Is chocolate gluten free?

That’s a question we’re often asked in a spare moment during our chocolate making workshops or when people book our fun chocolate making hen parties. When I got asked for the first time I had to really think, because since I work with 'proper' chocolate I don't even think about alergies. It's just chocolate, you know...nothing else! I never really promoted my chocolate as gluten free, suitable for vegetarians and vegans or that it can be made completely lactose free.

It's just a normal chocolate, right...everybody knows that! Well, it turns out that not everyone does and because 99% of mass produced chocolate products contain all sorts of things, that just shouldn't be there, understandably people ask, whether my chocolate is gluten free or not.

No matter which coffee shop you favour, the chances are that as you are paying for your daily shot of caffeine, you'll notice biscotti of various flavours beautifully arranged in a glass jar on top of the counter.

To me, they always looked like something that's tricky to make, because lets face it why else they would be relatively expensive to buy? Because of that I've never really looked up the recipe or tried them until few years ago. Now, I wish I've looked up the recipe long time ago!

Despite to what I originally thought, they were easy to bake and they tasted exactly like the ones in the shop. The first batch of this Pistachio Biscotti Recipe turned out perfectly, which if I'm being honest, it doesn't always happen when you are testing a new recipe.

There are so many wonderful mince pies recipes, but this one with a marzipan topping is one of my favourite. It's probably because most of the shop bought variety is little too sweet for me and this one doesn't have that much pastry or sugar in. The best thing is that you can choose your own mincemeat and even mix it with some freshly chopped up apples to give if bit more lightness.

If you want to you can easily buy the brandy marzipan, but I prefer to make my own. So, here is what you do:

Recently I've been asked to come up with a traditional sweet bread recipe for Christmas. The challenge was to come up with a recipe for a special friend staying with my student's family over Christmas. Their friend is originally from Slovak Republic, which send me on search to find out the really traditional bakes from this particular country.

Author: Nick Marsden

Before we get to our list of wartime sweets, lets have a bit of a background. Sweet and chocolate rationing started on 26 July 1942, only finishing 5 February 1953, nearly eight years later. The amount of sugar and therefore sweets which you were allowed fluctuated during the war, ranging from 16oz a month down to 8oz (227g) a month.

Despite the decision to ration the sales of sugar in January 1940, as late as the summer Cadbury's were still able to advertise that their teatime biscuits were available in 'all Woolworth stores'.

It's been a long time coming, but finally after many years of bread baking and trying different bread baking equipment, I've put together the minimum you need to get started baking bread at home.

Over the years, I have been asked what's my favourite piece of bread making equipment and what I could not be without. So, here is my take on the Bread Baking Starter Kit: