Savoury gluten free muffins

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

I must admit, I'm a latecomer to the concept of savoury muffins, gluten free or otherwise. Apart from your standard cheesy muffin, I've never really come across them - don't know if they're an American thing or what.

Anyway, as I often do, to escape from the corner that various food intolerances keep trying to paint me into, I was trawling the net for stuff I can eat. I'd known about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) for a while, so I thought I'd check it out.

The good thing is, SCD recipes are gluten free because (I think) the diet is totally grain free. The bad thing is, SCD recipes seem to use a whole ton of eggs, which aren't my best friends at the moment.

So when I came across these egg free SCD recipes I was kind of excited:
http://sanjayamma.blogspot.com/2007/08/more-non-egg-breakfast-ideas.html

I thought I'd give the eggless chicken muffins a go (towards the bottom of the page) and so adapted the recipe a little. So far so good.

But have you ever followed a recipe and thought afterwards "There's no way that worked"? I mean, there is no way, no WAY this could have worked the first time round, unless I'm missing something (which has been known). Anyway, here's what I did and what happened:

Savoury gluten-free chicken and butternut squash muffins

3 chicken breasts, chopped and cooked (I microwaved mine)
4 cups cooked butternut squash (again, microwaved - keeps so much more flavour than boiling it)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
Good handful pine nuts, toasted
Salt and pepper
4 tbsp olive oil

You blitz the chicken and squash with your oil and salt and pepper until fairly smooth, then mix in the baking soda and pine nuts - work quickly and don't over stir.

Put good dollops into muffin tins (I made 16 with this amount of mix) and put in the oven at 180C for 25 minutes.

Now, the problem is, these are wet. And look at the original recipe - it had pears AND water in there too. When I turned these out, several just fell apart. I rescued them by putting them back in the oven on the cooling rack to dry out the undersides.

One thing I can improve on next time is not to include the water that came out of the (free range) chicken. And I reckon the addition of some sort of flour would help a lot. I don't know what would adhere to SCD guidelines (I suspect the olive oil didn't), but gram flour would work pretty well I think - perhaps half a cup.

The reason for the effort is that these are actually really tasty. And surprisingly eggy, considering the egg-free-ness of them. So I'm going to give them another go soon, so keep your gluten free eyes peeled - or subscribe top right so you hear when I next update.

I'm off for some rescued savoury gluten free muffins. Mmmmm...

So easy dairy free rice pudding recipe

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Dairy free gluten free wifie is a bit of a fan of the rice pudding, but since the dairy intolerance was diagnosed, we've not been able to make a properly creamy one.

However, a moment of inspiration in the supermarket the other day led to this tasty little number, that does everything a real rice pudding should do, and perhaps a little more...

Dairy free rice pudding recipe
500ml gluten free soya custard (we used the Alpro carton)
500 ml gluten free rice milk (we used the purple Provamel)
Large handful sultanas
Good grating nutmeg
110g pudding rice

Mix the rice milk and custard well in a bowl. Put the pudding rice in an oven dish and pour over the milk/custard mix. Add the sultanas and grate over the nutmeg. Put in a 150C oven for about an hour and a half, or until you have a nice brown skin on the top. Dairy free rice pudding heaven.

We took ours camping, had it for pudding, then the kids had it for breakfast the next morning. Yes I know, sugary and unsustaining, but heck we were on holiday! :)

How to eat gluten free in Majorca

Majorca (Mallorca) is a favourite holiday destination for us Brits. And now we coeliac Brits can be confident in eating gluten free when we get there.

Carmen Barcelo contacted me recently to ask if she could use the Spanish gluten free restaurant card in the book, and now she's completed it, she has sent it over and we've popped it on the website.

If you are considering going to the Balearic islands on holiday, your decision over which one may just have been made for you. Carmen's son is coeliac and as a result she too eats gluten free. Her guide includes:

• Gluten free labels used in Majorca (Spain) and what they mean
• Where you can buy gluten free products, and what sorts at each shop
  
• Restaurants with gluten free menus, and details on each (this is is valuable, and something only a local can provide)
• Details of a hotel chain with a specially adapted gluten free menu
• Useful web resources for coeliacs
• General stuff to do with Carmen's comments

Thank you Carmen, this is invaluable to coeliacs. Now all we need is one for every other area in the world. Anyone? ;)

Download 'Gluten free Majorca' here

The best gluten free biscuits ever?

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Oh the joy. After years, nay decades, of toil and torment, I've finally made a gluten free biscuit that makes gluten-eaters sit up and take notice.

Don't get me wrong, this ain't no fancy-pants spiced creamy foo-foo biscuit. This is a down-to-earth, honest-to-goodness gluten free biscuit. The sort your granny might have bought to disappoint her grandchildren with.

Yes, I'm claiming grown up gourmet status for this biscuit - they've even been compared (by gluten free wifie, who is notoriously honest with her opinions of my cooking) to a classic Fox's biscuit. And who am I to argue?

And the best thing about these? They are as simple as can be. Quick and easy to make, and 10 days in a biscuit tin rendered them not one crispon less crunchy than the day they were baked.

Try them, and let me know what you think. Here's the recipe...

Non-nonsense gluten free biscuit recipe

100g gram flour (chickpea flour)
100g tapioca flour
100g of margarine (or butter if you're lucky enough not to be dairy free - this may make these biscuits intolerably beautiful ;) )
70g ground almonds
100g soft brown sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup

Sift your gluten free flours together, then rub the margarine into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and add the maple syrup. Mix thoroughly, then squidge together with your hands. If it's too dry to stick together, you'll need to rub in a little more margarine, or add more maple syrup. Then roll off balls of mixture and place on a greased baking tray. Press down with the back of a spoon into biscuity shape.

Bake for around 14 mins in a 180C oven, until just browned.

Remove for 5 mins then transfer to a cooling rack. Try your hardest not to eat one for another 10 minutes. Oh, the gluten free joy. I reckon a manufacturer should pick up on these. I've never tasted a gluten free biscuit with a better texture than these. I'm going to make another batch now - I've gone and made myself get a craving for one.

Breakfast lentil dal

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

Breakfast lentil dal??? :) Yep! Apparently it's quite a fave over in India, and with my gluten-free, yeast-free, everything-else-free breakfast options becoming more and more limited, I thought I'd see if I could knock together something lentilly and breakfast-friendly. Which means not too savoury, and maybe a little bit sweet.

And it's a cracker... :)

Breakfast lentil dal
100g red lentils, rinsed
Enough water to cook them down into a mush
2 cardomom pods
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
50g creamed coconut

Fry your spices for a minute in a little flavourless oil or butter. Add your lentils, cardamoms and about 3 times as much water by volume. Simmer for about 20 minutes, adding water when necessary, until the lentils have no 'bite' left. Stir in your creamed coconut, or coconut milk and shazam! Gluten free lentil dal you can eat for breakfast. Or at least I can. ;)