Recipe of the week - Gluten & Dairy Free Pancakes

I've been asked for this recipe so many times, and have promised to share it so many times too, so at last here it is. And perfect timing too, you can rustle up a batch of these for Pancake Day today!

Pancakes are our Sunday morning breakfast tradition. Or rather they used to be, until James got a waffle maker for Christmas and so now we sometimes have waffles instead. But pancakes are often requested AS WELL as waffles!

My recipe is adapted from a couple of old pancake recipes I have in one of those fundraising cookbooks you get. You know the ones, where people submit their favourite recipes and you can guarantee that they will work as they have been tried and tested so many times in a real kitchen before they were shared.

Well, I used to make either of the two pancake recipes from this book. There were bits from both that I liked. When I started adapting them to be free from I changed up a few quantities and took bits from each recipe, and eventually came up with this recipe which we all love. 

Don't skip on adding the oil to the batter, it really is the final touch to making these pancakes lovely and light. Also, do try and let the mixture sit for just about 5 minutes before making. It lets everything settle and thicken nicely before you start.

I actually often make double this recipe, but you should get about 15-20 pancakes out of these quantities.

You will need:

2 eggs, beaten

250 ml soya milk

2 oz sugar (granulated is just fine)

10 oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp oil

- Beat the eggs and the milk together. 

- Add the sugar, flour and baking powder then whisk together until smooth.

- Add the oil and syrup then whisk again.

- Let sit for 5 minutes while you lightly oil a frying pan or griddle and heat up until hot.

- Pour dollops of the batter onto the pan/griddle. Let cook for about 2-3 minutes each side. You will know that it is ready to turn as you can see the bubbles starting to form on the uncooked side. Don't leave it for too long once you see the bubbles starting before you turn them. You will want to turn them almost as soon as you see the bubbles start, although this will depend on how hot your pan is. I often find that the very first pancakes in your batch are the trial and error ones, the ones where you get used to quite how hot your pan is and how long they need to cook for!

Yes, I have three pans on the go. It means I get them finished quicker!

- While you cook more batches, keep your freshly made pancakes warm under a clean tea towel. This stops them from drying out.

-Best served warm with syrup, or butter and jam, or fruit, or whatever you fancy really!

Mince Pies {Gluten & Dairy Free}

Today's Christmas free-from recipe is another Christmas staple - mince pies. 

These are a current favourite of 5 year old Fraser's, who could easily tuck away at least 3 of these in a sitting.

For years gluten free pastry seemed to be my kryptonite. I love working with 'normal' pastry, and it's so simple to put together, but whenever I tried making a free from pastry I could never make one that would roll out without crumbling. I'm pretty sure if you've ever tried making a free from pastry then you will know the issues!

But then I stumbled across a magic ingredient which instantly perfected my gluten free pastry.

And meant that now my free from pastry could roll out like this...

That's quite a change in texture and rollability from a free from pastry without the xanthan gum.

Now I happily make free from pastry, without any of the crumbly frustrations of before.

You can find xanthan gum in the free from sections of most supermarkets (although I'm sure that the Stornoway Tesco is one of the stores that doesn't have it - the Coop does though!) If you are struggling to find it, I got the tub above from Amazon and it's lasted for ages.

I always make my own mincemeat for putting in my pies. I'm just not overly keen on the spiciness of shop bought versions. Like the Christmas Pudding recipe I shared yesterday, it really isn't as labour intensive to make your own as you might think. I don't think you can go wrong with the recipe from Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess. I've used it for years! If you are using shop bought mincemeat don't forget to double check that it is free from.

So for your free from pastry you will need:

8oz gluten free plain flour

2 tablespoons icing sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

4oz dairy free margarine

1 egg yolk

2-4 tbsp cold water

12 bun tray

circle cutter

star cutter

mincemeat

- Put the flour, icing sugar and xanthan gum into a food processor and mix together quickly. If you don't have a food processor then just mix together in a bowl.

- Add the margarine and blitz until all the margarine is blended in and it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Or use your hands and do it the old fashioned way, rubbing the margarine into the flour with your fingers.

- In a cup mix the egg yolk with 2 tbsp of the cold water. Add this to the food processor while it is running (or add to your bowl and mix together with a knife) and watch for it all coming together into a ball of dough. You may have enough liquid for it to come together into a dough or you may have to add a tbsp or two more of the water. Don't let it get too soggy, you are looking for something that comes together in a bowl and will be rollable. If you are making it in the food processor it will come together in a matter of seconds.

- Wrap the dough up in cling film or a plastic bag and put it into the fridge to rest for around half and hour.

- Remove from the fridge, dust your work surface with some gluten free flour, put your ball of pastry down, sprinkle more flour on top and roll out until it is round about 1cm thick. I've never actually thought about how thick it should be. Not too thick, but then not so thin that it will break when you pick it up. Maybe look at my pictures above for a guideline if you aren't too sure!

- Cut out circles of the pastry and place into a 12 bun tin. Keep rolling and cutting out circles and also some smaller stars for the toppings.

- Add about a teaspoon full of mincemeat into each circle and top with a star. 

- Bake at 180C for around 20 mins. I find that gluten free pastry doesn't brown up as much as an ordinary pastry so watch that you don't over cook them.

- Let them cool and then dust with a generous sprinkling of icing sugar.

- These are so amazing when eaten still warm from the oven. The pastry is super light and melt in the mouth when they are warm. 

One of our favourite December evening suppers is warm mince pies with some warm Winter Punch - we love the Belvoir Fruit Farms Winter Punch.

Christmas Pudding Recipe {Gluten Free, Dairy Free & Nut Free}

Traditionally you are supposed to make up your Christmas pudding on the last weekend in November, but although I love keeping many traditions I don't think I've ever managed to get my pud made on that weekend, despite my best intentions earlier on in the month! 

This year I thought it was really going to be the year that I managed it, especially since I made my Christmas Cake way back in September, but once again it is December before I find myself making it. Still, there is no harm in making the pudding later than tradition dictates. One year I was even as late as the week before Christmas when I made it and I don't think there was any adverse effect on the flavour or texture of the pudding. 

I do like to get it done and out of the way as early as possible though, since there is so much going on in December. And the purists do say that getting it made early means it has time to mature and increase in richness.

I've been making our Christmas Pudding gluten, dairy and nut free for quite a number of years now, and the recipe I use is a combination of bits and pieces from other recipes I have used in the past. Most Christmas Pudding recipes use suet, but suet isn't gluten free (at least I haven't found any that is) and so I use margarine rubbed into the flour as the fat in my recipe.

This recipe works equally well if you have no need of free from ingredients and use 'normal' ones instead.

And if you are wondering why bother making your own Christmas Pudding when there are so many available to buy (although have you tried finding a decent gluten & dairy & nut free one?), then I will say that a homemade one is much more superior in every way. It is incredibly simple to make, with no skills involved other than mixing everything together, and the only time consuming part is the 5 hours that you need to give it to steam. But that's hardly labour intensive!

 Not only does it taste great, it's also much much bigger, and you can bask in the domestic-goddess type glow of satisfaction when you see it flaming on the table on Christmas Day.

You will need:

250g mixed dried fruit

50g dried cranberries

150g prunes, chopped

200ml brandy, or alcohol of your choice

100g Gluten-Free Plain Flour

125g wheat-free breadcrumbs (about 4/5 slices of bread, blitzed in a blender)

100g dairy free margarine

150g brown sugar

1tsp ground cinnamon

1/2tsp ground cloves

1 tsp baking powder

zest of 1 lemon

zest of 1 orange

1 cooking apple, peeled and grated

3 beaten eggs

~ Put the dried fruit, cranberries and prunes in a bowl, pour over your chosen alcohol, mix well, cover and leave to soak overnight.

~ Add the flour and margarine to a bowl and rub the margarine into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

~ Add the rest of the ingredients into the flour/margarine mix and mix together with a wooden spoon before adding your soaked fruits and any leftover liquid, then mix well again.

~ Traditionally every member of the family is supposed to take a turn mixing the pudding, and according to Nigella you were supposed to mix from East to West in honour of the Wise Men!

~ Once everything is well mixed, which really doesn't take long at all, tip the mixture into a greased 3 pint bowl or pudding basin.

~ Cover with greaseproof paper with a crease in it to let the mixture expand, tied with string. Or the lid if you have a proper pudding basin!

~ Put the pudding in the top of a steamer and steam away gently for 5 hours (yes, really). I tend to make mine just before dinner and then let it simmer away until later in the evening.

~ Let the pudding cool and then keep it somewhere safe until Christmas.

~ On Christmas day it will need steamed again for 3 hours. To save on hob space I usually cook my potatoes in the bottom of the steamer for part of that time.

~ Run a knife around the edge of the bowl before putting a plate over the bowl and turning it upside down and gently shake the pudding out.

~ Heat a ladle full of brandy over the gas hob (or in a pan) and then light when it is warm enough.

~ Quickly pour it over the pudding and take it to the table while everyone 'Ooohs' in wonder.

Recipe of the Week - Triple Chocolate Muffins {Gluten Free and Dairy Free}

Recipe of the Week seems to have fallen by the wayside a bit in recent months, and as a result I've got a pile of recipes to share building up in my notebook.

It seems fitting that we should get Recipe of the Week up and running again with something suitably chocolatey and decadent sounding.

Muffins are a great weekday treat. They are so quick and easy to make up and a homemade muffin tastes far superior to a shop bought one. Not only that but they are so much cheaper to make than to buy - especially if you are making them free from!

The secret to making muffins is not to over mix the mixture. Just stir the wet and dry ingredients together enough to mix all the dry stuff in. It doesn't matter if the mixture is still lumpy. Over mixing will give you a heavier, chewier muffin.

I've also found that when baking anything chocolate and gluten free it is better to use drinking chocolate rather than cocoa, as cocoa will dry out the cake much more. Obviously be sure to check that the drinking chocolate is a dairy free one if you are baking dairy free too. I use either Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate or Sainsbury's own brand Drinking Chocolate and both are gluten and dairy free. Make sure that you don't use an instant hot chocolate powder instead as these will contain dried milk.

You could substitute dairy free white chocolate buttons for the chopped dairy free white chocolate in these, but the boys prefer the larger chunks that you get when chopping a chocolate bar.

These muffins are amazing when warm from the oven.

So, onto the recipe.

This recipe will make around 16 muffins.

You will need:

Dry Ingredients

9oz gluten free self raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

5oz sugar

4 tbsps dairy free drinking chocolate

2oz dairy free dark chocolate chips

2oz dairy free white chocolate, chopped into smallish chunks

Wet Ingredients

1 egg

9fl oz soya milk

3 fl oz vegetable or sunflower oil

Method:

- Preheat the oven to 200C and line two muffin tins with about 16 muffin cases.

- Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

- Mix all of the wet ingredients together in another bowl.

- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together until all combined, remembering not to over mix.

- Spoon into the muffin cases until they are about 3/4 full.

- Bake for about 20 minutes until they are firm on top.

Recipe of the Week - Gluten & Dairy Free Rocky Road

It's a tough decision for me to choose what my favourite traybake is. If you asked me I would probably say Rocky Road. But then if I had time to think about it I would say that maybe it has to be Mint Aero Slice. I would never say no to a slice of Malteser Slice either though. And I've recently been making a Turkish Delight traybake, inspired by one that a lady in my parents' church makes, but more loosely based on a recipe I saw on the BBC Good Food website.

Despite adapting lots of recipes to make them suitable for our free from boys, I've not often tried out free from traybakes. One of the main reasons is that most of my traybake recipes use a tin of condensed milk in them, and so far there is no dairy free alternative available for this! I have seen recipes online for making your own condensed milk, using milk, powdered milk and a slow cooker, and have always meant to try this out, but so far haven't quite got there. It's moving further up my to-do list though!

The second reason is simply the cost of the free from ingredients. I can buy a big packet of rich tea or digestive biscuits for around 30p if I buy the savers version or shop in Aldis. I can get 100g bars of chocolate for 35p in Aldis (or 50p a bar for the savers version in Sainsburys). Using these ingredients I can make a tray of Rocky Road for under £2.

With free from ingredients, biscuits rarely cost less than £2 for a smaller sized pack. Chocolate bars also start at around £2 for 100g. So the exact same traybake would have cost nearly £10! 

Thankfully though, our Sainsbury's store has recently begun selling their own brand free from chocolate in 100g bars for only £1. Yes, it still costs more than double what I can get a normal bar for in Aldi's, but it's a vast improvement on £2.50 for a 100g bar of MooFree.

They also sell free from Rich Teas for around £1.30 a pack. 

So although it now comes in at around £5 for a tray, that's now about half of what it used to cost.

I only started making this free from Rocky Road a couple of months ago and it has been such a hit with the free from boys that I now need to make a batch almost every week. It's a really straightforward recipe to make.

You will need:

125g dairy free margarine

100g dark dairy free chocolate

200g 'milk' dairy free chocolate

3 tbsp golden syrup

250g free from rich tea biscuits

100g marshmallows (quartered, or use the mini marshmallows)

dusting of icing sugar

Method

~ Put the margarine, two types of chocolates and the syrup in a pan and melt over a low heat. Then let it cool a little or you will melt your marshmallows when you add them. About 10 minutes will be long enough.

~While it is all melting and cooling, crush the rich tea biscuits. Don't crush them too finely, as this works best if there are still some chunks of biscuit in it. I just put the biscuits in a deep bowl and use the end of a rolling pin to crush mine, like you would use a pestle and mortar. I used to use a freezer bag full of biscuits and a rolling pin, but I always ended up tearing the bag and ending up with too much mess! You could also use a food processor, but be careful not to overdo it and end up with a fine powder.

~ Also use the cooling time to cut your marshmallows. The best way to do this is to put a pair of scissors in a mug of boiling water. Using hot scissors means that the marshmallows won't stick to the scissors. You can also save yourself the time of snipping the marshmallows, not that it takes much time at all, and use mini marshmallows instead. I have made this recipe both ways but the version with the larger marshmallows was more popular with the boys. They preferred the extra, chunkier gooey-ness of the larger marshmallows.

~Add the crushed biscuits and marshmallows to the melted mixture and then mix everything together well.

~ Spread evenly in a greased and lined rectangular baking tray and then chill for a few hours until set.

~Once set, dust generously with icing sugar and then slice into squares or rectangles. Whichever you prefer.

Recipe of the Week - Strawberry Cake {Gluten Free & Dairy Free}

A couple of weeks ago I shared a photo on the Housefulofboys Facebook page of a cake I had made to bring along to a pot-luck supper. I also promised to share the recipe soon, and so here it is at last.

This is essentially just a sort of all in one Victoria Sponge, with some chopped up strawberries added into the mixture and isn't very challenging to make at all, but it looks impressive! The fruit in the cake mixture gives it an extra bit of moistness - if moistness is even a word? If you've ever been concerned about gluten-free cakes being dry then you have no need to worry about that with this one.

{I also use this recipe to make Strawberry Cupcakes. This mix will make about a dozen cupcakes.}

For this cake you will need:

125g strawberries

225g sugar

210g gluten free self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

25g cornflour

225g dairy free margarine

4 eggs

And for the icing you will need:

100g dairy free margarine

300g icing sugar

Method:

~ Blitz the strawberries in a food processor until they are small pieces. Don't overdo it though, you don't want them completely liquidised, but also don't make them too big as you don't want big chunks of strawberry in your cake either!

~ Add the rest of the cake ingredients to a bowl and beat well together with either a handheld or freestanding mixer. Beat it until you have a smooth and creamy looking batter, then add in the chopped strawberries and mix them in.

~ Divide the mixture evenly between two greased and base lined 8 inch sandwich tins and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for around 20-25 minutes.

~ Transfer the cakes to a cooling rack while you mix the icing together. 

~ For the icing just beat the dairy free margarine and the icing sugar together. To get a really fluffy textured icing, continue beating it for a few more minutes after it has all come together. 

~ Once the cakes are cool, sandwich them together with the icing. If you want to make the cake look fancy then use about 2/3 of the icing for sandwiching it together and then pipe the rest of the icing around the top of the cake, finishing it off with some sliced strawberries and a dusting of icing sugar. I don't always do this though, and it looks (and tastes) just as good with just a dusting of icing sugar on the top. 

Recipe of the Week - Quick Chocolate Cupcakes {Wheat Free & Dairy Free}

I've got a bit out of the way of sharing recipes over the last few months, but that doesn't mean that I didn't have any to share, or that I didn't want to keep posting them. I have a list of new free from recipes I'd like to share, plus I still want to re-share some of the older recipes from the early days on my old URL and transfer them to this blog. I'm hoping that this year I'll be able to share recipes most week like I used to, so let's get the ball rolling again with a nice quick recipe.

Last year my kitchen calendar was a Bake Off one, which had a different recipe for each month. Early on in the year there was a recipe for making some speedy cupcakes, and so I thought I would adapt it and try a free from version. It was a huge hit with the boys and is now one of my regular bakes.

It's one of those recipes where you throw everything in together and then mix, so not only is it quick to make, it's also quick to tidy up again afterwards!

If you've seen any of the recipes I've shared in the past you may have noticed that I always said that Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising flour was my go-to free from flour. That was until last spring/summer, when Sainsbury's brought out their own brand Gluten Free Self Raising and Plain Flours and these are my new absolute favourites for free from baking. They contain similar ingredients to the Doves Farm flours, but the Sainsbury's flours don't contain any Buckwheat. Buckwheat flour has quite a strong flavour and although the taste of baking with the Doves Farm flours was very good, there was still a slightly different flavour to all of the bakes when compared to that of wheat flour. The difference in taste between bakes made using the Sainsbury's free from flours and wheat flours is almost impossible to tell. 

I realise this is not very useful information if you don't have a Sainsbury's near you however! I know that Asda have also brought out their own brand of free from flour, and although I have never baked with it, I have tasted something baked by a friend and I would say it is very similar to the Sainsbury's one. As far as I know, and certainly the last time I checked a couple of months ago, Tesco don't have their own brand free from flour, which I'm surprised about given that the other two big stores do. Anyway, if you can get to a Sainsbury's then I highly recommend trying to stock up on their free from flours, but if not then just stick to the Doves Farm one as it is still an amazing alternative.

Now onto the cupcakes at last.

To make them you will need:
140g wheat free self raising flour 40g cocoa powder 200g caster sugar 125ml vegetable oil 175ml oat milk (or other dairy free alternative if you can't have oats) 1 egg, beaten
~Put the flour, cocoa, and sugar into a food processor and pulse a little to mix it all together. ~Measure the oil, oat milk and egg in a jug together and then add to the dry mixture in the food processor. ~Pulse the food processor just until everything has mixed together. Scrape down the sides of the processor to make sure all of the dry ingredients are mixed and then pulse once more, just for a few seconds. You will have a lovely smooth mixture, and it should be runnier than you would normally expect for a cake recipe. ~Pour the mixture into 12 cupcake cases and bake at 180C for around 20 minutes. ~Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack and mix up the icing.
For the simple butter icing you will need:
50g dairy free margarine 150g icing sugar 25g cocoa powder
~Put the margarine in a bowl and beat until soft. You can either do this by hand with a wooden spoon, a handheld mixer, or ideally a free standing mixer so that you can get on with something else at the same time! ~Once the margarine is soft then gradually add the icing sugar and cocoa until you have a nice creamy looking butter icing. ~Once the cupcakes are cool then spread the butter icing on top, or if you are feeling fancy then pipe it on in a nice swirl. 
Now, wasn't that straightforward and quick?

Recipe of the Week - Pear, Raspberry & Orange Cake {Wheat & Dairy Free}

Back in the autumn my mum was asked to take part in filming a few recipes for a Gaelic Cookery programme that is shown on BBC Alba.

The first couple of recipes were shown a couple of weeks ago, and you can watch the episode here if you want to see them.

Her two chosen recipes were: something with duck - I'm really not that keen on duck so I didn't pay that much attention to that one! - and this Pear & Raspberry cake.

I've adapted it to make it safe for our free from boys and also think that there needs to be mention of orange in the title as the orange flavour comes through quite strongly too.

The first week I made this we had it for pudding after dinner one evening, and it was so popular that I was asked to make another one for pudding a few nights later. Which was fine, as the recipe only uses half a tin of pears and it meant I could use up the rest of the pears!

Since it proved so popular in our house, and it is always popular whenever my mum makes it too, I thought it only fair to share a written down version of the cake.

It can be eaten warm as pudding with ice cream or cold with a cup of tea or coffee.

You will need:

2 eggs

6oz sugar + an extra 2 tsp

3oz dairy free margarine

75ml oat milk (or your own choice of suitable dairy free milk)

5oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

1 orange, zested

1 tsp baking powder

1 tin pear halves, you will need about three pear halves, sliced

about 100g raspberries, fresh or frozen

-Preheat the oven to 180C and line a square baking tin.

-Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric whisk for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

-Meanwhile, melt the margarine and milk in a pan.

-Cool just a little bit before pouring onto the eggs & sugar mix, still whisking.

-Add the flour, orange zest and baking powder and then fold in gently so that you don't knock out all the air you have whisked into the eggs. It is more like a batter mixture than a cake mixture so don't be alarmed if you think it looks thinner than a usual cake mix!

-Pour into your cake tin and then arrange the sliced pears in rows on top of the mixture. They will sink in! Then dot the raspberries around the mixture too.

-Sprinkle the extra 2tsp of sugar over the top and bake for around 20-25 minutes.

Free From Favourites

This week is Allergy Awareness Week here in the UK. I've been meaning to share a post about some of our favourite free from buys for a while now and so this seemed like a perfect week to finally do so!
Since we first started buying Free From foods, around 13 years ago when we first found out what Calum's allergies were, I have noticed a huge improvement in the range of free from products around. The gluten free market is continually growing, and the taste of the products has come a long way too. If you are catering for more than one allergy though, the choice is quite a bit smaller. I'm just glad that the boys can eat eggs in baked products otherwise their choices would be tiny!
As a quick recap, we have one boy with a nut, lentil, and egg allergy, which seems a breeze to manage compared to the three boys with dairy, wheat, egg and nut allergies. We also have one boy who can, and does, eat anything and everything that he wants! All four egg allergies are the type that allow them to eat a cake or biscuit containing egg, but they can't eat a mainly egg product - scrambled egg, meringue, quiche etc - or touch raw eggs.
They all have allergies as opposed to intolerances.
They don't just avoid these foods to improve the condition of their eczema, if only it were that simple!
And it's not OK for them to have something containing just a little bit of an allergen, as some people seem to think. The tiniest amount of anything they are allergic to will cause them to complain that their throat feels funny, their mouths start to puff up and they break out in hives anywhere on their body.
It's far from a health fad, and I seriously object to the perceived opinion of allergy parents as slightly paranoid and over protective. If you have seen your child wheezing, swelling up and becoming distressed after eating something that you were assured was safe then you certainly wouldn't think so!
Anyway, onto the foods.
A long time favourite of the dairy free boys is this Swedish Glace Dairy Free Ice Cream. Our local supermarket only sells the vanilla flavour, but it is also available in chocolate or raspberry flavours too. The boys have tried the other favours but Vanilla remains their favourite, thankfully! It tastes really nice, with a real vanilla flavour, and is a perfectly good substitute for 'normal' ice cream.

 A few months ago we also found that Swedish Glace had started making an ice lolly, similar to a Magnum, with Strawberry Ice Cream surrounded by a layer of chocolate. The boys absolutely LOVE these. The only trouble is that they are sold in packs of 5, and 5 into 3 does not divide very evenly!

Sticking with the sweet theme, one of Ally's favourite treats is a slice of Lazy Day Foods Millionaire's Shortbread. These are not only dairy and gluten free but also egg free too. I bake most of the cakes and biscuits for the allergy boys but it's great to have something that tastes as good as this as an option to have in the cupboard.

He and Fraser are also rather partial to the Lazy Days Rocky Road and Tiffin, and I rather like their chocolate orange slice.

Calum, however, has more particular tastes and doesn't like any sort of shortbread based product. He also despises raisins and so that rules out Millionaires Shortbread, Rocky Road and Tiffin!

He does like these Angelic Cookies though, as do the other two boys. We first discovered Angelic Gluten Free at the Royal Highland Show a few years ago. They had a stall with samples of their cookies, which we tried and loved. Everyone in our house, including the non allergy boys, who are only allowed to have one very rarely, loves the Orange Chocolate ones the most. But the Cranberry ones come a close second. I haven't been able to find these in a shop near us and so have to buy them online instead, or stock up when we visit my parents!

Moving away from the sweet stuff now, and I should say that I make no apology for starting with it. I'm sure that most people who have to avoid allergens will tell you that it's the sweet things that are harder to replace.

That and bread.

Gluten free bread is one thing that has really come a long way since we had to first start buying it. Mostly I tend to buy Sainsbury's own brand free from bread. Ally and Fraser both enjoy eating it, either as a sandwich or as toast. And it's not as expensive as other brands either! Calum, however, much prefers to eat the Newburn Bakehouse bread. I have to agree that it does have a much better texture, and more 'normal' feel to it than the supermarket bread, even if it is more expensive.

Calum doesn't like to eat sandwiches though, and instead prefers to take one of the Newburn Bakehouse sandwich thins in his packed lunch instead. Every single day he has one of these with tuna on it for lunch. He's very much a creature of habit that boy.

Newburn Bakehouse also do a lovely gluten & dairy free wrap that the boys have when we are having Fajitas for dinner. Before these were available I used to have to make my own wraps for fajitas!

We have also found that Newburn Bakehouse do a very good Artisan loaf, which the boys love to have with soup. It really does taste and look as much like a 'real' loaf as any I have ever seen.

The two holy grails of free from baking, that I have either never tried making, or had any success with are bread and puff pastry. So I was delighted a couple of years ago when Genius brought out their frozen puff pastry. If you've read my blog for any length of time you will have seen how Steak Pie is one of the non- gluten free boys' favourite dinners. Whenever I made it in the past I would cook all the meat in the slow cooker and then separate it into two portions. On one of these I would add my own rough puff pastry. The other portion I would serve just as a stew for the gluten free boys. Since we discovered Genius pastry I can now make the gluten free portion into a steak pie too.

Genius also do a shortcrust pastry.

                     

            

When I make our steak pie I use Beef Bisto Best to thicken and help flavour the gravy. I also use it to make gravy for roast beef, flavour our mince and tatties/cottage pie and use the Chicken Flavour for gravy for our roast chicken.

It's not an official free from food, but the beef and chicken flavours are both wheat and dairy free. Other flavours are not though, so do check the ingredients, and definitely do not use ordinary Bisto instead of Bisto Best as it is not wheat free.

For those Saturday nights when I really want a night off in the kitchen, Genius have a perfect solution in their ready made steak or chicken pies. While hubby and I enjoy something ready made, my current favourite being a Sainsburys boxed Thai meal, the two boys who can have it enjoy some pizza, and the three gluten & dairy free boys will always choose these Genius pies. Ally and Fraser like the chicken pies, and Calum loves the steak pies.

Finally, and still with Genius, Calum's current Saturday morning breakfast favourite is a warmed Genius Pain au Chocolate. They are lovely and flaky, with plenty gooey warm chocolate inside them. These are all products that we have discovered over the last few years and that are regulars in our cupboards at home. We weren't asked to review any of them and their popularity in our house is purely down to the choices of the free from boys.
I hope our wee selection will be helpful to someone, either starting out on a free from diet, or who may have a free from friend and have no idea what to feed them!
Like I mentioned at the start, it's great that free from foods have come such a long way in recent years. Now if only they could find a way to reduce their costs and make them a bit less expensive then that would be perfect!

Recipe of the Week - Custard Creams {Gluten, Dairy & Egg Free}

These little biscuits have no resemblance to the more famous shop bought biscuits of the same name, as you can see above. They are an old recipe that I remember my mum making when we were children, and their name comes from the fact that they have custard powder in them.

Gluten free biscuit making can be a bit tricky as gluten free flours are so much drier, making biscuits much more crumbly. This is particularly a problem when it comes to rolling out the biscuit dough and cutting out the shapes.

These biscuits don't have that problem though. Firstly because they contain a large proportion of margarine, which keeps the dough moist, and secondly because you don't need to roll out the biscuit dough. Instead you take little handfuls of the mixture, roll it into balls and then flatten slightly.

The little bit of butter icing used to sandwich them together, as well as the little bit of chocolate that they are dipped in, also help keep these from being the dry as dust experience that a gluten free biscuit can so often be.

So, onto the recipe.

You will need:

For the biscuits

6oz dairy free margarine

2oz icing sugar

6oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

2 tblsp custard powder NOT instant custard mix

(I use Birds custard powder, but do just double check whichever brand you are using that it is gluten and dairy free)

100g dairy free chocolate (we love MooFree)

For the butter icing

2oz dairy free margarine

8oz icing sugar

1-2tsp dairy free milk

-Preheat the oven to 180C.

-Put the margarine and icing sugar in a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. You can do this by hand with a wooden spoon but it is so much easier to do it in a mixer.

- Add the flour and custard powder and beat again until everything is mixed well together.

- Take a small handful of the dough and roll it into a ball - you might be better to flour your hands a little (using your free from flour, of course) so that it doesn't stick to your hands - and place on a greased baking tray.

-Using a floured fork, lightly press down and flatten each ball a little.

-Bake for around 20 minutes until golden brown, let them cool enough to handle and then put them on a cooling rack to cool properly.

-While the biscuits are cooling you can melt the chocolate (in a bowl over a pan of boiled water) and make the butter icing.

-To make the icing put the margarine and icing sugar in a bowl and beat together. Add the dairy free milk to help bring it together, but only add 1 tsp at first as it might be all you need.

- Once the biscuits are cool, dip half of them in the melted chocolate and place on a sheet of baking parchment or tin foil until the chocolate hardens.

- Finally, sandwich together two biscuits with a splodge of the butter icing in between them. You can do this by just spreading it on, or for a fancier look then pipe it in with a piping bag and star nozzle.

The same quantities of ingredients can be used to make these up using 'normal' ingredients too.