Baking Mad Monday - Raspberry Roulade

The final instalment of the Baking Mad challenge is brought to you by Gemma.

Baking Mad provided the flour and sugar, the same types as in Sarah's post and then the rest was purchased by myself to make the roulade.

It was a complete cake fail!! I followed the instructions and the cake seemed perfect and tasted lovely but when I tried to roll it I split it and just had to fold it over. If you are a better baker than me (not hard) and want to give this a try here is the recipe:

You will need:

3 eggs
60g Half Spoon Granulated Sugar (Silver Spoon) plus extra for dusting
85g Self Raising Flour (Allinson Nature Friendly)
150ml creme fraiche low fat
125 fresh raspberries lightly crushed
cornflour for dusting

Method:

1. Line a Swiss roll tin with non-stick parchment paper. Place a large sheet of greaseproof paper on the work surface and lightly dust with cornflour and a light dusting of half spoon sugar.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture is pale and light in texture and a ribbon of mixture will leave a trail when lifted from the bowl.
3. Sift in the flour, and gently fold in with a metal spoon in a figure-of-eight movement, until the mixture thoroughly mixed.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and spread out with a palette knife to cover the whole surface.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, until the sponge is firm and springy to the touch.
6. Turn out the sponge onto a large sheet of greaseproof paper, then peel away the lining paper. Trim the edges, cover with a clean,damp tea towel and set aside for a few minutes to cool.
7. Mix together the crème fraiche and raspberries. Spread the mix over the sponge. Roll up carefully and transfer to a serving plate with the long edge underneath the roulade. Cut into slices.
   
   

Baking Mad Monday - Blueberry Muffins

Week four in our Baking Mad challenge and it's Lucy's turn this week!

Baking Mad provided the flour and sugar, the same types as in Sarah's post and then the rest was purchased especially to make these muffins.







So, I chose to make healthy Blueberry muffins and THEY WERE SO GOOD. I've never actually made normal blueberry muffins because, for some reason, I always thought they'd be really difficult to make. I'm not sure where that thought process came from though because these were probably the easiest muffins that I've ever made! Admittedly they don't make for the prettiest end result but that small fact can be overlooked as far as I'm concerned and if I didn't know they were low fat then I certainly wouldn't ever have guessed. If you have a spare 45 minutes or so then I definitely recommend you knock some up, promise you won't regret it! AMAZING.

Here's what you'll need:

• 250g self raising flour (Allinson Nature Friendly)
• 1 & a half tsp baking powder
• 50g low fat margarine
• 75g Half Spoon granulated sugar (Silver Spoon)
  
• 100g blueberries
  
• 2 large Happy Eggs
  
• 235ml milk
  
• lemon juice from half a lemon
  

Method

• Preheat the oven to 18°C, fan oven 160°C or Gas Mark 4
• Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cases
• Sieve flour and baking powder into a large bowl, add the margarine and rub gently until it resembles breadcrumbs
• Stir in the sugar and blueberries
• Whisk together the eggs, milk and lemon juice. Add to the flour mixture and stir gently but do not over mix
• Spoon the mixture into the pre-prepared muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.
• Serve warm for breakfast or afternoon tea. Yum!

Baking Mad Monday - Banoffee Layer

It's Charlene's turn to take part in the Baking Mad low calorie baking challenge this week!



As with the rest of the girls, Baking Mad sent me most of the ingredients, and all I had to add were bananas, dates, low fat spread, lemon juice and crème fraiche.

I was impressed with how quick this was to make - it was ready within 15 minutes, most of that time was spent poking at the dates and trying to get them to turn to 'toffee' as the recipe suggests. I'm not a fan of dates, but the addition of a little bit of sugar made them almost like toffee and a small amount in the layered dessert was a nice addition!



INGREDIENTS:
4 low fat oatcakes
3 tsp half spoon granulated sugar (silver spoon)
1 tbsp low fat spread, melted
75 grams pitted dates
2 bananas
Lemon juice
2 tbsp crème fraîche low fat
1 dark chocolate square

DIRECTIONS:
001. Place the oatcakes in a food processor and process until the become crumbs. You could also put the biscuits into plastic bags and beat with a rolling pin.

002. Mix the crumbs, 2 tsp sugar and melted low fat spread.

003. Place the dates, remaining sugar and 4 tbsp water in a small pan and heat gently until the dates have become soft. Beat the mixture so it resembles toffee.

004. Slice the banana and toss in the lemon juice to avoid browning.

005. Spoon half the biscuits crumb in the bottom of two glasses. Top with sliced banana then the date puree followed by crème frachie. Repeat the layers until all the ingredients have been used finished with a dollop of crème fraiche and banana.

006. Grate the chocolate over the cream and serve immediately.



Mmmm, it felt really indulgent eating these, and it was guilt free knowing that there was no fatty cream, biscuit base or sugary toffee to sabotage my diet! I will definitely be making these again, and also trying them with different fruits. They look great too, so would be a perfect way to impress if you're having friends over for dinner!

Baking Mad Monday - Chocolate Brownies

It's Sarah V's  turn to take part in the Baking Mad low calorie baking challenge this week! 

I haven't had much free time lately. Well, ANY. But I managed to grab half an hour yesterday to put these brownies together. It was a good thing as they were super quick and easy to make, and only used one bowl!

As Sarah said last week, the point of the Baking Mad challenge is to make lower calorie treats with Half Spoon granulated sugar by Silver Spoon. Baking Mad provided me with some products to use:

In addition I had to supply baking powder, low fat margarine and an egg.

I chose the brownies as I LOVE chocolate. I was quite interested to try them as my favourite brownie recipe is incredibly decadent, with a whole block of butter in it - these are a lot better for you!

Low Calorie Brownies

Ingredients
70g Margarine (low fat)
25g Good quality orange 70% dark chocolate, broken up
1 Happy Eggs lightly beaten
0.50 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract Blend (Nielsen-Massey)
60g Half Spoon Granulated Sugar (Silver Spoon)
25g Plain White Flour (Allinson Nature Friendly) sifted*
1 tsp Cocoa Powder
0.50 tsp Baking Powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/ 350°F gas 4.
2. Grease and base line a 14cm square tin.
3. Put the chocolate and low fat margarine in a large bowl over a pan of just-simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Stir until the chocolate has melted, remove from the heat and stir until smooth.
4. Add the other ingredients to the bowl and mix well. Spoon into the tin, levelling the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake for 25 minutes or until risen and firm around the edges but a little soft in the centre. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes. The brownie will continue to cook as it cools.

Although the recipe stated plain flour, I'd actually been sent Self Raising. Based on the small quantity, I tried it with Self Raising and it was fine. I think the brownies needed a raising agent to bulk them out a bit.

The brownies were yummy! Very light, and a bit more cakey than full fat brownies, but still chewy in the middle and lovely and chocolatey. The orange chocolate added a nice touch. I took them to work today and no one realised they were low fat!

Yummy!

Baking Mad Monday - Beetroot & Chocolate Cupcakes

Our friends at Baking Mad have set us a low calorie baking challenge, over the next 5 Mondays we are all going to attempt one of their recipes and would like you lot to vote for your favourite at the end. All of the recipes use Half Spoon granulated sugar by Silver Spoon which is sugar with a touch of sweetener. It reduces the calories as you only need to use half the amount of standard sugar but because the texture doesn't change you still get the same results, excellent!

First up is Sarah, being a cupcake addict she has chosen to bake the beetroot and chocolate cupcakes

Baking Mad provided us with some of the products for this challenge:

And we then purchase the rest ourselves:

Ingredients
3 x Eggs
150g Half Spoon Granulated Sugar
250g Beetroot, peeled & grated
0.5tsp Vanilla Extract
180g Plain White Flour
180g Ground Almonds

2tsp Baking Powder

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

0.25tsp Salt

284ml Buttermilk

For the topping:

100g Plain Chocolate

2tsp Quark

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C, gas 4. Line two 12-hole muffin tray with paper cases.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk up the eggs and sugar for 4 minutes until they are light and fluffy.
• Beat in the grated beetroot and vanilla essence. Add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt and beat until combined.
• Add the buttermilk. Beat again to ensure everything is well combined.
• Divide the mixture into the paper cases and bake for 20 minutes or until the cakes spring back when pressed gently with a finger. Remove from the cake tin immediately and leave to cool on a wire rack.

The cakes come out a lovely reddish pink colour

• For the icing: Place the chocolate in a small bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water. Melt the chocolate gently. Remove form the heat and stir. Leave to cool. Add the quark and mix. Add enough milk to loosen the consistency to a spreadable icing. Spread the icing over the cup cakes and serve.

Makes 24 cupcakes, they work out at 7 syns each or 7 pro points.

The cakes were lovely and moist which surprised me with the lack of fat in the recipe and the chocolate topping added a lovely chocolate hit, mmmmm!

Yum!

Word of warning, your kitchen will look like you've massacred a few people whilst grating the beetroot but it's worth the mess. The lovely Sarah gave me a great tip for removing the staining from your hands, just put sugar and fairy liquid on your hands afterwards and wash. The colour sticks to the sugar and your hands are stain free, result!