Sugar Cookies

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup dairy free margarine (or butter)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Assorted candies, sprinkles, or coloured sugars, for decorating (optional)

1. In large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture; beat until combined. Divide dough in half; flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic; freeze until firm, at least 20 minutes, or place in a resealable plastic bag, and freeze up to 3 months (thaw in refrigerator overnight).

2. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line baking sheets with parchment. Remove one dough disk; let stand 5 to 10 minutes. Roll out 1/8 inch thick between two sheets of floured parchment, dusting dough with flour as needed. Cut shapes with cookie cutters. Using a spatula, transfer to prepared baking sheets. (If dough gets soft, chill 10 minutes.) Re-roll scraps; cut shapes. Repeat with remaining dough.

3. Bake, rotating halfway through, until edges are golden, 10 to 18 minutes (depending on size). Cool completely on wire racks. To ice cookies, spread with the back of a spoon. Let the icing harden, about 20 minutes. Decorate as desired.


Note: To make icing, sift 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar into a small bowl. Whisk in 3 to 4 tablespoons milk, water, or lemon juice, 1 tablespoon at a time, until smooth and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. If too thin, whisk in more sugar; if too thick, add more liquid.


TIPS: Use flour on utensils to keep dough from sticking: Dip the cookie cutters, and dust the spatula before transferring uncooked dough to a sheet. Rolling dough between two sheets of floured parchment will keep it from sticking to the rolling pin.
You can store cookies in airtight containers at room temperature, up to 1 week.

Muesli Bread - breadmaker recipe

This is a great recipe for people, like me, who are not good at having breakfast (cereal & milk, that is!). Toast is a whole lot easier to do when your eyes are blurry and head fuggy! I make a large 1.5kg loaf that lasts me just over a week if I slice and freeze the bread.

2 cups water, tepid
4 tablespoons coconut milk powder
2 tablespoon honey
1 tsp salt
4 tablespoons oil
4 cups plain flour
3 tablespoons gluten flour
3 cups muesli (I used a real cheap brand that had lots of dried fruit in it)
3 tsp breadmaker yeast

Place all the ingredients in the baking pan in the order in which they are listed above. Set the programme to 'Basic'.

At the end of the cycle, turn out the bread onto a wire rack and leave it to cool. It's as simple as that, and oh so DELICIOUS!

Dairy Free Muffins

Sweet Muffins

2 Cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup milk I use rice milk for the milk but have used soy and regular.
1/3 cup canola oil
2 eggs whisked

TIP ~ If just doing plain you will need to add a little more milk or it will be too dry.

1. Preheat the oven (190-200 degrees Celsius).
2. Sift flour and add sugar in 1 bowl. In another bowl put whisked eggs, milk, and oil. Add wet to dry, using a large metal spoon to mix until just combined. I use a big serving spoon for this or the mix goes smooth like a cake mix and the muffins are very heavy and don't rise.
3. 3/4 full the muffin pans and cook for 18-20 min. Leave in pan for 10-15 min before turning out.

Variations
Banana use two mashed.
Pear 1 1/2 pear mashed.
Choc chip I use chopped up dairy-free chocolate.
Jam 1⁄4 teaspoon of jam in the middle. Put 1⁄2 mix in, put jam in middle then add extra mix on top.
Honeycomb on top or mixed into the mixture.
Coconut Small amount of coconut is nice.

I use muffin cases for all my muffins and they nearly all get frozen to be put in lunch boxes.

Savoury Muffins

2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup milk (or milk substitute)
1/3 cup canola oil
2 eggs

Variations (add any of the following to muffin mix)
chives
Basil
Coriander
Cheese
Cheese and Bacon

The savoury ones are nicest on the day they are cooked or warmed in the microwave.

PIZZA

Breadmaker Pizza Dough
400 ml Water
2 Tbsp Oil
2 tsp Salt
2 1/2 cups Plain flour
2 1/2 cups Wholemeal flour
2 Tbsp Gluten flour
3 tsp Breadmaker Yeast

SETTING: Dough

Suggested Toppings
Tomato Sauce, capsicums, onions, tomatoes, pineapple pieces, olives, herbs, salami, ham, cheese, chicken, bacon

Handshaping (or bringing it all together to make pizza)
1. Half the mix. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 25 cm round for a thick based pizza or into 2 x 20cm rounds for a thinner based pizza.
2. Place onto a lightly greased baking tray. Spread or sprinkle pizza with selected pizza toppings.
3. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 12-15 minutes or until base is cooked and topping heated through


Variation (CALZONE)

I do this for my dairy-intolerant daughter, because without the cheese pizza toppings tend to fall off.
1. Take a portion of pizza dough and roll it out into a circle on a lightly floured surface.
2. Spread with pizza sauce, and other assorted pizza toppings. Fold in half pinching the edges to join.
3. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 12-15 minutes or until cooked.

I made both kinds of pizza for dinner tonight – DELICIOUS. We used lots of different kinds of meat, purchased from the deli and chopped up, Mozzarella Cheese for those of us okay with dairy, on a base of homemade pizza sauce!

Cow Clear Chocolate Cashew Cookie

(fits in well with Cession – all the ccccccc’s that is;) )

1 cup dairy-free margarine
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chopped dairy-free chocolate (dark/bitter-sweet)
1 cup chopped cashew nuts

1 Preheat oven to 180`C. With an electric mixer, cream the margarine and both the sugars together until light and fluffy.
2 In a shaker or another bowl, mix the egg and vanilla essence, and then gradually beat into the margarine mixture. Sift over the flour, baking powder and salt and stir. Add the chocolate and cashew nuts, and mix to combine well.
3 Place heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough roughly 4 cm apart on baking trays. Bake in the oven until lightly coloured, about 10-15 minutes.

TIP
Don’t chop the chocolate and cashew nuts too fine – these taste great with big hunks of chocolate and nuts – MMMMMMM!!!

3.20pm (27th September 2006)
Name changed from "Best Ever Dairy-free Chocolate/Cashew Cookies" :- Thanks Jonathan for the idea - you win, you guessed it, a yummy cow clear chocolate cashew cookie as a prize.

Cake #4

Dairy version of cake #2 – We promised to take a cake in for Aimee to share with her class, and Aimee wanted it to look like last years cake (My Little Pony on a meadow of green grass). :)

The things we mum’s do for our kidlets!!!

Cake #3

This "cake" I am pleased to say, cos' it was so terrible, was not made by me.

After a morning of shopping we didn't have time to make one, and so it was off to the supermarket to get one. Not the nicest, but did the job, so that we could all sing "Happy Birthday" once again... :D And it put a lovely smile on the birthday girls face!

HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY AIMEE!!!!

Aimee’s Birthday Cake #2

Aimee had her two “boyfriends” from school over for a play date to celebrate her birthday, and so another cake was in order. I needed to find a nice dairy-free chocolate cake and couldn’t find one – so, thanks to Alison Holst, I adapted one of hers (Kirsten’s Chocolate Cake, page 258, Alison Holst’s Good Food) – it was delicious!!! A real success!

Chocolate Cake (Dairy-free & Delicious)

125g margarine (dairy-free)
2 rounded household tablespoons golden syrup
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups soy milk

1. Put the margarine and golden syrup in a microwave dish and heat just until the margarine has melted. Stir to combine the two.

2. Put everything else in the food processor, with the eggs first and the soy milk last. Mix in brief busts, then add the golden syrup and margarine mixture, and process for two 30-second bursts, scraping down the sides of the food processor after the first burst.

3. Bake in two 20cm round tins for 25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius, or until the centre springs back and a skewer in the centre comes out clean. Eat within three days.

TIP
Line the cake tin with baking paper to avoid the cake sticking or overflowing during baking.

Chocolate Icing:
1 Tbsp margarine
2 Tbsp hot water
1 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup icing sugar

1. Heat together the margarine, water and cocoa in a small saucepan until the margarine has softened and all the ingredients are easily combined when stirring with a fork.

2. Add the sifted icing sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until it has been mixed in thoroughly, and the icing is smooth.

Aimee's Birthday Cake #1

We are having a weekend of birthday cake's because Aimee is turning 8!! Tonight we had pavlova with lashings of cream - YUM! Aimee's best friend, Ashlee, stayed the night to help us celebrate! My little girl is getting older...

Kudos to my wonderful hubby…

and friends...

My wonderful man knew I was having a hard day yesterday and so he spoiled me last night with a great meal, wine and flowers all presented with panache. It’s not something he ever does all that much (if ever!) and so I was shocked out of my funk and feel in the cloud of love now!! We had sirloin steak and a really nice red, and I didn’t have to lift a finger except to eat and enjoy it! Thanks Jonathan!

Also thanks to my good friends Vania and Jodee who have both helped me feel loved and cared for this week! I was momentarily feeling overwhelmed – and they made me realise the true value of friendship – thanks…

Hotcakes by Dee (dairy-free)

These are extremely delicious and are based on a american hotcake recipe, so you get pancakes like at McDonalds without the dairy! YUM! I use a 1/4 cup to measure out the batter, and it makes the perfect size. We make them for breakfast on any special day - birthdays, christmas, sleepover brunches - you name it, in fact any day is a good excuse to make them.

2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1 tin coconut cream
1/2 cup water

Place top three ingredients into a bowl. Beat egg and sugar together. Add with liquids (coconut cream & water) to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. Cook on a hot fry pan, until golden, flipping when the bubbles begin to burst.

Beef and Vegetable Stew

This is a very scrumptious stew, one in which the kid’s always ask for seconds.

For 5 servings:

750g chuck or blade steak
1/4 cup flour
2 tsp instant beef stock
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp thyme
2 onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
1 cup frozen peas
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups water


1. Cube steak. Coat with the next five ingredients in a plastic bag. Brown meat in a hot frying pan. Place in the crockpot.
2. Add vegetables and bay leaves. Mix together and then add hot water and stir well.
3. Cook on LOW for 8 hours, and then enjoy served with rice and seasonal vegetables.