Garlic pizza bread (egg / dairy free and vegan)

I often have left over pizza dough when I make pizzas with my pizza base recipe and have been making this garlic bread to accompany the meal as a way to use up the dough.  Plus its a really lovely addition to the table.
I cook my pizzas and bread on Pampered Chef Stoneware as the bases are crispy and the food is cooked beautifully evenly.  Plus the stoneware keeps the pizza and bread warm right to the last slice! And its crispy not soggy.

Make up your pizza dough recipe and then divide in three.  Use two balls to make pizza bases and the other to make a the garlic bread below.

Ingredients

1/3 portion of pizza dough
2 cloves garlic
3 tbsp Olive oil
1/2 tsp Mixed dried herbs, or chopped fresh herbs if you have them
Rock salt

Method

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 200°C. Roll the dough out on a Medium round stone with a baker's roller until nice and thin.

2.  Crush the garlic into a pinch bowl using the garlic press (the beauty of our garlic press is no peeling needed!).  Add the olive oil and herbs with the adjustable measuring spoons and stir well.

3.  Pour over the dough and spread it out with the back of a spoon to cover the whole dough up to 1/2 cm from the edges.

4.  Sprinkle with rock salt.

Dough all slashed and oiled up and ready to go.

5.  Make slashes in the dough with a sharp knife and place in the oven for 8-10 mins till golden brown.  Leave on the stone to keep warm as you eat, and cut with the pizza cutter.

Don't go kissing too many people afterwards unless they shared this with you!

Happy Valentines Day!

Just a quick post to say Happy Valentines Day!

I made these today in my Pampered Chef square brownie pan - I love it sooo much.

I used my basic cake mix with blueberries added (I just chucked in a few handfuls I had in the fridge) and then made a buttercream icing with some mashed up blueberries added.

I cut out the centre of the top cake using the heart cutter from the creative cutters set and then added some icing between two cakes and in the heart shaped hole. Yum!

Happy Valentines Day! Blueberry cakes in the square brownie tin.

Pita Breads (Egg free/Dairy free and Vegan)

I've got myself a new camera, and I've spent the last month playing with it rather than blogging!  However, I'm now ready to rock and roll as I've managed to get the hang of the camera and I've read my way through a tonne of info including the wonderful Plate to Pixel by Helene Dujardin.  I also have benefited from some short and sweet photography lessons from my wonderful photographer brother Hamish Campbell.

This is the first of my posts with the new photos and I think you really can tell the difference.

So here we go.....

The Pita Bread recipe I used is pretty basic and I was so excited to see it work - I can't believe it does!  How does it do that puffy thing?  I can't understand it, but I love it.

I've got a brand new Rectangle Stone that I was desperate to try out too, so this was the first recipe I did on it.  I gave it a little rub down with a bit of vegetable oil first before using it, and it worked perfectly.  The stone gives a lovely even heat and the breads stayed warm for ages while we had our soup and went back for another!

Ingredients

1 tsp dried yeast
350g strong bread flour
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
210ml water

Extra flour for sprinkling
Oiled clingfilm to cover

Method

1.  If you have a bread maker then bung in all of the ingredients and put the machine on a pizza dough or basic dough setting.  Or use a mixer with a dough hook if you have one.  If not, mix all the ingredients in a Classic batter bowl until they form a dough, and get kneading for about 10 mins on a lightly floured surface.  The dough should be smooth and elastic at this point.

2.  If using the mixer/machine now place the dough on a lightly floured surface and divide it into ten pieces.  Roll each piece into a smooth ball.

3.  Cover the balls of dough with lightly oiled clingfilm and leave to rise for about 10 minutes.

4.  Preheat the oven to 220°C.

5.  Place the dough onto the rectangle stone or other flat stone such as the medium round stone, and flatten slightly.

6.  Roll each one out using the baker's roller into a slightly oval shape.  Sprinkle with a little flour.

7.  Leave to rest for a further 10 minutes, or if you are like me just bung them in the oven because you can't wait!

8.  Bake for around 10-14 minutes - mine took 12 minutes for the ones on the top shelf and 13 for the middle shelf! They should be lightly browned and puffed up.

9.  You can leave them on the stones or remove to a stackable cooling rack to cool.

I enjoyed mine with a fabulous sweet potato and lentil soup.  It warmed me right to my toes on a cold winter day!

These Pitas keep for about 2 days in a sealed container and toast up nicely, or you can freeze them too.

One year on......

I launched this blog a year ago as a way of documenting some of my kitchen experiments with my Pampered Chef kit and  putting some of my discoveries out there.  I have had views from all over the World in the last year and a whole lot of folks visiting from Pinterest, facebook and allergyuk.  Thanks for visiting!  It makes me feel like I'm not just talking away to myself here!  The comments people have left have been great and its nice to hear from you too.

Most of my recipes are egg and dairy free due to my youngest daughter's allergies and I've been asked so many times by people when they eat my food, in particular the cakes, "How do you do it without eggs?".  So here is a quick guide to what to use in place of eggs in baking and cooking:

I have to say I am not keen on egg replacers and very seldom use them - they really are just a mix of extra bicarbonate of soda and some other bulkers such as potato starch to make everything stick together.  I bought one box of it three and a half years ago when we first discovered that eggs were a no go area in our house, and I only ever used about a quarter of it!

So if you have a favourite eggy recipe and want to convert it to an egg free version, try the egg replacer powder if you like, but it may not work (I had several disappointments which put me right off).  You might have to play with your favourite recipes and try adding other things...

1 egg can be replaced by:

1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce - babyfood jars are great for this - in cookies and biscuits.  Such as these choc chip cookies.

Choc chip cookies with baby apple sauce!

(I've also found I can just grate apple straight into the mix if I'm being lazy!  For example in my fruit cake.)

Mrs Mac's Fruitcake, made with apple, not egg!

1/2 mashed banana in cakes, although this does flavour it.

Chocolate and Banana Zebra bread - no egg here either, just banana!

1 tablespoon ground flax seed with 3 tablespoons of water and left to go gloopy for cakes too.

2 tablespoons water + 1 tablespoon oil + 2 tsp baking powder for cakes that need a rise.


1/2 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar replaces about 2 eggs in cakes and makes them rise beautifully! See this chocolate cake for example. The taste of the vinegar disappears with the chemical reaction that takes place to create the bubbles and make the cake rise.

Chocolate cake with vinegar!  You don't taste it honest!

Its often trial and error and I've had loads of disasters, but always have found better alternatives to the egg replacer.  Have fun trying!