Cinnamon Swirl Muffins

I have to admit I was somewhat skeptical when I saw the recipe for these. A muffin, that doesn't contain flour? Surely it would be either very heavy, or very non-muffin like?
But, curiosity getting the better of me (that and a need for low-carb goodies) I decided to make a batch using xylitol. They didn't last long. I would even go as far as saying that they were better than a normal muffin. Make them and revel in their glorious goodness!

2 1/2 c. ground almonds aka almond meal
1tbsp coconut flour
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2c milk (I used raw milk, but you could also use coconut milk)
1/2 c. honey or 1/4c xylitol of you are avoiding all forms of sugar

Topping


2tbsp honey
1tbsp ground cinnamon
1tbsp melted butter or coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 180deg c.
Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the wet ingredients and mix well.
Pour into a 12 hole muffin tin, or 24 hole mini muffin tin (they are quite filling, so if you are making them for children, the mini muffins are probably big enough).
Mix the topping ingredients together and drizzle over the top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool before scoffing the lot!

Biscuits for icing/sandwiching

This is the recipe I always turn to at Christmas to make our iced 'Christmas tree biscuits'. As it is relatively low in sugar, it can cope with any amount of icing or jam the children load onto it.
I substitute stevia for sugar too. Even with the icing, that makes it just a teaspoonful of sugar or less per biscuit depending on the size. (Using a pear or grape juice based conserve to sandwich them together instead of jam will also reduce the sugar levels, or use my sugar free butter cream recipe)

125g butter
60g sugar*
1/2tsp vanilla extract
220g plain flour**
1 egg, beaten
30g cornflour
1/2 tsp baking powder

royal icing for decorating, or butter-cream and/or jam to sandwich together

Preheat the oven to 180deg c. Butter several baking sheets.
Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
Sieve flour, cornflour and baking powder together, and mix in with a spoon. Work into a soft dough using your hand.
Roll out on a floured board and cut into shapes.
Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the baking sheets and cool on a wire cooling rack.
Once fully cold, they can be iced using royal icing, or sandwiched together with butter cream and/or jam.

*If you prefer, omit the sugar and replace with 60g xylitol, or 1/4tsp stevia powder.
**If you are eating a wheat-free diet, Spelt flour can be used as a replacement.

There is no limit to what you can do with these beauties. If you have a biscuit cutter collection to rival Nigella Lawson's, then you will have a heaps of inspiration, but here's a few more suggestions:

• Cut half with a circular cutter, and half with a ring cutter. Sandwich them together with one of the following:

                  Jam
                  chocolate ganache
                  icing flavoured with lemon or lime
                  vanilla, chocolate or orange butter-cream (especially good if you cover the top with chocolate!)

• Cut the dough into rectangles, cutting three holes in to half of them with a mini circular cutter. Fill with three different coloured jams to make traffic light biscuits for the kids.
• make a chocolate biscuit dough by sieving 30g of cocoa into the flour, and cover the baked biscuits with chocolate
• cut out mini circular biscuits. Once cold, dip into milk, dark or white chocolate using a chocolate dipper.
• Let the kids go wild with an assortment of cutters, icing and decorations

Sugar free butter cream

This is my standard butter cream recipe that I now use. Based on a german butter cream, a thick 'custard' is made first, which needs to be chilled before whisking in the butter. Occasionally, t can be a bit tricky to get the temperature right. You are basically making an emulsion of fat and liquid, so if the custard is too warm, or the butter too cold they will not blend well and the butter cream will separate (curdle). Likewise, if it is too cold, the butter will harden and you will see flecks of butter in the mixture. Both problems are easily remedied by standing the butter cream above a bowl of hot water, or standing it in a bowl of cold water depending on which problem you have encountered. It is less cloying than the usual 'butter and icing sugar' blend, with a creamy texture, so persevere. It is worth it!


1tbsp cornflour
1/2c milk (or use 1/4c coconut milk and 1/4 c rice milk if you are dairy free)
125g butter, softened
1/3c xylitol or 1/8-1/4tsp stevia powder
2tsp vanilla extract

Blend the cornflour and milk together. Heat in a pan, stirring continuously, until thick.
Spoon into a bowl, cool to room temperature then refrigerate.

Once the thickened milk is completely cold, whisk in the xylitol and vanilla extract. (An electric stick blender is handy for this) gradually add the softened butter until it is smooth and slightly fluffy.

The butter cream can be flavoured with 2-3 tbsp of fruit puree, or the vanilla can be omitted and 1-2tbsp of cocoa powder blended into the cornflour before the milk is added.

Crustless quiche

In our efforts to eat a more traditional diet, I have been searching for low-carbohydrate, nutritionally dense foods for lunch boxes.
This crust-less quiche fits the bill perfectly. Quick and easy to make, it freezes well too, so can be made in bulk as a stand by. 

Crust-less Quiche

small tub cottage cheese, or cream cheese
3 eggs (2 if large)
small onion, finely diced
vegetables, optional (sweetcorn, broccoli and tomatoes work well)
meat, optional

Beat cheese and eggs together until well mixed.
Place vegetables and meat into a greased flan tin or other oven-proof dish, pour over the cheese and egg mixture and bake at 200 deg. C. for 40 minutes until centre is springy to the touch

Gala palaver

During my BC (before children) days, I used to dream about all the wonderful cakes that I would whip up in an instant for the school gala's cake stall once I became 'super-mum'. I envisaged row upon row of pretty cupcakes, tooth-achingly sweet caramel shortbread, old-fashioned battenbergs and seasonal sweet treats. There'd be mince pies for Christmas galas, bird-nest cakes for Easter, and ghostly biscuits for Halloween.

Oh how different reality is!

9pm two days before the kindergarten gala, I caught sight of the two empty paper plates sitting on the kitchen bench as I reached for a reviving cup of tea. Aggh! I hadn't made anything! Suddenly, all those wonderful ideas I had were no longer appealing. I needed to make something that I could do on autopilot, wouldn't stick to the glad-wrap covering, and was just a little bit different from the mountains of chocolate cakes and banana loaves that are usually offered at such events.

Having a penchant for biscuits, and with Easter coming up, I ignored the impending bedtime and decided to make Easter chick biscuits.The good thing with these type of biscuits, is that the dough works very well with Stevia, instead of sugar, so you can have an iced biscuit, safe in the knowledge that it will as likely as not, have less than a teaspoon of sugar in it all told.

I have yet to supply any school or kindy cake stall with the type of baking that I had expected to do. Maybe one day, in an energetic moment, I should have a bake-athon and freeze it in anticipation of the next gala?

Raw Meaty Bones

It would appear that I have a feline companion on my journey along the culinary road.
It all started a few weeks ago, when we noticed she was gaining weight whilst eating the recommended amount of a commercial brand of cat food. We had restricted her intake, but she seemed hungry as well as overweight.
A quick search on google, and I found that commercial cat food is loaded with carbohydrates; mainly corn.

Excuse me. Corn? Since when has a cat naturally eaten corn?
Given that most weight gain in humans is down to too much carbohydrate, I could appreciate that our family pet was putting on the grams on this food.
So, armed with little more than a logical mind and the information on the wonderfully helpful  Raw Meaty Bones website, I started to introduce raw meat into her diet.

Initially, we just gave her a little diced chicken mixed with her usual food, then slowly we decreased the amount of commercial food, and increased the chicken until she was eating just the raw chicken meat. To ensure she received all the nutrients she needed, we started to add salmon meat and bones, and offal. Soon, I'm hoping she will be eating whole pieces of chicken such as wings, neck and thighs, then we can start to offer whole pieces of rabbit. A much more natural diet than corn biscuits and mush!

I think she would still prefer the commercial food given chance, but she is loosing the excess weight, and seems to be a happy and healthier cat.