Stir-Fried Ginger Tofu with Rice (serves 4)

December 12, 2018January 15, 2019Leave a comment

Stir-Fried Ginger Tofu with Rice by The Fat Foodie

I’m relatively new to the wonders of tofu, but I’m steadily becoming a fan and I guarantee that you’ll become one too if you make this stir-fried ginger tofu with rice. If you can, it’s best if you leave the ginger tofu to marinade overnight to really let it absorb the aromatic flavours, but you can also just let it marinade for an hour or so before using it, if you like. Continue reading →

Strawberry Cupcakes (makes 12)

July 2, 2017December 1, 2017Leave a comment

Strawberry Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

The other day my Mum was lucky enough to get a huge tray of strawberries at a massively reduced price and after we’d eaten our fill of them accompanied by the outstanding dairy-free ice cream that is Booja-Booja, she very generously gave me the leftovers to use for my blog. I hummed and hawed for a while about what to do with them before settling on the idea of making summery strawberry cupcakes. (One cupcake serving is low FODMAP.)

Strawberries aren’t usually used in cake mixes because they tend to become a very wet ingredient when added to cake batter, but because of the dry, absorbent nature of gluten-free flour strawberries are exactly the type of fruit ingredient that works well in a gluten-free cake. I thought there might have been a risk that the strawberry flavour wouldn’t come through very strongly, but I was wrong because it created a light, gluten-free sponge that was dotted with sweet little gems of jammy strawberries.

Sometimes I like my sponge cakes to be plain, but other times it’s nice to add a flavouring extract or spice that will complement the key ingredient in a cake and will enhance the overall flavour. Strawberries are well complemented by ginger, so I thought I would add a little bit of ground ginger to the cake batter just to add a subtle kick of heat and background spiciness to the fruity strawberry cupcakes.

This idea worked very well indeed, creating strawberry cupcakes that are comprised of a very soft, airy sponge cake with the delicate background spice of ginger that is generously infused with deliciously fruity jammy chunks of fresh strawberry and topped with creamy buttercream icing. I’d say it’s the perfect cupcake for a summer day.

Strawberry Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

Ingredients:

120g fine polenta meal

75g ground almonds

50g gluten-free 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 ground ginger

2 tsps xanthan gum

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

150g sugar

120ml vegetable oil

120ml rice milk

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

120g strawberries (chopped into small pieces and reserving 12 small slices for the top of the cakes)

To make buttercream icing:

70g dairy-free butter

180g icing sugar

1 tbsp rice milk

1/2 tsp red food colouring

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas mark 6.

Lay your cupcake cases into a couple of muffin trays.

Cut the strawberries into small pieces.

Measure the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and give it a good stir so that they’re all fully mixed.

Measure the wet ingredients into a jug or bowl.

Toss the strawberries in the dry ingredients and then add the wet mixture and stir really well.

Pour into your cake tin and bake for 35 to 40 mins or until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool and in the meantime make the buttercream icing by simply whisking all of the icing ingredients together.

Serve the strawberry cupcakes either as they are or with the buttercream icing spread on top.

Strawberry Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

Chocolate Banana Marzipan Muffins (Makes 10)

June 24, 2017January 22, 2018Leave a comment

Chocolate Banana Marzipan Muffins by The Fat Foodie

One of the best ways I find inspiration for my website is by looking at what ingredients need used up in my kitchen and developing a recipe around them, so when I was given a pack of marzipan by my mother-in-law recently I figured it might be nice to use up in some baking. Marzipan is made by mixing icing sugar and ground almonds into a paste, so I treated marzipan in the same way I would almonds and made sure that the quantity of marzipan in the muffins was a low FODMAP portion.

Ripe bananas (i.e bananas which are very yellow and have brown spots on them) are high FODMAP, so don’t use them for these chocolate banana marzipan muffins. However, firm bananas (yellow and firm with no spots) are low FODMAP, so use this type. This recipe makes at least 10 muffins, with one muffin being a low FODMAP portion.

In the bookshop that I work in we sell a book called The Flavour Thesaurus, a fantastic book which tells you what flavours work well with others. Sadly I don’t own a copy of this book, but I’m quite good at imagining what flavours marry well, so when I thought of banana and marzipan together, in my mind the natural ingredient to add to the mix to complete the triad was chocolate. Thankfully, as these muffins demonstrated, I can trust my instincts!

This recipe for chocolate banana marzipan muffins is a winner in my book because as the marzipan cooks it melts through the chocolate banana muffins to create little pockets of sweetness that infuse the surrounding cake with the delicate flavour of almond. As a result, you’ve got a deliciously moist muffin that’s the perfect blend of cocoa and banana flavoured cake base with the added surprise of almond marzipan chunks throughout it. That’s pretty damn tasty in my book.

Ingredients:

175g gluten-free 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.)

100g dark brown sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tbsp cocoa

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

80g marzipan (rolled into small balls)

3 firm bananas (mine weighed 330g in total)

125ml sunflower oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas mark 6.

Lay out your muffin cases in a muffin tray. (I’m particularly enamoured with the Jamie Oliver muffin tray my Mum got for me recently.)

Measure your bananas, oil, eggs and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl measure all of your dry ingredients.

Break the marzipan up into small pieces and add them to the dry ingredients, mixing them through so they become coated.

Add the wet mixture into the dry and mix thoroughly.

Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake for 25 to 30 mins or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.

Leave to cool.

Chocolate Banana Marzipan Muffins by The Fat Foodie

Anzac Biscuits (makes 16)

March 29, 2017January 22, 20182 Comments

Anzac Biscuits by The Fat Foodie

After recently deciding to try the FODMAP diet in an attempt to get my IBS under control I realised that I’d need a good recipe for a dairy-free and gluten-free biscuit that wouldn’t hurt my tummy. After some investigation I figured that oaty Anzac biscuits were the way to go because they are made of low FODMAP ingredients, but are still very tasty and satisfying.

Anzac biscuits are a sweet oat-based biscuit that was originally baked by the wives of men who were in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) during World War I. The hard tack biscuit was perfect for sending to men who were fighting abroad because its ingredients did not go off easily and so the biscuits travelled well. However, the biscuits were also enjoyed on the home front, being served at fundraising events such as fetes and galas to raise money for the war effort.

When I started making the mixture I wasn’t entirely convinced that the Anzac biscuits would hold together upon baking because the texture of the mixed ingredients was very loose, so I packed my biscuit mix into a baking tin and baked it whole and then cut it into individual pieces while it was still warm. However, once they had went completely cold I realised that they would probably work fine as individual biscuits because once they’d been baked they hardened into crispy little slices that were crumbly, but not overly so, and kept their shape very well.

I baked mine with some leftover vegan dark chocolate chips I had in the kitchen cupboard that needed used up and they were delicious in the biscuits, but I think that the next time I make them I’ll add the chocolate chips, but I’ll also decorate them with a drizzling of melted dark chocolate to further enhance the chocolatiness of the Anzac biscuits. Oats, coconut and chocolate go so well together, don’t you think?

Although these biscuits are made with gluten-free oats and gluten-free flour, if you’re not gluten sensitive then just use normal oats and flour (they’re considerably cheaper, so lucky you!). Regardless of whether you make these with or without gluten you’ll be rewarded with a very lovely oat and coconut sweet biscuit that’s crunchy, but crumbly. It’s everything you could possibly want in a biscuit really.

Ingredients:

180g gluten-free oats

30g desiccated coconut

30g gluten-free 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.)

60g coconut oil (melted)

1 tsp vanilla extract

30g sunflower seeds

1 tsp xantham gum

1 chia egg (1 tbsp chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp cold water and soaked for 1/2 an hour)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

50g dark chocolate chips

Method:

Soak 1 tbsp of chia seeds in 3 tbsps of cold water for half an hour.

Preheat your oven to 170C/150C Fan/350F/ Gas mark 4.

Line a baking tray (if you’re making individual biscuits) or a baking tin (if you’re making one large bake and then cutting it into squares, like I did) with greaseproof paper.

Melt the coconut oil and then put all of the ingredients into a large bowl and mix to combine.

Form into individual balls (about golf ball size) and then place on the baking tray and press them down slightly so they form a little patty, or if you’re baking it as a whole, tip the mixture into the baking tin and press it down.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown.

Remove from the oven and, in the case of the individual biscuits, leave to cool. If you’ve made one large bake, then leave it in the tin, but cut it into squares while it’s still warm. Wait until the biscuit is totally cold before removing from the baking tin.