Crunchy Buckwheat Granola

Before the strawberry jam disaster, I did have some culinary success last week.

During the winter, I saw an interesting recipe in a newspaper using raw buckwheat as an ingredient. However by the time I’d managed to find a shop where I could buy raw buckwheat, I’d lost the recipe. Since then the buckwheat has been hanging out in the cupboard, looking for something to do.

Earlier this month we tried a gluten-free muesli, which was pretty good, but rather pricey (amazing how costly items become once they are labelled gluten-free). Interestingly the muesli contained buckwheat. I wondered if this would work in granola too, so I hit the internet in search of a recipe.

I found this super Crunchy Buckwheat Granola recipe on the “Kath Eats Real Food” website.

I made just two changes to Kath’s recipe – I substituted chopped, mixed nuts for the whole raw almonds, and sunflower oil for the canola oil.

For those with metric ovens, 300 degrees F is ~150 degrees C.

The granola was a great success – crunchy and delicious. If you use  gluten-free oats, the granola is gluten-free too. I’ll definitely be making this again & again. Now if only I could remember where I purchased that buckwheat ……??

Lunch at Tisanes

One of our favourite places for a light snack or afternoon tea in the Cotswolds is Tisanes, a super little tea room in Broadway.  We love the atmosphere, the food and the efficient, friendly staff. There is an entire menu devoted to loose-leaf teas and they have a good selection of coffees. We can’t resist the sandwiches filled with warm, runny brie, bacon and avocado. They do traditional cream teas and always have a good selection of delicious, freshly-baked cakes.  This is quite a special place if you are on a gluten-free diet. The sandwiches are available on gluten-free bread, and the gluten-free victoria sponge cakes, scones, toasted teacakes and other goodies ensure that tea-time is a treat for everyone.

Gluten-Free Banana Bread

I made some gluten-free banana bread today, with a couple of  over-ripe bananas that have been hanging round in the fridge for ages. The banana bread was easy to make, it had a super consistency and tasted gorgeous.

Recipe

1. Set the oven temperature to 175 degrees Celsius

2. Into a blender/food processor place:

• 2 bananas
• 2 eggs
• 60g sugar
• ½ cup sunflower oil

3. Mix together until smooth.

4. Add the following dry ingredients to the above mixture:

• 200g gluten free flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• A pinch of salt

5. Mix again until smooth

6. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf tin

7. Bake at 175 degrees Celsius for 60 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

8. Leave in the tin to cool for a few minutes, then turn onto a rack to finish cooling.

Slice and enjoy.