Churros (gluten free!)

Last year we I discovered how amazingly quick and easy it is to make churros - Spanish doughnuts - from scratch at home. I made them a lot during the summer, including for breakfast in the garden on Sunday mornings after the twins had had friends for a sleep-over - they were a huge hit! Yesterday the kids helped me make them as an after-dinner treat for Valentine's Day (and we used up some leftover chocolate ganache from our recent lemon and courgette cupcakes), and we all ate them in front of the fire while we watched a movie.  

Traditionally you would use a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped nozzle, but I have found this can end up in a great sticky mess. It's far simpler to roll chunks of the dough into sausage shapes instead, and works brilliantly. The thicker they are, the more soft and doughy in the centre - but we've all agreed that we prefer them quite thin when they are extra crispy. The best part is the cinnamon sugar they are rolled in while still hot. 

Lemon and courgette cupcakes with chocolate ganache (kids vlog edition)

These little cupcakes have a secret ingredient - courgettes make them lovely and moist. The idea of lemon and chocolate might sound strange at first, but the combination really worked. Here's Frankie to show you how...

Whole clementine loaf cake

This cake is made with whole clementines, pureed with their skin on after softening by boiling for 15 minutes or so. It's a great way to use up any that have started to look a bit worse for wear in your fruit bowl. It's incredibly moist and flavoursome (and the house smells wonderful while you're making this!)

Gluten-free malt loaf (just like Soreen!)

Soreen malt loaf is one of our family's favourite things so I've been wanting to master a making a gluten-free version that my son can eat. Malt extract is made from barley, so I have instead used rice syrup, available from health food shops (you could also use date syrup, for a darker colour and depth of flavour.) I have done a couple of experiments to get this recipe exactly right (I found for example that using treacle made it too rich, but adding a couple of spoonfuls of hot chocolate powder and a little maple syrup and vanilla extract help to achieve the perfect flavour; I also tried using dates and dried figs but it was too heavy a texture, so have instead stuck to a combination of lovely golden sultanas and the kind of dried fruit with mixed peel). This version nails it! 

Rum and browned butter mince pinwheels

We had friends to stay this weekend so I made some pastries for Saturday afternoon tea and Sunday morning coffee. I still had a jar of mincemeat left over from Christmas and decided to spruce it up with some spiced rum and browned butter.

Cranberry, fresh ginger and clementine cake with mulled wine syllabub

I made this cake with a punnet of fresh cranberries intended for cranberry sauce to go with our Christmas turkey, that we forgot to make on the day. It's back to work and school tomorrow so we had a final movie night in front of the fire, and ate it while the cake was still warm. The cranberries are quite tart even when cooked, but balanced perfectly when paired with the sweetened cream of this mulled wine syllabub (made with a syrup from the poaching liquid I'd used for our Christmas poached pears).

Pink grapefruit marmalade

Every year we make Christmas hampers for our family and friends, and include a selection of chutneys and jams. It changes every year (we've often done red onion marmalade, piccalilli, bacon chili jam, and usually some kind of tomato-based chutney) but an absolute annual staple is my pink grapefruit marmalade. I look forward to marmalade making day, usually on a wintery weekend sometime in the run-up to Christmas, when the house gets filled with the delicious aromas of bubbling, sugary citrus. 

Gluten-free granola

My son Mostyn is a big fan of granola but as he is gluten-free, we make our own using gluten-free oats (although they are naturally GF, wheat is often used in the rolling process so you need to make sure you buy oats specifically labelled as gluten-free). You can mix up the recipe as much as you want, varying the choice of nuts, seeds, dried fruit and even the type of oil, sweeteners (I like a mixture of honey, brown sugar and maple syrup, but golden syrup also works really well) and spices (which you could leave out altogether if you so wished).

Buckwheat blinis

Every year at Christmas, we start the day with a posh breakfast of blinis with smoked salmon and cream cheese. These little pancakes are traditionally made with buckwheat, which is gluten free. 

No-churn Christmas pudding ice cream

In my opinion, the best thing about Christmas pudding is turning it into ice cream! This is a really easy way to do that without an ice cream machine or the faff of making your own egg custard (although if you want to do that, here's how I used to do it - before discovering this no-churn method!). The whole point is to be able to whip it up in 5 minutes and forget about it until the next day.

Chocolate brownies (Frankie's vlog)

Today Frankie shows you how to make delicious chocolate brownies. (We made ours with gluten-free flour and baking powder but you can swap these for ordinary wheat flour if you like.)