Almond and Raspberry Cake - Gluten and Dairy Free

At the end of September I will find myself in Paris for just a few days. How exciting! That will be my reward for walking The Thames Path, over 250 kilometres. What's on my shopping list? - you might well ask! Handbags, shoes, leather gloves? Not at all! I have a list of the most wonderful food shops, markets and patisseries that I am hoping to visit.

A fabulous food safari to immerse myself in deliciousness (is that a word) and a huge amount of interesting new food combinations. Maybe some truffles, cheese, baguettes and of course pastries and macarons. But until then, it's back to planning and packing and wishing and dreaming.

I have had a request for a gluten and dairy free cake. One that tastes amazing, simple to make yet ticks all the boxes. So here is my recipe. It can be made using frozen or fresh raspberries or blueberries and teems very nicely with vanilla ice cream. 

In this recipe you can use butter instead of the dairy free spread if you wish.

Almond and Coconut Cake with Raspberries
Dairy-Free and Gluten-Free

1 1/2 cups (170g) almond meal
1 1/4 cups (275g) caster sugar
3/4 cup (70g) desiccated coconut
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
200g Nuttelex (or any dairy-free spread), melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries (frozen works perfectly well)

• Preheat oven to 170°C fan forced (350°F), lightly grease a 24cm springform pan and line base and sides with baking paper.

• In a large bowl, stir together almond meal, sugar, and coconut.

• In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla extract until combined. Stir in the melted butter.

• Next add the butter mixture into the almond mixture, stirring until smooth. Don't over stir, just until everything is combined.

• Pour batter into the prepared pan, then dot the raspberries on the top, pushing them slightly into the batter.

• Bake 45 - 50 minutes, until the cake is golden and the top springs back   when you press it lightly.

• Cool in pan for 5 minutes, transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar.

This should make 8 servings

Yeast Fruit Scroll with Basil

Something in a recipe caught my eye; Basil in a yeasty fruit bun - no way!

But I tried it and something went horribly wrong with the recipe and what was suppose to be a soft yeast dough turned into cardboard. I followed the recipe exactly, or so I thought. The taste was pretty good, a little too sweet for my palette but the fruit combined with a hint of basil was fantastic.

I wanted this to turn out well, I had been longing for a very fruity yeast bun and it was not going to get the better of me.

A couple of days later, I decided to try again but this time I combined my own sweet dough recipe and a combination of fruit that I liked and just added the basil and sugar to the base of the dough.

My dough recipe allows you to make it and store it in the fridge for between 3 hrs - 3 days ahead of time and providing it is covered and refrigerated it is still very easy to use even after 3 days.

Oh my goodness, I am in heaven. Here is a doughy, fruity, sticky, basily (if there is such a word) bun you can eat by itself or with cream, ice cream or yoghurt. It won't last long once your friends or neighbours get a whiff of this, so get in first and help yourself to the biggest slice.
And yes, I did use a lot of flour and eggs and fruit, but it was well worth it because the second time around it worked a treat.

1. Yeast Fruit Scroll with Basil

Ingredients

1. Make the dough first because it needs to rest in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours and this will give you time to prepare everything else.

For the  Sweet Dough

1/2 cup of milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
60g butter
1/4 cup warm water
1 tsp dried yeast
1 egg
2 cups plain flour, sifted

Scald the milk in a saucepan over a low flame ( Take the milk temperature to 82º C or 180º F) Take it off the heat and stir in the sugar, salt and butter. Cool to lukewarm.
Measure the warm water and put it into a large bowl which has been warmed. Add the yeast and stir until it is dissolved. Add the lukewarm milk mixture, the beaten egg and half the flour. Beat vigorously until the mixture is smooth and stir in the remaining flour. Add this stage the mixture looks a little ragged, but it should be the consistency of a thick batter. Cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

*Basil Sugar

1/2 cup caster sugar
6 basil leaves

In a pestle and mortar add the sugar and basil leaves, pounding until the leaves and the sugar are well combined and the sugar is green. Set aside.

Filling

zest of 1 lemon
2 tbls lemon juice
4 tbls soft butter
1 cup of fresh or frozen raspberries and blueberries combined
*Basil sugar

Topping
1 cup icing sugar
lemon juice extra

Combine 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, lemon zest and butter with the basil sugar and mix together.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to measure a rectangle about 45 x 35 cms 18 x 14 inches.

Spread the basil sugar over the entire dough area evenly. Then sprinkle the fruit over the dough leaving a small edge clear all the way around. Once you have done this, start to roll up tightly from the long edge, like a swiss roll. Once you have done this pinch the seam to seal it.  Then place in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm it up.

Using a sharp serrated knife cut it into about 10 even pieces and place in a small pie dish or sandwich tin which has been greased. At this point, it may feel a little strange cutting up the dough and if the filling seems to be seeping out, don't worry because it will leave a lovely jammy kind of crust.

Bake in a preheated oven, 180º  fan forced / 375º and bake for 20 - 25 minutes

Leave it in the tin to cool and then add the icing.

Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice until it is creamy and runny and drizzle on the cool scroll.

Then, take out a slice for yourself before anyone else gets the hint that you have made it. Prepare for the rush of people wanting to taste it.

Fast Lemon Cheesecake

I think lemons are the most amazingly versatile fruit. Do you agree? Can you think of another fruit that you can use in so many different ways?

This is the first time for many years that I do not have my own lemon tree and I get quite cross when I see how much one lemon costs in the shops, when you are sure that there are lemon trees in the neighbourhood that have unwanted fruit. (I just have to find them) I probably used 4 or 5 lemons a week, either for their zest or juice, so if I can find a local supply, I would be happy to swap something from my garden for a few extra lemons.

Lemon Festival at Monterosso al Mare, Italy

The annual Lemon Festival in Italy, usually in May is quite small and is very localised. All the shops and businesses in town decorate their places with lemons and sprays of lemon flowers and anything yellow they can get their hands on. It is very nice to visit at this time because everyone is happy, the weather is excellent and the streets are adorned in yellow and the smell of the lemon blossoms is superb.

In France there is an annual Lemon Festival, Fête du Citron, in a town called Menton in the Alpes-Maritimes. They have been growing citrus since 15th century and the festival now attracts visitors from around the world. It's on my bucket list!

A couple of days ago I needed a quick dessert which my guests would love so I decided to make this Lemon Cheesecake. It is quite straight forward. Basically you can buy everything and just assemble it and everyone who has tasted it loves it. However, if you want to make it that bit special, make your own Lemon Curd.

(I will post the recipe for the Lemon Curd later in the week)

I have great childhood memories of thick slices of bread and butter with a topping of sticky, yellow, sweet lemon curd. It was a real treat then, now it's a reminder of my family back in the UK and how it used to be. So, before I shed a nostalgic tear, let's get back to the recipe.

Fast Lemon Cheesecake

You will need 4 glass tumblers or something similar for this recipe.

Ingredients - Makes 4

1 Tub of Mascarpone Cheese
1 tblsp caster sugar
Jar of lemon curd either bought or home made
10 ginger biscuits or digestive biscuits
100g unsalted butter
50 grams of blanched almonds or macadamias
1 tsp vanilla essence
Punnet of raspberries or strawberries fresh or frozen
Chocolate to make shavings 

1. Smash up the biscuits and the nuts together either using a rolling pin or a mortar and pestle. Don't make them too fine because you want to retain some texture.
2. Melt butter in small saucepan and add the nuts, vanilla essence and biscuit crumbs. Mix well and divide this between your glasses. This is the base of your cheese cake.
3. Sprinkle raspberries or chopped strawberries on to the biscuit crumbs.
4. Add 4 tablespoons of thick, delicious Lemon Curd.
5. In a small bowl mix caster sugar, Mascarpone and place a good swirl on top of the curd.  Level it so it looks nice and neat.
6. Grate Chocolate and sprinkle over the Mascarpone, or make some shards of     chocolate.
7. Keep in the fridge until you are ready to serve. You don't need to serve anything else with because it is rich and sweet enough.

If your guests don't say that they would like some more I would be very surprised!

Here's one I prepared earlier