Gluten Free Flatbread Recipe

There is nothing about these flatbreads that would give away that they're gluten free.

Ingredients: 

• 75g cornflour
• 75g potato flour
• 50g buckwheat flour
• 10g tapioca flour
• 1 tsp xantham gum
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 10g almonds
• 1 egg
• warm water
• 5 tablespoons of sourdough starter (if you don't want to use this you may need slightly more yeast and water)

Method:

• Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well so they're well combined
• Add in the egg, water and sourdough and mix to form a very sticky dough.

• Cover with cling film and leave to rise for around an hour.
• Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
• Get a baking tray and cover with a piece of baking parchment (greaseproof paper).
• Using wet hands flatten handfuls of dough into flatbreads (I made 4 out of this recipe)
• Cook in the oven until done (you may need to turn them to bake evenly).

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies (Chestnut flour)

I've always loved Millie's cookies and so decided to try and come up with a gluten free version. These cookies are soft and I love the taste the chestnut flour gives.  You could try this recipe with different flour and I would think that you would still get a good result.

Ingredients:

• 125g butter (soft)
• 100g light brown sugar
• 125g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp xantham gum
• 1 tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 225g flour (I used 125g chestnut and 100g of a supermarket GF plain flour blend)
• 200g chocolate (chunks)

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Cream the butter and sugars together
• Mix in the egg
• Add the gum, baking powder, salt and flour and mix well.
• Add in the chocolate chunks and mix until well distributed.
• If the mixture is too thick add a splash of milk

• Line a baking sheet and spoon the mixture into blobs to the size you want but do not flatten the mixture.

• Bake in the oven until the cookies just start to brown.

Gluten Free Pizza and Dough balls

Pizza was one of the first things I tried to make when I had to go gluten free. I say tried because it has taken many failed attempts. Every other recipe I tried tasted 'special' and I refuse to settle for anything that couldn't pass as good 'normal' food.

I definitely count this as a success because when I made this last week for the first time my mother remarked that my pizza was better than the normal sourdough pizzas she had made for the rest of the family. I think that's the best compliment you can get when cooking gluten free.
I guess I should explain that I am the only person in my family who can't eat gluten so I spend a lot of time trying to get my food to be as good (or better!) than the food my mom (an amazing cook) makes for everyone else.

The dough balls were a result of leftover dough and a bit of bravery. I always used to make dough balls stuffed with halloumi or feta and so with a touch of courage and possibly stupidity I attempted to make some with the leftovers. I didn't hold out much hope but I was shocked to find that they came out almost perfectly.

This time I tried dough balls stuffed with pepperoni and halloumi and I can say they were a success

I apologise for the lack of good pictures for this recipe but every time I have made this I find I have eaten most of it before I even think about taking a photo (I think that is a good sign).

This is the texture that this recipe gives and I found it to be pretty good by normal pizza standards let alone gluten free standards. 
I topped my pizzas with homemade tomato sauce, halloumi, feta, pepperoni and homemade pesto (I'm half English and half Greek so unsurprisingly both halloumi and feta tend to feature heavily in my house but feel free to add whatever you want)

I use sourdough in most of my bread based recipes because I used it before I went gluten free and I feel that it improves the texture but I can't say I have tried this recipe without the sourdough so it may not make any difference. If you decide to make this without sourdough please let me know how it turns out.

This recipe made one pizza and 4 dough balls and I couldn't finish all of it (I tried) but if you want to make it for more than one person or you have a better appetite than me (I don't eat that much) you may want to double it etc...


Ingredients:

• 75g cornflour
• 75g potato flour
• 25g buckwheat flour
• 10g ground almonds
• 1 tablespoon of tapioca flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar (or some honey)
• 1 tsp yeast (you may want to use slightly more if you don't use sourdough)
• 1tsp xantham gum
• 6 tablespoons of sourdough starter
• 1 egg
• 75ml warm water (again you may want slightly more if not using sourdough)

Method: 

• Add the flours, almonds, salt, sugar, yeast and xantham gum to a mixing bowl and mix together well.
• Then add in the egg, sourdough and water and mix.
• The result will not be the same as typical 'dough' ,but it rarely is with gluten free cooking, so it should resemble very wet and sticky dough.
• Leave this to rise for around an hour (it should have a nice 'wobble' to it when it's done)
• Pre-heat the oven to 200C (maybe slightly higher if it is not a fan oven) and get out a baking tray, a bowl of water and some baking paper (greaseproof paper).
• Put the baking paper on the tray and wet your hands (you will need to do this regularly hence the bowl of water) before handling the dough.
• Scoop as much dough as you want onto the paper and use wet hands to push the dough into a pizza shape.

•  Once the oven is up to temperature cook the base until it is solid and starts to brown.
• Remove the base from the oven and add whatever toppings you like.
• Return to the oven and cook until done.

For the dough balls:

• After the bases have been pre-cooked take a small amount a dough and flatten it against one hand. Use the other to put a small amount of any filling into to the middle of the flattened dough. Seal the dough around the filling and bake along with the pizzas until they start to brown.

Gluten Free Sourdough Bagel Recipe

In my house friday nights were (and still are) "bagel night", which involves freshly baked sourdough bagels. I'm not sure how this tradition started but as soon as I started a gluten free diet I knew I would have to come up with an acceptable alternative.

After many failed attempts (some had a tendency to disintegrate when boiled and others simply tasted 'special'), I came up with these which could easily pass as 'normal' bagels.

Ingredients:

• 100g Cornflour
• 100g Potato flour
• 50g rice flour
• 10g tapioca flour
• 15g buckwheat flour
• 1 tsp xantham gum
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 heaped tsp yeast*
• 1 tsp salt
• 25g ground almonds
• 5 tablespoons of sourdough starter*
• 1 egg
• 150ml warm water*

To finish: 1 egg and any toppings (sesame seeds...etc)

*(I use sourdough (gluten free) in most of my gluten free bread based bakes as I feel it improves the texture but I don't put enough in to really effect the taste. You could choose not to include sourdough, in which case you would want  to add a little bit more yeast and water*.)

Method:

1. Combine the flours, gum, sugar, yeast, salt and almonds in a bowl and mix well.
2. Add in the egg, sourdough. Then add the water gradually until you get the 'dough' (this tends to be somewhere between dough and sticky mashed potato)
   
   
   

3. Let this rise for around an hour.
4. Pre-heat the oven to 200C and put a large pan of water on to boil. To prepare to shape the bagels I get a bowl of water (to put my hands in before handling the dough because it prevents sticking better than flour or oil) and some baking paper to put the handfuls of dough on.

5. Shape a handful of dough into a flat-ish roll on the baking paper and make a whole in the middle. I usually make 4 or 5 bagels.

6. Cut the baking paper around each bagel so it's slightly bigger than the bagel.

7. Once the water is boiling carefully put a bagel into the water. Let it boil for 45sec-1min each side and then put it onto a baking tray.  Repeat with each bagel.

8. Brush the bagels with the egg and add any toppings.

9. Bake until golden brown

These can be eaten fresh or toasted and will keep for a few days.

Gluten Free Chocolate Fudge Brownie Recipe

These brownies were a favourite of mine before I had to go gluten free so I decided to adapt them.
 I had a bag of coconut flour which I didn't know what to do with so I decided to chuck some in this recipe along with some chestnut flour (it's expensive but so worth it). 
If you don't have either of these flours then I'm pretty sure others would work just as well due to the small quantity needed and the moistness of the brownie.


Ingredients : 

• 350g/12oz chocolate (dark or a mixture of dark and milk)
• 250g/9oz unsalted butter
• 3 eggs
• 250g/9oz sugar ( brown or muscovado sugar will produce a fudgey/toffee taste)
• 85g/3oz flour (see above)
• 1 tsp baking powder 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C and line a brownie tin (or a 23cm/9inch square tin). 
2. Melt the chocolate and butter together ( this can be done in the microwave in about 2 mins on medium).
3. Whisk the eggs so they start to go pale and then mix in the sugar until combined.
4. Pour the chocolate mixture into the sugar and eggs and mix.
5. Sift in the flour and baking powder.
6. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for around 35mins.