Cake'n'Bake Club: Peanut Butter Cookies

I know I usually post Cake'n'Bake recipes on a Wednesday, but since I struggled to post anything at all towards the later part of last year, I think I'm going to start posting these on a Friday instead. I have a lot of Cake'n'Bake recipes to type up and catch up on too... I was just seriously bad at blogging in 2013!

For Cake'n'Bake Club's January 2014 meeting, our theme was "free-from", so I knocked up these vegan and gluten free cookies. Originally I had used gluten free flour, but they didn't hold together too well so I remade them last weekend using oats and they were much better! The recipe below started it's life over on this blog here, but with a few tweaks from me ;-)

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 8-10 minutes
Makes 18 cookies

Ingredients:
150g rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder

250g crunchy peanut butter

150g dark muscovado sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp water

1. Preheat your oven to 180 and line a couple of baking sheets with grease proof paper
2. Pop 100g of the oats into a blender, and whizz to a fine powder. Don't worry if there are a couple of rough bits. Stir in the remaining oats and the baking powder and put to one side.
3. Beat together the peanut butter, sugar, vanilla extract and water until well combined. Stir in the oats until a crumbly dough starts to form, then knead this gently with your hands until the mixture comes together. 
4. Roll the dough into balls and pop on the baking sheets, leaving a little space in between. Press down with a fork to make a criss cross pattern on top.
5. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown and starting to get crisp on top. Don't worry if they are still gooey when you take them out of the oven, they will firm up as they cool. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Enjoy!

Happy Thoughts
x

Super Simple Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies

Two weeks in a row... not bad going, right? ;-)

These brownies are lovely, rich and chocolatey, and with a few cheeky ingredients swaps, not as bad for you as you might think!!

It seems to have become a recent habit of mine to find a recipe, decide to try it, and then change it around a bit in the process of making it. This particular recipe started it's life as a 37-calorie brownie recipe, which Joy posted to the Cake'n'Bake club Facebook wall. My version is about 64 calories, as I used sugar instead of sweetener, and added some chocolate chips. They went down well in my office! (Note - the calorie content will change depending on the brands you use... I make no promises!) I'd also recommend using milk chocolate chips, as I found these injected a bit of sweetness into the rich chocolate brownie which just MADE them.

Ingredients:
50g rolled oats
175g low-fat natural yogurt (I actually used a soy yogurt which worked just as well)
50ml milk
70g cocoa
30g caster sugar
1 medium egg
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
50g milk chocolate chips

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 12-15 minutes
Makes 16 brownies

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a square brownie tin.
2. Pop your oats into a blender and whizz to a fine flour - don't worry if there are a couple of bigger bits, as long and it's mostly ground.
3. Tip all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix together to form a thick batter. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 12-15 minutes, until springy to touch.
4. Allow the brownies to cool in the pan before turning out onto a chopping board and slicing into 16 squares.
5. Enjoy with a cup of tea, completely guilt free!!

Happy Thoughts
x

Sweet Potato Cake

A little while ago whilst browsing recipes online, I came across this recipe for a gluten-free lemon drizzle cake which was made using mashed potato. Yep, mashed potato. I thought it was interesting, so naturally had to give it a go!

My version of the cake used sweet potato and fewer lemons, so the cake ended up with a lovely subtly sweet flavour.  I cheated and used gluten-free flour instead of almonds, but it still worked. I thought the cake was a little dense, but it was very moist and the marshmallow fluff topping just, well, topped it! :-) Needless to say, this one didn’t last long!

Ingredients:
350g sweet potato
200g margarine
200g caster sugar
4 medium eggs
1 lemon
225g self raising flour
1 tub of marshmallow fluff


Prep time: 35-40 minutes
Cook time: 40-45 minutes
Serves: 10-12

1. Peel and dice the sweet potato, then boil it in water for around 10-15 minutes, until soft. Drain and put to one side to cool slightly.
2. Preheat the oven to gas mark 3 (160 degrees) and grease and line a cake tin.
3. Once cooled, tip the potatoes into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
4. Beat in the margarine and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition.
5. Zest the lemon, and mix this into the cake batter along with the juice of half of the lemon.
6. Sift and fold in the flour, until the mixture has combined. Pour into the prepare cake tin and level the top. Bake for 40-45 minute, until golden brown and firm to touch. If unsure, just poke a skewer into the centre of the cake - if it comes out clean and dry, you're done!
7. Allow the cake to cool in it's tin for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Once cooled, spread or pipe marshmallow fluff on to the top of the cake.
9. Serve and enjoy!

Happy Thoughts
x