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I’ve been using this stuff for a couple of years now and I should have done a review before now… so here we go.
Kinnerton launched as a nut-free chocolate manufacturer some years back. This remains their main line and they have quite a number of different easter eggs which are made in their dedicated nut free factory. However, they also produce a bar of chocolate which is nut free, dairy free, gluten free and egg free. It’s vegan and absolutely safe to eat.
This isn’t a gourmet chocolate. Back in my milk-eating days, I tasted better. This one has 55% cocoa solids, so it can’t compete with the 70 – 75% cocoa ones. However, when you can’t eat chocolate at all, I can assure you that this is quite good enough to eat straight off the bar. When cooking and making delicious desserts, this stuff is your friend. It’s wonderful to be able to make lovely chocolatey things which are completely safe.
When Easter comes around, Kinnerton make a dairy-free egg each year. This year it was a “Tiggeriffic” egg, but things seem to change from year to year. I’ve found more of the eggs on sale in Sainsbury’s than anywhere else. The Kinnerton’s website carries details of all their products.
Buying Kinnerton’s chocolate is relatively easy in that it’s in the supermarkets rather than being the preserve of the health food shops. I have found bars of Kinnerton’s chocolate in all of the major supermarkets, usually shelved with the special diet things. The price varies considerably. At the moment, Morrison’s are the cheapest at £1.06. The rest are much of a muchness ranging from Sainsbury’s at £1.19, throughTesco’s at £1.20 to Waitrose where it varies between £1.22 and about £1.28. I keep an eye on the prices and whenever special offers come up, I buy in bulk!
This is a delicious and really easy pud for a party. It’s loosely based on Eton mess – with the emphasis on loosely! This travels well before it’s assembled, so it works very well as a dessert to take to a party.
Recipe: Chocolate Scrumble
Ingredients
- 1 quantity of chocolate sauce (see previous recipe)
- 4 meringues (you can use broken nests)
- 2 Waitrose Double Choc Muffins (gluten and dairy free)
- 400 g raspberries
Instructions
- Break up the meringues and the muffins into bitesize lumps.
- Wash and check over the raspberries.
- Layer up the ingredients in a large bowl.
- Start with a layer of meringue, then follow with a layer of raspberries, one of muffin chunks and a thick drizzle of chocolate sauce.
- Repeat until you run out of stuff.
- You can serve this two different ways. Either you can layer it in a glass bowl and leave it like that with the last layer of chocolate sauce; or you can give it all a gentle stir before you give it the final drizzle of sauce.
Quick Notes
I took this to a friend’s barbecue and it vanished like snow off a hedge. Everyone demolished it with most coming back for seconds and all the children for thirds. A large bowlful lasted a total of 10 minutes!
Preparation time (duration): 5 minutes
Diet type: Dairy-free
Number of servings (yield): 12+
Meal type: dessert
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This really is unbelievably easy and absolutely delicious. It is a crucial ingredient in the next recipe for my take on Eton Mess. (Yes, I know the original doesn’t have any chocolate in it, but this is good and tons better than soya cream.)
Recipe: Super-delicious chocolate sauce
Ingredients
- 2 bars of Kinnerton’s chocolate (I know it isn’t fantastic chocolate, but it’s the only one out there which is guaranteed free from contamination and in cooking it’s very good.)
- 1 box of Alpro Soya Cream
Instructions
- Shake the Soya Cream and pour it into a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan.
- Before unwrapping them, bang the bars of chocolate against the edge of a table or worktop to smash them into little pieces.
- Drop the chocolate bits into the cream and heat everything gently, stirring frequently until smooth and delicious.
- You can use this hot poured over a chocolate sponge pudding, or cold in my chocolate Eton Mess variation.
Quick Notes
The sauce transports really well. Just remember to put it in a box which seals completely! This way, you can take your own sauce to a party.
Cooking time (duration): 10 minutes
Diet type: Dairy-free
Meal type: dessert
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This is a great lunchbox cake, but it also looks good on a tea table with lemon icing drizzled over it. If you don’t particularly like the texture of banana cake, this one should suit you because the proportion of banana to other things is quite low. It’s a lovely fruit cake and it’s very easy to make.
Recipe: Spiced Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 ½ oz / 75g Tomor
- 1 egg
- 4oz / 100g caster sugar
- 5 oz / 125g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp mixed spice
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 ripe bananas
- 4oz / 100g mixed dried fruit (I use sultanas, dates, glacé cherries and currants. Chop up the cherries and dates.)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to Gas Mark 3 / 170°C
- Line a 2lb loaf tin.
- Cream the Tomor, and sugar together until light and fluffy. I do this in my food processor, but it works just as well with a hand held mixer.
- Sieve in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices.
- Whizz or beat in the egg and the broken up bananas until smooth.
- Either stir in the dried fruit, or pulse it in the food processor. If you whizz it, you’ll mash it all up.
- Tip into the tin and bake for about 1 hour.
- It’s cooked when you can press it with your fingertips and it just springs back. You can do the skewer test, but remember that if you hit a piece of fruit the skewer will always come out sticky.
- Cool the cake on a rack and when completely cool, you can drizzle thick lemon water icing over it in zig-zags if you wish.
Quick Notes
This has gone down very well wherever I’ve taken it.
Preparation time (duration): 10 minutes
Cooking time (duration): about 1 hour
Diet type: Dairy-free
Number of servings (yield): 12
Meal type: dessert
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Well, where did the last few weeks go to? After all the lovely bank holidays and resulting four day weeks, reality is back for a while and I’ve been tackling the issue of how to give my children a sweet treat in their lunchboxes. Everything in school has to be completely nut-free as there is a child with a severe nut allergy in Reception. That rules out all the commercial cereal bars and quite a number of other bars and biscuits too. Chocolate bars and biscuits are not allowed in school, so it would have to be home-baked even were it not very tricky to find commercial dairy-free treats which would fit the bill.
To try to fill the gap I have produced dairy-free versions of a couple of my mother-in-law’s recipes. These are Australian in origin and came to me in the cup and teaspoon measures which are usual there. The proportions work perfectly, so you don’t need to bother with weighing the dry stuff, just use an ordinary teacup if you don’t have measuring cups.
Recipe: Ginger Coconut Slices
Ingredients
- 2 oz / 60g Pure sunflower spread
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- 1½tsp ground ginger
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup dessicated coconut
- 1 egg Lemon Icing
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1 oz / 30g Pure sunflower spread
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp grated lemon zest
- 1 tsp hot water
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 4 / 180°C / 350°F
- Melt the Pure sunflower spread and golden syrup over a low heat.
- Sift the flour into a bowl and add the ginger, sugar and dessicated coconut.
- Lightly beat the egg and add it to the dry ingredients.
- Pour in the melted ingredients and combine well.
- Press into a well-greased tin. (Oil your hands as it’s very sticky.)
- Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.
- Leave until cool, then ice and cut into squares.
- Sift the icing sugar into a mixing bowl.
- Combine with the Pure spread, lemon juice and zest and the hot water.
- Stir until it all looks smooth, then spread on the cake.
Quick Notes
This keeps for up to a week in an airtight box.
Preparation time (duration): 10 minutes
Cooking time (duration): 25 – 30 minutes
Diet type: Dairy free
Number of servings (yield): 12 – 15
Meal type: dessert
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I know you can see these in the supermarkets most of the year now, but today’s when we’re supposed to be eating them. Here’s how you can have a beautiful batch of spicy treats in time for tea. This is the quick version, made using the bread machine.
For this recipe you will need a bread machine and either one large baking tray or two small ones.
Recipe: Quick Hot Cross Buns
Summary: The traditional spiced treat for Good Friday
Ingredients
- 1 cup water, warmed to not quite ouch when you put a finger in
- ¼ cup flavourless vegetable oil (not olive, wrong taste)
- ½ cup caster sugar
- ½ cup soft light brown sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 ¾ cups strong bread flour
- 1 tsp fast action yeast
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp grated nutmeg
- 1 cup sultanas
- ¼ cup glacéed peel, chopped (optional)
- a little flour for rolling
- 1 tbsp flour and a little water made into a thick paste
- a little apricot jam, melted for glazing (optional)
Instructions
- Put all the ingredients into the bread machine bucket in the order on the list, stopping before you add the fruit and peel.
- Select the dough setting and start the machine.
- Most bread machines take about 1 ½ hours to be ready on this setting.
- Prepare a large baking tray (or two small ones) by lining it with silicone baking paper.
- When the dough is ready, tip it out onto a floured board, clean out the dough which clings to the sides of the bucket and flatten the lump into a sort of rectangle(ish) about ½” / 1 cm thick.
- Sprinkle the sultanas and peel over the dough.
- Fold the fruit-covered dough by carefully picking up one of the narrow ends and folding it into the middle. Repeat with the other end.
- Poke back in any fruit which has escaped in the folding process.
- Knead gently to distribute the fruit evenly throughout.
- Divide the dough into between 8 and 12 small balls, depending on how large you like your buns.
- Poke all the fruit into the dough so that it is just below the surface. That way it won’t burn when they are baking.
- Take a VERY sharp knife (it has to be as sharp as you can get it or you will just drag the dough and spoil all your hard work) and gently slash the tops of the buns with a cross.
- Cover the tray(s) with lightly oiled cling film and leave the buns to rise in a warm place for between ½ an hour and an hour or until the buns have doubled in size.
- Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 5 / 190°C.
- Pipe or dribble the flour and water paste onto the crosses of your buns.
- Bake for 15 – 18 minutes, depending on how large your buns are and how brown you like them. To check that they are cooked, hold one upside down and gently tap the bottom with a knuckle. It should sound hollow just as bread does.
- If you want your buns sticky, this is when you glaze them with a little melted apricot jam.
Quick Notes
The smell from these as they are baking is irresistable! Fortunately, they are at their best eaten warm.
Preparation time (duration): two lots of about 15 minutes (+ 1½ hrs in the bread machine)
Cooking time (duration): 15 – 18 minutes
Diet type: Dairy-free
Number of servings (yield): 12
Meal type: snack, high tea, breakfast – any time really!
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It’s time to get baking. I have to get myself organised and get our simnel cake ready for Easter sunday. The recipe is pretty straightforward and everybody in our house likes marzipan so I always put a good thick layer in the middle! If you’ve never tried it, do have a go. Follow the link and have fun!
The recipe is on the move! Two of the staff at my children’s school are now baking this recipe regularly simply because it’s easy and delicious. I urge you to try it. I’ve just thrown a bowlful together to have it ready for tomorrow’s breakfast and it took me five minutes. That’s it until another five minutes after dinner tonight when I knock it back. If you’ve never tried bread that hasn’t been made by the almost universal Chorleywood method, you really should try this. It’s already converted one person round here from soft white sliced to wholegrain bread with no anguish on the way!
It just tastes so much better than most commercial bread. Unless you have a good artisan bakery near you, you just can’t get bread like this. Even if you do have one close by, with money being tight the best bread you can buy is definitely a luxury. Well, I pay £1.30 a kilo for organic malted wholegrain flour mail order straight from a mill and use it half and half with plain bread flour. You get just under 2 loaves from a kilo bag, so that’s about 75p a loaf: a whole lot cheaper than buying it from the shops!
Go on, have a go! Then share the recipe with a friend. This link will take you to our recipe.
Good news! I’ve just been in my nearest large Tesco’s and they have safe value digestive biscuits again. No milk anywhere. It is only the blue and white value ones, NOT their red packet own brand ones, NOR the Tesco’s Finest. Neither of those is safe. However, the value ones are fine and we now have something for cheesecake bases again. Hooray!!
If we want them to stay in Tesco’s range, we need to buy some quickly before they change their minds.
For details of other dairy-free biscuits, look at our review page
OK, so it’s proper name is mince cobbler, but we’ve known it as mince goblins ever since my elder daughter misheard me years ago. The “goblins” are savoury herb scones which are used to top a tasty mince dish. It’s a little more fiddly than some meals: you have to wash up an extra pot from the frying phase. However, it makes a good family meal which is a change from never-ending pasta. My kids love it and you can add to the appeal by making the last piece of pastry into a shape to go in the middle of the dish. Basic flowers are fairly easy; if you’re artistic and more ambitious, you could have a go at animals too!
For this recipe you will need a heavy-bottomed, large frying pan or a flame-proof casserole; an oven-proof serving dish and a food processor (if you have one) for the scones.
Recipe: Mince Goblins
Summary: A savoury mince dish with herb scones
Ingredients
- a slosh of sunflower oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, crushed; or 1/2 tsp frozen chopped garlic
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1lb / 450g good quality lean, minced beef
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 tbsps plain flour
- 1/2pt / 300ml good quality hot beef stock (I use Kallo Organic stock cubes if I have none of my own)
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 1 bay leaf
- salt and pepper
- 8oz / 225g self-raising flour
- 2 tsps dried herbs
- 2 oz / 50g hard Tomor, cubed
- 1/4pt / 150ml unsweetened soya milk
- beaten egg to glaze
Instructions
- Heat the oil in your pan and add the onion. Fry gently for about 5 minutes until softened, while you chop the carrot.
- Add the garlic and carrot and fry for another 5 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.
- Remove and set aside.
- Fry the mince and drain any excess fat.
- Return the onion mixture to the pan and add the flour by sprinkling it over everything.
- Stir in the flour thoroughly, then add the hot stock and stir again.
- Add the tomato purée and the Worcestershire sauce and stir.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and leave for 20 minutes while the oven pre-heats to Gas Mark 4 / 180C.
- Stir the mixture frequently to prevent burning.
- Meanwhile, put the self-raising flour, the herbs and the Tomor into the food processor and pulse until you have a breadcrumb-like texture.
- Add the soya milk a little at a time until you have a soft dough. You may not need all of it.
- Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and gently squeeze it into a lump. You can then either roll it out very gently or just squidge it flat to a thickness of about 1/2″ / 1cm. The less you handle your dough, the lighter and fluffier your scones will be. Roll the dough out hard and your scones will turn into small rocks.
- Using a fluted cutter, cut out the scones ( I usually get about 12 from the dough), gently re-using your trimmings. I make a decorative twiddly bit for the middle of the dish out of the last little bit of dough. It can be your creative moment!
- Tip the mince into the final dish and level it off.
- Arrange the scones on top of the mince, going down either side of the dish first, then filling in with what you have left. This will vary depending on the size and shape of your dish.
- Brush the scones with the beaten egg.
- Bake for about 20 minutes until the scones are golden on top.
Quick Notes
This is very good with a green salad and (if you’re starving) a baked potato.
Preparation time (duration): 20 minutes
Cooking time (duration): 1 hour
Diet type: Dairy-free
Number of servings (yield): 4
Meal type: dinner
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