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.