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.

Tudor Gingerbread

Hello. I'm in year 6 and my topic is The Tudors. This week for my homework I had to choose and make a Tudor recipe. I chose this one for Tudor Gingerbread.

                                                                                                                                                                

Ingredients:

225g of breadcrumbs

125g of butter (melted) - we used dairy and soya free margarine

50g of honey

1/2 tablespoon of ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

Melt Margarine and honey

Grind black peppercorns

1. Mix the spices and the breadcrumbs together.

2. Pour the melted butter and honey into the breadcrumbs.

3. Stir it together.

4. Tip it into a lined tin.
5. Then flatten it out with the back of a spoon.
6. Chill in the fridge for one hour.

Mini Courgette Cakes

Feeling guilty about the lack of recipes posted this year. Particularly when new patients come to see me and tell me they already use the site... I'm not entirely happy with this one yet, but as there have been a couple of requests for the recipe after posting the picture on Twitter, thought I'd make a start with this one.

Very light cakes, hidden veg always a bonus, but slightly sticky inside. I think it was the flour mix I used as I find pancakes go sticky with this brand too, so I'll try a different blend next time before changing quantities of ingredients.

With courgette season at its height, I thought I'd try a courgette and lime cake, to see if this might be a way to get the children to willingly eat a courgette… I Googled a couple of courgette cake recipes, but found the usual problem, the gluten free ones all had lots of eggs… Next step, try a vegan one… I found this one on the Ethical Chef website that looked easy to adapt to make it wheat free too. 

Generally, when adapting a recipe to make it gluten free, you need either a little less flour, or a little more liquid. I thought the lime juice would be enough, but the mixture was still a little thick, so I added some milk substitute too. Also, couldn't bring myself to add the vast amount of sugar in the original recipe…

1 Medium Courgette (finely grated)

1 Unwaxed Lime (Juice and Zest) 

1 Mashed Banana

1 Ball Frozen Chopped Spinach (defrosted)

1 tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

120g Dairy and Soya Free Spread

180g Wheat Free Self Raising Flour

60g Caster Sugar

2tbsp Milk Substitute

Whisk or beat the margarine and sugar together.

Mix in all the other ingredients.

Place spoonfuls onto greased muffin tins (or bun tin).

Bake at 180ºC for 25-30mins.

Turn out of tin to cool.

Drizzle with a little icing if you want… I made mine with icing sugar and lime juice.

We waited until he'd had his second one before telling him it was courgette and spinach...

Chocolate Fudge Cake

I know I've been neglecting the site recently, so I thought I'd start with a quick adaptation to save me writing out the recipe in full. This vegan chocolate fudge cake recipe from Sainsbury's Magazine was posted on Twitter yesterday. It's already milk, egg and soya free so with only one more thing  (wheat) to change, I thought I'd give it a go.

I know from experience, that unlike biscuit recipes you can't just do a straight swap for wheat free flour in cake. rather than just upping the fluid, I decided to reduce the quantity of flour as well. I still can't just follow a recipe, so I reduced the sugar too…

As it was an experiment, and I've recently had a bad experience with a blondie recipe, I just made half quantity. This was enough to fill an 18cm cake tin, which I cut in half before filling and icing.

I didn't have any avocado either (well, I did, but it's been lurking in the back of the fridge for so long, it really wasn't usable!) so haven't tried the icing. Mine was made with an apple and apricot fruit pot and the cake filled with apricot fruit spread. 

Amended ingredients:

1 small banana, or half a large one (mashed well) - mine was 47g

4 1/2 tbsp (75mls) Milk Substitute

2 1/2 tbsp (45mls) Vegetable Oil

120g Sugar (I still found this a bit sweet, despite using less than the original, would probably try with 100g next time)

1 tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract)

1 tsp Vinegar (I increased this as acid helps the rise in gluten  and egg free cakes)

25g Cocoa Powder (mixed with 75mls water)

175g Wheat Free Self Raising Flour

1/2 tbsp Baking Powder

35mls Maple Syrup

For method, please follow link

As it is a wetter mix, please adjust the cooking time by about 5 mins, or until it feels firm in the middle.

Jam Tarts

Who doesn't like a jam tart? The problem with the free from ones is they either contain egg, or the few that are really milk, egg, wheat and soya free, contain nuts, making them instantly not suitable for packed lunch (school nut ban).

Key Stage 1 party tomorrow afternoon, with the usual helpful 24hours notice about what food I need to provide! Fortunately, this year, they helpfully suggested that rather than me providing food for 8 children (sausages/carrot sticks etc), I have only been asked to provide a plate of food for Mini Monster. Now I just need to figure out what the others will have and make sure he gets an equivalent…

Obviously, I've started with pudding...

Makes 12 tarts

200g Gluten/Wheat Free Plain Flour 

70g Hard vegetable fat (Stork(the hard one not the spreadable, which contains milk)/cookeen/trex)

5-6tbsp Dairy and soya free cream/milk substitute
Extra Fruit Jam, or Clearspring fruit spread for no added sugar ones

Put flour in bowl and rub in fat until resembles breadcrumbs.

Slowly mix in the milk substitute, using a blunt knife, until the mix begins to come together.

Kneed well.

Roll out thinly between 2 sheets of cling film (means you don't need to add extra flour and risk it drying out).

Cut rounds and place in a greased tart tin.

Fill with 1tspn fruit spread/jam.

Bake at 200ºC for 15-20mins.

Easy Oat Biscuits

This week's packed lunch biscuits prove you don't need any fancy equipment in your kitchen…

60g Dairy and Soya Free Spread

30g (1/4 cup) Caster Sugar

30mls Milk Substitute)

1 tbsp Honey (or syrup)

1 tsp Vanilla Paste (or extract) - optional

50g (1/2 cup) Oats

150g (1 cup) Wheat free flour (I used gluten free white bread flour) or plain flour

1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

(mine had dried strawberry pieces too)

Mix dairy free spread, sugar and vanilla with the back of a spoon.

Slowly mix in the honey and milk substitute.

Add all other ingredients and mix well.

Roll teaspoons of mixture into balls and place on tray, flatten slightly.

Bake at 180ºC for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Cool on wire rack.

Custard

I've neglected the blog for a while, but with a new year comes a new start, I need to get into the habit again. This year I'm starting with some basics, for those who didn't cook before having a child with allergies made it a necessity.

2tbsp (heaped) Custard Powder (or corn flour, or a mixture as I used here)

Sugar to taste (I didn't use any when boys were small, now only about 1tbsp)

350mls Milk Substitute (different substitutes require more or less cornflour/custard powder to thicken, if yours is the wrong consistency, just add more or less next time)

1-200mls Dairy and Soya Free Cream (e.g. rice/oat/almond)

Put custard powder and sugar (if using) in a bowl.

Mix with a little of the milk substitute to form a paste.

Add the rest of the milk substitute and stir well.

Microwave for 2 mins (should just be beginning to thicken and change colour on the edge) and stir well again.

Microwave for another 2-3 mins until thick and bubbling (make sure your bowl is big enough so it doesn't boil over).

Beat well, then mix in the dairy free cream.

If you'r leaving it to cool, mix again a few times to stop a skin forming.