Leon Happy Baking cookbook: Recipes from strawberry and blueberry cobbler to carrot cake
With sweet and savoury bakes, many of which are free of sugar, dairy, wheat and gluten, this will become a go-to bible in no time
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Your support makes all the difference.Strawberry and blueberry cobbler
The topping is like a scone or American biscuit and melts into the jammy fruit. Serve this one with thick cream.
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
250g blueberries
500g strawberries, hulled and quartered
50g caster sugar
4 tablespoons cornflour
200g gluten-free self-raising flour
2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
a large pinch of salt
50g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
150ml double cream, plus extra to brush the topping
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Combine the berries, sugar and cornflour and put into a deep 1–1.5 litre baking dish.
Put the flour, baking powder, salt and butter into a bowl and use the back of a fork or two knives to break up the chunks of butter into tiny pieces. Pour over the cream and mix until it all comes together.
Press the topping into a ball and place on a floured work surface. Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes. Then roll out to a 2cm thickness and cut out circles with a biscuit cutter.
Lay the circles flat over the fruit, brush with extra cream and place on a baking tray to catch any drips. Bake in the oven for 35–40 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbly and the topping is golden brown.
Tip: You can also make this cobbler topping with regular self-raising flour. Experiment with different fruits: peaches and nectarines work well, with a little added lemon zest and juice.
Better carrot cake
A beautiful carrot cake made without any dairy, wheat, gluten or refined sugar. Baking with the ingredients below takes some getting used to – the mixture will have a different consistency from a traditional wheat-based cake – but the results are worth the effort. Coconut oil and boiling watermake the cake very moist. The rice flour gives the cake a fine texture and the spices and mandarin oil impart a unique flavour.
Serves: 8–10
Prep time: 30 mins + cooling cook time: about 1 hour
250g carrots, peeled and grated
50g apple or sweet potato, peeled and grated
50g desiccated coconut
50g coconut oil, melted
50ml sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
120ml agave nectar
1½ teaspoons yacon syrup (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
70g gram flour or polenta flour
140g gluten-free plain flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
180ml hot water
½ teaspoon mandarin, lemon or orange extract
1 quantity Vegan Vanilla Icing (see below)
Heat the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3. Grease a 900g/2lb loaf tin and line it with baking paper. Combine the carrots, apple or sweet potato, coconut, coconut oil, sunflower oil, agave, yacon syrup and vanilla in a bowl and set aside.
Combine the dry ingredients in a second bowl and whisk together to evenly distribute them. Whisk in the carrot mixture.
Gradually pour in the hot water and citrus extract and mix to a smooth batter. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake in the oven for 55–65 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Turn out of the loaf tin and allow to cool completely. Ice with vanilla icing.
Tip: As there is no gluten in this recipe, the xanthan gum works as a binding agent. If you can’t find it, you might find a self-raising gluten-free flour blend which already contains it.
Vegan vanilla icing
prep time: 15 mins + chilling
350ml unsweetened soya milk, preferably Bonsoy
100g almond milk powder (not ground almonds)
50ml agave nectar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract seeds from 1 vanilla pod
340g coconut oil, melted
2 tablespoons fresh orange or clementine juice
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
75g cashew nut butter
With a stick blender or in a food processor, combine the soya milk, almond milk powder, agave and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth. Add the scraped seeds from the vanilla pod.
Combine the melted coconut oil with the orange and lemon juice and add to the mixture gradually, blending until smooth. Add the cashew nut butter and again blend until smooth.
Chill overnight before using so that the coconut oil solidifies. Remove from the fridge 30 minutes–1 hour before using, to soften.
'LEON Happy Baking' by Claire Ptak and Henry Dimbleby is published by Conran Octopus, £16.99. Photography by Steven Joyce
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