Provena Gluten-Free Products and a Giveaway

I've been baking a fair bit with gluten-free flour over the past year or so as I have a work colleague who can't eat gluten. From reading other blogs I know there are a lot of people out there in the same situation, and it's amazing the number of things you can't eat or have to check the labels on in case they contain gluten (sausages, for instance). And I always assumed she wouldn't be able to eat breakfast cereal as that contains gluten, but it turns out I was wrong.

Provena is a specialist in gluten-free cereals, flours and baking products - its range is oat-based and the company says it uses some of the purest and highest grade of oats in the world, which gives a better flavour. The oats they use are grown in Finland, a country with the lowest air pollution in Europe, which is all good for their products!

They sent me some products to review and also some to give away to one lucky reader - see below for the entry form.


Even if you can eat gluten, these products are worth a look. Did you know that oats can help lower cholesterol, they contain fibre which is good for digestion, and also stabilise blood sugar levels and boost metabolism, and give a slow release of energy throughout the day.

The products that Provena sent me, and which you can win in this giveaway, are:

Gluten Free Jumbo Oats:  won two gold stars at 2016 Great Taste awards. Provena’s flagship product; they say : "Large, wholesome oats, that brim with taste and goodness." You could use these to make a breakfast dish or to bake into cookies.

Gluten Free Flour Mix with Oats - won a gold star at the 2015 Great Taste awards. They say: "An honest, gluten free flour that creates better tasting bakes".

Gluten Free Oat Museli: gluten-free muesli containing apples, dates, raisins and sunflower seeds "for a superb start to the day".

Gluten Free Wholegrain Oat Flour: with even more fibre, suitable for sweet or savoury doughs "that create astonishingly tasty, well-textured baked goods".

Gluten Free Oat Bread Mix: a flour mix containing oats that "creates a bread with a fantastic texture and delicious taste"

Gluten Free Instant Oat Meal - a mixture of porridge oats and either raspberries or apricot (it comes in two flavours). I was quite curious to try this as I've had porridge before that you mix with milk and put in the microwave, but with this you only need to add boiling water (so it's much easier to make at work for instance). I tried the apricot flavour and it was really good!

Gluten Free Chocolate Muffin Mix - of course this is the product I turned to first and made up the packet mix to take in for my colleague at work. It was so quick and easy to make - you just add eggs and margarine. I was slightly confused by the instructions to add 150ml melted margarine as I had no idea how much that equated to before it was melted, so I guessed, and melted some in the microwave and then added a little bit more. The muffins turned out really well and tasted great - they have little chocolate chips inside them and my colleague was delighted!

I'm looking forward to trying out the other products but as the company wanted me to run the giveaway as soon as possible I haven't had the chance yet! There are also some great recipes on the Provena website.

You can find Provena on Facebook and Twitter and you can buy their products from Holland & Barrett and Amazon.

So here's what you can win, the full Provena range. The giveaway is open to UK addresses only; you just need to fill in the Rafflecopter entry form below.

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cherry and Almond Cakes

Recently I met up with a very artistic, talented lady who was passing on to me a piece of craft equipment and didn’t want any money for it (I didn’t realise at the time how expensive it was, or I might have insisted!) so I wanted to at least bake her something as a thank you.

It had to be something that would transport easily in a box as I was going to see her straight after work and knew I wouldn’t be able to carry a big cake box (as I would also have the craft equipment to take home) so decided to make some simple muffins or unfrosted cupcakes that wouldn’t get damaged in transit. I also wasn’t sure how she would be feeling about cake as she had been ill recently, and I didn’t want to make anything too sickly-sweet. I had some glace cherries in the cupboard and wondered about a recipe for a simple cherry cake, and came across this recipe for cherry and almond cake on the Macmillan website.

 

 

The recipe is for one large cake but I used a pretty silicon muffin mould instead. There seems to be a typo in the recipe though as it says 1 5 g/4oz of flour and the same of almonds; clearly it wasn’t 15g so I checked and found that 4oz is the same as 113g so that’s how much I used. So to clarify, my ingredients were:

 

170g margarine

170g caster sugar

3 eggs

115g self-raising flour

115g ground almonds

85g glace cherries, halved

 

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream the margarine and sugar together and then beat in the eggs.

 

 

Fold in the flour and then the almonds and cherries.

 

 

 

Spoon into the muffin moulds – as mine was silicon I didn’t use cake cases but sprayed the mould with Cake Release. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

  

 

 

I think these are technically cupcakes but look more like muffins as they don’t have any frosting, so I’m not quite sure what to call them!

 

 

 

These were really quick to make; I did taste one when it came out of the oven and it was light and fluffy – and particularly good served hot, you might want to try these with custard!

 

I'm entering these in Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter she has chosen this month is C.

 

White Chocolate, Banana and Walnut Gluten-Free Muffins

Some people crack open the champagne when they win an award - I crack open the flour and sugar.

I was recently named Writer of the Year (I know, right?!) by the Institute of Internal Communications (that's my day job in case you didn't know - Senior Writer in a bank's comms team) and as my fiancé was still too tired to go out in the evening - after weeks of working through the night and weekends on a big project - I decided to celebrate by throwing together some cakes to take into work the next day.

I had a few overripe bananas to use up and wanted something quick and easy to make, and my eye fell upon a cookery book called Muffin Magic by Susannah Blake. I found a recipe for nutty banana muffins and decided to adapt it to make it gluten-free as the lady I sit next to at work is gluten intolerant and I wanted her to be able to enjoy them as well. So here's what I did:

 

White Chocolate, Banana and Walnut Gluten-Free Muffins

300g gluten free self raising flour (I used Doves farm)

90g soft brown sugar

150ml skimmed milk

1 egg, beaten

100ml sunflower oil

2 ripe bananas, thinly sliced or mashed

85g walnut pieces, chopped

100g white chocolate chips - I used Dr Oetker

Preheat the oven to 200C. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

 

Beat the egg and add to the sunflower oil and milk and pour onto the dry ingredients. Mix well.

 

 

 

Spoon into paper muffin cases and bake for 20 mins at 200C.

 

 

 

Allow to cool; I put some of them into tulip muffin cases - these are the kind you typically see in coffee shops - as I think it made them look nice.

 

 

 

The muffins were great - I couldn't tell any difference with using the gluten-free flour. They weren't too sweet so I actually had one for breakfast, and the rest of the muffins which I took into work disappeared pretty quickly!

 

 

I'm sharing these muffins with Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter she has chosen this month is M.

 

 

I'm also sending this to We Should Cocoa, hosted by Tin and Thyme, as the ingredients to use for the challenge this month are chocolate and bananas.

 

 

Slimming World Asparagus and Red Pepper Muffins

Now that the weather is getting nicer our thoughts are turning to al fresco eating. Whether it's a picnic in the park with your friends, high tea at the garden table with the family or even just taking your packed lunch outside the office to eat on a bench, you are going to need recipes which are easy to

throw together in a hurry, can be packed up and eaten cold - preferably without the need for cutlery!

These asparagus and red pepper 'muffins' are low calorie and fat free; they aren't muffins in the usual sense as there is no cake - instead the filling is made from egg. The recipe comes from Slimming World so it is great for anyone following a heathy eating plan. The colours are really vibrant which is another reason I like this recipe.

To make a dozen, you need:

Spray oil such as Fry Light

200g asparagus tips

1 jar roasted red peppers in brine, drained and chopped

6 eggs

2 cloves garlic, crushed

small handful fresh chopped herbs eg tarragon, parsley

salt, pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C. Blanch the asparagus in boiling water for two minutes then chop



Mix in a bowl with the chopped red pepper

Line a muffin tray with paper cupcake cases and spray the inside of each one with Fry Light. Place a spoonful of the asparagus and red pepper mixture into each one.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with the garlic, herbs, salt and pepper. Pour into each muffin case, being careful not to fill too much. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until risen.

Allow to cool before removing from the tin

These can be served warm or cold; just peel off the paper cases and enjoy.

These will keep for a few days in the fridge in a sealed container so you can make them at the weekend to take into work or make them a day or two before your picnic.

I'm sending this to Eat Your Greens, hosted by Shaheen at Allotment2Kitchen, as it contains a green vegetable.

These are also a good way to get some extra veg into your diet so I am sending this recipe to the Extra Veg challenge hosted this month by Jo's Kitchen on behalf of Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy.

The theme for this month's Treat Petite is hello spring, and I think these muffins are perfect for spring. The challenge is hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi and Kat at the Baking Explorer.

Asparagus is now in season so I'm also sending this to Simple and In Season, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours on behalf of Ren Behan.

Queen Cakes / Blueberry Muffins

I have a lot of cookery books. I realised that again when Dom at Belleau Kitchen published this month's random recipe challenge, and asked us to turn to the 40th page of our 40th book and make whatever was on that page. My recipe books are in alphabetical order - thanks to my boyfriend when he was bored on evening - and I counted along; when I got to 40 I was still only as far as the letter E!

The book in question was Easy Cupcakes from Marks & Spencer and on page 40 were Queen Cupcakes. I'd never heard of them before and there was no explanation for the name; they seem to be simple cupcakes baked with currants. However, I had some blueberries in the fridge that needed using up - and I don't like blueberries on their own - so I thought Dom wouldn't mind if I adapted the recipe a bit!

Makes 12

You need:

115g butter, softened

115g caster sugar

2 eggs

4 tsp lemon juice

175g self-raising flour

100g blueberries, halved

3 tbsp milk

This is a very simple recipe. Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl them mix in the eggs. Add the lemon juice, mix in the flour, with a dash of milk to loosen the batter, then fold in the blueberries.

Spoon into muffin cases and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

The recipe for the Queen Cakes does not involve any icing or decoration and as I decided to take these to a volunteering day I was doing with colleagues, I thought that would work well- I needed something that I could transport in a box in my rucksack that wouldn't be too messy. The cakes had a muffin-like texture and went down very well when we had a break in a hard day's work - we were building a cob oven and an irrigation system in a community garden. It was great fun!

I'm sending these to Random Recipes, hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen.

Family Foodies, hosted by Louisa at Eat Your Veg and Vanesther at Bangers and Mash, has as a theme this month barbecues, picnics and outdoor eating. These cakes or muffins are so easy to eat outdoors with no mess; they travel well and taste great too!

Ness at Jibber Jabber UK is looking for vintage cake recipes this month. Queen cakes are - from what I can find out - a very traditional old-fashioned kind of cake so I think that counts!

Blueberries are in season so I'm sending this to Simple and in Season, hosted by Ren Behan.

I am also sending this to Chris at Cooking Around The World - he has an exciting blog challenge relating to the world cup. England are playing today and my Queen Cakes are quintessentially British.

Double chocolate muffins

I was snowed in and working from home on Monday, and as it got to 5.30 it was getting dark and cold, and I had a massive craving for something chocolatey. I had a recipe book close at hand that I'd received for Christmas and started flicking through, looking for something I could make a half batch of so I would have a little bit of cake - but not too much, as I am supposed to be on a diet. I also decided it had to be something chocolately but something without frosting so I wouldn't add too many extra calories - so these double chocolate muffins looked perfect. They even use some fat free plain yogurt which helps reduce the calorie content further (compared to what it might have been otherwise).

The recipe is taken from the Good Housekeeping Baking Book.

Makes 12
125g butter
100g plain chocolate
225g plain flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
40g cocoa powder
175g caster sugar
200g white chocolate, chopped
pinch of salt
1 egg
200ml milk
150g low fat plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla flavouring

Preheat the oven to about 180C. Melt the butter and chocolate either in a bain marie or the microwave.

In a large bowl mix the flour, bicarb of soda, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and white chocolate - I broke the chocolate into small pieces so there would still be lumps in the mixture.

Mix the egg, yogurt, milk and vanilla in a jug and pour over the dry mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon. Also pour in the melted chocolate and butter and stir well.

Spoon into paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Here they are just having come out of the oven.

The muffins were wonderfully light with a slight crunch on the top, and you can still see the chunks of white chocolate inside.

These were a quick impromptu bake and I realised aferwards that I can use them for this month's Alphabakes challenge, which I am hosting - the letter this month is D. You've got a few more days to get in your entries and we've got a great prize on offer - check out the details here.

Funnily enough once I'd made these and licked the spoon that seemed to be enough to satisfy my chocolate craving.. so now I have half a dozen muffins going spare! I might have to take them into work or see if I can turn them into a dessert with chocolate sauce the next time my boyfriend is over - hmm, there's an idea!