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...

  Sorry Iv not blogged for a while, my laptop died on me.  Tried using my kindle, just wasn't the same.  So invested in a brand new one today x I'm trying out the Low Fodmap diet , to see if it will help manage my IBS symptoms.  So far it's going well Iv had no severe stomach spasms for 2 months now.  I already don't eat a lot of the foods on the list, so it was relatively easy to switch.  I love to bake so my biggest problem was giving up Wheat and Gluten. Iv tried out a few Gluten free flours -    Dove Farms  being the best one I have found so far. There great for making cookies, but I am not so keen on them for cakes and Muffins.  You still get that bitty texture of the rice flour that's part of the mix.  After some research my solution was to add Oat Flour. I use Oats a lot in my baking, especially in Muffins and Scones.  Finding out how easy it was to make Oat Flour was a revelation for me. ...

Iv spent the last few years,  reading food ingredient labels when shopping.  The amount of foods that milk powder or whey is added too is pretty depressing. Like milk protein being added to sandwich chicken roll....  However this is offset against the foods that I surprisingly find to be dairy free.  Buying Free From products can be expensive, so It's great not to be completely dependent on them.  It's also great to find products you can adapt to make dairy free, like cake mixes.  I'm Lactose intolerant, which means eating or drinking any dairy causes me a lot of pain. I wouldn't recommend trying these if you suffer from a milk allergy.  Large manufactures can not always guarantee against cross contamination with other products they make.   Cake mix I discovered this trick when I was on the Weight Watcher diet!!!  It's a cheats variation on a Wacky cake recipe, since all the ingredien...

Love Food Hate waste My mum's recently moved back down to Fife, and discovered our Councils new Waste recycling system.  Moving to a new house is stressful enough, working out which bin to put your rubbish in .........   Black - Paper Cardboard Green - Plastics and tin cans Brown - Food waste Blue -  All the rest for landfill waste Its prompted some random phone calls.  The only bizarre thing about the new system is they still don't collect glass!!!!       Until the new bins started I didn't realise how much of my Rubbish could be recycled.  It's also a lot easier to do than I expected.  The only draw back is that I can't tell which bin is which at night, since I can't see the colours in the dark  mmm.   My Waste not, want not  :tip of the week is - vegetable Oil Vegetable oil is a brilliant cooking ingredient for those of us that are Lactose Intolerant. It's already Dairy free, so n...

 Raisin squares  Another day and another baking experiment.  This time I used my raisin squares as a base recipe and added a mashed banana instead of the golden syrup.  The idea was the banana would  add both sweetness and moisture to the squares. To be honest  I think they taste even better this way, but then I am a banana junkie.  There's probably only a few recipes that I haven't added banana too.  They work as a replacement for eggs in most cake and cookie recipes.  With in reason that is, it's not a good idea to use them as a substitute in recipes that need more than 2 eggs.  The extra sweetness they bring, also allows you to reduce the amount of sugar.  Next time I make these I'm going to try adding a grated carrot to make a carrot cake version.  Who wouldn't love a cake or cookie that helps count towards your 5 a day  xx

Breadtastic morning Not all my baking is a total success, just like every one else I have my hits and misses.   Total Miss Chapatti flat bread Tried to make Chapatti's this morning, Try being the operative word.  Iv made them before by cooking them on the hob in a frying pan. They were OK but not great.   Unfortunately I only have non stick pots and pans, to make chapatti's you really need one with a heavy base.  So this time I decided to try cooking them on a baking sheet in my oven.  They were only in for 10 Min's, I flipped them over half way through the cooking time.  They Turned out a bit on the crispy side.  A lot more like a baked tortilla, than an Indian Chapatti.   Still edible but not really what I was going for.  Next time I'm going to try cooking them under my grill instead. Hit -Whole meal Soda bread Also made some whole meal Soda Bread  this morning.  Hadn't plann...

Chestnuts My baking and cooking experiments have taken a nutty turn lately. So far Iv made a Mushroom and chestnut pie for Christmas dinner, used them in a Meatless loaf recipe, added chopped mixed nuts to my banana loaf and attempted to make Almond cream cheese.  Like all of my experiments, they never quite turn how I expected....... Yesterdays experiment involved the chestnuts I had left over from Christmas dinner. I bought them  Frozen and already peeled, which made the cooking a lot easier.  Chestnut and apple muffins I started by cooking them for 15 minutes, blended them till smooth then added Agave Nectar to make them into a sweet chestnut puree.  (You can cheat and buy sweet chestnut puree pre-made in a can)  I then replaced the banana for the puree in one of my muffin recipe.  Again tastes pretty good but I know they can taste better.  Chestnut is a delicate flavour so I didn't add ...