Chilli Choc Chip Muffins!

My regular readers will know that I a do try very hard to be as gluten-free as possible - it keeps my tummy fit and healthy. But I will admit that my one downfall is treats - biscuits, cookies and cakes in particular. So I have been playing around with some regular recipes, and converting them to gluten-free; and I must say, I am now quite the little baker...

Today I bring you an absolute favourite - Chilli Choc Chip Muffins!!

For your ingredients you will need:

225g Cooking Margarine (eg. Stork)
225g Caster Sugar
3 medium to large eggs
50ml Milk
225g Self Raising Flour*
1/2 teaspoon hot Chilli Powder**
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 heaped tablespoons Cocoa Powder
150g Plain Chocolate Chips

*I use Doves Farm White Self Raising Gluten Free flour, which is what I would recommend, and is widely available in many supermarkets, including Tesco - but you can try the recipe with other brands, or if gluten does not bother you, ordinary Self Raising will do just fine.

**The chilli powder is totally optional - these muffins are just as good without. It will give your muffins a little bit of bite, just enough to bring out the chocolate-iness of them. You do not want any more - it''ll blow your socks off!

Preheat your oven to 170 Centigrade.

Put your margarine into a large bowl, and beat as much as possible with a wooden spoon to warm and soften it.

Add the sugar, and mix in as much as possible with the wooden spoon. Scrape off the spoon and switch to a hand blender (your secret weapon for a light fluffy sponge!) - mixing on a low speed until you have a smooth cream.

Add the eggs one at a time, blending completely after each one -keeping your blender on a low speed!

Add in the milk (approx. 50ml roughly equivalent in volume to one egg), the chilli powder and the vanilla extract. Blend again with your blender. Once everything is mixed start increasing the speed gradually until you reach maximum. Continue blending until you have a light, smooth, fluffy mixture. Getting plenty of air into your mix is crucial to achieving a lovely light sponge.

Next add in the Cocoa Powder and half the flour. Stir this in with the blender tool, but without power - or you will get a good dusting! - and then mix completely with the blender on low speed.

Repeat for the remaining flour. When this is fully blended you can whack up the speed again on your blender and get as much air as possible into your sponge mix.

Finally, add your chocolate chips - sprinkle evenly over the mixture, and gently fold them in with a wooden spoon.

Divide your mix into your desired cake tray(s) and bake... you will only need about 2/3 the mixture in the tray to achieve the desired height/size - this mix will definitely rise!

My muffins are pretty deep (7 or 8cm) so I bake them for about 28 - 30 mins, but if you are using cup cake papers or a bun tray you may only need to bake them for about 15 - 18 minutes. Always time them initially for less time than you think they will take, you can always pop them back in for a couple of minutes longer!

Your muffins will be ready when they have slightly browned on top, and are "bouncy" to the touch! Alternatively, you can do the knife test - prod a thin blade right through the sponge, and if it pulls out clean your cakes are cooked - if it has mixture stuck to it, they need a little longer.

These muffins are perfect just as they are, however if you are creative with an icing bag there are countless ways you pretty them up - or you may wish to serve them warm with whipped cream or ice cream.... mmmMM! 

Enjoy!

Keeping the headaches at bay...

For many, many years now I have been a migraine sufferer.  I started to get them in my early twenties, and they were hormone related - which meant that every four weeks I could be assured of an absolute stinker! And by a stinker I mean totally chronic - three full days of hell, with overwhelming nausea, aversion to light, blurred vision, dizziness, the full works. The best thing I could do was take to my bed and lie down - really until it went away.

The only blessing was I always knew exactly when one was going to strike - along with my hormonal cycle they were regular as clockwork - so at least I could plan around them. And with the help of my Pill I also managed to shift my cycle by a few days, so that they would get me mainly over a weekend and not cause me to have too much time off work!

Over the years (soon to be twenty! where has the time gone?!) I tried absolutely everything to ease them. From over the counter pills to prescription medication, herbal supplements, acupuncture, homoeopathy, reflexology, to name but a few. But, suffice to say, nothing really cut the mustard so I have just had to put up with them.

Until recently...

As I get a little older, other regular migraine sufferers will be glad to hear that they have become a little (only a little) less frequent, and a little (only a little) less intense. The problem now is predicting them - they don't hit on the same day each month, although I can be assured of one in any four week period, I never quite know when it is going to attack! But, OK, this is a better state of affairs.

Until recently...

In addition to migraines, I also so suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) although the two are thankfully not related! I won't bore you with the ins and outs of this condition - but I have almost completely cured myself by totally (and I mean TOTALLY) cutting out wheat and gluten. I have been tested for all sorts of things, including wheat intolerance, but nothing was ever conclusive - so I had to find my own relief.

It was about 3 months ago that I finally decided not to dice with the occasional pizza or sandwich just because I had the craving - because the side effects would be too painful - so I bit the bullet and have (with much will power) cut it ALL out.  No surprise then that I am feeling so much better, and can't remember when I last had an IBS attack!

Funnily enough, my migraines seem to be receding too!
Over the last 2 months I have had a couple of nasty headaches, but nothing that a couple of painkillers and an hour's snooze didn't put paid to. I almost can't remember when my last migraine was too!

Yippee! Hooray! Fantastic!

Now, as soon as I feel even the slightest twinge in my temple (and if you get migraines you will know that feeling - it's so not a regular headache thing!) I down some painkillers straight away. I don't even wait to see if it really is a migraine or not (as I used to) but I attack it straight away! I was always told that you should act as early as possible when a migraine strikes - I just never appreciated before just how early!

So I hope this little tale brings some relief to regular migraine sufferers (and maybe some IBS sufferers as well!) - you would be amazed what affects our bodies, and in what ways.


If you are being plagued, you could try some of these useful migraine tips:

Avoid the common triggers: Cheese, Chocolate (sadly), Red Wine, Oranges, Marmite...
Try taking a Feverfew (herbal) supplement on a regular basis.
Lavender and Geranium essential oils - either in a diffuser, or in your wrists, temples or a tissue, may help.
(DO NOT use these oils if you are, or maybe, pregnant!)
Sleep as much as is humanly possible during an attack! All day and night if this is possible!
Keep cool - sleep with a window open - use cold compresses on your face and head.
Wear sunglasses. Yes, even if it is not sunny! Even indoors! They are great if really have to watch the TV or use a computer, they diffuse some of the glare.
Drink hot water with a slice of fresh root ginger (with sugar tastes so much better) to combat nausea - this really works!!
And eating little but often helps nausea too.
Avoid caffeine like the plague during an attack.
Try some detective work to discover what causes yours - your hormones? certain foods? stress/tiredness?
Keeping a diary of foods, activities, emotions can help with this - tiresome, but worth it!
Think outside the box! (I cut out wheat for IBS, and it has helped my migraines - is there some other complaint you also suffer from? Could it be linked?)

More info (professional!) is available here:  www.migrainetrust.org

And finally - if you are an IBS sufferer, please really do think about your diet! It has only been in the last 4 years since I met my husband ( a professional chef) that I have started to link my common ailments with what I eat. It took a lot of resistance, and many failures, to finally admit to the gluten factor. Yes, there are things I miss - but now I am much happier and healthier! Oh, and I just LOVE Genius Seeded bread! Gluten free, but tastes just like real proper malted grain bread - delicious, can't get enough of it! (And so much nicer than the white or plain brown varieties!) Another common trigger is dairy products - including eggs! - so have a think about that one too.

Find out more at www.geniusglutenfree.com

(and no, they haven't paid me to write this!)

Keep healthy... Keep happy....

Scrumptious Gluten Free Biscuits...

...well they're a kind of a cross between a cake, a biscuit and a cookie! Whatever, they are lovely, and wonderful if you have a sweet tooth like me, but need to be gluten free (like me!).

Ingredients:

225g Cooking Margarine (eg. Stork)
110g Caster Sugar
Vanilla Essence to taste
250g Doves Farm* Gluten & Wheat Free Plain Flour
50g Ground Almonds**
Seedless Raspberry Jam

*I use this brand of gluten free flour in all my baking, only because it is easy to get hold of and, although more expensive than regular flour, does not cost and arm and a leg... you are welcome to try with your own preferred brand - results may vary!!

**The addition of ground almonds helps to keep the cooked biscuits soft - without them they tend to be a bit brittle or dry (a common result for gluten free flour) if you don't want to use any almonds then use 275g of flour.

Preheat your oven to a moderate temperature... I set mine at 160 Centigrade as it is a fan assisted oven and is prone to being "hot" but if you are not sure about your own, try 170 degrees first time and adjust from there.

OK, let's get baking...

Cream the margarine with a wooden spoon until soft and gooey (technical term), add the sugar and cream again.

Add the vanilla essence (only if you like, it's not essential).

Weigh in half the flour. Note: most recipes say to sift flour when baking - I don't bother... bit of a faff, and I don't think this flour needs it anyway as it is very "slippery" (another technical term!).

Mix with wooden spoon until smooth, weigh in the rest of the flour, and mix again until you have a "dough".
(The mixture should be pretty stiff, this helps to keep the biscuits shape during cooking, and prevent spreading.)

Now for the fun bit...

You can simply mould the dough into biscuit shapes with your fingers (they do not tend to rise or spread, so make them the size you want to eat them!); but this is what I like to do...

I fit a large spiky nozzle into a piping bag, and spoon the mixture into this.

I then pipe out my biscuits as swirls - starting in the middle, working out and then up to create a "well".

(You will need strong hands for the piping bit, the stiff mixture is easy to shape, but less easy to squeeze!)

Then comes the jammie bit. I use seedless raspberry - purely because I hate seeds in my jam, and my local supermarket do their own cheap brand - you use whatever you like best! Just splodge a good amount into the centre well of each biscuit (approx 1/2 a rounded teaspoon per biscuit).

Bake your biscuits for approximately 16 mintues, or until they just begin to go slightly golden on the edges... again, exact timing will depend on your oven.

Transfer to a cooling rack as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

Et voila!

My jam has splurged a bit in these ones - it was the runny bit at the end of the jar, but I'm sure yours will look a lot neater!

Variations:

If you like coconut - try only 25g of almonds, but add in 50g of dessicated coconut, keeping the quantity of flour the same.

Instead of vanilla you could use cinnamon or ginger to flavour your biscuits... you may want to hold off on the jam though!

If you feel like spoiling your dog - make a couple with peanut butter instead of jam... he will "woof" them down!