Peanut butter flapjack

As a peanut butter lover, I am always looking for new recipes where I can use it. This one strikes the perfect balance between the sweet notes from the banana and syrup, with salty additions from the peanut butter, nuts and seeds.

The ingredients are flexible to what you have available or the flavours that you prefer, there are many different combinations of syrups, nuts, fruits, etc that you could use to make these bars unique.

One thing that I love about this recipe is how it uses up a banana, which is perfect for those spotty bananas sitting in the fruit bowl. These bars also happen to be gluten-free and vegan, which makes them perfect for catering towards friends or family members with an allergy, preference or multiple allergies.

They make a great snack or breakfast option, and could be served with additions such as yoghurt, jam or on top of a smoothie for an at-home smoothie bowl to add some fun variation to your weekly meals and snacks.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 tbsp Syrup (I use date syrup)

4 tbsp Peanut butter (I use crunchy)

4 tbsp Coconut oil, Melted

1 Mashed banana

2 Cups of gluten-free oats

1/2 Cup ground seeds

3/4 Cup almonds, roughly chopped

2 tbsp Cocoa nibs

1/2 Cup dried fruit (I used blueberries)

Method:

1- Preheat your oven to 180 °C fan and grease a square pan (I use a brownie pan) with coconut oil and greaseproof paper.

2- Put your peanut butter in the microwave for 40 seconds in a microwave-safe dish and add this to a large mixing bowl.

3-Add the syrup, coconut oil and mashed banana to the bowl and whisk until combined.

4- Add the oats, almonds, ground seeds, cocoa nibs and dried fruit to the bowl and mix until coated.

5- Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and flatten down with and spoon or a fork until evenly flat on top, bake it in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

6- Leave to cool, slice and enjoy!

If you want to see what I've been baking recently, head over to my Instagram @rubysgfkitchen.

Happy Baking,

Ruby x

Carrot and walnut cake

Do you love carrot cake? Do you love walnuts? Well, this might just be the perfect recipe for you. It's a versatile and easy take on the traditional carrot cake. Being gluten-free and vegan, this is a great one to bake when you're trying to cater for people with lots of different allergies or preferences.

The carrots and raisins add moisture to the cake to negate that crumbly texture that can be present in many gluten-free cakes. The mix of fruit juice and spices in the cake strikes a lovely flavour balance.

This cake can be enjoyed in many different ways, I like to warm mine up and top it with almond butter. It could also be served topped with the recommended cashew icing for an easy dessert, or it could also be topped with cream, jam or yoghurt with a sprinkle of granola for an easy breakfast.

I love this one as a good way to use up leftover carrots, and the flavour profile can be easily changed to suit your preferences or available ingredients. You could choose to use a different mix of nuts, juice, spices, or syrup to cater it to what you enjoy.

Recipe

Ingredients

Cake

2 Medium carrots

190g Walnuts

250g Self-raising flour

1/2 tbsp Baking powder

90g Coconut Sugar

3 tbsp Fruit Juice (I use Lemon)

1/2 tsp Ginger

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Mixed spice

A pinch of salt

50g Ground almonds

120g Oil (I used coconut)

85g Raisins

1/4 cup Syrup (I use date syrup)

Iceing

130g Cashews

85g Raisins

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 tsp Salt

A splash of fruit juice (I use orange)

2 tablespoons almond butter

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 °C fan and line a tin (I use a square brownie tin, but a loaf or circular cake tin would also work) with baking paper.

2. Put the juice, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice and raisins in a bowl and mix.

3. Next, grate the carrots and place them in a separate bowl with the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, salt and coconut sugar.

4. Chop your nuts, add them to the bowl and stir these ingredients together.

5. Next, stir in your coconut oil, syrup and spice mix.

6. Pour the mixture into your tin and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

7. For the icing: Put the raisins and cashews into a bowl of boiling water and let them sit for 10 minutes.

8. Add the cashews, raisins, juice, salt, almond butter and vanilla to a food processor and blend until smooth.

9. Once the cake is cool, spread the icing over, cut into slices and enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed reading, you can see what I've been baking recently on my Instagram page @rubysgfkitchen.

Happy Baking,

Ruby x

S'mores mini cheesecakes!

Do you love smores? Are you a cheesecake conosoiur? Are you in need of a colder dessert compared to the typical campfire smore? Well this might be your perfect recipe. A full guide to makeing the best gluten free smores inspired mini cheesecakes. There perfect for if you live alone and don't want to make one whole cheesecake but are still in need of that cheesecake fix. This one has a hard choclate shell topping with a thick and creamy filling amd crunchy and buttery biscuit base. You also have the option of decorateing the cheesecakes however you want to, you could add coulerful sprinkles, choclate chips or extra mini marshmallows.

These are also great as they need minimul ingredients so wether you have some left over digestive biscuits to use up or some cream cheese that you dont know that to do with, this is the perfect recipe for you! Here are the answers to a few questions that you might have in apprehention to trying this recipe:

Is this recipe gluten free?

Yes off course! This as well as all of my other recipes are gluten free, it uses gluten free digestive biscuits which you can buy at many different supermarkets or make yourself if you are feeling creative.

Is this recipe dairy free?

It is not orignally dairy free and I have not tried it that way but some simple switches could be made to adapt it to be dairy free if that is needed. The milk could be swapped for a substitute like almound milk, the double cream needs to be switched for a dairy free alternative as well as the cream cheese and the butter. You would also need to make sure you use dark choclate for the topping.

Is this recipe vegan?

To make this recipe vegan you would need to do all the dairy free substitues as well as switch the mini marshmallows for a vegan mini marshmallows.

Does this recipe need any special equitment?

No, I use a electric whisk for the filling and the cream plus some small glass pots for the cheesecakes, I used pots from left over shop bought mini desserts.

Can I adapt the recipe to my taste?

Yes, you can add different toppings to make different variables on the cheesecakes. As well as this you could experiment with the type of biscuits that you use as well as the type of chocolate.

If you have any other questions about this recipe please let me know over on my instagram @rubysgfkitchen! Anyway here is the recipe...

Ingredients

50 ml Milk

100g Mini marshmellows

2 tsp Lime juice

100 ml Double cream

125g Cream cheese

115g Digestive biscuits

50g Butter, melted

100g Milk\dark chocolate

Method

1- Place the digestive biscuits in a sealable plastic bag and bash with a wooden smooth until fine, and then mix with the melted butter in a bowl. Press the mix into your greased small ceramic pots ( see photo above for the size of the ones that I use) and place in the fridge whilst you make the filling

2- Melt the milk and marshmellows in a saucepan and leave to cool

3- In a separate bowl whisk the cream until soft peaks form with an electric hand whisk or stand mixer

4- Beat the cream cheese with the lime juice with an electric hand mix or stand mixer and then add the marshmallow mixture and beat this in, lastly fold in the whipped cream.

5- Spoon the mix into your pots and spread out evenly until the tops are flat and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or until set

6- Melt your chosen choclate and spread onto the top of each cheesecake, and decorate (tis is optional but you could add extra mini marshmallows or choclate, get creative with your combinations!)

7- Leave your mini cheesecakes in the fridge until they are set and enjoy!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the recipe if you try it out,

Ruby x