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!

Mezzaluna

Ok, so this is another example of rescuing a mistake. Might still have another go at how they should be...

I found a recipe, that looked easy to adapt, for Biscotti alla Vaniglia (Vanilla Biscuits to you and me) in an Italian cooking magazine I bought back from a recent trip (I'm sure I used to bring back food and alcohol, not sure what went wrong). 

Unfortunately, I wasn't paying much attention and put in the equivalent fluid for a whole egg instead of a yolk! Ended up with a very soft mix more like cake. Tried microwaving for 30seconds, good texture cooked, but spread too much. Added a bit more flour and a little raising agent et voila (or ecco la if you prefer the italian).

50g Sugar
80g Dairy and Soya Free Spread
1tpn vanilla paste (or extract)
40mls Oat cream or other milk substitute
50g ground pine nuts* 
Grated zest from an unwaxed lemon (optional)
125g GF bread flour
1tsp egg replacer
1/2 tsp baking powder
icing sugar to decorate (optional)

* Original recipe used ground almonds, but I thought pine nuts would likely to be tolerated by more of you. You can either put them in a food bag and bash them with a rolling pin, they don't need to be evenly or smoothly ground, or whizz them in a blender. They are much oilier than almonds so you are more likely to end up with a paste as you can see in the photo below.

Put sugar, vanilla, spread and oat cream  (and lemon zest, if using) in a bowl and whisk until pale.

Tip in rest of ingredients and fold in with spatula or spoon.

Spoon into piping bag (disposable ones are readily available now and cut down risk of cross contamination, but I've always just used a bit of rolled up greaseproof paper. I was going to include instructions, but it's very difficult to photograph and roll and fill! Fortunately Iced Gem Bakes has instructions on her blog). 

Pipe crescents onto greaseproof paper.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 180ºc for 10 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges.

Cool on wire rack and dust with icing sugar before serving.

Empanadas (fried meat pasties)

Ok, so I know it was a long time ago I promised recipes of what to do with the rich wheat free bread dough , here's the first one!

Going away for the weekend isn't easy with allergic kids, even when I'm not taking them with me! Heading up north for my school reunion, I found myself spending my day off work having to stock up the freezer with potential picnic food so my husband could take the kids out. I'm sure he would have coped anyway, just didn't want them to think they could do without me...

I had intended to just make ham rolls (will post that recipe too eventually) as they are already a firm packed lunch favourite, but only had enough ham to use half mix. I know the dough fries well, so experimented stuffing it with cooked mince and vegetables (I used a fairly dry mix just in case they split). I think they'd probably work filled with anything not too wet, but probably better with pre-cooked filling so you only need to cook the outside and don't need to worry about cooking out the middle.

To make 8 empanadas:

1/2 quantity of rich wheat free bread dough

8 spoonfuls of filling (I fried off some lamb mince with grated carrot, courgette, and sweet potato until browned and veg not visible to Fussy 5, added garlic, a spices (cinnamon and cumin) and possibly a bit of tomato paste (can't quite remember). 

1 tsp of corn flour mixed to a thin paste with 2 tbsp water

Oil to fry (I know olive oil is supposed to be no good for frying, but it's the only thing I had) - I used about 1cm in the base of a small heavy based pan.

Divide dough into 8 pieces.

Roll into balls and flatten to about 3mm.

Place spoonful of filling in middle.

Wet edge of dough with corn flour mixture (easier with finger than pastry brush).

Fold dough over and pinch edges together until sealed all the way round.

Flatten slightly to form a semi-circle (makes it easier to fry).

Fry in hot oil for a couple of minutes until browned, then flip over and repeat for the other side. 

Remove from oil and drain on kitchen paper.

These freeze well and unlike wheat free pastry, won't break up when traveling! 

Savoury Ideas

Ever now and then, I get asked when I'm going to do a savoury recipe leaflet for work. Well, It's partly down to laziness and partly down to lack of time. For those of you with 'Sweet Treats' you will know I'm new to the world of weighing scales. When I do baking I usually have time to weigh ingredients, take pictures (and sometimes even remember to write down what I did before I've forgotten), savoury is a whole other ball game.

Dinner is usually done in the 30-60mins between getting home from work with mini monster, picking his brother up from the childminder, trying to stop them trashing the house/killing each other and getting dinner on the table for 5 (ish). Needless to say, I tend to revert to throwing things together rather than figuring what and how much has gone into it. 

So while the following are not recipes as such, it may just give you the inspiration to try something new.

All are milk, egg and soya free and with the exception of the pasty are wheat free too (but I do have a wheat free empanada recipe to post).

Pasty

These are the only way I can get my fussy five year old to eat a stew (or it was until he discovered stovies), thinly rolled out bread dough, filled with left over veg curry/ meat stew/ baked beans etc and baked until brown. These also make great picnic or packed lunch food.

Pasta with chorizo and butternut squash

Chorizo, butternut squash and garlic gently fried until squash caramelised and chorizo crispy, (probably had a splash of wine too), then oat cream stirred through before tossing in the pasta. Try bacon, onion, peas and oat cream for a 'carbonara' sauce. 

Crispy fried polenta with trout

This was the ready made polenta, sliced from the block and fried until crispy in the same pan as the trout, served with vegetables/salad.

Potato dauphinois 

Now, I made this after watching Jamie's 30 minute meals and seeing him do a quick one. I think it was mostly the same basic technique... I used a veggie stock cube and water for most of the cooking on the top of the stove, but poured in a carton of oat cream before putting it in the oven (had lots of garlic, black pepper and nutmeg on too). Mmmm, thinking about it now, it was very tasty, must have another go...

Sushi

Used good old pudding rice for these, fraction of the price of sushi rice and just as sticky. Once you get the hang of the basic rolling, you can fill them with anything as these British-Japanese fusion rolls prove. They are actually filled with left over roast beef, grated carrot and baby sweetcorn!

Barley cous cous

Pan fried salmon on top of barley cous-cous mixed with tomato paste (actually, I think this might have been ketchup, but I usually use sundried tomato paste) sliced green beans and baby sweetcorn.

Lasagne

Macaroni no Cheese

Schnizel strips

Thinly sliced meat (chicken, turkey, pork, beef or veal all work - as does fish..), tossed in suitable flour, milk substitute and breadcrumbs, before frying.

Spaghetti and meatballs