11 minute read
BECKY EXCELL
STICKY JERK CHICKEN
HOT CHOCOLATE POTS
Gluten-free QUEEN
We sit down for a cup of tea - glutenfree of course - with award-winning Colchester culinary blogger Becky Excell
By REBECCA PITCAIRN
Food blogger Becky Excell has amassed over 800,000 followers on social media, has written four bestselling cookbooks and has even been dubbed the “queen of gluten-free” by none other than Nigella Lawson. However, it was on last year’s World Book Day that the 32-year-old’s success really hit home.
“I received lots of photos of young girls dressing up as me for the occasion as they went into school,” she says. “They had pink/purple hair and glasses like
I do, aprons, mixing bowls and they all looked amazing! It was something I could never have expected in a million years.”
Becky, who grew up in Wivenhoe and attended Millfields Primary School and Philip
MorantSchool and College in Colchester, has built an army of loyal fans over the past decade thanks to her award-winning blog Gluten-Free Cuppa Tea, which she started in 2013 to share gluten-free recipes with family and friends. Four years earlier, while studying for a law degree at the University of Manchester, she was diagnosed with IBS and told to cut gluten from her diet. “I found my time at university pretty stressful – both the course and being far away from home – and I started to struggle with my gut health as a result. I was bloated a lot, su ered from a lot of stomach cramps, and more and more foods seemed to trigger these symptoms,” explains Becky, who has always suspected she might be coeliac, but has never been tested for the disease because gluten has to be present in your diet to achieve an accurate result. “It means that I’ll now never know if I have coeliac disease or not unless I start eating gluten again, which I don’t intend to do as it makes me so ill.”
Overnight, Becky was faced with a completely new way of living and eating – “I thought I’d never eat nice food again,” the culinary blogger admits. However, refusing to live a life where she couldn’t enjoy the foods she loves, she started recreating glutenfree versions of the dishes she missed.
Initially, she posted the recipes on her blog as a way of sharing them with her family members before heading round for tea, but fast forward 10 years and GlutenFree Cuppa Tea has garnered millions of visitors and her cookbooks – How to Make Anything Gluten-Free, How to Bake Anything Gluten-Free, How to Plan Anything GlutenFree and Quick + Easy Gluten-Free – have all topped the Sunday Times Bestsellers list.
“I often get sent pictures from people all over the world who have received or bought one of my books and that’s a feeling I literally can’t describe,” she says of their success. “My fourth book has my face on the front of it for the first time too, so that’s been even more surreal – seeing my face down the book aisle in Tesco will never seem normal.”
Becky – who lives in Colchester with her boyfriend, Mark, and miniature schnauzer, Peggy – has also picked up numerous awards, including Food Creator of the Year at the 2022 Blogosphere Awards and the 2022 Observer Food Monthly’s Best Food Personality of the Year.
“The last person to win that award was Jamie Oliver, so though I’m super overwhelmed and grateful to win anything at all, that award meant so much,” she says. “Lots of truly inspirational figures in the food world, such as Delia Smith, also won awards that night too, so it was quite mindblowing to have my name even mentioned on the same page as someone like that.”
Becky hopes that, much like her Observer Food Monthly Food Personality of the Year predecessor Jamie Oliver, she can use her influence to help improve food choices for school children. “Things have improved so
CORNFLAKE CRUSTED COD GOUJONS AND AIR FRYER CHIPS
much more for gluten-free eaters since I started a gluten-free diet in 2009. The quality of products is generally better, we have more choice in supermarkets and restaurants now have some level of understanding of glutenfree and/or gluten-free options available,” she says. “However, the price of products is still considerably inflated when compared to ‘normal products’ and it’s rare to find restaurants who fully understand the risk of cross-contamination when preparing glutenfree food. A lot of my followers regularly tell me how their gluten-free kids really struggle when it comes to school dinners too – that’s something I really hope I can help improve.”
While Becky is riding high on the wave
BECKY AND PEGGY AT CASTLE PARK IN COLCHESTER PHOTO: HANNAH HUGHES
BECKY COLLECTING HER OBSERVER FOOD MONTHLY AWARD 2022
of gluten-free success, she’s quick to mention that things don’t always go to plan and there have been plenty of disasters with her cooking and baking along the way, particularly in the early days.
“I remember trying to make gluten-free bread by just switching the flour to glutenfree and what came out of the oven was more like a brick,” she laughs. “It was rock hard, very heavy and not edible! I’ve since realised that gluten-free bread is a science. It took many years for me to get to the point where I am now with my gluten-free bread recipes, but the end result has made all those years of disasters worth it.”
Fans will have also seen her blog and vlog about other health issues, including documenting her BRCA journey. In April 2021, Becky found she had a mutation of the ‘tumour suppressor’ gene BRCA2 and an 88% chance of getting breast cancer.
“I’ve found sharing my journey really useful to me and also it seems to have helped a lot of others going through it,” says Becky, who made the life-changing decision to have a preventative double mastectomy, which was carried out at Colchester General in June last year.
Following a year of huge highs and lows, Becky says she’s looking forward to not making too many plans for the coming year other than sharing more of her gluten-free recipes and meeting more of her fans – one in particular. “I’d love to finally meet Nigella Lawson as she’s been so supportive of me,” she grins, “it would be lovely to finally be able to thank her in person!”
PHOTO: HANNAH HUGHES
Excell’s Essex
Becky Excell picks out her county go-tos
It’s still hard to find places to eat out in Essex that offer good gluten-free meals. However, Perrywood Garden Centre in Tiptree does have some good gluten-free options and got me quite obsessed with house plants too!
I spent my entire childhood living in Wivenhoe and always love being down by the water at Wivenhoe Quay – I never met my grandad, but he had a boat there. Growing up I also used to go crabbing at West Mersea every summer and I still love going for a wander there on a sunny day.
We love going to Hillhouse Wood in West Bergholt, it’s a great spot for dog walks especially in the spring when the bluebells and wild garlic are around.
Becky Excell can be found posting her recipes at glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk and on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube @BeckyExcell. Her latest cookbook, Quick + Easy Gluten-Free, is published by Quadrille RRP £20
Coconut Brioche
Makes 4 Brioches
Preparation time: 20 min Resting time: 4 h 30 min–4 h 45 min Baking time: 25 min
INGREDIENTS
• 80 g (1/2 cup/3 oz) coconut sugar • 500 g (3 1/2 cups/1 lb 2 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour (T55) • 220 g (1 cup/7 3/4 oz) crème fraîche • 2 eggs + 1 beaten egg for glazing • 15 g (1 1/2 tbsp) fresh yeast, crumbled • 9 g (1 3/4 tsp) Guérande sea salt • 50 g (1/4 cup/1 3/4 oz) coconut oil • 100 g (scant 1/2 cup/3 1/2 oz) butter, softened and diced
METHOD
1 Combine all the ingredients, except the coconut oil, beaten egg for glazing and butter, in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix on low speed for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Incorporate the coconut oil and butter on low speed. The dough should pull away from the sides while remaining slightly sticky. Cover the mixer bowl with a cloth and leave the dough to rise for 2 hours at room temperature. 2 On a floured work counter, divide the dough into four pieces of equal weight (about 270 g/91⁄2 oz each). Loosely shape the dough pieces into balls and place on a tray. Refrigerate for 30–45 minutes. 3 Shape the dough pieces into boules, tightening well. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking (parchment) paper. Cover with a cloth and prove (proof) for 2 hours at room temperature. 4 Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Brush the brioches with beaten egg and bake for 25 minutes. 5 Remove the brioches from the oven, then cool on a wire rack.
Lentil and Chickpea Flour Bread
Makes 2 Loaves
Preparation time: 20 min Resting time: 4 h 45 min Baking time: 1 h 15 min
INGREDIENTS
• 75 g (2/3 cup/2 3/4 oz) lentil flour • 75 g (2/3 cup/2 3/4 oz) chickpea (gram) flour • 350 g (2 1/2 cups/12 oz) plain (all- purpose) flour (T55) • 300 g (1 1/4 cups/10 1/2 oz) water at 16°C (60°F) • 20 g (2 tbsp/3/4 oz) coconut sugar • 9 g (1 3/4 tsp) Guérande sea salt • 5 g (1 1/2 tsp) fresh yeast, crumbled • 1 tbsp olive oil
METHOD
1 Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix and knead for 4 minutes on low speed and then for 4 minutes on high speed. Cover the mixer bowl with a cloth and leave the dough to rise for 3 hours at room temperature, folding after 1 1/2 hours. 2 On a lightly floured work counter, divide the dough into two pieces of equal weight (about 420 g/15 oz each). Roughly shape into balls. Cover with a cloth and rest for 15 minutes at room temperature. 3 Shape the dough pieces into boules and transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking (parchment) paper. Cover with a cloth and prove (proof) for 1 1/2 hours at room temperature. 4 Place a baking pan on the lowest oven rack and preheat the oven to 250°C (480°F). Score the loaves with a cross (see page 34). Once the oven is hot, pour 50 ml (3 1/2 tbsp/1 3/4 fl oz) water into the hot baking pan. Put the loaves and pan of water into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Lower the temperature to 220°C (425°F) and bake for another 45 minutes. 5 Remove the loaves from the oven, then cool on a wire rack.
Challah
Makes 3 Loaves
Preparation time: 25 min Resting time: 2 h 25 min Baking time: 18 min
INGREDIENTS
• 535 g (generous 4 cups/1 lb 3 oz) white bread flour (T65) • 290 g (scant 1 1/4 cups/10 1/4 oz) water at 16°C (60°F) • 50 g (1/4 cup/1 3/4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar • 15 g (1 1/2 tbsp) fresh yeast, crumbled • 10 g (2 tsp) Guérande sea salt • 30 g (3 tbsp/1 oz) olive oil • Poppy and sesame seeds, for finishing
METHOD
1 Combine all the ingredients, except the oil and seeds, in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix and knead for 4 minutes on low speed and then for 2 minutes on high speed. Incorporate the oil and mix for another 2 minutes. Cover the mixer bowl with a cloth and rest the dough for 40 minutes at room temperature, then refrigerate for about 30 minutes. 2 On a floured work counter, divide the dough into nine pieces of equal weight (about 100 g/31⁄2 oz each) and pre-shape to resemble rugby balls. Cover with a cloth and rest for 15 minutes at room temperature. 3 Make a plait (braid) using three dough pieces. Repeat the operation with the remaining dough pieces to make three plaits. Sprinkle with poppy seeds and sesame seeds. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking (parchment) paper. Cover with a cloth and prove (proof) for 1 hour at room temperature. 4 Place a baking pan on the lowest oven rack and preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F). Once the oven is hot, pour 50 ml (3 1/2 tbsp/1 3/4 fl oz) water into the hot baking pan. Put the loaves and pan of water into the oven and bake for 18 minutes. 5 Remove the loaves from the oven, then cool on a wire rack.
Recipes taken from THE BREAD BOOK by Éric Kayser, published by Phaidon.
ERIC KAYSER
