Dark Chocolate Gingers (makes 8-10)

October 4, 2017August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Dark Chocolate Gingers by The Fat Foodie

I love ginger. I think it’s such a variable spice. It adds a gorgeous fragrant, warming note to curries and noodle bowls while providing a delicious-tasting background heat. However, although I more than appreciate the merits of ginger in savoury recipes, I think ginger really comes into its own when used in sweet dishes. What would an autumnal bonfire night be without thick slabs of sticky gingerbread that are topped with a creamy spreading of real butter? Or a rainy October afternoon stuck inside the house while you watch black and white old movies with a steaming hot cup of builder’s tea and a couple of gingernut biscuits lying at its side? Sheer bliss.

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Thug Kitchen’s Peanut Butter and Banana Nut Muffins (Makes 12)

March 5, 2017July 11, 2017Leave a comment

Thug Kitchen’s Peanut Butter and Banana Nut Muffins made by The Fat Foodie

A while ago, one lazy Sunday morning I fancied something sweet for breakfast and had recently bought Thug Kitchen’s first cookbook so I made their peanut butter and banana nut muffins. In general I’m not a massive fan of the American ‘cup method’ of baking, but in this instance it works brilliantly, allowing you to pretty much chuck all of your ingredients into your mixing bowl and just whisk it all together. It’s certainly a very quick and easy way to produce a delicious low FODMAP bake!

They also don’t take very long to cook at all, so if you make a snap decision one morning to have them for breakfast (or a snack) you’ll only need to wait half an hour or so until you can get stuck into them. I expected the peanut butter and banana nut muffins to be very sweet, but they weren’t overly so and in actual fact they paired really well with a little bit of vegan butter and jam on the side. I’ll bet they’d be divine with some vegan caramel spread on top of them too.

I think you could really take some liberties with the ingredients of these muffins, if you wanted to. For instance, you could substitute the peanut butter for another low FODMAP nut butter you had in your kitchen. Likewise, I think the walnuts could be swapped with pecans to great effect. And I dare say that the addition of half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the mix would be welcomed.

These muffins do have quite a dense texture, probably due to the inclusion of the heavy peanut butter and banana, which results in an almost ‘bready’ crumb, but they’re really tasty and made for a wonderfully easy and luxurious Sunday morning breakfast in bed. Needless to say, they’re firmly on my go-to breakfast muffin list now.

Ingredients:

2 cups of gluten-free self-raising flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F Self-Raising Flour)

1 tbsp. of baking powder

1/2 tsp. of salt

1/2 a cup of crunchy peanut butter

1/2 a cup of brown sugar

3/4 cup of rice milk (or normal milk if you’re not vegan)

1 & 1/2 cups of mashed firm banana

1 tsp. of vanilla extract

1/2 a cup of chopped walnuts

Method:

Preheat your oven to 190C/170C Fan/375F/Gas mark 5 and lay out at least 12 large muffin cases in a muffin tin.

Put all of your wet ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk together.

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and whisk.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases ensuring a roughly equal amount in each of them.

Bake for 18 to 22 mins or until a skewer poked into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Leave to cool slightly and then enjoy either plain or with butter/vegan butter, and jam or vegan caramel.

Thug Kitchen’s Peanut Butter and Banana Nut Muffins made by The Fat Foodie

Thug Kitchen’s Peanut Butter and Banana Nut Muffins made by The Fat Foodie

Vegan Pancakes (serves 2-3)

February 27, 2017August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Vegan Pancakes by The Fat Foodie with Lemon and Golden Syrup

When I was a kid I loved pancake day because it was a day in which you were legitimately allowed to eat dessert for dinner. Dad was always the designated pancake maker and, apart from the first one which is always a dud anyway, they were consistently outstanding. We’d wait patiently (or impatiently) to receive each individually made pancake from the frying pan and eat them piping hot, sprinkled with Jif lemon juice and drizzled with a generous coating of Tate and Lyle’s golden syrup. Delicious!

Although nowadays my adult palate baulks at the idea of solely eating sweet pancakes for dinner on Shrove Tuesday, I do insist on following tradition and I tend to make them after a small sensible dinner as a tasty dessert. The topping choices seem endless in today’s day and age, but the first pancake on my plate is always decorated with lemon juice and golden syrup. Any other topping just seems out of place until I’ve had my citrus-laden, tart, but sweet one.

I was a bit apprehensive about trying to create a recipe for vegan pancakes because I was unsure whether an eggless, milk-free pancake mix would yield the same results as a standard pancake mix would, but I have to say, vegan pancakes taste exactly the same as ‘normal’ pancakes. I’ve never liked really thick, dense pancakes (unless they’re fluffy little Scotch pancakes) and have always preferred a thin, crispy crêpe. Thankfully, this vegan pancake recipe makes lovely light crêpes that have just the right tasty crispiness to fold around your chosen fillings.

On the subject of pancake fillings, the list of possibilities is endless: lemon juice; golden syrup; maple syrup; honey; nuts; whipped cream or coconut cream; melted chocolate; or fresh fruit. Another option is to leave the sugar out of the mix which would allow you to use the crêpes with savoury fillings, such as cream cheese (or vegan alternatives), cooked meats, grated cheddar, crispy bacon, roasted vegetables, or sundried tomatoes and pesto.

Whether you want to make pancakes to celebrate Shrove Tuesday or simply to worship the joy that is the humble pancake, give these a go. You won’t be disappointed.

Ingredients for the vegan pancakes:

200g gluten-free flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F Plain Flour)

2 tbsps of sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

400ml of rice milk (or normal milk)

2 tbsps of sunflower oil (or 1 egg, if non-vegan) (plus more oil for frying)

Toppings can include: Lemon juice; Golden Syrup; Maple syrup; Jam; fresh fruit; Nutella (or vegan alt.); Nuts, etc.

Method:

Put all of your pancake ingredients (without the toppings, obviously!) in a jug and whisk together until it is smooth.

Put a non-stick pancake pan or frying pan on a medium heat with a little sunflower oil (around 1 tsp).

Once the oil is hot, slowly pour some of the pancake mix into the centre of the pancake pan, tilting the pan as you pour so the mixture spreads into a thin disc. (They don’t have to be perfect, so don’t stress if they’re weird shapes. Trust me, they’ll still taste amazing.)

Let the pancake cook on one side until it’s crispy and golden brown when you lift the edge up with a fish slice.

Flip the pancake over and cook the other side until it’s also crisp and brown.

Remove from the pancake pan and place on a baking tray. Keep the pancakes warm in the oven until you’re ready to serve them and carry on making more until all of the mix is used up.

Adorn your pancakes with your chosen toppings and serve.

Freshly Made Vegan Pancakes by The Fat Foodie

Vegan Pancakes by The Fat Foodie Drizzled with Melted Chocolate

Vegan Pancakes by The Fat Foodie

Vegan Pancakes by The Fat Foodie with Lemon and Golden Syrup

Coconut and Lemon Cupcakes (makes 12-16)

October 12, 2016December 1, 2017Leave a comment

Coconut and Lemon Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

Ever since I’ve been cooking with coconut oil I’ve wondered what it would be like used in a cake instead of butter. I feared that it would make the sponge heavy, but it actually works really well and gives the cake a light texture while retaining its moisture. Coconut oil tastes quite strongly of coconut though, so I knew it’d have to be a cake which used coconut as one of its main flavour profiles. I figured incorporating lemon zest would work well with it and it does, creating feather-light, fruity, fluffy coconut and lemon cupcakes. (And if you’re feeling particularly self-indulgent, two cupcakes is a low FODMAP portion.)

This coconut and lemon cupcake cake mix is one of those brilliant ‘chuck all of the ingredients into a big bowl and whisk’ mixes, taking next to no time at all to prepare and with the aid of an electric whisk it’s easy to whip up a light and tasty buttercream with which to top the cakes. The real difficulty lies in stopping yourself from eating more than one at a time. Well, maybe two…

Ingredients:

140g coconut oil (melted, but not hot)

200g sugar

2 tbsps lemon juice

2 eggs

a pinch of salt

120ml rice milk

4 tbsps dessicated coconut

The grated zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp coconut essence

200g gluten-free self-raising flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)

1 tsp baking powder

For the buttercream icing:

70g soft non-dairy butter

1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract

180g icing sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsps of desiccated coconut (for decoration)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas 4.

Place your empty cupcake cases in a cupcake tray or, if you don’t have one, just on a flat tray.

With the exception of the flour and baking powder, put all of your ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk together.

Add the flour and baking powder and whisk. (Gluten-free flour can be really absorbent, so add a couple of tbsps more rice milk, if necessary.)

Spoon the cake mix into the cupcake cases, but don’t overfill them. (I normally fill them to roughly halfway.)

Bake them in the oven for 12-15 mins until they’re golden brown. You can tell they’re cooked when a skewer pushed into the centre comes out completely clean. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.

Put all of the buttercream icing ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until the icing is pale and fluffy.

When the cakes are cool top each one with a dollop of the buttercream icing and sprinkle with desiccated coconut.

Coconut and Lemon Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

Coconut and Lemon Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

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The Fat Foodie

Making Low FODMAP Food Good!

Tag: #glutenfreebaking

Dark Chocolate Gingers (makes 8-10)

Thug Kitchen’s Peanut Butter and Banana Nut Muffins (Makes 12)

Vegan Pancakes (serves 2-3)

Coconut and Lemon Cupcakes (makes 12-16)