At Home Sugar Free Onion Bhaji's

Me and T are obsessed with a good curry and there is nothing better during the mid-week than popping a whole load of ingredients in the slow-cooker for a ready made meal the next day!

But some times on the weekends we want add a little bit more glamour to our standard curry night! (minus the obligatory wine obviously!) I found a brilliant onion Bhaji recipe in one of my cook books so I thought id give it a go! 

Turns out that they are not only super easy to make and taste super authentic, they are also sugar free and gluten free!! :) 

Word of warning when you start to make these take into account that you will be cutting up a whole lotta onions! I have started wearing my ski goggles to prep this dish as otherwise it is just so painful! 

I would also recommend getting your hands on some ghee (clarified butter) as I originally shallow fried these guys in oil but that gets very smokey very quickly! The butter tends to heat much better and means you avoid burning your bhaji's. 

Recipe: 

3/4 white onions

Ground Cumin

Ground Coriander

Turmeric 

Gram Flour 

Water 

salt and pepper to season

Ghee for cooking 

Method:

Chop your onions nice and fine and place in a large mixing bowl 

Then add in your spices and salt + pepper 

Add 250g of gram flour and then water until you get a nice batter 

Heat your butter or oil in a deep frying pan (about 2cm deep) and carefully spoon in your mixture

Keep an eye on your bahji's, turning as required

Place your cooked Bhaji's on some kitchen roll to remove any excess oil and then you are all  ready to serve! 

Let me know if you give this recipe a go! 

Thank you for reading :) 

Katie xxx

Summer Super Salads

A couple of weeks ago me and T went to Skipton for the day and on the way we stopped in for lunch at a vintage inn. I have had mixed experiences of this chain in the past but I do know that they are usually okay on the gluten free front! 

Anyways I am rambling....Cutting to the chase they have mixed up their menu a bit and since it was a hot day I decided to order something light. I opted for the quinoa and rice salad full of soya beans, seeds and roasted beetroot and then I opted for a salmon fillet to go on top. 

It was so nice that I have been obsessed with creating various different versions over the last few days of heatwave! 

For the base of my salad I tend to stick with a mix of rice and quinoa, boiled with a veg stock cube or gluten free cous-cous, which I add pesto to when it is cooked and drained. 

Then you can go to town and add all sorted of amazing ingredients. So far I have included: 

Roasted Sweet Potato, Grilled sweet corn, soya/edame beans, garden peas, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, cashew nuts, Hallumie cheese, lemon rind and juice, lentil and seed sprouts, chorizo or salmon and fresh chillies and garlic. 

I usually serve mine with some lettuce and rocket with a splash of olive oil and lemon dressing and some plain poppadoms (make them yourself in the microwave for a non-greasy but super crunchy texture|)

Let me know if you give this recipe a go and what other things you add to it!

Thank you for reading :) 

Katie xxx

Forget Rocky Road, How About A Rocky Mountain!

Please forgive me for the short absence from blogging. Due to a bout of the flue, some crazy busy weeks at work and a big party to celebrate me and T buying our first house together it has been a little bit hectic around here!

I thought id ease back into it with this oh so tasty mountain of rocky-road.

I never used to make this sweet little treat but at the moment I'm making it about twice a week as it flies off the counter at work and is the first dessert to disappear when we cater a buffet.It is a tried and tested crowd pleaser, it tastes amazing and it is nice and fun to make, you don't even need an oven!

Ingredients:
250g butter or margarine
600g rich Milk chocolate
5 tablespoons of golden syrup
400g chocolate chip cookies (these can be gluten free if your that way inclined!)
200g mini marshmallows
22 bags of peanut m&m's or a similar equivalent!


Method:
Break up your chocolate and place in a microwavable bowl along with your butter and the golden syrup. Microwave for about 1 minute.

Take your mixture our of the microwave and give it a good stir, if some of the chocolate and butter still needs more melting then pop it back in for another minute or so, but keep a close eye on it as this stuff can burn really really quickly and then its back to the drawing board!

When all of your chocolate mixture is melted allow it to cool for a minute or so. This is so that the marshmallows don't melt away to nothing and it gives you time to break your biscuits up into smaller pieces.

Once everything is cooled and ready: combine all of your ingredients in a big bowl and mix in well.
Technically you call it quits now and tuck in! But if you have a little bit more patience then I would defiantly recommend pouring it into a lined dish/baking tray and placing in the fridge for a few hours, or ideally overnight, until the chocolate is all set!

When your rocky road is set your okay to take it out of the tin and with a sharp knife carefully cut it into whatever shape/size you desire!

Let me know if you give this recipe a go!:)

Thank you for reading!

Katie xxx

Triple Chocolate Brownies Make Mondays Better

Its been a little while since I did a post, mainly because I have been busy moving house! We are pretty much all settled in now so I thought Id best crack on.

What better way to start again, or start any Monday, for that matter than with some guaranteed crowd pleaser's: triple chocolate brownies! :)

This is a recipe I haven't tried before but they came out so well that it is definitely one that I will be going back to again and again.

Recipe: 
185g butter
185g really good dark chocolate
85g plain flour
40g coco powder
50g white chocolate
50g milk chocolate
3 large eggs
275g dark brown sugar

The method is a little bit tricky and you will need a few separate little bowls on stand-by but apart from that its pretty straight forward.

Firstly pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees and line a baking tray with greece proof paper. Then put your dark chocolate and butter into a microwavable bowl and melt for just over a minute. Keep an eye on it though as it is crazy easy to burn chocolate!

Put this melted mixture to one side for a minute, and in a separate bowl sieve your flour and coco powder

In a larger mixing bowel place your brown sugar and gradually beat in the eggs until light and fluffy! you can use an electric mixer at this point if it is easier.

When cooled, pour your chocolate mixture onto you sugar mixture and fold in gently careful not to know the air out of it. Then add in your dry ingredients still folding gently. Finally break your white chocolate and milk chocolate into little pieces and add into your mixing bowl.

Pour your mixture into your baking tray and cook in the oven for 25 minutes. After this check the mixture and if its still a little bit wobble-y then give it another five minutes, but keep an eye on it because it can burn quickly!

You should end up with some pretty gooey looking brownies and when its all cooled down a bit its your choice how big you cut your pieces.

The best thing about this recipe and brownies in general is that you can pretty much go ahead and add all sorts of other things to them to make you mixture even more exciting! Then eat them as they are or if you prefer heat them up bit and cover them in cream ice-cream or even custard!

Let me know if you give them a go!

Thank you for reading :)

Katie xxx

Gluten Free, Sugar Free Treats

Easter has been and gone and somehow over the last three days we have managed to devour our own body weight in chocolate! I thought it was perfect time for a little bit of an antidote to all of this excess with some healthy, but still amazing flapjacks!

It is also the perfect excuse for me to start my sugar-free diet and experiment with some of my new ingredients!

These flapjacks are not just gluten free but sugar free to and made using agave syrup! They are so so so easy to make and you will have more than enough to box up as healthy snaks for the rest of the week!

Recipe: 
250g agave nectar
200g butter
150g chopped dried dates(or any other sugar-free dried fruit)
400g gluten free oats!
All spice (or any other flavours: cinnamon, ginger etc)

Melt your butter, agave nectar and chopped dates in a pan on a gently heat until everything is dispvled/melted. Pour in your oats and spices (if using) mix well. When everything is combined pour into your backing tray and cook at 180 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut into squares straight away and then leave to cool!

Its that easy and they are so so good, even better because they are guilt free and packed full of slow release energy too! :)

Let me know if you give this recipe a go!

Thank you for reading :)

Katie xxx

Easter Bunny Chocolate Cake

Easter has officially arrived at the cafe this week and I have taken it as the perfect excuse to have a bit of fun with some of the baking!

Chocolate cake is always a popular cake on the counter at the cafe and this week so I decided to add an Easter-y twist! I saw a couple of cute designs on pintrest and decided to give one a go.

The chocolate cake recipe I chose is as follows: 

200g good quality dark cooking chocolate
200g butter
1 shot of espresso
85g self-raising flour
85g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
200g light muscovado sugar
200g caster sugar
25g coco powder
3 eggs
75ml buttermilk

For the gnash:
200g good quality dark cooking chocolate
284ml double cream
2 tbsp caster sugar

Word of warning though, the consistency of this cake is so much like a chocolate brownie which on one hand is incredible! but it does tend to crumble around the edges a little more than other recipes. As long as your careful though it should all be fine just keep layering your cake with the chocolate gnash between each one and keep the faith even if it looks a little awkward at first!

Cover all of your layers in the cooled chocolate gnash topping and make the log patterns down the sides and over the top using a fork.  At this point id pop the cake in the fridge whilst you make your bunny (or any other Easter decoration)

Finally add the finishing touches to your cake and you are all ready for Easter!

Let me know  if you give this a try or an other Easter Treats you make!

Thank you for reading :)

Katie xxx

A Personal Baking Favourite - Melting Moment Cookies

These cookies are a favourite of mine for many reasons, the three main ones being, they are so easy to do! They cook quite quickly and taste even better still hot and you can almost convince yourself that they are slightly healthy because they contain breakfast cereals and jam!

The recipe is as follows: 

200g Butter
100g Caster Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
250g Self-Raising Flour
140g Corn Flakes or Oats

But like the all the best recipes these guys are pretty easy going, making them perfect for customising and playing around with until you have come up with  your away awesome creation!

For starters you can swap out the classic cornflakes (my personal favourite!) for other types of cereals! Oats are another popular option (like the ones pictured)...making them super healthy right!? They also work great with gluten free alternatives! :)

And you don't have to stop there! I have seen versions where you replace the jam with a glacé cherry or chocolate spread or you can even go ahead and leave that bit out all together if you want!

Whatever way you decide to do them let me know if you give them a try and what ideas you came up with!

Thank you for reading :)

Katie xxx