gluten free familyA mum's blog about gluten-free living in Australia

Unlike my co-blogger Lucy, I am not a very inspired baker. I want someone else to do it for me. That means that at the moment, my only gluten free bread source is the supermarket.

The problem with their loaves is that they have food additives I’d really prefer to dodge. So I have been hunting around for an alternative source.

There are some wonderful specialist gluten free bakeries out there but none near me and for some reason, I just don’t fancy ordering bakery goods online. So I figured the mainstream bakery franchises were my best bet.

I checked out Bakers Delight first. No luck. According to its website, as its bread is all baked onsite, the risk of contaminating a gluten free loaf would be too high.  Brumby’s, on the other hand, started offering a gluten free, dairy free, preservative free loaf last September to franchisees who request it.  It is sealed to prevent cross-contamination and frozen to preserve freshness. I’m keen but my local store has yet to take up the offer.

The cross-contamination risk is a big issue for traditional bakers given the intense reaction some people can have to even the tiniest amount of gluten. This, however, has not deterred Muffin Break, which offers a small selection of gluten free muffins and these are baked onsite. This issue is apparently addressed within its franchisee training according to its HQ, and its website says it follows strict procedures to ensure its products are gluten free.

Likewise Sparkle Cupcakery in Surry Hills in Sydney bakes both in the same location. It says on its site that it bakes its gluten free cakes first in the morning to reduce the number of flour particles in the air.

So the treat makers, it seems, have more appetite for risk than their doughy counterparts. Cake for brekkie kids?

MB

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Its raining bread mixes. Hallelujah!

I finally got my big bake-off out of the way and now another brand is about to hit the market.  A company called FG Roberts is launching a new mix that turns into a real live dough that can be sculpted into rolls, loaves, french sticks etc.

It looks yummy from their pics but of course the proof of the pudding (or bread) is in the baking. Hopefully this brand will also be readily available in the supermarket – adding to the four or five brands now on the shelves.

And of course its not just new bread mixes storming into the health-food section. According to a recent report on supermarket trends issued by Datamonitor, gluten-free product launches have doubled since 2005, especially with “major consumer packaged goods companies now jumping on the bandwagon,” it says.

This is good and bad news. The good news is that we have more choice than ever, with gluten free bread, snacks and treats popping up all over the place – even in the fresh and frozen food sections you can buy ready-made pasta, crepes, and chicken nuggets.

The bad news is that with major consumer packaged goods companies diving in for their share of the spoils, some of our choices might actually dwindle. I was hunting around the health food section of Coles the other day for my favourite brand of dairy and gluten free custard and the only product on the shelves was a mainstream brand of GF custard that contained milk.

It reminded me of a recent visit to UK where shelves were stuffed with all manner of delicious (and expensive) ready-made gluten free cakes and breads but very few actual ingredients or mixes for do-it-yourself types with multiple intolerances.

Is this a glimpse of the future in Australia where those with multiple sensitivities may lose their favourite products as big manufacturers jump in with gluten free products that only partially address their needs?

Fingers crossed this doesn’t happen here and in the meantime I guess we’ll just have to keep voting for our favourite products with our dollars and good sense.

LH

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Our haul from the last Sydney Expo

Gluten free expos are a high point on the calendar for us here at GFF. I know, I know, we really ought to get out more but that’s a topic for another post.

Anyway, I am sure we are not the only ones who get excited about these wondrous events, what with all the free samples, the discounts, the cooking demos, the hot new products and of course all of those cupcakes.

So I’ve googled like mad to pull together a roundup of all the upcoming events I could find. If you hear of any more, let us know!

March 13 and 14  Gluten Free Food & Allergy Expo, Perth Convention Exhibition Centre

May 15 and 16 Irresistible Gluten Free Food Show, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre

August 6 and 7 2010 Gluten Free Expo, Sydney Olympic Park

October 2 and 3 Irresistible Gluten Free Food Show, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

October 31 2010 Gluten Free Food Expo, The Commerce Building, RNA Showgrounds, Brisbane [updated]

November 20 and 21 Irresistible Gluten Free Food Show, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre Royal Hall of Industries, Moore Park [updated]

MB

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My babycakes cupcakes

They don’t look anywhere near as glam as the picture on the front of the Babycakes recipe book, but I would like to introduce to you my new gluten, casein and egg-free cupcakes.

Are they moist, springy and delicious I hear you ask?  As a matter of fact yes they are – and they rose beautifully as they cooked.

I know I shouldn’t get quite so excited over the texture of a cupcake, but let me put this into perspective for you. I have never once baked a gluten free cake without dairy or egg that didn’t go straight into the bin.

Packet mixes are fine in their place, but the absence of dairy and egg ingredients tends to rob them of the luscious texture one would usually associate with cake. And most can’t survive beyond a few hours unless they are frozen.

So what is the secret of the Babycakes cupcake recipe? I think it is the ingredients.

Just to recap for anyone who didn’t read my previous post about this, Babycakes started out as a gluten-free, vegan cake shop that has won a loyal following in the US (first in New York and now LA) for its yummy muffins and cakes. The recipe book was launched so we at home could emulate some of their success.

Only problem is that many of the ingredients are either hard to get hold of over here, or are just plain expensive!!

My biggest problem was that the flour recommended for the recipe was a blend of fava bean and garbanzo (chickpea) – something I gather is fairly easy to get hold of in the US. I substituted this for a blend of chickpea (besan) and rice flour (1:3 ratio).

The Agave syrup that replaces sugar in the recipe is less easy to substitute because it adds essential moisture to the mix. Although you can get this in health-food section of the supermarket, it costs around $8 per bottle and you will need an entire one of these for a batch of 12 cupcakes. My plan is to substiture it with slightly watered down golden syrup  next time around to see if this will work as well.

Another ingredient I decided to ignore (at my peril) was coconut oil – mosty on the basis of expense. Apparently it is okay to substitute it for a number of other expensive oils – or plain old canola if you want to save some pennies.

For this reason I skipped the recommended cake frosting  (which is quite a fiddle and cannot be substituted) and instead I just went with the recipe on the icing sugar packet, substituting butter for margarine, and milk for rice milk, (and of course a dash of sprinkles at the end).

And what of the finished product? It got the big thumbs up from all the cake eaters in my house.

LH

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Lets face it, kids’ birthday parties are glorified gluten-fests.

Okay, so they also mark the glorious growth milestones of our friends and family… with cake, fairy bread, nuggets, sausage rolls, hot dogs and … well you get the picture.

Navigating the giddy round of festivities on behalf of your gluten free offspring can therefore be tricky. So with a couple of years’ experience under my belt, I have put together a list of suggestions. The only problem is that most of them suck:

1. Decide to boycott parties altogether and deprive you and your child of this great social ritual. By the way this option never goes down well with the little ones.

2. Become an ace helicopter pilot and steer them toward the chips and jelly with military precision. This one requires CIA-style vigilance. It also makes you feel like a great big wowser.

3. Drop them off with a few of their own treats including a squishy slab of gluten free cake you whipped up earlier. This obviously requires forethought and can potentially offend.

4. Offer to bake the cake for every party you plan to attend. This may win you popularity with your parent peers but could also backfire if the cake comes out of the oven concave.

5. Bribe your child wtih something extra delicious for after the party if they manage to stay with the program without doing the big sad eyes thing to you or the host.

6. When the birthday candles are lit and start reflecting in their teary little eyes, give in and say they can have a small piece of cake just this once as a special treat and then regret your decision for the rest of the week.

My strategy? I pick and choose from the above list depending on the situation.

Happy hovering!

MB

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It was a nervous start to the school year (or pre-school year in our case) as I tried out a variety of gluten and dairy free lunches for my food intolerant toddler.

I have been making his lunches for over a year now but these have been meals like bolognaise or pizza that were just warmed up and served at his daycare. This year we must adapt to packed lunches.

Because these are served up at their little tables, I still get a little more latitude than we will have in kindy, but my biggest hurdle is that whatever I send him in with must taste nice cold.

So far we have had success with a fairly dry Tuna pasta with sweetcorn, and fried rice is popular too, but to my disappointment I have had my sandwiches, sausage rolls, and cold pizza all rejected.

I have been slipping a little dessert into his satchel each day just to hedge my bets in case he doesn’t like his main course – but because the kids are expected to help themselves to their own lunch, I am beginning to suspect he has been eating his lunch in reverse order (it makes perfect sense to get the yummy stuff out of the way first after all) so I guess I am going to have to rethink it all.

They are also encouraged to bring along cupcakes for their birthdays and because he has around 30 kids in his class I reckon he will need a cupcake at least once a fortnight – so of course I must provide a little batch that can be frozen for use at school so he doesn’t feel left out.

So the challenge is on to find a yummy cup cake that tastes nice not just when it is cooked but also when it is defrosted (without the aid of a microwave to restore its sponginess.)

My habitual port of call for all things cakey was Orgran muffin mix, but while these regain their form beautifully when whizzed for a few seconds in the microwave, I was not so confident of the outcome without this vital step.

It must have been synchronicity then that a friend of mine recently lent me the Babycakes recipe book which is chocker-block full of delicious sounding muffins and cakes that are all dairy and gluten (mostly) free.

Babycakes is in fact a gluten-free, vegan cake shop that has turned thousands of heads in the US (first in New York and now LA) for its delicious, moist produce. The recipe book was launched to help us recreate the joy at home, but unfortunately a number of the listed ingredients are not readily available here.

They include a ready-made flour from Bob’s Red Mill which includes chickpea and fava bean flour. ( They do ship abroad but I doubt its cheap.) Many of the recipes also ask for things like coconut oil (expensive), dry soy milk powder (expensive), agave nectar (expensive) as well as arrowroot, xanthum gum, potato starch, brown rice flour, and the list goes on. Fortunately some of these can be substited for cheaper or easier to find ingredients but many cannot.

I have made it my mission for the past few weeks to hunt down these ingredients and now I have the full complement, I think I am almost ready to start baking. If they prove successful, I will be jubilant, as I had begun to fear delicious casein and gluten free baked goods were just a fantasy.

It may have cost me an arm and a leg, but I hope to have some really awesome cakes in the pre-school freezer by this time next week.

LH

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I miss my Mum’s fruitcake. It was the best. That said, the thought of making one, let alone a gluten free version, fills me with trepidation.

But now I’m off the hook! Vitarium has come up with a gluten free fruitcake mix which has all the right elements: it is rich, moist and fruity.

A domestic goddess I am not, however, so I confess it took me a couple of tries to get even this right. And I still think I could do better.

The first time I made one I forgot I had no electric mixer (I blew it up trying to make gluten free bread). I valiantly tried to mix it by hand but this is a very sticky, unwieldy mixture, even with the right tools.

I also used too large a cake tin (20 cm instead of 15cm) which spread the mixture too thin.  And my oven knobs are wobbly and inaccurate which is not ideal when you are looking at a 90 minute cook time.

Lastly, I cooked the mixture for every one of those 90 minutes without once checking in on it. My first result resembled fruity coal.

The second time I managed to fix all of these mistakes except the cake tin size and ended up with a very tasty but flatish cake.

Next time I just know it will be perfect!

MB

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