Recipe of the Week - Triple Chocolate Muffins {Gluten Free and Dairy Free}

Recipe of the Week seems to have fallen by the wayside a bit in recent months, and as a result I've got a pile of recipes to share building up in my notebook.

It seems fitting that we should get Recipe of the Week up and running again with something suitably chocolatey and decadent sounding.

Muffins are a great weekday treat. They are so quick and easy to make up and a homemade muffin tastes far superior to a shop bought one. Not only that but they are so much cheaper to make than to buy - especially if you are making them free from!

The secret to making muffins is not to over mix the mixture. Just stir the wet and dry ingredients together enough to mix all the dry stuff in. It doesn't matter if the mixture is still lumpy. Over mixing will give you a heavier, chewier muffin.

I've also found that when baking anything chocolate and gluten free it is better to use drinking chocolate rather than cocoa, as cocoa will dry out the cake much more. Obviously be sure to check that the drinking chocolate is a dairy free one if you are baking dairy free too. I use either Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate or Sainsbury's own brand Drinking Chocolate and both are gluten and dairy free. Make sure that you don't use an instant hot chocolate powder instead as these will contain dried milk.

You could substitute dairy free white chocolate buttons for the chopped dairy free white chocolate in these, but the boys prefer the larger chunks that you get when chopping a chocolate bar.

These muffins are amazing when warm from the oven.

So, onto the recipe.

This recipe will make around 16 muffins.

You will need:

Dry Ingredients

9oz gluten free self raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

5oz sugar

4 tbsps dairy free drinking chocolate

2oz dairy free dark chocolate chips

2oz dairy free white chocolate, chopped into smallish chunks

Wet Ingredients

1 egg

9fl oz soya milk

3 fl oz vegetable or sunflower oil

Method:

- Preheat the oven to 200C and line two muffin tins with about 16 muffin cases.

- Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

- Mix all of the wet ingredients together in another bowl.

- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together until all combined, remembering not to over mix.

- Spoon into the muffin cases until they are about 3/4 full.

- Bake for about 20 minutes until they are firm on top.

Recipe of the Week - Quick Chocolate Cupcakes {Wheat Free & Dairy Free}

I've got a bit out of the way of sharing recipes over the last few months, but that doesn't mean that I didn't have any to share, or that I didn't want to keep posting them. I have a list of new free from recipes I'd like to share, plus I still want to re-share some of the older recipes from the early days on my old URL and transfer them to this blog. I'm hoping that this year I'll be able to share recipes most week like I used to, so let's get the ball rolling again with a nice quick recipe.

Last year my kitchen calendar was a Bake Off one, which had a different recipe for each month. Early on in the year there was a recipe for making some speedy cupcakes, and so I thought I would adapt it and try a free from version. It was a huge hit with the boys and is now one of my regular bakes.

It's one of those recipes where you throw everything in together and then mix, so not only is it quick to make, it's also quick to tidy up again afterwards!

If you've seen any of the recipes I've shared in the past you may have noticed that I always said that Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising flour was my go-to free from flour. That was until last spring/summer, when Sainsbury's brought out their own brand Gluten Free Self Raising and Plain Flours and these are my new absolute favourites for free from baking. They contain similar ingredients to the Doves Farm flours, but the Sainsbury's flours don't contain any Buckwheat. Buckwheat flour has quite a strong flavour and although the taste of baking with the Doves Farm flours was very good, there was still a slightly different flavour to all of the bakes when compared to that of wheat flour. The difference in taste between bakes made using the Sainsbury's free from flours and wheat flours is almost impossible to tell. 

I realise this is not very useful information if you don't have a Sainsbury's near you however! I know that Asda have also brought out their own brand of free from flour, and although I have never baked with it, I have tasted something baked by a friend and I would say it is very similar to the Sainsbury's one. As far as I know, and certainly the last time I checked a couple of months ago, Tesco don't have their own brand free from flour, which I'm surprised about given that the other two big stores do. Anyway, if you can get to a Sainsbury's then I highly recommend trying to stock up on their free from flours, but if not then just stick to the Doves Farm one as it is still an amazing alternative.

Now onto the cupcakes at last.

To make them you will need:
140g wheat free self raising flour 40g cocoa powder 200g caster sugar 125ml vegetable oil 175ml oat milk (or other dairy free alternative if you can't have oats) 1 egg, beaten
~Put the flour, cocoa, and sugar into a food processor and pulse a little to mix it all together. ~Measure the oil, oat milk and egg in a jug together and then add to the dry mixture in the food processor. ~Pulse the food processor just until everything has mixed together. Scrape down the sides of the processor to make sure all of the dry ingredients are mixed and then pulse once more, just for a few seconds. You will have a lovely smooth mixture, and it should be runnier than you would normally expect for a cake recipe. ~Pour the mixture into 12 cupcake cases and bake at 180C for around 20 minutes. ~Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack and mix up the icing.
For the simple butter icing you will need:
50g dairy free margarine 150g icing sugar 25g cocoa powder
~Put the margarine in a bowl and beat until soft. You can either do this by hand with a wooden spoon, a handheld mixer, or ideally a free standing mixer so that you can get on with something else at the same time! ~Once the margarine is soft then gradually add the icing sugar and cocoa until you have a nice creamy looking butter icing. ~Once the cupcakes are cool then spread the butter icing on top, or if you are feeling fancy then pipe it on in a nice swirl. 
Now, wasn't that straightforward and quick?

Easy Peasy Easter Treat

It's no secret that we are huge fans of Peppermint Bark in our house. Every December we make at least a couple of trays a week, although it's not all for us to eat. We make some to bag up and give away as presents too.
Since we love it so much, and since the season for making it is so short, last year I had the amazing brainwave - well I thought it was amazing anyway - of adapting it to make an Easter version. I'm pretty sure that I shared the results last year, but it really can do no harm to share something so simple and delicious more than once, can it?
Even those with no baking skills whatsoever can rustle up a tray of this delight.

All you need to do is melt 300g white chocolate and spread in a lined rectangular baking tray. Let it harden in the fridge while you melt 300g milk chocolate and then spread this on top of the white layer. Lightly crush around 100/150g of mini eggs (I had bought one of the large bags and used half of it) and sprinkle over the top of the milk chocolate while warm. Then just let it all set and slice it into squares.

I use supermarket own brand basic/value/savers chocolate that costs 30p for a 100g bar to make this, so this treat is not only delicious but super savvy cost wise too. A whole tray will cost only around £2.80 and would make a lovely Easter gift if packaged up nicely. Much cheaper than an Easter Egg and you get more chocolate in it too! Win, win.

Now, if only I could think of a chocolate bark idea for summer and autumn then we would have one for every season of the year. Although perhaps that might not be such a good idea!