Steeliac

Category: Treats

  • Gluten free profiteroles – blink and they’re gone!

    Gluten free profiteroles – blink and they’re gone!

    We recently hosted a bring and share BBQ for our friends – the last one of the season, I imagine. There were five families in all, with children, and out of nineteen of us, an impressive four are gluten free. I made some chicken and vegetable kebabs and a butternut squash and feta salad, so I wanted something I could assemble quickly for dessert. I ended up buying a few packs of these Rule of Crumb profiteroles, which you keep in the freezer until a few hours before you need them, then defrost and serve. Super easy.

    The profiteroles are filled with cream and come with two sauce sachets, one salted caramel and the other chocolate, which drizzle on nicely. They didn’t last long! Everybody said they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them and gluten containing ones.

    As well as being delicious, these are also accredited by Coeliac UK, for an extra level of reassurance.

    I know it’s a bit early to use the ‘C’ word, but these will definitely be putting in an appearance over Christmas in our house! I might need to find a slightly classier serving dish though…

    PS this is absolutely not a sponsored post! I bought them, and we ate them.  🙂

     

  • A Coeliac Christmas survival guide

    A Coeliac Christmas survival guide

    Christmas can be hard for coeliacs, especially when you are newly diagnosed. And of course, it isn’t just the one day – there’s a whole month to get through when it feels like you’re surrounded by stuff you can’t have. Plus, there are so many social minefields to navigate, from work parties to big family celebrations. It feels like it’s really designed for ‘advanced’ level coeliacs, so it’s a bit unfair on beginners, but it’s something you have to get through and adapt as best you can.

    I was diagnosed in February, and having gone through the general ups and downs that go along with a restricted diet for over eight months, I felt I knew what was what. I had started to move on from the newly off limits treats and started to come up with new favourites, I was becoming confident with eating out, and I knew which of my friends were happy to have me round for nibbles or food; it was all good.

    But then Christmas came, and it was a big shock! From the first of December, a massive, unexpected second wave of treats and goodies I couldn’t eat, that I’d forgotten all about because they only put in an appearance in December. Panettone, Lebkuchen stars, festive sandwiches, and of course, everywhere you turn there are mince pies being offered. Food is a massive part of the festive season.

    I have been thinking about those early days recently, and I thought I’d put together a few ideas to help, particularly for people who are about to experience their first gluten free Christmas.

    The work Christmas do

    • If you’re going for a meal and are presented with a set menu, talk to the person who’s organising it, and if they aren’t confident to order you a gluten free meal, take it in hand yourself. Ask for the number of the venue and contact them in advance to talk about what your options will be.
    • You might need to lower your expectations slightly as to what you’re offered, because the party venue is unlikely to be one of your designated easy places to eat out. For example, you might be able expect the pleasure of a Christmas dinner without the stuffing, the pig in blanket and the gravy. I recently went to a do where I was given an ace main course, but the starter was pate without the bread! You can only try to laugh in this situation – you know that better gluten offerings are available when you go to the right places.
    • On the plus side, if you do get served up a particularly disappointing pudding, you may find yourself eligible to enter the now annual #Fruitisnotapudding competition, hosted by gluten free blogger Carly Talbot aka @gfreeb.

    The open house drop in party

    • The likely scenario here is usually that your friend or family member has gone to a fair amount of effort to include a bit of something gluten free for you. But there are twenty other guests who aren’t gluten free and don’t know you are, so the majority will have no idea about the gluten free ‘section’ or have no idea about cross contamination. Of course, somebody is bound to dip a big piece of crusty bread into the melty Camembert, or unknowingly snaffle the gluten free items. It’s the classic buffet scenario, and the only solution really, is to dive in to the food the minute it’s offered. Fill your plate before anybody else does and don’t be ashamed of it!
    • It might be a bring and share, where all the guests contribute a bit of something and it’s not obvious what you can and can’t have.  I have been known to rifle through the bin looking for packets to read the ingredients – oh, the shame! But at least you can bring something you know is safe to eat. As with most parties, my advice would be don’t turn up starving. Eat something before you go, even if it’s just a bit of a snack. The good news is the wine and fizz are perfectly gluten free, so you’ll need something to soak it all up! 🙂

    The Christmas dinner

    • I suppose it depends how much you’re into your Christmas dinner, but I think the best advice for your first gluten free one is probably to cook it yourself at home. (Unless, of course, you’re lucky enough to have a host who’s already used to gluten free cooking – in which case you might be confident to be cooked for.)
    • If you like cooking, you’ll probably be able to adapt your old recipes (especially savoury ones) to gluten free versions by swapping out a few ingredients. Gluten free flour to make the gravy, for example, and free from crackers with your pate. Devils on horseback (dates wrapped in parma ham, baked in the oven) are a big winner in our house, and are served as well as pigs in blankets. It’s probably simplest to make the whole meal gluten free, so you don’t even need to worry about cross contamination.
    • If you’re not a big cook, or if, like me, you are happy to cut a few corners to save time on Christmas day, the supermarkets this year seem to be bursting with Christmas free from products. M&S has a particularly good selection of GF pre-prepared food including stuffing and sausages, and party food like pork belly squares, yakitori chicken kebabs and sticky Asian style chicken lollipops.
    • Try something new for pudding. Our family favourite is Christmas ice cream. I have no idea where the recipe comes from as it’s a handwritten one, but it’s made by soaking fruits in booze, and mixing them into a chocolate ‘custard’, then stirring every now and then as it freezes. It’s the perfect pud because you can make it in advance so it’s no hassle on the day. I will post this recipe up mid December, when I make it.

    Mince pies

    • I’d recommend carrying an emergency mince pie in your pocket/bag at all times throughout December to avoid feeling left out at any impromptu social occasion, like people bringing treats into work, or when you go to buy your Christmas tree and they’re offering a mulled wine and mince pie. (You can, of course, still have the mulled wine.)
    • Most shops with a free from section have launched their own brand mince pies. These have been selflessly tested by a number of magazines and bloggers. There’s a fairly comprehensive review here by The Independent, and there are hundreds of taste tests and reviews by bloggers posted all over Twitter. You could read the reviews, or of course sample as many as you can, in the interests of research.
    • Or you can make your own. If it’s your first experience with gluten free pastry, you’ll probably find it’s not as easy to work with as regular pastry, but nothing beats a home made mince pie, does it? My recipe, with a crunchy macaroon top, can be found here.

    IMG_0034-4

    Cakes and other treats… Sheffield style

    • Sheffield has some rather excellent free from offerings in the way of treats. If you have a sweet tooth, try Joni’s macarons, available from the Christmas market at Fargate or from her shop in Walkley. Honestly, click on the link just to see the photo on the website and you’ll see why they are really quite special. These make a great gift or an excellent self indulgent treat.

    img_4924

    • Sheffield-based free from company Delicious Alchemy have re-launched their super easy to make Christmas cake mix. It’s probably stocked in some supermarkets, but definitely available from their online shop for £5. It doesn’t really need to be made in advance, and doesn’t take long. I will definitely be getting one of these, as I can’t be bothered to try making a gluten free Christmas cake, even though I love cooking. 🙂

    So there you have it. Coeliac Christmas 101. I really hope this is helpful to a few people who are about to experience their first gluten free festive season. I’d love to hear how you get on or any other tips people have to share. Good luck!

  • Gluten free TIE fighters, and other party food

    Gluten free TIE fighters, and other party food

    It’s common to miss out on things as a coeliac because you can’t get a good gluten free equivalent. But just this once, there was a perfect product when I needed it.

    We had a rather awesome birthday party for the boys this year. (Not least because it was a joint party so I get away with only doing one!) The party was Jedi training, which was bucketloads of fun for the kids, but it called for some Star Wars themed party food. The internet beckoned, where hundreds of people have catalogued their themed party teas so people like me can (gratefully) capitalise on the craftiness and inspiration of others.

    So we spent the morning making ‘light sabers’ by threading red grapes onto kebab sticks, we drew storm trooper faces onto giant marsh mallows, and we made ‘wookie cookies’ by dipping gf biscuits into melted chocolate then decorating with sugar strands and icing.

    DSC_0613

    But my favourite was the ‘TIE fighters’ we made using the wonderful Mrs Crimble’s cheese crackers and pieces of cheddar. Who knew that Mrs Crimble’s crackers had this calling – it’s as if they were designed for this exact purpose! We used an apple corer to create the circular cheese centres, then ‘glued’ it all together using a smear of cream cheese.

    These were served with some ‘Hoth dogs’ (sausages), along with some wraps and a few token veg sticks (very little point doing too many of these at a kids’ party!) It all went down really well, so much so that I have no decent pictures of the savoury stuff.

    For the birthday cake, I used my (alright Delia’s) trusty flourless squidgy chocolate cake recipe, but cut into a rectangle and topped with a chocolate slab made with a Han Solo in carbonite mould. (You really can buy anything on the internet!) It turned out rather well. The cake was filled with cream and frosting, rather than the grown-up chocolate filling in the original recipe. It makes a fantastic cake, but as the name suggests, it’s soft. I refrigerated it overnight before putting the chocolate slab on.

    IMG_6484

    And that’s birthday parties done for another year! Bring on Christmas. 🙂

  • Chocolate popcorn crispies 

    Chocolate popcorn crispies 

    I have surpassed myself! Very pleased with this little invention and only minutes to make. Fantastic little gluten free treat that’s also pretty low in sugar.

    I have been in love with the Eat Natural Peanut and Popcorn bar since I discovered it a few months ago. Last night I was inspired to make my own version using salted popcorn for a salty and sweet flavour.

    I mixed in a bowl (and these are approximate amounts):

    • 25g salted popcorn
    • 30g raisins (for a bit of squish)
    • 25g pecans & 25g almonds (baked for a few mins at 180C then very roughly chopped)

    I then melted some Green & Black’s 70% chocolate (about 16 pieces so roughly 50g?) and stirred it into the mix before packing it into a container to set. I also added an extra grind of salt on the top because I couldn’t resist.

    10 mins or so in the fridge and it was ready to cut into pieces. I cut it into 8, which I calculate to have 4g sugar per piece. Over half of that is from the raisins so I think it’s rather virtuous…

    img_5810

     

  • Little Moons ice cream mochi balls

    Little Moons ice cream mochi balls

    I discovered a new favourite treat that I wanted to share. These ice cream mochi balls by Little Moons are VERY good indeed.

    For those not in the know, mochi balls are a Japanese dessert. They consist of balls of ice cream (or other confectionary) wrapped in a layer of soft, pounded, sticky rice cake (that’s the mochi part). It’s difficult to describe it and make it sound good, but it’s slightly sweet and gives the ice cream ball a bit of chew. It’s also the perfect consistency for all those lovely sesame seeds to cling to.

    I really love sesame ice cream but it’s quite unusual so I was very excited to find these. They are just the right size for a little sweet treat, although I had to be very restrained not to eat all 6 at once!

    They come in a variety of other flavours that I haven’t tried, all of which are gluten free (mango, vanilla, matcha green tea, raspberry and coconut). But then I’m more than happy with the sesame.

    Little Moons are available from Ocado, but I found them in the freezer section of Waitrose.

     

  • Cello Coffee House, Greenhill

    Cello Coffee House, Greenhill

     

    Any establishment with a coeliac chef or owner has to be a destination for me. I’ve been trying to get to Cello Coffee House for a couple of months now, and I had my opportunity on Monday morning. There’s nothing quite like the guilty pleasure of a catch up with friends after the chaos of school drop off, when I’m not at work.

    I’ve never really been to Greenhill, but it strikes me as having a great little community centre with a variety of independent shops. Not long after we sat down, the cafe was completely full and buzzing, so it had a great atmosphere. We were lucky to get a table!

    As the owner, Chris, is coeliac, he’s gone to a fair bit of effort to ensure there’s plenty of gluten free food on offer, which is great. There are plenty of home made cakes including some gluten free, and a variety of brunch and lunch options.

    Despite being informed about the freshly-baked, gluten free Creme Egg cheesecake, I felt it was a bit too early for cake, so I ordered a bacon butty with tomato and a coffee. The gluten free bread is from the bakery at Archer Road Sainsburys, so it was really soft and importantly, didn’t fall apart!

    Chris told me he’s having a bit of a refresh in a couple of weeks, so I’ll have to go back and check out the updated menus and decor…

    Cello Coffee House, 212 Bocking Lane S8 7BP

  • Banana bread 

    Banana bread 

    Bananas generally get scoffed in our house. I like them a bit under-ripe, so they have a bit of bite, then there’s usually a window of opportunity of a few days when the boys will eat them, before they start to go brown. After that, we usually keep them to make pancakes at the weekend.  Recently, my boys have been asking me to save them to make banana bread instead, so I’ve been experimenting with a few recipes from t’internet.

    Our new fave is this one, from the I Quit Sugar website. I can’t copy the recipe here, unfortunately, but I wanted to share the link because it’s so good and very easy to make.

    The recipe uses dry ingredients and wet ingredients, measured separately, then mixed together. The wet ingredients are 3 bananas, 2 eggs, coconut oil, milk, cider vinegar and vanilla essence.

    The dry ingredients are: buckwheat flour, almond meal (I assumed this meant ground almonds) baking powder & soda, salt and a variety of spices. I used cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg, as I didn’t fancy the cardamom suggested – it seemed too exotic for banana bread.

    It also has an interesting topping of pecans drizzled with coconut oil and cinnamon, which we really liked and did the second time I made it. They give it a bit of texture, but soften over a couple of days – unless you eat it quickly, of course. I chopped mine up to make the loaf easier to slice.

    One tip I would give is to grease the loaf tin and pour the mixture in directly, rather than faffing about lining with paper. My loaf tin is fairly old but it is non-stick and it turned out very easily.

    As you’d expect from IQS, there’s no added sugar in the recipe, so it feels very virtuous and the kids think it’s cake. Winner. Best served still warm and slathered with butter.

  • Joni’s macarons

    Joni’s macarons

    I discovered an amazing treat whilst browsing the Christmas markets in Sheffield earlier in the week. I came across a stall selling the most stunning array of home made macarons, all of which are gluten free. 

    They are a feast for the eyes in the most beautiful variety of colours and corresponding flavours. 

    You can buy boxes of six or fifteen for £9.95 or £19.95. We chose the bigger box as a “gift for my parents” who are hosting us at Christmas. We got three each of espresso & chocolate, fig, pistachio, Lebkuchen, and dark cherry & vanilla. 


    I can’t wait to give them a try. Frankly it’ll be a miracle if the box is still full by the time we get to my parents’ house! 

    The macarons are made by Joni, normally based in a cafe and bakery in Walkley. I’ve no idea about the gluten free credentials of the cafe, as their online menu wasn’t specific, but I’ll try to find out. Joni’s website is worth a look even if only for the stylish photography, which makes macarons look like works of art. 

    You can also order online, although it’s too late for Christmas now. Pop down to the shop in Walkley or the Christmas market instead. 

    Jonis, 404 South Road, Walkley, Sheffield, S6 3TF