Quick blueberry compote blog post

Not only is this a quick blog post, it's also a quick blueberry compote recipe.

We've been picking blueberries off the three bushes we have in the garden  for over a month now and the kids have loved eating them raw. This weekend I noticed one of the blueberry bushes was brimming with fruit, some of them getting spoiled, 'going over' because they hadn't been picked.

Cue my mind racing with blueberry recipes!

Hence this super simple blueberry compote recipe.

I picked and washed the berries, there was about a cup and a half full. As I was at home with the boy, he ate half a cup leaving me with the rest to use in the compote.

I washed and sliced each berry, just to be sure they were clean and OK to eat as we don't use any pesticides or protect the blueberry bushes from insects.

I then placed them in a saucepan with two tablespoons of Sweet Freedom sugar substitute. You could also add three tablespoons of sugar instead.

Once the mixture came to a simmer, I used a spatula to crush the berries and added a tablespoon of cornflour. I stirred the compote mixture for about two minutes just to be sure the cornflour wasn't going to stick or clump up.

I poured half of the mixture into a sterilised jar and used the rest for these oat scones after I discovered how to make oat flour.

BLUEBERRY OAT SCONES 

Ingredients
1 cup of oats (gluten free if required)
1 cup of oat flour (whiz a cup and a half of oats in a processor until it is broken down into a fine flour)
1/3 cup coconut sugar (or natural cane sugar)
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tsp ginger
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 large egg
2 tbsp milk or dairy free milk substitute (I used rice milk)
1/2 quantity of blueberry compote (see description above and also method below)

 Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (fan) 190 degrees or gas mark 4.

In a bowl combine the oats, oat flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and ginger. Mix in the coconut oil as if you were making a crumble topping, gently rubbing the oil and the dry ingredients together until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

In a separate bowl mix the egg and milk substitute together and then combine with the the oat and coconut oil mixture.

Stir through compote mixture loosely. This does not need to be thoroughly mixed in, more like swirling through the oats.

Using an ice cream scoop, place a mound of mixture on a baking tray lined with baking paper, non-stick paper or greaseproof paper (you could try oiling the tray if you don't have any paper  but I don't like to risk it!)

I got 12 out of this quantity of mixture but it will depend how big your ice cream scoop is. Using a spatula scrape all the beautiful blueberry compote and oats from the side of the bowl and either make another scone or drop this small amount on top of the smallest scone on the tray.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Serve warm or transfer to a cooling rack after five minutes.

I find that anything with coconut oil in is best stored in a fridge.

BLUEBERRY COMPOTE

A cup of blueberries
2 tablespoons of sweet freedom sugar substitute
1 tbsp cornflour

Simmer blueberries and sugar substitute in a pan for five minutes. Add cornflour and stir well for at least two minutes.

IKEA recipe hack - gluten free flapjacks

I love IKEA. Pure and simple, it's a happy relationship. We only see each other every few months but when we do it's like we've never been apart.

If I started to list everything we own in this house that originated from the big blue warehouse in Wednesbury I'd lose you before the end of the paragraph. Suffice to say, the bedroom furniture I had when I was ten years old is still going strong, baby puddleduck's nursery furniture has been handed down to the boy, the playroom is Expedit'd to the rafters and Hektar takes pride of place in the living room.

I'm not sure what I enjoy most, meandering round the dream-like room sets following the arrows as if magnets are drawing me round the store, or catching five minutes on Pinterest searching for Ikea hacks to inspire organisation of the chaos in this house! (OK - honest Wednesday - I never spend just five minutes on Pinterest, I think I managed to loose just 42 once when I was having a good day and no matter how many storage units, space saving devices or ikea hacks I follow to the letter this house will never be organised!!!)

Such is my passion for Ikea, I am a Family Card member and have subscribed to the email newsletters.

Imagine my delight then when the lovely people at Ikea sent out a recipe from Izy Hossack which landed in my inbox on the very day two bananas were embarking on their final step towards the compost bin, never to be seen again.

Does anyone else manage to get through an entire bunch of bananas before at least two turn inedibly black? No? Just me? OK.

This recipe went to the top of my baking hit list at the speed of light as I have yet to find the perfect flapjack recipe, given that most contain dried fruit which I cannot stand the sight of never mind digest. I'm also a guilty convert to the current trend that is coconut oil (homemade body scrub blog post coming soon) so off to the local supermarket we trotted to buy gluten free oats and maple syrup and get this recipe started.

I've called this blog post Ikea hack as I made a few substitutions to the recipe - the shop didn't have maple syrup so we had to make to with golden syrup combined with the remnants of maple syrup I managed to dig out from the back of the baking cupboard, and I also substituted the sugar for 14g of Sweet Freedom natural fruit sugar.

The recipe is naturally dairy and gluten free so again = winner!

The presence of bananas in the recipe was also timely given that our banana tree has fruited this year. I think that's quite rare. Cue arty photograph of banana and oat flapjacks in foreground with fruiting banana plant in the background.

ORIGINAL RECIPE BY IZY HOSSACK - topwithcinnamon.com/ for Ikea. 

90g coconut oil

2 mashed over-ripe bananas

120ml maple syrup 

2 tablespoons demorara sugar (I replaced this with 17g Sweet Freedom Original)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

pinch of salt

240g porridge oats (gluten free)

50g dark chocolate, melted

Combine oil, syrup sugar, vanilla and salt in a saucepan and heat slowly until the coconut oil has melted. Stir in the oats and stir well to ensure they are all coated. 

Pour the mixture into a greased baking tin and flatten. Bake at 180 C / 160 C (fan) for 20 minutes. 

Drizzle with the melted chocolate. Cool and cut. Serve. Eat. Enjoy. 

Despite baking for years I've never used my silicone baking 'tin' but we'd already popped a quick batch of brownies in the oven and my other tin seemed too big for the amount of mixture. I bought this one from Denby in the sale eons ago when it was priced so low it would have been rude to leave it there on the shelf. Finally it got its first outing with this recipe. 

It was perfect for the flapjacks. No need to line or grease the tin first, the flapjacks cut really easy when still inside the tin and easing round the edges they released easily. Think I'll be trying more recipes in this! 

Gluten and dairy free breakfast - rice pudding

When following a gluten and dairy free diet it can be very difficult to get excited about breakfast. My go-to is peanut butter - or even nut free butter - on gluten free toast. 

But after four consecutive days I crave something different, something wholesome and filling. 

That's where rice pudding can step up and satisfy. When I was pregnant with my daughter I ate two bowlfuls every day! You'd think I'd have had enough to last a lifetime but I still love the creamy, warm dessert, especially when it's for breakfast!

Since following a dairy and gluten free diet I've struggled to find a good recipe that cuts the mustard - or the nutmeg! 

Initially I tried soya milk, which was OK but had a bit of an after taste. 

You'd think rice milk would work - rice and rice right? Unfortunately not! It just ended up a big congealed lump that even if you could get past how bad it looked, it tasted revolting! 

Coconut milk tasted too coconutty! I'm not sure what else I expected but whilst I can take a splash of coconut milk in my tea, I don't really like coconut flavour, so an entire carton in a rice pudding was just too strong. 

Finally I hit on the perfect recipe - oat milk. And if you add a few glugs of Oatly creamy (available from Ocado) it's even better. There's no need to be perfect with the measurements as long as you're somewhere close! In this recipe I've also cut the sugar content down, which can only be a good thing! 

Happy baking! 

Dairy-free, gluten-free oat milk rice pudding 

85g pudding rice

35g sugar

One carton (one litre) organic Oat-ly oat milk 

Half carton (125ml) Oat-ly creamy oat

5 small knobs of dairy-free spread (I used Pure Sunflower) 

a generous sprinkle of nutmeg 

Put the rice and sugar in a large roasting dish, pour the oat milk and creamy oat on top. Add small knobs of the dairy-free spread and sprinkle with nutmeg. 

Bake at 130 (fan) or 150 for two and a half hours. 

With my portion sizes, I get just four dishes out of this recipe, which is just about right for keeping in the fridge for four breakfasts unless the kids see it and then it's all gone in one go!  Normal people who aren't quite so greedy might get six portions.