Gluten Free Pita Breads - Great British Bake Off (#GBBOBloggers2015)

Having missed the deadline last week, I am determined not to this week!

These were surprisingly good, and if someone had served them to me, without saying what they were, I doubt I would have realised that the subtle difference was that they were gluten free. The nigella seeds provide a nice bite and flavour, and take them from pita almost to the realms of naan breads.

Even though all of my breads were made, shaped and baked in the same way, 5 made pockets, but 3 didn't. I cannot explain this.

Also, I only made 1/3 of the recipe, and it still made 8 standard sized pita breads! I couldn't find psyllium powder, I used intact husks, which worked exactly the same.

Recipe (From BBC Food)

Ingredients
30g/1oz psyllium powder
750g/1lb 10oz gluten-free bread flour blend, plus extra for flouring
3 tbsp nigella seeds
15g/½oz sugar
1 tbsp salt
21g/¾oz instant yeast
3 large free-range eggs
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil
Method:
1. Mix the psyllium powder with 300ml/10fl oz water. Set aside to allow the mixture to thicken.
2. Tip the flour and nigella seeds into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Crack the eggs into the centre of the flour, add the vinegar, olive oil and the psyllium mixture. Combine the ingredients to form a soft dough. Gradually add about 300ml/10fl oz water - you may not need it all, although the dough should be soft and slightly sticky.
3. Place onto a floured surface and knead to form a smooth dough. Place back in the bowl, cover and leave to rest for 1½ hours, or until doubled in size.
4. Heat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 9 and place 3 heavy baking trays in the oven to heat up.
5. Dust your work surface with flour. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and shape each one into a ball. Roll or press the pieces into oval shapes about 4mm thick.
6. Remove the baking tray from the oven and dust with a little flour. Lay four pittas on each tray and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until puffed up and cooked through. The pittas should have a slight colour to them. Remove from the oven and wrap in a clean tea towel - this helps keeps them soft.

I am entering this in #GBBOBloggers 2015 and #CookBlogShare, which this week are both being hosted by Kirsty at Hijacked By Twins

Almond Cake (Gluten and Dairy Free)

A couple of weeks ago, I wandered down to the local wholefoods shop, and they had sadly run out of savoury take-away food.

So I had to have cake. Terrible shame it was, and all. The cake was "Almond Bliss" - squidgy and delicious, rather like a lightened slice of marzipan.

So I wondered if I could make something similar. Much browsing of recipes online ensued. Until I remembered Pleasant View Schoolhouse had posted a simple, gluten and dairy free, almond cake recently.

It's not quite the same as the Almond Bliss, I think that had a few more ingredients than this, but it is rather good in its own right. (Edited to add: actually, that's a rather British understatement, it's blinking marvellous!)

Here it is, put into a traditional recipe format, and converted to metric measurements:

Gluten and Dairy Free Almond CakeAdapted from Pleasant View Schoolhouse

Ingredients:
5 eggs (separated)
200g (1 cup) granulated or caster sugar (with 20g (~2 tablespoons) removed and set aside)
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
220g (2 cups) ground almonds
Whole or blanched almonds to decorate (optional)
Method:
1. Grease a 23cm/9 inch cake tin or springform tin, line with baking paper, and grease the paper.
2. Preheat the oven to 170C.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the yolks together with 180g of sugar, the salt and the vanilla until pale, creamy and mousse-like.
4. Separately, beat the egg whites until foamy. Then add the 20g of the sugar and beat until they form soft peaks.
5. Add one large spoonful of the whites to the yolks to loosen. Then fold in the rest of the whites
6. Add half of the ground to the beaten eggs and fold in gently. Sprinkle the rest of the ground almonds into the bowl and fold in as well.
7. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin, decorate with almonds as desired, then bake for about 35 minutes, or until the top is barely firm and springy to the touch.
8. Leave in the tin to cool. The cake will dip in the middle as it cools. Do not eat for 24 hours if you can resist, as it is even better on the second day.

I'm entering this in #CookBlogShare


Edited to add: I'm entering this in Bake of the Week:Casa Costello