gluten free ginger bread spread (speculoos a tartiner)

I love speculoos biscuits. I mean, I really really love them! I used to get excited every time I discovered one of those slim, delicately spiced and caramelised biscuits nestled on the saucer almost hidden by my coffee cup. Until quite recently, though, I could only experience that thrill in Europe, not at home in the UK. Now times have changed and I could, if I wanted, buy bulk packs of speculoos in my local cash and carry (though in the UK they are just called caramelised biscuits, or some such). And now of course, even if I wanted to eat them, I couldn't, because they contain wheat.
So, when food blogger and writer David Lebovitz wrote a post on speculoos spread I was envious and intrigued in equal measure. I read the post a couple of times and then carried on as normal ignoring the faint pangs of jealousy growing in the pit of my stomach. Ignoring, that is, until one morning a few days later when the sun was shining, my kitchen was quiet and I, for once in a very long time, actually felt like cooking.
I searched around the internet until I found an ingredients list for the Lotus brand of 'Speculoos a Tartiner'. It made me laugh to read it - 57% crushed biscuits, sugar and vegetable oil to make a sweet smooth spread.  Duh, how obvious!

Somewhere in the depths of my freezer I had a gluten free half batch of David Lebovitz's Chez Panisse Ginger Snap dough which needed to be eaten. I figured that I could mix up some speculoos spices, sprinkle over the dough, knead it in and bake the revised version. This might on be an unorthodox way to make Speculoos but in this case, imperfections don't matter as I am going to grind up them up anyway!
One of my favourite memories of speculoos is the blend of spices mingling with the rich caramel flavour, so I decided that since I was already going to use my food processor to grind the biscuits, I might as well also make some caramel and grind that up to make caramel powder to use instead of sugar. So by 8.10 in the morning I was pouring a cup and a half of nut brown caramel onto my lined baking sheet to cool and preparing my spices to add to the defrosting log of ginger biscuit dough. One day, I may come back to this recipe again and create a proper gluten-free speculoos biscuit from scratch, but for now the buttery spicy dough of David's Chez Panisse ginger snap recipe is definitely delicious enough to satiate my immediate desire for this sweet creamy spicy spread.
I added extra spices to the dough to give a touch of speculoos fragrance to the ginger and cinnamon of the cookie dough.  My mix contained white pepper, coriander, nutmeg, clove, cardamom seeds and anise but you can add or remove spices to suit your palate (or dig out your favourite speculoos recipe and bake those, of course!).   You can of course use shop-bought speculoos biscuits instead but if you do you might need to reduce the caramel powder to 90g as speculoos are a bit sweeter than the ginger biscuits I used.
The spread will go through a strange "Oops, I've failed" phase as you mix it together.  In fact, it looked so odd that I didn't even bother taking photos of the method as I was so sure that it had gone wrong!  But I persevered and I was very glad I did as the crumbly lumpy mess slowly transformed into a smooth creamy spread. 
There is, of course, a flaw in my plan: I have absolutely no idea what the original 'speculoos a tartiner' tastes like so I have nothing to compare my own version to.  I can however confirm that it is delicious: gently spicy, sweet and smooth but with a few crumbs for texture.  If you can resist tasting this for a day or two, you will be rewarded with an even richer, more rounded flavour.
At the end of the day when the teen appeared, I mentioned that I had been messing around the kitchen but got no reaction (that's teenagers for you!) so I was amazed to discover the contents of the jar had almost disappeared the next morning ... I am now mixing up the next batch of cookies, I'll be making two jars this time!

ginger bread spread recipe (to make 1 jar)

ingredients:

• 160g speculoos cookies or ginger snaps (as per details below) 
• 120g ground caramel powder
• 90g sunflower oil (or other neutral oil)
• 60ml water
• 15g nutritional soya lecithin (this will stop the spread separating once mixed & stored in the jar, it is great if you happen to have some but it is by no means essential)
• 15ml lemon juice 
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

method - spread

1. weigh 160g cookies into a food processor and process to a fine-ish powder, make sure there are no chunks left.
2. add 120g powdered caramel (or 90g depending on your taste) and process again to combine.
3. sprinkle in the lecithin (if using) and process again till fully combined.
4. leave the processor mixing and add 1/4 tsp sea salt through the feeder tube.
5. now pour in 90g oil and let the mix process to a rough puree
6. pour in the lemon juice and don't panic when the mix turns into thick pasty lumps, it is OK (promise!)
7. gradually tip in the water watching the mix as it becomes smooth and homogenous. stop adding water when you think you have the consistency you want - if you are using wheat-flour biscuits you may find you need slightly less water than with gluten free.
8. stop the processor and taste the spread, add a little more lemon juice if you like.
9. decant into a sterilised jar and store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

speculoos biscuits:

• a half batch (with extra spices) of David Lebovitz's chez panisse ginger snaps*
• extra spices ground in coffee grinder: 3 white peppercorn, 1 black peppercorn 1 cardamom pod, 2 clove, a good grating of nutmeg, 1/2 star anise.
• if you are making your own biscuits, add the extra spices at the same time as those in the recipe and follow the method as shown.
• * to make the recipe gluten free replace the flour in the recipe with 260g rice flour PLUS 1/2 tsp xanthan gum or use your favourite gluten free mix.

ingredients: caramel powder

• 200g white sugar
• 135g water

method: caramel

1. line a large heavy baking sheet with non-stick baking paper and set aside.
   
2. take a large heavy based saucepan, sprinkle the sugar and water into the pan and it on a gentle heat without stirring.
3. leave the pan on the heat allowing the sugar to dissolve and the syrup to boil gently.
4. keep an eye on the gently boiling syrup as it begins to colour, leaving it until it is a rich middling brown colour.
5. pour the syrup onto a lined baking sheet and leave it to set.
6. once the caramel is cold and set, break it up into small pieces and place them in a food processor.
7. whizz until the caramel becomes a fine yellow powder, then tip out of the processor and store in an airtight jar.

my recipe for apricot & almond snack bars (gluten free, sugar free, high protein)

I posted a recipe for honey and apricot flapjack the other day, but mentioned that I don't eat them as I can't digest oats.  I have been playing around with my own recipes for gluten free bars but I haven't been really satisfied with anything I had made until now!

As a bar goes, these are light, cake-y in texture yet really filling and so very useful as snacks during the day, or to put in lunchboxes.  They are naturally gluten free and sugar free as well as containing no added fat and really high protein levels which will also make them good for pre- or post gym snacks.  They are vegan as long as you use pea or soy protein isolate.  You can find pea protein isolate from Pulsin' in the UK here with superfast delivery, alternatively stores like Holland & Barrett in the UK should stock it.  In the states you buy a non-GMO version here (I haven't ever bought from this company so I can't recommend them).
To some people's tastes these will not be sweet enough without adding some sweetener.  I didn't but it's up to you.  One 45g bar contains 139kcal without using any sweetener in the recipe, that statistic might persuade you to omit it!  Did I mention how filling they are? I ate one for breakfast 4 hours ago and I am still not at all hungry and even better, there is no sugar high or low as this contains protein and slow release carbs instead of sugar.
This recipe is a useful one for people who can't eat xanthan gum.  You can make these using ready-ground seeds and nuts if you have them which will save you time.  I haven't found any sources of freshly ground seeds, so as seed flours turn rancid quickly I still grind my own. 
I have found that buying a coffee grinder has soon paid for itself as seed flour is so much more expensive than raw seeds. Even if you are grinding your own seeds these are still quick to make and you can have these in the oven inside 15 minutes.  The bars will freeze fine and can be popped into a lunch box straight from the freezer.  Not only will they defrost by lunchtime, the chill will keep the rest of your lunch cool!

Apricot and Almond snack bars

Ingredients:

• 200g chopped apricots
• 175g chopped dates or figs (or a mix)
• 175g boiling water
• 150g blanched almonds
• 70g pumpkin seeds
• 60g hemp seeds (de-hulled) or sunflower seeds
• 60g linseeds (flax)
• 50g dried pineapple or mango (or other slightly acidic fruit)
• 30g whey / soy or pea protein isolate
• *honey, agave nectar or sweet freedom (if required)

Equipment:
12" x 9" x 1" baking tray, lined with non-stick paper + coffee grinder or mini chopper + food mixer/processor (or strong arm!) + oven

Method:

• soak the chopped dates in the boiling water in the bowl of your mixer or food processor (if you have one)
• grind the almonds in the coffee grinder to make a fine fluffy flour (do small batches of about 50g at a time to get a fine grind)
• repeat the process with each of the seeds in turn
• finely chop the pineapple or mango
• beat the date and water mixture for 2 mins until you have a thick and slightly aerated paste
• add the vanilla extract & the apricots and mix briefly to combine
• add all the nut & seed flours and protein isolate
• mix to make a thick paste and taste, sweeten if desired (I didn't sweetened mine at all)
• tip into lined baking tin and spread evenly across tin
• bake at 160° C for 30 minutes
• remove from oven, let rest in tin for 10 minutes before lifting out on baking paper and placing on cooling tray
• cut once cold, mine made 20 bars

To store: wrap and store in fridge or freezer (since they are unsweetened they will grow mould if left in a warm environment).  If storing in fridge eat within 7 days.  For frozen bars, wrap well & eat within 3 months.

gluten free scones

A few weeks ago Madalene at the British Larder posted about strawberry scones here.  I read the recipe and enjoyed the prose but thought nothing more of it, apart from yum!  But I woke up this morning with a real craving for scones, maybe it takes that long for the power of suggestion to permeate my brain (I pity advertisers if that is the case!).  So earlier and more enthusiastically than usual, I leapt out of bed and made these for breakfast.

I haven't tasted scones for years, and for some reason I had decided that a gluten free version would be far to difficult to create.  But it isn't, they are really simple and delicious, so here is the recipe for you to try too.

Simple sweet scones

175g rice flour
50g millet flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp psyllium husks (optional)
a pinch of salt
25g butter (room temp)
50g golden castor sugar
150g plain yoghurt
35g milk



Weigh & sieve the dry ingredients together then rub the butter into flour mix.
Sprinkle over the sugar and stir through the flour mix.
Pour on the yoghurt.  At this point I found it easiest to grab a spatula and cut through the mix as though making pastry, not stirring but drawing the sharp edge through the mix as if cutting with a knife.  Continue until you have brought the mix together into clumps, then add the milk and stir the mix until the dough comes together.

Now you can tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it briefly to create a smooth dough.  There aren't many opportunities for gluten free bakers to knead so enjoy it - but don't get too carried away or the scones will end up dry.

Roll the dough out till 1.5cm thick.
Cut out scones around 5cm in diameter, gently roll the leftovers back together and roll again until the dough is all used.  Beware though, that the scones don't like much handling so try to cut out as many as possible in the first go.
Place the scones on flour dusted baking tray and brush with milk to glaze.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 225° C for 8-10 minutes.
Serve warm with butter and jam - enjoy!