediately. 

Set aside. If you're using the dark chocoloate, melt it eithet in a microwave or using a double boiler, and spread over the bottom of the treats. I drizzled a little over the tops, too. 

The kids smashed these. They are sweet in the best possible way, and with a really great depth of flavour owing to the malt. I hope you like them as much as we did!

Here's a blog I wrote when we first discovered my little one is teeny weeny (funny, I remember feeling so distraught, and now her pocket-rocketness is just another awesome part of her!): http://littlelunching.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/thumbelina.html

And here's that sinfully wickedly yummy peanut butter ice cream recipe: http://littlelunching.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/honey-and-peanut-butter-ice-cream.html

Mid-Week Baking: sugar-free muffins

I've posted before about how hard I find it to shake off my control-freak nature and let the kids help me in the kitchen. The thing is, it really is a great activity for them. My son, particularly, loves cracking eggs, stirring things, measuring out dry ingredients and counting the components of recipes.

Looking for an activity today, we settled on baking (my kids love to eat, and as you know, I prefer that they eat treats we've made ourselves).

These berry muffins are organic and sugar free, and so simple that even with a three and a two year old at the helm, they turned out beautifully.

Ingredients
1 cup organic spelt flour
1 tablespoon gluten free baking powder
1/2 cup LSA for extra fiber
3/4 cup organic yoghurt
1 cup berries (mine were frozen organic)
2 tablespoons coconut spread, melted
2 tablespoon manuka honey

For the icing, I used a handful of frozen berries, a cup of cream and a tablespoon extra of honey.

Pre-heat oven to 180'c fan forced.

The most important thing with ANY muffin recipe is not to over mix your batter. I don't understand the science behind it, but once you've added your wet ingredients to your dry, you only get three or four whips of the spoon to combine the components. Anythign more than that and they miraculously turn out rubbery and evil.

So, sift your dry ingredients together and stir to combine (I let my kids wear their arms out here - it's no fail). In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Make a whole in the center of the flour mixture and add the yoghurt/berries etc. 

Gently bring it together, again, being careful not to beat the fluff out of it.

Spoon mix into prepared muffin tins, and bake for around 15-20 minutes. Do the skewer test to check they're cooked through. If they are browning too much on top, cover with alfoil while they finish.

I served generously heaped with icing (I'm trying to put kilos on my littlest one!) but they are great without. Just a bit of warm butter would finish them nicely. And yes, the eggs are intentionally left out - they don't need them here. This is a matter of economy, really - we must go through two dozen eggies a week in our house, so any recipe I can get away with cutting them out, I do... 

I'm a fan of sugar-free muffins, using natural ingredients like banana, honey or coconut spread to sweeten instead. Here's a recipe I did a while back for banana and coconut muffins.

Vegetarian Sausage Rolls (GF, could easily be vegan)

Yesterday was one of 'those' days in my house. A day where it felt like little master three had a serious conversation with miss one and between them, they decided to pull out all the stops to make me want to rip my hair out. No naps, toilet training accidents, tantrums for no reason, and 36'c and extreme UV outside, leaving us more or less house bound with a very frazzled set of personalities by the end of the day. SO, for dinner, I needed something that would hold them quiet and still for at least fifteen minutes (essential decompression time for this mum!). Enter the sausage roll. And a glass of wine.

I make my pastry using a recipe that was my husband's grandma's, and it's a cinch. If I'm doing big batches, I use the food processor, but for a small amount like this, I just go by hand. I even melt the butter completely and (so long as I then have time to rest it in the fridge) it works perfectly. To make it vegan, you can switch out butter for a nut butter or, preferably, a virgin organic coconut oil. 

Ingredients

For the pastry:

110g butter (about 80g coconut oil or, if it's melted, maybe 1/3 cup). 

225g spelt flour

A few tablespoons of water

For the filling: 

1 kipfler potato

1/2 small sweet potato

1 carrot

1/3 cup peas 

About 50g goats feta (exclude for vegans)

Melt the butter so that it's liquid but not molten, then remove from heat. Incorporate the flour until you have the consistency of breadcrumbs. Add the water tablespoon by tablespoon until you get a pastry dough consistency and knead until it's well combined (don't overdo it or it can get tough). Gladwrap it and put it in the fridge. 

Peel and chop the vegetables, with the exception of the peas (save them for later). Put in a saucepan covered with boiled water and continue to cook for around ten minutes or until al dente. Strain and mash, then add the goats feta and peas and continue to mix. At this point, you can add in any additional seasonings - more chopped cheese, fennel seeds, spring onion, basil, etc. 

Remove the pastry and roll flat (about 2 - 3mm). Scoop the vegie mix down the center and form sausage rolls. 

Bake at 180'c for 25 minutes. I served these with a homemade tomato sauce but they don't really need anything (you have probably guessed that yesterday was not a day for arguing if I didn't have to). 

Enjoy!

Hot Cross Buns - Easterlicious.

I'm not ashamed to admit it. I LOVE EASTER. My Easter cards went into the post two weeks ago. We have an actual storage crate for Easter Decorations. And I don't blame Easter. I blame Christmas. I am so in love with that annual celebration that, when December gives way to January, and the tree, the gingerbread, the tinsel and lights are all put away, I feel an emptiness that only another festive event will answer. Sure, New Years does its bit, but that's not really child-centric. 

Easter, on the other hand, in our house at least, is all about the tiddlywinks. We do a fair bit of crafting and celebrating to mark the event. 

Today, I made spelt hot cross buns for the kids, and they were so, so, so, so sinfully good. 

Ingredients

500g spelt flour + a little extra for the flour paste

300g mixed dried fruit, diced (I used a mix of dried fruits and nuts - cranberries, pistachio, sunflower kernels, raisins, apricot)

1/3 cup tepid water

2 tablespoons of yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

C. 1 cup tepid water

Combine the water, yeast and sugar in a cup, stir, then cover with a saucer. Leave for ten minutes so that the yeast can 'activate'. Meanwhile, sift flour into a large mixing bowl and add the dried fruit and cinnamon. Stir until combined. Once the yeast is well and truly frothed, add it to the dry mix. 

I use my trusty kitchenaid (for anything I possibly can) but I've made these by hand and it's a cinch. Add extra tepid water until you get a dough like consistency - about 1/4 cup at a time, then stir, knead, etc. You'll know when it comes together but doesn't feel 'sloppy' that it's just right. Knead until it's elastic (you can press a finger into the dough and it immediately bounces back). 

Leave to rise around thirty minutes, then knock the dough back to its original size. Preheat oven to 180'c fan forced. Slice the dough into equal portions and roll to form balls. 

TO make the crosses, you can either score the buns (traditional) or make a flour paste, which I did (I always did love that crispy dough!). Just mix flour and water until you get a thick paste and then use a piping bag (or plastic sandiwch bag with a corner snipped off) to lay down your crosses. I know some people who make a really thick dough and roll out long snakes and place it on top to form the crosses. Whatever works for you. 

Bake for around 20 minutes. You'll know they're done when they smell divine and their bases sound a little hollow. Now, this is optional, but I like to top mine with a sugar syrup - a couple of tablespoons of good brown sugar mixed with water until it's thin and spreadable, massaged into the top of the buns while still warm. 

and there you have it! Easy, delicious and healthy hot cross buns. Perfect!

Home Made Ice Cream Cones (GF, Organic, Vegan)

Look, I'm so very excited by these. I'm not kidding, of all the things I've been wanting to master, these have been in the top ten. It's not like we're ice cream fiends. In fact, my children polished off a box of cones last week that were left over from my son's first birthday party (he's three and a half). That in and of itself beggars belief. What the heck is used to make these things last so long without losing any of their crunch or crisp? Yikes. 

There's nothing uniform about how they look. But I guess that's part of the appeal. Plus, you can make them large for grown ups or tiny for kids, and all you have to do is change the quantity of batter you pour out. 

I used a frying pan first but then switched to a flat sandwich press which I found much better. 

The trick is not to get too much sugar - you can play around with the quantities to taste, but too much sugar will make them burn before they're cooked through, and not enough will make them not sticky enough. 

To get four small cones or two large ones:

Ingredients

1/3 cup spelt flour

1/3 cup raw organic caster sugar

between 1/3 and 1/2 filtered water

Combine the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined, then add the filtered water, stirring constantly. 

Once you have a batter than resembles a thin pancake batter, you are good to go. Heat your frying pan (and add a little oil or butter), or your sandwich press. Add about two tablespoons of batter and  leave to cook. If you're using a frying pan, keep the heat moderate and flip halfway through. If you're using a sandwich press, cook with the lid up for a couple of minutes then press lid down so that it's firmly pressed against the flattened out cone. 

The trickiest part of these is shaping them, and that's just because they're molten lava hot. I found that laying a clean tea towel out in front of the sandwich press or hot plate was essential. 

I used an egg flip to remove the 'pancake', then, pressing either a spoon or small rolling pin into one pinch point, I was able to clip the bottom (using the tea towel as a sort of glove between my skin and the cone).

 Shape it into a cone and depress for about thirty seconds along the seam until it feels firmly held. I then transferred mine to a small 7 oz beer glass to settle for a few more minutes (an egg cup is great, too). It's amazing how quickly these transform from flat pancakes to rock hard ice cream cones. And I think this must be similar to how fortune cookies are made. 

I served this with an ice cream stalwart - our mango and passionfruit. 

In the ice cream and the cone, there were SIX ingredients, and both components were made today in my own kitchen. As far as desserts go, this one feels pretty awesome. 

Home-made bread

I love to make my own bread. Usually as a quick and easy starter when we have friends for dinner (served with a good quality locally grown olive oil and a homemade dukkah). But now, the more I read labels in the supermarket, the more I despair in terms of how far we have come from traditional fare. Bread, when made at home, is simple and healthful - nutritious, too. If I'm making it for the kids, I form it in a loaf tin so that it's got a bread like shape for sandwiches. 

Ingredients

2.5 cups spelt flour

3/4 cup teipd water

activated yeast (2 tablespoons dried yeast, 1 tablespoon caster sugar, 1/3 cup warm water, combined in mug and left to bubble for about five minutes).

In a large mixing bowl, sift the spelt flour then add the activated yeast and 1/2 the tepid water. Mix, adding extra water slowly as needed until you get the right consistency. I use a kitchenaid with the dough hook, but you can easily do this by hand, either using your fingers to combine and then turning it out onto a flat work surface to knead until elastic, or using a spoon if you don't like the squish squish squish of dough. 

The test of a dough being ready to rise is when you can lightly press a finger into the surface and the finger mark immediately bounces back. Cover it with a bowl and leave to rise for about an hour, until it's roughly doubled in size. Punch it back once and then either shape it into a loose form bread, or press into a loaf tin. Again, leave it to rise for about an hour, making sure it's covered from draughts. 

Preheat the oven to 190'c and bake for around 40 minutes. Once it's finished (and you know it's done by tapping the bottom of the loaf and you hear a solid sound) leave it to cool to room temp. If you're intending to use as a sandwich loaf, refrigerate until cold and then slice thinly. I freeze mine in zip lock bags and then just use as needed. 

Alphabet Cookies

"Now I know my ABCs (and ONE TWO THREEs) won't you come and have cookies with me?" Well, that's the way it goes in my house!

A little while ago I bought these awesome alphabet stamps from a great antique market. Each individual letter is about the size of an old fashioned type writer key and I love love love them. I gave them a good wash before baking with them, of course, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to use them for anything other than words in cookies now!

A while ago I blogged my outrage about biscuits being made with packet cake mix, and this is why. These little guys have butter, organic raw caster sugar, spelt flour, vanilla seeds and a little filtered water. That is it. What a fun and treat-tastic way to help little guys learn their letters and numbers.

Croquette, Vegan and GF

Okay. These are insanely easy and fun to make and I can't believe I haven't been making them before now. Croquettes can be made with pretty much any combination of ingredients that you like, or have on hand. Do you like ham and cheese? Fine, that will work. Vegetarian? Great - add whichever vegetables you like. Salmon? Tuna? Sundried tomato and feta? The possibilities are as endless as your pantry and imagination. Here's the basics. 

Make a white sauce, and for the purposes of this recipe, I used olive oil instead of butter, spelt flour* to make a roux, then used a vegetable stock instead of milk. Of course, you can make your white sauce with butter, flour and full fat milk, it just depends on your preferences. 

Once you've got a good, thick white sauce, place it in the fridge to cool and thicken then add whatever flavourings you want. I added a mix of broccoli, carrots, onion, cauliflower and zucchini, all finely cubed and chopped. You can add cheese if you'd like, herbs, garlic etc. 

Add a little extra flour if your mix is too sloppy. You want to be able to form a scoop of the batter into a sausage shape, then crumb (cornflake crumbs, almond meal, rice crumb or wholegrain breadcrumb). Fry over moderate heat until browned on all sides then finish in the oven for around 20 minutes (on 180'c). 

No-Fry Falafel

Back when I was veggo, falafel were one of my favourite things ever. So delicious and full of flavour, and reasonably virtuous. I've tweaked my technique to make them even better for you, and my kids LOVE these. My son would eat a whole batch if I left him alone with them. 

Ingredients: 

Two tins organic chickpeas, drained and rinsed. 

3 tablespoons spelt flour/rice flour/corn crumbs

3 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped. 

1/2 an onion, roughly chopped

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional - my kids don't seem to mind the kick it gives them). 

A couple of teaspoons good quality Olive Oil, and a few wedges of lemon or lime to serve. 

Preheat oven to 160'c.

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor, pausing occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Pulse until it's coming together semi dough like, but don't over process it. Add a little extra flour if necessary or a little water if it's too dry. 

Use a teaspoon to scoop our a small amount, roll into a ball between wet palms and then place on a baking tray lined with paper. Bake for around forty minutes then remove from heat. They'll be a little cracked on top - that's fine. Drizzle with olive oil. Either serve immediately with lemon or lime, or leave to cool to room temp then you can refrigerate for a couple of days. 

Satay Cous Cous with Baked Eggs

This is an easy and quick fix dinner. I made cous cous pretty much as normal, except I heated coconut cream on the stove top then stirred a whole wheat cous cous through and let it soften and swell (heat off, lid on, per normal on cous cous). Add a heap of frozen vegetables and a scoop of peanut or cashew butter, and then place in a baking dish. Dig some little holes in, crack some eggs and cover in foil. Bake at around 200'c for fifteen minutes until eggs are cooked. Serve once cooled enough for small fries to eat. 

vegan and gluten free chocolate mousse.

I have read a great many recipes for this type of concoction, and I've been so sceptical as to how it would taste. 

It was amazing! 

In a food processor, I mixed a whole, ripe avocado with two bananas and 1/3 cup of carob powder (the recipe called for raw cacao but I am a carob fiend from way back and, as this was for my birthday, I indulged my own little tastebuds). I also added a tablespoon of manuka honey. Blitz it until it's really smooth and airy, set it in the fridge. Now, I topped it with this awesome organic yoghurt that is seriously just so creamy and rich (yet miraculously natural and low fat and low sugar), and some fresh strawberries. If you have kids coming for a party, this is such an excellent option for a treat. Next time I make it for my smalls, I'm going to whip through some peanut butter (keep in mind I'm trying to chub up my petite little miss sweet any way that I can). I will never again sceptically frown when I see avocado and banana parading as dessert substitutions. 

Simple fare.

One of these days I'm going to take note of my bread recipe as I make it. It's one of the recipes in my arsenal that I use most frequently, and therefore I do it by feel. I always use spelt flour these days, for two reasons. My mil is gluten intolerant and so it's easier to always use a flour she can tolerate so that I don't get confused. But I also think spelt is just easier and more gentle on the digestive system, and as a diabetic, I find it has a much more tolerable affect on my BGL. 

I mix spelt flour with yeast, rapadura sugar and tepid water, mix until a dough forms then leave to rise. Then, I knock it back, shape it and leave it to prove again (beneath a clean, dry tea towel). I got this going while the kids ate Brekkie, popped it in the oven about an hour before I wanted to serve their lunch. Forty minutes later it was done, and they were enjoying avocado on freshly baked bread. Warms my heart!

Fig and Rosemary Buns

Yesterday we had some of our favourite little play-daters over for an afternoon of fun at the local park. They're delightful kiddies and the four little people play really well together. The fact that frequent disciplining is not necessary is a true silver lining as it means the mummies are able to have a real conversation and catch up. Hallelujah! 

I made these little buns for afternoon tea. They're quick and I had a busy day so that was I important. By quick I should clarify that I mean there isn't a lot of time in the preparation. Like all bread based recipes, time to prove is needed.

I made a standard bread recipe from 1 cup of spelt flour, and once it had risen a little, added 1 cup of chopped figs and various other mixed dried fruits, and two sprigs of rosemary (finely chopped). 

If I was making these for grown ups, I would have served them with a really good extra virgin olive oil "butter" or Meredith goats cheese.