Sharabelle bakes

Traditional scone's One of my favourite topics of conversation is food.  I can get over exciting talking about food and recipes.   I often take it for granted that people have the same cooking knowledge as I do.  However I've come to realise that I was lucky to have a mum and grandma to teach me how to cook and bake. Over the years Iv discovered a lot of ways of how not to do things in the kitchen. For me kitchen disasters, are just a way of learning what not to do. This knowledge comes in handy when people ask me for advice.  Scones is top of the list of recipe that I'm asked about.    There are 2 recipes below that I use, the second one is for soda bread.  When my hands started to get bad due to fibromyalgia, the soda bread recipe was the  easiest  one to make.  Sometimes we have to adapt the way we could and bake to make up for health problems.   TOP TIPS Mindful baking   I practise m...

SCOTTISH CAKE AND BAKE  STALL CLASSICS One of my favourite memories of my grandma was home baking.  Whenever a local church, girl guides or charity had a jumble sale she would always be there. She always had frozen some of these treats for us to eat w hen we went to visit her.  The cake and bake stall is always a favourite of any fundraiser.  I love how everyone involved would bake something to bring in for the stall.  Certain people would be famous for their particular bakes, so these would usually go first.  You never knew what you were going to find.  Every country has their own version, so I thought I let you into what you can find at a Scottish one. CAKES A must for every cake and bake sale are small cakes.  The Americans had cupcakes, we make our own smaller version.  Cupcakes seem to have taken over lately, but I love the nostalgia of our smaller cakes.  There also small enough for kids to enjoy.  Lets be hones...

Bananas about bananas This is a re-post of an older blog. I had committed myself to year long mission to experiment making as many recipes as possible with my favourite fruit the banana. Why?....... It all started with as a joke during a conversation with a friend, who noted I seemed to add Banana to a lot of my recipes. I had just become totally Lactose Intolerant to the point that I have to read ingredients labels on foods and prescription pills to make sure they don't contain any milk derivatives. (Some pharmaceutical companies use lactose to bulk out pills, since its cheap) I went back to my research roots and started surfing the net looking for dairy free recipes. What I discovered was the wonderful world of vegan baking, Where I learnt that it was possible to bake dairy and egg free.  Banana's make a great substitute for eggs in some recipes. Perhaps it's because I'm Scottish but baking without eggs is pretty appealing, since it costs less money since I ...

I remember sitting on the balcony of our time share apartment in Paris, watching the city wake up.  An old woman going by, still in her slippers carrying fresh baguettes. Some things are universal, my grandma would go to the same baker shop every morning for Buttries (Aberdeen rolls). In Fife where I live now, you'll see people buying there fresh bread rolls with their morning paper. No matter which country you are in around the world, they will have their own form or version of bread and their own daily morning ritual.  I'm both yeast and lactose intolerant. Since my IBS has become worse and new trigger foods discovered and removed from the list of foods I can not longer eat.   It's the simple things I miss....... I miss bread, I miss the fresh baguettes we would buy in Paris.  The buttries we would toast and slather with butter and home made raspberry jam.  I miss tearing open a fresh baked morning roll and eating it simply w...

Dairy free www.canstockphoto.com The classic way to cook with Mincemeat  is to bake Christmas Mince Pies.  You can't have Christmas in the UK without them.  You either love them or hate them.  Me I love, unfortunately the pre-made ones all contain dairy in the pastry.  The easy solution was to make my own.   However there's more to mincemeat than just pies....... Traditional mincemeat recipe  - Vegetarian and vegan shredded suet is easy to find in most supermarkets.   Pastry www.canstockphoto.com Cheats Mince Pies Mincemeat Palmiers  - Roll out vegan puff pastry and spread with vegetarian mincemeat. -  Roll up the pastry from both ends so they meet in the middle.   - Cut with a sharp knife into 1 cm slices, place on an oiled baking sheet. - Bake for 10 - 15 Min's in a 200 Celsius Oven. Mincemeat, Apple & Apricot Crumble tart Jus-Rol  - Filo pastry is vegan  Mincemeat f...