Sharabelle bakes

It's been a strange old week in Scotland.  I don't normally need to worry about wearing Sunscreen, but it's been a scorching Sunny week.  A pleasant side effect of this sunny weather is that my Banana's are ripening quicker than normal.  Mmmm all the more for me....... Re-cap:  In case you have not seen my blog before.  At the start of the year I gave myself the challenge of making as many recipes as I could using the humble banana.  However the recipes all had to be dairy free, as I have food intolerance's.   Banana everything cookie The first recipe I tested this week was the Banana everything cookie recipe from the guys at PPK( Post punk Kitchen) Banana's, oatmeal and chocolate chips  three of my favourite things.  The recipe is easy to make, I like to leave mine to firm up in the fridge before baking.  Especially since there's porridge oats in the cookie dough. The cookies turned out great, nice and crispy ...

It's another dreek Scottish day, which gives me another good excuse to bake.  Iv already posted my Mum's mothers day card, just needed to take care of the present.  Unfortunately I won't be able to see her tomorrow, however I can still follow the spirit of the occasion by making my present. Translation: Dreek = Dreary, cold and wet Asked her what she would like, her reply Old Fashion Fruit Scones.  Which seems appropriate, since it was one of the first things she taught me to bake.  Mine our now safely in the freezer for the next time I see her. Scones are one of the easiest things to bake, there also easy to make dairy free.  From one basic recipe you can make over a dozen flavours.  Grandma's Scone Recipe 8 oz Self Raising Flour 2 oz Butter/vegan butter 1 tbsp Sugar 1/4 pint milk/dairy free milk Pre-heat oven too 200 Celsius, look out a baking tray - Cut the butter up small and rub into the flour till it resembles bread crumbs....

Necessity is the mother of invention I'm still attempting to use up the baking/cooking ingredients I bought to use at Christmas.  I avoid wasting food as much as possible.  One of my favourite ways of doing this, is to turn them into something else.   Hence the invention of my Chocolate Chip, Banana & Peanut butter Flapjacks.  It wasn't till last year that I discovered dairy free Chocolate, which was great.  However it's been so long since I had any other chocolate apart from the drinkable variety, that Iv kind of lost my taste for it.  I'd originally bought them to bake cookies for my Niece who is also lactose intolerant.  So I was looking for a recipe to use them up. They work great in this recipe because they compliment the other flavours, instead of overshadowing them.  I love both Banana's and peanut butter, so what could be better than putting the two of them together. The recipe title might be a mouthful to sa...

Sharabelle and the Giant Cookie experiment I love trying out new recipe idea's and any excuse will do really.  My excuse this time is the amount of family birthdays coming up over the next few months.  I like coming up with original present idea's.   My niece's and nephew's either eat a birthday cake and leave the icing or eat the icing and leave the cake.  Which would be okay if you could give one of them the cake that's been licked clean of frosting.  Solution - make them Giant Birthday cookies instead.  The idea being that i can customise the flavour and added contents based on each kids favourite treats.  For my test recipe I went with basic chocolate chip.  Pretty simple or so I thought.  I made a batch of dough as normal and left to rest in the fridge for 30 Min's.  Then molded it on a greased cookie sheet to form an 9in circle.  First problem - Cooking time.  How long does a gian...

Fresh from the Oven When ever I'm in doubt I head back to my Grandma's cookbook.  I found a basic biscuit/cookie recipe and modified it to meet my dietary restrictions.  This gave me a chance to try out a new ingredient Trex, a non hydrogenated vegetable oil in block form.  I used this instead of butter.   Iv also been looking at a few articles on Diabetes to get idea's on how to reduce sugar in baking.  So i decided to try  reducing the amount of sugar in the original recipe by half.  As you can see from the picture I got slightly carried away and made the first batch too big.  They spread in the oven and ended up the size of the palm of my hand!!!  But the smell  mmm, as soon as I opened the oven door the kitchen was filled with the scent of coconut.  So they looked right and smelt right, I only had to get the taste right.  Thankfully they did.  Crumbly, lig...

So here's the thing, iv tried making plenty of low sugar cookie recipes.  Iv also made low fat cookie recipes successfully, but so far i haven't figured out away to make low sugar and low fat cookie combined!!!  My problem is I can't use sweeteners as their are trigger for my IBS.  My Chunky monkey cookies are my latest experiment.  I used an oil based dough recipe instead of vegan margarine.  Mashed banana, in place of an egg and agave nectar for the sugar.  I added some desiccated coconut for a tropical taste and dairy free chocolate chips. For me there was way to many chocolate chips,  the taste of the cookie it's self is great but technically I don't think you could call it a cookie.  Its more like a whoopie pie cake.  I like my cookies crunchy and my cake soft.  My mum has a sweeter tooth than mine so they won't go to waste.  Lol, the whole bottom drawer of my freezer is now taken up with baked goods for my mum...