Ginger bread

We made some amazing gluten free ginger bread.

We used doves flour and they worked really well. In fact was the best I had ever made.

Gluten free beef and ale pie.

Just made gluten free shortcrust pastry in a gluten free beef n ale pie. It was so scrummy. So I think I have cracked this gluten free cooking. I just need to make gluten free croissants to have crossed off my list of things I said I wanted to be able to make. Although I must admit I am already thinking of another list ha ha. 

For the pastry I tried two types. The orgran pizza and pastry mix for the bottom and doves White flour following the pastry recipe on the top for the top. They made different pastry. The orgran was very short and crumbly so rolling out was fun. In fact I added more water to
Make it more pliable. It made really great textured pasty. But don't taste it raw it is disgusting. Think was the pea flour. But cooked it tasted good. The other texturally wasn't as short. In fact it was a very wet pastry that needed a lot of resting and chilling. But taste wise it was so buttery and yummy. So I would recommend either as they both tasted nice and like pastry. I would say that the orgran prob had the egde on texture and the dove on flavour. But so glad to have found it as easy as I did.

Croissants next - I think I am ready!!!

Best gluten free biscuits

Well so far we have been trailing a lot of different gluten free biscuits.
Gotta say so far these are the little p's favourites.
Glutafin digestives. We were dismayed at some of the yukky ones we had tried. But these actually taste like a digestive.
Enjoy gluten free chocolate covered wafer fingers - basically kit kats!!
Free to enjoy Jaffa cakes. Took a bit of getting use too as choc quite bitter but once u realise u need to bit bigger to get more than just choc all is good.
Kent and Fraser lemon cookies. These are lemon tastic
Love more Jammy wheels. These are actually better than gluten containing jammy dodgers as a higher jam to biscuit ratio.

Will add more tasty treats when I think of them.

Cheese scones

Wanted to try out making some cheese scones we used the recipe we did for the cherry ones. Just omitted the sugar and cherries and added 100g of grated cheese. I used about 80g cheddar and 20g red leicester.

They look an

d taste scrummy

Gluten free pumpkin cake and pizza bases.

Right we tried some new recipes
In the last few days. Firstly we made gluten free pumpkin cake. It was DELICIOUS. I have made a gluten version before and this was just as yummy. We made a maple and cream cheese frosting and it was so moist and tasty.

We also decided to attempt pizza bases. I have made my own for years so were looking forward to it. I decided to try out my breadmaker on this. So chucked in a recipe from the net and off we went. Until half a hour later I looked in and the dough was stodgy. So I added a bit of water n let it do it's thing. When it was finished I realised that doh. I forgot the egg. No wonder was stodgy. Anyway when it came to rolling out it was really wet and I couldn't roll it. I had to place a layer of cling film n flatten. Anyway I cooked for a few mins. Then added toppings and cooked til done (the recipe said about the pre
Cooking). Now taste wise was lovely. In fact may be te best tasting dough I have ever made!! I wonder whether I added too much water.
Anyway I have also decided to try out the same recipe but with the phil vickary flour blend he suggests for bread. That made up a little stodgy too. So had to add water. Have that in my fridge right now so will see how it rolls out tomorrow.

More gluten free scones

These have dairy in them and taste really nice. Both little miss p and master p liked getting mucky and sticky to create these. I followed this recipe. http://alisongraham.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-make-delicious-Gluten-Free-Scones
And added cherrys.

Experimenting with bread

Ok been experimenting with bread making. So far the juvela has made the nicest loaf. The treacle and pecan phil vickary one was yum too once I tweaked the recipe.

Been trying out using the doves organic gluten free bread flour. The first batch was inedible but since then had a couple of nice loaves. Makes nice toast and slices well. But texture wise is more like crumpet in that is springy so not the best for sarnies.

Tried the orgran bread mix yest and pleased with the results. The texture is more bread like buy ia heavier than the juvela. But have another pack so will tweak the recipe and see.

Got a glutafin and a barkat bread mix waiting to be tested so will let you know once I fire them up.

Gluten free cupcakes

Using phil vickery's basic sponge mix we made cupcakes. As a bit of a trial run they were lovely. The sponge is not as light as gluten containing ones but it is still yummy. I added a dash of vanilla essence into the mix which has given them a lovely flavour.

Best of all the kids got to enjoy decorating them together.

Pecan and treacle bread

Today we made pecan and treacle bread following phil vickery's recipe but using the breadmaker. The first batch went wrong and ended up in the bin. I think there was too much water in it. The second batch was much better and tastes delicious. But the top didn't crust and collapsed again. I think the mix might be too wet as is a moist style loaf. So it might not look great but who cares when it tastes so good.

Bread maker

Well we decided to buy a bread maker and try gluten free bread making. After some research we opted for the panasonic sd zb2502 as it looked good had good reviews and also had a gluten free cycle. Now two of my fave features the timer and the nut dispenser do not work with the gluten cycle. Not sure why but assume a valid reason. But undeterred I made bread last night. I just used the bog standard juvela White bread mix u get on prescription. I have a trial pack. But the results were really tasty. Am looking forward to experimenting.

Bristol zoo gluten free fail

Now I went to Bristol zoo on a family trip and we weren't really expecting any gluten free stiff particularly in the zoo cafe. So were really pleased to see gluten free choc brownies offered. Now our excitement was short lived when we found they were loose in a pile next door to and totally comtaimintaed by crumbs from the gluten containing cakes. It made me cross that they went to the effort to get then but didn't think to separate them.

Children book dealing with coeliacs

Well my very good friend purchased the little p's a new book. Called gluten free with Emily it is all about coeliacs disease. Well they loved it. Little p being 20 mOnths was a little young to understand. But I know it will help him when older. But litle miss p who is four thought it was great. It really helped her to understand what little p has and why we have to be so careful with food. Plus she loves the idea of being a "gluten free detective"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1890627623/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/176-5548657-1885122
Here's the link. It is American so mum is mom and coeliacs is celiacs. But it is still excellent

Gluten free picnic eggs

Ok we all love mini picnic eggs. And a picnic in the household of the 4ps wouldn't be the same without it. But you can't buy gluten free ones.
So last weekend I decided to make my own. I made some breadcrumbs from the left over genius loaf. Which I have to say made Lovely breadcrumbs. For the sausagemeat I tried to get it from m&s whose sausagemeat is gluten free. But sadly there wasn't any in stock. So I just brought there standard sausages which are gluten free. Virtually all m&s sausages are gluten free!!! I boiled an egg. And mashed up 2/3rd. I left out some ofthe White part in the hope being more yokey it would taste nicer and hold well. I then floured my hands with doves gluten free flour made a ball out of half a sausage of sausagemeat. I squashed the ball flat and then curled the edges in fist. I then filled the centre with a dollop of mashed egg and worked the sausagemeat around it til it covered. Then dipped the egg in a beaten egg and rolled it in breadcrumbs. I then fried them. They were delicious!!! I think I overfilled then a bit as I forgot that sausagemeat shrinks a bit so a couple split in places. But they still looked and tasted yum.

Gluten free rocky road

I tried a recipe from coeliacs website for gluten free rocky road. It rocked. !!!

Holiday in cornwall

Well not long after diagnosis we all went off on holiday to cornwall and it was fab.
Being gluten free on holiday was a whole new adventure. Thankfully we were self catering so we only needed to eat ott a few times and here were our holiday findings.
We went to a little local cafe intruro. Will try to find the name that did a delicious gluten free choc cake. We went to rick steins fish n chip place who fell over themselves to accommodate with gluten free batter on their fish. Five stars. We went to a little cafe in mylor harbour which did choc brownies gluten free and we went to gylly beach cafe who seemed
To be gluten aware and gave us a gluten free burger with nO bun. And I cb highly recommend the lemon inn in mylor. Who although were unable to offer any of the kids
Menus as a gluten free option were happy for us to bring a meal for
Little p. Which as we were self catering we knocked together a lasgange for him. It
Was a lovely meal and d didn't notice his was the home brought option.

Gluten and dairy free scones

As initially little p had to be dairy free my first thought was to bake him a treat. These were totally gluten and dairy free cherry scones and they were yummy

So it begins

Ok. Well we were four gluten loving people until the smallest p took
Ill and ende up in a&e. Six fraught days later and lots of tests we were told they suspected coeliacs. It was a shock and I was sad for all the things little p might have to
Miss out on in his gluten free world
But I took it upon myself to do my best to ensure that little p doesn't miss out on anything. So armed with this I am embarking on a gluten free adventure.