Buckwheat Pancakes - Gluten Free, Dairy Free (TMX)

just a slight change from the recipe I posted previously ...

enough for 4

150g gluten free plain flour (I make my own)
150g buckwheat flour
2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
good sprinkle vegetable salt (I make my own)
15g maple syrup
2 large eggs
640g rice milk (i make my own)
20g rice bran or grapeseed oil

1 sliced banana, optional
grilled bacon, optional
maple syrup, optional

1. Place all ingredients except banana / bacon / extra maple syrup in the thermomix. Mix on speed 6 for 10 seconds. scrape down sides and mix on speed 6 for another 10-20 seconds. Leave to rest for 20 minutes.

2. Heat your pan on a medium heat and grease as needed (i just use cooking spray to regrease between pancakes). pour in around 1/4 - 1/3 cup of batter. If you are having banana drop some on top - i usually like to push them down a bit so they sit 'in' the pancake rather than on top of it.

3. when the pancake has bubbled and looks slightly set it's time to flip it over gently. it will only take minutes to brown on the bottom.

4. serve with a drizzle of maple syrup and bacon. these would probably be nice with the thermomix strawberry sauce too :)

note: these pancakes seem to be less "strong" than the regular GF version, so take care when turning

Rice Milk

I am attempting to be dairy free (not succeeding really, i love my dairy so much, plus i keep forgetting it is in foods such as pesto etc lol) and have switched to rice milk in preference to soy milk which I'd rather avoid in any quantity.

This milk is really nice - i do find it separates so isn't great for coffee (i drink it with a teaspoon now so i can keep stirring lol) but it is lovely for everything else :)

it's from Jo at Quirky Cooking who i MUST add to my blog list! (i keep saying that but i've been totally slack at updating my blog lately)

Rice Milk
50g brown rice
30g raw cashews
960g filtered water
1 tablespoon grapeseed (or other mild flavoured) oil
30g maple syrup
pinch of salt

Place rice in dry TM bowl and grind for 1 minute speed 8. Add cashews and grind until it stops hitting the sides (30-60 seconds)

Add remaining ingredients and cook at 60 degrees, 7 minutes, speed 4

Puree on speed 8 for 40 secs, then strain into jug (i have washed out an couple of old 2L milk bottles and use those). It will need a really good shake before each use!

you can see some of Jo's tips for making this here

2 GF recipes from Skye...

thanks so much for thinking of us skye, these sound delish!

G.F peppermint slice
*125gm soft butter
*105gm gf icing sugar
*1 egg
*half tsp each peppermint and vanilla extract
*1cup g.f rice flour
*1cup g.f cornflour
*35g cocoa

Preheat oven to 180`c,cream butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy,add
egg,and essence,beat well
Sift flours and cocoa,fold in dry ingredients until mixture is combined.roll into balls and bake for 10mins



Sweet maple treats gluten, nut and egg free
*125g soft butter
*1tsp vanilla extract
*1/3 cup maple syrup
*270g g.f rice flour
*70g g.f cornflour

Preheat oven to 180`c,cream butter,vanilla and maple syrup until light and fluffy,sift flours,fold in dry ingredients until just combined. Roll into balls and cook for 10mins or golden brown

Cranberry Maple Breakfast Scones (Thermomix)

this recipe was heavily inspired by two recipes from The Crepes of Wrath - Whole Wheat Maple Oatmeal Scones and Cranberry Almond Multigrain Scones - thank you!

85g oats
140g wholemeal flour
100g plain flour
70g ground almonds *
1 tab baking powder
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn cardamom
100g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
65g milk (low fat)
140g yoghurt (low fat, i just used the yoghurt i had left, so if you have more or less in a tub just adjust the milk accordingly, you could also use flavoured) **
25g maple syrup ***
50g cranberries
for the glaze:
1-2 tspns each of maple syrup and milk

place oats in tmx, closed lid position and pulse using the turbo button x3
add in the rest of the dry ingredients and mix for 3 seconds on speed 7
add butter, closed lid position and pulse using the turbo button x2-3
add wet ingredients and cranberries. remove the measuring cup from the lid. set on closed lid position, reverse and knead until the dough is well mixed (i forgot to pay attention to how long but probably just 3-4 'kneads')
line a baking tray (i used my silicone baking mat) and sprinkle with flour - probably about 1/8-1/4 cup. gently knead the dough a little more and shape into a circle. flatten until it's about 4cm thick. with a butter knife cut into 6-8 wedges.
in the measuring cup mix the extra syrup and milk and brush over the top of the scones. i think it would be nice with a few oats and some raw sugar sprinkled over too (ooops i just noticed this is actually in the whole wheat scones recipe!)
bake in a 160' oven for about 20-25 minutes

* to grind the almonds place 70g whole raw almonds in the tmx, grind at speed 6-7 for 5-10 seconds until you can hear the smoothness and no larger pieces hitting the sides.
** my dough was a little wet so perhaps i will adjust the amount of yoghurt next time
*** this was the perfect (not very) sweetness for me but if you like sweet breakfast dishes you might like to add a little brown sugar too - or you could serve with a brown sugar / butter blend

geoff just got home from the Botanic Gardens native plant sale and had a scone - he's not a fan of any fruit except blueberries - but he loved them!

Delicious Breakfast (Thermomix)

this recipe looked so delicious and i just had to try it for breakfast! of course i decided to put a LOT less sugar in it (especially for breakfast). i think this could be made with any variety of fruit :)

this amount made enough for rory and myself, i will update the amounts later when i work out quantities for one (i'm thinking 55g polenta but not completely sure how much milk would be needed)

3/4 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
1 tspn maple syrup

70g polenta / cornmeal
470g skim milk
zest of one small lemon
pinch of salt
maple syrup to taste (about 1/2-1 tspn for me)
1/2 tspn vanilla essence

put the blueberries and 1 tspn of maple syrup in a microwave container, loosely cover, cook on high for 2 minutes. (i'm sure you could also do this in the thermomix, i just couldn't be bothered!)

place the polenta, milk, zest, and salt in the thermomix. Cook for 10 minutes on 90' speed 4 until the polenta is soft. add maple syrup and vanilla, mix on speed 2 until combined.

place polenta in bowl/s, top with blueberry mix, stir just a little and serve.
(warning - it will be VERY hot for quite a while!)

some shopping...

forgot to say that today i went to the belconnen markets and picked up a few things i'd been wanting for a while.

first stop was the Food Lovers store which smelled divine! no idea what they were cookign but everyone who was walking past was intrigued too! lol anyway, i picked up my usual sweet chilli jam, which i had just used up, and after a sample got a jar of spicy bush tomato chutney. YUM!

then to the health shop there to stock up on bulks beans and grains. i finally got some whole wheat to try using to make my bread, though it's actually very expensive compared to ready ground flour (though i just noticed it's organic) at $3.45 / kg and i couldn't find a bag bigger than 1kg. there other bulk food places in town, i just don't ever go near them! if this works in our house i will investigate further ;)

i also bought dried pinto beans (the ones they make refried beans out of - from what i've read online they're supposed to be quite hard to get in australia?), kidney beans and something else i've forgotten LOL Lara tells me that it works well to presoak and cook the beans and freeze them in portion sized packages. perfect for me as i can rarely plan ahead far enough to go through that process and hence we have about 40-50 - tins of assorted beans in teh pantry atm !!!

lastly i bought some popping corn and YAY! i've discovered (at last) a healthy snack all my kids love!!!

after that up to the deli where i spent a bit more than i should have (unintentionally) buying expensive dips and cheeses and maple syrup when all i went there for was turkish bread!! (and i needed pancetta too)

over to the F&V shop where i totally forgot to stock up on 99c bread (aaagh) and discovered they no longer have their huge rack of huge sized herb and spice packets wahhhhh where to get them from now???? i don't know of anywhere else that sells them!

then i snuck a quick coffee in the sun at beppe's before racing back to M&D's to pick up the girls (well actually i raced straight to preschool to pick up ryan as i'd lost track of time - again! ooops)

Buttermilk Pancakes with Ricotta Cream

12/1/01 http://brazen.livejournal.com/258257.html

my gorgeous friend Demon Deeva did a post about buttermilk last night and is going to make my Spiced Prune Buttermilk Loaf but using dates and Figs which sounds yummo to me! anyway, i now post this recipe in her honour :-D


Serves 4, 7.2g fat per serve

1 cup (150g) self raising flour
1/2 tspn ground cinnamon
1 tab caster (fine) sugar
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup (250ml) buttermilk
125g reduced fat smooth ricotta cheese (buy fresh, not in the container)
1/2 cup (125ml) maple syrup
1 medium lemon, cut into wedges

* sift flour, cinnamon and sugar into a medium bowl. whisk in the combined eggs and buttermilk gradually until smooth. Cover and stand for 30 minutes.

* pour 1/4 cup (60ml) of the batter into a heated oiled non-stick pan and cook til bubbles start to appear. turn the pancake and cook until browned underneath. remove the pancakes from the pan and cover to keep warm. repeat with the remaining batter to make eight pancakes.

* combine the ricotta with one tablespoon of the maple syrup in a small bowl.

* serve the pancakes with the ricotta mixture, remaining maple syrup and the lemon wedges.