lunchbox Archives - Bread'N Butter Kids

Oat florentine and how to adapt it

I based this nuts and oat florentine on oats and on a variety of nuts. There is lots of space for accommodation around your taste.

Those tips were posted in a post I placed on this blog and you may not have seen them. Consider them, they are convenient. Now feel free to add other ingredients than oats to your base, for example you can add silvered almonds or corn flakes.

Tip 1 – the “glue” of your oat florentine

In the end, I realised it doesn’t matter too much what you want in it, it is important to make sure you have a good “glue”. I looked at a number of recipes for that binding mix and opted for my own made with simple ingredients (butter, honey and brown sugar), so no glucose syrup or other fancy items.

Tip 2 – you need salt in your florentine

One thing I did wrong was having a little too much salt. So put salt but go slowly, once added you can’t remove it

Tip 3 – solid ingredients: let yourself go! There are no limitations there. You need to think of the flavours you are combining together, this is crucial but not too hard. if not sure, stick to a few nuts, seeds or dry fruits in addition to the oats.

Mine was a little extravagant as I went through the pantry nuts jars: brazil nuts (cut), shredded coconut, pepitas, walnuts, roasted hazelnuts, macadamia pieces. And some dry cranberries.

Now for he new tips:

Tip 4 – bake your florentine until nice and brown, do not hesitate to go to a nice coloured brown as it means the florentine will be more solid. The caramel is what binds the ingredients together. If it is too light, it will not hold.

Tip 5 – the slice shape is so much easier to handle, but the florentine round shape is pretty. My round shapes are enormous, too big really but fun!

Ingredients:

250 g of rolled oats
175 g of brazil nuts, cut in pieces
50 g of shredded coconut
100 g of pepitas
100 g of walnuts broken
150 g of roasted hazelnuts, cut in pieces (quarter size roughly)
100 g of macadamia, also cut in pieces
1 tsp of salt
Wet mix:
- 100 g of melted butter
- 120 g of honey (you may need to heat up the honey if it is solidified)
- 150 g of brown sugar (or up to 200g if you like them quite sweet)
180 g of dark cooking chocolate gently melted for the top

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line a baking tray or slice tray with baking paper.
Prepare the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them. Prepare the wet ingredients in another bowl.
Mix dry and wet ingredients.
if using a slice tin, press the mix to a thickness of 1.5 cm to 2 cm. If doing florentines, use a tablespoon of mix minimum and press down to a 1.5cm thick disc. The width will depend on the amount of mix.
Bake in the middle of your oven for 1/2h to 40 minutes until nicely brown (the time will depend on your oven)
Cool down before covering with melted chocolate. If doing a slice, cut when the chocolate has almost hardened.

Le Cake

“Le Cake” is a cake, yes, but the fun bit is that in French that cake is called “un cake”. It is close to what it referred to as a butter cake I guess. It is firm, yet not dry, has crunchy edges, is simple in taste and delicious.

Le Cake allows for different flavours: lemon, sultanas (soaked in tea or rum) or candied fruits. My favourite us the lemon version.

Preparation: 15 minutes, cooking: about 45 minutes

Ingredients

200 g of soft butter
250 g of caster sugar
pinch of salt
lemon zest (about 1 teaspoon) – if you prefer sultans or candied fruits, use 100 g of them
3 eggs
300 g flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder

Method

Butter and flour a log tin. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Cream the butter (use the flat beater of your kitchenAid or a spatula and elbow oil).
Add the sugar progressively while mixing.
At this stage, it is probably better to mix manually or some of the mix wil remain on the side of the bowl. Add the egg one after the other one mixing in between. Then, add the lemon zest and salt (if adding sultanas or candied fruits, add them with the flour to ensure they do not sink at the bottom).
Add the flour and baking powder (and sultanas /candied fruits if doing that version). Mix well starting from the middle of the bowl and extending to the outer edge.
Transfer to the prepared tin
Bake for about 45 min until cracked on top and golden. A baking needle inserted through the crack should come out dry.
Remove from the oven and turn over a wire rack, allow to cool down before serving.

This cake keeps for a few days easily. It makes a great treat for lunch boxes.

I posted this recipe some time ago. I recently did this cake with a lemon icing. To make the icing mix about 1 cup of icing sugar with a little lemon juice, adjust lemon juice or icing sugar (use a whisk) until you get a slightly runny paste. Then pour on the top of the cake.

le cake — Le cake, lemon butter cake with lemon icing

No more porridge wastes!

This is it, no more porridge wastes! What do you do with left over porridge? Generally there aren’t any left over when there is porridge. However, I must say, quite recently my daughters have doubled up on breakfast requirements and I came home twice last week with a saucepan and left over porridge in it. There is no such thing as serving porridge twice, eurrhh.

So, last night , while some left overs were heating up, I scooped the porridge, added a little this and a little that and Voila!

Moist (almost) gluten free porridge Cookies

No need to waste your leftover porridge, make these (almost) gluten-free cookies with your leftover porridge!

If you are wondering, which cereal I used, the recipe uses rice flour.

Recipe HERE.

Note for GF people: Are oats gluten free?

It is a little complicated here. Oats are a different cereal to wheat. Oats do not contain any gluten. They do contain, however a protein called avenin which can induce an immune reaction in one out of five coeliac persons.

Added to that is the fact that oats can be “contaminated” at the farm by equipment also processing (harvesting, storing or transporting) wheat.

As a result in Australia, oat products cannot be called gluten-free.

If you want more info, you may want to read Coeliac Australia ‘s position statement.

And look what just came out of the oven! I can still hear the crust cracking!

I don’t mean to be out of consideration to people who are unfortunately affected by coeliac conditions. For those who read my blog for the first time, I am not coeliac and I have been making our bread for 2 1/2 years. Today I increased the water ratio in the sourdough recipe, let it rise in the fridge when wandering around with the children all day and shaped and bakes these baguettes tonight. I am very happy with the result!

Gluten Free Porridge Cookies

I made these gluten free porridge cookies (and the recipe) one day as I had enough of seeing left over porridge go to the compost bin.

Now, if you are coeliac, you may need to be careful, this recipe contains oats, which has a protein that can trigger an immune reaction (but not always).