Category: Recipes

Coeliac mince pies

This is my first coeliac Christmas and it’s taken me by surprise. Nine months in and I thought I was getting used to the change in eating habits. But Christmas is really an added challenge, isn’t it? Things I tend to forget about from year to year seem to keep popping up to taunt me: stollen, German lebkuchen biscuits, mince pies! I do feel like I’m missing out.

My 6 year old LOVES mince pies and in our family we tend to make them with a macaroon topping, which gives them a slight crunch and makes them look very pretty. I haven’t seen them in the shops so I agreed to make some. I’m still trying to stay low sugar, so I made mini ones.

I used Doves Farm gluten free plain flour for the pastry and followed their very simple shortcrust pastry recipe, which you can find here. This pastry doesn’t work so well with cutters so I pressed balls of pastry into the (greased) mini muffin tray and shaped them with a dibber. The set was one I got from a Pampered Chef party BC*.

I filled them with some nice shop-bought mince meat, and topped them with the macaroon mix, which is made as follows:

2 egg whites
100g ground almonds
100g caster sugar
1tsp cornflour
2tsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Sliced almonds

Lightly beat the egg whites. Fold in the caster sugar and ground almonds. Stir in the cornflour blended with water and vanilla essence. Easy! This mixture topped about 20 mini mince pies.

Spoon the mixture on each of the mincepies instead of using a pastry top. Pop a single almond slice on each mince pie, and pop them in the oven at 190C for about 20 mins. They rise into beautiful little domes and go lovely and brown.

Cool the pies on a wire rack. They freeze nicely and can be defrosted either at room temperature or in the oven.

I have no idea of the origins of this recipe, but it’s become a firm family favourite.

* Before Coeliac

December 21, 2014
Courgette spaghetti (pasta schmasta)

Having been a pasta snob, I’m yet to find a gluten free version I find acceptable, so this is a great, and very healthy, substitute. And guess what – it doesn’t all stick together in the pan like GF pasta does. It’s also quick to cook and it’s a one pot dish. What’s not to love?

This has been an autumnal favourite for hubby and I, and I’ve finally got round to taking a snap of it. We usually manage to grow a fair few courgettes in the garden (novice veg grower, starting with the easy stuff) and this makes great use of them.

I have a julienne peeler that makes light work of creating courgette spaghetti (I’ve heard it called courgetti but that grates on me!) or you can use a mandolin and a knife for more of a linguine shape.

So, to make this, slice an onion and while it is softening in olive oil, julienne four small courgettes. Add a little veg stock to the softened onions (1/4 pint-ish) and when it’s reduced a bit, the courgettes can go in. Once they’ve wilted, add in some chopped smoked salmon, double cream, dill and lots of black pepper. Thicken with cornflour & water if necessary. Serve with a generous helping of Parmesan, and preferably a large glass of white – or in my case, fizzy water seeing as it’s only Tuesday.

November 5, 2014
The christening of a languishing pie dish

Hubby and I put in a joint effort to create a rather tasty, autumnal game pie last week. It was a big moment for me as I got to use, for the first time, a beautiful pie dish I got for Christmas last year. I was diagnosed coeliac in February, and as said pie dish had been languishing in the cupboard still in its box, it wasn’t far off being ebayed. (Is that a verb?) But we always did love the comfort of eating a good pie, so although my preference is to go gluten free naturally most of the time, I have succumbed to experimenting with some pastry.

For the filling, we used venison, rabbit and pigeon, each cooked separately, along with shallots and carrots. We made a gravy using the meat juices and some home made chicken stock, with a (very) generous glass full of port and plenty of the celebrated Sheffield ingredient, Henderson’s Relish, locally known as Hendo’s. (It’s vegetarian and gluten free as well as being local and delicious – what’s not to love?)

This is the first time I’ve made gluten free pastry but I have to say it was a roaring success, thanks to this incredibly simple recipe from Doves Farm. It was easy to make and rolled out nicely between two pieces of cling film. A top tip for gluten free pastry is that you don’t need cold hands, apparently.

The pie needed only enough time in the oven to cook the pastry, so we didn’t have to wait long to tuck in.

And the pie dish lives on. And I have accepted that while it’s not naturally gluten free food, it’s wholesome and home made, which has to be equally good. Chicken & leek next….

October 24, 2014
Roarrr!

I’m not normally one to post my birthday cake efforts on the web but I really wanted to share this recipe, as it’s not really written as being gluten free. It’s a classic Delia recipe for a flour-less chocolate cake. It’s light as a feather and deliciously squidgy. I’ve made it for grown ups and kids and it’s never failed. As with the best gluten free recipes, in my opinion, it’s not made out of substitute ingredients.

Normally I make a grown up version with Delia’s dark chocolate filling, but for my now 4 year old, I adapted the recipe slightly and added a rice crispy volcano, swamp, dinosaurs etc. Same cake ingredients but with chocolate frosting instead of the 70% Green & Black’s. It went down a treat with the revellers.

Recipe can be found here: www.deliaonline.com
You need to use gluten free cocoa and chocolate, but I’m sure that goes without saying…

God bless Delia.

September 28, 2014
Raw brownie

Looking for a sugar free pudding for some friends coming to tea, I stumbled across this truly fabulous recipe for a raw brownie. I’m not particularly into raw – I have enough dietary restrictions as it is – but this has certainly made me think about raw food a bit more.

My two boys think it’s a massive treat to get a piece of this. I have to be a bit careful as the dates contain a lot of sugar – but I treat myself to a piece every now and then.

I played around with the recipe a bit – here it is:

Raw brownie:

2 cups whole walnuts
2 1/2 cups Medjool dates
1 cup raw cacao (Sheffielders can get this from Zed’s on Nether Edge Rd)
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped

1. Food process the walnuts on high until finely ground
2. Add the cacao and salt – pulse to combine
3. Add the dates one at a time through the feed tube. The mix should appear like cake crumbs but when pressed will easily stick together. If it doesn’t, add a few more dates
4. Take the mix out of the whizzer and mix in the chopped macadamias
5. Press into a lined mould – Tupperware or similar clippy plastic boxes work well
6. Store in the fridge until ready to serve, then cut into pieces

They last a few weeks in an airtight container in the fridge – well they might if you keep them a secret! Enjoy…

July 5, 2014
Becoming gluten free

So I won’t bore you with the full diagnosis story – suffice to say it involved multiple trips to the Royal Hallamshire and a couple of rather nasty gastroscopies.

(more…)

June 26, 2014