Free From Doughnuts!

Desperate to discover recipe for free from doughnuts that was really viable, Ann from our Facebook group adapted a gluten free recipe from Beth Hilson's article on "Gluten Free and More".

MAKES 24  DOUGHNUTS

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups Dove's Farm bread flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar 
• 7/8 cup potato starch 
• ½ cup tapioca starch 
• ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon gram flour  
• 4 teaspoons xanthan gum 
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder 
• 7 ½ teaspoons instant dry yeast 
• 1 ¼ cups warm coconut or rice milk of choice (or water) 
• 170g Pure Sunflower margarine, melted 
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten OR Organ egg replacer for two eggs or pear puree for one
• 4 cups vegetable oil (or more)  
• Extra sugar, powdered sugar or cinnamon, optional

Method

• Place flours, granulated sugar, potato starch, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder and dry yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Beat briefly to combine.
• Add milk alternative, margarine and eggs/replacement to dry ingredients. Beat for 5 minutes at medium speed.
• Let dough rest for 20 minutes in a warm, draught free area.
• Pipe onto tin foil and leave to prove in a warm place. (Airing cupboard is ideal!)
• Using either a deep fryer or deep frying pan fry for 2-3 minutes.
• Whilst still warm sprinkle with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.

TIP :- To help form the donuts, shape them with plastic wrap that’s sprayed with vegetable oil.

You could also bake these but they might need icing instead of coating in sugar as the coating will not stick.

Pulsetta on the BBC

The Recipe Resource reviewed Pulsetta Crumbs at the end of last year and today heard that the company will be featured on a BBC programme this evening on the history of bread making in northern Scotland.

Pulsetta crumbs are unique in that they are made from pulses, so contain protein, no grains are therefore free from most major allergens, without gluten, milk, diary, or egg. This means Pulsetta can be enjoyed by vegetarians, vegans, and coeliacs. 

Check out BBC Alba tonight at 9pm  and thereafter on BBC iPlayer and the BBC website. 

Free From Fridays Linky

This week I am co-hosting #Freefromfridays, a regular linky on www.freefromfarmhouse.co.uk featuring free from recipes from across the web.

Linkys are an excellent way for Bloggers to join together and make a bigger impact, and for readers to easily access more information and ideas beyond the single page they are reading. For me, it's a fantastic way to discover what everyone else is doing in the #freefrom world, and an excellent way to gain new ideas.

For example, I have never used Teff flour in my cooking. Last week Nicola at A Free From Life added her link of the week, for Chocolate Teff Shortbread.  As a result I have researched Teff flour and will be using it in baking myself!

What is Teff?

Teff is a tiny grain with BIG health benefits. The history of Teff can be traced back thousands of years, to ancient Abyssinia, and is mostly grown in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is naturally gluten free, has a nutty favour and is extremely nutritious. Teff has more calcium and iron than any other grain, and is also a good source of Vitamin C. It's made up of 20-40% "resistant starch" too, excellent for blood sugar regulation and colon health. We will definitely be giving it a try!

I was also attracted to the "Almond and Pea Protein Pastry" from last week, as I am constantly trying to pack as much protein in for my daughter, who because of food allergies and chewing difficulties is often low on protein in her diet.

So if you Blog about food, and have some #freefrom recipes to share, please join in!

How to join in #Freefromfridays:-

1. Write a new blog post including the Free From Fridays badge or add it an existing recipe (Just copy the code below the image and paste it on your page)

2. Add your post to the linky form by using the ‘Add your link’ button

3.  Leave a comment below and visit at least 2 other recipes to comment on

4. Tweet your link to @freefromfarm using hashtag #freefromfridays so I can spread the word! 

Please tweet me at @Twinsplustwo and Emma @freefromfarm using hashtag #freefromfridays so we can share your recipes across social media.

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It would be useful if you can label the main allergens your dishes are free from in the linky title to help others search suitable recipes:-

DF: Dairy Free 

EF: Egg Free 

GF: Gluten Free 

SyF: Soya Free 

SF: Sesame Free 

NF: Nut free 

PF: Peanut free 

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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!

Carrot Cake

This is a regular carrot cake recipe which I adapted to make it gluten free, dairy free and soya free. I needed to find a tasty way of using up my Carrot Spaghetti which I was delighted to find in Tesco the other day, and it worked a treat!

Although the cake recipe is not free from as many top allergens as I would like for inclusion here, I was completely thrilled with my finds in Tesco. For seriously restricted kids, whose main nutritional needs are covered by amino acid based elemental formula, both the carrot and courgette spaghetti they now stock in their larger stores offer a real increase in variety for many. They also have diced veg packs, which for someone like me who cooks in bulk, are like finding an extra hour in the day!

So, here is my carrot cake recipe, which went down very well here! It was a little crumbly on top which made neat cutting difficult but fine throughout the body of the cake. Moist but not soggy.

Ingredients

• 125 g Dove's Self Raising Flour, or your own choice (but probably not just rice flour alone)
• 1 tsp cinnamon 
• 200g caster sugar
• 175ml vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 175g carrot spaghetti chopped first with scissors (or grated carrot)
• 60g chopped walnuts (optional)

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4
• Grease/line a 7" round cake tin
• Stir together the flour, sugar, cinnamon and sugar
• Add the oil and eggs until fully mixed
• Stir in carrot and nuts
• Bake for 25 minutes

You will see I haven't used any frosting. This is partly due to the already high sugar content of the cake, partly the lack of cream cheese alternative. It was really moist however and no one missed the additional layer!