A few weeks ago towards the end of summer we decided to go blackberry picking on the downs. This year the blackberries seemed to be early and in huge abundance.  We came back with several containers of all shapes and sizes loaded with black ripe juicy berries.  I didn’t know what I wanted to make but for some reason I decided on blackberry jam.  I had never made jam before and I don’t know why I thought it would be a good time to start when I was already cooking dinner late on a Sunday afternoon.

The process was surprisingly quick and easy.  The recipe below is faithful to the original but also open to being adapted.  I decided to halve the recipe since it was all a bit of an experiment and put the leftover berries in the freezer.  I also discovered that I didn’t have enough sugar or the right sort so ended up reducing the sugar amount by a third which suited my healthy sensibilities.  You may not know this...but jam contains A LOT of sugar.  Watching the sheer amount of the stuff as I weighed it out on the scales was scary.   I ended up using half granulated brown sugar and half demerara.  The end result didn’t seem to suffer for this.  In fact my husband, who never eats jam unless a scone is involved, became a jam eating monster.  I’d never seen him consume so much jam on toast.

Adapted from BBC Good Food Magazine

Makes 1.2 litres/4 jam jars

900g/2lb fruit

900g/2lb sugar

1 ½ tbsp lemon juice

Put the blackberries in to a heavy based saucepan or if you are really flash a preserving pan.

Add 50ml of water and 1 ½ tbsp of lemon juice.  Bring to the boil.

Simmer for 15 minutes until the fruit is soft.

Pour in the sugar and stir over a low heat until it has dissolved then turn up the heat to bring it to a full rolling boil for about 15 minutes.  Do not stir until the setting point of 105°C is reached.  (I ended up boiling mine for about 20 minutes before reaching setting point.  You may find yours takes a longer or shorter time.)

Remove the pan from the heat and skim off any excess scum.  Leave for about 15 minutes before pouring in to sterilized jars, label and seal.

Some extra notes:

I don’t have a jam thermometer so I used the frozen plate method.  Place a plate in the freezer until it is nice and cold.  To test if your jam has reached setting point remove the plate from the freezer, take a small dollop of jam from your boiling pot and drop it onto the plate, if it sets then it’s ready, if it remains runny then keep boiling the jam and try again in a few minutes.  I found this took several attempts.

I am not an expert on sterilizing jars.  You can find many different methods by looking this up online.  I’d hate to think I’d given you rogue jam jar sterilizing advice. 

A walk in the countryside

This is the story of boy meets hot bacon roll and girl fights jealousy with an apple...

Anyone who knows me will be aware of how much I love to go walking and I’m lucky enough to live in a place surrounded by beautiful countryside.  A few weekends ago my husband and I went for walk on the downs...

We saw the sun coming up through the trees

We marvelled at the way the light fell through the trees as the seasons were changing before us

We admired the view

We came across a cafe.  Then my husband ate this...

Is there moral to this story? Always have a gluten free snack with you when you go out, it won’t get rid of the smell of bacon but at least you can distract yourself with food.  Sigh.

Banana, Quinoa, Coconut Squares

By the time I was diagnosed with coeliac disease, I had become very thin because of the effect gluten was having on my body.  Once I cut it out the speed with which I recovered was incredible.  However, I needed sustenance.  My body had gone through months of illness.  These banana, quinoa and coconut squares were one of the first things I made on a regular basis.

They are very healthy, which means you can have more than one, in fact you definitely should.  Quinoa is a bit of a super grain, you’ll see it popping up quite a lot in the food I cook.  These squares are moist in texture and the cardamom and coconut compliment the banana very well.

Adapted from The Detox Cook by Louisa Walters, Aliza Baron Cohen and Adrian Mercuri

Directions:

9oz ripe bananas cut in to chunks

4 tbsp sunflower oil

½ tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cardamom

2oz cashew nuts

2oz desiccated coconut

2oz quinoa flakes

1 carrot grated

Line a square baking pan with baking parchment.  Preheat the oven to Gas mark 5 or 190°C for electric.  In a food processor or blender combine the bananas, sunflower oil, vanilla essence, cinnamon, cardamom and the grated carrot.  Start to add the dry ingredients one by one until well combined.  Pour the batter in to the prepared baking pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until nicely brown on top.  Remove from the oven, leave to cool in the baking pan for five minutes then turn out on to a rack.  Once cooled, cut in to squares and store in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Snug Breakfast

This is my regular go to everyday breakfast porridge.  I love this plain or spruced up a bit with raspberries and flaxseeds or chopped dried apricots, raisins, strawberries, the possibilities are endless.  It couldn’t be easier to make and takes only five minutes.

For one portion

½ cup brown rice flakes

1 cup rice milk

Combine the milk and rice flakes in a saucepan. Give them a stir, bring to a boil then turn the heat down and cook gently, stirring occasionally until the rice flakes absorb the rice milk and resemble a porridge consistency.  Eat plain or add the toppings of your choice.  Head off for the day feeling full, warm and happy...well I can't promise happy but full and warm is pretty good.

Orange and Apricot Polenta Cake

Welcome to Separate Toasters, my space to share with you my gluten free cooking and baking experiences.  What better way to start this blog than with my favourite gluten free cake recipe!

Last week this cake made my work lunches just a little bit special.  As much as I love to cook I am incredibly lazy and unimaginative when it comes to the food I take with me to work.  I don’t have time she wails to make interesting packed lunches.  The best I can hope for is that I’ve managed to make something at the weekend that will sustain me through the week and help those mid morning cravings.  

Juicy oranges paired with dried apricots make this cake lovely and moist.  I also love to throw in some dried cranberries to add a bit of sweetness and extra colour to the mix.  The cake will keep pretty well in a cake tin for about four days.  It is full of so many good and wholesome things that I can’t feel too bad about reaching for a big slice.

My sister gave me this recipe and she’s not sure where it came from.  We’ve both made our own adaptions to the original. 

Ingredients:

Zest of 2 oranges

Then peel and cut those oranges in to chunks

5oz dried apricots chopped (or 7oz if you don’t want to include cranberries)

2oz dried cranberries

4 1/2 oz butter

3 eggs

2 tbsp honey (I use Manuka Honey for the added health benefits)

1 1/2 oz tapioca flour

2oz brown rice flour

3 oz polenta

2 1/2 oz ground almonds

2 tsp gluten free baking powder

Directions:

Grease and line a 9inch round cake tin with baking paper.  Preheat Oven to Gas Mark 5 or 190°C for electric (you will notice mine is in a loaf tin.  The recipe is intended for a round cake tin but on this occasion I decided to try making a loaf and I had a bit left over to make some muffins too.)

In a food processor or blender mix together the orange zest, oranges, apricots, cranberries, butter, eggs and honey.  You can do this by adding one ingredient at a time depending on how good your machine is.  The end result should be a puree like consistency.

In a separate bowl mix the flours, polenta, almonds and baking powder together.  Then beat in the puree.

Once well combined pour in to your cake tin and bake for aprox 40-45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.  Leave to cool in the cake tin for about ten minutes then turn the cake out on to a wire rack.

This is delicious served with raspberry jam and natural yogurt.