Moreish Flapjacks

So, I am getting sick of all the plastic in our shop and day by day we are gradually cutting back on plastic, either products that are packed in plastic, or plastic straws, or shower gels in plastic bottles, or takeaway cups and so on.

We used to buy in some great flapjacks, gluten free, wheat free, vegan they ticked most of the food boxes but they were wrapped in plastic.

We sold the last one over the weekend, so it looks like if we want to sell flapjacks they'll have to be made from scratch. I made some and they taste amazing. They are very easy to make.


1/ Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2/ Line a 9" x 9" square brownie tin with grease proof paper.
3/ Place the following ingredients into a blender:
1/2 a cup of just boiled water
1/2 a cup of pitted dates, leave to stand for about 5 minutes.
4/ Add a ripe banana and 1/2 a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to the dates and water.
5/ Heat 4 tablespoons of coconut oil and pour into the blender.
6/ Blend it all together, I use the smoothie setting.
7/ When the mixture is properly blended, add 2 and a half cups of gluten free oats and stir in well by hand.
8/ Scrape the mixture from the blender and press it evenly into the prepared baking tin.
9/ Cook for around 20 minutes. 

Buckwheat Pancakes, Vegan and Gluten Free

Hmmmm, the difficulty for me with eggless and gluten free pancakes isn't getting them to taste nice, it is trying to get the perfect mix so that they don't stick to the bottom of my so called 'non-stick' pan! So, I have been tweaking and perfecting and trying and eating and selling my mashed up pancakes, or perfectly round pancakes, depending on how well they decide to turn out.

I have now, finally tweaked this recipe, I have done the hard work so that you don't have to!

Get all the ingredients NOW!

1/ Mix the following ingredients together in a large mixing jug:

1 and a 1/2 cups of Buckwheat Flour and then 1/2 a cup of Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain Flour.

2 teaspoons of baking powder

2 teaspoons of raw cane sugar

2/ Into a smaller jug put in:

3 cups of Almond Milk

1/2 a cup of unsweetened apple puree

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Mix well and then add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and stir in.

3/Heat half a tablespoon of coconut oil in a frying pan or wok, then pour the hot oil from the frying pan into the batter mixture.

4/ Put another half a tablespoon of cooking oil into the pan to heat until very hot, almost smoking.

5/ Pour a little of the pancake mixture into the pan, and gently swirl the oil around to make sure that the base of the pancake is covered.

6/ Heat until the pancake is cooked all the way through and won't fall apart when turning it over.

7/ Keep cooking the pancake mixture one by one, heating up a half a spoonful of Coconut oil to the right temperature each time.

Schmeese Vegan and Gluten Free Pizza

Right now, cooking in my oven is a Schmeese Vegan and Gluten Free Pizza!

I've got to blog this recipe quickly, as it only takes 15 to 20 minutes to cook and I want to finish this, so that I can eat it! Yum, yum!

So, this is how I made my Vegan and Gluten Free Pizza:

First of all prepare the Schmeese!

1/ Put one tablespoon of coconut oil into a saucepan and heat.

2/ Then add one tablespoon of buckwheat flour.

3/ After about half a minute add 1/2 a cup of almond milk slowly to the pan, whilst stirring.

4/ Then add two tablespoons of Engevita Flakes and stir them in well.

5/ Put this on the side, whilst you prepare the base.

Now, prepare the base.

1/ Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

2/ Prepare a baking tray or pizza tray by putting grease proof paper on it and oiling the paper really well.

3/ Put the following into a jug or bowl;

1/2 a cup of Buckwheat Flour

2 tablespoons of arrowroot

2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed

1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder (Gluten Free)

1/4 a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

a pinch of salt

4/ Mix well.

5/ Add 1/2 a cup of water to the mix. You may need to add more buckwheat flour as you go to make it combine into dough that can be rolled into a ball without being too sticky to handle.

6/ Put the ball of the dough in the centre of the baking tray/pizza tray and flatten then spread out by pushing towards the edges with your fingertips. Keep going until it is a nice round or rectangle shape.

7/ Then spread the following on top of the pizza base:

1 tablespoon of tomato puree

Freshly crushed garlic, or powdered garlic.

Chilli Flakes

Mixed Herbs.

A touch of Tamari Gluten Free Soya Sauce

8/ Then sprinkle a grated carrot over the top and lay out some spinach leaves.

9/ Then drizzle the Vegan Schmeese Sauce over the top!

10/ Put the pizza into the pre-heated oven and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Well, my pizza finished cooking, about halfway through writing this, I presented it on a bed of salad leaves from our local Shepton Mallet Friday Market and it was delicious. The salad leaves come from Tasty Leaves and most of the ingredients to make the pizza are available from our online shop, or come and visit us in Shepton Mallet. My Coffee Stop, 34, High Street, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 5AS!

Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Frosting

I had such a lot of fun on Facebook this week asking for cake flavour suggestions and then I promised that the one I picked as the winning flavour to bake, would have a free slice sent to them through the post! The overall flavour winner was a Lavender and Vanilla cake suggestion, which sounded wonderfully summery and unusual too, so the lucky lady that suggested it, actually did receive a slice of her bespoke, specially created flavour cake through the post, just a few days later and she was delighted. That recipe however, is for another day!

There were so many excellent suggestions that I have decided that I will indeed bake every single one that I feel could be attractive and appealing and made my way. Cakes made my way are wholesome, vegan and glutenfree.

I would make myself bankrupt sending off a free slice of cake to everyone who had made a suggestion, so I have decided to give back in another way, by baking the cake and tweaking it and then sharing my recipe so that anyone can make it!

An important point for me to make is that I don't like faffing around in the kitchen, making things complicated and fussy, I want quick and tasty results. When I work with a recipe, I want it to be easy to read and not have to weight out lots of ingredients first, into lots of bowls and create lots of washing up! No way. I do not like washing up and cleaning up, so space used is minimal and ingredients are measured out with cups, rather than weighed out on scales, a lot easier. This is why my recipes don't have an ingredient list at the beginning. The way to use my recipes is to read through them once to check you have everything you need, or suitable substitutions. Then follow the step by step instructions.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake with frosting.

The Cake

1/ Preheat the oven to 180°

2/ Line a 9" x 9" brownie tin with greaseproof paper and then grease it with vegetable oil.

3/ Put the following ingredients into a large jug and stir well:
1 cup of Essential Buckwheat Flour
1/2 a cup of Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain Flour
1/2 a cup of sugar
1/2 a cup of Divine Cocoa Powder
1/2 a teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 a smashed up bar, 100g of Divine Dark Baking Chocolate

4/ Put the following ingredients into a blender and blend well:

1/2 a cup of cooked beetroot
1 cup of water
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
2 tablespoons of Biona Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother

5/ Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir well.

6/ Pour the batter out into the greased and lined baking tray and pop into the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

7/ Take the cake out of the oven and cover with foil, then bake for another 10 minutes, or until a knife stuck into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

8/ Leave the cake to cool, with the foil taken off.

The Frosting

1/ Combine the following ingredients finely in your blender:

Just ripe peeled and stoned avocados x 2

10 x tablespoons of Agave Nectar 

1/2 a cup of Divine Cocoa Powder.

2/ When the cake is cool smooth the frosting over the top. If you are lucky, there might be some mixture left in the blender which you will have to eat, to make cleaning easier!

3/ Slice this cake into 8 equal slices, or even 16 little cubes and store in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

This cake didn't last for one day, as everybody loved it!

If you have any questions about this recipe, please let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading and I'd love to know how you get on when you make yours.

My Delicious Vegan and Gluten-Free Spicy Black Bean Chocolate Brownies

I am posting this yummy recipe, especially for one of our regular customers, who keeps asking me for it. So here is is for you.

I know most coffee shops and restaurants don't usually release their secret recipes but I am going to put them all into a cook book one day, so this is my little method of getting it all down before you actually have to pay for it! (I didn't want to write that bit but our customer Rob, who can hear what I am writing because I keep reading it out, keeps piping up with suggestions in the background and he said that he hopes you buy the book anyway, as a matter of fact, I agree with him).

I wanted to create a brownie that everyone could enjoy, the catch word I like to think of in our shop is inclusivity, (It's probably not a real word but it could be one day). I want everyone to be able to eat the same thing and not worry about allergies, or health issues, or weight gain and so on. So, I try to make things that all the different groups of minority eaters can enjoy together.

The great thing about these Brownies is if you swap the Divine Bar of chocolate for the Hasslacher's 100% Cacao option, they are perfectly suitable for a clean eating paleo diet, with no refined sugar in.

Here we go then:

1/ Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2/ Take a 9" x 9" square brownie tin, line with grease proof paper.

Take one 400g can of drained black beans and put into a blender.

2/ Add two dessertspoons of Divine Cocoa powder.

3/ Meanwhile take 1/4 of a cup of Biona Organics mild coconut oil and put it in a warm place to melt. I normally put mine in a bowl of hot water.

4/ Take 1/3 a cup of Chantico Organic Agave Sweetner and pour into the ingredients that are already in the blender.

5/ Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of Taylor and Colledge Vanilla Bean Extract vanilla essence and 1/2 a teaspoon of Doves Farm Gluten Free Baking Powder.

6/ Take half a cup of gluten-free Glebe Farm Oats and add to the ingredients in the blender.

7/ Add a pinch of ginger and a pinch of chilli, or leave out, or put more in according to your taste!

8/ Pour your melted coconut oil into the ingredients in the blend and then blend. I use a smoothie setting on mine.

9/ Smash up a 100g bar of Divine Chocolate. This has sugar in it, so for a cleaner option, you could use Hasslacher's 100% Cacao. Just use about 8 cubes, as it is very intense, if you love bitter, you'll love it with this chocolate! Then stir whichever smashed up chocolate you have chosen into the mix.

10/ Then pour the whole mixture into the brownie tin and cook for 19 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Get the ingredients now for the Hasslacher's Version

Get the ingredients now for the Divine Chocolate Version.



Nutritional Information.

This recipe makes 9 portions.

The Hasslacher's Version is about 127 calories per serving.
13.5g Carbs Sugars 7g
6.8g Fat Saturated is 5.8g
2.9g Protein
64.6mg Sodium
5.3% Iron


The Divine Chocolate Version is about 165 calories per serving.
20.5g Carbs Sugars 12.7g
Fats 8.7g
Saturated 10.6g
Polyunsaturated 2g
Monounsaturated 1.7g
Trans 2.3g
Sodium 394.4mg
Potassium 284.3mg
Dietry Fiber 3.8g
Protein 3g
Calcium 1.5%
Iron 8.5%

Best Brownies Ever, Fairtrade, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, with Free-Range Eggs in just TEN STEPS

It's not every day that you go to someone's funeral and taste a cake that is so deliciously chocolatey and gooey and chewy, all that same time, that you have to ask the person who gave it to you from her tin, for the recipe. 'Ah', she responded,'It is a secret family recipe and I can't tell it to you.' I knew that I had to get that recipe, it couldn't remain a secret any longer, I wanted my customers in my shop to be able to enjoy a slice of this indulgent deliciousness with their coffee. Poor lady at the funeral, I followed her around asking and asking, finally, she smiled a secret, cheeky smile and told me the truth, that it comes out of a packet mix from Costco.

So, we went to Costco and found the mix that she was talking about and it was so easy, we just had to add some oil and some eggs and they came out perfectly, every time, which was great for me, as I don't see myself as a naturally great cook, I'm the kind of person that would always burn myself when cooking, or burn what I was cooking! Also, my concentration is not my strong point, so remembering where I am in a recipe or even planning ahead to pre-heat the oven, is still an achievement in itself. That I suppose, would be the end of the story, if I didn't feel passionately about Fairtrade and making sure that our cakes do something to help heal the planet and are ethical too. I called up the mix manufacturer and asked if they would be doing a Fairtrade version, with Fairtrade chocolate and sugar in and they said that it wasn't on their radar at all. I was really disappointed and after a lot of thinking decided to try to create a recipe as simple as theirs, no egg separation needed, no fancy stuff, just quick ingredients that you can throw in the bowl and then cook and it comes out right, every time, no matter who makes it and it is Fairtrade and I decided that I wanted to make it Gluten-Free too.

So, I tried and I tried and I tried, again and again and our customers were lucky enough to taste them and tell us what they wanted it to taste like, then one day, after lots of failures, I created a recipe that tasted so beautiful, gooey, chewy and rich but with a clean aftertaste! Success! Not only that but it was Fairtrade and Gluten-free too.

Well, after that build-up, you'll want the recipe now, won't you!

I write my recipes as step by step instructions, how you would do things logically, none of this suddenly being told to put things in a pre-heated oven, without being told it needed to be pare-heated, at the beginning of the recipe.

Best Brownies Ever, Fairtrade, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, with Free Range Eggs. Suitable for Vegetarians.

1/ Preheat the oven to 170 Degrees Celsius

2/ Line a 9 x 13 inch baking tray with grease-proof paper and grease with oil.

3/ Into a big bowl put 450g of raw cane caster sugar, Fairtrade, with 3 eggs and 1 teaspoon of Fairtrade Vanilla Extract. Mix together well, with a fork.

4/ Into a measuring jug, measure out 200ml of vegetable oil, then add 70g of Divine Cocoa Powder. Mix these together well with a fork and then add to the sugar and egg mix and mix it all together.

5/Next, measure out 120g of Doves Farm Organic Gluten Free Self Raising Flour and add 1 and a half teaspoons of Doves Farm Gluten Free Baking powder and add this to the chocolatey mixture, stir in well.

6/ Take a 100g bar of Divine Dark Chocolate and smash into pieces whilst still in the packet, using a rolling pin, I prefer a hammer though!

7/ Mix the chocolate pieces into the mix.

8/ Pour and scrape the mix into the prepared baking tray.

9/ Place in to the preheated oven for 19 minutes. Then take out, cover with foil and place in the oven for another 19 minutes.

10/ Take the brownies out and give them time to cool, then serve up and enjoy!

These brownies are great for a teatime treat, or even as an extra delicious dessert. If you can't be bothered to make them for yourself, then please pop into our shop and get some.

These brownies are full of sugar, so they are not the healthiest thing in the world to eat but they are very, very tasty and enjoyable!

Healthy Chocolate Smoothie with Chia Seeds!

Why,  oh why, do people drink crappy milkshakes with artificial syrups in them and icecream, when they can have something as tasty and delicious as this chocolatey concoction, which is actually good for you, as well as tasting so deliciously good?

I make one of these if I need a chocolate boost, for my breakfast, or for a snack and it takes like a real treat. Today, I made one for myself and one for my soon to be a teenager son. We loved sipping them in the sunshine and even though he ate those Bamboozled Jelly Beans the other day, blurgh, at least I know that he enjoyed something a lot healthier today.

Here's the recipe for two mason jars:

Put all these ingredients into a good, strong blender.

600 ml of Almond Milk
2 x tablespoons of Pulsin Rice Protein Powder
2 x tablespoons of Naturya Lacuma powder
2 x tablespoons of Raw Cacao Powder from The Raw Chocolate Company
1 tablespoon of Artisan Grain Chia seeds
2 x ripe bananas (I normally use Fairtrade and Organic)
A pinch of ginger, if required.

Then whizz on the smoothie setting, pour out into two seperate classes and enjoy.

All the above ingredients are available to buy online for delivery or through click and collect, from our shop.

Or just pop in to see us at My Coffee Stop, 34, High Street, Shepton Mallet, BA4 5AS

My Maca Bliss Balls

My Maca Powder arrived today and I could not wait to experiment with this new taste. Reading up about it on the web, I see it is said to have libido raising properties, that it can energise and lift your mood and other positive things and it tastes sweet and malty, what's not to love. So, after browsing a bit more, I created these truffles, a mish mash of other recipes tweaked and completely changed and mashed up and My Maca Bliss Balls, is what I have created!

This is what I did, all the ingredients are available to buy or order from us, by the way.

My Maca Bliss Balls

Soak 1/2 a cup of cashews and 1/2 a cup of walnuts in boiling hot water.

Take 10 pitted organic and Fairtrade dates and soak those in a separate bowl of boiling hot water.

Prepare the other ingredients.

Put 3 tablespoons of coconut butter in a container and put somewhere warm, or maybe put the container into hot water, so that it melts and add a drop of vanilla extract.

Then measure out 1/4 cup of Raw Cacao Powder, plus a 1/4 of a cup of Maca Powder and two tablespoons of Hemp Protein Powder.

Drain the water from the nuts and put the nuts into your superduper strong blender, not just any ordinary blender, otherwise this won't work. Then pulse and blend, until nicely combined.

Next drain the water from the dates and add them to the blender and then whizz away.

Keep blending and slowly pour the melted coconut butter with vanilla extract into the mix.

Then add the powders and blend well together, until it is all stodgy!

Put the mix into a metal container then put into the freezer, whilst you prepare the coatings for your truffles.

I used Cacao nibs on some, melted chocolate on some others and cacao powder on the ones that were left. 

It's pretty much up to you how creative you get and what you'd like to do.

Once you have your coatings ready, it's time to get the mix out of the freezer and start rolling walnut sized balls, you should get around 12 to 15 balls. Then roll them in your chosen coating, put them into the fridge and then ENJOY!!

I am now going to take these home to my family to enjoy and hopefully we will have a blissed out evening.

Please let me know what you decide to coat your balls with! (Hmmm, that doesn't sound too good but you know what I mean). xxx

The Easiest, Quickest, Tastiest Gluten-Free Pizza Ever!

I have just enjoyed the most delicious gluten-free pizza that I have ever made, no, I have just enjoyed the most delicious gluten-free pizza that I have ever tasted! Here is the recipe and it is PERFECT! The base is also brilliant for Vegans too, with no milk, or eggs needed! (If you are making Vegan pizza make sure that the toppings you choose are suitable for Vegans and don't put cheese on and I do NOT recommend any cheese replacement either, they are yuck, in my opinion!)

The base of the pizza is made with the Glebe Farm, Gluten Free Seeded Brown Bread Mix, which you can buy from our shop.

1/ Preheat your oven to 190 Degrees.

2/ Line a 9" x 13" baking tray with greaseproof paper and then grease well with oil.

3/ Pour a whole packet of 375g of Glebe Farm, Gluten Free Seeded Brown Bread Mix with Linseed and Sunflower Seeds into a large bowl and add the 10g of yeast included in the packet. 

4/ Stir in 1 tablespoon of raw cane caster sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt.

5/ Then into a measuring jug pour in hot water up to the 200ml mark, then add cold water to make up to 275ml in total.

6/ Add 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to the water and stir in, then pour into the flour mixture and stir round until it is well mixed.

7/ Scrape the mixture into the baking tin and level it off, with the back of a spoon.

8/ Next, top with any toppings you like, put in the oven and cook for 20 to 25 minutes.

That's it!

In the photos, I used a tomato topping that I had whizzed up in the blender of tinned tomatoes, olives, herbs and tomato puree, with garlic, I spread that onto the base, layered baby spinach leaves on top of that, sprinkled on some cheddar cheese, and placed olive slices and torn sun-dried tomatoes on top.

The end result is the most delicious gluten-free pizza ever! Don't forget, you can make it suitable for Dairy-Free Diets and Vegans by missing out the cheese and ensuring you use only Dairy-Free/Vegan toppings.

Gluten Free Awareness Week UK

Gluten-Free Awareness Week, From 12th May to 18th May 2014!

We are celebrating this event by offering more flavours than ever before in our Shepton Mallet Shop! Today, I have just finished baking some absolutely delicious Blueberry Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Muffins. I've worked hard on perfecting our Gluten-Free recipes, our cakes do not taste dairy or gluten-free. In fact in Shepton Mallet, all our cakes are Gluten and Dairy-Free! 

I really enjoy seeing the look on people's faces as they ask what Gluten-Free or Dairy-Free options we have available and they actually have a choice and it's not just one token cake.

Coeliac UK are the charity that are promoting this Awareness week, part of their campaign is to ensure that supermarket chains commit to stocking the essentials you need, so that you don't need to go all over the place for your weekly shop! 

We have a massive range of Gluten-Free goods available to you, that we can order in for you from either of our shops, so if it's important to you to support the independents, please let us know what you are finding it hard to find and we will get it! Just pop into either of our shops and tell us exactly what you are looking for.

In our Enfield shop we provide a range of ready wrapped grab and go snacks that are great for Coeliacs, or those on a dairy-free diet and in our Shepton Mallet shop, we have ready wrapped snacks available, as well as handmade, home baked artisan Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Cakes!

We hope to stock these cakes in our Enfield branch soon.

Out of interest, what would your favourite Gluten-Free cake be? Please let me know by commenting here.

Have a great Awareness Week 2014!