Baked anything tasty lately?

Cheese and roasted onion soda bread.

Never find it easy but they seem to be getting better.

Mary Berry recipe and looked at “The Hollywood” video also last week. 😀

Tricky things.

I made an orange swiss roll, sugar-free. Not too bad, if I say so myself 😁

Sure, you'll need:

4 eggs

125g xylitol

125g flour

grated peel of 1 orange

200g quark

100g xylitol

Dash of orange juice

Whisk the eggs and xylitol until they're thick and pale. Sieve in the flour and mix carefully, then stir through the orange peel.

Pour into a lined 24x35cm (-ish) baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 220 for 8 - 10 minutes.

Turn out onto a sheet of baking paper and roll it up from the narrow side. Leave the sponge to cool while rolled up.

To make the filling, whisk the xylitol and the quark, adding just enough orange juice to make it creamy.

Once the sponge is cool, unroll, spread the quark creme, and roll up again.

Ingredients

Dry

500g wholemeal flour

300g plain flour

100g porridge oats

100g walnuts, roughly chopped or crushed

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

2 tablespoons sugar

Wet

700ml buttermilk

2 eggs

2 teaspoons treacle or molasses (optional but gives a great crust)

2 teaspoons honey

Preheat oven to 180 fan / 200 non fan.

Stir the dry ingredients together. Whisk the wet ingredients together, being patient with the treacle.

Combine wet and dry and stir to form a soft, sticky dough. Divide between two oiled loaf tins. Flatten gently in the loaf tins and sprinkle with oats or seeds. I had no seeds today.

Bake for 45 minutes, keeping an eye that the tops don't burn. If they're darkening, loosely drape some tinfoil on top. To test if they're done, stick in a skewer and it should come out clean and dry. Then knock on the base and if it sounds hollow you're good to go.

Eat with lots of butter and jam!

I use xylitol instead of sugar. That stuff is amazing! The only downside is it can't melt or caramelise, so these are soft biscuits, not snappy ones. But since the original German recipes would leave them a few days before eating so they can soften and mellow a bit, it's actually a perfect fit 😁

It is very expensive, compared to sugar. I usually shop around health food shops online to find if it's on offer anywhere. Usually, you're looking at €13 upwards for 1kg.

The upside is that it does seems sweeter than regular sugar (all sweeteners are, really), so I get away with using less.

And, yes, absolutely, keep this stuff away from any pets you have! It's seriously toxic to them.

Dulce de Leche Basque Cheesecake