Chocolate Brownies

Great brownies these - not dry and crumbly, but moist and with a great helping of raspberries.

Ingredients

• 200g butter
• 100g milk & 100g dark chocolate
• 80g dark cocoa powder
• 65g gluten-free flour (I've used variously brown rice, sorghum, even millet but regular gf flour like Dove's Farm will do too)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (or a little more)
• 200g castor sugar (could use more but this works for me(
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup raspberries (frozen is fine and hardly need defrosting)
• 1/2 cup pecan nuts or similar, chopped
• some ice-cream or creme fraiche to finish

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line a 25cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper. In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate. Add nuts if wanted. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency.

Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, decorate with the raspberries, and place in the oven for around 25 minutes. You don’t want to overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don’t want a skewer to come out all clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle. Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares.

Really yummy. Also freeze perfect - just wrap in tin-foil and nuke afterwards to serve!

For the carb-counters, I make it at least 350g CHO for the tray. That works out about 20g CHO per generous slice which is pretty good 'bang per buck' carb-wise.

Buckwheat Pancakes

These are the real deal. Okay they're gluten-free but these win hands down over the wheat variety. In France, buckwheat is traditionally used for crepes, especially savory ones.

I can't claim any credit here. David Lebovitz, an American chef living in Paris hosts an excellent site (try his tarte au citron) provides the recipe.

I used Doves Farm Buckwheat flour. Buckwheat is actually made from the seed of buckwheat plant, a close relative of Rhubarb. And from Doves Farm:

"The specific characteristics of buckwheat proteins, and the relative proportions of its amino acids, make buckwheat the unsurpassed cholesterol-lowering food studied to date.

Compared with true grains, buckwheat is high in minerals: especially zinc, copper, and manganese.

Healthier fat profile. Unlike true grains, buckwheat’s low fat content is skewed toward monounsaturated fatty acids—the type that makes olive oil so heart-healthful."

Gluten-free Sweet Pastry

Another likely Neven Maguire recipe, and if so, thanks. This time sweet pastry, but easy to adapt for savoury.


Ingredients

• 225g butter
• 50g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 110g rice flour
• 110g polenta meal (fine)
• 110g potato flour
• 2 tsp xanthan gum

Direction

1. Blitz in a food processor until paste is formed. Do not overwork.
2. Chill before use.
3. Line flan ring and bake blind.

Apple & Almond Pudding Cake

Almond and Apple (or Pear) tart

Ingredients

• 150g butter, softened
• 80g caster sugar
• 2 med eggs
• 1 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
• 75g white or wholemeal self-raising flour
• 75g ground almonds

For apples:

• 4 dessert apples
• 25g butter
• 1 heaped tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

This looks nice when done and I'm a sucker for any dessert with apple. Having only 75g flour also helps to minimise the possible downside to using gf flour. Don't forget maybe 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp baking soda to make any plain flour into self-raising. I also added some xanthum gum.

Directions

1. Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin
2. Peel, core and cut apples into 12 wedges. Melt 25g butter in pan and add sugar until mixture bubbles, then add apples. Sprinkle the cinnamon if using and cook on medium for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
4. Beat butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
5. Break in an egg and beat, followed by 2nd egg and almond extract, if using. Add a spoonful of the flour between the eggs to help binding
6. Scrape the mixture into the cake tin and place the apples around the top.
7. Bake at 170C for 45min until skewer comes out clean.
8. Serve warm with cream, custard or Greek yoghurt. Goes well when cold with tea.

Altogether I estimate about 275g CHO so if you can stretch it to 12 slices, then you're looking at 22g CHO. Pity it tastes so good with custard!

Lemon Trickle Cake

Another great Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall recipe though one found in other places. This we made with Bob's Red Mill gluten-free baking flour. You can find it occasionally at Tesco or at iHerb.com (state-side but ship to ROI). It's a reliable blend of various gf flours and well worth the (slightly crazy) price.
If you're using plain baking flour, be sure to add some gf baking powder and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).
For this quantity of flour, I used 1 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of baking soda. I also added some Xanthum gum to help with structure (about 1/2 tsp).

Ingredients (serves 10 generously)

• 175g butter, softened
• 125g caster sugar
• finely grated zest of 3 lemons
• 3 med eggs
• 175g self-raising flour
• pinch of sea salt
• splash of milk (optional)
• 80g icing sugar
• some lemon juice

Directions

1. Put butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat for 10 minutes with Kitchenaid or other electric blender - 5 min will do but 10 better.
2. Add zest and eggs, one  at a time and with a spoonful of flour in between to help binding
3. Sift remaining flour and salt into blow and fold. Add a little milk if mixture doesn't drop easily from spoon.
4. Spoon into loaf tin (I used 2lb, fitted comfortably, though non-gf might rise more) and smooth top. Don't forget to line with parchment paper.
5. Bake at 170C for 40-45 minutes.
6. When done, mix icing sugar and enough lemon juice make pliable and drizzle over cake in the loaf tin. First though, make plenty of 'holes' in the cake with a skewer to let the icing soak in well.
7. Leave into tin until cool, then turn out and slice.

By my reckoning, a decent slice weighs in at 30g CHO but go very light on the icing sugar and that can be nearer to 20g.

Panna Cotta with Elderflower cordial

Panna Cotta

Panna Cotta has what I call great 'bang per (carb)buck' - at around 5g carb per serving, these are (potential) nirvana to pwds.

Okay, there's the usual issue around fat, but let's park that for now. These are courtesy of Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall.

Ingredients (serves 6 small ramekins)

• 100ml whole milk
• 250ml double cream
• 20g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp elderflower cordial
• 1 sachet of gelatine or 2-3 gelatine leaves
• 150ml plain yoghurt

Direction

1. Bring the milk, cream, sugar and cordial to near-boil in a saucepan.
2. Follow directions for gelatine (soak in 5tbsp of cold water) and add to cream mixture.
3. Stir until dissolved and leave to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
4. Once cooled, add the yoghurt and pour into ramekins and cool in fridge for 4 hours.

Chocolate Mousse

This one is courtesy of Rachel Allen and like all the best ones, you'll have to wait for a photo - went too quick. Great recipe for the carbs (thanks to the high-cocoa chocolate and cheese) but not so great for the fats - but then you're only supposed to eat a small ramekin's worth. In theory.
There are other mousse recipes about but this has a nice kick (thanks to the brandy, or cognac) and mascarpone keeps for maybe a month in the fridge so you'll likely have the ingredients when the need arises.

Ingredients:

• 100g dark chocolate (broken into pieces, or dark chocolate drops)
• 55g caster sugar
• 2-3 tbsp brandy
• 3 eggs
• 250g mascarpone

I've adjusted the quantities to reduce the sugar (no difference) and upped the egg to make it lighter. This makes about 8-9 ramekins-worth and each weighs in at about 11 carbs so a firm favourite.

Moist Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake

Often, I find gluten-free cakes can tend towards being a bit dry - this definitely isn't. It's a carrot cake based on a BBC recipe. I find the BBC recipes to be really good in general and this is no exception. I've made some changes though - it's a little too oily and as usual there's too much sugar. Here's what went down well at ours!

• 120g light muscovado sugar - I reduced this a lot (from 175g) and plenty sweet
• 125ml sunflower oil - rapeseed oil would be lighter & I reduced from 175ml
• 3 large eggs , lightly beaten 
• 140g grated carrots (about 3 medium, though you can squeeze in a little more) 
• 100g raisins grated 
• zest of 1 large orange 
• 175g self-raising flour - I used Dove's Farm GF plain white and wholemeal flours. I added a tsp of baking powder as raising agent. I mostly used the wholemeal and it gave a nice colour.
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon (you might want a little less though it does lower glucose levels!)
• ½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)

For the icing you can go with cream cheese or the following:

• 120g icing sugar 
• 1½-2 tbsp orange juice

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan 160C. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
2. Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind. 
3. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients - when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny. 
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point.) 
5. Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth - you want the icing about as runny as single cream. Set the cake on a serving plate and boldly drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides.

One of the best received and easy cakes we've made in a while. Estimating the carbs is a little tricky but I think 20g CHO per slice was our best guesstimate, with 15 slices in the above recipe - well worth it!

Lemon Tart

Mixture ready to pour into tartlets

I credit this recipe to David Lebovitz and it's a cracker. Haven't tried Rachel Allen's oft-cited version since I never seem to have enough cream. David's tart is real easy to make needing just good quality lemons. I leave the shortcrust pastry tart-making to Mssrs. Marks & Spencer until such time as I figure out a gf version.

Ingredients:

Finished tarts

• 1/2 cup (125 ml) freshly-squeezed lemon juice
• grated zest of one lemon, preferably unsprayed
• 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
• 6 tablespoons (85 g) butter, salted or unsalted, cut into bits
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks

Warm the juice, zest, sugar and butter in a pan. Beat the eggs in another medium-sized bowl and when melted, add some of the juice/butter mixture to the eggs and stir constantly. Then pour the egg mixture into the pan with the remaining juice/butter and stir until it bubbles gently.

These only need a few minutes in the oven to set as the tarts are usually pre-baked. These freeze well too so we make a batch.
And the results...

Ice-cream

Kenwood ice-cream maker

Okay, this isn't so much a recipe as a tip. Shop-bought ice-cream is becoming a bit of a pain of late. It's not so much the diabetes restrictions (after all, it's not that bad for carbs) but the lurking presence of wheat-stuff in popular ice-creams. So, we bought a Kenwood model on Amazon. It's a simple model where you keep the metal bowl in the freezer and when you want some ice-cream, attach the motor and paddle to the top and hey presto, 20 minutes later you've got ice-cream.
The recipes are flexible in that all you need is cream, sugar (and you can adjust this), and whatever fruit you have lying around.
We've tried banana, mango, strawberry, raspberry, and chocolate (with and without mint). They've all be brilliant but it's hard to beat the mango and the raspberry (unless you're a chocoholic). Don't forget a splash of lemon or lime juice.
Best bit is the kids can really get involved (nothing sharp to harm). We get gluten-free cones from iHerb.com to make a real treat of it. You can freeze your work if you can't down it all in one sitting - this hasn't been necessary often!
Cleaning is easy (not dishwasher proof) and you put the bowl back in the freezer for the next time.

Chocolate Fondants

These are a Gordon Ramsey recipe but with a little less swearing (just). Actually, they a neat, freezable dessert and go well with a little whipped cream. In good diabetes fashion, I cut the sugar by about 40% and you could probably go further - still the site says each fondant weighs in (before reducing) at 52g CHO (makes 9 fondants). Well, I got 10 from the recipe but they are big and it'd be reasonable to expect 12 or more, bringing the count below 40g (maybe 30g if you go easy on the sugar) - okay, these are a hard sell, but they are nice.
Depending on your oven, you'll want to give these about 12 minutes - any longer and you'll lose the gooey inside. They freeze really well in little ramekins and the microwave will resurrect some of the gooey insides if you want to cheat.
I used Dove's Farm gluten-free white flour which does the job well for things like this. Enjoy.

And (for an added bonus) if you're looking for something to use up the left-over egg whites, check out this recipe for Naim-naim cake. It's easy and makes a great change from meringues!

Lemon & Lime Sponge

We had a handful of lemons and limes handy and the oven was on so this was quickly thrown together. The kids had drained eggs earlier to paint them so baking was on the agenda anyhow.

Ingredients

• 50g butter
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1 lime, zested
• 50ml lemon juice
• 50ml lime juice
• 3 eggs, separated
• 50g plain flour (I used Odlums Tritamyl White Bread Mix)
• 250ml milk

Directions

1. Heat oven to 160C (fan). Beat butter, sugar and lemon and lime zest together in a mixer. Add juices, egg yolks, flour and milk one by one to make a smooth batter. Pour into a large bowl.
2. Whisk egg whites until firm - fold into the batter. Pour into oven-proof dish and put in a baking tray half filled with hot water. Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned and set.

This reminds me of Jamie Oliver’s dish, same deal. Nice easy dessert that’s easy for the kids to mess with making.

Carb count isn’t great – I reckon 8-10 portions at about 20-17g CHO apiece. I might try reducing the sugar further next time but with those lemons & limes, it could push it too far. On the up side, the Odlums Tritamyl flour worked well – though it’s a small player in this. Doves Farm still have my vote.

Verdict: darn good considering the easy of making this.