Apple & carrot scones: a vegan, soya free recipe

Vegan apple scones are a firm favourite here. A super quick bake, that requires no special equipment, it's boosted with some chopped apple and sneakily grated carrot. Harry loves them as a post-nursery snack, and I love them deveganised - slathered with butter and topped with some extra-mature cheese.

Our apple tree is just about finished for this year - a hefty bout of insomnia meant I dispatched most of my apples off to the inlaws as despite my love for Apple Butter, the thought of making it or much else felt entirely overwhelming. Somewhat randomly this left me with two cookers, and these scones were the perfect way to use one of them up.

Vegan apple and carrot scones

Dairy free, egg free, vegan
Serves 8

Ingredients

1 cooking apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
8oz self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2oz dairy free butter - I used Vitalite
2oz caster sugar
1/4 pint dairy free milk - I used blue Oatly
1oz demerera sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt
Rub in the dairy-free butter
Stir in the caster sugar, chopped apple and grated carrot
Add the milk slowly (you might not need it all) to make a soft dough
Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper and put the dough on it
Shape into a large round that's about half an inch thick. You don't need a rolling pin, just press the dough out gently.
Use a knife to gently score the circle of dough into eight sections. Don't cut completely through
Sprinkle the demerera sugar on top
Bake in the preheated oven for 22-25 minutes

Leave to cool a little, but these are just lovely served warm.

Happy Easter

Easter is a lovely celebration, for many, a family time that, like so many festivals centres around food: Hot cross buns, fish on Good Friday, roast lamb on Easter Sunday. For our family the centrepiece is always the Simnel cake - fruit soaked in a generous splosh of Amaretto, a low temperature and relatively brief bake making for a light, and beautifully almondy bake. I'm sure others would challenge this but I really don't miss the butter, and as the egg is baked it's perfect for us. As always we use Vitalite, Pure or Flora Freedom for baking.

I've not changed my recipe up at all from last year, I'm not reblogging the recipe, but here are some pictures of this year's effort.

Happy Easter everyone

Oaty banana cake: dairy free, egg free recipe

Oaty banana cake - not the world's snappiest title for a bake I'll admit. But sometimes you just have to work with what you're given. And this is one of those times. Much like my Blueberry and Banana Oaty bites these could be described as a cross between a cake and a flapjack. The prompt for making these was as unpoetic as the name - we got to the end of the week, unusually with a hand of overripe bananas languishing in the fruit bowl. I'm not sure what we'd done, but clearly it didn't involve eating bananas.

Initially I'd planned to make a banana flapjack, but between one thing and another this is what happened. And we really liked it - sturdy enough to withstand the rigours of a lunchbox, yet not too heavy that it felt like old fashioned health food. Spiked with sweet mixed spice, the combination of apricots and sultanas makes for a chewy treat. what I particularly like about these is that you could absolutely tailor them to your likes or what you've got in the cupboard.  The second time I made these I was a bit short on apricots so I made up the weight with a handful of dairy free chocolate chips I had in the cupboard.



Oaty banana cake
Dairy free, Egg free, vegan
Serves 16

50g Dairy free spread - I used Pure Sunflower, but Vitalite, or Flora Freedom would work just as well.
2 Tbsp Almond butter
3tbsp Date syrup (Maple syrup would work well too)
2 overripe bananas, mashed
1 apple grated (I used a cooking apple as I had some that we'd picked, but an eating apple would work as well)
250g porridge oats
100g sultanas
85g dried apricots, quartered
35g chia seeds
50g linseeds
1 tsp sweet mixed spice

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees C
Grease and line an 8 inch square brownie tin
In a pan or the microwave melt together the dairy free spread, almond butter and date syrup
Mix this with the mashed bananas, grated apple, and porridge oats. Beat well until blended
Add in the sultanas, apricots, chia, linseeds and sweet mixed spice
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes
Leave to cook and cut into 16 squares

Serve with tea for a grown up and milk for a toddler.

For the ingredients in italics you can swap and change any of these for things you have in, or like more. This isn't the sort of recipe you should go out and buy things for - use what you have in the cupboards on a Sunday and pop the pieces in your lunchbox as you go through the week.

Why not save this recipe on Pinterest to make later

Apricot and Cherry banana bread: dairy free recipe

Making this Apricot and Cherry banana bread was a bit of a spur of the moment decision. M had commented yesterday that we had no cake, knowing that I'd baked a massive lemon drizzle traybake the day before (I hadn't eaten it all, it was for the birthday of one of ladies in my Bible study group). I felt that this should be remedied.  This had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I've had two overripe bananas looking hopefully at cake tins all week. However, trying to pair said bananas with the contents of our cupboards and fridge I had one of those dawning realisations that I had some of the ingredients for most of our favourite cakes, but all of the ingredients for none. Typical.



Necessity being the mother of invention and all that I cobbled together a somewhat experimental cake which turned out to be rather yummy. So I thought I'd blog it. Of course I had to take pictures which I was helped with by my 2 year old assistant.



Apricot and Cherry banana bread
Dairy free, soya free
Serves 16

400g overripe bananas - weighed in their skins (this was 3 largish bananas)
125g Flora Freedom spread (any Dairy free spread would do but this is what I had)
300g self raising flour
125g caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
125g dried apricots, quartered (I do this with scissors as they tend to be a bit sticky)
125g glacé cherries, rinsed, drained and quartered

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees C
Grease and line an 8inch square cake tin
Mash the bananas, beat in the butter (you can melt this first, but I don't)
Add the flour, sugar and baking powder and beat in until you get a thick batter
Beat in the eggs one by one
Stir in the apricots, then the glacé cherries

Pour the cake batter into the tin and level off the top
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes

Allow to cool then serve, sliced thickly (buttered if you want) with mugs of tea.

Why not use this picture to save this recipe for later on Pinterest.

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Dairy free Cherry and sultana cake

This dairy free Cherry and sultana cake is a favourite in our house - it's the type of cake that's sturdy enough to travel well be it for M's packed lunch or a family picnic. Despite that it's not a dense fruit cake, the type you'd have for Christmas, but a lightly fruited sponge, that stays beautifully moist without being crumbly. It pairs beautifully with a cup of tea and a good gossip with dear friends, and is quick and easy enough to make and give as a gift the same day.

The most important part of the recipe is soaking the sultanas - I save a couple of teabags from my morning cuppas so there's no need to use extra teabags unnecessarily.



Dairy free Cherry and sultana cake
Dairy free, soya free
Serves 10

4oz dairy free spread (I used Pure)
4oz caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
6oz plain flour
12oz sultanas
4oz glace cherries, rinsed and halved
2 teabags

Put 2 teabags in a medium sized bowl and top with the sultanas. Cover in boiling water and leave to stand - you could do overnight, but I tend to pop them in after breakfast and make the cake while the toddler is asleep - so 2-3 hours
Preheat the oven to 140 degrees C
Grease and flour a 2lb loaf tin
In a separate bowl cream the dairy free spread and the sugar until light and fluffy
Add the eggs, one at a time with a large spoonful of flour each time to stop the mixture from curdling
Remove 4 tablespoons of flour and set aside
Sift in the rest of the flour and mix gently to combine
Stir the reserved flour in with the cherries until they're all covered (this helps them not to sink to the bottom of your cake)
Stir the cherries into your cake batter
Pour/ spoon the batter into your greased and floured tin
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to an hour - after 45 minutes, check to make sure that the top hasn't caught - if it's getting too dark, cover it with a double layer of greaseproof paper
Allow to cool for 20 minutes or so in the tin, then transfer it to a cooling rack
Slice and enjoy - it keeps nicely for a few days, but longer than that I don't know as it never lasts that long in this house!

The best Simnel cake ever: dairy free recipe

Back in 2011 I blogged our old favourite Simnel cake recipe. The same one my Mum had always used it was a real tried and tested Easter bake. Then, last year I needed to make it dairy free so replaced the butter with dairy free spread - and ended up with an epically dry, wildly overcooked cake. I now know that dairy free spreads seem to cut down baking time considerably, so this year had noted to halve the cooking time. 

And then I got to thinking. I love Simnel cake, it's my absolute favourite so I thought I'd put some of the moistness back in with a soak in some Amaretto and change up the fruit a bit. That, coupled with a lower heat in the oven and a far shorter bake has been a revelation. So here we have it - the best Simnel cake ever. No word of a lie. Or exaggeration. Honest. 

The best Simnel cake ever
Serves 12
Dairy free, soya free

6oz dairy free spread









6oz caster sugar

3 eggs lightly beaten

8oz self raising flour, sieved

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

7oz glace cherries, halved

9oz sultanas & currants/ raisins

2oz ground almonds

1 500g pack marzipan (apologies for change to metric) 

150ml Amaretto

2 tablespoons apricot jam

Weigh out the dried fruit and put it in a bowl. Pour over the amaretto. Cover and leave to stand for 12 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 130 degrees C

Grease and line a 7 inch round cake tin

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add the eggs a little at a time with a spoonful of flour in with each addition

Fold in the flour, spices, and ground almonds

Add in the soaked fruit - including any leftover amaretto from the bottle of the bowl

Put half the mixture into your lined tin

Cut the block of marzipan in half and roll out one half so that it's big enough to cover the mixture in the tin. I cut around the base of the cake tin so it slots in nicely - keep any offcuts

Add the rest of the cake mixture

Bake for 1 and a half hours - test that the cake is cooked by inserting a skewer in the middle. It should come out cleanish

When the cake is cool remove from the tin, and unpeel the paper

Roll out the other half of the marzipan as you did before - again keep the offcuts

Warm the jam with a splash of boiling water and spread over the top of the cake using a pastry brush

Top with the next disc of marzipan

Split the marzipan offcuts into 11 equalish sized balls and using a little dab of apricot jam stick them to the top of the cake too. 

And you're done. The best Simnel cake ever. 

Meal Planning Monday - 14th March

It's been weeks WEEKS since I meal planned, or blogged in any way shape or form. There's some very good and some less good reasons behind the hiatus. But in a nutshell, there has been lots going on and lots of it has been wildly stressful. I'm hoping and praying that the worst is behind us now, and one of my aims for this week is to get at least a couple of blogposts up to try and get myself back in the swing of things, and lets face it, this one is what's known as a quick win. 

Breakfasts: Harry's very much on a Weetabix kick at the moment, I've gone completely off porridge so am dithering around with toast or crumpets at the moment. I do need to find another cereal so that I can get some almond milk in me, but for now - toast, peanut butter and banana does what it needs to.

Lunches: Evidence of the recent stress is clear in the fact that I've been existing on sandwiches. It's unsurprising that my weight loss has completely stalled. That said, I was eyeing up some elderly looking carrots and half a swede in the cupboard yesterday and thinking about a big pan of my Spiced root vegetable soup.

Suppers:

Monday - tonight was a rather hopeless miss mash of leftover roast chicken, baked potatoes and veggies. A usual Monday night supper after a roast, but it really didn't sit well tonight.

Tuesday - Chickpea and sweet potato curry (post to follow at some point, possibly by next January at this rate)

Wednesday - Leftover curry

Thursday - Super speedy bolognaise.

Friday - Leftover bolognaise

Saturday - Sausages, sweet potato wedges and veggies.

Sunday - Chicken and butternut squash stew

Baking wise,  I'm yet to make our Simnel cake so that needs sorting this week and I'm desperate to make a batch of my Cherry and Almond buns

I'm going to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M to try and get myself back in the swing of things. Wish me luck.

Fig and nutmeg buns for Advent - a dairy free recipe

It was the start of Advent on Sunday, and these fig spiked buns - gently spiced with nutmeg and sprinkled with demerera sugar are a lovely way to ease yourself into the start of the Christmas festivities. A hint of what's to come, without going full on CHRISTMAS! A simple bake, perfect with a hot drink - quick and easy enough to knock up before an NCT mamas lunch date where the toddlers try to cover as many square centimetres of their skin as is humanly possible with ratatouille. 

On my last post I apologised for my radio silence of late - the combination of getting used to new glasses and another shocking cough and cold from Harry, accompanied by a blast of sleep deprivation has meant that the blog has been last on my list. Well no, I've been last on my list, the blog is penultimate. This morning I've braided my hair, grabbed M's DSLR and got a bit of a wriggle on whilst bubba naps. There's a fair old amount going on in the Pantry at the moment. I'm trying to make some of my favourite Christmas bakes dairy free and get them up on here asap as well as getting organised for Christmas and all that entails.

Anyway - to (mis)quote my favourite Doctor "Allons-y!"

Fig and nutmeg buns
Dairy free, soya free
Makes 12

8oz plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3oz dairy free spread
2oz caster sugar
6oz dried figs (each chopped up into about 16)
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 egg
3-4 tablespoons almond milk (or the dairy free substitute of your choice)
2 tablespoons demerera sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
Line a cookie sheet with greaseproof paper
Put the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a mixing bowl and stir briefly
Rub in the the dairy free spread until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs
Add in the figs, and a really good grating of nutmeg
In a cup, beat the egg and almond milk together, then add this to the mixing bowl
Stir well to combine - you want a dough that cleans the sides of the bowl but that's sticky enough to hold together
Split the mixture into 12 buns, pop on the lined cookie sheet, and sprinkle with the demerera sugar
Bake for 15 minutes
Allow to cool before tucking in

These are not the sort of buns that keep forever (shame) so make them the day or at most day before you plan to eat them. I find husbands are very useful for finishing them off if there's any left!

Bread in the bread maker and Cow's Milk Protein Allergy

Six months ago I wrote about Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy and bread. At the time, borne purely of frustration at not being able to find bread which didn't change its recipe as soon as Harry got used to it, I started using my Panasonic breadmaker again.  I was given it for Christmas 10 years ago and I am still happily using it weekly. The security and peace of mind it gives me knowing exactly what is in each loaf is priceless. Of course I could make bread by hand, and for many years I also did. However daily life with a toddler does not lend itself to peaceful 10 minute kneads, followed by a leisurely prove by a radiator (living in a draughty Edwardian house, that's the only sure fire way to make my bread rise) This way I can pop the ingredients in the breadmaker before bed, so that there is a loaf ready for breakfast. It really is such an easy way to ensure Harry’s safety and wellbeing and to maintain the illusion of being an organised wife and mother. 

That is not to say that we never buy bread, I’m good, but I’m far from perfect. At the moment we tend to rely on Waitrose Essential wholemeal loaf  Aldi crumpets and their Fruit loaf as our standby dairy, soya and egg free bread products. Whilst I’m happy to recommend these today, if you are thinking of picking them up and are catering for either your own allergies or those of a family member, please read the label. We’ve been caught out recently by a loaf we’ve bought multiple times in the past only to find on arriving home that the recipe has changed. For any other customer this would not be noticed, for us it could cause Harry a lot of pain. Fortunately in my new be-spectacled state I noticed before I sleepily aimed slices at the toaster, but I could have easily overlooked that essential double check. Something I've got used to not doing because I'm making my own and am safe in the knowledge that I know what I'm working with. 

Over the past 6 months I’ve made dairy free, enriched fruitbread as well as my usual white and wholemeal loaves in the breadmaker. Out of the bread maker (following my day at River Cottage)I’ve made lots of soda bread and flatbread. It is safe to say the my son loves carbs, especially those in bread form. Preferably with humous. Lots of humous. Which he shares with anything and everything within a 6 foot radius of his highchair.

Last time I wrote about bread and CMPA I included my staple recipe for a 50:50 wholewheat loaf, whilst this hasn’t changed, I’ve made it a slightly easier to work with printable below.

print recipe

50/50 Wholewheat bread

by Penelope Reader December-06-2015

A dairy free, soya free, breadmaker friendly recipe

Ingredients

• 200g Wholewheat flour
• 200g Strong white flour (include a little extra for dusting)
• 1 tsp Fast acting yeast
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• 280ml Warmish water

Instructions

1. Put the yeast in the breadmaker tin, top this with the remainder of the dry ingredients 2. Add the oil and water 3. Select sandwich loaf cycle (and if you are me, go to bed)

Details

Prep time: 5m Cook time: 5h 0m Total time: 5h 5mYield: 1 Loaf

This post has been sponsored by Panasonic. All content and views are my own.

Carrot and cinnamon Christmas tree cookies: dairy free, egg free, soya free, sugar free weaning recipe

This recipe is based on my Sweet potato biscuit stars, but carrot based and with different spicing for the festive season.

Since making the Sweet potato biscuit stars I've repeated the bake many times, most recently with a savoury twist - carrot and ground coriander, and parsnip and garam masala which were both huge hits. However a few things happened today - I had the last of our veg patch carrots to use up, Harry had a friend to play this afternoon and I'm all about Christmas as there's only a month to go. So even my husband can't be Scroogey about me mentioning it ;-) I decided to use the same spicing as I've used in the Christmas cake which is in the oven as I type.

Part of me wanted to make something Christmassy as lots of our baby groups are gearing up for the festivities and I'd like to make sure that I have an easy, allergy friendly something I can make of a morning and bring with us so that there's something safe for Harry to eat with his friends.

Harry and his friend helped to knead the dough, and they made round biscuits whilst I managed the Christmas tree shapes as the cutters are quite sharp. As this dough is just flour, dairy free spread, carrots and spices I wasn't at all worried at the toddler take on kneading which heavily involves the mouth.

 Carrot and cinnamon Christmas tree cookies
Dairy free, egg free, soya free, sugar free
Weaning recipe

print recipe

Carrot and Cinnamon Christmas cookies

by Penelope Reader November-25-2015

Dairy free

Ingredients

• 200g Carrots, boiled/ steamed until soft
• 360g Plain flour
• 60g Dairy free spread
• 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Ground cloves
• 1 tsp Ground nutmeg

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC 2. Line a cookie sheet with greaseproof paper 3. In the bowl of your food processor blitz the cooked carrots, flour, dairy free spread and spices until the ingredients come together in a smooth ball of dough that leaves the bowl clean(ish) 4. Alternatively you can mash the carrots and beat the rest of the ingredients in by hand 5. Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick and cut out the Christmas tree shapes 6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes (or until very lightly browned)

Details

Prep time: 10m Cook time: 35m Total time: 45mYield: Makes 40 small cookies

I haven't yet tried these with cornflour to make them gluten free, but as I'm anticipating this batch will disappear fairly promptly, I'll have another go next week.

Spiced plum and apple crumble: dairy free, vegan

I love crumble, it's one of my favourite puddings - up there with my 10 minute syrup sponge pud. This recipe is gently spiced with the Pumpkin pie spice mix from  I made last week - partly as I wanted another excuse to use it.

This is a dairy free, vegan recipe - replacing the butter with a dairy free spread, and my usual honey with a date syrup. I discovered date syrup courtesy of another blogger and really, really love the depth of flavour and natural sweetness it gives dishes. I found mine in our local health food shop, but I'm sure you could find it in a bigger supermarket.

As we don't have puddings often, I wouldn't mind Harry having a little of this. I know there's sugar in it, but a little is fine and he doesn't really have anything else with sugar in it. I tend to work on the basis that if they're not having sugar all the time, once in a while won't hurt.

Historically I've used the Nigella recipe for crumble, but today I mixed it up a bit. This would be lovely served with some Birds custard made up with almond milk. Did you know that Birds custard was invented because the inventor Alfred Bird's wife had an egg allergy so it's perfect for my CMPA bubba with an egg allergy.

Spiced plum and apple crumble
Dairy free, vegan

One punnet of ripen at home plums - about 7, quartered
3 eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into eighths
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice - this could be replaced by 1 tsp cinnamon
1 tablespoon date syrup, mixed up with 2 tablespoons of water
80g plain flour
20g porridge oats
1 tablespoon demerera sugar
70g dairy free spread - I used Pure but Vitalite or an own brand would work too

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C
Quarter the plums and put into the dish you're going to bake the crumble in - you want everything to fit quite closely
Peel the apples, cut into eighths and nestle them amongst the plums
Sprinkle over the spice
Mix the water and date syrup together and pour over the fruit
Mix everything up well and make sure the plums are skin side down
Pop into the oven for 20-30 minutes. Keep an eye, you want everything soft, not caramelised.
While the fruit is baking, make your crumble
Mix the oats, flour and sugar together in a bowl
Rub in the dairy free spread until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs
Top the baked fruit with the crumble and pop back in the oven for 20 minutes

Enjoy with that custard. Because there's nothing better.