It has been a while

So it has been years and I haven't posted.

2017 is the year that I post regularly. A little late I appreciate for this "resolution" but starting now.....

Sukrin free from bread mix

The nice people at sukrin sent me some goodies.

So I decided firstly to try the bread mix. As little boy likes the genius seeded bread best (his spotty bread he calls it) I thought he might like this mix as it is full of sunflower and pumpkin seeds. 

Now I must admit when I saw was also yeast free I wasn't convinced. When I looked at the instructions I was even less convinced. You just add water. "Just add water" I thought. "This won't end well." But I added water I left it a few minutes and then I decided to shape in a round (a foil bread "tin" is supplied for you to use if you want.)

I put in oven and waited. Out came this....

It looked good. So good in fact this happened 

Little boy was told to wait for it to cool. 

A little while later we sliced into it...

And boy was I wrong. It was delicious. 

Now I love seeded bread so this was right up my street. But this was much more seeded than genius so I nervously handed the boy a slice. He wolfed it down. "I like my new bread mummy can I have some more". In fact even gluten eating hubby who normally won't touch gf bread liked it. 

So there you go. First impressions aren't always right. And this bread gets a huge thumbs up in this house. 

Carrot cake

Been meaning to make carrot cake for a while. So we decided let's give it a go. 

I recently puchased world of food 101 gluten free recipes magazine and it has a carrot cake recipe so I gave it a go.

The children made marzipan carrots for the top. It tasted scrummy!!!

Jammy dodgers gluten free

After a trip to Lakeland I found these fab cutters. 

So I thought let's give jammy dodgers a go. I surfed the net and found this recipe.http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/community/gluten-free-jammie-dodgers-recipe so decided to give them a go. 

Taste wise a huge success. But I need to perfect them. I think I cooked them a couple of mins too long as browner that I would have liked. They also are a little bit too crumbly for my liking. But I am pretty sure that next time I bake them they will be perfect. The munchkins love them and that's what matters. 

Who needs play dough

Play dough with its stupid wheat containing ingredients sucks. 

I have tried in the past to make a replacement gluten free version with varying levels of success. 

However this morning whilst finishing off our gf carrot cake (more on that later) I was stuck by a brain wave. Marzipan!!!

I hastily coloured up a few balls of delicious marzipan and the munchkins made up some animals. Best bit of this is that you get to eat them after. Well maybe not all at once. 

Chocolate cake with courgettes. Yes courgettes

Waitrose food magazine is a favourite in our house as usually lots of tasty in season recipes. It's a bargain too as is free to John Lewis credit card holders. 

Anyway I picked up one a couple of weeks back and was excited to see a

Number of recipes which involved cooking with vegetables. Now we all know carrot cake is delicious so it seems to me that we should be putting more veg on our cakes as I have noticed a lot of thes

e recipes are gluten free and also they are often lower in fat as you don't need to put as much fat in. 

Anyway the resulting cake was totally delicious and was devoured by the family. 

The small ones got to put the pistachios on top which they loved. There was plenty of accidental fingers in the icing too. I suspect this was anything but accidental but the icing was lovely so who can blame them. 

Forgot to add the courgettes were freshly harvested from our allotment. Yum. 

Chinese part 2

Just realised I hadn't shared the pics of the  pot stickers I made for Chinese New Year. So here they are

Chinese

Gluten free and Chinese good can be a nightmare. 

I have been slowly working through a great cookbook and making all the faves. 

We have had some lovely pot stickers and spring rolls. Which were definitely worth the effort.

So tonight we made pancakes with Fu Shu pork. Gotta say it was very tasty. The pancakes could do with be ever so

Slightly thinner but tastes delicious.

As you can see from the pic taken mid

Meal they were super yummy. 

Gluten free gateau

We followed the recipe in our new cookbook. (Michael mcCamley -gluten free baking) was so tasty. 

Recipe was easy to follow too. Recommend the book as a great cookbook. 

Gf menu at ayletts garden centre at Albans

Gluten free hoisin sauce found at waitrose

Gluten free oyster sauce found at m&s

Been so busy - here are some things we have made recently

Well we have been so busy that we haven't had time to blog for a while. 

Will try to catch up on our gluten free adventures.  

First cakes - Gf minion cakes. Yum yum

Gluten free e mails part 1 - wagamama pork ribs

Well here are a few of the e mails I have been sending to companies in relation to their menu

sent today to wagamama....

"I would like to enquire in relation to your pork ribs.  I noticed on your website this recent addition to your menu is stated as being gluten free. 
When I visited your resturant on Sat I noticed that it was not on the allergy menu as being gluten free.  I asked the waitress to speak to the chef to confirm whether it was in fact gluten free. The response from the chef was that he did not recommend this item to a person on a gluten free diet - the waitrress seemed to suggest this was more a cross contamination issue than whether there was gluten in the item.

Please could you confirm whether the pork ribs are in fact gluten free.

If they are not please can you remove them from your website as being gluten free.
if they are gluten free please can you update your allergy menu and also ensure all staff are aware of this so there isnt a contamination issue."

Gluten free caramel shortbread.

Okay I decided this morn to try making millionaire shortbread.
It is sat setting properly in the fridge but I am very impressed with the outcome.
The recipe I followed was
Shortbread
I made a dough from
250g flour I used doves flour mix
150g unsalted butter
80g caster sugar
I put it in a pan approx 8 by 10 and flattened it out and cooked it for 20 mins in a over at 190 degrees. Basically til it was nice and brown. I then left to cool.

Caramel
I tipped a tin of evapoured milk think is 397g into a saucepan and added 50g of butter and 50g of brown soft sugar. I heated over a low heat until the sugar dissolved and then turned the heat up til it boiled. Turned it back to a
Simmer for about five mins or so til it thickened. I stirred continuously the whole time. I then allowed to cool for about 5 mins then tipped over the shortbread.

Choc
For the chocolate topping I melted 150g of milk choc with a tablespoon of whole milk. I then tipped and spread over the caramel.

I then put the whole thing in the fridge to set.

Now I have cut a slice off and although the shortbread is a little crumbly than usual they Taste amazing. Will reduce the sugar content a little maybe next time of thw shortbread to make it slightly less crumbly.

Gluten free fajita

Ok on a whim I decided tonight to make tortillas. Have never made them before even with wheat flour but figured it would be fun.
I googled for recipes and got my first hurdle. Corn tortillas aren't just made of corn flour - as you would imagine. No they are made of a special flour masa harina. Well I dont have that in my cupboard and you can only get from specialist stores. So will add to my shopping list for a later date. But that left me with a dilemma. Give up on my whim or be creative. So I was creative. I decided to find a recipe for gluten free flour tortillas but to put some corn/maize flour in it to flavour it a bit more!!
So my finished recipe was
1 1/2 cup dove gluten free flour
1/2 cup corn/maize flour
1 1/2 tea spoon xantam gum
1 1/2 tea spoon sugar
2/3 tea spoon salt
1 cup warm water.

I mixed the dry ingredients them added the water and made into a dough. I then took ping pong ball sized balls. Rolled them put between two sheets of cling film. Then heated a frying plan and cooked them until was puffing and starting to get brown spots on each side.

They were yummy. I made a steak fajita mix and served with grated cheese lettuce and salsa.

Both little p's loved it. Success.

However will need some practice to make them more circular!!!

Reply from ASK

I am pleased to say I have already had a lovely reply from ASK. It was very much as I expected a thanks for the feedback. But then I wouldn't expect a restutant to suddenly change their menu on the whim of an individual. But it was still a lovely reply and hopefully it will make a improvement to what is already a nice restaurant. I also finally got confirmation that the thousand island dressing hey serve with the veg sticks is gluten free. So master p can dip his veg sticks and the gluten free breadstick I always bring with me into that.

Ask resturant - gluten free childrens menu option

Well we love ASK in this house, it is a lovely chain and the  food is nice.  To find out not lng after Master P's diagnosis that they had started doing gluten free pasta was fab.

I have to say the gluten free pasta they offer is lovely and makes life easier to know that there is somewhere you can go in most big towns which will have a gluten free and hassle free option.

I am pleased to report that I have e mailed them with some feedback tonight.  Firstly to thank them for putting gluten free pasta and secondly giving some feedback on the menu.

The food is nice but would benefit from slightly less pasta or more sauce and the gluten free fusilli bolognese ends up slightly dryer than the wheat penne - and kids do love their sauce.

Also a few times I have found the pasta a little too much on the al dente side for a child - i would have eaten it but master P struggled a bit as he prefers a softer pasta!!

Anyway I will update you with their response.

Master P birthday cake

Little Master P turned 2 in November.

I thought I would share his birhday cake picture.

I used a Phil Vickery recipe for the gluten free cake and it turned out really really well.

Gluten Free Mummy Fail

Before Christmas I had my first fail..
It was Miss P's school disco so she Master P and a friend all decided to go.

As it didnt start til 630 I didnt think about food as I gave them tea before they went......BUT of course there was food there - hot dogs and chips and cakes.

All 3 wanted food.  It was horrible as they all wanted food.  In the end I had a chat with the lady cooking them and it appeared the chips were probably okay for Master P as it didnt look like anything in batter had been cooked in the oil.

So I will be much more prepared next time.  I will be packing gluten free cakes for a start!!  I am also going to invest in a wide mouthed thermos as a lovely friend of mine came up with a suggestion.  Cook the sausages before I go, wrap them up in foil and place them in the thermos.  I might put hot water in around the foil if the suasages are well wrapped.  If i take this and gluten free bread then Master P can have his own gluten free hot dog.  I cant wait for an occassion to test this out!