Gluten Free Baking & Living Magazine - Issue - Spring 2014

Gluten Free Baking & Living

Issue 3 Spring 2014

t s e B e Th e e r F n e Glut s d u P e r i h s k r Yo Ever !

Teff, the Wondergrain!

“F ield to Plate”

Know Where Your Food Comes From

The UK’s Only Gluten Free Food and Lifestyle Magazine

Speciality Baking

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Contents Recipes in this Issue Hearty Stew Cobbler topping Sauerkraut Honey Beer

Gluten Free Baking Recipes 17 Cheese & Red Onion

Breakfast Muffins

18 Flapjack 19 Cheese Sablés 20 Red Onion Tarte Tatin 21 Ginger Cake 22 Tea Infused Fruitcake

My Gluten Free Life Peter Stewart host of GF radio, talks about his coeliac journey and GF Radio with Claire Tulloch in the first of a new series of articles.

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Field to Plate Vicky Carr from Verve Words talks to Yorkshire Farmers Butchers,Voakes Pies and Anna’s Happy Trotters about gluten free food that you can trust.

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Come Bake with Me Find out more about courses that can help you improve your gluten free baking skills.

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16 10 Delicious Gluten

Free Baking Recipes

28 Gut Bacteria – Why is it

a secret?

32 The Beginning of a Glu-

ten Free Sourdough Journey!

By Samantha Matete

34 The Nutritionist

Baker Replies 36 “Fancy a Pint?”

By Grant Cadwallander

39 Anatomy of an

ingredient -Teff

40 Driver or Passanger?

by Nina Morton-Brook

41 Community Corner 42 What’s in Next Month’s

Issue

23 Chocolate Cookies 24 Tortillas 25 Treacle Tart 26 Yorkshire Puddings For more info on Gluten Free Baking and Living courses & recipes, register at http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/register/ Note for American Readers: I know that most of your baking recipes use cups as a measure. I have found that this is not accurate enough for gluten free baking where precision is important. So I have not included cups or even ounces. I recommend that you buy some digital scales or a really accurate balance scale and weigh in grams. This will ensure the best results possible.

The flours that I use may not all be available in the USA, but Bob’s Red Mill is a really good company with a lot of gluten free products that will substitute.

Abbreviations: tsp = teaspoon / dsp = dessert spoon / tblsp = tablespoon / g = gram / ml = millilitres

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More delicious gluten free recipes for your collection

The Beginning of a Gluten Free Sourdough Journey!

by Samantha Matete

Published by GFBL(UK) Ltd - Registered office 28 Grange, Avenue, Harrogate. HG1 2AG Publisher - Ian Thackeray - ian@glutenfreebaking.co.uk Editor- Nancy Scott - info@glutenfreebaking.co.uk Recipes and nutrition - Deborah Thackeray - deborah@glutenfreebaking.co.uk Design - Carolynne Coulson - carolynne@sweetstudio.co.uk Photography - Joe Doddsworth - http://www.joedodsworth.co.uk/ Contributors: Vicky Carr, Nina Morton-Brook, Grant Cadwallander, Claire Tulloch & Samantha Matete.

Advertising, commercial or legal queries contact Ian Thackeray ian@glutenfreebaking.co.uk 01423 567744 Gluten Free Baking & Living is fully protected by Copyright, nothing may be printed or copied without permission.

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What an Extraordinary Year

by Ian Thackeray

What an extraordinary year! We officially started our business on the 24th Jan 2013 at the Leeds Coeliac gluten free food fair. I had just been diagnosed with coeliac disease, our new business was in part a response to that. We were very disheartened by what was available in the ‘free from’ aisles, over sweet, additive heavy copies of what had got us into this mess in the first place. One of Deborah’s nutritionist clients had asked for more detailed instruction about baking gluten free saying “I feel a stranger in my own kitchen”. The die was cast when one of our daughters said “you should teach this” as we tucked into our very first gluten free Christmas dinner in 2012.

We were rather dazzled by the interest and warmth of the reception by the gluten free community but have come to learn over the intervening year that this is entirely normal. We had become jaded by the viciously competitive market of our previous business so the warmth, openness and genuine interest shown by fellow producers and suppliers of gluten free products towards us is a revelation. This was only bettered by the response of the many people that booked on our courses with such enthusiasm. I can only hope this feeling of camaraderie and warmth amongst the gluten free suppliers and consumers survives the arrival of the large faceless corporations, intent on muscling in to our growing market.

I wrote that paragraph before attending the first big gluten free show of the year at Ellesmere Port on 1st March. There was a sense of back-toschool excitement about the coming year and lots of catching up with old friends and making new ones. So yes, the camaraderie and sense of purpose continues.

Things to watch out for this year; Our web site www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk version two is ready for mid-March.

A series of videos to compliment the ‘At Home’ course books.

Find us at the gluten free food fairs in Leeds on 8th March 2014 (2-4pm) and York on 10th May 2014, starting at 10.30am. Then the Allergy and Free From show at Olympia in London on 4th-6th July 2014.

More excitements for this year are the possibility of some dedicated gluten free coffee shops. We have been approached by two separate groups intent on opening high quality bakery and coffee shop outlets. Both have asked us to look at setting up gluten free baking courses for their staff. We may well have Europe’s very first professional/ commercial grade gluten free baking courses up and running in the next 6 months. They will be very intensive two week courses that cover the practical skills and techniques of baking gluten free. The course will also cover the different flours their structures, nutritional components and how to blend for different results. Really importantly we will have a very close look at coeliac disease and the wider gluten sensitivity so they really understand how important avoiding crosscontamination and cross-reactivity is.

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Anyone interested in registering their interest in

these courses either as becoming gluten free qualified baker or as a company interested in having their staff trained by us please leave your contact details on the registration page on our web site http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/get-in-touch Finally for the moment, this third issue of Gluten Free Baking & Living Magazine.

All sorts of articles for you are in this issue, as well as our usual tempting run of recipes. The first in a series, ‘Field to Plate’ looks at where our food comes from. The theme of this series of articles is to look at where and how the best of what is grown or reared reaches our plates. The best gluten free food is always what is created naturally, then cooked ourselves. In this first article we look at the experience of a local Harrogate butcher bringing us the finest the Dales has to offer and how a local pork pie manufacturer responded to the coeliac diagnosis of one of their family.

We had our first international customers on the baking weekend in London in Feb, Amy flew down from Stockholm, Juliana came from Lisbon and Roberta arrived from Italy all to do the gluten free baking courses we put on. To cap that weekends international gadding about, we had our first overseas customer for the ‘At Home’ course books. Indira lives in Sri Lanka.

Continuing this international theme we have contributors in the magazine from Australia, New

Zealand and Lancashire.

There is Grant Cadwallander’s article, our Australian correspondent. He writes a detailed piece about brewing gluten free beer. We have actually put the recipes as a blog on our web site http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/blog/glutenfree-beer/ to make them more widely available.

The pictures of his beers make your mouth go dry with anticipation and longing, well they do mine. I am looking forward to visiting number 4 daughter in Melbourne later this year and sampling a few of Grant’s brews.

Samantha is even further away in New Zealand and has contributed the very detailed article about baking gluten free sourdough bread. Sourdough bread is the gold standard of breads - the lengthy fermentation and proving is what makes the wheat flour digestible. For those of us coeliac or gluten sensitive that absolutely can never eat this wonderful bread, the advent of a GF alternative is really important development in creating foods that help support healthy gut bacteria. Deborah, our resident nutritionist/baker/super hero (see At Home course books) has written about how fermented foods in their wider context help to balance gut bacteria, leading to speedier gut healing and better health.

Me, I’m off down to the kitchen to see what goodies I can smell coming out of the oven that I can pinch for a snack.

My Gluten Free Life

Peter Stewart is interviewed about his coeliac journey and GFree Radio by Claire Tulloch

In the first of a new, regular feature in the magazine, we hear from The GFree Radio Show host Peter Stewart about his life as a coeliac.

46 year old Peter, who lives in London, works as a broadcast journalist, author and social media trainer. He was diagnosed with coeliac disease around eight years ago.

How long did it take to work out that gluten was causing your symptoms?

I was diagnosed as a coeliac after severe lethargy for several months. I remember walking into work and by 9.30 or 10 o’clock I just wanted to lie down and go to sleep! I was acting like a zombie and had what people call ‘brain fog’, when almost every basic thoughtprocess was a real struggle. I went to the GP and after several blood tests and a biopsy over about six months, I was given the diagnosis. I knew a little about coeliac disease already, so I wasn’t immediately worried, and I started to go gluten free almost immediately and the whole process was completed in about a month.

At the time of your diagnosis, what impact did going gluten free have on you?

Looking back I think I may have had the signs of a gluten intolerance when I was a child.

I remember certain ‘episodes’ when I was unwell for no apparent reason. And certainly as a teenager, beer and lager didn’t agree with me. In retrospect I was consuming an awful lot of gluten - doesn’t everyone? When you consider there was toast and cereal for breakfast, sandwiches and maybe a bun or a scone as part of a packed lunch, and then traditional evening meals of pies (say chicken, or apple) and I think my body got to a stage where it said, “OK! Hold on right there!

Enough is enough!”

On diagnosis I went through the kitchen cupboards and freezer to find everything with gluten in and either threw it out or donated it to friends and relatives. I remember there were a few moments of frustration and cries of “What? I can’t have that any more? *%$£!”

My home is now a Gfree Zone, apart from the odd lager or biscuits for when friends come to visit.

What impact does living gluten free have on you now?

You know, at home, living Gfree is not really an issue. I do all the cooking and anyone who comes to eat joins in and we all eat the same.

There is that ‘coeliac smugness’ when people are astonished that something so tasty can be Gfree as well!

Has being coeliac opened up any opportunities for you that perhaps wouldn’t have happened otherwise?

As there are already many superb written blogs, and because of my radio background, it was sensible to do something for the gluten free community that was different. That’s why I started the podcasts. ‘The GFree Radio Show’ is presented in a magazine-style with a wide variety of content such as interviews, news items, new products and so on and as each podcast is in (gluten free) bite-sized chunks, people can listen while they are doing something else such as exercising, driving... or cooking!

What’s a typical lunchtime meal for you?

I work unusual hours, starting at 5am, so I have porridge before I leave the house and take a packed lunch with me, which I eat at about 9.30. That’s usually sandwiches, a handful of cherry tomatoes and another of grapes, and a bar of some sort (chocolate, Eat Natural bar, Nairns biscuits, a Honeybun mini-cake, that kind of thing). I got a smoothie maker for Christmas so am experimenting with that at the moment, and trying to find some good vegetable-based recipes to avoid another helping of sugar-filled fruit.

Is there anything you miss from before your coeliac diagnosis?

I never tried Krispy Kreme Doughnuts!

What advice would you give to a newly diagnosed coeliac or someone new to a gluten free diet?

This is an opportunity to become more healthy. Don’t see it as ‘cutting out the food you like’ but ‘cutting out the food that doesn’t like you’.

Clair Tulloch is the author of the Positively Coeliac blog https://positivelycoeliac.wordpress.com ‘The GFree Radio Show’ is the word’s only weekly ‘audio-blog’ (or podcast), for Coeliacs and the gluten-free community. http://www.gfreeradio.com/ The show can be heard here http://www. spreaker.com/show/the_gfree_radio_show

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Field to Plate Vicky Carr from Verve Words talks to Yorkshire Farmers Butchers,Voakes Pies and Anna’s Happy Trotters about gluten free food that you can trust.

When people first go onto a gluten free diet, there can be a temptation to head straight for the ‘free from’ aisle of the nearest supermarket. These gluten free versions of products are often packed with additives and sugar, so are not always the best food to buy for a balanced diet and good nutrition.

It’s easy to forget that one of the easiest ways to live a healthy, gluten free life is to go back to basics: simple fresh food, straight from the field to the plate.Vegetables, fruit, fish and meat are all naturally free of gluten – so why not step away from the processed gluten free products and see the difference a more natural diet can make to your life?

A visit to a local butcher is a great place to start. Not only are most of the products naturally gluten free, they are also usually produced within the local area so you know exactly what you are eating – something which has become increasingly important in recent years.

Mark Skinner, co-owner of the Yorkshire Farmers Meat Company, said: “Thanks to

the horse meat scandal, people are a lot more interested in where their meat has come from, how it has been produced, how the animal has been treated and that kind of thing. We have benefited from that – people know they can trust us.”

That trust is something which has been built up over many years. The company, now run by Mark and co-owner Mark Dickinson, has only been in its current premises in the centre of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, for five years, but it was established in the town in 1936. With almost 80 years of local trading behind it, the name is synonymous with quality meat from local suppliers, sold by people who know their trade inside out.

As well as changes in the competition over the years, Mark Skinner has noticed a change in the products his customers are requesting. However, rather than trying to create gluten free alternatives, he has found that existing products which happen to be gluten free have been the most successful.

“A few years ago, we were approached by

a restaurant in Harrogate called Sasso to make a traditional Italian sausage, which doesn’t have any binder in it so it hasn’t got any gluten.

“A little while later, a customer came in and asked if we had any gluten free sausages, so I offered her those. She obviously liked them because word quickly spread

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and people started coming in and asking for them,” said Mark. “We’ve gone from selling about five or six pounds a week to about 40 or 50, so it has been quite a big increase. “We also do a Greek lamb sausage which is lamb, parsley and red onion, and that has gone down really well with people looking for gluten free sausages.”

When it comes to products such as meat, recommendations are what help to drive independent businesses forward. Mark puts the long term success of the business down to a simple philosophy: quality, locally produced meat which puts animal welfare at its heart. He believes that has kept the business going while the market has changed significantly.

“There used to be many more local butchers,” said Mark. “They’ve disappeared over the years, and now our main competition is the supermarkets. People go to them for convenience – but they come to us for quality. They know exactly what they are getting.

“All our meat comes from Yorkshire. We have beef from Richmond in North Yorkshire, pork from Howden, and lamb from Rawdon, just down the road, this side of Leeds.You don’t get that in a supermarket.”

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As well as being important to shops and their customers, that strong connection is something which suppliers value. Anna Longthorp, who supplies pork to the Yorkshire Farmers Meat Company from her family farm in Howden, East Yorkshire, knows she has also benefited from shoppers’ interest in the origins of their food.

Her family has been farming pigs for more than 20 years. From the outset, when she was just eight, Anna took an interest in the animals over the crops grown elsewhere on the farm. Unusually, the pigs are free range throughout their lives – just one per cent of the UK’s pork comes from animals reared in this way.

“It takes a lot of sandy, free-draining land to have free range pigs, so most people don’t do it,” said Anna. “ Despite the growing interest in the way animals are treated, Anna found that she was struggling to get a stable income from the supermarkets they were supplying at the time. We decided to sell direct to the butchers.

“I thought we could create a brand with the butchers and stabilise the price,” she said. “We ran a competition with a local school to name the business and that’s

how Anna’s Happy Trotters was born.

“It has worked really well. It adds value to what we were already doing – we can make a steady, modest profit rather than our income going up and down all the time.”

With its own butchery, the business can be honest about the way its animals are treated throughout their lives – something which stockists and customers value more and more. Anna’s Happy Trotters

supplies meat to farm shops, restaurants and schools, so the highest quality cuts of prime meat are of utmost importance – and Anna believes this is achieved through her philosophy of keeping welfare at the heart of the business.

Knowing where your food has come from, and needing to eat gluten free does not have to mean sticking to the most simple form of a product. The rapidly growing gluten free retail sector, 20% year on year, is testament to the ingenuity and persistence of many manufacturers. Sadly many are simply poor copies of mainstream alternatives repeating the same unhealthy high sugar, additive heavy, easy profit motive.

Fortunately for the gluten free pie lovers of the world we have Voakes Free From.

Who better to create a gluten free pork pies than someone who has coeliac disease and whose family are award winning park pie manufacturers . Laura McGowan, partner of Nick from the younger generation of Voakes was diagnosed with coeliac three years ago. It has taken her in directions she could never have expected.

For Laura, never being able to taste the family’s famous products again was a serious concern. After adjusting to the news of her diagnosis, she and Nick, with his father’s expertise and guidance, spent around a year perfecting a gluten free pork pie recipe – and Voakes Free From was born.

“We’re under the Voakes brand, but we’re a separate business,” she said. “Andrew, Nicks father, is a brilliant mentor . He has been four time supreme pork pie champion and has been doing it for nearly 30 years. Who could be better?”

“Getting the pastry right was a very long process,” said Laura. “We would spend every weekend and evening tweaking the recipe and making tiny changes. One thing that didn’t change was the flour used in the gluten free pastry. “We used Doves Farm flour from the beginning and that never changed.

From the outset, Laura and Nick were clear about what they wanted to achieve with their products.

“It’s all very well being able to get a pie, but if you aren’t enjoying it, what’s the point?” she said. “We have spent a long time working on the pastry to get it right, and we make sure our ingredients are of the highest quality.”

“It’s nice to see people who have never

had a pork pie since they’ve been diagnosed and suddenly find they can eat one again. It’s nice to be able to help people to feel that kind of joy when they find something new. I know I get it. It’s like discovering eating all over again.”

Whatever products Voakes Free From creates, coeliacs and others on gluten free diets can rest assured that there will be absolutely no cross-contamination. Although they are made on the same site as the traditional Voakes pies, the entire process is completely separate, with its own factory and hand-crafting methods. Laura and Nick only use pigs which are reared on the Voakes family farm, so they can confidently tell customers exactly where all of the ingredients in their pies have come from – something which is crucial in establishing a relationship of trust. It remains the simple operation it was from the outset: Laura and Nick painstakingly creating the best possibly gluten-free pas-

try for their products, using high quality local meat for the fillings and offering customers a taste of something they thought they would never be able to eat again.

Vicky Carr is an award-winning journalist and writer based in Yorkshire http://www.vervewords.co.uk/

Anna’s Happy Trotters http://www.annashappytrotters.com/ Yorkshire Farmers Meat Company, http://yorkshirefarmers.com/ VOAKES… free from, Gluten and Wheat Free Pies and Pastry Products http://www.voakesfreefrom.co.uk

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Hearty stew & gluten free cobbler Stew is an ancient form of cooking going back thousands of years. At its simplest, it involves some tougher bits of meat and vegetables simmered for several hours. But it has evolved into a complex range of flavours and cooking styles.

There are 91 quite distinct and separate stews from around the World listed in Wikipedia. I recognise quite a few, but crow stew from the American Depression years sounds particularly unappealing!

Stew is great for cooking on a budget, because you use cheaper cuts of meat, packed out with lots of vegetables, usually root, to make it go further. It’s a meal in itself. Some cultures add a carbohydrate at some point, for example Irish stew contains potatoes, for others it’s just vegetables. But it’s all simmered slowly in a liquid.

In our family, beer was often used as the cooking liquid. I can remember my Grandfather, staring horrified, remonstrating “what are you doing” when he first saw my Mother pour his favourite Theakstone’s bitter into the pan in the early 70’s.

He grudgingly admitted it was pretty good.

sticky, thick richness that characterises this stew. Use stewing steak if you must, but you are missing out a great treat. I use a bottle of gluten-free beer if I have it, otherwise stock or water is fine.

Ian’s Stew Recipe Serves 6

Ingredients: 2 large onions, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped 2 carrots, diced 900g shin of beef 1 tblsp Doves Farm gluten free plain flour blend 3 tblsp olive oil 1 bayleaf 500ml of gluten-free stock, water or gluten-free beer Preheat the oven to 130°C/250°F/gas mark 1 Method:

In this recipe, I use shin of beef which it’s very tough, so can take the hours of simmering which allows the complex flavours time to develop. It also has a lot of gelatinous connective tissue which disintegrates entirely to help form the

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Please don’t just chop everything up and sling it in a pan, I know it will work, after a fashion.You will be hugely rewarded in taste and texture if you take a little care and time.

Chop up the onions reasonably finely, helps them break up in the cooking, and set them to fry gently in the oil in a casserole dish until softened. Do not let them colour or burn. Once they have gone opaque and literally feel softer when you press them with a spoon, add the garlic and carrots and continue to fry gently for another 5 minutes. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon.

Gluten Free Baking “At Home” Courses, Download Yours Today!

Toss the beef in the flour, shake off any excess, then add to the casserole dish along with the remaining olive oil. Once it is lightly browned, add the vegetables back in along with the bayleaf and enough stock or beer or water to cover. Season well. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a very gentle simmer and put on the lid.

Place in the oven for 2-2 ½ hours. Check occasionally to see if it needs more liquid. Test it at 2 hours to see if the meat is soft. If it is, it is ready for the cobbler topping, otherwise cook for a bit longer.

Just before the time is up, raise the heat to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Add the cobbler topping in balls onto the stew and bake for another 20 minutes until the cobbler is golden.

Serve with lots of vegetables.

Nutritional Information for the whole recipe, excluding cooking liquid: 776 calories 42g fat 44g protein 20g sugar

TRY BEFORE YOU BUY

http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/glutenfree-baking-academy-scones-masterclass/

Gluten Free Cobbler Topping My mother would cry out “oh no, they’re sinkers” as leaden balls of suet and flour were ladled out of an otherwise delicious stew. Other times they would be light, fluffy heavenliness. It seemed such a lottery.

Ok, this is not a traditional dumpling recipe, cobbler is more like a scone, but this one works every time. It’s also very flexible - this is the basic version, but feel free to experiment. I sometimes add mature cheddar or if it’s a lamb stew, some finely chopped rosemary to the mix once I have worked the butter in.

Serves 6

Ingredients: 100g Doves Farm gluten free plain flour blend 75g gram flour 1 tsp gluten free baking powder ½ tsp salt 1 tsp gluten free mustard powder 100g unsalted butter 125ml whole milk 1 large egg Method: Weigh the flours into a bowl and add the salt, baking powder and mustard powder.

Cut the butter into small pieces in the flour and rub it in until it looks a bit like breadcrumbs.

Whisk the eggs and milk together, and stir into the flour mix - it should be fairly sticky. With clean hands, make balls of the mixture and drop them onto the nearly cooked stew. Brush lightly with more milk and bake, uncovered until the cobbler is golden (anything from 20-35 minutes according to the temperature of the stew and the oven).

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Come Bake with Me

Find out more about courses that can help you improve your gluten free baking skills

e r e H Clickore details

e e r f n e t u l G r u on o ourses to get m

c g n i k a b nd how to get them a

Want to perfect your gluten free baking skills, but don’t know where to start?

Our gluten free baking courses in Harrogate, the Wirral and London are ideal for anyone living gluten free for whatever reason.

Now we’ve an online alternative too.

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Deborah, co-founder of the business says, “Following Ian’s coeliac diagnosis in 2012, I adapted recipes I’d been using for years to make them without gluten. In some cases it wasn’t straightforward and I needed to play around with ingredients and ratios to get the best results. But after many a baking day, and getting through countless bags of flour, I worked out the best blend of gluten free flours for a variety of bakes”.

“When friends and family sampled my baking, they would often comment on how great things tasted. ‘You should teach this!’ they said. In short, we took their advice and by early 2013 we were running our first baking course!”

Click Here

to get more details

on our Gluten free baking courses and how to get them

Learn to bake GF chocolate eclairs on our patisserie course

We currently offer four types of baking course: • An introductory course – baking bread, pastry, scones and sponge cake • A bread course – baking baguettes, seeded loaves, brioche and a soda bread.

• A patisserie course – baking pain au chocolat, frangipane tarts, and chocolate éclairs • And a grain free baking course – running for the first time in summer 2014.

‘Go To’ courses They run on one day, from 9.45am to around 3pm. The cost varies from £75 to £110 depending on the location and the type of course, and covers all ingredients and lunch.

Best of all you get to take away with you all that you bake to amaze your friends and family – if you don’t devour it all fresh from the oven, that is!

Our baking dates are mainly at the weekend when most people have free time, but we also run the occasional midweek course. We are also happy to put on bespoke courses for groups of friends or local coeliac support groups – just get in touch and tell us what you’d like to learn to bake.

You can browse course dates and prices on our website, then book your place online (http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/gluten-free-baking-courses/ how-to-book/ ) or by emailing deborah@glutenfreebaking.co.uk

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS & HOW TO BOOK Dates for first half of 2014 London (Lloyd Williamson School,Telford Road, London W10 5SH) Saturday 15th March Bread Course £110 Sunday 16th March Introductory Course £95 Sunday 13th April Introductory Course £95 Saturday 3rd May Introductory Course £95 Sunday 4th May Patisserie Course £110 Saturday 7th June Introductory Course £95 Sunday 8th June Bread Course £110 Saturday 26th July Introductory Course £95 Sunday 27th July Grain Free Baking Course £110 Harrogate (28 Grange Avenue, Harrogate, HG1 2AG) Sunday 9th March Introductory Course £75 Saturday 5th April Bread Course £85 Sunday 6th April Introductory Course £75 Wednesday 14th May Bread Course £85 Saturday 14th June Introductory Course £75 Saturday 12th July Introductory Course £75 Claremont Farm (Old Clatterbridge Road, Wirral, CH63 4JB) Sunday 2nd March Introductory Course £85 Friday 24th April Introductory Course £85 Sunday 15th June Patisserie Course £105 13

‘At Home’ downloadable courses We realise that our ‘Go To’ courses aren’t for everyone. Ian says, “At the various GF food fairs and other events we go to, we meet people who are interested in our courses but who have some barriers preventing them from coming along. These vary from their budget to family commitments or even confidence issues. With these people in mind, we developed our ‘At Home’ baking course to help them perfect their GF baking in their own environment.”

The At Home course is a downloadable tutorial in the form of a graphic course book.

Designed in a comic book style, it has images at every stage of each method, making it very easy to follow. It’s also got baking tips and explanations of why things are done a certain way throughout.

Ian adds, “So much more than just a set of recipes, the ‘At Home’ course is like having us in your kitchen with you as you bake! You can download it onto any computer, tablet or smartphone.You can even print it out if you prefer.”

Click Here

to get more details

on our Gluten free baking courses and how to get them

Within the ‘At Home’ course there are four masterclasses teaching you how to bake the best GF bread, pastry, scones and sponge cake.

The cheese scone masterclass is currently free to download via our website (http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/gluten-free-bakingacademy-scones-masterclass/).

We were keen to let people ‘try before they buy’, to see just what they get for their money when they buy from the At Home course.

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS The other three individual masterclasses are available for £7.50 each, or you can buy the complete bundle of four courses for the special price of £10 (http:// www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/ downloadable-at-home-glutenfree-baking-courses/).

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

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When you buy the course, you’ll be sent a link to download the course file to your computer, tablet or smartphone – whichever you want to use to take us into the kitchen with you!

TRY BEFORE YOU BUY

http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/glutenfree-baking-academy-scones-masterclass/

Coming up We’re always looking at ways to develop our range of courses, and are happy to take suggestions from our customers. We’re currently working on a Jewish bread Go To course, in response to requests. Later in the year we also plan to add more masterclasses to our At Home course.

If you’ve got any suggestions for styles of baking you’d like to learn without the gluten, then get in touch with us - email deborah@glutenfreebaking.co.uk.

What the bloggers say about our courses London based blogger Lucinda Barton came on our bread baking course. On her blog Bakes, Books & My Boys, (http://www.bakesbooksandmyboys.com/2013/11/gluten-freebaking-living-day-devoted.html) she wrote about how much she enjoyed being a part of a full day devoted to bread. She said, “I never thought I would taste bread like that again!

This truly was a course worth the money… and I am already searching through my diary to see when I can book myself on for more!”

Click Here

to get more details

on our Gluten free baking courses and how to get them

Helen Smyth who writes the Fabulously Free From blog (http://fabulouslyfreefrom. wordpress.com/2013/12/10/my-review-ofgluten-free-baking-and-living-at-home-bakingcourses/ ) said, “The masterclasses were easy to follow and would be particularly good for those who are nervous at the prospect of baking gluten free at home for the first time.

Or for those who like to try using different flour mixes and getting new ideas to improve their baking skills.”

Camilla Statham, who shares a lot of her own GF recipes on her blog Be Gluten Free Brighton (http://beglutenfreebrighton.blogspot. co.uk/2013/12/gluten-free-baking-living-gluten-free.html), tried out the At Home masterclasses. She said, “I found this a great way of learning more about gluten free baking. The step-by-step photos really help to make them understandable and easy to read. Whether you are gluten free yourself or want to learn to bake gluten free for a family member or friend, these courses are a great idea.”

Vicky Robertson, who runs her own GF cake making business The Happy Little Cake Company,(http://www.thehappylittlecakecompany.co.uk/blog/for-the-love-of-bread-thegreat-northamptonshire-pigeon-obesity-epidemic-and-a-gluten-free-bread-masterclass/) was only recently diagnosed with coeliac disease. She found the At Home course a great way to learn. She said, “As you work your way through the steps in the masterclass, there are little hints and explanations of why things are done in a certain way or why certain ingredients have been chosen. I really like this as it gives you the opportunity to learn.”

Claire Tulloch, who writes the Positively Coeliac blog (http://positivelycoeliac.wordpress. com/2014/01/31/gf-baking-courses-by-glutenfree-baking-living/), came on the introduction to GF baking course. She wrote, “The pastry we baked is one of the best without gluten I’ve come across. It was really easy to make, following Deborah’s method. What amazed me about it was the ease with which I managed to get it to line my baking tin.”

15

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10ten Free

The following recipes are a balance of sweet and savoury and contain old family favourites as well as things we’ve invented recently.

They all taste great and are a wonderful additions to the repertoire of any gluten free cook. I’m particularly proud of the savoury Cheese and Red Onion Muffins – they make a fantastic breakfast, and the Cheese Sablés because a savoury cracker is a rare thing!

I do hope you enjoy making these as much as we did. Please do let us see your pictures of what you have made and share them with us on facebook, twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.

u l G e r O s M e p i c e R g Bakin You For

Delicious Recipes for you and your whole family to enjoy

Delightfully decadent and deliciously gluten free!

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Cheese & Red Onion Muffins Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter 1 small red onion, finely chopped 150g Doves Gluten Free Plain Flour Blend 50g cornmeal ½ tsp salt Pinch cayenne pepper 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp xanthan or guar gum 100g mature cheddar, grated 250ml full fat milk 2 eggs

“ these are delicious for breakfast or lunch, hot or cold, and freeze really easily” ”

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.

10-12 muffin cases and a deep muffin tin

Method:

In a saucepan, melt the butter and cook the onion at a low temperature for about 5 minutes until it is soft and beginning to turn golden.

Weigh out the flour and cornmeal into a mixing bowl and add the baking powder, xanthan or guar gum, salt and cayenne pepper. Stir well together to mix. Make a well in the centre and crack the eggs into it. Begin mixing, then stir in the milk followed by the butter and red onion mixture.

Finally add most of the grated cheese, keeping about 15g back.

Place the muffin cases in the tin and divide the mixture between them.

It will make 10 large muffins or 12 One of main benefits of Sprinkle gluten free slightly smaller ones. the baking is to make food remaining cheese onthat top.can easily beBake eateninon thefor move.

Business trips oven approx 20 minutes, until a skewer comes out aclean. and lunches out can present chalAllow for free.

5 minutes, lenge to to thecool gluten Thingsthen are transfer to wire rack tobranches cool fully. getting better – there are of These will freeze easily.

Waitrose and Marks and Spencer at

motorway service stations and branches of Leon at big stations in London all Nutritional for the with gluten freeInformation options, but planning whole ahead andrecipe: having food with you gives 1799 calories you a head start. It’s reasonably easy to96g pickfat up a gluten free cake, but it’s a 57g protein lot harder to find a nice savoury mufsugar fin0gwhen you are out and about - these are delicious for breakfast or lunch, hot or cold, and freeze really easily.

17

Gluten Free Flapjack I love a good flapjack and have been searching for a way to make them healthier. Unfortunately, when I tried to make them without golden syrup, they came out like granola, so I decided that the golden syrup had to stay. I have mitigated this by adding dried fruit and seeds for the nutritional benefits. Dried apricots are a really good source of vitamin a and potassium and pumpkin seeds contain Omega 3 fatty acids, lots of vitamin K and amazing amounts of many different minerals, particularly magnesium and manganese.

If you are cooking gluten free, it is important to buy gluten free oats. Other oats contain gluten because of the harvesting and production methods. Most coeliacs can eat gluten free oats after the first year post diagnosis, but for some, oats continue to be a problem.

If so, you could try making this flapjack with quinoa or buckwheat flakes.

Fruit and Seed Flapjacks Makes 8 flapjacks Ingredients: 175g gluten free oats 120g butter 50g golden syrup 50g soft light brown sugar 100g dried apricots, finely chopped 40g pumpkin seeds

Method: Place the oats in a food processor and pulse a few times until they are thoroughly chopped up, but not oat flour. Place the oats in a mixing bowl.

Melt the butter and golden syrup together, then add the brown sugar. Pour this mixture onto the oats and stir well. Add the apricots and pumpkin seeds.

Place the mixture in the tin and press it firmly down. Bake in oven for approx 20 minutes Preheat oven to 175째C/350째F/Gas Mark 4. until the flapjacks are golden brown.

Grease a 18cm square tin and line the bottom Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then cut into of it with baking parchment. squares in the tin. Allow to cool fully before removing them from the tin.

Nutritional Information for the whole recipe: 2244 calories 129g fat 39g protein 129g sugar 18

Cheese Sablés

These are a gorgeous nibble to serve with drinks or at parties. They are really easy to make and very moreish! I bake them twice to make them crispy, but if you prefer a softer biscuit, just bake them slightly longer the first time. Like all gluten free baked goods, they need to be quite golden.

Cheese Sablés Biscuits Ingredients:

100g Doves Gluten Free Plain Flour Blend 1 tsp sea salt ½ tsp ground cumin ½ tsp gluten free mustard powder ½ tsp xanthan or guar gum 100g unsalted butter 50g mature cheddar, grated 50g grated parmesan cheese 1 egg, beaten 1 tblsp full fat milk For rolling: 1 tblsp sesame seeds 1 tblsp cumin seeds 1 tsp milk Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Line a baking tray with a

silicone sheet or baking parchment

Method:

Mix flour, salt, cumin, mustard powder and xanthan or guar gum in a mixing bowl.

Cut the butter into small pieces and work into the flour, using your hands until the texture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Break the egg into a small bowl and beat lightly. Pour ¾ of it into the mixture and mix in using a fork.

Bake in oven for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool for 20 minutes, then put back into the oven for another 5-7 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking sheet then transfer to wire rack.

Nutritional Information for the whole recipe: 1503 calories 114g fat 37g protein 0g sugar

Add the milk and the cheese and bring the dough together into a ball. Roll it into a long log, 5cm in diameter and wrap it in clingfilm.

Chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Remove from the fridge and unwrap the log. Mix the cumin and sesame seeds together on a board. Mix the remaining egg with a tsp of milk and brush it all over the dough. Roll it in the seeds.

Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the log of dough into biscuits approx 4mm thick and place them on the baking sheet.

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Red Onion Tarte Tatin

This red onion tarte tatin has been part of our family food for many year and our daughters love it! It’s a great vegetarian main course and looks rather impressive.

I know making good gluten free pastry can be a challenge, so we created the ‘At Home’ course to take you through making perfect pastry, step by step (http://www. glutenfreebaking.co.uk/downloadable-athome-gluten-free-baking-courses/). We think it’s foolproof! You can make all sorts of dishes with this pastry, but the lovely, slightly nutty, flavour works really well for this delicious savoury supper.

Onions are also a good source of prebiotic inulin, which is food for our beneficial gut flora.

Red Onion Tarte Tatin Ingredients:

200g gluten free pastry (see ‘At Home’ downloadable course) 1.5kg red onions 80g butter 1 tblsp soft dark brown sugar 1 tblsp balsamic vinegar Salt and pepper for seasoning 60g mature cheddar cheese 20

Baking parchment Non-stick baking tray

the edges. Sprinkle the grated cheese over it.

Peel back the top piece of paper or clingMethod: film from the pastry. Loosely roll the Slice the onions finely. Melt the butter in a pastry, still on the bottom piece of paper, large sturdy pan, preferably a cast iron pan. around the rolling pin, then unroll it careAdd the onion and cook very slowly over fully over the red onion and cheese mixture. Push down a little around the edges, a low heat for about half an hour, stirthen trim the pastry so that it overlaps ring from time to time to prevent them sticking. When they are very soft and just the onion mixture by about 3cm. Cut a beginning to colour slightly, add the brown small slit in the top. sugar and balsamic vinegar. Stir well and Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, cook for another 5 minutes. Season to until the pastry is golden. Rest for 5 mintaste. utes. Place a serving plate over the tarte and carefully invert it. You can sprinkle a Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/ little more cheese over before serving if Gas Mark 4. you wish.

Lightly flour a piece of baking parchment.

Nutritional Information for the Place the pastry on it and sprinkle with a whole recipe: little more flour. Using another piece of 1,934 calories baking parchment or a piece of clingfilm, 80g fat cover the pastry ball. Flatten it slightly 51g protein with your hands. Now, using a rolling pin, 18g sugar gently roll out the pastry until it is about 5mm thick.

Place the cooked red onion mixture onto the centre of the baking tray and spread it out slightly, leaving a 5cm margin around

Gluten Free Ginger Cake

Ginger cake works really well as a gluten free treat, and because it is very moist, keeps better than most cakes.You can freeze it too. Ginger contains potent anti-inflammatory compounds, which you can remind yourself of while you’re eating your second or third slice!

Gluten Free Ginger Cake Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter 100g dark soft brown sugar 100g Sweet Freedom fructose syrup 150g black treacle 3 tsp dried ginger 1 tsp cinnamon 3 eggs, at room temperature 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 200ml full fat milk 225g Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour Blend Icing: Juice of ½ lemon 150g icing sugar 1tsp hot water

Preheat oven to 170°C/300°F/Gas Mark 3. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then transA 1kg (2lb) loaf tin greased and lined with fer to wire rack to cool fully. baking parchment.

To ice the cake, wait until it is fully cooled.

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the Method: lemon juice. If the icing is still a little too In a saucepan, melt the butter together thick, add 1 tsp hot water, but you may with the brown sugar, fructose syrup and not need it if your lemon is very juicy. black treacle. Add the cinnamon and ginger.

Spread the icing over the cake with a knife and leave to set before cutting.

Take it off the heat.

Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in a little of the milk. Now add the remainder of the milk and the eggs to the saucepan, followed by the bicarbonate in its milk.

Sift the flour into a bowl and pour in the liquid ingredients to make a batter – this is runnier than most cake mixtures. Beat well until there are no lumps.

Pour the mixture into the tin, gently smoothing the surface. Cover lightly with a piece of baking parchment.

Bake in oven for approx 40 minutes, then remove the top piece of parchment. Continue baking for another 15-20 minutes or so until a skewer comes out clean.

Nutritional Information for the whole recipe: 3745 calories 124g fat 42g protein 433g sugar

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21

Tea Infused Fruitcake

In Yorkshire, we eat fruitcake with a piece of Wensleydale cheese.This is a great fruitcake for just that combination. It’s very easy to make a good gluten free fruitcake and this one is my favourite recipe. I think making it with Yorkshire tea makes it even more traditional and keeps the moisture content up beautifully.

Grated zest of ½ lemon 1 tsp mixed spice ½ tsp xanthan gum or guar gum A little milk or water

Gluten Free Tea Infused Fruitcake

Method:

Ingredients:

1 tea bag, preferably Taylor’s Yorkshire Tea 120ml boiling water 275g mixed dried fruit 125g Pure sunflower spread 125g light soft brown sugar 3 eggs, at room temperature 225g Doves Farm Gluten Free White Plain Flour Blend 50g ground almonds 2 tsp gluten free baking powder 22

Preheat oven to 175°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Line a spring form 20cm (8”) cake tin greased and lined with baking parchment.

In a bowl, pour 120ml boiling water on the teabag. Swish it around until tea is brewed (about a minute), the remove the teabag. Add the dried fruit, stir and allow to soak for a minimum of ½ hour. If you have time, leave it to soak for 1-2 hours.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the ground almonds.

In another bowl, cream the baking margarine and brown sugar together. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well. If the mixture starts to separate, add a spoonful of the flour.

Add the flour and ground almonds,

along with the baking powder, lemon zest, mixed spice and the xanthan or guar gum.

Add the dried fruit along with the remaining tea that it is soaking in.

The mixture should be at dropping consistency. If not, add a little milk or water until it is.

Pour the mixture into the tin, gently smoothing the surface. Cover lightly with a piece of baking parchment.

Bake in oven for approx 1 ¼ hours, then remove the top piece of parchment. Continue baking for another 5 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool fully.

Nutritional Information for the whole recipe: 3329 calories 128g fat 47g protein 315g sugar

Chocolate Cookies I get asked a lot for cookie recipes, because it is hard to find a good gluten free cookie out there. A cookie should be slightly soft, otherwise it’s a biscuit! This one works beautifully, you can make them slightly bigger if you want but they should always be under rather than overbaked. If you can’t face eating the whole lot (!) you can always freeze half the dough and bake them another time. When you are buying the ingredients, read the labels carefully. A lot of cocoa powder and chocolate is labelled “may contain gluten”. I find this very frustrating as I wonder - can I risk it? It’s probably OK, but it might not be. I usually err on the side of caution as I don’t want to make anybody ill. Lindt and Waitrose are fine, Sainsbury’s and Asda Extra Special are not OK for coeliacs. But regular Sainsbury’s cocoa powder is gluten free! There’s no logic, so stock up when you know a particular brand is safe. Or buy both online - Innovative Solutions sell lovely cocoa powder and chocolate chips that are guaranteed to be gluten free.

Double Chocolate Cookies Ingredients:

110g unsalted butter or dairy free spread 120g light brown sugar 35g cocoa powder (make sure it is gluten free) 150g Doves Gluten Free Plain White Flour Blend 50g white teff flour (from Innovative Solutions) ½ tsp salt ½ tsp xanthan or guar gum ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda ½ tsp baking powder (gluten free) 1 tsp vanilla essence 1 egg 2 tblsp milk 60g plain chocolate, chopped or chocolate chips Line a baking sheet with silicone or non-stick baking parchment.

Makes about 8-10 cookies

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar together and add the cocoa powder and both the flours. Now add the salt, xanthan or guar gum, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and vanilla essence.

Beat the egg lightly and pour it into the dry ingredients. Add the milk and mix thoroughly. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Roll the mixture into balls about 4cm across and place onto the baking sheet.

Flatten slighty.

Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

Bake in oven for 12 minutes.

Allow to cool for on the tray for 5 minutes, then allow to cool fully on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information for the whole recipe: 2515 calories 122g fat 32g protein 149g sugar

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Corn Tortillas Many people who are gluten free miss tortillas or wraps – nearly all the tortillas in supermarkets contain wheat. You can now buy good free-from ones, but they are very expensive. This is a recipe for making your own. They come out a bit smaller, but taste fantastic, particularly as wraps or quesadillas. I have based this on a traditional Mexican recipe, where tortillas are mostly made with corn. There is no need for them to contain gluten at all. I was lucky enough to meet Jen from Holy Molé Foods who serves fantastic authentic Mexican food ( a lot of it gluten free) in Leeds. She talked me through how to make a proper tortilla. It was her that told me that you could flatten them by pressing down very hard with a heavy wooden chopping board if you didn’t have a tortilla press, so thank you, Jen.

Griddle pan or heavy frying pan

Corn Tortillas Makes 8 -10 tortillas

Ingredients: 150g masa harina (authentic corn meal available online) ½ tsp salt 240ml cold water 24

Method: Mix the flour and salt.

Add the water and mix well until a stiff dough is formed. Leave the dough to rest for 10-15 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8 and roll into a ball. If they crack add a little water.

Place a piece of baking parchment on the work surface and flour it lightly.

until it is very hot. If it is well seasoned, you won’t need to oil it.

Pick the tortilla up on the bottom piece of baking parchment, then flip it over into the pan. Peel off the baking parchment.

Cook for about a minute or two until it starts to colour slightly. If you want to be able to roll the, underdone is better.

Turn it over and cook on the other side.

While the first one is cooking, prepare the next.

Put the first dough ball in the centre of it and roll it around a little in the flour.

Carry on until all tortillas are made.

Put another piece of baking parchment or clingfilm on top.

You can keep them warm and softwrapped in a slightly damp clean teatowel.

Take a heavy wooden chopping board or large heavy pan and push down hard on the dough ball until it is about 3mm thick and about 15cm across.

Serve immediately or freeze between pieces of baking parchment.

You can buy a special tortilla press to do this. If they are rolled out thinner and larger, they can become very hard to handle.

Heat the griddle pan or heavy frying pan

Nutritional Information for the whole recipe: 550 calories 5g fat 15g protein 0g sugar

Treacle Tart

I can’t pretend this is a healthy pudding at all. It’s just delicious and a family favourite, that the gluten free often miss out on. To make the best gluten free pastry you’ve ever tasted, check out the ‘At Home’ course to take you through every stage, step by step (http://www.glutenfreebaking. co.uk/downloadable-at-home-gluten-freebaking-courses/). Even a novice baker can succeed using the downloadable course. .

Treacle Tart Serves 6

Ingredients: 200g gluten free pastry (see ‘At Home’ downloadable course) 400g golden syrup 150g gluten free bread (I use leftover homemade bread using the ‘At Home’ downloadable course) Zest of one lemon 1 tblsp lemon juice Baking parchment Non-stick flan or quiche tin with loose bottom Baking beans

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.

Method: Make the pastry case: Lightly flour a piece of baking parchment.

Place the pastry on it and sprinkle with a little more flour. Using another piece of baking parchment or a piece of clingfilm, cover the pastry ball. Flatten it slightly with your hands. Now, using a rolling pin, gently roll out the pastry until it is about 5mm thick.

The filling: Cut the bread into pieces and blitz in the food processor until it is breadcrumbs.

Melt the golden syrup in a saucepan. Add the grated lemon zest and lemon juice.

Stir in the breadcrumbs and take off the heat.

Pour the filling into the pastry case and smooth slightly.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the tart is golden. Rest for 10 minutes, before removing from the tin.

This is best served slightly warm with Place the tin over the pastry and gently cream or crème fraiche. invert it into the tin, still on the paper.

Gently ease it into the tin, pushing it down Nutritional Information for the into the corners. whole recipe: 2580 calories Carefully peel back the paper.

56g fat Cut a new piece of greaseproof paper and 18g protein 312g sugar place it in the centre of the tin.

Cover with baking beans and place in a hot oven for 10 minutes. Remove the baking beans and put back into the oven for another 5 minutes.

Remove and allow to cool slightly before adding filling and baking.

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Yorkshire Puddings The search for the perfect Yorkshire pudding to go with Sunday lunch can feel like hunting unicorns when you are living gluten-free. On courses, people often ask me for my favourite recipe. I have experimented a lot over the last few years, but of late, this is my absolutely best. It doesn’t have quite the puffiness or structure of a Yorkshire pudding with gluten, but it is blooming close! It is light, well-risen and tasty. I know the mixture of flours seems complicated, but I haven’t made it work as well with any of the proprietary blends.

It is gorgeous with roast beef and gluten free gravy, but will also make a great toad in the hole with gluten free sausages.

Gluten Free Yorkshire Puddings Makes 8 -10 puddings

Ingredients: 40g Doves rice flour 25g cornflour 25g tapioca flour 10g gram flour ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda ½ tsp salt 3 eggs 250ml full fat milk Duck fat or olive oil for cooking Deep muffin tin Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 Method: Weigh out the flours and add the bicarbonate of soda and salt. Put to one side.

Whizz up the eggs in a blender or food processor (or beat vigorously by hand) until foamy. Add the flour mixture and whizz again.

Now pour the milk in and blend well.

Pour about a teaspoonful of fat or oil into each cup of the muffin tin and place in the hot oven for 5 minutes.

Take it out and pour the batter into each cup, filling it to about 10-15mm from the top.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until dark golden brown. Avoid opening the oven while cooking, as the puddings may sink.

When ready, serve immediately.

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Nutritional Information for the whole recipe, excluding cooking fat: 725 calories 24g fat 31g protein 2g sugar

27

Gut Bacteria – Why is it a secret?

by Deborah Thackeray acs. It won’t enable you to eat gluten again, but it could help you feel better than you currently do. Better balanced gut flora can improve carbohydrate digestion. The end product of this type of digestion, short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as butyrate can help cells make energy and reduce inflammation3.

Since fatigue is such a major symptom in coeliac disease, it is vital to try and help the body make energy more efficiently. Levels of important B vitamins such as biotin and folate are enhanced by increased levels of beneficial bacteria. For example, certain lactobacilli make cobalamin (vitamin B12) and some bifidobacteria make folic acid. Deficiency of both of these B vitamins is associated with fatigue, and very common in coeliac disease, so it makes sense to try and improve levels.

It’s likely that if you have been diagnosed with coeliac disease, that no-one has ever enquired about your gut bacteria. We’ve all seen the adverts encouraging us to consume those yogurty probiotic drinks, but many people don’t know just how much our little friends inside us are really doing. The microflora that you have living in your intestines can make quite the difference to your health, both in positive and negative ways.

We all have an immense number of bacteria living inside us, more cells than the rest of our body put together. The majority of them are in the large intestine, with smaller amounts in the small intestine and virtually none in the stomach. There are hundreds of different species, but the forty or so main ones can roughly be divided into good and bad. This is a bit simplistic, as we always have both inside us. It’s just a question of which dominate.

The ‘good’ ones, otherwise known as commensal or beneficial, do lots of things - from helping make and absorb vitamins to interacting with our immune systems. Their condition matters for everyone, not just those with coeliac disease or a gluten sensitivity. They can help regulate our mood, because the nervous system connects the gut to the brain.

This gut-brain axis allows for communication between the microflora and the brain. Gut bacteria can produce 90% of the body’s serotonin, thus having a profound effect on wellbeing1. Poor gut flora may well play a role in 28

anxiety. Conversely, anxiety can also alter the gut bacteria as the brain can send messages to the gut. This area of research is very new, and a lot of the studies are on mice, but there are definitely implications for humans.

Even if you start off as a baby with wonderful flora, they will not necessarily stay that way.

Antibiotics can kill the ‘good’ bugs as well as the bad, and what comes back after a course of antibiotics may not be the same. Bacterial or viral infections can change the composition too. What you eat can influence them – a diet rich in refined carbohydrates may cause less beneficial types of bacteria to predominate. Prolonged anxiety and stress can also have an impact.

It’s not surprising to find that the gut flora of people with bowel diseases is different to that of normal people. Conditions ranging from IBS to ulcerative colitis include dysbiosis (unbalanced gut flora) as one of the symptoms. For those with coeliac disease, it seems that their microflora is ‘pro-inflammatory’5.

Combined with gluten in genetically sensitive individuals, it may help create the perfect storm. Particular types of bacteria play a role in the digestion of gluten. If there aren’t enough of these in genetically susceptible individuals, then it may be more likely for them to develop coeliac disease7.

While improving the gut flora is important for everyone, it is particularly so for coeli-

Lactose intolerance is very common in adults – about 15% in the UK. This is because for some of us, the ability to produce the enzyme lactase disappears in adulthood. It seems particularly common in coeliacs and those with IBS, many of whom are avoiding dairy. The ability to digest lactose can be improved for some by improving bifidobacteria and lactobacilli numbers6.

One of the most complex functions of the microflora is to interact with the immune system. The immune system helps defend the body against pathogens, and there is a critical balance between tolerance and an immune reaction. In coeliac disease, this process is disrupted. The gut bacteria are involved in the production of IgA which is a gatekeeper, preventing pathogens from penetrating through the gut wall. Coeliacs are more likely to be IgA deficient than the normal population.

Exposure to gliadin (one of the components in gluten) can release zonulin which opens up the tight junctions in the gut wall, accessing the bloodstream and triggering an immune response. This creates the tissue transglutaminase antibodies that are seen in the initial blood test for coeliac. At the beginning of this process, the bacteria that should offer some protection to the mucosal layer of the gut are already unbalanced. Once the damage to the villi begins, then the microflora become even further disrupted and the cycle continues. When gluten is removed from the diet, this process should reverse and the intestines should heal. Yet, research shows that the microflora of coeliacs on a gluten-free diet remains different to the general population4.

Altering the composition of this flora has the potential to improve the gut barrier and immune tolerance.

So, what can you do to improve your own gut microflora?

There are a few things that you can try: • Eat naturally fermented food regularly • Take probiotic capsules • Reduce your intake of carbohydrates and sugar Naturally fermented foods include kefir, sauerkraut and kimchi. Kefir is a yoghurtlike substance, made by adding milk to kefir grains. It has been part of the diet in the Caucasus and Bulgaria for thousands of years where it has been found to promote health and longevity. It contains over 50 bacterial and yeast species, including a lot of lactobacilli to enhance the mucosal immune response by increasing Natural Killer cells. It also offers protection against pathogenic bacteria. You can buy kefir grains (which look like cooked cauliflower) online. Just search for kefir grains. I have used happykombucha.co.uk in the past, but there are lots of others as well.

It can be made with milk (cow’s, goat’s etc) but also with substitutes such as rice, coconut and soy milks.

Sauerkraut is made using cabbage, traditionally flavoured with caraway seeds, but I have also seen recipes using chillies. It’s sometimes made with carrots in addition to the cabbage.

Its bacterial composition includes several lactobacillus species including brevis which improves immune function and plantarum which has anti-microbial effects. My recipe is on the next page.

Beneficial bacteria are also found in sourdough breads, which is why they are often tolerated by people who are gluten sensitive and can’t eat other breads. Unfortunately for coeliacs, the damage is done and wheat based sourdough breads cannot be eaten safely.

Gluten free sourdough bread is often the ‘holy grail’ of gluten free bakers. My version is improving, but others have made really good progress – see Samantha Matete’s article.

Probiotic capsules are obviously a quicker fix, but they can be quite expensive. Newly diagnosed coeliacs may also find that they worsen symptoms initially. My advice is to start small, with just a sprinkle from a capsule and to work up to a full dose gradually. There are many different strains from different manufacturers and it can be difficult to choose. It can be best to rotate the strains, starting with lactobacillus and bifidobacteria, then saccharomyces boulardii, then lactobacillus GG and so on. Look for well-known manufacturers with good trials evidence behind their products such as Biocare and Culturelle. There need to be at least 10m organisms per capsule.

Diet can also affect the composition of gut bacteria. A diet that is high in refined carbs and sugar results in changed flora – this tends to be more pro-inflammatory, with fewer of

the beneficial lactobacillus and bifidobacterium species and more pathogenic types. Research has also shown that these alterations in the gut bacteria may promote obesity2!

Diets rich in complex carbohydrates and vegetables improve the gut flora – fewer pathogens and higher levels of beneficial bacteria.

I believe that the reason that some people with coeliac disease still don’t feel fully well even on a gluten-free diet is because their gut bacteria is still unbalanced. Improving it may really make a difference. For most people with digestive disorders affected by gluten, improving the gut bacteria won’t enable you to eat gluten again, but it may improve ongoing symptoms such as fatigue and lactose intolerance.

References: 1.Bercik, P. (2011). The microbiota–gut–brain axis: learning from intestinal bacteria. Gut, 60(3), 288-289.

2.Brown, K., DeCoffe, D., Molcan, E., & Gibson, D. L. (2012). Diet-induced dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota and the effects on immunity and disease.

Nutrients, 4(8), 1095-1119.

3.Chassard, C., & Lacroix, C. (2013). Carbohydrates and the human gut microbiota. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care, 16(4), 453-460.

4.De Palma, G., Nadal, I., Collado, M. C., & Sanz,Y. (2009). Effects of a gluten-free diet on gut microbiota and immune function in healthy adult human subjects.

British Journal of Nutrition, 102(08), 1154-1160.

5.Pozo-Rubio, T., Olivares, M., Nova, E., De Palma, G., Mujico, J. R., Ferrer, M. D., & Sanz,Y. (2012). Immune development and intestinal microbiota in celiac disease. Clinical and Developmental Immunology, 2012.

6.Vonk, R. J., Reckman, G. A., Harmsen, H. J., & Priebe, M. G. (2012). Probiotics and Lactose Intolerance.

7.Zamakhchari, M., Wei, G., Dewhirst, F., Lee, J., Schuppan, D., Oppenheim, F. G., & Helmerhorst, E. J. (2011). Identification of Rothia bacteria as gluten-degrading natural colonizers of the upper gastro-intestinal tract. PloS one, 6(9), e24455.

What do beneficial gut bacteria do?

Kimchi is similar to sauerkraut, with other vegetables and chilli, but it also contains lactic acid bacteria. It is regarded as one of the healthiest foods in the world and is extremely important in the Korean diet.

• Enhance the barrier between the outside world (what you consume) and your bloodstream • Help digest foods such as lactose • Make vitamins such as biotin, folate and vitamin K • Absorb carbohydrates to produce nutrients and energy • Influence the immune system • Reduce inflammation • Absorb minerals such as magnesium and iron • Prevent allergies • Inhibit growth of harmful bacteria such as e coli 29

Sauerkraut Homemade Sauerkraut Ingredients

½ cabbage, preferably organic 2 tbsp warm water ½ tsp salt 1 tsp caraway seeds Equipment Unbreakable bowl, pestle or rolling pin, glass jar with lid (like a kilner jar), juicer (optional)

Method

Chop the cabbage very finely. If you have a juicer, put the stalk and the outer leaves through the juicer for extra juice.

Place the cabbage in an unbreakable bowl and cover it with the salt and the water. Using the end of a rolling pin or a pestle from a pestle and mortar, pound the cabbage until juice starts to flow from it. Continue until the juice starts to cover the cabbage. Add the caraway seeds.

Place the cabbage in the clean glass jar, pouring the juice over it. If you have juiced the stalk and leaves, pour that over too. The juice should cover the cabbage, so that no air can get to the cabbage. If it is nearly there, add another tablespoon of water. If more liquid than that is needed, put the cabbage back in the bowl and pound it again until it has made more juice.

Put the lid on the jar and leave it at room temperature for 3-4 days. After that, it is ready to eat and will keep in the fridge for about a month.

Traditional fermented sauerkraut is a good source of beneficial bacteria for the gut.

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The Beginning of a Gluten Free Sourdough Journey!

by Samantha Matete

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With being disappointed that the storebought gluten free bread was expensive, unpleasant to eat and had a low nutritional value, I set out to make my own gluten free bread. Again to be disappointed that gluten free bread making would require loads of eggs, uses mostly starchy flours, needed strange named gums and there would be no dough but a batter??? I wasn’t happy and I wasn’t going to settle with how gluten free bread was made. This is where I began my journey to make bread using a blend of gluten free wholegrain flours and starches, a natural more effective gluten substitute, a few other basic bread ingredients and using simple bread techniques.

Gaining knowledge and confidence with the findings and experiments during my research, I took on a whole new concept to gluten free bread baking using an ancient and traditional bread baking process called sourdough.

Encouraged by other gluten free bakers trying recipes for sourdough starters and breads, I

became curious as to what sourdough was, how it worked and what it could provide for gluten free bread.

From a scientific but brief perspective, sourdough bread uses a ‘starter’ as a natural leaven. The starter is a mixture of flour and water occupied by wild yeasts and bacteria which leaven and flavour bread dough. These yeasts thrive naturally on the surface of grains, fruits and vegetables, in the air and in the soil.

The bacteria are certain strains of the friendly bacteria Lactobacillus, which can convert simple sugars into lactic and other acids.

In a sourdough starter, the yeasts and bacteria live together in a mutual beneficial environment. The yeasts help feed the bacteria which, in turn, create an acidic environment in which the yeasts like. The wild yeast creates enzymes which predigest the starches and sugars in the grain. These enzymes release carbon dioxide, which gets trapped in tiny air pockets within the dough and causes the dough to rise. The bacteria help the bread to

rise by a similar process, just like yeast, they digest simple sugars found in flour and produce ethanol and carbon dioxide. In addition, produce the lactic and acetic acids which give the dough its complex flavour and unique tanginess.

From this process, I learnt that there are many health benefits of sourdough.

Better digestibility. The enzymes created by the yeasts predigest the starches and sugars, making the bread more easily digestible. The longer fermenting and rising time breaks the proteins down into amino acids, making it more easily digested. The fermentation process increases the amount of beneficial bacteria which aid in digestion.

Better nutritionally. The longer rise time needed for sourdough allows the lactic acid bacteria to create an ideal pH for phytase, an enzyme that breaks down phytic acid. Phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that strips the body of essential minerals and is present in all grains, beans, and seeds. Depletion of phytic acid

frees minerals such as zinc, iron, magnesium, copper, calcium and phosphorus, allowing complete nutrition to be consumed.

Better blood glucose regulation. The bacteria eat at the starches and sugars in the grain, lowering the carbohydrate content of the bread. This helps control blood sugar levels and preventing troublesome spikes and dips.

So what does sourdough mean for gluten free bread?

Sourdough is the first fermentation used for baking purposes and it has been proven to be ideal for improving the texture, palatability, aroma, shelf life and nutritional value of wheat and rye breads. These effects have been extensively studied and well described for traditional baking, whereas little is known about the role of sourdough in gluten free baking.

However, the microbiological and quality components of gluten free fermented products correspond in character with the microbiota of wheat and rye fermentation and suggest that the positive metabolic activities of the sourdough microbiota are still retained during fermentation of gluten free products.

Thus, the use of sourdough in gluten free baking may be the new frontier for improving the quality, safety and acceptability of gluten free bread.

Fascinated by the fact that I didn’t need to use commercially made yeast to make bread rise and excited of all the wonderful health and quality benefits sourdough bread can provide, I used my experiences from gluten free bread baking and the newly learned knowledge of sourdough process to make gluten free sourdough starter.

Using sorghum flour for my first starter, I mixed equal amounts of flour and water together and left it in a jar for the wild yeasts and bacteria to gather and ferment. I fed the mixture at 12 hour periods with more flour and water and keep it in a nice warm place.

It took a day or two longer than expect but eventually bubbles appeared and the starter had a spongy look. I had created a sourdough starter with gluten free flour. After 7 days my starter was looking ready to be used.

I used a recipe shared by another gluten free baker dabbling in the world of sourdough and proceeded to make gluten free sourdough bread. The long fermentation times threw me a bit. I had no idea you could leave this dough for hours, up to a day or even the next day.

Finally I came to that moment to see if sourdough really is a breakthrough for the quality of gluten free bread. The dough had raised, been baked and cooled, now the time to slice into it. Amazing! The structure of the dough had created a nice even crumb in the bread; the crust wasn’t hard rather it had a nice chew and the flavour? Oh the flavour! The unique tang of sourdough was cherished by

the gluten free flours!

Getting and maintaining a sourdough starter isn’t difficult but it is a process that takes some time to become familiar with. Understanding the how’s and why’s certainly helps and provides reassurance especially more so for gluten free baking. Many of the major concepts of sourdough baking remain the same when dealing with gluten-free sourdough and the health benefits and bread quality also remain the same.

All in all, sourdough breads, gluten free or not, are much easier to digest, provide essential nutrients for the body and greatly increase the overall quality of bread.

Samantha Matete is the author of ‘The World of Gluten-Free Bread’ blog. http://theworldofglutenfreebread.blogspot.co.nz/

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33

The Nutritionist Baker Replies

by Deborah Thackeray

Got a question about what you can and cannot eat? Ask Deborah - as a fully qualified nutritionist specialising in food intolerance, she can advise you and answer all those queries that you have.

Blended tofu 65 ml = 1 egg Apple sauce (without sugar) 85 ml = 1 egg Soy yoghurt 65 ml = 1 egg Pureed pumpkin or butternut squash 85 ml = 1 egg

All the above can be tried in cakes, scones and muffins. They all add sweetness, which Q. I’m making cakes using Doves Gluten makes them less suitable for bread.

Free flour. Banana cake is always moist and lovely, the ones without banana are You will probably also need a small quantity of xanthan or guar gum to help the binding. A dry and crumbly. Any ideas on how to small amount of modified tapioca starch such make cakes more moist please?

Delyth H-G as Isabel’s Baking Fix and a little gluten free baking powder or bicarbonate of soda will A. I find that it’s not that easy to convert recipes straight from wheat flour to Doves or also helps cakes and breads to rise. other brands of gluten free flour. The gluten Q. I’ve noticed a trend for baking with free flours tend to be heavier and absorb coconut oil instead of any other fat. But more liquid. If you are fairly new to gluten I want to ask, is it actually healthier and free baking, it’s best to try recipes that have does it work well in gluten free baking? been designed especially to be gluten free Claire T until you get the ‘feel’ of the mixtures. Doves A. I am a great fan of coconut oil.

You are have some good ones on their website www. dovesfarm.co.uk, and there are lots of recipes right, it is beginning to turn up in baking recipes and it has lots of good attributes and in Gluten Free Baking and Living magazine. works well in many recipes. I have successfulHowever, if you a desperate to convert a favourite old recipe, try adding an extra egg and ly used it in muffins and chocolate brownies.

It is a saturated fat, but a very healthy one as a little extra liquid. The mixture will probably it contains lots of lauric acid which increases be runnier than you were used to and may HDL, the ‘good’ cholesterol in our bodies. take a little longer to bake. To prevent crumThe medium chain fatty acids that it contains bling, try adding a little xanthan or guar gum are 3 times more effective at speeding up the (probably ½ - 1 teaspoon) to help bind it. metabolic rate than long-chain fatty acids, according to a study published in the AmeriQ. I would love to know a healthy subcan Journal of Clinical Nutrition, so in theory, stitute to replace egg in gluten free it can help promote weight loss (NB I don’t cake recipes rather than just using the think this is a good excuse for eating lots of boxed replacers.

Claire W cake – you won’t lose weight!). Providing you buy a good, organic one, it is a great, healthy A. For gluten free baking, eggs are particuproduct, without the chemicals often found larly useful. They bind very well, which helps in margarines. It is also suitable for vegans overcome the lack of gluten as a binder. They and those with dairy sensitivity, which is very also have good levels of protein to replace common amongst the gluten free community. the gluten protein and help bread and cake You can also rub it on dry skin – what’s not rise. Nothing else works quite as well, but to like! for some people, ethical or health reasons mean that eggs are not an option. With that Q. Why is gluten free food so high in in mind, there are some things that you can add to baked goods which help binding and/or sugars as opposed to non gluten free food? rising. The boxed replacers are one good opGenevieve G tion, and are not unhealthy - they tend to be potato and tapioca starch with (natural) stabi- A. Actually, I think lots of packaged food is lisers and rising agents. But they don’t add any very high in sugar. It’s just that the GF community have to read labels more carefully value to the baked goods. I have found the following help replace the egg in baked goods so we are maybe more aware of it. But I do think that sugar is often added to gluten and add nutritional value. Some work better free food as a binder or stabiliser. Manufacfor some things than others. turers use it in bread to help the structure, Flax seed1 ground tbsp + 3 tbsp water = 1 egg but it can lead to a strange taste sensation, when you are expecting savoury. Maybe the This works well in bread or muffins as a manufacturers think people like it, but I don’t binder/protein addition.

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know why. It can be a bit addictive. When your blood sugar drops, you crave another sugar hit. High sugar consumption is increasingly flagged up as a health problem, leading to obesity, type 2 diabetes and other conditions.

I always try and reduce the sugar content of all my cake recipes, usually by ¼ - 1/3 of the content I see elsewhere. Baking your own bread and cakes is the best way of knowing and controlling your sugar intake.

Q. I am trying to make mince pies and I can’t find a pastry that works. Any suggestions? @lickleamyb A. I usually make pastry following the recipe in my ‘At Home’ download which works brilliantly (http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/ shop/gluten-free-baking-academy-pastrycourse-at-home/). For mince pies, I often add just a dessertspoonful of icing sugar to make it a little sweeter and make it all butter rather than butter and vegetable shortening.

Q. Fave cupcake recipes & lots of vegan out there but go too far for me. I’d like to use eggs and some (less) butter, way less sugar. Are you able to suggest a compromise recipe?

Charlotte M A. I always make cupcakes using my recipes in the ‘At Home’ downloads. It has less sugar than many recipes. I don’t worry about the butter content – butter is a natural product and fine for us in moderation. Icing is where the sugar content can really overwhelm the cake. You can ice them with melted dark chocolate or a cream cheese frosting to reduce that.

Got a question? Email it to Deborah at deborah@glutenfreebaking.co.uk

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“Fancy a pint?”

By Grant Cadwallander

To a beer lover it is arguably the nicest question to be asked (although I’m sure “Fancy coming back to my place?” would be up there too). It conjures up happy thoughts of memories past, fun times and great relationships.

But to fellow sufferers of Coeliac Disease having a pint of beer conjures up thoughts of pain, illness, way too much time spent on the toilet or worse still, drinking bad commercial apple cider.

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So like a small but growing group of individuals around the world I started to brew my own beers. So that I could, at the least, enjoy a pint at home or take a few travellers to a party, friend’s house, etc. It wasn’t easy. There wasn’t that much information out there, it is getting better and to be honest I can still make a bad beer, although the good ones are getting more and more frequent. There are some subtle differences in the flavour profiles but most of my beers would be undetectable as a gluten free beer to the average punter. So instead of waiting for brewers to help you out of your predicament, it’s time you took the bull by the horns so to speak. It’s time you started crafting your own gluten free beer. It’s not that hard and it’s not that expensive, and it can become a great hobby. In the course of this article I will give you some tips on how to brew your own gluten free beer so that at least you can enjoy a pint at home but first

I’ll take you on the journey of how I got to where I am today.

I was given my first homebrew kit by my brother for Christmas about 11 years ago and little did I know it would become an obsessive hobby and turn the humble beer, for me, into an art form. Instead of chugging away on commercial beer I would hunt out unknown beers and relish in the flavour and complexity. I would become…. a beer nerd. At first I knew nothing about the different styles of beer except for the difference between lager and ale. And looking back on it I also made all the rookie mistakes, like trying to make a ridiculously strong beer as cheap as possible.

My first batch was a strong stout (in hindsight it was a Russian Imperial Stout) and it was strong, bitter, not fully fermented and to be honest it was probably really bad. But that didn’t matter. I had the bug.

3 years later I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease and, as it does for everyone, it changed my world. No more beer. No more bread. No more beer. No more pasta. No more beer.

No more take away. Oh and did I mention…

NO MORE BEER! I was shattered. I was just hitting my strides in my hobby and was trying to master all grain brewing when…KAPOW! Hobby no more. So after a weekend bender of my oatmeal stout, pale ale and every type

of take away I could get my hands on I spent the next couple of days moping around the house in pain and on the phone to mates giving away my beer.

Luckily for me I bought an old book a few years before called The Compleat (Sic)Home Wine Maker & Brewer by Ben Turner and was experimenting with making meads (a honey based wine) from recipes in this book when I realised I could try and make a honey beer.

It seemed simple enough. I’d had a honey beer from Portland in the USA before. It was delicious. Honey had sugars in it (over 90% sugar). It looked a little like liquid malt extract.

All I had to do was add hops and find gluten free yeast. Luckily Fermentis’ Safale brand was gluten free.

So I made that beer and I enjoyed it as a refreshing drink (I still make a version of it to this day) but it wasn’t a traditional beer. It had no malt flavours. It had no body. But it was a great starting point and it kept me satisfied until I could make something better. More experimentation came up with other ingredients that worked well and the right ratio of honey to black treacle was becoming the front runner in the gluten free stakes. Followed closely by caramelised honey.

Here is the original honey beer recipe:

Over the next few years I tried everything from roasting gluten free grains such as millet and buckwheat. I learnt how to extract fer450g (1lb) of dark honey mentable sugars from brown rice. I got made to look the fool when asking about using corn 340g (3/4lb) of brown sugar and rice in beer at a local homebrew shop 20g (3/4 oz) of hops that ran an all grain brewing day. I returned 4 litres (7 pints) of water the favour with a quick and witty reply and a 2 large lemons lesson in auto-immune diseases. I rang malt1 packet of ale yeast ing companies asking if they malted anything 1. Bring the water to the boil and then other than barley and wheat. I made Belgium stir in honey and sugar until both are candy sugar, caramelised all types of sugars, dissolved. used fruits and spices all to find the elusive 2. Add the thinly pared and chopped malted barley flavours that I missed. Needless lemon rinds with the hops, and boil to say not only did I give up brewing a few rapidly for 20 minutes, making sure times, I also threw out more fermented liquid the hops are kept as well-submerged (beer is not the right word) than I cared to as possible count. But I did have a few successes over 3. Leave to cool then strain out the this time, including a brown ale, a honey beer hop, add the lemon juice and the and an IPA, and these recipes can be accessed activated ale yeast. from my website.

4. Allow the fermentation to finish.

5. Bottle and prime.

The internet is such a wonderful thing and if Now most beers have various different malts and sometimes sugars added to a base pale malt to make up their flavour and style profiles. For instance a lager would be mainly made up of some form of pale malt with a little (about 5 to 10%) of a caramel or crystal type malt. A porter or stout would consist of a base pale malt plus a number of other specialty malts like crystal, roasted, chocolate, black patent and sometimes sugars or adjuncts like brown sugar or molasses. All of these malts and adjuncts as well as the hops, add layers of flavour and complexity that make our favourite beers taste so fantastic.

So I had the challenge of finding out how to replicate these ingredients using gluten free products.

American Pale Ale

you are just starting out in gluten free home brewing, online forums are going to be your next best friend. From this valuable resource I heard about sorghum syrup. A product made especially for gluten free brewing in the USA

by Briess Specialty Malts. I searched and I searched and I eventually found it in the same homebrew shop that ran the all grain brew day I mentioned previously. So I bought some, made a simple Australian style bitter and I was impressed with how close this product was to making a decent beer. But it still had its setbacks. Sorghum syrup can produce some very unappealing flavours in beer if fermented incorrectly or mixed with the wrong ingredients as I was soon to find out.

Using the online forums and experimentation I was able to find out how to avoid the burnt rubber and cidery flavours that fermented sorghum syrup can sometimes produce.

So now I’ve mastered making an acceptable, easy to make, gluten free beer but unfortunately plain sorghum syrup out of the canister still doesn’t produce enough malt flavours for my homebrew to be undetectable as gluten free beer. I need barley malt flavour and I need it now dammit! Once again the online homebrew forums were my saviour and I stumble upon information about all grain gluten free brewing and also malting gluten free grains. And it’s written by someone who runs a commercial gluten free brewery. And there stuff is good. BINGO!

oven. Although it took 3 hours to do I got there. The house was filled with smells of a malt kiln. And I loved it.

Old Ale It was time to make my first brew with some of my home malted grains and I was excited.

The grains smelt and tasted wonderful on their own. Much like malted barley and all with the added bonus of no gluten what so ever. I formulated my recipe and decided to make a ‘partial grain’ Kolsch style beer, a light ale from the town of Cologne in Germany.

Partial grain brewing uses liquid extract (in this case sorghum syrup instead of liquid malt extract) and malted grains. 3 weeks later the beer had finished fermenting and it was ready to bottle. 2 weeks after that I was enjoying a great, malt flavoured, ale. That elusive malt flavour that I was missing in my beers was now front and centre. And to this day I have not looked back.

Get more of Grants beer recipes here http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/blog/ gluten-free-beer-recipe/

I read the newly gathered information over and over again and found French White Millet at my local pet/farm supply store. Needless to say some equipment needed to be made to dry sprouted millet at 35°C and to be honest with you, I wasn’t prepare to do it. So I used the instructions on the internet to make a crystal/caramel type malt using the kitchen 37

38

Anatomy of an Ingredient Compared to baking with wheat, the sheer number of gluten free grains available can be baffling. Many of them are quite obscure, only available online or in ethnic stores. In this series of articles, I want to look at some of these other grains, where they come from, how to use them and why I think they are worth having in your store cupboard.

by Deborah Thackeray

When I first started to bake using gluten free flours, I only used the proprietary blends like Doves Farm which could easily be found in every supermarket. As I started to learn more, I discovered some of the limitations of the “one size fits all” blend. While the blend worked pretty well for a lot of things, it was not necessarily robust enough and flavourful enough for some breads and pastries. Other grains added better flavour, texture and structure. They often improved the nutritional content as well.

Teff I had never heard of teff until I went to the Coeliac Food Fair in Leeds and discovered the Innovative Solutions stand. Since then, I have learnt much more about teff and tried it out in many gluten free baked goods. I use it mostly in bread and occasionally in pastry and cakes. It’s got a fantastic, nutty flavour and really good nutritional advantages. It is the nearest flour to wholemeal that I have found, so you can make tasty brown bread and ‘wholemeal’ pastry with it. I find it works best as part of a blend, but there are recipes available for it on its own.

It is a tiny whole grain, naturally gluten free, ranging in colour from dark brown to ivory and comes from Ethiopia, although other

countries are now cultivating it. In Ethiopia, it is mostly used for injera, the large pancakelike bread which is used both as a plate and as the main carbohydrate in a meal.

as protein really helps the structure of gluten free bread. It also adds nutritional value to baked goods. Protein helps you feel fuller for longer.

It has very good levels of protein compared Teff also contains decent amounts of iron and to most gluten free grains. This makes it an excellent addition to a mix of flours for bread, calcium, which may explain why Ethiopians apparently rarely suffer from osteoporosis, anaemia and diabetes. Zinc and magnesium levels are also good. The vitamin C which it contains can help the absorption of these minerals. It also contains B vitamins, with particularly good levels of thaimin. Adding teff in to the diet in bread or porridge could help address the nutritional deficiencies that many coeliacs experience.

You can buy teff flour from Innovative Solutions (http://www.pureglutenfree.co.uk/), and a few other companies produce it. The ivory (or white) is milder in flavour than the brown. Kept in an airtight container, it will last for ages.

Reference: Gamboa, PA; van Ekris, L; (2008) Survey on the

Nutritional and Health Aspects of Teff (Eragrostis Tef) Hogeschool van Hall-Larenstein

Pictures courtesy of Innovative Solutions (UK) Ltd http://www.pureglutenfree.co.uk/

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DRIVER, OR PASSENGER?

By Nina Morton-Brook

When I was growing up, this is what I believed about doctors. You go to see the doctor and explain what the problem is. They listen, and then prescribe some medicine or pills which make everything better. Simples.

Recent experience means that I don’t quite see it like that anymore.

One month after my initial breast cancer diagnosis, I was told that the cancer had spread, and that it was incurable. This was totally unexpected. Up until that point, we had been talking about how I would be cured.

So it came as a huge shock, as you can imagine. After hearing that news, the rest of that appointment is a bit of a blur. I remember the expression on my sister’s face – a mixture of shock and sheer horror. I remember asking what my options were for treatment. No options – just chemotherapy to shrink and slow the growth of the tumours, until they grow again. And then more chemo. Until it doesn’t work anymore. I was asked to sign the chemotherapy consent form at the end of that appointment. Not that I was in a fit mental state to agree to anything, let alone something as significant as a course of chemotherapy.

It seemed that my original view of doctors was no longer true. They didn’t have a pill or some medicine to make me better. The people who I had thought were in charge of my health, believed that I could not be cured, and in fact was going to die soon.

So I had to drastically rethink my views – it really was a matter of life or death.

And change I did. In fact I can hardly believe now that I ever subscribed to that old view.

The one where you expect a doctor to make you better, and you are a passenger in that journey.You follow a tried and tested route which everyone knows and understands.

You have the support of the mighty medical machine that is the NHS every step of the way. They even fund it for you! So it’s hardly surprising that this is the route which most of us follow.

So what do I believe now? I believe that the person responsible for my health is me! I have the right to turn down the recommended treatment. I have the right to consider my other options, from conventional medicine, to alternative treatments and therapies, through to the downright wacky. If I choose to.

For me, the decision to take the driving seat on my health and treatment was an easy one.

My doctor had used the words “we are no longer looking at a cure”. So no way did I want to leave my future in those hands! I do, however still see my doctor as an important 40

part of my team, and still seek their opinions and advice, alongside those of other experts and therapists. Once I find out about other options, I form my own opinion and follow my gut instinct on what is right for me. After all, the expert on me, is me!

I believe that I need to be equipped to take charge of my own health. I knew absolutely nothing about cancer before my diagnosis, so for me this has meant a lot of work. Researching, reading, discussing, questioning. Exploring new avenues, being open to new ideas.

Finding out where, and why, and who. Figuring out how to fund the treatment I need.

In a world which accepts the view that when you have cancer, you must very urgently start chemotherapy, I instinctively knew that this was not the right course of action for me at that point in time. So I needed to have the courage of my convinctions, to turn down the treatment offered. To have the courage to pursue an alternative route even when all around me there was concern or scepticism about my choices. Not just from the medics, but also family and friends who are familiar with the norm.. At a time when you are feeling vulnerable and uncertain, maintaining

confidence in your own judgement can be really challenging.

Although initially daunting, being responsible for my own health makes me feel empowered and in control at a time when I could feel powerless.

I highly recommend that you take charge of your own health and here are my top tips to help you to do it successfully.

Top Tips for taking responsibility for your own health • Know what you are letting yourself in for – stepping outside the norm isn’t always understood by others • Get well informed through researching, reading and speaking to experts in their field • Be open to embracing new ideas, to changing what you do, and developing new daily habits and patterns of behaviour • Work collaboratively with medical professionals, but also include other therapies which you feel will be beneficial for you • Above all - listen to your gut instinct on what is right for you and act on that • Wishing you health and happiness.

Community Corner I was asked recently to sponsor a beer festival. We get asked to sponsor and promote lots of things, both personally and as a business and we help where we can. This particular request was from the PTA of Oatlands Infant School. This really caught my eye for all sorts of reasons, not least was three of my daughters went there. As my eldest is 30 this year, it was a while ago! Plus Hambletons Brewery were sending their very fine GFA and Laura from Voakes Free From were supplying the pork pies - this we had to support.

By Ian Thackeray

It set me to wondering how the school dealt with children with food sensitivities in general and gluten free in particular. Mrs Robson, the Head Teacher agreed to talk to us along with her catering manager.

Stepping into the playground brought on such a wave of nostalgia. I had been that rare creature 25 years ago, a stay-at-home Dad. This was a space I had got to know well.

Mrs Robson explained there were 228 children in the school, 73% of whom took school meals. They were anticipating this rising. We talked about statutory regulation in particular the food allergen labelling coming in December 2014. “We are very aware of its imminent arrival” she said, “we want to use this in meaningful way to make sure parents get the information then tell us”.

She went on to say “we are careful to listen to what the children tell us, but there should be a letter from a parent, followed up by a meeting if required” that triggered specific monitoring of an individual child’s food intake at school. Mrs Robinson, the catering manager, went on to say that whilst there were no coeliac children that they were aware of, there were a couple of children with nut allergies they had to provide for. She said “we cook everything ourselves from scratch and read the ingredients list on any packets very carefully” There you have it - entirely practical and sensible solution that all of living gluten free for any reason would do well to adopt. Cook it yourself and read any packets very carefully.

Oh, and the beer festival with Gluten Free goodies is Oatlandsfest www.oatlandsfest.org.uk, 21st and 22nd March 2014, Oatlands Infants School, Hookstone Road Harrogate (£10 in advance, £12 on the door) 41

In The Next Issue Recipes in the next issue

Easter Baking Special New gluten free baking recipes to add to your recipe book including: Bakewell tart Simnel cake

What a gluten free diet did for me

Hot cross buns

One man’s story of life with ulcerative colitis

Focaccia bread

What’s Coming Up

Crispy chocolate nests Ginger Bunny Biscuits

The Best of the Gluten Free Shows and Courses that You Can Go To

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