Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegan & Special Dietary Baking

Oat Raisin Cookies – Gluten Free Version included

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I found this recipe on Pinterest and originally from Two Purple Figs and I’m a sucker for a traditional Oat Raisin cookie but wanted to make them healthier and to be fair to everyone in the house, gluten free too so I’ve modified the original and it worked out great!

So these are a healthy cookie compared to what you would purchase or traditionally make. They use organic coconut sugar in smaller quantities, have protein powder and include some mixed seeds. All in all, a lot less guilt and some good stuff for you too 🙂

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Cheese Straws – Gluten Free option

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Cheese Straws are such a great recipe to go with any type of drinks you’re having. Whether it’s prosecco or a beer, they just work so well and can be serve on their own or as part of a platter with dips and other nibbles. Just two ingredients and you have it sorted!

You can make them as big or small as you like and as you can now buy Gluten Free Puff Pastry from Jus Rol, everyone can enjoy them. I prefer to make them with puff pastry as it gives a nice few layers to them but if you don’t or can’t get it, then use shortcrust pastry.

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Gluten Free Biscuits

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These delicious biscuits are perfect for cutting out using your favourite cutters and can be made at Christmas, Halloween or just because. They work well to different flavour additions and bake up in no time.

I used an embossed rolling pin to get a pattern on the dough and then decorated them with royal icing.

This recipe is free from soya, nuts and is vegetarian also 🙂

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Lemon Shortbread – Regular and Gluten Free

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This is a recipe for Lemon Shortbread which I converted to gluten free and it worked out well. It’s very short so can be quite crumbly. It needs time to sit both before baking (in the fridge) and after baking, in an airtight container. I found the gluten free version more sturdy the next day but once you follow the steps, it will be irresistible!

I used Lemon Extract to give the biscuits an extra zing of lemon but don’t worry if you don’t have any. The recipe calls for a tsp of lemon zest and you can add a little extra if not using the extract.

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Celebration Fruit & Christmas Cake – Gluten Free

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If you’re looking for a traditional style fruit cake to decorate for a special occasion and one that’s gluten free, then this will be your “go to” recipe. It’s rich and dark and holds really well for fondant or other icing and decorating. It’s perfect for Christmas!

This recipe makes an 8″ round cake. If you double the quantities, you will get a 10″ cake for greater numbers.

I’ve adapted it a little to give it a bit of depth and it’s worked really well. The recipe is originally from a gluten free magazine.

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Gluten Free Spiced Apple Muffins

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I love baking with apples and adding different spices to the recipe always makes them so irresistible and always a big hit. So I had a recipe for cupcakes with a streusel topping but as these were requested to be gluten free, I changed the recipe a bit and it worked really well.

They were made to go into the freezer so I couldn’t add any icing drizzle on top but if you would like to do this, then add apple juice and a touch of cinnamon to sieved icing sugar and mix well until you get the right drizzle consistency. (Approximate quantities in the method below)

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Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

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I love that you can make ice cream without having to use any special equipment and that it still tastes totally delicious and if you check out the Desserts section here, you’ll find some really nice ice cream recipes. All tried, tested and very much given the thumbs up!

This recipe uses the Carnation Caramel tin from Nestle for the “dulce de leche” as it’s the quickest and easiest way to achieve the thick, rich caramel. You can of course boil the traditional Carnation Condensed Milk tin if you need to.

You can freeze for 6 hours or overnight which I prefer but it means that if you make this first thing in the morning, you could serve it that evening for dessert!

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Peanut Butter Banana Bread

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When I hear a recipe has peanut butter in it, I tend to leave it as I feel it might taste too strong. Don’t get me wrong, I get a hankering for peanut butter on toast every now and then but maybe it’s those Reese Bites that have turned me off.

I saw this one on a US site and decided to give it a try as it’s gluten free too and a friend had given me a good few very ripe bananas and I just wanted to try something a bit different. I’m glad to say it was a hit and really nice. It freezes well and is perfect with tea or coffee when you want something just a little bit nice 😉

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Gluten Free Cookies

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Originally these cookies were made to be sugar cookies where you roll the dough in sugar before baking but I’m not a fan of coating biscuits in sugar. I did add some mini chocolate smarties to these, just a handful to make them look nice and as I greatly reduced the sugar content in the cookies, I thought it wasn’t too bad to add a few for flavour.

You should get about 10 out of this recipe but it will depend on what size you make them.

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Healthy No Added Sugar Banana Muffins

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There are lots of things that help make these muffins a perfect choice for breakfast or to fill that “hungry” gap we all get throughout the day.

Firstly it uses oats instead of flour which makes them a healthier option as oats are complex carbohydrates and have a slow release of energy.

You can turn them into gluten free muffins by substituting the oats and baking powder.

They are sweetened with honey instead of processed sugar or an artificial sweetener and this type of non processed sugar again releases energy slower and if you use local honey it can help with allergy problems.

There’s no butter or oil in these muffins and I replaced the milk with almond milk so they are dairy free.

So what’s stopping you!!

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No sugar, No flour, No butter Apple & Cinnamon Muffins

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Okay, I’ll start by saying the original recipe turns out lovely and it’s relatively quick and easy, all in a blender basically and produces perfectly good muffins which I have to add, taste unbelievably good! Soooo here’s where my slight fussiness comes in … I felt they were sort of a bit well, spongey? Is that a word?

I didn’t feel they were as light as muffins should be so I wanted to try a different method which I hoped would result in a more familiar muffin texture. Call me pedantic but that’s why I started this blog – to take out the guessing from baking and helping (and hoping) that your bakes turn out perfectly.

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Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

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I tried this recipe out as I hadn’t come across it before. It’s a basic gluten free muffin recipe that you can make up and keep in labelled bags for when you need it. After that, it’s up to you how you flavour it. You can use fresh or dried fruit or leave them plain. Perhaps add some nutmeg or cinnamon just for a little flavour kick? It’s a big world out there so give it a go 🙂

I’ve converted it from US measurements and added a good few handfuls of dried blueberries to give it a sweet flavour and to compensate for the reduced added sugar from the original recipe.

I would feel a gluten free flour mix works better for this rather than just straightforward gluten free flour (that will make sense to those who regularly bake for coeliacs). I also feel that perhaps replacing about 50g of the flour mix for 50g ground almonds can only improve the lightness of these muffins and is definitely worth trying.

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