Drop scones (scotch pancakes)

These are like scotch pancakes; yummy! DD enjoyed them stacked up with lemon juice and agave syrup, while DH liked them spread with chocolate icing. I always thought it was women who were chocoholics; but not in this house it would seem...

Drop Scones

Ingredients

• 8oz plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• pinch salt
• 1 tbsp fructose
• 2 small eggs
• around 1/4 pint milk

Method

• Mix all the dry ingredients together
• Beat in the 2 eggs and enough milk to make a smooth batter
• Drop tablespoons of the mix onto a hot frying pan
• When bubbles appear on the one side, flip them over and cook the other side

We decided these would benefit from some lemon rind and raisins too and they were really nice served warm with butter and strawberry jam.

This is what they look like just before you flip them over:

Sugar free Lemon fairy cakes with chocolate icing

As something a bit lighter to fudgy chocolate Birthday cake last week, I also made lemon fairy cakes and experimented with some icing. I've found it quite hard to make icing in the past without sugar in it.

I think it's safe to say I have surpassed myself this time as DH asked me four times whether I had written this down and could replicate it in the future! He seemed quite sad when he licked the final offering from the bowl!. It doesn't look the prettiest thing in the world, but then neither does anything once it hits your stomach ;)

Lemon fairy cakes with chocolate icing

Ingredients

• 150g butter
• 100g fructose
• 2 large eggs
• 150g plain flour
• 72g rice or cornflour
• 17g baking powder
• grated rind of 2 lemons
• enough milk to make a dropping consistency
• For the icing: 100g soft butter
• 100g set honey
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 200g cream cheese

Method

• Cream the butter and fructose
• Add the eggs and beat well
• Add the flours, baking powder, lemon rind and mix well
• Add enough milk to make a dropping consistency
• Divide the mix into fairy cake cases - makes about 20
• Bake at 180 for 12 minutes (in my fan oven)
• Cool on a rack
• To make the icing: beat all the ingredients together and spread on the cakes

The icing can seem quite runny, but it gradually dries out and becomes firmer. If it's a hot day, put the icing in the 'fridge for a while before attempting to spread on the cakes otherwise it's more like a sauce!

Sugar free chocolate fudge cake recipe

There's been a Birthday girl in the house his week! And she requested chocolate Birthday cake. This couldn't be simpler really; it's just a Victoria sponge with cocoa powder and I made the icing from Holex sugar free chocolate as follows:
Ingredients

• For the cake: 6oz soft butter
• 4 1/2 oz fructose
• 3 beaten eggs
• 6 oz Self Raising flour
• 1 oz cocoa powder
• For the icing: 100gm bar sugar free chocolate
• 100mls double cream
• 2oz butter (optional)
  

Method

• Cream together the fructose and butter until creamy
• Whisk in the beaten eggs until you have a batter-type consistency
• Stir in the flour and cocoa powder and mix well
  
• Put into two round greased tins and bake for 22 minutes (that's in my fan oven) until risen
• Remove from oven, leave to cool for a while and turn onto a cooling rack
• Once the cake is cold make the icing:
• In a bain marie (a bowl over a pan of simmering water to me and you) melt the bar of sugar free chocolate (I find Plamil sugar free is the most successful, but didn't have any in the house so used Holex) with the double cream and add butter to stabilise it if you're worried the chocolate will separate.
• The secret is to let is SLOWLY melt; keep it over a gentle heat and be patient!
• Spread between the layers and over the top
• Make it a day or two in advance and by the time you eat it, it will be deliciously rich and fudgy.

Custard creams

One of DD's favourite shop bought biscuits is custard creams. So I tried to find a recipe to make my own. Yes the photo looks like a cake, but I promise you it's a biscuit!

I have to admit, these were really fiddly, a bit too fiddly for my liking and as DD didn't rave about them, I won't make them again.

However, you might like them and be prepared to be a little more Nigella Lawson than I, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you!

I did discover how to make butter icing using fructose, so I'm really pleased about that. The first lot I ever made never set properly; it went all oily, but this was perfect and I've since used it in a Victoria sandwich.

Sugar free custard creams (makes 12)

Ingredients

Ingredients for biscuits

• 40gms fructose
• 150gms butter
• 2 tbsp custard powder
• 165 gms flour

Ingredients for butter icing

• 80gms butter
• 60gms fructose - powdered in a blender
• 2 tbsp custard powder
  

Method

• Make the biscuit dough first:
  Cream together the butter and fructose until blended and soft
• Add the custard powder and flour and mix into a dough
• Roll out onto a lightly floured surface and cut into 24 identical shapes
  
• Bake at 170 for 15 minutes until golden

Make the icing sugar

• Soften the butter with a fork
• Blend the fructose in a blender or mortar and pestle until fine - it won't get as fine as icing sugar, but make it as fine as you can.
• Add the custard powder and mix everything together with a fork until blended and with a 'butter icing' consistency.

Once the biscuits are completely cooled, spread with icing sugar and sandwich them together to make 12 biscuits. The biscuits are pretty crumbly so you need to be gentle! I also found there was too much icing, so you might have some left over.

A sugar free Solstice / Christmas

We're celebrating Yule tomorrow instead of Christmas, so maybe you're wondering how you enjoy the festivities without refined sugar.

The shops are full of mince pies, chocolates, nibbly things and sauces, all chock full of sugar (not to mention the other nasties).

Here's the menu for my daughter for tomorrow - she's so excited as she chose it all herself!

Starter

Egg mayonnaise with salmon and melba toast

Main

Turkey
Roast potatoes
broccoli
carrots
mashed swede
gravy

Apple juice and fizzy water to drink

Pudding

Choice of:

Christmas pudding
Baked chocolate cheesecake
Profiteroles

Darling daughter has also been busy making cones to hang on our tree which are full of sugar-free sweets and chocolates for her to nibble on. Along with Cheese and biscuits and vegetable crisps to pick at in the evening I don't think she is going to go hungry or feel deprived; do you?

If you want any specific recipes, drop me a comment and let me know! Have a wonderful celebration yourself; let me know what you're eating; I always love to be inspired by other people's menus.

Lavender biscuits

I've been asked for this recipe several times. I've got an octogenarian friend who loves these and I make them every Christmas for her as a special treat. They remind her of her childhood when her Mum used to make anything and everything with lavender.

This biscuit recipe is fab - it uses minimal and frugal ingredients and is adaptable to your favourite flavour. You can substitute the lavender for grated lemon peel, spices, chocolate chips, vanilla - you name it, if you can dream it up, then try it!

I've listed the recipe using fructose, because that is what we use at home, but if you want to use regular sugar instead, use 2 oz caster sugar.

Ingredients

• 4 oz butter
• 1 - 1 1/2 oz fructose
• 6 0z plain flour
• 1 tbsp dried lavender
  

Method

• Cream the butter and fructose
• Stir in the flour and lavender and keep mixing until it forms a dough (You might need to use your hands for the last bit)
• Knead for a moment then roll the dough into a ball and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes
• Preheat oven to 200
• Roll out and cut into shapes
• Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes until just beginning to brown.
  

A decadent breakfast!

The other day, DD woke up in 'one of those moods'. It had been raining for ever, we were all fed up before the day had even begun and she needed something lovely for breakfast.

She asked me for something 'different', 'something with chocolate' she requested with big brown eyes looking into mine.

'Something like you'd give me if it was my Birthday'.

How could I resist - we all need comfort food on a grey day.

So here's what I did. I have a bit of a Mum thing about wanting her to eat fruit for breakfast as a healthy start to the day, so I layered some vanilla ice cream ( I make my own using agave syrup) and sliced banana and toasted some oats in melted butter to layer in between the fruit and ice cream.

Then I topped it off with a couple of squares of sugar free chocolate, a dusting of cocoa powder and a squirt of agave syrup.

It didn't look pretty in the glass, but my daughter's face was a pretty picture and by the time she got to the bottom, she had a lovely gooey chocolatey, vanilla cream to scoop out!