A free-from Christmas

The cold, winter weather is definitely upon us and Christmas is quickly approaching with just a few short days to go. It’s the time of year for families to get together and share fun, games and food in the company of one another. 

However, for those families who need to consider relatives with food allergies and intolerances, planning Christmas dinner can become a little more complicated.

Many people that do not have special dietary requirements believe that free-from food can be tasteless and unappealing. Yet by making a few simple switches to flavourful recipes, the whole family can enjoy delicious Christmas favourites. 

Newburn Bakehouse, a specialist gluten and dairy free bakery by Warburtons, have spent years experimenting and improving the overall texture and taste of their free-from products, including gluten and dairy free bread, muffins and wraps to name a few. The Newburn Bakehouse team has developed a variety of festive recipes just in time for Christmas that the whole family - including those living with food intolerances and allergies – can eat together. Follow Santa as he hops down chimneys delivering presents on Christmas Eve, and read on to see him discover free-from food when wolfing down gluten free and dairy free mince pies.

The recipes found throughout Santa’s tale are all gluten free and dairy free, and can be enjoyed by all the family over the festive season. The complete collection of recipes can be found on the Newburn Bakehouse website.

I've also put the free-from Christmas recipes that we make in our house every Christmas on a new page you can see at the top of my blog, titled Free From Christmas Bakes.

Our family are all great believers that free-from treats are neither free from taste nor difficult to bake!

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Family Dinners - Sweet & Sour Battered Chicken {Dairy & Gluten Free}

Although we hardly ever eat takeaway, and didn't before we had allergies to deal with either, on those rare occasions when we do have a Chinese Takeaway I always, always plump for the battered sweet & sour chicken. I just love it! 

As well as the fact that it is so expensive, it just doesn't seem fair to eat it when some of the boys aren't able to enjoy it

 

I have been making a sweet and sour sauce that they can eat for a while but it was when I discovered the lovely gluten free batter for my lemon chicken  recipe that I realised I could finally make the full version of my favourite takeaway dish that all the boys could enjoy too.


I'm happy to say that they loved it just as much as I do.


Now, while I am including this in my Family Dinners series, I should point out that it's not the sort of dinner you can rustle up in 20 minutes when you are just in the door and everyone is starving. Having said that, it isn't labour intensive either. The reason it takes a little while to cook is that you need to deep fry the battered chicken in batches. When I made this last week, to serve 8, I timed myself and it took around 45 minutes. I don't know how long you like to spend cooking but to me that isn't too long.


Don't be afraid of the deep frying. I do ours in the wok, with the lid on. I suppose ideally you would use a deep fryer, but I think as long as you are sensible then the risks are minimal!


Oh, and if you are catering for allergies, do make sure you buy gluten free soy sauce! Most normal brands contain wheat but it is quite easy to find gluten free versions in the supermarkets.


So, on with the recipe.


To serve 6 - 8 you will need:

6 chicken breasts or around 2lbs of chicken breast, chopped

{For the batter}
3 eggs, beaten
6-8 tablespoons cornflour

{For the sauce}
6 tablespoons rice or cider vinegar
4 tablespoons wheat free soy sauce
8 tablespoons orange juice (from a carton is fine but if you are using freshly squeezed this is about 3 oranges)
4 tablespoons water
2 limes, the juice of them
2 teaspoons cornflour
4 tablespoons tomato puree
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 garlic gloves, chopped
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1 bunch spring onions, chopped

~Start by filling your pan for deep frying with oil and heating it up. It needs to be really hot before you start frying.
~Whisk the eggs in a large bowl and then whisk in the cornflour. How much cornflour you need will depend on the size of your eggs but you are aiming for a thickish batter. Not too thick, but thick enough to coat the chicken.
~Drop handfuls of the chicken into the batter mix and then carefully add them to the oil. Even if you think the pan is big enough to cook a large batch of chicken, it is best not to do too much at a time or you will cool the oil down too much, causing your chicken to take longer to cook and risking a soggy batter!
~Turn each batch of chicken half way through. It probably takes about 5 minutes on each side. You want it to look nice and golden on both sides.
~When each batch is cooked, drain on some kitchen towel and put in a dish in the oven to keep warm.

~While your chicken is cooking you can get on with the sauce.

~Add the vinegar, soy sauce, orange juice, water, lime juice, cornflour, tomato puree & brown sugar to a bowl and whisk it all together.
~Put a little oil in a pan, add the garlic & spring onions then lightly brown them.
~Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and heat up gently.
~When all of the chicken is cooked pour the sauce over the chicken.

~Serve with rice and prawn crackers.

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Make it Monday - Camo Cupcakes {Dairy & Gluten Free}

I promised I would share the method for making Calum's birthday Camo Cupcakes and so here we are. 

They are really straightforward to make, not too time consuming at all, but don't tell that to whoever you are baking these for!

For the food colouring it is best to use the pastes rather than the liquids as this won't affect the consistency of your cake mix.

You will need:

{for the cupcakes}

10oz dairy free margarine

10oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

10oz sugar

4 eggs

1-2tbsp soya milk

green & black food colouring

a few tablespoons cocoa

{for the icing}

1lb icing sugar

5oz dairy free margarine

a little splash of soya milk

green & black food colouring

a tablespoon of cocoa

~ Put the margarine, flour, sugar and eggs into your mixer and beat well until everything has mixed together and looks creamy. Then add the soya milk and beat a little more.

~Divide the mixture as evenly as you can into three bowls.

~Colour one bowl green, another black and add enough cocoa to the third to get a nice brown colour. 

I must admit to having a slight 'blonde' moment when I was looking out my food colourings to make these. I looked through the colours I had and thought to myself, if only I had brown colouring to make the third colour. Thankfully it didn't take too long to dawn on me that all chocolate cakes have the perfect colour that I needed and without any food colouring!

~Now all you need to do is put a splodge of each colour into your cupcake cases. There is no fancy way of doing this and no need to mix the colours together at all. Just try not to have the colours right on top of each other or you will end up with just layers rather than the swirl of camo.

~Bake at 180C for around 20 minutes. Timing is a little more important for these as normally I would just go by the colour on the top of a cupcake to see if they are ready. Not so easy when the cakes are black on top! James (14) came through when I took them out of the oven and thought that I had burnt them!

~While they cool you can crack on with the icing.

~Put the icing sugar and margarine into your mixer and beat until they come together. You might need to add a splash or two of soya milk to help them come together. Once it looks nice and smooth, again separate into three bowls and colour each one as before.

~Using disposable piping bags, fill three separate bags with each colour. Then take a fourth bag, with a nozzle attached and slot the three different coloured bags into this one. To help with this, try and get your coloured bags nice and thin by squeezing the icing evenly as far to the top as you can, while still leaving squeezing room at the top for when it's time to ice.

~Swirl the triple coloured icing onto your cooled cupcakes.

~Bask in the admiration of the cakes' recipients who now think that you have spent far longer concocting these than you really did and that you are something of a culinary genius!

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Recipe of the Week - Lemon & Coconut Cupcakes {gluten & dairy free}

 

 

 

It's been another of those busy weeks. I had a few things I was going to post this week and I just haven't had the time. Most evenings I was busy crocheting the little gifts for the boys to give their teachers as end of term presents. Tomorrow is the last day of term for them - hurray! I'll show the gifts off tomorrow though.

 

Tonight, though, there are these little experiments.

 

 

I had been wanting to try using coconut oil instead of dairy free margarine in a recipe for a while now. I'm a great believer that butter is much better for you than margarine, as it's so much more natural, but for those on a dairy free diet then there isn't that option. I've read all about the health benefits of coconut oil but the main reason I haven't tried using it in baking before is that Calum (11), who is one of my allergy boys, just doesn't like the taste of coconut! I don't actually understand that though, as one of his favourite dinners is a chicken curry I make with coconut milk in it! Still, I suppose the taste of it in a curry and in a cake is different.

 

Nevertheless, I wanted to try it out in a cake.

 

I was a bit concerned that the coconut might dry out the texture a bit, and with gluten free flour you need all the moisture you can get, so that's when I struck on the idea of adding lemon. Besides, with all this lovely warm weather we've been having, Lemon is a perfect summery flavour, don't you think?

 

One more thing that has put me off is the price of coconut oil. It certainly isn't as cheap as margarine! But if you have a Holland and Barrett store near you they have one of their Buy One Get Anything Else Free offers just now. That's a pretty good offer when you consider that coconut oil is £15 a jar!

 

For the cupcakes you will need:

 

4oz coconut oil

5oz sugar

6oz Doves Farm wheat free self raising flour

2 eggs

2tpsp rice milk

Grated rind of 1 lemon

 

For the icing you will need:

Juice of half a lemon

Enough icing sugar to make up a thickish icing.

 

 

All you need to do is put all of the cupcake ingredients into a bowl or freestanding mixer and beat well until everything is combined and smooth.

Spoon into cupcake cases and bake at 180c for about 15-20 minutes until golden.

Make up a spreadable icing while they cool down. Add enough icing sugar to the juice of half a lemon to make a spreadable but not too runny icing.

When the cakes have cooled then cover with icing.

 

And if you're wondering, these little cakes did indeed pass the Calum test!

 

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Recipe of the week - Gluten & Dairy Free Mint Slice

 

 

I do a lot of gluten and dairy free baking but not a lot of that baking is biscuit based. I suppose the main reason for this is that gluten free biscuits are so expensive! I can but a pack of digestives for 30p whereas a smaller pack of gluten free digestives will cost me about £1.99! Still, I feel bad for Calum and Alasdair that they miss out on the sorts of traybakes that the rest of us enjoy and have recently adapted a couple of our favourites.

 

The first of these is this mint slice. It was a recipe given to me by my friend Bev. The handwritten copy she gave me has the title 'Green Stuff', but we call it 'Mint Slice'! The traybake has been a favourite of those of us who can eat it for a long time now and so it seemed easy enough to adapt to make it free from.

 

The resulting bake was a hit with both Calum and Alasdair, and the other boys said that they couldn't tell the difference between this version and the allergy packed version that they are used to.

 

So I think that makes it a success!

 

You will need:

 

7 oz dairy free margarine

2 tbsp golden syrup

2tbsp sugar

16 oz of gluten free digestives and rich tea biscuits - you don't need exactly half and half but roughly that will do. I use the Sainsburys own brand range as they are our favourites.

1tbsp cocoa powder

10 oz icing sugar

A few drops green food colouring (or paste)

1tsp (or a little more depending on the brand used) peppermint essence

10 oz dairy free 'milk' chocolate (we used Moo Free)

 

 

- Melt the margarine, syrup and sugar together in a pan.

- Crush the biscuits, either in a food processor or the old fashioned way, put them in a bag and bash them with a wooden spoon.

- Add the crushed biscuits and the cocoa to the melted margarine/syrup/sugar and stir together until everything is mixed well.

- Tip into a Traybake tin that you have lined with greaseproof paper and press down well until it's all tightly packed.

- Leave to cool and set for an hour or so.

- Now to make the green layer. You don't actually have to make it green if you don't want to add the food colouring but we like the minty looking-ness (yes, I know that's not a word) of it.

- Put the icing sugar, mint essence and optional colouring into a bowl and mix to a thick paste with some cold water. Because the strength of mint flavourings varies greatly depending on the brand, it's hard to say here how much you will need. Just keep tasting your icing until you get a strength you like. Start with just a little as you can always add more but not take out! Also, you need this to be fairly thick so that it will hold its shape when you slice it later on. Too runny and it will ooze down the sides. Having said that, if you make it too thick it will be hard to spread it on top of your biscuit layer!

- Once you have a spreadable, thick, minty icing then you can spread it on top of your cooled down and hardened biscuit layer.

- Let this layer set and then melt your chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Or in a microwave, but we don't have one! You can choose any dairy free chocolate you like but we've recently discovered Moo Free as our local supermarket has just begun to stock it and I can't believe how much like 'real' chocolate it tastes!

- Spread your melted chocolate over the icing layer and once more let the whole thing set.

- Once your chocolate has hardened then you can cut it into squares and enjoy.

 

 

 

 

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Crate of Nothing

It's been an exciting couple of months in the Gluten and Dairy Free food world.

 

Well, exciting in that there have been quite a few new products launched by companies like Genius Gluten Free and Dietary Specials to help those on special diets have things to eat that are a bit more 'normal'.

 

A couple of months ago I received an email from a new company called 'Crate of Nothing' asking if we would be interested in trying out one of their crates. I thought it sounded like such a great idea that I immediately agreed.

 

Once a month they send out their little boxes of goodies. You can choose either gluten free or gluten and dairy free. We obviously chose the second option and waited until the beginning of the month, which is when they post out the boxes.

 

Calum (11) was rather chuffed when he came home from school one day to find this box waiting for him, with everything inside it safe for him and Alasdair (4) to eat. David (8), who can, and will, eat anything had his eye on a few things too but I told him that there were enough treats he can eat. These were all for Calum & Alasdair, who so often have to forego treats.

 

 

The box contained gluten and dairy free foods that you would be less likely to find in the supermarkets, with the aim of helping out these smaller producers, as well as helping to introduce you to foods you would otherwise not have heard of. It also contained the non perishable measured out ingredients to make some free from Chocolate Brownies, along with the recipe for them.

Of course my little baker Calum had to try these out, and they were the finest Chocoate Brownies I have ever tasted - free from or allergy filled! You can find the recipe for them here. We did make one little change to them and didn't make the chocolate icing to go on top. I thought this might be too chocolatey, even for me, especially as we were using dark chocolate. Instead we finished them off with a dusting of icing sugar

 

They were still slightly warm when we had them for pudding one night and I may, or may not, have eaten more than two slices in one sitting.

 

The boxes cost £22.50 for a one off purchase of a box, or £20 if you set up a monthly subscription. Postage is included in the cost. If you think this is a little pricey for a smallish box of food, then you can't be a regular shopper for free from foods. The free from flour I buy costs nearly three times what the ordinary flour I buy costs!

 

I think the boxes are a great way to widen the food horizons of those on restricted diets.

 

Or perhaps you yourself might not be on a free from diet but you know of someone who is. If so, then I think a one off box would make a great present for them, either for a birthday or for a 'just because' present. Something a little bit different, and foodie treats are so tricky to buy for free from diets.

 

There are only a limited number of boxes available each month, and orders are closed now for the boxes being sent out at the beginning of April, but I do recommend having a wee look once ordering is opened up again for the May boxes.

 

 

 

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Christmas Recipes - Chocolate Reindeer Cake {Gluten & Dairy Free}

 

 

Now before I start properly, yes I do realise that this is another chocolate recipe, but (a) it's Christmas, and if you can't indulge at Christmas then when can you? And (b) chocolatey treats are few and far between when you are on an allergy restricted diet!

A lot of children dont like the richness of traditional Christmas Cake and pudding so this is a fun alternative for them. You can make this by using ordinary self raising flour, margarine and milk without altering any quantities if you don't need to cater for allergies.

 

The cake is basically my Old fashioned chocolate cake recipe, which I shared in my very first ever post here, but instead of cooking it in round sandwich tins, cook it in a long rectangular tray-bake tin. It will need slightly longer to cook, although not too much longer.

In a bowl mix:

6oz wheat free self raising flour (I've found Doves Farm to be the best)

2 0z cocoa

In a pan mix:

4oz dairy free margarine

4 oz sugar

4 desert spoons golden syrup

and heat gently until melted.

In a jug measure:

1/4 pint soya or rice or oat milk

and beat in 2 eggs.

~Now add the egg/milk mix to the melted margarine mix and then add all of this to the flour mix.

~Whisk with a balloon whisk until the flour is all mixed in.

~Pour into your greased and lined tin.

~Bake for around 20 mins at 180c.

Make butter icing made by beating together:

4 oz dairy free margarine

10oz icing sugar

2 oz cocoa powder.

You will also need:

2 cinnamon sticks (the antlers)

a pinch of dried cranberries, or a glacier cherry (the nose)

2 dairy-free white chocolate buttons, or a couple of blobs of white icing (the eyes)

Once the cake has cooled it is time to start cutting the shapes. These measurements are very rough. I don't measure them!

Place the cake with the longest sides across the top and bottom. Using a sharp knife cut off a chunk, from top to bottom, of about a quarter for the head, leave 2/4 for the body and cut the final quarter into four slices (across the way) for the legs.

I hope that makes sense!

If you think your cake is thick enough to do so without it crumbling, slice each section through the middle so that you can sandwich them together with some of the chocolate butter icing. If your cake isn't thick enough it won't need this extra layer of icing anyway as it will be covered in the stuff!

Now arrange your pieces on a large plate, or foil covered tray if you don't have a plate large enough, and cover the whole cake with the rest of the chocolate buttercream.

Add the antlers, nose and eyes, using a dot of buttercream on the buttons to make the pupils.

I know he looks too cute to eat but once you have a taste of the chocolate cake you will feel better about it!

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Christmas Recipes - Chocolate Yule Log {Gluten Free & Dairy Free}

 

I've made a chocolate log to have as one of our puddings on Christmas Day every year since I was in 2nd or 3rd year at high school. We learned how to make one in home economics that year and then I made another for Christmas Day. After that it just became the tradition that I would make a chocolate log each Christmas. It wouldn't seem like Christmas dinner without one now!

 

This recipe isn't the one I used way back as a 14 year old (I'm not even going to try and work out how long ago that was!) but is the recipe we use to make one of Calum's favourite cakes - Jam Roly Poly - adapted to make it chocolatey. The step by step photos in this post were taken whilst making the jam version so just imagine that they are chocolate coloured!

 

If you want to make this with 'normal' ingredients it will work fine, just use plain flour rather than self raising. The reason I use self raising in my gluten free version is simply because I prefer the texture it gives over the gluten free plain flour. The plain flour gives a much drier texture, making this too hard to roll.

With wheat flour though you won't have to worry about this, and making it with self raising flour will make too fat a cake, again trickier to roll.

You will need:

4 eggs

4oz sugar

4oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

1oz cocoa powder

Some extra sugar for sprinkling

Dairy free chocolate buttercream for filling (or cream if you aren't dairy free)

~Using the whisk attachment on your free standing mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together well until they look really light and creamy.

~While this is mixing you can prepare your Swiss roll tray. Grease it lightly and line with baking parchment/grease proof paper.

~When your eggs and sugar are ready gently fold in the flour and vanilla. Try not to mix it too much or you will flatten the lovely air bubbles you have just beaten in.

~Bake at 200C for about 12-15 minutes only. It is important not to overbake. If you do the cake will be too dry and rolling it won't be so successful!

~The cake is ready when it is lightly golden.

~While the cake is baking, prepare a sheet of baking parchment/grease proof paper slightly larger than the baking tray. Sprinkle it all over with your extra sugar.

~When you take the cake out of the oven, carefully but quickly tip it upside down onto the prepared parchment and sugar. Peel off the baking parchment that was on your cake in the oven.

~Now cover with a clean, damp tea towel and leave to cool down.

~When your cake has cooled, spread your chosen filling all over the cake. Then, starting at one of the short sides, roll up the cake. You can use the baking parchment to help you push and roll.

Because gluten free cakes tend to be a bit more crumbly I don't try to spread any chocolate buttercream over the log like I used to when baking with wheat flour. If you are using wheat flour then do go ahead and cover the log in icing and finish off the decoration with fork markings to make it look like a proper piece of wood!

 

I think the little cracks in the cake make it look quite wood-like anyway, and we just finish our decor off with a good sprinkling of icing sugar snow. And, as you can see in the top photo, last year Calum (11) made a cute little Robin out of sugar paste as a final flourish!

 

 

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Christmas Recipes - Stained Glass Biscuits/Christmas Biscuits

 

I first posted this recipe two years ago but there is no harm in repeating it again as it is, I think, a lovely wee tradition. We also use this recipe, minus the stained glass part, to make up simple Christmas biscuits. We don't bother with any fancy decorating on them, just a sprinkling of icing sugar, as you will see from the photo at the bottom of the post.

 

The recipe I use is adapted from a Nigella Christmas biscuit recipe.

 

To make wheat & dairy free Christmas biscuits you will need:

10oz Doves Farm Wheat Free Self Raising Flour

2tsp mixed spice

1tsp ground cinnamon

3 oz dairy free margarine

3 oz light brown sugar

2tbsp runny honey

1-2 beaten eggs

~Put the flour and spice in a food processor and blitz until mixed.

~Add the butter, then blitz, then add the sugar and blitz again.

~Now add the honey, blitz it in, and slowly add the eggs.. You probably won't need all of the eggs, but you might, so go slowly here, stopping the blitzing when everything comes together as a dough.

~Now roll out your biscuit dough on a floured surface and cut out your shapes then place on greased baking trays.

~Once on the trays cut out a shape in the centre and place a boiled sweet in this centre.

~If your sweet is too big for the hole in the biscuit, just crush it up a little with a pestle and mortar and fill the hole with chunks of sweetie instead.

~You will also need to make little holes at the top of each shape you plan to hang on the tree. Use a skewer or cocktail stick for this.

~Bake at 180C for around 15-20 minutes, after which your biscuits will be golden and the sweets will have melted and filled up the middle.

~Leave to cool on the trays as the stained glass centre will be hot, hot, hot!

~Once cooled you can thread them and hang them up. If you find that the hole has closed up a little in cooking, thread a needle and sew the string through it. Works perfectly!

They look so pretty hanging on the tree with the fairy lights shining behind them.

 

 

And the non-stained glass version.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

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