Sharabelle bakes

Top 5 Basic Baked Recipes  - Dairy free If you can make your own, then why buy??????  These are road tested dairy free and vegan baked recipes. I'm lactose intolerant so I know the importance of a good recipe that can easily be adapted. What I've discovered is that there are 5 main base recipes that I use the most. Adjusting the ingredients and flavours to fit the season or occasion.  Or what ever food I'm craving that day x These 5 basic recipes, makes baking dairy free a whole lot easier.  1. Quick Bread Beetroot Soda Bread Scones Basic Soda Bread Recipe 8 oz Self Raising Flour 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda 200 ml Dairy free milk 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar Pinch of Salt Pre-heat your oven to 230 Celsius Measure and dry ingredients, flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl. Whisk to mix in the ingredients. Make a well in the centre and pour in 200 ml milk & vinegar Use a knife to bring the dough together. If you still have some flour at th...

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 ...

World Baking day This World Baking Day we are encouraging you to Bake Brave. Step out of your comfort zone and bake a cake that will push your baking skills to the limit. Peanut butter cookies sandwiched  with chocolate peanut butter ganache In the spirit of world baking day I decided to bake something I've never made before, Sandwich cookies.  They are not entirely outside my comfort zone, as I can make both cookies and chocolate ganache.  I have just never put the 2 together before. I used to love the classic empire biscuit,  2 biscuit's sandwiched together with jam and topped with sugar icing.  Something I had to give up when I became totally lactose intolerant.   For me baking isn't a hobby, it's more a way of life.  Being both lactose and yeast intolerant I find it easier and cheaper to bake my own breads, cakes, cookies and pies.   Saves the often depressing task of checking endless ingredient labels, wh...

Chocolate Pepper Cookies Iv been doing to much again, since taking on this course through my work program provider. The problem was I didn't really think it through and i also kept doing my 2 day work experience at the same time.   It's the side effect of having an anxiety disorder that most people don't realise.  The more you push yourself outside your comfort zone, the more exhausted and mentally tired you get.  What's this got to do with chocolate pepper cookies? I needed some down time and the best way I know to relax is too bake.  My last baking experiment was a success.  The mission: - bake a carrot cake for a fussy eater who didn't like cinnamon or dried fruit.  It turned out to be a lovely light cake. It wasn't totally to my taste, but that was the point.  Custom baking is tailoring the taste to suit one person.  ( My own custom carrot cake had dried raisin's, mixed spice and cinnamon) Neede...

Orange marmalade and cranberry cookies Continuing with yesterdays Blog about food waste, thought Id better post a recipe along the same theme.  I had Orange marmalade in my fridge and some dried cranberry's left over from my Christmas baking.  The marmalade had been in the fridge for a while so really needed used up.  Iv just finished eating the orange and cranberry soda bread scones and bread I'd made, so didn't really want to eat any more so soon.  So that just left cookies......... One of the worst things about IBS is sometimes you can get stuck in a rut, eating the same foods.  Mainly because you know they won't trigger your symptoms.  Some one I know commented not that long ago that my food was always interesting.  Just because I have food intolerance's doesn't mean my meals have to be boring. I like to freeze all my food into portions, that way I'm not eating the same meals for the rest of the week.  My homemade...

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...