Frangipane Mince Tart – Gluten Free

A wonderful change from the usual mince pies with it’s delicious frangipane topping. It’s also easier to make as there’s far less cutting and shaping with pastry. I used my own homemade mincemeat which is gluten free and vegan. The recipe is here on my website if you would like to make it. It’s very simple and can be made ahead once stored in sterilised jars. A great dessert to serve with cream or custard after a lovely dinner.

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Maple Glazed Gingerbread Cakes

These Maple Glazed Gingerbread Cakes with are a delicious little bake that has all the warm, cosy feel of winter with the rich mix of wonderful spices. I have made mine in a Nordicware Heritage Bundtlette tin that holds 6. It measures 4″ across. You could also use a silicone bundt mould which would make 12 cakes. They usually measure about 2.5″ / 3″ across the top.

Silicone will take longer to bake than a metal tin so that’s worth noting. Also, you should only fill your tin about 2/3rd way up and leave them to sit in the tin for at least 10 minutes before attempting to remove them. If you follow my tips for preparing the tin, they will simply slip out!

The recipe seems to have a lot of ingredients and please don’t let that put you off. It’s mainly all the spices.

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Coffee and Walnut Fudge

This fudge recipe is made in the traditional way so there’s no fear of any crumbly bits. It’s so smooth and so delicious but does take a little time when you’re bringing it to boil but this is what gives you that smooth, professional and really beautiful finish so for special occasions, it’s definitely worth it.

The flavour is gorgeous, full of rich coffee which cuts through the sweetness perfectly! Homemade fudge is so different than more commercial versions. It’s full of flavour and doesn’t get lost in an overly sweet taste.

The recipe is perfect to give as gifts. I put 3 pieces into cellophane bags, wrapped with pretty ribbon and gave them as gifts. People raved about the flavour and even though it doesn’t sound like much, 3 pieces of this fudge is more than enough for most people!

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Mango Ice Cream – No Churn

After running a poll on what ice cream flavour to make over on the cozebakes Facebook page, the winner by quite a big margin was Mango Ice Cream.

I make this a little differently than the other ice cream recipes on here as you could chop up fresh mango and mix it in but there’s a chance you would be eating frozen pieces of mango with ice on them after the freezing process and that wouldn’t be very nice! The solution I felt was to pulp the mango in my food processer and mix this in to get the flavour throughout.

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Peaches & Cream Ice Cream

Most of my other ice cream recipes use condensed milk and they are all really good. As peaches are in season, I tried a recipe with fresh peaches and using the same method. I had no complaints, everyone loved it but I wasn’t happy. I felt the condensed milk was the primary flavour instead of the peaches so I set about trying to work around this.

I’m happy to report that the second test worked out much closer to what I wanted to achieve 🙂

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Date & Apple Cake / Traybake

I first sampled this delicious cake at a Neff Cooking Demonstration to help me understand my new cooker better and not use just 3 settings! After tasting it I asked for the recipe and the ladies very kindly gave it to me.

I made it in an 8″ / 20cm round tin but ideally if you want it to do the same, you need to use a 9″ / 23cm tin or as a traybake, use a 30cm x 20cm rectangular tin. You can serve up to 16 people so it’s a great crowd pleaser.

Don’t worry at all if you don’t like dates; one of my friends is not a fan so I blitzed the dates in a blender before adding them but you can of course just mush them with a fork or potato masher.  Continue reading

Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

I love that you can make ice cream without having to use any special equipment and that it still tastes totally delicious and if you check out the Desserts section here, you’ll find some really nice ice cream recipes. All tried, tested and very much given the thumbs up!

This recipe uses the Carnation Caramel tin from Nestle for the “dulce de leche” as it’s the quickest and easiest way to achieve the thick, rich caramel. You can of course boil the traditional Carnation Condensed Milk tin if you need to.

You can freeze for 6 hours or overnight which I prefer but it means that if you make this first thing in the morning, you could serve it that evening for dessert!

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Toffee Brownie Ice Cream

I made brownies for my son and his friends and had half a tray leftover (always bake extra!) so as the ice cream recipes were going down so well with everyone, I figured I could make an ice cream from the leftovers. It worked! Really well!!

Following the basic method used for some of the other ice cream recipes, I changed and added ingredients to try and get that lovely rich toffee flavour with bites of soft, squidgy brownie throughout. Result!

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Raspberry Ripple Kirsch Ice Cream

Definitely one of my favourite ice creams so far, this delicious and very pretty no churn ice cream recipe looks so good. Adding kirsch to it just gives it a little kick but you can leave it out if it’s for all ages.

You probably have most of the ingredients already in the house so why not have a go at making it? It will store in the freezer for a month but it won’t last that long!! It’s delicious scooped into cones or pop a few scoops into a bowl with some fresh raspberries and a drizzle of the left over raspberry sauce for a lovely dessert.

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