With Easter approaching we will all be thinking of things we can serve our family and guests. Something light and the end of a meal is ideal. This slice is gluten free and easy to make and tastes wonderful. You could serve it with ice cream or cream and some fresh passion fruit pulp.

Recipe

Pear, Banana, Passion fruit Slice with Coconut Icing

Serves 6-8

You will need:

125g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup plain gluten free flour, sifted

2 small pears cut into small pieces with skin off

1 cup of almond meal
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup sultanas
1 cup of mashed banana
1/3 cup desiccated coconut

Icing Recipe

100g vanilla-flavoured yoghurt

1 cup of pure icing sugar Gluten free

1 cup coconut
1/2 cup passion fruit pulp

Preheat oven to 160ºC.
Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer and beat until pale and creamy.
Gradually add the eggs and beat well.
Add the flour,almond meal, cinnamon, sultanas, banana, pears and coconut and stir to combine.
Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased 20cm x 30cm tin lightly lined with non-stick baking paper.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
Allow to cool in the tin.

For the Icing

Combine yoghurt, passion fruit, icing sugar and coconut and spread generously over the top
You can serve with ice cream and passion fruit pulp if you like

2 Comments | In: Desserts, Gluten Free | | #

I had dinner last night with some foodie friends from Brisbane. We enjoyed a great evening at Spring in Brisbane, it is a new place on Felix Street in the city. It is also where I am giving a cooking lesson with Lizzie Loel on Feb 16th. We will be having loads of fun combining decadent chocolate and berries. If you would like to join us, here is the link to Springcooking school.

Anyway last night we had two young men join us who are vegans.  James and Matt opened my eyes to other possibilities when cooking. I am always learning something from them. Although being a vegan is not something I am willing to embrace every day, today’s post is with vegans in mind. A delicious healthy salad that is gluten free and vegan. The dukka is with pistachio and I purchased mine from Table of Plenty, however you can make your own if you like. Puppadoms, for those of you who are unfamiliar with them, are a crispy Indian kind of chip. You simply put it in the microwave and it becomes crispy.

Recipe for Summer Salad with Dukka and Puppodums

Indgredients

A packet of puppodums

4 sticks of celery

2 spring onions

1 nectarine

1 apple

1/2 cup of salted hazelnuts and almonds

1/2 cup of chopped leaves from celery

1 Lebanese cucumber

2 carrots finely grated or put through your food processor.

Dressing

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
• 1 clove crushed garlic
• 3 tablespoons of dukka
• 1 pinch salt
• ground black pepper to taste

Method

Chop all the vegetable and fruit ingredients into little cubes around the same size. Place in a large bowl. Add processed carrots and mix well. Then chop the celery leaves and add to salad. Lastly add the nuts and toss to the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Place Puppodums in the microwave and for 40 t0 60 seconds until crispy. Break these into bite size pieces and place around the edge of bowl.

Then mix dressing ingredients together and serve in a jug to be poured on at the table with spare puppodums to add to salad as you please.

I hope you enjoy this healthy salad.

No Comments | In: Gluten Free, Other Delights, Salads, Vegan | | #

With a return to summer in Queensland comes a change of menu. Summer lends itself to light, cool, fresh food. I have been preparing a lot more salads for dinner using the barbeque to grill fish and now I have made a delicious white chocolate panna cotta with berries for a dessert. The colours are amazing! The taste.. pure decadence.

I made eight vessels of different shapes full of panna cotta and I could eat them all. Some people like to reverse the panna cotta on to a plate and serve it that way. However it is fraught with danger when trying to reverse them just before giving to your guests. If you are after a less stressful night of entertaining just pour the mixture into a lovely glass, or anything you think looks good. This recipe is very easy, you just need to allow a little time for the panna cotta to set. You can use frozen or fresh berries. Always use gelatine leaves as I think they are the only gelatine you can rely on.

Also if you look down the right hand side of my blog you can see that I have added a Bloglovin widget. This means that you can fill in your details and then you will receive an update every time I post something new. I hope you will join.

Recipe

Ingredients

White Chocolate Panna Cotta

2 Comments | In: Desserts, Gluten Free | | #