Focaccia - Yum, Tortillas - awlrite

Look you can see where I nibbled.
I am still struggling with the number of different powders and ingredients one needs to make a dough with these new eating habits.

Here you see the ingredients for Focaccia - Corn based

From"You won't believe it's Gluten Free" by Roben Ryberg ISBN 978 1 56924 252 0

I have since made this recipe and the result is just lovely, a little sweet for my taste but I topped it with olive oil and rosemary and the smell through the house and the taste of the little bit I nibbled is ***** (5 stars), light with the flavour of the herbs I used and lovely olive oil. No corn taste or texture. In fact the texture of this bread was lovely when warm... I might update this entry if I find the bread to be hard and tough after a few hours...ie., tonight when the kids eat it!

I was going to write out the recipe here but, then thought better of it... owing to the fact that it is copy-written... and I might get sued.

So you will have to get the book from the library or wait till I have modified the recipe and create my own cook book.

The Tortillas on page 103 were good too, but I will cook the next ones slightly less so that they remain softer.

What a delight

Fairmont Hotels and Westin Hotel, Vancouver. They have got to be congratulated. I have just had a lovely conversation with chefs from each of these hotels who all say they have or are instigating a GF menu.

The famous afternoon teas at the Fairmont Hotels are already in place.

It is v. reassuring to know that these people care or know what is good for their business. I think that with the increase in Celiac D. sufferers they know which side of their rice free bread is buttered.

I am sure Aliya is going to be in heaven when we get there. I don't intend to say anything to her about the blueberry muffins, the lemon cake or any of it. It is going to be v. special. And it should be - it is costly!!! I just wish all hotels could afford to take as much care - although I do understand the financial constraints of catering to individuals as opposed to the masses.

And as for the nut allergy they didn't bat an eyelid.

I am sure it helps to pre-warn the chef what is coming! Here is the content of the GF business card I have created for Al as based on the one in the book I was recommended by the dietician at Calgary Children's hospital (The Gluten Free Chef - cooks what you crave ISBN - 978 0 9810161 0 8)

Print it out as a business card to be handed to the server and passed to the Chef. Apparently it is just what a chef would want to know about my daughter and her needs. The last thing a chef wants is for his food to make someone sick.

I am gluten intolerant. If I eat any food product, additive, stabilizer, starch or seasoning containing even a trace of most grains including wheat, oats, barley, rye, triticale, spelt, kamut, malt, or any derivatives of these grains, I will become ill. Please ensure that my food does not contain any of the ingredients listed above. I am able to eat foods containing potatoes, rice, corn, fruit, vegetables, meats, and fish. Please assist me in ordering a meal I can safely enjoy.

Unfortunately I am also allergic to all nuts. I can eat seeds and coconut.

Thank you very much.

Thank you Loretta

Today I was really fortunate to be lead by the hand or steering wheel,  to the Cochrane GF patisserie by Loretta.  There you can find Waffles that look good enough to float down the Elbow on, fantastic cup cakes that are not extreme like others here in Alberta, also cheesecake to die for I am told (we haven't had our evening meal's dessert yet)  and coffee cake which are an excellent addition to  a GF school lunch box - as Aliya has seen in Molly's pack up.

And I saved the best till last.... Bread real Bread.  And when I say real bread I mean REAL GF Bread that is in a class of its own.

And the icing on the cake (apart from being loved by all who eat it) means to me that all the things described above are ok for us Celiacernuts!  we just wont go for the macaroons and nutty butter tartlets, but I have already told you I make my own tartlets no problem.

Thanks Loretta I owe you.... but maybe you will like my choc chip cookies?

I realise what this blog is missing is imagery... I will attempt to have a camera to hand and build a photo essay along with this blog to improve it's image!

One week on, two weeks in.

We are doing very well, Al has had clearance to try eating egg and this merely resulted in a flare up of eczema but not an allergy.  And she enjoyed her scrambled eggs.

Here is the recipe for chocolate chip cookies which were well-received.  Great on first two days... dried out after that - still nice then but different.

Chocolate Chip Cookies  GF ( 'GF' - like Crayola gel pens -' FX'!)

1 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs 2 tsp vanilla

1 cup potato starch

1/2 cup white rice flour

1/2 cup choc chips

Beat sugar, b. powder and butter till creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla. Add pototato and rice flour.  Add chips.

Refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight (this helps limit the spreading in the oven....) Place in tsp- fulls (really that little) on a silicon lined sheet 3" apart (really that much) .

Bake at 375 F for 8 mins (really that little).

The biscuit batter spreads a lot but the chips just drop the bottom... so choc in middle biscuit around the outside.  Yum.

Next a wonderful mix for v. short short-crust pastry (sweet), which you can use in butter tartlets as below.... this recipe won hands down in a blind tasting against the Lakeview butter tartlets.  Go girl go!!!

Sweet short-crust pastry - Makes one 7" pie case

3/4 cup white rice flour

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp Xanthan gum

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup butter cut up

2tbsp water

Use an electric mixer (bladed one works best) rub fat into dry ingredients.  Then ad water in two goes.  Makes a light, v. short dough that you can only roll between silicon paper.  I didn't do it that way but pressed it into the silicon lined 7" pie dish, with my hand.  Use as described in your own recipes, bake blind or not...

(To bake blind = pre-cooking the empty shell: Bake 10 - 12 mins at 350F )

Butter Tartlets

(a recipe my mother in law gave to me and her aunt gave to her.... and the recipe must be pretty old.... I was interested to come to Canada and discover that these little tartlets are a staple here! they must have come over from Yorkshire with the first settlers!)

1oz butter

4oz brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1egg

4 ox sultanas or raisins

Melt the butter, add the sugar and heat through... add vanilla.  Add one egg and mix quickly to prevent forming scrambled egg in the batter.  Add dried fruit.

Spoon mixture into the uncooked, individual small pie cases (as you would for Xmas fruited mince pies) or if using GF short-crust rice pastry as above, spoon into the 7" pastry case.

Cook 400 for 20 mins approx.  less if making individual small tarts.... 15mins approx.