Chocolate Ginger Fudge

Probably one strictly for the grown-ups (although my 2 year old did eat quite a lot when he was 'helping' make it). I'm looking forward to trying it with Mortimers White Chocolate Couverture when it is back in stock - probably with dried cherries or cranberries...

Sorry about the picture quality, husband dropped the camera last week and I've had to resort to a very old one that can't cope with the detail or close-up focus. 

Adapted from peppermint fudge recipe by  Allergy Free Delights  with adaptations for UK availability.

I made 1/2 quantity of original, but had to set it in round cake tin as I didn't have rectangular one small enough to get the depth. 

1/3 cup Chocolate oat milk (or any milk substitute)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup mini marshmallows (I used big ones and just squashed them into the cup, takes a little longer to melt though)

1 pack (220g) Mortimers Dark Chocolate Powder (or suitable grated dark chocolate)

1 ball preserved ginger (finely grated) - optional

1tsp Vanilla Paste or extract

Line 8 inch cake tin with cling film, leaving enough over the sides to cover once set.

Heat milk substitute and sugar in a pan until dissolved.

Stir in marshmallows and chocolate until completely dissolved.

Pour fudge into tin and leave to cool slightly.

Lightly cover with cling film and chill in the fridge until cold and set.

Remove from tin and cut into squares with a sharp knife.

Honey and tea loaf (toasted fruit bread)

Adapted from recipe on 'I Can Cook' available on Cbeebies website if anyone wants to watch it and then make this with your little 'helpers'

milk, soya and egg free

200g dried fruit

140mls warm tea

1-2 tbspn honey or syrup

120mls oat cream or milk substitute

300g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp mixed spice

milk, soya, egg and wheat free

200g dried fruit

140mls warm tea

1-2 tbspn honey or syrup

150mls oat cream or milk substitute

300g Gluten free/ wheat free bread flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp mixed spice

Pour tea on fruit and leave to soak

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl

Add fruit and wet ingredients

Mix well and pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for 30-40 mins at 180°C

Cool, slice, toast and top with dairy free spread/ honey/ jam etc...

Coconut and Jam Slice

Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food Magazine

Base
180g Caster sugar
90g Desiccated coconut
300g Wheat free plain flour (or Plain flour if you can eat wheat)
200g Dairy and Soya free spread

Filling
300g Jam (I used blackberry for these)

Topping (above picture only uses 1/2 topping as I ran out of coconut!)
210g Desiccated coconut
50ml Oat cream or Coconut cream
60g Marshmallows (preferably white!) - check wheat free

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Rub spread into base ingredients until combined - like making crumble.

Grease and line a 20 x 30cm tin with non-stick baking parchment (I used grease proof paper, but they stuck in some places). Tip in base and press down lightly to cover the base.

Bake for 20mins (or until golden).

Cool slightly before spreading on the jam.

Heat 'cream' and marshmallows until melted, stir in the coconut.

Sprinkle onto the jam and bake for a further 15-20mins until lightly toasted on top.

Cool completely before slicing.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

Slightly more advanced (well, only that it needs a whisk, and the beetroot to be cooked first) cake than the basic recipe from the diet sheet, but worth the effort. Makes a very light, moist but crumbly cake.

90g Light Brown Muscovado Sugar
100g Mortimer's Chocolate Powder (or Grated Dark Chocolate)
30g Cocoa Powder
30g Rice Flour
120g Self Raising Flour
90g Dairy/Soya free spread
150ml Oat cream (also works with milk substitute if you can't get or use oat cream)
1tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)
240g pureed cooked beetroot

Peel and chop beetroot into 1cm cubes (can be done wearing clean rubber gloves if you don't want purple fingers!), put in bowl with 25ml water, cover and microwave for 10-12 minutes or until soft. Drain off water and mash, blend or sieve. Put aside to cool.

Whisk margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Slowly whisk in the oat cream (add a little at a time and whisk until well combined).

Add all the other ingredients and fold in.

Pour into a greased and lined tin (22 x 15cm - ish, I'm just guessing rather than getting off the sofa to measure it!) and bake at 180°C for 30mins.

Leave to cool slightly before cutting. Freezes very well.

Milk and soya free cheese

Mozzarisella dairy and soya free cheese based on rice! Not tried it yet, but looks promising...

First Free-from Food Festival

Free-From Food Festival at London's Southbank Centre 25th-27th November 2011. Great opportunity to discover some new foods or stock up on treats for Christmas. I've googled some of the companies, and most are mainly gluten free, but might be a chance to persuade manufacturers to cut out more than just wheat and dairy...

Portion Sizes

Little Peoples Plates provide lots of useful information on feeding the under 3's, including weaning and portion sizes. You will need to adapt it for those foods your child can eat, but the basic info is useful. 

For your 3 'dairy' portions a day, include milk substitutes as drinks, on cereal, in custards and milk puddings, or in savoury sauces. Remember not to buy the organic versions as these do not contain Calcium.

Oh Buttons!

Doves Farm Dark Chocolate Drops have been delisted! Since discovering these a few months back I have been recommending them for a great dairy, soya and nut free treat, but having not seen them for a few weeks, I contacted Doves Farm and they have just told me the sad news... I'll let you know as soon as I find a good alternative, but in the meantime Bakers Delight Chocolate Beans are a great substitute for Smarties for topping biscuits.

Cookie recipe from 'Sweet Treats' recipe leaflet, topped with chocolate beans and jelly tots.

Christmas Chocolate

December will be on us before we know it so for all those breast feeding mums on restricted diets, or older kids, you better get ordering your Christmas chocolates! Here are a few ideas to get you started...

• Try Moo Free Chocolate Santa or Advent Calendar, 
• Lindt Dark chocolate Santa or Reindeer (they did a dark chocolate rabbit at Easter, so I'm hoping they do they same at Christmas), 
• Kinnerton milk free chocolate (disappointingly, they only do a milk chocolate version of their Advent calendars this year), 
• D and D chocolates Santa or snowman bags, 
• Hotel Chocolat Tiddly Dark Reindeer or penguins, 
• Chococo Dark Chocolate Christmas Crackle Tree. 

With the exception of Moo Free, these contain soya Lecithin as an emulsifier, in most cases, this is tolerated by those sensitive to soya as it is made from Soya oil, not protein.

English Muffins

English Muffins

2 ½ cups Wheat free bread flour (or wheat free plain flour plus 2 tsp xanthan gum)

240mls Water

120mls Oat milk (or other milk substitute)

100mls vegetable oil

120mls Oat cream (or milk substitute)

2tsp Whole Egg Replacer (The ones in the picture were made without)

2 ½ tsp dry active yeast

1tsp sugar

½ tsp salt (optional)

Ground rice or cornmeal for dusting

Mix Oat milk and water and warm to hand-hot. Stir in sugar and yeast and leave to foam up.

Mix dry ingredients in another bowl.

Add yeast mixture and rest of ingredients to flour mix (it will look like thick cake mix rather than bread dough). Leave to rest for few minutes. 

Lightly grease a baking tray and 8 muffin rings and lightly dust with ground rice or cornmeal.

Spoon in dough and level off the top with a wet spoon. Leave to rise in a warm place until double in size (cover with greased clingfilm to stop a crust forming).

Bake at 180C for approximately 20-25mins until lightly browned.

Cool on a wire rack. Great warm straight from the oven, or split open  and toasted for extra crispiness. Serve warm spread with dairy free spread and jam/ ham and pickle/ bacon/tinned sardines etc.

These freeze well or will keep for a couple of days in an airtight container and are great in packed lunches.

Cake tin tips #1

Another birthday passed, and thanks to a tip I read in a star cake tin, I finally managed to use the cake recipe on the back of the Milk, Soya and Egg free diet sheet in a fancy tin (previously only managed to get muffin recipe out of this tin in one piece). TIP: Brush cake tins with melted white vegetable fat (Trex, Cookeen) and dust with flour for smooth release. 

No more wet egg free cake mixes sticking to greaseproof paper lined tins! Also, if you find muffins and cupcakes stick to paper liners, try reusable silicon ones instead. 

The chocolate cake uses same basic recipe, with 1 cup of Mortimer Chocolate powder (available in Waitrose in Stortford and Saffron Walden or http://www.mortimerchocolate.co.uk/index.htm) added. The other carriages use same recipe, but with 2 small mashed bananas. Decorated with assorted sweets and gel glitter icing.

Vitamins and Bourbon

I had a disappointing (long overdue) trip to ASDA in Harlow this week, not only do they not stock Oatly Cream, they have also stopped selling the Oatly Milk (it is still available for delivery online - but they will only deliver 18 cartons, which only lasts a few days in our house). They are however stocking the Freedom Oat milk (in the free-from section, not the long life milk section), but I haven’t had the chance to try it yet (plan to do a taste test with the boys once they are over current bout of Chicken Pox and colds!). 

Even worse was the news that their Bourbon biscuits now contain milk (fortunately Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose Bourbon’s are still fine) , as does their Great Stuff Jelly - still not sure why you would possibly need to put milk in a jelly!

On a more positive note, their Crumpets and Toasted Tea Cakes are milk, egg and soya free.

Thanks to the foreign foods section, I bought some different shaped pasta for the boys (small elbows and short tubes), When I eventually got round to using it I though VITAMINLI was an unusual company, then realised the make was ANKARA and that it has added Vitamin B1, B2, Niacin and folic acid, but more importantly if, like me, you have a child who isn’t keen on red meat it contains 3mg of Iron per 100g (uncooked weight). Not a huge amount, but every little counts...

About Alimentary Bites

As a Paediatric Dietitian with 2 allergic boys I know what a struggle it is to have to stick to a restricted diet. Don't expect a clever, chatty blog, I just plan (although I always have lots of plans and don’t always get round to them!) to use this as a way to update you on changes to ingredients, new products available and provide new recipes without having to find time to update a whole new allergy recipe leaflet (and cut down on printing costs!). It’s also a chance to keep you up to date with useful addresses and links as I find them, but with 2 lively boys, it may not be that often...

Eventually I will post some basic info on allergies, testing, milk substitutes, recipe adaptation etc

This site is meant to accompany information given to allergy patients seen by me. For anyone else using the site, please see a Registered Dietitian before excluding any foods to ensure your diet is still adequate.

While the basic information will be useful to anyone cooking for those with food allergies, some of the specific information on product availability will only be relevant to people in the local area (M11 corridor). 

Any posts about specific ingredients are current to that date only and may be subject to change by manufacturers, so please always remember to check labels.