Our Favourite Gluten Free Recipes

DIY Easy Mayonnaise

• 1 free range egg
  
• 1 cup of extra mild olive oil
• 1/2 Tbspn organic apple cider vinegar
• salt to taste
• 1 Tbspn pesto/herbs/relish/mustard

Put all above ingredients in a jug. Place a hand mixer at the base of jug and blend for approx 20 secs, until it's almost all blended together, then lift blender up and down in jug to combine all ingredients well. Adjust salt and other extras to taste and that's it, so simple! It keeps in the fridge for a week or two, in an airtight container.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

• 3-4 ripe avocados
• 200gm good quality dark eating chocolate (60-75% cocoa), broken into pieces
• 1/3 cup milk or cream (e.g. cow's, almond, coconut milk)
• 2 Tbspn liquid honey or pure maple syrup
• 1 ripe banana (optional)

To garnish:

• fresh berries or any other fruit
• grated chocolate (optional)

Method:

1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in a glass bowl set above a pot of simmering water (make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl or else it will risk the chocolate burning or becoming grainy).

2. Place avocado, banana (optional) and melted chocolate in a food processor and blend together until smooth, whilst pouring in the milk. Keep blending until the mousse is very smooth and creamy. Taste, and if you would like it a little sweeter, you can add a bit of honey or maple syrup, however I think it’s sweet enough as is! Spoon into serving glasses and chill in fridge for 1/2-1 hour. Garnish with fresh berries and extra chocolate if desired.

Gluten Free Bread Recipe

(for breadmaker)

• 2 cups warm water
• 2 Tbspn raw sugar
• 2 tspn bread yeast
• 3 medium eggs
• 50g butter/coconut oil/olive oil (butter is best)
• 1 cup brown rice flour
• ½ cup ground linseed
• ½ cup chickpea flour
• 1 ½  cups tapioca flour
• ½ cup coconut flour
• 1 ½ tspn salt
• 2 tspn xanthan/guar gum
• ½ cup pumpkin/sunflower/linseed (optional)

Put all the above ingredients (in order from top to bottom) in bread maker tin. I use the rapid bake setting on my bread maker; it goes for just under 2 hours in total. You don’t want to let it mix or rise too long. After it’s been mixing for 5-10 mins, scrape down the sides of the tin so that all the flour is mixed in properly.

Gluten free bread mix in the tin is quite a bit wetter than normal bread, which is why flour often doesn’t mix in properly. You want the consistency to be like wet mashed potato, almost but not quite as wet as a batter. Too much water though and it will be too doughy, or will over-rise. So experiment a little bit with the amount of water you use if you like, but the above amounts should be bang on! Great for sandwiches & toasting.

Gluten Free Friands

• 1 cup ground almonds
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1 cup muscovado or coconut sugar
• 125gms butter – melted
• 5 egg whites

Mix dry ingredients together.  Add lightly beaten egg whites and mix in.  Add melted butter and mix gently.  Mix will be runny.

Pour into little muffin or friand tins and back for 10-15 mins at 180C. Or pour into cake tin & bake for approx 20  mins to make a cake!

Flavour ideas:

• Orange and white chocolate
• Orange and dates
• Lemon and poppy seed
• Dark chocolate
• Vanilla and apricot
• Pear and cinnamon
• Berry

Gluten Free Pastry

• 50g White Rice Flour
• 50g Tapioca Flour
• 75g Potato Starch
• 1-1/2 tbsp Cornflour
• 1 teasp Xanthan Gum
• 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 75g Butter (chilled and cubed)
• 1 Egg, beaten (chilled)
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teasp Apple Cider Vinegar

Instructions

1. Place the Rice Flour, most of the tapioca flour (reserving 1 tablespoon for later use), potato starch, cornflour, salt, xanthan gum, and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix well.
2. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the dough feels slightly moist and begins to hold together.
3. Add the beaten egg and vinegar and mix with a fork until it begins to stiffen. Lightly flour your hands with the reserved tapioca flour and work into a ball.
4. Roll the dough out in between two pieces of parchment paper, turning and peeling off the top paper as necessary to smooth out any wrinkles, but always replacing it before continuing to roll.
5. Once rolled to the desired size, gently peel the top layer of paper off, and invert onto the pie/flan dish. Smooth the dough into the dish before peeling off the parchment paper.
For a flan case
Prick the base and bake blind at 180C for 12-15 minutes.

For a pie

Make double the above quantity. Divide the mixture into 2 and continue to stage 5 with one half. Fill then proceed with stages 4 and 5 with the remaining half and use to top the pie. Do not fold the pastry over just press down well to seal. Bake according to the recipe you are using.

Broccoli Patties

(serves two, double recipe for family)

• 6-7 medium broccoli florets
• 2 Tbspn chopped spring onion
• 1 small garlic clove, diced roughly
• a small handful of fresh parsley
• 2 Tbspn pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 tspn salt
• pinch of pepper
• 1 egg
• 3 Tbspn tapioca flour
• 1/2 tspn baking powder
• coconut oil or ghee for cooking

1. Place broccoli, spring onion, garlic and pumpkin seeds in a food processor and grind into small crumbs. Add the egg and process again until incorporated. Add baking powder and tapioca flower and mix in the processor, scraping the sides.
2. Heat 1-2 tspns of coconut oil in a large frying pan until hot and then bring the heat down to medium. Add a tablespoon of mixture and flatten slightly into a round pancake. Repeat until you've filled the frying pan. Cook for approx 3 mins on each side, flipping carefully in between. Add a little extra coconut oil when cooking on the second side. Repeat the process with the rest of the mixture.
3. You can make these savoury patties with other vegetables. A mix of cauliflower and broccoli is nice, or some grated carrot and zucchini. Just make sure the vegetables don't give too much moisture (like tomatoes, cucumber etc) as you will need a lot of flour to thicken the mixture. Serve them with a side of salad, a little aioli or mayo, homemade relish etc.

Gluten Free Cookies

(favourite with kids)

• 125gm butter
• 2 Tbspn water
• 1 cup muscovado or coconut sugar
• 1 tspn vanilla
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 1 egg

1. Place butter, sugar, water and vanilla in a medium pot, bring to gentle boil slowly, then take off heat.
2. Put brown rice flour, tapioca flour, ground almonds, coconut flour and baking powder in a bowl and mix together.
3. Add butter mix to flour and mix. Add egg and combine well.
4. Drop spoonfuls of cookie mix onto tray, flatten with wet fingers, decorate with berries, sprinkles etc.
5. Bake for 10 mins at 180C.
6. Can add 1 Tbspn of cocoa to make chocolate cookies.

Moist Rich Chocolate Cake

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 1/2 cups muscovado sugar
• 200g butter
• 200g dark eating chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups almond meal
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 6 eggs beaten lightly

1. Preheat oven to 170C/150C fan forced. Grease or line 25cm round cake tin.
2. Blend cocoa with the water in medium saucepan until smooth. Add sugar, butter and chocolate, stir over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat.
3. Stand chocolate mixture about 15 mins or until barely warm. Stir in almond meal and eggs. Pour mixture into tin.
4. Bake cake about 1 hour 30 mins. Cook cake in tin. Refridgerate, covered, 3 hours or overnight (we never have the patience for this step!)
5. Make chocolate ganache (which we avoid because of the cream unless it's a really special occasion).
6. Place cake onto serving plate, cover with ganache, decorate with strawberries.

Chocolate Apple Cake

(dairy and gluten free)

• 4 medium apples
• 3/4 cup potato/tapioca flour
• 3/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup muscovado/coconut sugar
• 1 tspn baking soda
• 1/4 cup ground linseed
• 4 eggs, beaten lightly
• 1 cup coconut/vegetable oil
• 1 tspn vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan forced. Grease or line cake tin.
2. Peel apples, grate finely.
3. Sift dry ingredients into large bowl; stir in apple, ground linseed, eggs, oil and vanilla. Pour mixture into tin.
4. Bake cake about 35-45 mins.
5. Make chocolate icing and spread over cold cake.

Chocolate icing:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 Tbspn cocoa powder
• 2 Tbspn apple juice, approx.

Mix all above ingredients to form a thick icing.

Banana Cake

• 125gm butter, softened
• 1 cup coconut sugar
• 1 tspn vanilla extract
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs
• 1tspn baking powder
• 1 1/4 cups brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 tspn baking soda

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add vanilla extract and eggs one at a time.
3. Add mashed bananas, baking powder, brown rice flour and ground almonds.
4. Boil milk in a small pot, add baking soda and stir until frothed.
5. Add milk to rest of cake mix and combine gently.
6. Pour cake batter into prepared tin.
7. Cook at 170C for approx 35 mins.