Savoury Muffins (DF, WF, GF, EF, SF, NF)

Really delicious and super healthy! We like the chickpea (gram) flour option. Eat fresh, or freeze to defrost and eat later. Sadly egg free baked goods do not keep and go stale very quickly out of the freezer.

Ingredients - makes 14

Fruit & Seed Bites

I've been trying to find new ways of getting plant based protein into the kids, particularly my daughter who struggles with meat and point blank refuses fish. (Let's face it, fish refluxed back up afterwards is not pleasant....!) I have made coconut protein bites in the past but they contain egg, which doesn't suit everyone - and are quite sugar heavy.

So these came about after baking with seeds, dried fruit etc in the style of "Deliciously Ella" but using ingredients I had in the cupboard. I've made these a variety of ways, listed below.

Prune, Seed and Cashew Bites

120g prunes - make sure they are juicy ones, not too dry

1 tbsp chia seeds - these help bind the mixture as they swell in water

120g cashew nuts

handful of seeds - I used pumpkin and sunflower

1 tbsp nut butter or tahini (I used cashew butter, if you can have soya but not nuts try Wowbutter)

2 tsp honey

Whizz the seeds and nuts in a food processor until crushed. Add all the other ingredients and blend until the mixture becomes sticky, then form into balls and chill.

Date, Almond and Seed Bites

120g plump dates 

Handful of seeds - I used sunflower and pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp almond butter or tahini

120g ground almonds

2 tsp honey

Whizz the seeds and chia seeds together in the blender until crushed. Add the ground almonds and all other ingredients and blend until the mixture becomes sticky, then form into balls and chill.

Fig, Oat and Seed Bites

100g rolled oats - NB not porridge oats

120g plump dried figs with stalks removed

Handful of seeds - I used sunflower and pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp chia seeds 

1 tbsp tahini or similar butter

Whizz the oats, seeds and chia seeds in the blender until crushed but not quite a flour consistency. Add all other ingredients and blend until the mixture becomes sticky, then form into balls and chill.

Tip - You can pretty much add whatever you like to these, just ensure the mixture is sticky enough to combine. Macadamia nuts, almonds, pine nuts..... all possibly and can be combined with various "butters" and syrups. Just try and keep the ratios fairly constant. You could even roll them in icing sugar or cocoa for a special treat and can substitute some of the dry ingredients for protein powders if desired.

Scotch Pancakes - Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Soya and could be free

My daughter was keen to make pancakes this weekend, and wanted to try something slightly different from our buckwheat pancake recipe here. She wanted something she could take to school in her packed lunch and smaller scotch pancakes (sometimes called "griddle cakes") seemed an ideal choice!

Ingredients

• 200g flour (we use Dove's Farm gluten free blended flour)
• 1 tbsp baking powder (not teaspoon)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
• 1 large egg (egg replacer should work)
• 300mls your choice of milk (we used rice milk)

Method

• Add dry ingredients to the mixing bowl
• Beat egg and milk into the mixture, using a hand balloon whisk. If using egg replacer mix as instructed and add gradually to the dry ingredients. READ LABEL as instructions vary.
• Heat frying pan to medium and add safe oil
• Fry small spoonfuls of batter to make pancakes approx 3" across

TIP This batter is a LOT thicker than your regular pancake batter - this is intentional to prevent the batter spreading too much.

And here's my chef - she made the pancakes above all by herself!

Fish Pie - Gluten free, dairy free, soya free, wheat free, nut free, corn free

Apologies for only sporadic posting at present, life seems to well and truly have taken over! I've still been cooking daily, anyone catering for children with allergies knows only too well that there are not many short cuts. My christmas present this year was a slow cooker, which I must say has been hugely liberating. It means I can spend food preparation time whilst the children are (usually!) at school, and the meal cooks with little intervention from me. Once the children are home I can devote my time to them, rather than the evening meal.

My main aim this year (a resolution if you like!) is to continue to build on the growing independence the twins are gaining. This is quite a slow process - new readers can read my musings on why children with allergies lack a degree of independence here,  and to that effect I am aiming to broaden their meal repertoire, if not their safe food list!

Fish pie has long been a big favourite of my two oldest children, the twins each enjoy a few ingredients each - and both are hugely suspicious of sauces and combined meals. We've been slowly working on them tasting and eating a white sauce and after initial success as a warm "dip" I decided to attempt a fish pie.

My aim was not for either to eat a plateful, or even enjoy all of it - but to taste some, and pick out a few pieces they felt they could eat. This is an approach called a "bravery ladder", which I will write more about next week.

So, here it is - our fish pie. Obviously if your child is allergic to fish, this is a complete no-no!! The eggs are entirely optional though, so tolerating rice, potato and a few vegetables is all that is required on top of the fish.

White sauce ingredients

• 300ml rice milk
• 100ml rice cream (I use Isola)
• 1 bay leaf 
• 50g "Pure" Olive or Sunflower
• 50g plain flour - either corn flour or rice flour

Method

• Melt the margarine a little in the microwave
• Combine with the flour (I use a hand held whisk) and gradually add the cream. 
• Whisk/stir whilst adding the milk
• pop in the bay leaf and gradually cook in the microwave until thickened.

Fish Pie Method

• Peel and boil approx 4 -5 large potatoes
• Poached the fish in the microwave with a little rice milk and a sprinkling of pepper, then flake it. 
• I have an egg cooker and hard boiled three eggs, cooled peeled and chopped them.
• Quickly stir fry the spring onions whilst the fish and eggs are cooling a little
• Make the white sauce (above) and mix with at the fish, eggs, onions, sweetcorn and peas.
• Place at the bottom of a large dish
• Once cooked, mash the potatoes, add white pepper to taste and use "Pure" Olive or similar to mash
• Cover the fish mixture with mashed potato, starting with the edge first to avoid the contents getting pushed over the edge.

This will keep in the fridge once cooled until you wish to cook and serve. Alternatively cook in a moderately hot 180C oven (170C fan) for half an hour - or an hour if straight from the fridge.

Banana Muffins (with or without the nuts!) Can be MEWS free

I have long used my Mum's recipe for Banana Muffins, which you can find here. However I was keen to develop a recipe that was truer to a muffin mix but also used a variety of flours. I confess the reason for the latter was partly because my baking cupboard is overflowing with flours at present, but I'm trying to be braver in my cooking too.

I have a lovely little muffin and cupcake recipe book by Ann Nichol - listed here on GoodReads.

I used the "Streusel-Topped Banana Muffins" recipe as a starting point, and adapted.

Ingredients

• 5oz gluten free flour mix - I used 3oz Dove's Farm, 1oz coconut flour to allow more moisture to be absorbed into the recipe, and 1oz peanut flour for flavour and protein. OBVIOUSLY peanuts are a MASSIVE issue for many, so you can use any similar protein based flour instead, or substitute another oz of your usual GF flour.
• 1teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 large ripe bananas (if smaller, reduce flour a little)
• 1 large egg
• 50mls sunflower oil (DO NOT use olive oil, it is too heavy for baking, same with coconut oil)
• 50mls your choice of milk substitute. I used rice milk.

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/180C if fan/Gas Mark 6
• You will need 6-8 large muffin cases or 10 cupcake cases (better for children)
• Sift the flours, xanthan gum and baking powder together (worth doing with a mix of flours)
• Mash bananas well, make a well in centre of flour and add them to the bowl
• In another bowl, beat egg, oil and milk together **
• Add wet bowl to dry bowl and mix well
• Spoon into paper cases so they are approx two thirds full
• Bake for 20-25 mins until golden and a skewer/knife comes out clean

** Because banana is an excellent raising agent, and because coconut flour holds fluid in well, this is quite a good recipe to swap the egg for egg replacer to make MEWS free muffins.

Eat fresh from the oven, or freeze for later once completely cool. (If there are any left....!)

Quick, protein-rich Autumn supper

It's been kind of busy here over the past few weeks, not least because my eldest is about to turn 18! Apart from making me feel old, it's meant I've had to spend considerable time planning a menu for his party that all the family can enjoy.

Being short on time can be useful though, since necessity is the mother of invention! I was stuck for an quick and easy after school tea this week, and needed something that was free from dairy, soya, wheat, gluten and meat since my daughter has trouble chewing and swallowing meat - and absolutely refuses to budge on her "no fish" decision! Here's what I came up with :-

Basically it's lots of root vegetables, peas, chickpeas, pulses and brown rice protein simmered with stock and seasoning over a slow heat like a soup. Then I added gluten free couscous to absorb the excess water. To prevent the broccoli going soft I added it at the end.

Uses/Ideas

You could serve this on rice, pasta or potato, or on its own since the couscous provides the necessary carbohydrate. It would work really well in a warm food container for school lunches too, and will freeze well.

MEWS free Raisin Cookies

Following a plea from a friend who was seeking a reliable recipe for raisin cookies that were milk, egg, wheat and soy free, I spent this morning playing with ingredients to devise a recipe.

I'm quite pleased with the result, it's certainly delicious warm from the oven - but the cookies are more chewy in texture than the crumbly result i was hoping for. For the second batch I added some pear puree (this could easily have been banana for a similar result) which helped soften the biscuit texture. I used egg replacer today for an egg free cookie, but an egg - if allowed - might make these crumblier and more like regular cookies.

Makes 6
Dairy free, wheat free, gluten free, corn free, egg free, soya free

Ingredients

• 55g/2 oz margarine - I used Stork hard block margarine, softened first.
• 55g/2 oz caster sugar - you could try soft brown sugar for a "richer" taste
• 110g/4oz SR free from flour (I used our Juvela prescription flour but often use Dove's Farm)
• 1 tsp baking powder if the above flour is not self raising
• 1 teaspoon egg replacer made up as instructed
• 100g pear puree - if using a softer margarine reduce to 75g)
• 60g/2-3 oz raisins
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

 Method

• Preheat oven to 180C
• Use a non-stick baking tray or line a tray with baking paper
• Beat together sugar and margarine
• Fold in the flour, baking powder (if using) and spices
• Stir in the puree, add the raisins and combine.
• Mix in the egg replacer as per instructions
• Once the mixture is mixed well it will look like the first picture below.
• Using a table spoon, spoon out the mixture onto the tray in cookie shaped areas, taking care not to place them too close together.
• Bake in the centre of the oven for 15-18 mins
• Allow to cool.

Tips 

• You can make double quantity but these may not keep well. 
• There is no reason they cannot be frozen since they are more like cakes than biscuits - but I have yet to try doing so.
• If you can use an egg instead of replacing it, beat it in after beating the sugar and margarine together, then fold in the flour.

I'll let you know the kids' verdict later!

Marmite or Chocolate? Picnic Pinwheels

With another summer picnic on the horizon I trawled back through my recipes and found my recipe for Marmite Pinwheels. I decided to make two batches, one with safe chocolate spread and one with marmite! Can you guess which is which?

Bizarrely, my little chocoholic preferred the marmite ones, my lover-of-all-things-savoury preferred the chocolate ones. They guessed pretty quickly too!

These are best warm/fresh from the oven.

Is Marmite Gluten Free?  

Previously, Marmite was previously deemed to have only very low gluten levels and therefore be acceptable on a Coeliac diet - read here.

Recent changes to the European Codex have ruled that foods labelled "Gluten Free" much contain less than 20ppm. Marmite falls slightly outside this limit.

"Results have met the criteria for the old international Codex standard for “gluten free” (below 200ppm) and the recently introduced EU regulatory limit for “very low gluten” (less than 100ppm), but not the recently introduced EU regulatory limit for “gluten-free” (less than 20ppm)."

So it's usually ok, and certainly my daughter tolerates it but including it needs to be an informed decision in discussion with your child's health professional.

Quick, protein rich lasagne

Dairy free, gluten free, wheat free, soya free, could be egg free

Struggling for a quick and easy idea for tea, and inspired by a not dissimilar suggestion from our Facebook group, I made this.

Basically I mixed a can of Amy's Spanish Rice and Red Bean soup with some quinoa, a tin of chopped tomatoes and a little free from couscous. (optional)

Bring to the boil with enough water for the couscous and leave to cool. This is your "red lasagne sauce".  Now I was in a hurry so I didn't make a white sauce, just layered with free from pasta, finishing with a layer of breadcrumbs for a crispy topping. Then bake. It freezes really well, and the leftover sauce is great with rice, on a jacket potato or with pasta!

Only eight more weeks of rushing around like a loon until term starts, this is set to be a favourite speedy supper here!

Swiss Roll

This gluten, wheat, dairy and soya free masterpiece was actually made by my thirteen year old son! He came home from school with it today and wowed his siblings who couldn't believe their luck!!

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 75g your choice of free from self raising flour, preferably not just rice flour. 
• 75g caster sugar 

Method

• Grease and line a 23cm x 30cm/9in x 12in Swiss roll tin 
• Preheat oven to 200c (180C for Fan)

• Whisk eggs and sugar together until they are a pale white bubbly texture.
• Sieve the flour and fold it in. (Harry says this must be done in a figure of eight :)  )
• Pour it on the baking tray and bake for ten minutes
• Lift it out using the sides of the paper and leave to cool
• Sprinkle caster sugar onto another piece of baking paper, and carefully transfer the cake
• Spread with jam, roll up using the paper to help and hold in place for a few seconds until it retains its shape.
• Dust with icing sugar and serve!

Lemon and Blueberry Muffins

Here at The Recipe Resource we like our muffins, and blueberry ones in particular. I am constantly tweaking the recipes I use, trying to find that authentic muffin flavour whilst excluding as main of the main allergens as possible. These do have eggs in, but you could swap them for egg replacer since the banana provides additional raising agent. 

Gluten free, wheat free, dairy free, soya free, corn free, nut free, could be egg free

Ingredients

• 275g / 10 oz safe flour (I used Dove's Farm SR blended gluten free flour)
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking powder  (omit if you used self raising flour)
• 125g / 4oz Caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 275mls/ 9fl oz safe milk substitute - I used rice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 medium ripe banana
• 75g / 3oz melted and cooled vegetable spread (I used Pure Sunflower)
• 150g / 5oz fresh blueberries

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400F /Gas Mark 6
• Sift flour, baking powder (if needed) and stir in sugar
• In a second bowl beat the eggs (or prepare replacer), milk substitute and vanilla essence. 
• Mash a banana with a fork and add to the wet mixture
• Add lemon juice (not before or eggs will curdle)
• Make a well in the dry bowl and pour in the wet ingredients. (Or mix it all in your mixer)
• Combine well and stir blueberries in with a fork to prevent breaking them.
• Spoon into muffin trays (makes 12) and bake for 20 minutes or until golden and firm.

Best eaten warm on the day of baking -  doubt these will last long here, they are very nice!

3 Ingredient Pineapple Cake

I couldn't believe it when someone share this recipe on the Facebook Recipe Resource wall. I mean, we've tested and adapted a couple of brilliant and really simple cake recipes, but this one tops the lot!! For those unfortunate enough to be allergic to pineapple, stewed brambly apples would work pretty well and I plan to test that soon.

This took a minute to whizz up, 50 minutes to bake and much less for the troops to demolish. There is NONE left. Can't be bad, eh?

Ingredients

• 2 cups your choice of self raising flour - I used Dove's Farm
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 440g (large) can of crushed pineapple - or blend a can of sliced pineapple like I did.

Method

• Blend the pineapple chunks or slices if required. KEEP all the juice, do NOT drain it off
• Combine all three ingredients well and transfer to a alb loaf tin
• Bake at 180C (170C in a fan oven) for 50 minutes.

That's IT. 

I doubt it would keep well, but to be honest there wasn't much need here!! One of the best egg free cakes I've come across.

Crunchy Millet Flapjack/Granola style Biscuits

Once again our Facebook Group has come up trumps and member Livy Dickinson has created a fab recipe for her daughter, who is on a few food diet.  Searching for something palatable, portable and safe she has come up with the following, a crunchy granola style bite (could be a bar) which is really tasty,

Ingredients

• 250g Millet flakes 
• 150g Coconut oil 
• 125g Brown sugar 
• 4/5 tbsp Golden syrup 
• (2 tbsp dried blueberries- optional) 

Method

•  Simply combine and either spread in a tin (as in picture) or in paper cases/greased cupcake wells
• Bake at 180C for approx 20mins @ 180. 

These are hard/ solid/ crunchy, not soft and squidgy like usual flapjacks. They're very like Nature Valley Crunch bars in texture, so not suitable for very young children.

Homemade Granola

My daughter decided she wanted to make her own granola, fed up with watching her older brother eating Country Crisp no doubt! I searched online for some ideas and we came up with this, but you can put pretty much whatever you like in! The main thing is to (mostly) coat the oats before baking.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 125ml maple syrup
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g gluten free rolled oats

You really can add as many or as few of the following ingredients as you like. The above are essential, although I would reduce the oil and syrup slightly if omitting most of the seeds and berries.

• 50g sunflower seeds
• 50g pumpkin seeds
• 100g raisins
• 100g dried berries 
• 50g desiccated coconut

Method

• Heat oven to 150C 
• Mix the oil, maple syrup, honey and vanilla in a large bowl. 
• Tip in all the remaining ingredients, except the dried fruit and coconut, and mix well. 
• Tip the granola onto two baking sheets and spread evenly. 
• Bake for 15 mins, then mix in the coconut and dried fruit, and bake for 10-15 mins more. 
• Allow to cool
• Can be stored in an airtight container for up to a month.

Easter Biscuits

It's the Easter holidays - and it's blowing a gail, with the odd hailstorm thrown in for good measure. All my children want to do when at home is make things, so today we made our favourite shortbread biscuits and decorated them for Easter!

That was my first attempt... then the twins decided to have a go, and the bunnies multiplied, as bunnies are apt to do!

Happy Easter! And if your little ones want to know more about Easter, its traditions and get some art and craft ideas, pop over to see Dorothy of more fun!

http://dorothywhiskers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/easter-crafts.html

A "Frozen" free from Birthday Cake

A friend of a friend has been really poorly, and her children have food allergies so usually she bakes their cakes herself. So when my friend asked if I could help making a #freefrom cake, of course I said YES!

I decided to use the Chocolate cake recipe here since I'm not an expert at baking egg free, and I knew this was easy and pretty fool proof!

I made two cakes, layered with this Betty Crocker chocolate fudge buttercream mix which does say "may contain traces of milk" which was ok for us. You can make your own with safe margarine and icing sugar though. (You could also use jam in between the cakes.)

The little girl has a nut allergy so nothing I used could say "may contain traces" of nuts. This was a real eye opener for me, as well as many cake decorations containing wheat, the "may contain" is a real issue for nut allergy sufferers, even the fondant icing from many stores said that! I made my own fondant with fondant icing sugar in the end and coloured it with safe colouring. Lastly I had great fun making little Olaf!

I'm really pleased with the result!

Vegetarian, protein-rich Lasagne

This is by way of responding to the many requests for recipe details via social media, since I posted this last week!

I'm afraid it's going to be more of an advisory post, rather than a specific recipe, since I made a basic lasagne which was safe for my children rather than following a recipe to the letter.

Lasagne is made up of layers of pasta sheets, a meat or vegetarian tomato based sauce and white sauce, topped with a sprinkling of cheese. Or at least that's the regular version! So here are my versions of each layer, and I usually have pasta, veggie sauce, pasta, veggie sauce, white sauce, pasta, veggie sauce white sauce but that's only a personal preference.

Pasta Sheets
We like the Organ mini sheets, since they only need a quick boil on the hob and are so soft - but don't fall apart. The boxes have changed recently though so you might not spot them straight away!

Old box

new box!

White Sauce
I make my white sauce in the traditional manner. So same quantity of fat to flour (e.g. 3oz Pure Olive margarine to 3oz safe flour, warm to make a "roux" (whisk together) then gradually beat in your safe milk. Almond milk is great for cooking with, or hemp milk. There are also lots of other "milk" ideas here. Gradually heat (I do this in the microwave but check frequently) and keep stirring until a thick sauce is achieved. These substitutions will work in a regular white sauce recipe.

"Meat" or Veggie Sauce
This time I really cheated. I diced and fried an onion in a little oil, chopped the olives we had left over and tossed them in, added a can of Amy's soup (a few to choose from here ) and a can of chopped tomatoes. I often use soup in this way, Amy's soups are great and whilst not all are safe for us, they tend to be full of pulses and not at all watery.

Lastly I always have cans or fresh packets of pulses around, so I added some puy lentils. Then for flavour I added a little more basil, oregano and pepper.

Topping
I had considered grating some Violife cheese but this time went for a sprinkling of paprika for colour.

Bake at 180C for around half an hour and there you go! Freezes perfectly in portion size pieces too, perfect for speedy after school meals!

"Cheese" Straws

Growing up, my favourite things to bake were cheese straws. I've never been a fan of sweet biscuits and cakes, and being something of a cheese-aholic any opportunity to bake something cheesy has always been seized upon! So it always makes me a little sad that being dairy free, my children are denied this simple pleasure.

"Free-from" cheese has come a long way in recent years. In the past, all alternatives were based on soya, which we cannot have either. "Cheese" like VBites Cheezly is ok... but is difficult to cook with and really isn't "cheese" at all. Vegusto is lovely, but again - not *really* like cheese, and not safe for many with allergies since most of their products contain nuts. So the discovery of Violife cheese  has been little short of revolutionary!

Tesco sell some of their products, or online retailers like Goodness Direct but hopefully as more people get to know about these wonderful cheese alternatives supply will start to meet demand!

Ingredients of the original (used in this recipe) are here. They do not guarantee to be nut free as far as I can tell, but nuts (other than coconut oil) are not an ingredient. 
DO CHECK WITH YOUR DR IF YOU HAVE A NUT ALLERGY.

So, armed with this wonderful "cheese" I decided to make my daughter some cheese "straws" or biscuits!

Ingredients

• 6oz of your choice of flour. NB I would not use plain rice flour since it will be too breakable.
• 3oz your choice of margerine/butter substitute
• 3oz of diced Violife original cheese
• teaspoon of mustard if tolerated
• salt and pepper to taste
• EITHER 1 egg to bind and a dash of your milk substitute
• OR teaspoon extra (even if there is some in your flour blend) of Xanthan Gum and vegetable oil to bind. (roughly 2 tablespoons, but add one at a time)

Method

• Just like making pastry. Rub the fat into the flour
• Add the chopped/diced cheese, mustard, salt and pepper
• EITHER add the beaten egg and if required some milk to make a dough consistency
• OR add the extra Xanthan Gum, and oil to bind until a dough like consistency is achieved.
• Bake at 180C for 15 minutes

I made these with the egg version today, I have also made them egg free. I use a Kenwood mixer which makes it MUCH easier to achieve the required consistency as you can control the binding agents better.

My daughter informs me that she is making these herself next time. She also pointed out (correctly!) that the next time I have some pastry mix left she will add some cheese and roll it into these cheese biscuits!

Free-From Chocolate Brownie Cake

Having held you all in suspense on our Facebook page since announcing an EGG FREE cake recipe was on the way...... here it is!!

I can't take much credit for this though, it really is a creation of my daughter's, who at 9 was rather cheesed off that she wasn't able to eat the gluten free brownies her older brother enjoys frequently and decided to do something about it!

We are really lucky and are allowed some egg here, which makes life much easier. But many are not able to eat egg so we are officially making an effort to include more egg free recipes.

I had read about eggless "crazy" cakes before, and we had a basic recipe for guidance. The were created during the "Great Depression" in 1930s America, when eggs and butter were hard to find and expensive.

Ingredients

(Adapted from an official "crazy cake recipe")

Dry ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups of flour (we used Juvela Harvest White but any blended flour would do)
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder (We used Bournville for that brownie taste)
• 1 cup sugar (we used caster, the recipe said granulated but that tasted gritty)
• 1 tsp baking powder

Wet ingredients

• 1 tsp white vinegar (I only had wine vinegar as it's gluten free)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 5 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup water

Method

This is really *so* easy, I was not involved at all, my 9 year old made this by herself.)

• Grease an 8" deep sandwich or square tin
• Measure out the dry ingredients in order
• Mix lightly and make three wells in them 
• Put the wet ingredients one in each well, the oil in the largest - like a face!  (2)
• Pour the water over the entire lot in the tin (3)
• Mix well! (4)
• Bake at 170C / 350F for 35 minutes, the middle should be slightly squidgey to avoid the outside getting too dry (that was the problem with our first effort) and once cooled it can be decorated if desired. 

When warm, it tastes just like chocolate brownies..... yum!!

Gingerbread Reindeer

A lovely easy biscuit recipe from a friend that you can decorate to make reindeer! This was a wonderful tip I saw doing the rounds on Social Media last year.

This recipe is so easy, it's a blend of various recipes so things like xanthum gum may need tweaking and the amount of flour may need to be increased. This will make about 30 gingerbread men/reindeer.

Ingredients

• 140g pure sunflower spread
• 100g dark muscovado sugar
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 350g Doves gluten free plain flour
• 1 tsp gluten free bicarbonate of soda
• 1.5 tsp Xanthum gum
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cloves


Method

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Melt butter, sugar and syrup in a pan. Mix flour, soda, spices and xanthum gum in a bowl. Stir in the butter mix to make a stiff-ish dough.

Wait until cool enough to handle, then roll out dough to about 5mm thick. Stamp out gingerbread men, re-rolling and pressing the trimmings back together and rolling again. Lift onto baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 mins until golden.

Cool 10 mins on the sheets, then lift onto cooling racks.

Decorate upside down as reindeer!

Tip: Remember that these will spread a little in the oven so keep a bit of a space between them.  
These keep for about a week in an airtight tin, dough should freeze if made in quantity.