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Caramelized onion^, caramelized balsamic, prosciutto, bocconcini, parmesan, and rocket pizza.

^I get caramelized onion in jars from deli’s (because chopping onions makes me cry and unable to see, also because I’m lazy).

Barbecue chicken, barbecue sauce* and mozzarella pizza.

*Not all barbecue sauce is gluten free, so make sure to check the ingredients list!!

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to indulge in this since being diagnosed as Coeliac nearly 4 years ago. There are good substitutes on the market – my current favourite being Schar.

Making your own bread is also the other option.

The Sydney Morning Herald has an article and recipe for gluten free bread by Steven Manfredi, one of Australia’s most respected chef’s.

Rise and shine

December 3, 2011

Gluten-free bread. Photo: Quentin Jones

STEVE MANFREDI bakes crusty bread minus the gluten.

Thirty years ago, dietary restrictions were not that common. But rates of food allergy and intolerance appear to be on the rise.

The Victorian government’s Better Health Channel website states that about one in 20 children and one in 100 adults have food allergies. Gluten-related disorders are among the most common in guests at our restaurants. These include gluten intolerance, coeliac disease and wheat allergy.

All this makes it difficult for a large number of people to go out to restaurants and enjoy the sort of choice many of us take for granted. Bread is one of the foods I love most, so I know I would profoundly miss it if I had to give it up. The same applies to pasta, gnocchi and pastries. Gluten-free substitutes are available but often these are crumbly, mealy and lack the sort of fluffy soft texture and chewy crust that are features of great bread.

One of the relatively new assistants in gluten-free bread making is psyllium husk.

This fibre has a similar effect as gluten in bread dough, giving it the lift needed to produce a light, aerated crumb. And, if you make your own, you’ll have fresh gluten-free bread on hand all the time.

smanfredi@smh.com.au

twitter.com/manfredistefano

GLUTEN-FREE PASTRY

This is a recipe adapted from Maggie Beer’s television show,The Cook and The Chef.

1 cup water

½ tsp salt

90g unsalted butter

150g gluten-free flour plus ½ cup

for rolling

2 tsp xanthan gum

2 medium eggs

In a heavy-based saucepan combine water, salt and butter. Bring to a simmer and add flour and xanthan gum. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Lower temperature and continue to cook until mixture thickens, comes away from the sides and is well combined. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Whisk eggs then add to mixture a little at a time, roughly kneading to incorporate fully before adding more. Turn out onto a surface on which you have placed ½ cup gluten-free flour. Knead until shiny. You won’t need all the flour; just use enough to make it easy to knead. Wrap in cling-film, chill for 1 hour then use a rolling pin to roll pastry between two pieces of baking paper greased on both sides. Roll to desired thickness and proceed. To make sweet pastry, add 2 tsp icing sugar when adding flour.

Makes enough for one large tart

GLUTEN-FREE BREAD

This recipe is from baker Dan Lepard. The loaf can keep for 2-3 days. It can also be frozen whole or sliced for convenience to enjoy later.

4 tsp soya flour

50g potato starch

300g cornflour

25g psyllium husk powder

2 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp castor sugar

2 tsp vinegar

15ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra

for oiling surfaces and brushing

2 tbsp plain yoghurt

325ml warm water

30ml milk

Put dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk liquids separately then mix the two well for 1 minute into a soft dough. Leave for 1 hour, then lightly oil worktop and hands. Line a 19cm loaf tin with non-stick baking paper. Shape dough into a log and fit, seam side down, into tin. Cover and leave for 90 minutes until almost doubled. Gluten-free dough doesn’t have ”oven spring”, so a very hot oven helps. Preheat to 240C or 220C fan-forced. Brush top of dough with oil and bake for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and from tin. Cool on a wire rack covered with a cloth to help keep bread soft.

Makes one large loaf

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/rise-and-shine-20111201-1o7kj.html#ixzz1fzBS2gdL

I’m a subscriber to The Pastry Pantry’s newsletter, and I’ve just received word that the full range of pastry from The Pastry Pantry should be back in a Coles near you soon – and they are adding a pizza base to their range that will also be gluten free, wheat free, egg freeand dairy free (quite a feat really!)

If you haven’t tried their range you really should, because it’s the best pastry range I’ve found to date.

Rowie’s Cakes is quite well known in the Coeliac world, as she is a regular at the Gluten Free Expo in Sydney each year. Diagnosed as Coeliac Rowie discovered that gluten free food can be rubbery, cardboardy and generally unpalatable. In 2001 she set up Rowie’s Cakes and the rest is history. Read the full article here, they’ve included several delicious sounding recipes as Rowie’s first cookbook is now on a bookshelf near you.

Rowie’s Cakes is in Marrickville, Sydney and you can order her products straight from their factory door Monday to Friday 8am – 3.30pm.

Macro Wholefoods Market (now owned by Woolworths in Australia) has an excellent range of Gluten Free products which I’m slowly but surely making my way through – all in the name of research obviously.

I’ve been really impressed with the quality of the range and the taste has been really, really good.

My sister recently purchased the Macro Gluten Free Cup Cake Mix

Which came out like this: 

It was a truly divine cupcake – light but with a dense texture rather than a crumbly one – it reminded me of the cupcakes from My Little Cupcake in Sydney which are famously delicious. This mixture is the closest I’ve come since being diagnosed to having my craving for their cupcakes satisfied – which obviously makes me a very happy bunny.

I’ve also tried Macro’s Sponge Cake mix, which was also quite brilliant.

I think I’m a fan!

I had three days in Byron, plus a couple of very relaxed driving days, and my favourite discovery is that Byron Bay has amazing food.

The two highlights for me were:

Earth ‘n’ Sea gluten free pizza (which come in three sizes!) and it’s truly, truly one of the best pizza’s I’ve ever eaten. I had a half-half Pepperoni and Pineapple, and Prawn, Pineapple and Banana (which sounds wrong, but is very, very right).

I also had breakfast at the Mokha cafe, where I had smoked salmon and poached eggs on gluten free toast (which was locally made and just delicious).

It was just lovely to have a holiday where no one looked at you weirdly for asking for gluten free options. It was completely normal for Byron, and not only that, but it was some of the best gluten free food I’ve eaten.

I’m sure I’ll be going back to Byron to discover more amazing food because they do it so very well.

Doesn’t it look delicious? I’ll keep you posted on whether it tastes as good as it looks.

Recipe ONE:

1 cup Peanut Butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup choc chips

Recipe TWO:

1 cup Peanut Butter

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

1 cup choc chips

Mix all the ingredients together and bake for 12 minutes in a 180*C oven. Let cool on the baking tray for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Both variations on this recipe work really well, and I’ve also found a couple of other variations online. The choc chips are entirely optional, but I love the flavour they add.

I was pretty disappointed the other day when I took my chocolate chip biscuits out of the oven and they tasted really wrong – turns out I’d used plain flour instead of self-raising flour. Apparently that’s what you get when you’re not paying attention to the recipe.

The pikelets that I tried to make last night tasted ok, but certainly weren’t the fluffy, golden things that were pictured in the cookbook. I tried adding “gluten-free gluten” which helped a little, but mostly my pikelets were flat – pancake flat. So not really what I was looking for. My thinking is that I’m going to have to experiment with the flour quantities and with the addition of “gluten-free gluten” and xantham gum.

Pad Thai from an Asia at Home Meal Box should have been easy for pretty much anyone, however I managed to make mine almost inedible. I started eating it, thinking that it wasn’t so bad, but ended up donating it to the cat that I was babysitting.

Vitarium now make a gluten-free crumpet mix. Now I know this works because they were handing out samples at the Gluten Free Expo – but for the life of me I couldn’t make them work.

I’m still not sure how much is due to my lack of kitchen knowledge, and how much is due to the instructions not being detailed enough for my liking.

I have no idea what temperature 160*C is in a pan – is that hot or medium?

I managed to make the mixture, but when I put the mix into the pan I wasn’t sure how much to put in each time, so I experimented with different amounts.

I didn’t manage to get large bubbles on top – so the “crumpet” bit failed.

On the up side – the batter tasted right. Just can’t seem to make it translate into the final product.

I’ve also been watching Junior Masterchef which started this week – and I’m feeling like I’ve missed some cooking gene. How are these kids so proficient in the kitchen? And how do I get that brave to try new things?

Cooking definitely does not come naturally to me. I’m very lucky in that my mum is a brilliant cook who is very competent and knowledgeable. She also has a vast collection of cookbooks and books that just comprise of tips and tricks.

I’m the worst with savoury foods – beautifully highlighted when I was attempting to chop an onion and had tears pouring down my face, trying not to cut myself while I was blind, and my grandfather was chuckling, telling my mum that watching me in the kitchen was better than TV.