Vegan and Gluten Free Apple and Raisin Muffins - Μαφινς με Μηλο και Σταφιδες Χωρις Γλουτενη

Wednesday, April 30, 2014


And just like that, Easter is over and there are 4 more months until we move to Athens. I thought that I would never say it, but I feel happy we are going back after 8 years away from home. And even though Athens is not where my actual home is - born and bred in Grevena - I am now determined to make it. 

Athens is vast. 4.5 million people vast. Most of the time it feels like a jungle and I am saying this having lived in London for a good 8 years. You need time to adjust and a sanctuary to recuperate and fight off the craziness of the streets. Mine is going to be close to the sea. I've decided. There's only one small problem...I haven't found it yet.  We didn't have much time to look for an apartment - too much eating and drinking and meeting with friends and relatives got in the way of arranging viewings with estate agents - but I've made up my mind. Yes, this time we are going South. Close to the sea. 

Social Media 2 - for - Tuesday!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Two weeks ago I put my name and blog URL in a Rafflecopter widget on Kim's Enjoy The View Blog to win a very different give-away: The chance to be featured on their SoMe2 link party. 

You link your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ and Bloglovin accounts and other lovely bloggers follow you and you follow them! Isn't that swell? 

Well, to cut a short story even shorter... I WON and today my Box of Stolen Socks is being featured on Kim's and DeDe's blogs.

What is even more amazing is that you can enter your details below for a chance to to win too! 

It happened to me, it can happen to you right?

So go ahead and link up your Google+ and Twitter accounts and enjoy the party fun! 

Lemon & Elderflower Bundt Cake #BundtBakers ~ Κεικ με Λεμόνι Χωρίς Γλουτένη

Thursday, April 17, 2014

(Συνταγή στα Ελληνικά στο τέλος της σελίδας)
We are off to Athens today to spend Easter with family and to start looking for an apartment for our move there in the summer.

And talking about Greece...

Have you seen the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"? There is a scene towards the middle, when the two families meet. The Potrokalos family had prepared a feast and were barbecuing all kinds of meats on their house's front yard, dancing and drinking, when the groom's parents arrive. The in-laws meet each other for the first time and Ian's mother presents to Maria her gift...a bundt cake. The exuberant Greek mother-in-law didn't understand what a bundt was and kept asking until a relative told her that it's a cake. She graciously accepted it and turned to leave saying "there is a hole in this cake". Then she went ahead and put a small potted plant in the hole! That's my favourite scene in the whole movie. I laugh my socks off every time I watch it. 

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies II

Monday, April 14, 2014


It's time for another gluten free cookie recipe from The Ultimate Gluten Free Cookie Book

If you've been following along, you know that I'm in the middle of a series of posts, baking and photographing my way through all 125 gluten free cookie recipes from Robyn Ryberg's "The Ultimate Gluten-Free Cookie Book".

You can find the recipes for all the cookies I've baked so far here and why not, subscribe via email to receive regular updates and don't miss a recipe.

Quiche Maraîchère #FrenchFridayswithDorie

Friday, April 11, 2014


Quiche and I go way back. It was the first "gourmet" recipe I ever cooked for a boy. A rich, eggy Quiche Lorraine with a green salad on the side and a bottle of white wine was the romantic dinner I had planed for us. The quiche turned out great; its smell divine; but the boyfriend never turned up to eat it! He stood me and my quiche up and I blamed the quiche for that. Don't ask me why. There is no way to even begin to decipher the machinations of my 18 year old mind. I just know that I tossed it in the garbage bin, took the wine and left town. OK I am being somewhat dramatic here but I did leave town to go to our beach house and nurse my broken heart well and I did throw the quiche away without even tasting it!  


Fortunately this catastrophic first encounter was not enough to make me hate quiche. That would have been a blasphemy for a foodie like me because it is an incredibly flavourful savoury pastry. Incredibly flavourful and incredibly rich with a savoury custard made from eggs and cheese poured over ham, seafood or vegetables enclosed in a crispy shell of shortcrust pastry. In an ideal world I could eat quiche everyday. 

Now after so many years, quiche has became synonymous with pick-nicks at the park and dinner parties with good friends. And it is not so difficult to make, as my 18-year-old self wanted me to believe. The only part that needs some attention is the preparation of the shortcrust pastry or Pâte Brisée. And that is only for the first couple of times, because once you get the hang of mixing flour and butter with your fingers and kneading it gently to become a soft dough there is nothing really to stop you from making quiche everyday, except maybe your cholesterol. Yes, the sad, sad truth is that a true quiche carries MANY calories between its crispy bottom and its creamy filling. There are at least 3 eggs and loads of heavy cream and even more cheese (Gruyère or Comté) so, um.. yeah.. it is not an everyday indulgence. Unless of course you are French and come with a built-in mechanism that stops you eating when you have reached the minimum daily allowance of calories - in this case after the second forkful. 

 

So yes, this week's recipe for our French Fridays with Dorie cooking group is a quiche. But the Quiche Maraîchère (p.158), is not a typical quiche. It is a vegetable quiche or to be more precise a quiche overflowing with vegetables. It has leeks, celery and red peppers but it doesn't have so much custard. I could say that it is a "lighter" version of the original. 

I made my version of Dorie's quiche even lighter, using almond milk instead of heavy cream and skipping the cheese completely (I just grated a small piece of  Kasseri on the baked quiches to make them look nicer for the photo). 


Instead of making Pâte Brisée for the tart shell, I used some left-over flan pastry or pâte à foncer I had in the freezer. It was enough to make one 20cm tart and 3 baby tarts. Pâte à foncer is less delicate than pâte brisée but has a crisper texture. 


I filled the baby quiches with a few teaspoons of the quiche filling, after I had it fried in a pan like a mini omelette.


I have to admit that I was a little sceptical about the presence of the celery in the vegetable filling. Leeks and peppers are both very acceptable quiche ingredients but I have categorised celery as a soup vegetable. I know it is completely arbitrary and makes no sense because celery goes pretty much with everything but well there you have it. 


I was wrong, off course,  because celery worked amazing with the other two to give an extra savouriness to the quiches. 


The recipe was a huge success. Even in its "lighter" version it was full of flavour and lovely textures. You can find Dorie's original recipe for Quiche Maraîchère at Bookpage and to check how my fellow Doristas liked this recipe click here.
~~~~~~~~~
Quiche Maraîchère 
Adapted from "Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan
Serves 6 

Ingredients for the flan pastry - pâte à foncer -  (makes about 2, 20cm tart shells)
250 gr flour
125 gr butter, at room temperature, slightly softened and cut into small pieces
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
40 ml cold water
Ingredients for the quiche filling
1 tablespoons olive oil
2 celery stalks, cut into small pieces
1 leek, thinly sliced, only the white and light green parts
1/2 red pepper, or 1 if it is small, cored, seeded and finely diced
2/3 cup almond milk
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
50 gr cheese, grated

Instructions
Preheat oven to 190C/370F.

Lightly grease a 20 cm tart pan (fluted or straight).

Put the flour on the work surface. Make it look like a mountain and then make a well in the centre. Put the  butter, egg, sugar and salt in the well and start creaming them with your fingertips.

Little by little pull the flour into the well and work the dough until it becomes grainy in texture. Add the cold water, little by little, until the dough starts to hold together.

Knead the dough gently until it becomes smooth. Roll the pastry into a ball and wrap it with cling film. Put it in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes or until you are ready to use it.

When you are ready to use it, roll it with a lightly floured rolling pin (I used the plastic rolling pin I use to roll out fondant from Wilton), on a lightly floured surface, to a 3 mm thickness. Make sure that you turn it over frequently. You might have to re-flour the surface.

Transfer the dough to the tart pan and ease it in. Trim off any excess pastry with a knife or by rolling the pin over the tin. Prick the pastry with a fork in several places. Chill the dough in the fridge before baking it for at least 1 hour.

Line the tart pan with baking paper and fill it with ceramic baking beans to weight the pasty down so that it doesn't rise.

Bake blind for 20 minutes. Remove the beans and the paper and return the tart to the oven to bake for another 5 minutes. Allow the tart shell to cool before you fill it.

Heat the oil in a medium pan. Add the vegetables and cook stirring for about 10 minutes until they are tender. Season and put them into a bowl to cool.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F and put the half baked tart shell on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Spread the cooked vegetables into the tart shell.

Whisk the egg and egg yolk with the milk, season them and pour them carefully over the vegetables. Be careful not to put too much custard. Let it stand for a few minutes and then see if you can add a little more.

Slide the filled tart onto the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes until it is baked and set.

Transfer the quiche to a rack and let it cool before you serve it.

Cook's Notes:

  • The pâte à foncer pasttry can be kept, wrapped with cling film, in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
  • If you want to make the baby quiches use small tart moulds (around 4 - 6 cm). Butter them very well and line them with dough. Prick them with a fork. Chill them for at least 1 hour. Carefully line them with parchment paper and fill them with rice before you bake them. Bake them for 15 minutes, remove the paper and rice and bake them again for 5 - 10 minutes until they are golden and fully baked. 
  • To fill the baby quiches: Cook the quiche filling in a frying pan. Let it cool and then fill the baby tart shells with one or two teaspoons of the filling and grate some cheese over them.
  • If you don't have ceramic baking beans you can use different types of pulses (dried white beans, rise).
  • If you use beans or rice you will not be able to cook them after but you can use them for baking for a long time.

Visitandine Mini Cakes #FrenchFridayswithDorie

Saturday, April 5, 2014


My brain has been a little foggy these past few days. In the mornings I open my eyes, get out of bed, put my socks on - extra-cheesy pun intended - wash my face and anyway go about starting my day, all the time feeling that I am missing something important.

It is a very strange state of mind to be in. And after a while my relationship with reality becomes hazy and I start to forget and mix things up, like what suit of cards my Bridge partner threw first (huge, friendship-braking mistake) or was I supposed to make a cake called vichyssoise or a soup called visitandine.  Major mix up!


I was almost sure that this weeks recipe for our French Fridays with Dorie was a soup. It turns out it was not. It was this humble but -oh-so-sinful- cake. It was "invented" by an order of French nuns, the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, whose purpose was to visit and care for the sick and poor in their homes, hence the name Visitandines. 


Dorie says that if she had known the recipe for this cake at the beginning of her baking career, there wouldn't have been a career to talk about. I couldn't agree more. If there is one cake recipe you have to learn in your life then this is it! 


Four basic ingredients: eggs, flour, sugar and butter are all you need to bake the perfect Visitandine every time. From the eggs you use only the whites. You whisk them until firm and then you mix with the flour and the melted butter. If you want to take it up a notch, brown the butter because brown butter makes everything more fragrant and absolutely delicious. 


You can give the cake any size and shape you like. It will manage perfectly in all of them. I made mini cakes using a well buttered muffin tin and I added a few frozen blueberries and sliced almonds.

You can find Dorie's original recipe here.

Improvise and create your favourite flavour combination. Use the leftover egg yolks to make a pastry cream. Whatever you do the cake will still be fantastic.  

Who would have thought that it was "invented" by nuns! I have to hand it to the sisters, they know how to bake a cake. 

As for the soup. My woolly brain did not dream about it. The soup was last week's recipe. It was not a vichyssoise but the Vegetable Barley Soup with the Taste of Little India as Dorie calls it, only that in my case it was with Chickpeas.  


It was a gorgeous soup both in appearance and in taste. Bold, aromas; subtle and comforting flavours; full of colour and character. I loved it so much I made two huge pots and put it in the freezer for the next time I am in the need for a little Indian fix. Turmeric and garam masala are the stars of the recipe and if you want to make your own garam masala spice mix head over to my friend Alice's blog for a great recipe. 


To see how my fellow Doristas like both recipes click here.

French Fridays with Dorie (FFwD) is an online cooking group where we cook recipes from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours
We do not publish the recipes on our blogs. For more information about our group and on how to join us click here