Cooking with Neocate - Quiche revisited...

I've posted about our efforts with Quiche before both here and here. I've used two pie crust pastry recipes over the years, but we are now gluten free so I stick to the Juvela Harvest White mix recipe on the back of the boxes. It works well for us - BUT it isn't egg free.

Eggs serve to enrich a dough because of their fats. So anything with a certain amount of fat would work like condensed milk or extra butter or oil. However, keep in mind that though eggs are liquid when you add them to a recipe they change into a solid when they are heated. So if you are adding an ingredient such as milk or oil that does not solidify on heating, you must remember to add a little more flour to your recipe to act as a binder.

The other reason egg is used in pastry is to make it more malleable, you can use milk or water to replace egg but your pastry will not be as delicate as milk and water release the starch out of the flour and make it stretchy. So it will be perfectly edible but not as delicate.

It IS a dilemma, but given that THIS post is about quiche - or EGG PIE as we have to call it in this house - and given that quiche needs egg I'm going to gloss over this. Sorry. However, I do feel this a bit lame, and have tried backing an eggless quiche once. The Vegg can be used to make the filling and an eggless crust IS possible, just not as easy to work with. There is a list of egg substitutes here.

I would LOVE to see some of your egg free success stories, (especially the savoury ones) and will test and feature any I'm sent on the Recipe Resource.

Now for the Neocate part....

Quiche - Dairy, Wheat, Corn and soya free.

My youngest son LOVES this and it goes cold to school in his lunchbox. He dislikes the word "quiche" so we call it "Egg Pie"!! I find that the terminology around food can be key to persuade children to try new foods. Humour is the antidote to most things too! Food allergic children often have a great deal of anxiety around food and eating, you need to be patient and creative. We often to food play (who says you mustn't play with your food?!) and encourage cafe type role play. Another trick is to offer something familiar and "safe"/acceptable, with a teeny tiny sharing portion of something new. I also make a point of eating when my children do - and the same thing where possible. It's not very inviting offering children something different, whilst you are tucking in to a plateful of food they are not allowed...

For this "Egg Pie" there fore, use the basic pie crust from here to make the case.

For a gluten free recipe you can also use Juvela Harvest White mix, the pastry recipe on the back.

Blend 3 eggs and one carton of oatly cream, a little salt and pepper and pour into case.

Bake as usual!

Leave plain as above (the only way my son will eat it...) or add fillings of your choice - broccoli, ham sweetcorn and tuna.... anything your child likes and can eat.

UPDATE
Today I tried this with a variation on the filling. Half a sachet of coconut cream (Patak's) three eggs and some rice milk, blended up. Looked very authentic and creamy inside.

Basic Pastry / Pie Crust - Wheat, Dairy and Soya free

I discovered this only recently in the "Kid Friendly Food Allergy Book" after trying everything to make half decent pastry! It's much tastier and more filling than a regular pice crust, holds together well and iess dry. A real winner here!

Ingredients

• 90g or 3/4 cup  Rice Flour
• 150g oatmeal (or rice bran to make this recipe gluten free)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons of honey or corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons of water if needed

Method

• In a food processor pulse until you have blended the rice flour and oatmeal.
• Add the remaining ingredients and pulse until you have a firm dough in a ball.
• Roll between two pieces of plastic wrap or press into a pie dish.
• Bake as usual