3. Muesli

I hate the fact that gluten free cereal is so expensive, but it took browsing through one of my favourite local shopes, Nutcase, to give me the push required... Yes, I am now making my own muesli!

The basic recipe I'm using is as follows:

75g puffed rice (I used Rude Health, but there's also Kallo)

125g GF oats (Sainsburys do GF oats! If you can't tolerate oats, use Sainsburys GF Porridge or Kelkin GF Porridge)

From this point on, it's a free-for-all! Add fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts and seeds according to your taste and preference! This is what I did:

50g sultanas
50g dried apricot

50g dried pear (from Nutcase!)

25g sunflower seeds

25g crushed pecans (also from Nutcase!)

25g flaked almonds

The best thing about making your own muesli is that you can tweak it to your own tastes, and vary it each time you make it. And I worked out the costings for the above recipe using all Sainsburys ingredients: it's about £2.40 for what I reckon is 10 bowls of cereal. And it's even cheaper if you use GF porridge, Tesco and local shops like Nutcase!

2. Walnut Teabread

If anyone loves baking like I do, they will also love Mary Berry's recipes...simple, delicious and seemingly never-fail! So I was determined when I went gluten free that I was going to adapt Mary Berry's recipes to gluten free. And the first one I tried - Walnut Teabread - worked beautifully!

Gluten Free Walnut Teabread

100g granulated sugar
175g golden syrup
200ml milk
50g sultanas
225g gluten free self-raising flour (I use Dove's Farm)
1tsp baking powder
50g walnuts, rougly chopped
1/2 tsp xanthan gum*
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 180C; grease a 2lb loaf tin.

Put sugar, syrup, milk and sultanas in a heat-proof bowl and warm gently until the sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool.

Put dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix. Add the liquid and the beaten egg, and stir until the mixture is smooth.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 50-60 minutes. (Cover the top with foil towards the end if it becomes too brown.)

Leave to cool for 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely.

*Xanthan gum essentially does the job that gluten did - it works as a binder, preventing breads, cakes and batters from becoming crumbly. Xanthan gum used to be difficult to find on the high street (the only place I could find it was in Whole Foods Market), but Tesco have recently started stocking Dove's Farm xanthan gum. Unfortunately, xanthan gum is very expensive and only seems to come in small quantities. But because you use only a small amount per recipe, it is worth the investment. For your personal experimentation, here's a few guidelines:

for bread, use 1 tsp per 100g flour
for cakes, use 1/4 tsp per 100g flour (as in this recipe)
for pizza bases, use 2 tsp xanthan gum per 100g flour

So there it is! A simple but effective adaptation of a wonderfully tasty Mary Berry recipe!

Recipe Number One!

There's this fantastic French bakery around the corner from my workplace, and every time I walk past it, it reminds me that I can't eat bread. Lunch has become either expensive or time consuming to prepare, and is undoubtedly the most depressing meal of the day for a new-comer to the gluten free diet.

This is why my first recipe is for bread. I must hand most of the credit to Dove's Farm for this recipe - I first made the recipe on the back of their white bread flour. However, if you have also tried this recipe, you'll find that the bread is a little bit tasteless. Hence my experiment below:

Pesto and Pine Nut Bread

450g / 16oz White Bread Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Quick Yeast
2 tbsp Sugar
325 ml / 11 floz Warm Milk
1 tsp Vinegar
2 Eggs
5 tbsp Oil
1 tbsp Red Pesto
A Handful Pine Nuts

1. Mix together the flour, salt, yeast and sugar.
2. In a large bowl beat in milk, vinegar and eggs.
3. Add the flour and mix to form a sticky dough.
4. Continue mixing adding the oil and pesto.
5. Place the dough in an oiled 1kg/2lb bread tin, cover and leave to rise for 1 hour.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 220C / 200C Fan Oven / 425F / Gas 7 for 45 mins.

I was really pleased how this experiment turned out! Like the original Dove's Farm recipe, the bread only really lasts at its best for a few days, and is nicer warm. However, the flavours make it a great bread with some strong cheddar, or dipped in soup. Yum!

Next time, I think I'll try 4tbsp oil and 2tbsp pesto. I'm also intrigued to see if it's possible to make little rolls in a muffin tin - especially if you can freeze them and they still taste good when defrosted!