Gluten free homemade chocolate bourbon biscuit.

I used to work in a old people's retirement home. For 4 years I cared and looked after the elderly. getting them dressed in their best outfits, feeding and wiping them all up...aside from the toileting... tea time was the big task. Making cups of tea at 1/2 hour intervals and passing the biscuit tin around the excited ladies and gents.

Oh There were many scraps around that biscuit tin,  as to who got the precious chocolate bourbon. inevitably Cesil always won and ran hobbled away with 5, whilst Joan, Ethel, Dora and the others were left in his wake with the crumbs or a pink panther wafer. Brutal I know but that's nature and you gotta be quick if ya wanna survive... in the care home lounge. Its ok though, in half an hour, it would be tea time yet again and i would refill the tin with more, making sure I kept my beady eye on Cesil.

In honour of my golden oldies, I got a choccy biccy recipe for all. Gluten free and enough to go round, so everyone can dunk theirs with their cuppa.

Gluten free Chocolate Bourbon sandwich biscuit.
Ingredients
Makes 10

50 g low fat margarine
50 g soft brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
110 g gf plain flour mix ( I use Dove's)
15 g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
flour for rolling out

for the filling

75 g) icing sugar
40 g margarine
1 tbsp cocoa


Cooking Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
2. Cream the marg and sugar together very thoroughly with an electric hand whisk. Next beat in the honey.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa, and bicarbonate of soda together. Add this dry mixture into the fat and sugar to create a stiff paste.
4.Bring together and Knead well, and roll out onto a large and spacious flat surface, which has been covered in a dusting of flour. Using a rolling pin make the dough flat and around half a centremetre thick.
5.stamp or cut out biscuity shapes
6. Place on a greased baking sheet covered with greased greaseproof paper.
7. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.
8. Cool on a wire rack.
9. for the filling: Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl making sure you get rid of all the lumps.
10. Beat the fat until soft add in the dry ingredients.
11.Sandwich the cooled fingers with a layer of filling

Frosted Jam Donut Cupcakes (Gluten Free and low in fat!)

Is it Doughnut or donut?  
doooo nut or doughy sugary heaven fried nut? meh.
you say tomato and i say tomato...

  

What was supposed to be just an ordinary innocent vanilla cupcake... became so much more...

 It looks like a fancy cupcake (due to over generous frosting sprinkles) but when you bite into it, it tastes like a delicious naughty jammy doughnut, only it has next to none of those bad fats.... aaaand its gluten free. its magic, I swear.

 

 If the police force got a whiff of this donut goings on, and spied this recipe, They'd get their s.w.o.t team  in on the double to swoop in on this batch of healthified doughnut cakey goods. They taste so good it should be criminal. So arrest me, but don't confiscate my baked goods. please. any thing but that.

 

I burrowed in to the sponge, filled up each cake with jam and popped their hats back on...

 Recipe + Ingredients

• 1/2c oat flour [ground in a blender from oat groats or steel cut oats]
• 1/2c rice flour
• 3T coconut flour
• 1/3csuger substitute like spender granulated sweetener.
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup fat free vanilla / plain yoghurt
• 1t vanilla extract
• 1/2t salt
• 1t baking powder

 Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 180*C +line muffin tin with papers.
2. In a medium sized bowl mix together the oat flour, sweet rice flour, coconut flour, sweetener, salt + baking powder.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and yoghurt.
4. Stir wet into dry, until combined.  Do not over stir.  It will look slightly lumpy.
5. pour or spoon the batter to your pan leaving a little room at the top.
6. Bake for 18-22min.
7. Test with a toothpick for doneness doughyness.  You want a slightly moist toothpick.  Not gooey but not bone dry.  The tops of the donut should be golden brown and it will spring back when you press it lightly.
8. Let them cool in the pan for 5min then turn out onto a cooling rack.
9. when cooled, using a knife cut out the center of the cupcake and spoon in a teaspoon of jam and or butter cream. place 'lid' back on and pipe on swirls vanilla frosting.

For the frosting i use this recipe!

• 2 cups of powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup of no fat cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp non-fat milk

 ohhhh I really want a donut pan now!

Selling Like Hot cakes

Bake n Beebz had our first venture into business yesterday.

 It has long been my dream to make a lil dollar from my hobby. Myself and Mr Bake n Beebz often think of how much we'd love to bake and sell and work at creating our own business... so we decided to give it a test run at a local market.

On Friday although still hobbling on crutches and slightly mental and under the influence from prescription druggies....I joined Costco, for business annnnd pleasure. Not only did I wanna get my trolley loaded up with some bulk American import bargains but to scope out and buy industrial sized bags of flour, sugar and butter for biiiig quanties of cupcake making. Harry pushed me around in a wheel chair whilst I grabbed and sipped refils of cola.

muffin mobile number 2

...Also joined mainly to buy 2kg jars of Skippy PB. yeeeeaaah PB Buddy!

I spent all of Saturday baking and icing until 1.30 am in the morning. after several hurdles and 10 split icing bags... I had baked enough cupcakes to feed/supply a nation of sweet tooth people with pocket fulls of money.

-5am- Sunday morning/night- Mr Bake n Beebz fired up the Muffin mobile and we loaded up the wagon!
-by 7am we had eaten a Mc donalds drive through breakfast and were setting up our stall.

 Honestly, Business was slow as first, a mixture of freezing weather and kinda pikey/cheapy vibe to the market, kinda meant people were tight with their purse strings. I felt a bit disheartened but Mr BnB kept me entertained and we made up some cakey chants and soon enough my cupcakes started to disappear from the stall. In the end we sold over 3/4s of our baked goods, had a lot of fun and made a nice little profit. good day. I've learnt a whole lot and certainly looking forward to our next sale!

 The best part of it all? eating the poor left overs that didnt sell. its a win, win job!

Fudgey healthier brownies (Gluten Free)

Chocolate is for sure the best medicine will mend anything, a broken heart, a broken a toe or a sweet tooth in need. At the rate these chocolate brownies are disappearing my recovery rate will be miraculous.

I have been baking these beany bad boys daily, my favourite way is in the muffin pan for individual bite sized brownies with extra crispy sides and a deep filled fudge like center. Best way Only way is to eat the hot straight outta the pan.

 

Reeeeewind. Im taking us back to my brownie post circa June 2011. Whilst this brownies were good, being a baking perfectionist i wanted to make them better... there now 100% bettererrrr. Still fat free and packed with that good fibre stuff. There now. Decadently fudgey with a proper naughtily should be criminal taste... except they are not reeeeeally a guilty sin they are totes innocent ;) 

 

 IMPROVED HEALTHY GLUTEN FREE FUDGE BROWNIES 

Ingredients

1½ cups canned black beans, rinsed and drained

3tsp cocoa powder

1 egg 

 low fat 1/4 cup yoghurt

1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted

8 tablespoons granulated Splenda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

choice of nutty nibbles and chocolate mix ins (I used white chooclate chips and walnuts)

• Pre Heat oven to 180 degrees C and grease a tin or cupcake pan with spray.
  
• With a blender or in a food processor blend black beans with 1/4 cup of water.
• Add egg white, yoghurt, vanilla and oil. continue to blend well until mixture is smooth and lump free.
• stir in Cocoa powder and sweetener and add fold in chocolate chips and nuts.
• pour mixture into pan and bake for 30 mins.

Gingerbread scones with Maple Glaze. (Gluten Free)

 Christmas is my thing, i live for it... I start my count down in January.

 I'm just a creature who loves the extra trips/ excuses to shop, unwrapping the decorations, cozy cinnemony smells,  the copious sweet indulgent treats and of coarse the presents (mostly receiving them).

 Its turned December the 7th and Im far too excited Already, I'm getting giddy, and i need to calm down...

My Festive baking season has definitely officially begun, and there is no stopping me. I have baked mini fruity GF Christmas cakes for a craft sale over the weekend and These... Ohhh these, they just smell like like Santa Claus well at least what I hope he smells like, I recon he bathes in maple syrup and dowses himself in cinnemon colonge. anyway before this gets creepier/ weirder. Th

These Glazed Gingerbread scones just epitomize all things Christmas, and taste, so comforting.
they are a mix between a sweet spiced gingerbread cookie and a soft fluffy warm scone.  buttered up and drizzled with maple glaze.  they just some how disappear... It must be Christmas magic or something... like my tummy.

225g/8oz Plain GF flour, plus extra for dusting

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp dark brown sugar

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon 

50g cold butter, cut into cubes

1 free-range egg 

75ml skimmed milk or soya 

30g stem ginger and dried cranberries.

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 5.
   
2. Sift the flour,  baking powder ground ginger and cinnamon and add sugar in to a large bowl. Add the butter and Rub into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. make a well in the centre.
   
3. In another bowl, beat together the eggs and milk, reserving a tablespoon of the mixture to use as an egg wash. Add the rest to the flour mixture, along with the sultanas, stirring until the mixture comes together to form a dough. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead briefly (don't over work) until the dough is smooth.
   
4. Gently press the dough out to a thickness of about 2.5cm/1in and cut out shapes of your choice using a cutter. Arrange the scones on a baking tray, spaced slightly apart, and brush the tops with the reserved egg wash.
   
5. Bake the scones for 10-12 minutes, or until golden-brown and risen. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly.
   Whilst cooling, mix together 3 tbsp icing sugar with 1 tbsp of maple syrup.
   
6. To serve, brush each scone with a maple glaze.

Gluten Free butterscotch & white chocolate chip peanut butter cookies

I baked this batch of chew chewieeee delicious healthy cookies the other day, after a week of putting this post on the back burner... these pictures are bringin' back sweet, sweet tooth memories and i'm craving them like a mad woman. A spin on the original choc chip version and the the was the ginger nut... now in the trilogy, of the epic saga that is my cookie recipes I bring you... Butterscotch & white chocolate peanut butter cookies.

Like always these are perfect dunked in to a cold glass full o milk. its hard to believe, ya'll think im saying but they are these are low cal and gluten free... they ain't the prettiest, I agree, but they are so damn tasty... and that what really matters, guys.

 Ingredients

• 1/2 cup oat flour (ground rolled oats!)
• 1/4 cup peanut flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda (not baking powder)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2T white chocolate chips, depending on your preference
• 3 butterscotch hard candies smashed or broken into pieces
• 2T brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sweetner
• 1T peanut butter or pre-melted margarine
• 1T plus 2tsp nondairy milk (feel free to switch proportions of milk and oil) (25g)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix your dry ingredients, then add in wet. Form cookies into discs using your palms on a baking sheet, and bake 6-8 minutes. Take out when still underdone–they’ll continue to cook while cooling, taking them out early this way, means they remain chewy!

What I ate Wednesday...pumpkin packed Halloweeny round up and giveaway!

Whats sup, what I ate Wednesday.

  I'm going for the jugular and hitting ya straight up with my early breakfast, Oatmeal, cinnamon, PB and chopped apple.

Hope you all had a sweet halloween! Mine was pretty chill, stayed in last night with some scary flicks and some treats. no trickin'

 

I spent Halloween night cozied up, I hid from kids and ate my cupcakes...

 Painted my nails...

 pampered in this new pumpkin spice bath product...

 walked that pumpkin pup.

 Me and Mr Bake n Beebz also rolled out to a theme park fright night at the weekend! The theme park was seasonally decorated with giant pumpkins and spooky bits and bobs.

 

It was open late in to the night, thrill seekin' was pretty fun in the dark! It took all my will power to keep a straight face whilst this picture was taken, didnt think a log flume could be so petrifying.

pumpkin and pepsi bobble hat

 Annnnddd back to today... Lunch is served... Beetroot, Feta and spinach sammiched between gluten free brown seedy bread. such a good combo.

snacked on a Nakd banana bread bar and cup of sweet milky hot tea in the staff room. (keep reading on for details of a lil giveaway!)

 

After work came home to some big boxes! yeaaaaah buddy! love letting samples in the mail...

Will review these very soon.

  (ohhhh and for your chance to get your own lil something in the mail enter my giveaway at the bottom of this post...)

After work I whacked on the oven and Roasted up some Pumpkin with nutritional yeast to accompany my dinner. 

 Spinach, chick pea and vegetable curry with chutney and poppadom. nothing beats a crunchy poppadom and saucy spicy hot hot curry.

 

Im in the the mood for pudding so once I hit the post button im gonna run wild and raid my chocolate stash... gawwwwd Wish i had gone trick or treating now for some candy... Do you think they would've given up their sweets to a 23 year old BIG kid?

How was your halloween and what is the bestest thing you have eaten lately? let ya girl know.

As my treat for you this Halloween I am giving away my favourite flavours of these Nakd bars I reviewed earlier in the week...

For your chances of winning just...

1. Follow Bake n Beebz on twitter (button on this page)
2. retweet giveaway... @aliceblairbakes and www.bakenbeebz.blogspot.com is holding a Nakd bar giveaway!
3. Follow the blog
4. and comment below!

good luck, competition closes Friday 4th of November at 5pm.

As ever thank to jenn for hosting this week W.I.A.W!