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...

Gosh! Dairy Free Sweetcorn & Quinoa bites with Harissa & Paprika Gluten, Egg, Dairy, Nut & Soy Free Suitable for Vegans I'm on a low budget so I only really buy Free From products when they are on sale.  This week I was able to try these Sweetcorn & Quinoa Bites.  These looked the perfect size for a light lunch and versatile enough to be eaten several ways.   Had them with a salad for lunch.  I wanted to try them without anything else to masking the flavour.  The second time I had them in a wrap with chilli mayo and salad.  First I'd cook them longer than the packet instructions.    They are soft inside so It would be better if they were crispier on the outside.  I thought they might have been spicier but there mild.  The paprika gives them a smoky flavour.  The sweetcorn, well... makes the sweet.   These were a little too sweet for me.   This is a good product, just not...

My mum knows how hard it is for me to find dairy free products.  She gets more annoyed than I do when were out for a fly cup and I can't get anything to eat.   Fly cup: Scots for an illicit cup of tea or coffee.   Traditionally there's a morning and afternoon fly cup   When she finds anything she buys it for me to try out. On this trip out she discovered   Angelic Gluten Free  cranberry crunch cookies, at Loch Leven Larder.     Loch Leven's Larder   Gluten free, egg free, dairy free and reduced fat.  Less than 75 calories per cookie.  I bake a lot...  which is probably an understatement.  Baking dairy free is pretty easy, baking reduced fat is pretty easy, however doing the both together not so much.   Then you add on gluten free,  high on impossible.   However the guys at Angelic Gluten free have done it.  If my mum had not told me it was gluten free ...

Chocolate cocoa cola cake topped with Chocolate Ganache It's the start of the local school Easter holidays, which means 2 weeks of keeping the kids entertained.    Normally in April all you need to worry about is rain showers, however we've been getting a lot of unseasonal snow lately.  So it's always good to have a few back up plans, for when there stuck in the house.  Hungry Girl - Soda cake recipe Funny thing is I discovered this recipe a few years ago when I was on the weight watchers diet.  I never made it as diet soda is made with artificial sweeteners.  It isn't really great for my IBS, as there one of my triggers.  Last time my niece and nephew had an in service day (Teachers training) we had a bake day at my house. I love teaching the kids to bake, talking them through the recipe and letting them do the work themselves.  The only thing off limits is the oven, that I take care off myself...

 Potato In honour of St Patricks Day, today's blog is all about the spud.  I always link potato's with Ireland, probably because I was learnt about the Irish Famine at School. There most traditional recipes using potato are, Colcannon and boxy pancakes. 1. Potato Dumplings Globally you can find different versions of Potato Dumplings.  Iv been able to find vegan versions of a few.  Italy has the Gnocchi Norway has the Klubb Germany has the Kartoffelkloesse Czechoslovakia has the Knedlicky Poland has the Polish Pierogi's  - I'd seen these made on Diners, Drive ins and Dives and really wanted to make my own dairy free version.  Luckily I found a recipe On the Post Punk Kitchen Blog.  Making Pierogi's are a labour of love.  They take a long time to make, but the taste is worth it.  I didn't have any Apple sauce to go with them, so I made some dairy free vegetable gravy.  Brilliant comfort food.  ...

Sweet Potato Scones recipe ~Raining again..... So I decided to have a Potter day,  totally nothing to do with wizards or wet clay.  A potter day is one where you relax and and take your time doing odd jobs round the house.  For me a potter day usually involves baking in some form.  I roasted a sweet potato last night, at the same time as I cook my dinner.   Good way to save electricity . Then left it too cool before scooping out the flesh.  I made the scones this morning, the only variation I made too my original recipe was too switch the ground cinnamon for Mixed Spice.  They tasted even better than I remembered.  I plan to try them out on some friends to see if the pass the taste test with full fat dairy lovers. Reduce Food waste Mission My new years resolution was to further reduce my food waste.  It's not just because of the money I'll save, that's just a bonus. There are adults and children liv...

St Patrick day Fairy cakes After yesterdays blog 10 ways to cook Green Pea's - Dairy free.  I couldn't resist making the Green pea cup cake recipe.  St Patricks day on the 17th March, just give me the perfect excuse.  I thought making Fairy cakes seemed more appropriate, than cup cakes for celebrating an Irish Saint.  Cup cakes are a pretty new phenomenon in the UK. Traditionally we always made fairy cakes or queen cakes, a smaller cousin of the cup cake.  I have fond memories of my Granny baking them for us as children.  Even when she started to loose her sight, they still tasted great.  You just needed to watch out for the odd egg shell, none of us had the heart to tell her.  I halved the recipe for testing, just in case it was totally inedible.  Went with a dairy free and egg free recipe.  The cake batter was a bit thicker than I like, so I added some soya yogurt.  Fairy cakes rose i...

Thank Banana it Friday or the Banana Project, came about because of a joke.  I love banana's and as a egg substitute I seem to add them to everything I bake dairy free.  I was being ribbed that I should write a book, 101 Things to do with Banana's.   My love of Banana's is now a standing joke..... I love a challenge but 101 recipes is a bit much. So Instead I decided to test at least 1 Banana recipe a week for a whole year. This weeks contribution.....  Sweet and Savoury Banana Empanada's Banana and black bean empanadas Dairy and egg free There are several variations of this recipe on the Internet, but I used the one on Vegetarian Times.  There baked not deep fried, making them perfect for my IBS.  I made the recipe in 2 stages.  The filling first , as it needed time to cool.  Then I made the Empanada dough, and let it rest in the fridge for 1 hr.  I got slightly over excited with the filling so mine...

10 Ways to cook cauliflower Went shopping on Friday and picked up a lovely head of cauliflower from my local supermarket.  I'm pretty lucky as there fruit and veg are always great.   I like to keep my meals interesting so I had a look on the Internet for inspiration.  There are more ways to cook and serve cauliflower, than just covering it in cheese sauce.  Being lactose intolerant - excludes me from using dairy cheese.  While being yeast intolerant - excludes me from using vegan cheese, since one of the ingredients is yeast extract. 1. Mashed Cauliflower Cut Cauliflower into Florette's, then boil in water till tender.  Drain then mash along with some dairy free margarine.  A great side dish. 2. Roast Cauliflower Basic recipe: Cut into Florette's and toss in a bowl with some veg oil and salt and pepper.  Bake in a hot oven at 200 Celsius for 20 - 30 Min's. You could also add ...

Frankly Red hot soup - part 2 Red hot tomato soup Dairy free 1/2 bottle Franks Hot sauce or 2-3 drops 1 Jar  Tomato Passata + same of hot water 1 Tin Chopped tomato's 1 Cup chopped carrots 1 Cup Sliced mixed peppers (Salad kind) 1/2 packet Indian spiced rice 1 Banana - mashed - Secret ingredient  Food waste mission:   I'd bought a packet of Simon Rimmers vegetable Balti, I don't normally buy processed food but thought Id give it shot.  Now I remember why I don't buy them, adding hot water to a freeze dried veggies, spice and rice is not really a filling meal.  I was left with half and really wasn't keen on heating it up again for another meal.  Only other option was change it into something else. Soup seemed the best solution, so I added tomato passata to the rice along with some hot water.  There was enough spice in the rice, so didn't bother with veggie stock. Kind of ruined my rescue the rice plan though. I ...

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...

Wholemeal Banana Soda bread This weeks "Thank Banana its Friday" recipe is for a healthy wholemeal banana soda bread.  It's bit of a mouth full to say!!!!  Greed was my main motivation for creating this recipe.  I just kept dreaming of  peanut butter spread over warm toasted banana bread mmmmm.  It was so good I had it for lunch, whats not to like.   1.  It counted towards one of my 5 a day fruit & veg.   2. The peanut butter is full of protein    3. The wholemeal is a heart healthy grain.   I went one step further and covered the top with sliced banana's mmm.  I had planned to take a picture, but I really couldn't wait to eat it. I've made Banana Scones in the past, so I knew the recipe should work when converted to a wholemeal soda bread.  I made it totally dairy and egg free, and to give it a lighter crumb I used 1/2 wholemeal 1/2 plain white flour.  You could ...

On the menu today at the Pantry was mince and dumplings and eve's pudding with custard.  The mince and dumplings looked just as good as my mothers. While the Eve's pudding was a last minute substitute, that was really popular with the customers.   Scotland = Cold weather = Stodgy food It might be February but it's still feels like winter outside, so stodgy filling food is the best remedy to warm the bones.  Slight dilemma this morning,  we discovered there were only 4 eggs left in the fridge.  To make a traditional jam sponge we need 6 eggs. (It's a canteen, so we make really large puddings) Plus we also needed eggs to scramble for the breakfast break.  Reducing food waste isn't just practised in the home, restaurants and cafes need to watch there costs to keep there prices down.  After checking the fridge we discovered some apples, then after a quick look in the cook books we found  an E...

Another first for me today, we made crepes at the Pantry to celebrate Shrove Tuesday. I usually stick to making scotch pancakes, as crepes have always looked really difficult.  Once you've seen some one make them and get the basics down, there really easy to do.  So that add's another skill to my  cooking repertoire. Since I'm lactose intolerant, there was no way I could taste test the pancakes.  I'm getting used to it though, it doesn't really bother me as much as it did.  It was just great to see other people enjoying something I'd made.  So to celebrate Pancake day in style, Iv found a few dairy free and egg free recipes on the internet. Vegan Crepes Taste of home - Egg free spiced Pancakes ppk vegan puffy pillow pancakes If you just want to make a dairy free pancake, try the one from late Grandma's cook book.  It's never failed me yet, just substitute your favourite dairy free milk.  Grandma's A g...