Carrot Cake Muffins - Gluten Free & Vegan

I've decided that carrot cake is evil - I can eat so much of it without batting an eyelid... it's incredibly deadly for me. I'm unsure why I love it so - it maybe the moistness of the cake, the fruitiness, the nuttiness, the high sugar and fat content, or simply the cream cheese frosting that adorns them. Lucky enough, I've limited my dairy intake (due to allergies), so any piece of carrot cake that calls me when I'm in PCC will have to sit on the hips and thighs of someone else.

Panforte di Siena

Ahh… our Christmas cake… I’m not sure if we can really call it a cake, it’s more like a piece of chewy confectionery. It originates from Italy and is packed full of dried fruit, nuts and honey.

This cake is traditionally baked in a round cake tin (pan). However, I broke out of the norm this year and baked it in a loaf tin (pan). The cake was cut into 2.5 cm (1 inch) pieces, making them easier to enjoy, instead of gnawing a huge slice.

100% Whole Wheat Stollen with Almond Paste

The traditional German Christmas bread just got a little healthier! This version is made with 100% whole wheat flour, studded with plump fruit, and stuffed with almond paste. It’s perfect for breakfast or with a cup of tea or coffee.

Dutch Honey Cake (Honingkoek)

This delicious loaf is also known as breakfast cake. It’s suitable for dairy-free individuals. The texture is somewhat closer to bread than a cake, and is typically enjoyed with lashings of butter. It’s easy to make, chewy, lightly spiced, low in fat, and the flavor only gets better with time.

It was J (not surprisingly) who introduced me to this cake. It’s easily available in Europe (again, not surprisingly), and there are many variants in the shops, including one with stem ginger. We loved them all!

Saucy Lemon Souffle Pudding

Saucy lemon soufflé pudding you say? Yep! I've been planning to blog about this delicious dessert for months! I tried it almost a year ago, but it was so good, that I didn’t get a chance to take any photographs.

The pudding is packed full of flavor and absolutely delicious. It's light and fluffy on the top with a creamy lemon custard base. It’s a true delight for lemon lovers.

Jammy Angel Food Cupcakes

I'm pretty sure that everyone has heard of devil’s food cake. It’s rich, chocolatey, and packed full of all the naughty stuff. Angel food cake on the other hand, is light and fat-free. Before I made these cupcakes, I’ve never made either, which must mean that I was in purgatory or something!

I had bags of frozen egg whites that needed to be used up. Instead of making the obvious choice of meringues or macaroons, I decided to try my hand at angel food cake. Instead of making it in a tube cake (Bundt) tin (pan), I decided to make them into cupcakes, and add a little strawberry jam on the bottom. You can of course, leave them plain or use your favorite jam or even apple sauce.

Quark Stollen with Almond Paste

The holidays just aren’t the same without stollen. It’s been like this since I met J, many moons ago. I absolutely love stollen! J’s parents used to visit us in the UK from the Netherlands and would always bring some with them. They even include it in the food parcels they send to us at this time of the year. In 2008, our Christmas parcel went on a detour to Sydney, Australia and we didn’t get it until March... you can imagine how fresh the stuff was then, eek!!!

We’ve browsed store-bought varieties, but the ingredients make me want to hurl. Yuck! In 2009, I decided to make my own stollen for Christmas. Since I only started lindaskitchenlab in May 2010, I thought it would be better to wait closer to the holiday season to blog about it. Watch this space for Christmas 2010 whole wheat version.

Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins - Gluten Free & Vegan

Five years ago, I would never have thought I could walk into a bakery and not buy anything. I love my cakes, muffins and pastries. The only problem is that I’m allergic to American dairy. Eating anything is a little bit of a risk for me. Although I can drool at the cakes, I rarely eat them and when I do, I take a very small bite.

It was time to try another recipe from the Flying Apron’s Gluten-Free and Vegan Baking book. I love this recipe book, but it is RIDDLED with editorial errors. How this book got into print, I have no idea…

Cheese and Black Pepper Baguettes

I’ve been getting into the habit of baking bread every Saturday morning. This Saturday was no different. My choice of bread today was cheese and black pepper.

I love fresh bread – making it, tasting it and smelling it. However, I’m ever so lazy when it comes to making it. I don’t spend however many minutes hand-kneading, or waiting several hours for it to prove. I usually prep the dough on Friday night, using my stand mixer. Pop the dough into the fridge overnight, and then on Saturday morning, I shape the dough, let it stand for 1 hour, before baking it. Simple – it works a treat every time!

Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts (Dan Tat)

I have a love for egg custard. It’s the combination of milk, sugar and eggs that is ever-so tempting for me. It could be plain old crème anglaise, crème patisserie or just a good ole egg custard tart. Portuguese, Chinese or English – I love them all. I am known to devour numerous egg tarts at one sitting.

Chinese egg tarts are usually made REALLY badly. The pastry is often too thick, the filling doesn’t taste like egg and is thickened with so much cornflour (cornstarch) that it makes the custard rubbery.

"Cornish" Pasties

I’ve tried the traditional Cornish pasties in Cornwall, with the chunks of steak, swede (rutabaga) and potato in a delicious pastry. I’m also guilty of grabbing a factory “Cornish” pasty, whilst rushing through a train station on my way to work/home. It’s unfortunate that most people have never tried a real Cornish pasty, but is accustomed to the minced (ground) meat in gravy variety with a puff pastry exterior.

I apologize in advance to any Cornish readers. These pasties have nothing in common with the traditional, delicious pasties that originate from Cornwall. They aren’t made with beef, but with chicken; they don’t have swede (rutabaga), but carrots; the vegetables are cubed, not sliced; the filling is cooked before stuffing and they don’t have the typical short crust pastry (half fat to flour ratio). In a sense, to call these “Cornish” is probably an abomination, but I’ll live with that.

British Cheese Scones

In this entry, I’m going to open a can of worms labeled “scones”. British scones are significantly different from American scones. British scones are light, fluffy, quite dainty and round; American scones are denser, heartier, bigger and usually wedge/triangular-shaped. The British scone is closer to an American biscuit, than it is to an American scone. And British biscuits are what Americans know as cookies… ok, now the language issue has been dealt with, I can now discuss British scones.

Sweet and Spicy Almonds

I had a bag of raw almonds sitting in the freezer for a little while, and whilst searching for food porn one evening, spotted this recipe for sweet and spicy almonds. I just HAD to make them!

I’ve slightly adjusted the amounts of ingredients in the original recipe. The result are almonds that are crunchy, sweet, salty, spicy and ever-so-slightly medicinal tasting – I guess that’s due to the fennel seed. And remember, almonds are good for you!

All-Butter Croissants

I’ve been spoilt, so spoilt that I’ve tasted fresh croissants in France. And once you’ve tasted the real deal in France, nothing will ever come close in comparison. So, if you ever happen to be visiting France, do NOT, I repeat do NOT try their fresh croissants. Otherwise, you’ll suffer a life-long torment in searching for the perfect croissant again.

Kale Chips

Kale is one of those leafy greens that we should all eat more of.

It belongs to the Brassica family, which is a group of vegetables that include cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and collard greens. It is this group of vegetables that are now known for their health-promoting benefits, due to their sulfur-containing phytonutrients.

Kale is an excellent source of vitamins K, A and C, manganese as well as containing decent amounts of dietary fiber, copper, tryptophan, calcium, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), potassium, iron, magnesium, vitamin E, omega-3 fatty-acids, vitamin B2 (riboflavin), protein, vitamin B1 (thiamin), folate, phosphorus and vitamin B3 (niacin) [1].

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

This is probably one of the easiest recipes that produce the most wonderful peanut butter cookies, that you’ll ever encounter.

They’re also gluten-free and simply full of peanut-ty goodness.

Slimmed-Down Leek & Goat Cheese Quiche

Here’s the slimmed down version of quiche, as promised.
To slim down quiche, I use unbuttered filo- (phyllo-) pastry for the crust, I also use half water and no-fat milk/unsweetened milk substitute to the egg mix. I don’t particularly miss the buttery short-crust pastry, because the filling carries the quiche off.

Chocolate Layer Cookies

Another one of my recipes I dig up for when we need a hostess gift. These are a little more tedious than the Viennese Fingers, but the resulting biscuits (cookies) are not only beautiful, but also delicious.

These bite-sized biscuits (cookies) are layered vanilla and chocolate shortbread that are crisp, buttery and coated on one-side with dark (semi-sweet) chocolate.

Hazelnut-Butter Cookies

These slightly sweet cookies have a wonderful aroma from the roasted hazelnuts, that shine through with a buttery melt-in-the-mouth richness. They are another one of my favorite hostess gifts I like to make, and they are sure to please.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

You’ve probably guessed that there's a certain someone in this household that LOVES chocolate, and that certain someone is not I.

This cake contains no flour, butter or refined sugar, but it has a very dark secret. The secret being that its base is made of black beans. You read correctly, black beans!