I never thought I'd say it, as I am in fact incredibly opinionated and judgemental and have a tendancy to read Closer magazine I assumed Gwyneth was a stuck up macrobiotic vegan holier than thou type....I was wrong.
Bask in that fact as it is rare...
I saw her on *say it quietly* Graham Norton and she was actually fairly pleasant. She talked about her book and I was intrigued.
It's actually a brillint book. If a recipe book is readable like a 'proper' book, you're on to a good'un. Very few do this, namely pretty much only Nigella, Hugh and this one so far.
I think it's also a fairly nice thing when you go through thinking 'I want to make that...and that...and that...and that'. Which I did.
She goes in to some of the health benefits of some of the ingredients she uses, like Agave Nectar and Spelt flour. I had no idea spelt was soooo much better for you than regular flour, I'm in the middle of an experiment substituting spelt for normal flour and seeing if it's noticeable (so far, it's not, and the resulting non-wheat-bloat is quite refreshing).
I have so far made her normal blueberry muffins-excellent, you'll never buy shop bought again;
her vegan blueberry muffins (no sugar either)-actually very nice, obviously not as sweet as the 'regular' ones, more breakfasty. Quite the look on the kid's faces when they think they've got cake for breakfast...even better when you can sit smugly kowing there's probably less sugar and definitely fewer bad things (or none) than their regular cereal.
I have also made her peanut butter cookies the recipe of which I will blog on Tales from the Kitchen soon. I made a few adjustments, I had no dark brown sugar so mixed dark muscavado and caster (no problems) and I used chocolate chips instead of peanut butter chips, partly as I ca't get them in Eastbumbleworthy aka Devon and I wasn't about to spend vast sums of money mail ordering them from somewhere considerably more diverse than here. According to my tasters-kids, husband, mother....Tom-the chocolate chips are a welcome addition.
So, Gwyneth haters swallow your pride and buy this book. Just prepare yourself and your kitchen for the 47 different bags of flour that you'll inevitably purchase....
