Mince Pies

I did find a pack of Milk, Egg, Wheat and Soya free mince pies at the health food shop in Stortford a few weeks ago, but they are no longer available (although I did see them in Cambridge last Wednesday in the health food shop opposite Lakeland). As seems to be the case with many seasonal free from foods, they only produce a small amount and when they 
sell out, that's it for another year. 

Just in case you want to hunt them out yourself, this is the box with ingredients on the back. (Sorry, not nut free)


























If you can't get them now, or you want to have a go yourself...

I do know a good recipe though.

This pastry is fab, not gluten free, with the addition of barley flour, but it gives a lovely colour and texture to the pastry. If you need gluten free as well as wheat free, just substitiute the barley flour for another 1/2 cup of wheat free plain flour.

125g Dairy and Soya Free Spread  (Pure Sunflower/Vitalite)

125g Vegetable Shortening (Trex/Cookeen) - you can use all spread, but wouldn't be so crispy

1/3 cup (75g) Caster Sugar

1/2 cup (60g) Barley Flour

2 cups (330g) Wheat Free White Bread Flour (or Wheat Free Plain Flour, plus 2tsp Xanthan gum)

1 tsp Vanilla paste 

1/2 jar Mincemeat (if like me you find it too sweet, try grating in an apple or adding chopped frozen cranberries)

Whisk Sugar, Vanilla, Shortening and Spread until light and fluffy.

Stir in flour.

Kneed gently and shape into a ball. Cover and chill for 20-30 minutes.

Roll out 2/3 of the mix to 5mm (will be too crumbly if too thin).

Cut circles to fit a greased shallow bun tin (muffin tin will be too deep).

Fill each case with 1tsp of mincemeat.

Roll out remaining 1/3 pastry and cut circles/stars/snowflakes for lids. Moisten edges with a little milk substitute before sticking on lids. You can also wipe tops with milk substitute and sprinkle with caster sugar.

Bake at 200ºC for about 20mins, or until golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin for a minute before carefully removing them and cooling on a wire rack.

This pastry also makes great apple pie...

Christmas Biscuits (for hanging, or just eating)

In an attempt to get at least some Christmas recipes on in time, I'll start with these. Recipe adapted from this months BBC Good Food Magazine (Mary Cadogan's orange and cardamom tree biscuits)

Milk, Egg and Soya free
200g/7oz plain flour
50g/2oz rice flour
140g/5oz dairy and soya free spread
100g/4oz icing sugar (plus extra to decorate)
3-4tsp milk substitute
Crushed seeds from 6 cardamom pods (or cinnamon or ginger if you prefer)
grated zest of an orange


Milk, Egg, Soya and Wheat free

150g/5oz wheat free white bread flour (or wheat free plain flour plus 1tsp xantham gum)

100g/4oz oat flour (for gluten free, just substitute with more of above flour)

140g/5oz dairy and soya free spread

100g/4oz icing sugar (plus extra to decorate)

3-4tsp milk substitute

Crushed seeds from 6 cardamom pods (or cinnamon or ginger if you prefer)

grated zest of an orange

To decorate, use clean rubber stamps.


Put flours in a bowl and rub in the spread (like making crumble).

Mix in the icing sugar and flavourings.

Pour in the milk substitute and bring mixture together using a blunt knife or spatula.

Kneed lightly until smooth and allow to rest in a cool place for 20 minutes.

Roll out to about 5mm thick cut out biscuit shapes and place on tray.

Gently press stamp onto biscuit and, if hanging, make a small hole at the top for string/ribbon.

Bake at 180ºC for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and dust with icing sugar. Put back into oven for another 2 minutes to set the icing sugar. Remove from tray and cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate Crispy Christmas Puddings

Thursday night, home late from work, kids tired and grumpy when I pick them up from childminder, get them home and stop them killing each other while I try to get dinner ready. Feed the monsters, do homework, finally get them to bed all the while imagining the bliss of flopping onto the sofa and not moving except to make a coffee...

Then remember it's the school Christmas fair the next day and I'm supposed to provide a plate of cakes. Oh bother...

Then it leaves the usual dilemma...

Cake with wheat and egg, or cake without? Decided on Chocolate Crispies, then realised the only dairy free 'milk' chocolate I have is Moo Free and School is nut free. Thank goodness for Mortimer's...

60g/ 2 oz Dairy and Soya free spread (Pure/Vitalite)

3 table spoons golden syrup

100g suitable chocolate (I used Mortimer's)

20g Marshmallows

90g/ 3 oz Rice Krispies

Ready roll icing and silver balls (check ingredients well as some contain wheat) to decorate

Slowly melt spread, syrup, chocolate and marshmallows over a gently heat (or in short bursts in the microwave).

When smooth and glossy, pour onto rice krispies and mix well to coat.

Spoon into paper cases (or leave to cool slightly and roll into balls before putting in cases).

Roll icing thinly onto greaseproof pastry dusted generously with icing sugar.

Cut out small stars, circles or snowflakes to top the chocolate crispy and push in a silver ball before icing dries out.


Then get on and try and figure out how you are going to get hold of a yellow top at this time of year for your son to be a chick (yes, that does say chick?!) in the school Nativity... 

Double Chocolate Cookies

Is it so wrong that we were eating these by 9am one Sunday morning? Breakfast had already been had and I'm sure that was something very nutritious...

These seem to have turned into our quick, need a biscuit default recipe. For those of you with the 'Sweet Treats' recipe leaflet we give out in clinic, it's just a chocolate version of the cookies on the front cover. 

100g Pure

100g Light Muscovado Sugar (or any other type)

1 tbsp Golden Syrup (or maple or agave)

1 tsp vanilla paste (or extract)

25g Cocoa Powder

125g Self Raising Flour or Wheat free plain flour plus 1 tsp baking powder

Chocolate chips (I used a 35g bag of dairy free buttons, 50g might be a better amount)

Whisk margarine, sugar, vanilla and syrup until light and creamy.

Whisk in Cocoa powder (if like me you are too lazy to sift and need to get rid of lumps, or you could just sift in with the flour)

Mix in flour until you can't see any more white.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Roll teaspoonfuls of mix into balls, place on tray lined with greaseproof paper (cuts down on washing up, as well as reducing risk of cross contamination if you use your trays for non-free from foods).

Flatten slightly and bake for about 10-12 minutes at 180ºC.

Try to leave to cool slightly before eating...

Waffles

This one might be more for my American readers, unless you have a waffle maker tucked away somewhere. Fussy Five found my waffle iron (my dad bought this back from a business trip to Holland about 30 years ago) in the cupboard so we had a quick experiment halloween morning before heading out for the day. 

Sorry, no pretty picture on a plate with toppings, with 2 hungry (or greedy, this was second breakfast!) boys, they didn't even make it as far as a plate!

A great crispy waffle and a nice change from pancakes.

1 cup wheat free white bread flour

1 tsp egg replacer

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup oat milk (or other milk substitute)

1 tsp vanilla

Heat waffle iron on a medium heat.*

Put dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together.

Slowly beat in the rest of the ingredients with a balloon whisk or wooden spoon until a thick smooth batter is formed.

Brush (or spray) waffle iron with a little oil.

Pour batter into hot waffle iron and cook. If, like me, you are not using an electric one, turn  over frequently and continue to cook until it stops steaming.

Remove from waffle iron and put on a plate while you continue to cook the rest of the batter. The above recipe makes about 4 rounds on my waffle iron. 

Serve with chopped fruit and maple syrup for breakfast or pudding. Pop in a packed lunch box in place of bread. Toast and serve with spread or jam. Just eat them in place of biscuits...

*I have been reliably informed that the absence of a waffle iron is no barrier. A griddle pan also does the trick:

Thanks @Angelscout

National Sausage Week

With National Sausage Week this week, gives me the perfect opportunity to mention some of the Milk, Egg, Soya and Wheat free sausages available at the moment (If you know of any others, please comment at the bottom to let others know):

Remember ingredients change from time to time so ALWAYS double check the pack before  buying - these are correct at time of print (November 2012)

Chef and Farmer (available at Tesco): 3 varieties - Pork, Pork Chipolatas or Pork, Apple and Sage. These sausages use polenta (corn) as a filler.

I was surprised by the 'may contain nuts' so emailed the company who said this:

'Many thanks for your email about Chef and Farmer sausages and we are so pleased that you enjoyed them.

We do use nuts in our factory on an ad hoc basis but we comply to the legislation that ensure we wash down and segregate our nuts thereby reducing the risk but of course we still inform our customers that we do use nuts.'

They must have then forwarded my email to their parent company Walkers, who emailed me this response:

'Regarding your recent query on the “may contains nuts statement” on our products. We don’t actually have this statement on our products, although there may well be similar statements on other sausages in the range.

For 11 months of the year we don’t have any nuts on site, and at Christmas when there is a risk of some being used in the more elaborate recipes, we manage their use sufficiently not to warrant a “may contains” statement. The cleaning standards that we employ on site are validated and verified to ensure that all traces of allergen are totally removed.

I hope this answers your question sufficiently.'

Hmmm, he clearly hasn't checked the labelling on this product...

Waitrose 12 Pork and Herb Chipolata's - I don't have a pack at the moment, but here's a link to the website for ingredients (please note Ocado have wrong ingredients list online). These don't contain any filler, so have a meatier texture, but as they are thin, they are still easy for someone new to chewing.

Marks and Spencer: I know they do another variety as well, but I can't remember which the other is

Gressingham: (my mum found these in her Tesco, but I haven't seen them locally) very juicy and tasty, but my husband did find a bit of bone in his...

Try more than just Sausage and Mash (although this is always a good option... don't just stick to potato though, it's a great way to sneak in extra veg)

Sausage Traybake - great for the lazy cook - put sausages and chopped veg in a roasting tin, toss with a little oil and roast until sausages browned and veg soft - the veg take on a different flavour cooked in the sausage juices, might even encourage fussy kids to try them - works well with root veg, fennel, potato, butternut squash, beetroot, courgette, peppers, aubergine etc).

Sausage casserole

Sausage bolognaise - cooks much quicker than mince for an after work quick tea - squeeze sausage meat out of the skins into a hot pan, squash with the back of a wooden spoon to break up into smaller pieces. Add finely chopped or grated veg and cook until browned and veg soft, add tinned tomato, passata, ketchup etc

Sausage rolls - roll out wheat free pizza dough to a rectangle - I used Hale & Hearty for this - spread with tomato sauce and sausage meat, roll up and cut into 1cm slices. put on tray and bake - great fresh out of the oven, or next day in packed lunch or picnic

Sausage and pasta - slice left over sausage into pasta sauce

Sausage sandwich - put into a roll - try DS soft white rolls or Barkat ready to bake rolls - or between a couple of slices of suitable bread.

vanilla fudge

This is more of a crumbly, old fashioned, fudge than the squishy cubes they seem to mass produce these days. For any Scottish readers, almost Tablet, but not quite...

 (I only wanted to make a small amount to try so this is half quantity of the recipe I adapted, just double up if you want to make more)

225g Caster Sugar

45g Dairy free spread

160ml can Coconut cream (just tried it with oat cream too, not quite the same creaminess, but good alternative if you can't use coconut - and once cold, set very hard...)

1/2 tsp Vanilla Paste

1. Put sugar, spread, and coconut cream into a heavy based pan and heat gently, stirring frequently, until the sugar has dissolved. Do not boil until sugar completely dissolved.
2. Bring to the boil without stirring.
3. Continue boiling (stirring occasionally to stop it sticking and burning) until a temperature of 116°C (240°F) is reached on a sugar thermometer. If you don't have one of these, you can test if the fudge is at this temperature by spooning a small amount of the syrup into some iced water, it should form a soft ball.
4. Remove the pan from the heat, add the vanilla extract and beat the mixture with a wooden spoon until thickened.
5. Pour a tray lined with lightly oiled foil, and leave for 10-15 mins or until almost set. It will set quicker in the fridge (if making larger quantity you can just use an oiled square tin and get nice neat sides).
6. Mark the fudge into squares with a sharp knife and leave to cool completely.

Toffee Apple Cake

With National Apple Day this weekend, seemed like a good excuse to do something a little more exciting than stewed apples and custard. This is roughly (very roughly) adapted from a recipe in this months (November 2012) BBC Good Food Magazine. The basic gingerbread recipe I've now made a couple of times using Dove's farm white bread flour and Orgran All Purpose Plain Flour without having to adjust the fluid. I love a basic recipe you can adapted lots of ways, have now done this as gingerbread, banana cake (for mini monsters birthday cake) and now toffee apple cake. Don't be afraid to experiment! Be warned, this is a very wet batter and looks as if it won't work!

3 Eating Apples
30g Caster Sugar (melted to form a caramel - how to video ) or light muscovado sugar to sprinkle
75g Dairy and Soya Free Spread
60g Caster Sugar
200g Golden Syrup (or 100g syrup plus 100g caramelised sugar as above)
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)
100mls Milk Substitute
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
150g Plain Flour or Wheat Free Plain Flour
1 tsp Egg Replacer 

Thinly slice 2 of the apples and pour over caramel (or sugar), stir and set aside (the moisture from the apples will stop the caramel setting).

Melt sugar, syrup and dairy free spread gently in a pan until dissolved and leave to cool slightly.

Add vanilla, cinnamon and milk substitute to syrup mixture.

Grate remaining apple into a bowl and mix with the rest of the dry ingredients.

Stir in syrup mixture until well combined.

Pour into greased, lined tin (approx 18x25cm)

Top with apple slices and pour over remaining caramel/sugar.

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 180ºC.



Serve with Oat Cream, Custard, Toffee sauce (see sticky toffee pudding recipe), or natural yogurt (CoYo or Wot No Dairy).

Custard Creams

I bought the Mar/April 2012 Issue of Jamie (Oliver) Magazine after it boasted a 'Bake For Everyone' free-from section with Gluten free and Vegan recipes. Great, I thought, Wheat, Milk and Egg free already, just need to substitute the Soya. Unfortunately, many of the Gluten-free recipes used Spelt Flour which, not only is a form of wheat, but also contains Gluten! They did print an apology in the next issue...

I think he missed a trick. The same issue had a 'classic biscuit' section which is easy to adapt and much less complicated than the special free-from section. 

I don't have the fancy cutters, but they work pretty well any shape. Don't have step by step pictures for these as rushed late one night this week when I was feeling rough (2 weeks of school being back and already sniffles doing the rounds). While the biscuit itself was good, I think the filling could have done with a little something else. I think next time I will add a little vanilla (didn't stop Mini Monster and Fussy Five demolishing the lot in less then 2 days).

Makes about 20 biscuits (depending on size of cutter and thickness of dough)

175g Plain Flour (or Wheat free bread flour)

1 tsp Baking Powder

3 tbsp Custard Powder

3 tbsp Caster Sugar

100g Dairy and Soya Free Spread

50ml Oat Cream (or milk substitute)

1 tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

Filling (this makes a lot, you probably only need to do half quantity!)

200g Icing Sugar

4 tbsp Custard Powder

100g Dairy and Soya Free Spread

Put Flour, Baking Powder, Custard Powder and Sugar in a bowl.

Rub in Dairy and Soya Free Spread with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Stir in Oat Cream (or Milk Substitute) and vanilla with a knife until it begins to come together (if using plain flour, you may need a splash more milk substitute).

Using your hand, kneed lightly to form a ball. Cover and chill for 20-30 mins.

Roll out on floured surface to 2-3mm thick (remember it's a double, triple including filling, layer so you don't want it too thick) and cut into shapes.

Place on a tray lined with greaseproof paper and bake for 12-15mins at 180ºc. Cool on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, to make the filling, cream together all the ingredients until light and fluffy. Add 2 tsp of boiling water and mix until smooth. Cover and set aside until the biscuits are cool.

Sandwich biscuits together with as much or little of the filling as you want!

Bourbons, Jammie Dodgers and Jaffa Cakes to follow!