Coconut Lemon Slice – Gluten Free and extra Coconutty .

Today the wonderful father daughter painting duo of Bob and Bonnie came and oiled and sanded and patched more of our renovations. Tomorrow they refresh all the paintwork in the kitchen and laundry . I was in the mood to bake so I adulterated a favorite slice recipe to make it gluten free for Jason and tried it out on Bob and Bonnie as well. They’re still alive and kicking so it must be alright 😄
First do your prep work and organise all your ingredients.

Ingredients.
125gm butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar (I used raw)
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 cup Gluten Free self raising flour
3/4 cup of coconut flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup coconut milk

Preheat the oven to moderate 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 20cm x 30cm shallow tin with non stick baking paper , overhanging two opposite sides.

Beat the butter, sugar and lemon rind with electric beaters until light and creamy.

As you can see in the second picture, I softened the butter a bit too much in the microwave as it was still to hard to cream with the sugar. It cooled down as I beat it though and resumed a more normal creaminess which you can see in the following picture.

Add the egg, a little at a time, beating in well.

Mix in the shredded coconut.

Sift the flours and baking powder and fold into the mixture alternately with the lemon juice and coconut milk.

Spread the mixture evenly into the pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until firm.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

When cold, ice with lemon icing. This was made with about 1 1/2 cups icing sugar, a small nob of butter and lemon juice and a dash of boiling water till a spreadable consistency.

The texture is really lovely and the use of coconut flour just added to the flavour big time.
This is how far away from my kitchen side door our lemon tree is. We had to give it a rather severe crown lift during the renovations but I wasn’t about to lose it.

Bon apetit!

Pumpkin soup for sick people.

I made my partner a big pot of Pumpkin soup today. He is feeling poorly after having 2 flu shots, one in each upper arm. Bit of a nasty reaction to the pneumonia one poor baby. Anyway, he craves Pumpkin soup when he’s feeling low, not chicken soup. He doesn’t eat pumpkin at all in it’s fleshy, gorgeous orangey yellow state, but loves it in a velvety soup.

Recipe,

Take one whole Butternut Pumpkin (or squash as it is also called), quarter it lengths ways, leaving skin on. Place in baking dish flesh side up and cover with baking paper. Cook at 175 degrees Celsius for an hour or so till the flesh can be easily scooped out with a spoon. Scoop out the flesh into a pot on top of the stove and add a couple of cups of either chicken stock (homemade is better if you can, don’t sweat it if you can’t :)) or vegetable stock. Bring back up to boiling and mash it all together or using a stick blender as I have, blend it till it turns into an unctuous, velvety soup. I like to add a 250ml tin of coconut milk once it has been blended and some coriander and a sprinkle of chilli to make a kind of Thai inspired soup which is great for colds and flus. You can also add some crumbled fetta or a blob of yoghurt or any other soft cheese instead of the chilli and coriander and just adjust seasoning to taste on serving.

My partner swears by it. I bake the pumpkin in the oven rather than on top of the stove initially because it gives the soup a deeper, caramelised flavour. This recipe only needs a minimum of 2 ingredients so is also cost saving.

Happy eating 🙂