Vegetables as Ingredients in Low Fat Baking

There is a TV program on Channel 4 here in the UK called Cook Yourself Thin, presented by chef and food writer Gizzi Erskine. She shows alternative ways of cooking typical dishes to reduce the fat and calorie content. Most of this is just common sense if you're someone who already monitors your diet (such as substituting low fat yoghurt for sour cream), but she does have some clever ideas.

In particular, Gizzi often uses grated or mashed vegetables in place of butter in baking. She has a turkish delight brownie recipe that uses mashed sweet potato. Her baking recipes do still contain quite a large amount of sugar, and she also often uses substantial amounts of chocolate, however she also uses low GI ingredients, such as ground almonds. The main purpose of these alternative recipes seems to be to provide all the richness of the original, but with far fewer calories, and which (due to the low GI ingredients) are satisfying from smaller portions.

I particularly like the look of her strawberries and cream cupcakes, which use grated courgette (zucchini), and a meringue icing, cooked gently over boiling water.  I imagine that these wouln't keep very well (due to the lack of butter).

Cheat's Scones

Scones made with lemonade and cream - not quite as good as the traditional recipe using butter, but if eaten straightaway, not bad either!  These scones are very light and extremely easy to make, but don't keep well.

The quanities below should make about 24 scones, but the rule of thumb is three parts SR flour to one part cream and one part lemonade, so it's easy to reduce / increase quantities.

Ingredients
3 cups self-raising flour
1 cup fizzy lemonade
1 cup pouring cream
Pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees C.

Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl (a knife works well to get things started). 

When mix begins to come together to form dough, tip out on to a floured surface and knead lightly (you may need to add more flour if it is a bit sticky).

Roll dough out flat, use a scone cutter to cut rounds.  Place on to a baking sheet, bake at 220 degrees C for approximately 15 minutes.

Mashed Potato

I enjoyed watching Emmanuel Mollois making mashed potato a few weeks ago on Poh's Kitchen.  He used a 1:1 ratio of butter to potatoes, with about a half proportion of milk.  Not good for the diet, but well worth trying just once.

The potatoes were boiled, then cooked in the oven for 12 minutes to dry out.  The peeled potatoes were then pushed through a mouli grater to give a very fine texture.  The potatoes were returned to the saucepan over a medium heat, with the milk, then the butter was slowly whisked in.

The final result looked fabulous- creamy, smooth and rich.  My mum was a fan of rich mashed potato - I can remember her puting in loads of butter, often an egg, sometimes cream(!!), and occasionally nutmeg.  I also once made mashed potato with a hint of blue cheese mixed in - that was yummy.  (Incidentally, a hint of blue cheese in bechamel sauce is also amazing.  If you only use a little, it doesn't overpower it, but adds such a depth of flavour).

The flavour and texture of rich, silky smooth mashed potato is a world away from dry, lumpy, bland mash you sometimes see.

Cocoa and Cinnamon Meringues

This recipe uses just a basic meringue mixture, but with cocoa and cinnamon folded through.  The cocoa and cinnamon combination adds depth to the flavour, and also helps to balance the overwhelming sweetness of the meringue.  The cocoa mixes surprisingly well with the meringue, to give you sort of a gooey chocolate rippled filling.  I think this is one of the nicest recipes I've made in ages.

The recipe is originally from The British Larder blog, but I have tweaked it a bit.  The recipe uses a different  method for meringues - you heat the egg whites and sugar over a low heat, then beat.  I'm sure you could use the traditional method (beating egg whites until stiff, then beating in the sugar), and get the same result.  I also learned that a good rule of thumb for meringues is to weigh the egg whites, then add double the weight in caster sugar (a 1:2 ratio). 

I added melted chocolate and toasted flaked almonds to the tops of my meringues - yum!

Ingredients

300g egg whites (for me this was six v large eggs, but do weigh them out)
600g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
20g cocoa powder
2 teaspoons powdered cinnamon
100g good quality chocolate
25g (approx) toasted flaked almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 110°C and line two large baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

2. Sift cocoa and cinnamon together.

3. Place the egg whites, salt and sugar in a large saucepan.  Cover your hands with disposable gloves.

4. Place the saucepan over a very low heat to gently heat the egg whites and to melt the sugar. Stick your hand into the egg and sugar mixture and stir it continuously.  Weird, but important; by using your hands you can control the heat, as you should not heat above 37°C (blood temperature).  Stir constantly to dissolve the sugar.

5. Once the temperature has reached 37°C, remove the saucepan from the heat and transfer the whites to a large bowl.  Beat the mix with electric beaters / mixer until the meringue holds its shape.  This takes a while - it took about 8 minutes with my electric handbeaters.

6. Gently sift the cocoa and cinnamon mix over the meringue.  Use two spoons to scoop a large spoonful of the mixture from the middle, scoop deep to get a ripple effect of cocoa and meringue. Do not be tempted to mix the cocoa in as you will spoil the rippled effect.

7. Drop the heaped spoonful of meringue onto the prepared baking trays.  Leave sufficient gaps as they swell when they cook.

8. Place trays in pre-heated oven.  Bake the meringues for two hours (the time may be less if your meringues are smaller).  The meringes are cooked when they are stiff on the outside but still slightly gooey in the centre.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

9. Melt chocolate (in the microwave over over a pan of simmering water).  Allow to cool slightly.  Spread melted chocolate on tops of meringues, sprinkle with toasted almonds.  Leave to set at room temperature.

Beef with Red Wine

I fiddled about a bit with one of Nigella Lawson’s recipes for beef stew.


I usually use stock when making casseroles. This stew didn’t use any stock, and I was really impressed by the subtlety of the flavours as a result. I am so used to the strong salty kick that you get from stock that can really overpower other flavours.  This combination made a very nice change.

This stew has a subtle, rich sweetness. I served mine with a lovely mound of mashed starchy Jarrah pumpkin, and steamed mixed greens. As with all of my savoury recipes, quantities are approximate.

Ingredients

2 onions, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
600g chuck steak, cubed
½ cup plain flour
A teaspoon of allspice
Salt and pepper
½ cup water
½ cup red wine
2 bay leaves
A teaspoon of dried sage
1 cup of chopped mushrooms

1. Gently sauté the onions and carrots in a small amount of oil a large heavy-based pan till onions are softened. Remove from pan.

2. Mix together plain flour, allspice and salt and pepper. Coat cubed beef well in flour mix.

3. Add a little more oil to the pan, and brown steak over a medium heat. Remove meat from pan.

4. Add water, red wine, bay leaves and sage to pan, stir over medium heat. Return onions, carrots and beef to pan, bring to a simmer.

5. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to low, leave to cook for approximately 2 and a half hours. Stir in the mushrooms towards the end of the cooking time.

Chewy Caramels

These turned out well.  They taste very much like those chewy caramels you get in boxes of chocolates.

Ingredients

25g (1/4 cup) flaked almonds
125g butter, chopped
395g can sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons honey
3/4 cup (150g firmly packed) brown sugar
100-150g good quality dark chocolate


1. Toast almonds.  Spread on a baking tray and roast in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for about 8 minutes or until golden.

2. Grease 15cm square cake pan, line base and sides with non-stick baking paper.

3. Combine butter, condensed milk, honey and brown sugar in a saucepan.  Stir over low heat without boiling until sugar dissolves.  Increase the heat till the mixture is bubbling (medium high), cook, stirring constantly for approximately 10 minutes or until glossy and caramel in colour.  The mixture will start to come away from the base of the pan when it is done.  Make sure you stir constantly and thoroughly; the mixture crystallises on the bottom of the pan very easily if you don't.

4. Pour caramel into prepared tin.  Leave to cool.  Melt chocolate, leave to cool slightly.  Pour over the top of the caramel.  Sprinkle with the toasted almonds.  Leave to set.  Cut into small squares with a sharp knife.  Store in refrigerator.

Variations: I think these would also be nice with toasted chopped almonds or other nuts mixed through the caramel itself before pouring into the pan.

Les macarons - success at last!

I finally made a successful batch of macaroons.  So worth it!  The recipe I used (with my notes added in) is below.  There are so many different recipes out there; all with slightly different quantities / baking temperatures / times / methods.  There's another version I'd like to try which uses Italian meringue (you make a sugar syrup and whip into the beaten egg whites while hot - fascinating!).

Ingredients
90g egg whites (approx. 3 eggs), aged at room temperature for at least 48 hours
30g caster sugar
100g finely ground almonds
200g pure icing sugar
Few drops vanilla extract
Few drops pink food colouring

100g white chocolate
100mL cream
Few drops food colouring (optional)

Equipment
2 baking sheets, lined with non-stick baking paper
Piping bag fitted with plain, round nozzle

1. Sift together almonds and icing sugar into a bowl.

2. In a separate, spotlessly clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.  Gradually add caster sugar whilst beating, until you have a stiff, glossy meringue.  Add a splash of vanilla extract and a few drops of food colouring and beat in.

3. Add a portion (perhaps a third) of the almonds/icing sugar and fold in gently.  Fold in the remainder in two more batches.  It's important not to over-mix, but you need to also make sure that it is mixed enough - you need a uniform mass.  Test the consistency by dropping a small spoonful on to baking paper - if the top smooths over by itself, the consistency is right.

4.Put the batter into the piping bag.  Pipe small rounds onto baking sheet (keep nozzle to sheet as you pipe, this will help to give you uniform rounds).  Once you've filled a tray, give it a good, straight tap on the kitchen bench to knock out any air bubbles.  If any of your rounds have little lumps on the top from your piping, smooth them out using a wet fingertip.

5. Leave sitting at room temperature for about 30 minutes to 'crouter' (form their crust).

6. Pre-heat oven to 140 degrees C.  Touch one of the macaroons gently with your finger - if some of the batter sticks, the macaroons are not yet ready to bake; leave for a little longer.

7. Bake at 140 degrees C for 20 - 25 minutes.  (They will have formed their crust, and you should be able to see sort of honeycomb-y texture around the base of each one).

8. Leave to cool on trays.

9. Gently heat cream until just below boiling.  Add broken up white chocolate, mix till smooth.  Refrigerate.  When cold, whip with beaters. (Add a few drops of food colouring if you wish).

10. Sandwich macaroons together with cream.  Refrigerate in an airtight container - the texture is best after they've been in the fridge for a bit.