Don’t get out much? Then I’ve got some tips to share from Sue Black who spoke at the Gluten-Free Expo back in August on the topic of The Social Coeliac.
I’ve been meaning to jot down the highlights of her presentation for a while. Her advice is particularly applicable to those with Coeliac Disease who are concerned about making a fuss in social situations: Read the rest of this entry »
Pastry Pantry in action
One of the holy grails of gluten free cookery would have to be pastry. How I toiled in the early days trying to create something akin to sausage rolls to pack in my little boy’s lunchbox—only to find the pastry (both homemade and packet mix) would break when I tried to roll it—and then emerge rock hard from my oven.
Then I discovered Pastry Pantry ready-made puff and shortcrust pastry sheets. They actually behaved like normal pastry even though they contained no wheat or dairy.
But several months ago, our supermarket suddenly stopped selling it (read more about this here), but now it’s back with a brand new recipe and packaging in some selected outlets.
So what do we think of the latest version? Read the rest of this entry »
Santa brought us an awesome new modcon this Christmas – a cupcake maker! No it’s not that easy on the eye and yes it takes up a lot of benchspace – but it produces excellent gluten free cupcakes.
There’s nothing like having a few friends over for a sausage or two and a bread roll… oh, unless you happen to be gluten free. Read the rest of this entry »
corn chip crab cakes (photo supplied)
Sometimes you just hanker for something crispy-coated. Unless you make it yourself though, these types of foods are usually out of bounds.
I have dabbled with a few types of gluten free breadcrumbs over the years. I have made them the usual way by drying gluten free bread slices in the oven on low heat and then grinding them into submission.
You can also buy gluten free breadcrumbs if you can find them. Vitarium are among those who make them and they are pretty good [crumbs from Lifestyle bakery have also recently appeared on on shelves at Coles].
And back in the day when I used to whiz up my own chicken nuggets, I would coat these in rice bubbles crushed by hand with a wooden spoon or in the kitchen whiz.
They offer a very quick, easy, nice tasting last minute solution and they also go well in rissoles, meat balls and patties along with some onion, egg and seasoning – and whatever else you feel like throwing in.
But far and away the yummiest crumbing was introduced to me recently at a work do. Read the rest of this entry »
Against all the odds, I did manage to produce a car-shaped cake for my son’s birthday party.
Yes, it took two attempts and far more time than I am prepared to admit here – but on Sunday I was able to serve him up that big blue car cake as promised.
Here’s how it unfolded. I bought two NaturallyGood chocolate mud cake mixes thinking that would easily be enough mix (6.5 cups) to fill the mold I blogged about last week. As you can see from my picture gallery below, my first attempt at a car lacked – ahem – wheels. And because it took ages to bake, it got a bit crispy on the bottom (or top) as well.
But fortunately the vegetable shortening and flour pan lining held up well and I had no problem at all removing my half-car cake from its mold.
In my second attempt (which I neglected to photograph owing to it being midnight) I used almost three cake mixes (which easily made up the 6.5 cups of mix) and used the rest to make muffins.
When my final result still fell short of a whole car, I concluded that gluten free cakes probably don’t rise as much as ordinary ones and vowed next time to fill the mold almost to the brim and put a tray underneath to catch any drips in the oven.
Luckily I had kept the first cake and was able to carve bits off that to complete the car shape.
As you can see – the pre-made icing was not too hard to handle and didn’t scrub out too much of the original car detail. Read the rest of this entry »
Call it the folly of a desperate woman – but I am hoping to pull off a modern-day miracle this week when I attempt to bake the best ever gluten-free car-shaped birthday cake.
It all began a fortnight ago when our birthday party season officially kicked off with a bang. A poolside party with one of our son’s best friends yielded a fabulous feast of lolly pops, marshmallows and hot chips – all things our little guy could eat.
Not only did he have a ball – but we didn’t have our usual heartbreak of him feeling like a party pariah – where he gets to watch all the other kids gobble down things he cannot.
Fortunately in this day and age - most party hosts are sensitive to our predicament and are happy to make a little concession here and there to make our little guy feel like one of the crowd.
We are also lucky in that most hardcore party fare – chips, lollies, chippolatas etc – are largely okay for him to eat – or at least we choose turn a blind eye to the possibilities of small quantities of wheat (I realise many other kids do not have this luxury).
But what happens when you are invited to a birthday bash with people you don’t know so well – and who may not even know that your child has a dietary issue? Read the rest of this entry »
Eveleigh farmers market
I think I tasted the best gluten free cupcakes ever on the weekend at the Eveleigh farmers market near Redfern in Sydney.
I was having gluten free expo withdrawals so I headed into town to check out what was on offer at this gathering of boutique growers, makers and bakers.
Most of those in the baker category seemed to have something gluten free in their product line-up and the kids and I had a great time sampling their wares.
But lots of other products were also trading on their gluten free credentials – good to see!
So, back to those cupcakes.
I wanted to take a picture because they were also very pretty but they kind of got eaten. However I managed to grab a business card. They were made by The Cupcake Princess.
Healthy Feast also had a stall so I got to try a few more of their products including a couple of fruit pies and sausage rolls. Yum!
And I couldn’t resist a couple of gluten free chocolate and raspberry brownies from Fare Gourmet of Castle Hill. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the tough parts of being a blogger is reviewing products.
This week we were really put through our paces, chomping our way through a feast of bakery goods, this time dispatched our way from Melbourne bakery, Silly Yaks.
Baguettes, rolls, loaves (fruit and plain) pies (savoury and sweet), sausage and vege rolls, nocchi, quiche, pizza bases; I’ve tasted most of these things over the past seven days and I must say it has been rather a pleasure.
The whole family enjoyed the fruit loaf at breakfast time and the rolls and baguettes were handy to grab from the freezer when we needed them.
The tomato/chilli nocchi made a very nice lunch for two, and I also sneaked a yummy sausage roll when no-one was looking.
But the highlight had to be the pies – both large and little. They have tasty, tender pastry that contains a variety of ingredients such as rice, soy, tapioca and maize flour. Read the rest of this entry »
More than a dozen princesses and fairies descended on my house on the weekend to eat, drink and be merry.
This bunch of belles were in the dark about the gluten free thing and I don’t think the g-word was mentioned even once.
They were thrown off the scent largely thanks to my favourite gluten free mud cake mix – popular as ever with the gluten quaffing crowd – and some marshmallow-garnished red jellies.
Our little party people were also more than happy to tuck into the popcorn, rice crackers (which I cunningly jazzed up with a cheese square and half a mini tomato), a watermelon & kiwi fruit platter, gluten free mini snags, corn chips & dip and some regular chips. Read the rest of this entry »
