Jam Drops (free from Gluten, Dairy, Nuts and Refined Sugar)

Do you have a picky eater?

I feel your pain.

My picky eater has recently gone from picky to downright ridiculous and we are left with very few foods that he finds acceptable.

He's started rejecting a few favourite recipes that I have healthified so for these, I kept it really simple.

A 'white' dough with homemade raspberry jam (that I blitzed the chia seeds for by the way so they wouldn't get spotted and rejected). The things we do!

These freeze beautifully and being nut-free they are perfect for school lunches or a quick after-school treat.

I hope your kids enjoy them as much as mine!

Jam Drops
Free from gluten, dairy, nuts and refined sugar

2 cups gluten-free flour (I used Orgran brand)
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 ts gluten-free baking powder
pinch salt
1/3 cup rice malt syrup
1/3 cup + 1 tbs coconut oil
1 ts vanilla paste
1 egg

Jam to top (I adapted my strawberry chia jam recipe found here - note that I blitzed 1/2 cup chia seeds in the Thermomix first to make a powder and used some of that to make the jam)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, coconut, baking powder and salt. Add all remaining ingredients (except jam) and mix until well combined. You should have a stiff dough that can be easily rolled into balls.

Roll spoonfuls of mixture into balls and place on the prepared tray (I got 20 from this batch). Use your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon to make an indent for the jam.

Place a small amount of jam on each biscuit, 1/2 ts or so.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. I rotated the trays halfway through.

All to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes approx 20

Jam drops are such a nostalgic treat for me. And these ones even more so because they remind of an Iced Vovo which I loved as a child! What's your favourite childhood bikkie? xx

3 Ingredient Peppermint Chocolate Crackles

If you're looking for something easy and tasty to make with the kids this Easter, then look no further!

Not only are they a 3-ingredient, 1-bowl wonder, there's no yucky copha in sight.

3 Ingredient Peppermint Chocolate Crackles

200g dairy free dark chocolate (Lindt 70% for the kids or 85% for the adults)
3 cups gluten-free rice bubbles
3-5 drops doTERRA Peppermint Essential Oil*

Roughly chop the chocolate and place it in a large glass bowl over a pot of simmering water.

Once the chocolate is melted, add the peppermint oil and stir through.

Add the rice bubbles and fold through until well coated.

Spoon the mixture into paper or silicone cupcake wrappers.

Place in the fridge to set. Try not to eat them all at once.

I got 15 from this batch but it depends how much you fill each case.

* Don't like peppermint? The only limit is your imagination! Wild Orange, Grapefruit, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Lime ... go crazy and experiment with your favourite flavours! For more information about how to purchase the oils I use please read this!

My boys went nuts for these and they pretty much made them all by themselves.

Do you have any Easter treats you make with your kids?

My Fruit Mince Tarts

The first day of the school holidays was unexpectedly cool and rainy so what better way to spend it than to with some Christmas baking! My husband has been dropping not so subtle hints for fruit mince tarts over the past few weeks so that was first on my list.

Before I got into my wholefoods groove I used to make fruit mince tarts with packet pastry and a jar of pre-made fruit mince. Not any more. I love making pastry and after a few years of practice I feel like I understand it a little more and can prevent some disasters. And honestly how amazing is homemade pastry?  If you don't feel up to making your own, the Careme brand pastry in Australia is really good and they even have a gluten free version.

I used my go-to spelt pastry recipe and developed my own fruit mince recipe which was SO delicious I couldn't help taking lots of sneaky spoonfuls for 'just to check if it was ready.' Ha!

The kids were hanging around by the oven waiting for them to bake because they smelt so amazing and then each had 3 for afternoon tea. So that's a big tick of approval.

The pastry recipe makes enough for one batch of 12 tarts and I rolled the scraps out into some little biscuits which we snacked while waiting for the tarts to cool enough to eat.

The fruit mince recipe makes enough for 2 batches of 12 tarts and is stashed in the fridge to make some more next weekend. As I was making these for kids I cooked the brandy in with the fruit to get the flavour but cook off most of the alcohol. You can add the brandy at the end once the fruit is cooked for a bit more of a kick.

My Fruit Mince Tarts

Fruit mince:

500g organic mixed dried fruit
5 granny smith apples (peeled, cored and diced)
1 cup fresh orange juice, pulp and all
1/2 cup rice malt syrup
1/4 cup brandy
zest of 1 orange
1 ts cinnamon
1/4 ts nutmeg
1/4 ts clove
1/4 ts allspice

Place all ingredients into a pot over medium heat. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer until the apple has completely softened and the mixture is thick and sticky. This will take around 20 minutes or so. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.

Pastry:

250g white spelt flour
20g coconut sugar
125g cold salted butter
1 egg yolk
2-3 tbs iced water, as needed

Place flour and sugar into the thermomix or food processor and mix just to combine and break up any lumps. Add the butter and process for a few seconds at a time, until the mixture resembles rough sand. Add the egg yolk and 1 tbs iced water and process again for a few seconds at a time until the dough starts to clump together. Add extra water 1 tbs at a time only if needed.

Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and press into a disc. Wrap well and place into the fridge to rest for at least 20 minutes before rolling.

To assemble the tarts:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C / 160 degrees fan-forced. Grease a 12 cup tart or muffin tray and set aside.

Roll out about 2/3 of the dough (leave the rest in the fridge) about 3mm thick. Using a round cutter (mine was 7cm), cut out 12 circles for the bases of your tarts. Choose a cutter that is just a little wider than the diameter of each hole in your tray and they will fit perfectly. Press each circle over the base of your prepared tray and set the scraps of dough aside.

Place a teaspooful of fruit mince mixture into each tart base, being careful not to overfil or the edges won't seal. Using your finger, dab some water around the edge of pastry of each tart.

Roll out the remainder of the dough from the fridge in the same way, but use a slightly smaller cutter (mine was 6cm) to cut 12 circles for the tops of your tarts. Place a piece on top of each tart and then use a fork to crimp and seal the edges. Use the fork to pierce the top of each tart to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the tarts are golden brown and smell amazing. Cool in the tray for 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack. Delicious warm or cold.

Buttery pastry surrounding sweet and spicy fruit, there's a reason these are a classic!

2 ingredient Apricot Balls

We are coming to the end of 2 weeks school holidays here and it has been action packed! Between sleepovers, trips to the park and the movies and play dates with friends there hasn't been too much down time. And to top it all off we have Oscar's 6th birthday party tomorrow! I will write a separate post about the party and all the happenings on his actual birthday but for now I thought I would share one of the recipes I am making for the party.

We are expecting 14 kids plus parents and sibilings (maybe 40 people all up) but are keeping the food very simple. I remember loving apricot slice as a kid but I do remember it being very sweet and I recently checked the packet and yep, LOADS of sugar!

Luckily The Organised Housewife came to the rescue with these simple apricot balls which have just 2 ingredients and take all of a minute to whip up. I found they had to be squeezed into balls rather than rolled but they held together beautifully and were certainly firm enough even without being refrigerated.

My kids loved these and I loved how simple they were. Perhaps the easiest party food ever!

2 Ingredient Apricot Balls
Recipe from The Organised Housewife

200g dried apricots
200g desiccated coconut

Place apricots and coconut into the food processor and blitz until well combined and sticky, about 90 seconds. In the thermomix process on speed 10 40-50 seconds.

Squeeze into balls and store in the fridge.

Makes approx 18 (depending how big or small you make them!)

Raspberry and Coconut Muffins

The last month or so has been really busy with things on at Oscar's school, Charlie starting kindy and me starting my Naturopathy course. Yep I am now officially a student for the first time in 15 years and loving it! 

But it's school holidays here now which means I have all three of my monsters munchkins home with me which is making it tricky to find time to study. It also means lots of noise, mess and 'I'm hungry mummy!' 

I've been a little more organised this time around and had a bit of plan for the holidays before they started. Nothing set in stone just a rough idea of what was happening, which days we would be home and who was around for a playdate and when. I also planned what I wanted to cook and bake. Yesterday was a really chilly day and it was wonderful to be in the kitchen with my big boys making some delicious biscuits and muffins next to the warm oven while my little one slept upstairs. A picture of domestic bliss!

In all seriousness I am not only trying to have some qualtity time in the kitchen with the kids but also build up a stash of snacks and meals for the freezer so life will be a little easier once school goes back. Afternoon tea time can be particularly busy because Noah is ready for a feed as soon as we pick up the big boys and really isn't happy to wait while I prepare anything for the older ones! 

Yesterday we made some Cornflake Biscuits which I have blogged about before and also these yummy Raspberry and Coconut Muffins. The recipe comes from a fellow Brisbane mum who has self-published her own sugar-free recipe book! You can find her website at Hungry Tums or she is also on facebook.

In other exciting news we have just ordered a ... thermomix!!! The price has put us off for years but the more I see and hear about them and just what you can do with one, the more convinced I've become that it will be a great investment. Being able to make our own rice and nut milks, ground almonds and flours etc will be amazing. Not to mention all the wonderful meals. I've been reading the Quirky Cooking blog for a few years and ordered her gorgeous cookbook as well so keep an eye out over the coming weeks and months for lots of thermomix recipes!

Raspberry and Coconut Muffins

Very slightly adapted from Hungry Tums

1 cup dextrose
1 ¾ cups self-raising flour (or plain flour with 2 1/2 ts baking powder sifted through)
1 cup dessicated coconut
2 eggs
¾ cup coconut milk
150g olive oil

pinch of salt

1 ts vanilla extract
1 ½ cups frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 170°C fan-forced. This recipe makes 16 muffins so either grease and line 1 and a bit muffin trays or use 16 individual silicone muffin cases on a baking tray (what I do).

In a large bowl, use a whisk to stir together the dextrose, flour, salt and coconut. Add the raspberries and toss through.

Place the eggs, vanilla, oil and coconut milk in a small mixing bowl or jug and whisk to combine. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir only until just combined. Do not over-mix!

Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin trays and then bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked (they will be golden brown and spring back when pressed lightly in the middle).

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Delicious warm from the oven but they also thaw out beautifully after being frozen. 

Lamington Cupcakes for Australia Day

 Happy Australia Day! The rain has put an end to our normal Australia Day activities of bbqs and catching up with friends so we are instead we at home just hanging out, watching kids movies and of course, baking!

Last year I made real lamingtons with the kids but it was a bit fiddly for little fingers. This year I decided lamington cupcakes were the go. Much easier. We did most of this while Charlie was having his nap. We still ended up with 1 smashed plate and 3 smashed cupcakes but such is the joy of cooking with kids!

At almost 4 years old Oscar loves to help in the kitchen. He can pour in ingredients, stir and is even getting quite adept at cracking eggs! For these cupcakes he also placed the paper cases in the muffin tray, spread icing and sprinkled on coconut.

Some of my fondest memories of childhood are helping to cook and of course licking the spoon. I really hope to pass on such memories to my boys.

One of my goals for this year is to get both boys more involved with daily tasks. They both help a lot but don't really have any little jobs that are always just for them. I have already started getting them to help set the table with their own plates, bowls and cutlery. They have been their things in the sink almost since they could walk.

Anyway, back to the cupcakes. I won't bother posting a recipe here as it is a basic vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing, raspberry jam and dessicated coconut. A quick google search will give you a recipe.

These lamington cupcakes were absolutely delicious and the perfect sweet treat this Australia Day. Hope you're all having a good one!