Corn Thins

Photo from here

Corn thins are such a great snack for all kids as well as kids with allergies - tasty, easy to eat and healthy. I often have them with me when travelling in the car. They are the staple, alongside fruit, at the creche my kids go to when I go to my women's bible study. There is a good range of plain ones as well as flavoured. I tend to go for the original corn thins - low salt and still tasty.

This is my last post for 2010. I'm going to take January off from blogging and am looking forward to coming back refreshed in February. I hope you enjoy celebrating the birth of Jesus with your families and friends.

Gingerbread Recipe

Merry Christmas!
I am doubling up posts today just so you can have this in case you want to bake before Christmas. I adapted an already adapted recipe based on Sheriden Rogers 'Entertaining at Home' (1994 p143 - I think!) that my friend gave me. After the results of my recipe, I can only imagine how yummy the 'normal' version is. The kids loved helping with the cookie cutters.

This gingerbread is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I gave it to friends last night and they commented on how delicious it was even before they knew it was allergen free! And as my son said, they were 'Yummo!' I divided the recipe into 2/3 amounts and got about 60-70 small cookies.

250g dairy free spread
185g brown sugar
2 eggs worth of egg replacer
300g honey
750g plain g.f. flour
pinch salt
3 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
3 tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in
125ml boiling water

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celcius (325F)
Cream dairy free spread and sugar until light and fluffy (use a large bowl and a mixmaster is best but I managed with electric handbeaters)
Beat in egg replacer
Add honey and mix
Sift together dry ingredients and then add to mixture in parts alternating with dissolved bicarb soda
If dough feels too soft, add a bit more flour (I didn't need to)
Refrigerate for 2 hours - overnight
Roll dough out and cut out with cookie cutters
Place on trays with baking paper lining
Cook until lightly browned
Remove from oven but leave on tray for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack.

Tip - I found the dough got easier to work with after it had been out of the fridge for a couple of minutes.

Guest recipe: Brownies

Photo (not recipe) from here

How great to have a brownie recipe up here!

1.5 cups apple sauce
1 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1 mashed banana (not too ripe or the whole mix tastes very 'banana-y')
2tsp vanilla essence
1 1/3 cups rice flour
2 cups of vegan choc chips (can use Sweet William if soy is not a problem).

Combine all ingredients. Mix well and pour into greased 8x8 pan.
Cook in preheated oven at 180degrees C for 45 mins.
(Mine took more like an hour).

Opportunity for feedback

I might be catching up with a General Manager from Woolworths about their allergen-free range and so I am trying to think of all the things that I wish that Woolies stocked.

Do any of you have ideas that I could also pass onto her? Please comment below!

Hot Chips & Chicken salt: KFC & Oporto

Yesterday we went searching the food court for hot chips for my daughter. The only options for hot chips were KFC and Oporto. I went to Oporto first and their allergen info was easily accessible for the person serving (she knew where it was) and it showed that the chicken salt had gluten, seeds and soy in it. So on to KFC we went and asked the girl there - she had to check with the manager where an ingredients list was, he couldn't find the brochure but thankfully thought of getting the chicken salt box. It had gluten and, I think, dairy, in it (as well as other things that I didn't bother listening to once I knew she couldn't have them). So I asked if we could buy chips with no salt and that was easy. Not sure if Oporto could do unsalted chips, but I assume they could if you asked? It just means getting them out of the fryer and not putting them in the storage/salting area.

So - be aware of chicken salt - it can contain allergens.

Guest recipe: ANZAC biscuits

I figured I'd do this one next in case the last post made you want to make ANZAC biscuits (cookies!) at home. Here is another tried and tested guest recipe.

Anzac Biscuits
1.5 cups rolled oats (if you wanted to avoid oats, you could use puffed rice - that's what the one in Pages Cafe had)
1.5 cups plain GF flour
1 cup sugar
125g nuttelex
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp bi-carb
2 tbsp boiling water.

Combine oats, flour & sugar in large bowl.
Combine nuttelex and golden syrup in sml saucepan. Stir over low heat until butter in melted. Combine soda and water and add to nuttelex mixture.
Stir wet mix into dry mix while it is warm.
Place large tsp of mix onto greased tray and bake in preheated oven at 150 degrees for about 20 mins.
Allow to cool on rack. Biscuits will harden as they cool.

Koorong Cookies

Koorong is a Christian Bookstore that has a great cafe (Pages Cafe - and they make good coffee) and a great little fenced and undercover playground for the kids. I took my son on a bus ride the other afternoon and we headed there and then my husband drove our daughter once she woke up. They have an ANZAC cookie that is 'everything' free so we ordered one and it was very yummy. They also have another allergen free cookie but it has nuts in it so we couldn't try that one. It's great to know that everyone can have something when we visit.

Allergen free on the Central Coast

photo from here

We recently had a week up the central coast (NSW) and I found this bakery via google and found that there was a stockist near us. We bought some of their buns and they have been thoroughly enjoyed by our little girl who loves having rolls like us.

Guest recipe: Apple Crumble

A good friend of mine has just emailed me a fabulous stash of tried & true dessert recipes that are wheat, dairy, nut, soy and egg free. She even tested them on adults who can eat normally and they enjoyed them! I'm going to start posting them as guest recipes because they are worth sharing.
This recipe isn't gluten free due to the oats and my daughter still gets a rash from oats but hopefully soon she will have grown out of it. And hopefully it will be good for those of you who can.

4-5 apples, sliced and stewed (or 1 large tin of pie apples)
1 cup blueberries
cinnamon
50g Nuttelex
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup plain GF flour

Stew apples (or open 1 large tin of pie apples). Add blueberries. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Rub Nuttelex into rolled oats. Stir in sugar and add flour.
Sprinkle crumble mix over apples and bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 45 mins.

Tip: Topping doesn't really brown when using GF flour

Look in different places

This year, we have been shopping for our fruit and vegetables at a local fruit and vegetable shop rather than the big supermarkets. 

Only recently I ventured into the shop's deli/pantry section and discovered that they had a gluten/allergen free section with lots of the products I regularly buy and some ones I hadn't seen before. The prices were almost the same (the dollar amount was the same, the cents may have been different, so really not that different!) and so I bought them there.

I went into another fruit and vegetable shop and found the chocolate mousse mix that I blogged about last week. I've never seen that in the supermarket.

I think it is worth looking in different places every now and then - you may find something you've never seen before and that is always worth it when there is so little for your child (or you) to eat in this world.

Chocolate Mousse!

 

We saw this in a shop the other day and had to buy it. My kids and I made it together and it looked beautiful. It didn't taste very nice straight away (to me or my daughter) but my son licked the beaters clean. We put it in the fridge for the day and had it after dinner with sliced strawberries on top. My husband reckoned people wouldn't know that it was 'everything' free and my son gobbled it up. My daughter even had a couple of spoonfuls (she's never really liked chocolate flavoured things or things that have textures like this). Personally I thought it was pretty good. I love my chocolate mousse and it wasn't the same as 'normal' mousse but it was a very good effort. I think we may well make it for my daughter's birthday party and put it in tiny cups and serve it out.

It is so easy to make (just add water and mix with electric beater for 3min!) and quite yummy given the limits of ingredients. Orgran is amazing.

NB it is also nut-free - the photo doesn't show it but it is on the list below soy free.

Women's Weekly Allergy Free Cooking for Kids

I don't normally post about things I haven't tried but I'm still undecided as to whether or not I'm going to buy this cookbook. Given that it is Women's Weekly, I am pretty sure there'll be some tried and tested and good recipes in here. My reservation about buying it is that it seems not to have many recipes that have multiple allergens removed, but since I've only read descriptions online, I can't confirm that.
So after that disclaimer, here it is: Allergy Free Cooking for Kids. It looks fun, well-organised and full of nutritional information. It has recipes that are dairy, egg or gluten free.
Let me know if you have seen it and share your thoughts.

Click here for a website that has a really great price for it, although you should always shop around before buying it. I can't confirm that this is the cheapest price. Wow - so many disclaimers in this post!

Update July 11 - I now own the cookbook and I was right - the book is divided into 3: egg-free then dairy-free and gluten-free, no combinations at all. With some adaptation you can still use a good amount of recipes but it is certainly not as good as I had hoped for someone with multiple allergens.