chebe bread

I have been living a wheat free and dairy free life since October last year except for 6 weeks around VCH's holidays and Easter time when I had to go back on gluten for 6 weeks so that I could have a coeliac test.

The test came back negative, but I immediately went back to being wheat free, as I feel I have a wheat intolerance.

I am no longer tired all the time and my hayfever symptoms disappear when I stick to my diet.

Two of my children are also on this diet with me as their respiratory symptoms disappear (one has a constant runny nose, the other starts to wheeze) when they stick to the diet.

When we first went on the diet  B4 was really missing bread, so I bought some GF bread, which was fine but rather expensive, now, I have had lots of experience with bread making but making GF bread leaves me with the heebee geebees, I think it is using the expensive ingredients and have it flop that holds me back. 

I have used a couple of mixes with success though, but obviously these involve planning ahead and are not good when you find you have run out of bread 10 minutes before lunch.

One day I remembered a recipe I got off a group I was on ages ago, this was for chebe bread.

I made up a batch and we liked it and have been using it ever since.

I went looking to find out what it is traditionally made out of and was surprised to find that it was made out of tapioca flour which is what my recipe used, I was also surprised to find that it is not a flat bread at all but little balls of cheesy bread, with cheese in it.

Now as I said we have been dairy free, but recently discovered that cheddar cheese has no lactose in it, so we have been having a little of that on occasion.

I printed off an "authentic" recipe and have been making that as well as our flat bread version.

Now I have two quick and easy breads that can be make in a matter of minutes.

Here is the original and I will post the other in another post.

Gluten Free Pao de Quejo ~ Cheese Bread

Makes 12 – 1 1/2 inch wide biscuits/rolls
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups tapioca flour (same thing as tapioca starch)
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons dill
2 teaspoons dried chives

(I have also added some crushed garlic to make a garlic bread substitute)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 220C (the original says 450F)
2. Mix together all ingredients in your mixer well.
3. Form in to balls (about 1 1/2 inches or 2 inches) and slightly flatten.
4. Place on baking paper on an oven tray.
5. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Serve warm with sandwich fillings. (I love then with butter straight from the oven) 

Here is a link to the original recipe I found.

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hot cross buns

Every year on Good Friday we enjoy making our own Hot Cross Buns.

My dear friend Sandra (miss you too) requested the recipe so here it is.

It is originally out of a Family Circle Magazine.

Hot Cross Buns

2 t yeast

1 1/3 C warm water

1/4 C sugar (you could use honey)

4 C plain flour

1/4 C full cream milk powder

1 t mixed spice (I also add 1 t cinnamon)

1 C sultanas

1/2 C mixed peel (I use diced dried apricots instead as they are sweeter and add more flavour)

80g butter melted and cooled

2 eggs lightly beaten

1. Mix together yeast water and sugar and wait 10 minutes or until it has bubbled up.

2. Add other ingredients to bowl of electric mixer with dough hook attached

3. Add yeast mixture and mix for 5 minutes on low

4. Cover and set aside until doubled in size (if you are in a hurry or it is cold you can do this in the oven on a very low temp under 50C)

5. Punch dough down give it a quick knead and divide into 16 equal pieces

6. Place in lined pan close together

7. If you wish to put crosses on them now is the time, mix a little flour and water in a small ziplock bag and cut one corner and pipe on (I am not very good at piping but try my best)

8. Cover and leave to rise until doubled in size.

9. Heat oven to 200C 

10. Spray buns with water and place in oven. 

11. Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 180C and bake for 15-20 minutes longer, you can tell if they are cooked if they sound hollow when you tap them.

12. Cool for 5 minutes in tray before removing onto wire rack.

13. Make a glaze out of a little icing sugar and water and a bit of cinnamon (like a really runny icing) brush onto buns while still hot.

14. Serve warm with lashings of butter. 

Leftovers can be cut in half and toasted for breakfast the next day.

If you want something different than the buns you can make an Easter loaf by diving dough in half to make two loaves.

Take one and cut it into 3 equal pieces roll these out and plait to make a plaited loaf, do the same with other piece of dough, brush with egg white and sprinkle on flaked almonds and sugar, cook as for Hot Cross Buns. 

I usually make this as well but I can't find a photo.

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expresso amorettis

This is again a recipe from 4 ingredients gluten free.

I made this the other day for afternoon tea when we had some visitors, I was a little unsure how the kids would like them as they have coffee in them, well apparently they must have liked them a lot because this recipe made heaps, there was a good half a container left and when I was going to Bible Study and thought to take some along there was only 3 left!

I think you could adapt it by using cocoa or carob powder instead of coffee and I think they would be lovely drizzled or dipped in chocolate.

Expresso Amorettis

1T instant coffee

3 egg whites

3 C almond meal (I buy this in bulk from the health food section)

1 C sugar (I used raw because I didn't have any white)

Preheat oven to 160C, dissolve coffee into 2T boiling water, allow to cool.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. 

Add egg whites, sugar and almond meal to coffee mix and stir until combined. 

Using a tablespoon (I use a teaspoon so I can make more biscuits) dollop balls onto a paper lined baking tray. 

Bake for 20 minutes (I baked for 15 because they were smaller) or just beginning to brown. 

I left these on the tray to cool for about 10 minutes then put them on a rack.

I am going to make these today to take to Church tomorrow and I think I will make a chocolate version.

bacon and egg muffins

We had these for tea (dinner in Australia is called tea) the other night and they were lovely.

They are bacon and egg muffins and I got the recipe from here

It is a breakfast recipe but I adapted it to a main meal by serving it with salad and sweet potato hash browns.

I made these in my smaller muffin pans which meant I made 18, but you could use Texas muffin tins and make bigger ones.

These are super easy and super yummy.

Bacon and egg muffins

10 eggs

bacon

capsicum

onion

Put bacon in the base of a muffin tin, put finely chopped onion and capsicum on top of bacon. 

Whisk eggs and pour into tins.

Cook at 180C for 20-30 minutes (depends on size of tin) until egg is set.

You can sprinkle a little grated cheese on it at this stage if you wish.

Serve. 

Leftovers can be reheated or you can eat cold. 

I had the two leftovers for breakfast the next day and they were still very yummy.

Sweet potato hash browns

Grate 3 sweet potatoes, add two eggs, salt and pepper and mix, fry in a little olive oil until brown on both sides.

For a main meal add salad or serve for breakfast

raspberry almond cake

 I made this cake for myself for my birthday.

It was a lovely cake, but I think it needs to be served with something.

Whipped cream and/ or a chocolate ganache would be my first choice, unfortunately being gluten and dairy free I would have to go to my second choice of a dairy free ice cream either vanilla or chocolate or a raspberry sorbet.

Raspberry and Almond Cake

2 C frozen raspberries, thawed, juice included

6 eggs

1 C sugar

255g almond meal

Preheat oven to 160C

Puree raspberries with their juice.

Beat eggs and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy, add puree and almond meal.

Stir well, pour into a greased 22cm cake tin (I used a springform tin, lining bottom and greasing the sides) and bake for 60-70 minutes.

As you can see from the photo I dressed it up by putting flaked almonds on top before baking and dusting with icing sugar once cooled.

The note in the book says you can swap raspberries for apples, bananas, oranges or mandarin. 

Topped with cream cheese and sprinked with poppy seeds, this cake is beautiful.

flourless chocolate cake

This is a delicious moist cake perfect to serve for dessert or that special occasion.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

4 eggs

1C caster sugar

200g butter

250g dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180C.

Separate eggs, add half the sugar to to egg yolks and beat well with a mixer.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy then add remaining sugar gradually, beating until soft peaks form.

Melt chocolate and butter over hot water stirring regularly.

Pour into egg yolk mixture and fold.

Once combined fold in egg whites.

Line a cake tin with greaseproof paper and pour in mixture (I used a springform pan with paper on the bottom and greased the sides)

Bake for 40 minutes in the lower third of your oven. 

This cake will collapse on cooling because it has no flour

I dusted with cocoa powder and icing sugar, can be served with whipped cream for a special occasion.