a special treat! (TMX, GF)

Rora loved her gluten doughnuts but hadn't had one since last December. When i heard the donut machines were available in Kmart at the moment for $25 I had to go and get one. we tried it tonight and I'm so glad we have it! The donuts are sooooo yummy and of course it won't take long to pay for it with the savings from making our own :)

I used this recipe which was very nice (maybe a tad sweet) and converted to thermomix...


Gluten Free Donuts for a Donut Machine

180g sugar or raw sugar
125g butter, cubed
180g milk
1 egg
230g gluten free flour *
1 1/2 tspns GF baking powder *
2-3 tspns ground cinnamon

grind sugar to caster sugar fineness (speed 8)

place butter in TMX bowl, melt for 1-3 mins (depending on temp of butter) at 70'c speed 1
add milk and egg and mix at speed 3 for 10 seconds or until well mixed
add flour, 100g of the sugar and baking powder and mix at speed 4 for 10 seconds or until well mixed.

Mix the other 80g of sugar with cinnamon in a bowl and set aside

use a soup spoon to pour the batter into your mini donut maker (spray well with spray oil before each batch)

as each batch is cooked toss them in cinnamon sugar and serve :)

note: this recipe made approx 32 mini donuts

* i use the TMX recipe to make my own, see the everyday book

thermomix news!!!!

I am finally succumbing and am going to sell the thermomix!! I will be doing training at the end of July and will be available for demonstrations in Canberra and area from August on (i think, possibly October) - so if you'd like to see it, with no pressure to buy, please contact me on brazen20 at hotmail.com :)

I'm excited to have yet another avenue to spread my love of thermomix!

I know I shouldn't complain

when in Australia it is so much easier to find gluten free food out and about, but when you are visiting another city and arenot familiar with what is where it can be quite tricky to find suitable GF food, particularly when you factor theage of the GF person into the equation ;) even providing from the supermarket can be tricky when you're in an area that is not so affluent or knowledgable.

today we had to go with Muffin Break for a snack - we usually avoid MB because it simply costs our family of 5 far too much money (the muffins are $4 or maybe a ltitle more each and then when you add drinks on top...) but at least we knew the kids would eat it. well actually, ryan didn't but that's another story lol

tommorrow we are havingl unch with friends and i have bought to take, GF sausages from coles (the little ones, i forget what they call them), corn on the cob, jelly and custard, and this risotto http://brazen20au.blogspot.com/2008/04/brazens-oven-baked-pumpkin-risotto-2.html (sorry for no link, i can't work out how to do it on this silly mac!) it's hard cooking out of your own kitchen - we were going to bring the thermomix with us but just forgot to get it organised... bah lol

Menu Plan

Pizza (TMX, GF bases)
Risotto Milanese & Ragu (TMX)
Homemade Baked Beans & Toast (TMX)
Cauliflower & Potato Curry (TMX, page 40 GF book)
Chicken & Cashews (TMX, p99 everyday book)
Tacos

mushrooms
garlic
carrots
zucchinis
tomatoes
celery
potatoes
cauli
shallots
small red capsicum
small piece broccoli
lettuce
onions
coriander
6-8 bananas
strawberries
some other fruit that looks good

Mandarin Success this time!

well the clementine cake might have been a disaster but this Macadamia and Mandarin Fudge sure wasn't!!! and soooo easy too... my guests loved it!

based on Chelsea's recipe here, i subbed my clementine for the limes, and added some orange essence.

150g toasted macadamia nuts
zest of one large clementine mandarin, scrubbed well
395g can condensed milk
500g white chocolate
1/2 - 1 tspn orange essence


Line a 18cm square tin with a piece of baking paper (so that the paper comes up the sides).
Place nuts in bowl and chop using turbo. set aside
Place the zest in the bowl and grate finely (10 seconds, speed 8 ). Set aside.
Place the chocolate in the bowl and grate (5 seconds, speed 8 ).
Add condensed milk to the chocolate and melt/combine (approx. 5-7 minutes, 50 degrees, speed 1). Check often and stop when fully melted. I found i had to stir with a spatula as it was a bit thick for the thermomix to stir evenly.
Add zest, essence and chopped nuts and combine (approx. 30 seconds, speed 1).
Tip into tray and refrigerate until set. Cut into squares and keep in fridge.

Lesson learned...

I make my Whole Orange Cake as often using lemons as I do using oranges, so this time I decided it would be great made with mandarins - i much prefer eating mandarins! so i bought some nice large clementines (I think, the firm ones) and used them this afternoon. Only to end up with a cake that was just too bitter - yes, even with all that sugar in it. none of us liked it. Not to mention it was much more fiddly getting the mandarins ready (they were full of tough white membranes I had to cut out, as well as heaps of seeds. so lesson learned, mandarins are OUT!

Menu Plan

gosh, i have been so slack on the blogging front lately. i have a terrible secret. farm town (on face book) has been consuming my life. don't think i've ever been obsessed by a game before lol i'm weaning myself slowly, helped by working last week ;)

so onto a very lazy menu as i'm still not in the mood for cooking...

enchiladas & mexican rice
lamb casserole & mash (packet mix)
pumpkin & spinach risotto
minestrone
varoma chicken, veg and creamy sauce
pasta with zacuska

Gingernut Biscuits (GF, TMX)

easily made gluten free from Trudy's recipe on the Thermomix Forum. These biscuits were so-so at first, but a day or two later were delicious and moreish!!! Geoff kept sneaking them behind my back despite trying to pretend they weren't really his thing LOL

when you're making gluten free biscuits it's much more successful to let the biscuits cool on the tray (i need more trays!!!) or they're too soft and will break up being transferred to a rack.

this recipe has a mild ginger flavour so you could add a little extra if you wanted for a stronger taste. on the forum there are suggestions of other variations. my version used raw sugar which worked just fine and probably looked much prettier on the outside!

be careful with the size of the balls of dough you put on the tray, and with how close you put them - or you'll end up with big square biccies joined together like i did LOL


GINGERNUT BISCUITS (Makes 4 dozen) Oven 180C

2 cups Gluten Free Self Raising Flour *
2 Teaspoons ginger powder
1 teaspoon bi-carb soda
125g butter (soft)
1 cup raw sugar sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 egg - beaten
raw sugar for rolling

Place raw sugar, golden syrup & butter in TM. Cream for approx 3 mins on speed 4 or 5, scraping with spatula as you go.
Add egg & carb soda. Process for a few secs to combine and then add flour & ginger. Process for about 90 secs using the spatula to help.

Roll into 48 balls and then toss the balls into sugar. Place balls onto a greased or papered tray and bake for approx 12 mins or until golden brown.

These biscuits keep well in an airtight tin.


* i use the gluten free flour recipe in the Thermomix gluten free book, plus the gluten free baking powder mix.

Elana's Nutty Bread (GF, TMX)

breakfast this morning for Rora, Geoff and myself was Elana's nutty bread. it was nice though i forgot i can't eat nuts and it didn't go quite how i thought it would - i was supposed to "pour the batter" into the tin, but it was so thick and stiff even my spatula wouldn't get it out of the thermomix and i had to use a hard spoon to get it out!

anyway, here are the quantities in weight for the thermomix. i won't put a method cause it's pretty self explanatory :)

210g almond flour (i have never seen actual almond flour so i ground almonds until just before they became paste)
95g arrowroot (or tapioca) flour
40g flax seed meal
1/2 tspn sea salt
1/2 tspn bicarb soda
4 eggs
1 tspn rapadura sugar
1 tspn apple cider vinegar
35g walnuts (i put them in whole with the dry ingredients and mixed with the blades, not reverse)
65g chopped roasted macadamias
40g pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
40g sunflower seeds
35g sesame seeds


rora and geoff really liked it (rora LOVES nuts) and there was none left after breakfast. it didn't make a very big quantity so you either need a small tin or double the mix.

Crazy for Custard! (GF, TMX)

my kids (and dh) love custard! here's how we make it gluten free...

each recipe makes enough for the kids and dh to have custard for dessert with none left over, or this morning the strawberry filled 9 Tupperware snack cups, i'd assume the vanilla or chocolate would fill 8. I'm not sure about freezing it but am going to try and see how it goes. adjust the sugar to your taste.

this recipe makes quite a thick custard so if you'd rather a thin pouring custard you could either reduce the flour or increase the milk. please note that you need more flour (60g i think) if you are using regular wheat flour instead of gluten free.


if you are making it to keep you should pour it into your container/s then cover carefully with clingwrap so that the clingwrap covers the top of the custard, or today i just put the lids on while it was still quite warm. This stops the custard getting a skin on it.

Vanilla Custard
500g milk
40g sugar of any kind
40g gluten free flour (i use the TMX blend)
2 eggs
1 tspn (or a splash) of vanilla essence

cook for 7 minutes on 90'c speed 4



Chocolate Custard
500g milk
40g sugar of any kind
30g gluten free flour (i use the TMX blend)
1 slightly heaped tspn cocoa
2 eggs
1 tspn (or a splash) of vanilla essence

cook for 7 minutes on 90'c speed 4



Strawberry Custard
500g milk
40g sugar of any kind
40g gluten free flour (i use the TMX blend)
2 eggs
1 tspn (or a splash) of vanilla essence
5-10 strawberries, washed and hulled

cook for 7 minutes on 90'c speed 4


i'm sure you could do a yummy banana custard too, but emelia is the only one of my lot to like bananas.

if i have spare egg yolks i will throw them in the custard and reduce the flour a bit, but the one time i made it without any flour it curdled so i always include at least a little flour to keep the consistency right.