American Bacon Pancakes (D-F)

When I didn't have to avoid dairy, I made these every weekend, but when I had to stop eating dairy I thought it unlikely that I'd ever get to eat these again.

Last week, I whipped up these pancakes for my housemates and I, and who knew one could be full from three pancakes?

I made double the quantity which fed seven:

270g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

4 tbsp caster sugar

260ml soy or almond milk

2 large eggs

4 tbsp Pure spread

1 pack of bacon

 Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, then add the milk and the eggs.

Then melt a lump of Pure in the microwave and measure out 4 tbsp, Hilary found this in ASDA and it's definatley the best butter replacement that I've found. She's made lots of cakes for me with it and they taste even better than usual.

Plus, it makes exceptionally good buttercream.

Mix that in and keep mixing until it's all smooth.

Whilst that's going on you can be cooking your bacon.

Welcome to my student kitchen..

Once the batter is ready, and the bacon is sizzled, heat up a pan.

Lay a strip of bacon in the pan and pour over a ladle of batter.

I know that bacon and pancakes might seem like a weird combination initially, but they're SO good.

Drizzle with honey or maple syrup and tuck in.

 

Apple Kuchen (D-F)

"Oh my goodness, this is delicious Charlotte!" is always a promising response to get from your mother when you try and bake something new, I told you about the brownies H made for us when we went round, in my post before last, but I didn't tell you as much as I should have about the second pudding, kuchen.

It's sort of a extra special, extra large hot cross bun.
Heavenly soft dough, dotted with raisins, topped with crunchy sugar encrusted apples.
It's amazing, and you'll love it.

Use any hot cross bun dough, I used this dairy free one:

180ml soy milk

5 1/2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons caster sugar

2x 7g sachets yeast

80g raisins

2 large eggs, beaten

1 egg white

405g strong white bread flour

Topping, taken from Nigella:

1 large egg, beaten

a grating of nutmeg, I added about 1cm grated nutmeg

2 granny smith apples, peeled and chopped into 2cm chunks

1 tablespoon demerera sugar

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon allspice

Icing:

75g icing sugar

1 tablespoon hot water

Oven: 180C

Combine the soy milk, honey and sugar in a saucepan over low heat so that it's just warmed and has combined completely.

Pour it into a bowl, add the yeast and allow it to rest for 5 mins or until bubbles form on the surface.

Mix in the eggs and add the flour and raisins slowly, a bit at a time.

Knead the dough until it becomes elastic.

Let the dough rise in a warm place for 30 mins, knead again (knock it back), transfer it to the tin you want to bake it in, I suggest a roasting tin, and allow it to rise for another half an hour, if you want to do it overnight, clingfilm it, then put it in the fridge overnight and take it out an hour before you want to use it.

To make the all important topping, beat a large egg mixed with the nutmeg and brush the dough with it.

Scatter the chopped apples, sprinkle the sugars and allspice.

Bake for 15 mins at 200C then at 180C for another 15.

When it comes out, drizzle with the icing for extra deliciousness!

I made this for when my Godmother, mum and Josh took me up to uni as a road trip snack, Josh and I positioned ourselves well so that we had it in the middle of us.

It turned out that everyone goes the same way to Canterbury Christchurch, on the same day, so this meant traffic, which meant bored kuchen photos...

Then we battled it out on candy crush.

Best Ever Brownies (D-F)

I know that I've sung my avocado brownies from every rooftop, and won't shut up about them, but I may have found something better (I have)

A little while ago my mum and I popped over to our friend's for dinner. She cooked us an amazing meal, lamb tagine with apricot and black olive cous cous, I was in absolute heaven.

Then she brought out pudding. Apple Kuchen (oh my goodness!) and brownies.
Now, I've had my fair share of brownies, toffee brownies, peanut & cake batter brownies, oozy brownies, brownies made with avocado, slutty brownies, cakey brownies, raspberry and white chocolate brownies and ooey gooey ones, but this was the best brownie I have ever had.

Just as I thought it couldn't get better, H announced that they were dairy free.

After bugging her daughter for days, E finally gave me the recipe, I tweaked it a bit after doing some googling and calculations (confusing to say the least) so that it only contained dark chocolate (check the allergens to make sure there's no milk!) so there was no way anyone could go wrong with it.

I can't get across how good these are so whack on the oven to 180C

125g dark chocolate

150g prunes, pureed

200g soft light brown sugar

3 egg whites

1tsp vanilla essence

65g plain flour

First weigh and puree your prunes, once they're pureed, have an open mind because they'll taste delicious.

Mix the pureed prunes into the soft brown sugar, the add the vanilla.

Weigh and melt your chocolate,

Then add the prune mixture to the chocolate and stir until smooth and silky.

Finally, sift in the flour, add a few handful of nuts if you wish then pour into a 6inch square tin and bake for 1 hour or until firm to touch.

After you've waited for that cruel hour to pass, whip them out and let them cool in the tray, when they've solidified a little, cut them up and gorge yourself, after that long hour of waiting, you deserve it.

I thought this was especially fitting after the most recent GBBO episode!

I made these for a girlie sleepover with two of my best girlies before we headed off to uni and Ellie headed off to Australia, snuggled in duvets, watching classic films and eating so much we were groaning and holding our tummies!

The prunes in these make these deliciously rich, moist and fudgey, they tick all of my brownie boxes, the only thing they don't do is tap dance!

Just look at Wispy asking..