Cupcake Kitteh - vegan, gluten free, soy free: E.A.T World France: Onion Soup, Tuiles and Madeleines

E.A.T World France: Onion Soup, Tuiles and Madeleines

11:10 AM | Posted by Mandee | | Edit Post

I've been cooking more French food for the E.A.T World challenge . River went to France too and made the most amazing soy-free chocolate mousse ! I am planning on making it very soon!

Tuiles - soy free

Emmanuel made tuiles on Poh's Kitchen a few weeks ago. Chris said "yum!" so I knew I had to try veganising them. There is a recipe in his cookbook but it's also featured on the show's website.

I chose the orange flavoured version and there are only four ingredients and the mix was easy to make. I used Nuttelex for the butter and wheat flour but I will attempt a gleegan version soon.

Another recipe I found online suggested letting the mixture sit for 10-15 minutes and I recommend you do this. I made two without letting it rest and the mixture spread once in the oven and stayed quite soft and almost liquidy.

Once the dough had rested I made them two per baking sheet as they still spread quite a lot. I let them rest for a minute on the baking sheet but if left too long they will harden. Tuiles are named so because when curved they look like roof tiles, to make them curved remove them from the baking tray before they harden and place them over a rolling pin. To make a basket, place them over an upturned bowl or tea cup.

Above are ones shaped as roof tiles and below is one I made into a basket. I filled it with a scoop of ice cream and some chocolate sauce.

The tuiles were chewy, caramelly and stayed crispy for about 4 days.

Pois Chiches Marengo - gluten free (soy free if you have stock that is soy free)

Traditionally this dish is made with poulet (chicken) but chickpeas make a great substitute. I left out the flour and the pre-frying step and used chicken-style stock. I served it on it's own but it would have been nice with some gf pasta or brown rice. I love the flavour of this dish and I couldn't taste the white wine (phew!)

Soupe a L'Oignon - gluten free (soy free if you have soy-free stock)

Years ago I saw a cooking show where they made onion soup with cheesy toast on top, it was probably Jamie Oliver and I really wanted to make it but never got around to it. Then I saw a recipe from The Mastering the Art of French Cooking posted at Smitten Kitchen and I knew I would follow through and actually make it this time.

I used 1kg of onions and my eyes were stinging after I peeled and chopped them but I had a feeling it was worth it. I also used beef-style stock and buckwheat flour instead of wheat (if you make this gluten free do not use buckwheat, it was just the first gf flour I found when I went through my pantry). I left out the wine and the congnac.

The onions smelt delicious as they cooked but I wish I'd let them brown more, next time I will cook them for longer before adding the flour and stock.

Here is a cute little chicken pot that belonged to my Dad.

And here it is filled with onion soup! On the side I have some Schär gluten free toast topped with Cheezly that I put under the grill for a few minutes.

Cheezy toast in onion soup, c'est bon!

Tomato tarte tatin - gluten & soy free

I've wanted to make a tarte tatin for a while but I didn't think my first time would be with a savoury one. I saw this recipe and loved the bright colour of the tomatoes and anything in pastry is good, right? I used the Pantry Place's gluten free rough puff instead of making dough and I used Nuttelex in place of butter.

The crust fell off when I flipped the tarte tatin out of the dish but it was really delicious and would make a perfect picnic meal with a salad.

Apple Tart - gluten free (if you have gf custard powder) & soy free

Raymond Blanc made this tart on his cooking show, it was his mother's recipe. It looked so, so good and it was easy to veganise. I made the crust gluten free using a recipe from the Gluten Free Vegan cookbook. I used Royal Gala apples and Foster Clark's custard powder which is unfortunately not gluten free. The Orgran custard powder is gluten free but I don't like the taste of it.

The dough was easy enough to work with but it ended up a bit dry and much too hard once cooked. The filling was delicious and we ended up eating it without the crust. The custard looks a bit fluorescent in the photo but underneath it was a much paler yellow & very creamy and the apples were lovely and soft.

Madeleines - gluten & soy free

Madeleines are small sponge cakes baked in a madeleine pan that gives them their cute shell shape. I recently bought a new cookbook, The Multi Allergy Cookbook which contains gluten free and other allgery free recipes. It's the third book in a series of gluten free cookbooks and it was hard to chose which one I wanted to buy first. The books are not vegan but they do contain many dairy and egg free recipes. I went with the Multi Allergy book as it contains 2 recipes for madeleines (they're called shells in the book). One recipe was for ginger shells but I decided to make orange ones using orange zest.

The book begins with some tips on gluten free baking and as well as guides on how to make gluten free flour mixes which you then use in the recipes. I like the idea of making up a gluten free flour mix as often the thought of measuring out 4-5 different flours puts me off baking as I have to sort through my pantry to find everything. The author suggests making a flour mix and then keeping it in a calico bag not in an airtight container which goes against everything I've ever heard about storing flour. I'd be interested to know if anyone stores their flour this way.

I spooned the mixture into my madeleine pan which I'd oiled and floured. The madeleines came out of the pan really easily but they didn't take on the shell pattern and they had lots of tiny holes in their surface. For the next batched I oiled the pan but did not flour it and the madeleines took on the shell pattern and looked much more authentic .

They were really lovely, very orangey, soft and spongey. I'm looking forward to trying more recipes from this book.

14 comments:

swellvegan said...: Everything looks wonderful and I would try all of them! I really admire your venturing into trickier gleegan baking. I've been too scared to go beyond cupcakes, muffins and scones :); March 18, 2010 at 9:59 AM
Meg said...: That chicken pot is ADORABLE!!; March 18, 2010 at 10:48 AM
Jamie said...: OMG is that the chocolate sauce that sets hard on your ice cream?! :o What brand is it?! I've been looking for the one that was vegan but not finding it anywhere :(

Although melted chocolate actually works pretty well as a replacement - it tends to set soon after getting onto the ice cream.

The rest of the food looks fab too! :); March 18, 2010 at 8:19 PM
cage said...: This looks super amazing!; March 18, 2010 at 10:01 PM
shellyfish said...: Mandee I am so impressed! What lovely, healthy food - and I'm sure delicious. I'm with Swell, gleegan baking is not always easy.; March 18, 2010 at 10:11 PM
Rose said...: All your cooking is making my mouth water! yum! I am deffinately going to try the chocolate mousse, it looks fantastically good :)

Rose; March 18, 2010 at 10:14 PM
Mihl said...: Everything looks like fresh from a restaurant! Gorgeous pictures.; March 19, 2010 at 1:24 AM
Mary said...: You have been eating really well! I love the chicken pot, and the tuile ice cream bowl is amazing!; March 19, 2010 at 10:27 AM
Kelly said...: These all look fantastic. I agree that the chicken pot is adorable. Yum!; March 19, 2010 at 12:47 PM
Theresa said...: Those shells are gorgeous! I've never heard of storing flour in a cloth bag, up here it would go mouldy and the weevils would get in it...; March 19, 2010 at 1:55 PM
Polka Dot Rabbit said...: ooh I haven't had french onion soup for ages,great idea!; March 22, 2010 at 2:26 PM
Vaala said...: Ooo, that food all looks amazing especially the onion soup. It is definitely coming into soup weather round here and I'm on the lookout for new recipes. Will have to try this.; March 23, 2010 at 2:30 PM
River - The Crafty Kook said...: Gleegan! Hee hee! I love that! Your tuiles look so fancy! Very impressive, I will try to make some too but mine will probably be a disaster.

The pois chiches marengo and the onion soup look so comforting, and I love your little chicken pot! I love how fresh the tomato tarte tatin looks. Too bad the crust fell off, but it looks delicious!

Two different desserts? Oh, my! Which one do I choose? Can I get some of both? :P

Your French posts kick my tiny French post's butt! Thanks for the shout-out! :); March 27, 2010 at 6:34 AM
Monique a.k.a. Mo said...: All of this looks absolutely awesome! I have never wanted cheezy toast so much! And those tuiles!; April 18, 2010 at 4:48 PM