Porridge Pancakes

Well, not really anything to do with porridge, except for the containing oats bit. These are more a cross between Pikelets (yeasted pancakes) and Staffordshire oatcakes.

We had sweet toppings today, but they also work really well with savoury toppings too.

I topped mine with fresh peach, frozen berries, coconut milk yogurt and chocolate sauce.

L went for the classic lemon and sugar, M drowned his in maple syrup. 

1 1/2 Cups Gluten Free Plain Flour (I used Dove's Farm White Bread Flour, you may need to adjust fluid for different blends)

1 cup Gluten Free Oats

1tsp Dried Yeast

3 Cups Milk Substitute (plus 1/4 cup)

Put dry ingredients in a bowl.

Mix in milk substitute with a balloon whisk.

Cover and leave in fridge over night.

Stir in extra milk substitute.

Heat a lightly oiled skillet or frying pan on medium heat.

Pour in 1/2 cup of mix and leave until bubbles formed and top beginning to set.

Flip over and brown lightly on other side.

Repeat until all mix used up. Mine made 8 about 6 inches across.

Sticky Gooey Chocolate Marshmallow Sandwiches - Smores(ish)

After a recent trip to Scotland where I introduced the boys to the joy of toasting marshmallows over a fire, we've been using more at home.

L, whose never been bothered by his allergies before, came home from Cubs a bit upset as they'd made Smores one evening. Had they told me in advance I would have sent in safe biscuits, chocolate and marshmallows so he could be included, but when he'd joined a few weeks earlier, they told me they don't do a snack while the boys are there. I've asked them to let me know when there are exceptions again!

Having just come home to an empty biscuit tin after a chilly winter walk, I thought I'd try our own variation...

Cinnamon Cookies (You could skip this step and use any suitable biscuits, I would have used Free From digestives but have run out)

100g Dairy and Soya Free Spread

100g Soft Brown Sugar

1tbsp Golden Syrup

1tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

150g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

*Apologies for lack of images, my App crashed overtime I tried to upload more

Whisk all ingredients, except flour, together until light and fluffy.

Add flour and whisk again until well combined.

Place scoops of mixture onto a lined baking sheet.

Bake at 180ºC for 12mins.

Leave on tray to cool for a few minuted before moving as very soft.

Cool until easy to handle

Assembly

Top the base of a cookie with marshmallows (I used sliced giant ones) and suitable chocolate.

Repeat for number you are making.

Put back in oven for 1-2minutes, until chocolate is melted (but still holding it's shape) and marshmallows squishy.

Top with another cookie.

Leave to cool slightly or warm cookie will crumble.

Serve on a plate to grateful children...

Flapjack Fingers

My usual packed lunch flapjacks are low in fat and sugar and have loads of fresh fruit added, but spotted this recipe yesterday and thought I'd make something a little different for the holidays (I'm also taking advantage of being able to add nuts, but these are optional). I hate shop bought pre packed flapjacks that are soft and doughy, almost like uncooked mix. To me, they should be crispy and taste like the ones I grew up with.

These have 30g of Nutribrex too as I didn't quite have enough oats left!

I sort of followed this recipe, but made a smaller quantity and reduced the sugar a little, oh, and cooked them for longer, because 20 minutes was never going to be enough!

150g Dairy and Soya Free margarine

80g Soft Brown Sugar

90g Golden Syrup

300g Oats

nuts/seeds/dried fruit/chocolate chips

Melt margarine, sugar and syrup together in a bowl in the microwave.

Stir in oats and fruit, seeds etc.

Tip into a lined tin (mine is 25cm x 18cm)

Press down with the back of a spoon.

Bake at 180ºc for 30-35 mins.

Cut into 16 fingers while still warm and leave to cool in the tin.

Blueberry and Apple Scones

I got a lift home from work today so had time to whip up some scones quickly for an afternoon snack before collecting the boys. After eating these, M (my non-wheat free son) announced "Best. Scones. Ever!", so I'm guessing they were good.

Today I used my normal recipe (120g flour), but ended up with a mix that was too wet and had to add some more flour. I was using Sainsbury's Gluten Free Self Raising Flour today, but usually use Orgran, be aware that different GF flour blends need different quantities of fluid. 

Scone mix doesn't like to be overworked, so it's better to have a little less flour and end up with too wet mix, adding more flour if necessary, then to have a too dry mix and try adding more fluid. Of course, it could be the extra wetness from the grated apple too...

150g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

1/2tsp Baking Powder

50g Hard Dairy and Soya Free Margarine (e.g. Stork Block) - cut into cubes

30mls Milk Substitute

100g Apple or Pear Puree

1 Apple (grated)

1/2 - 1 cup Blueberries

Extra Flour and Milk Substitute for kneading & glazing

Put flour, baking powder and margarine in a bowl, rub in with your fingers until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix with a blunt knife until it all comes together.

If it looks too sticky, sprinkle extra flour round edges of bowl and lightly kneed together to form a ball.

Tip onto work surface (or straight onto oiled tray) and lightly shape into a circle about 4cm high (gluten free scones don't rise much more during baking, so make them about the thickness you want you finished scones to be).

Glaze the top with a little milk substitute (I put a splash into the container from the fruit puree and mix with whats left in there).

Cut into 8 and place on baking tray.

Bake at 220ºC for 15 minutes.

Cool slightly on a wire rack before eating.

These were the ones I made on the Friday when I started to write it up!

This was from the batch I did today (always good to check recipe works!)

Wanted to try to show the fluffy scone like texture inside
as often gluten free ones are very dry.

Summer Berry Buns

It's the end of the weekend and I have berries that will be considered too 'past it' for packed lunches tomorrow, so I'm popping them into mini cakes instead.

This is adapted from a cake recipe we have on the back of the diet sheet we give to new patients, but for these I cut down the sugar (the fruit will sweeten them enough) and added ground almonds to make them more like a friand.

175g Wheat Free Self Raising Flour

50g Ground Almonds

1/4tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

45g Dairy and Soya Free Spread

45g Caster Sugar

160mls Milk Substitute

1tsp Vinegar or Lemon Juice

1/2tsp Vanilla Paste or Extract

1 cup Chopped Fresh or Frozen Berries

Melt spread, sugar together in a bowl.

Stir in milk substitute, vanilla, vinegar/lemon juice and set aside.

Weigh out flour and ground almonds into another bowl and stir in the bicarb.

Pour in the liquid to mix to give a smooth batter.

Add the berries and fold in.

Spoon the mixture into a greased bun or muffin tin and bake at 190ºC for 18-20mins.

I have a round base bun tin and turn them over to cool (to hide the cracked tops)

Lemon Drizzle Cake

For the last few weeks, M has been asking for lemon drizzle cake, so on Thursday afternoon I thought I'd give it a go in time for an after school snack. Rather than just using one of my basic cake mixes, and adding lemon, I had a quick look online for some ideas. I spotted this one, which was another of those pictures that you look at and are not convinced the picture is the actual recipe shown… Gluten free cake tends to be much paler than this. I wanted to give it a go, just to see. 

Just 2 little problems…

• Reading the ingredients and the method, they didn't match. Add the lemon juice? what lemon juice? I guessed that it should have said zest and juice of 2 lemons, not just zest. 
• L is allergic to chick peas, so gram flour was not an option. I considered just doing it with extra self raising flour, but having looked through my cupboard decided on substituting it for something else high in protein. 

I decided to use my Fava bean (broad bean) flour because it needs using up by the end of the month, but even with only 20g (my hand slipped), I could taste it. I think I'd just add 50g of ground almonds next time (although, then it's no use for school lunchbox!).

As expected, my cake was still very pale after the suggested time, so I turned the temperature up to get a little colour. It also sank, a lot, when it came out of the oven. That said, it was a nice moist texture inside, and the boys loved it, which is the whole point (I may have had two slices as soon as it was warm enough to cut too…). Definitely one to adapt next time, but thought I'd post the recipe now anyway in my attempt to publish more recipes than stay in my drafts folder this year!

Cake Mix

235g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

15g Gram Flour/Fava Bean Flour/Quinoa Flour/or other high protein flour. (I'm going to try with 50g Ground Almonds next time)

150g Sugar (I used a mixture of caster and soft brown)

85mls Vegetable Oil (I used mix of olive and rapeseed, which gave it a nice yellow colour)

265mls Milk Substitute

Zest and Juice of 2 Lemons

Syrup for Drizzling

3tbsp sugar

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Weigh out flours and sugar into a large bowl.

Mix lemon juice & zest (keep 1/2 tsp back for the syrup), milk substitute and oil in a jug or a bowl.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well with a balloon whisk.

Pour into a lined 2lb loaf tin and bake at 170ºc for 50mins (I might try 180ºc next time).

To brown cake slightly, turn up to 200ºc for a further 10 minutes.

While it's baking, add the syrup ingredients to a bowl and microwave for 1 minute until lightly boiled and clear. 

Remove cake from oven and cool for 10 minutes.

Prick cake all over with a skewer and pour over the syrup. Leave in tin to cool for another 30mins before removing to cooling rack.

Tasted much better than it looked at this stage!

Not sure why this one is sideways, but you get the gist...