Gluten free staffordshire oatcakes

It's snowing today, Ive got a stinking cold and a husband laid up with a bad back. The only sensible response to all of that is oatcakes with bacon and cheese for breakfast. Oatcakes freeze beautifully and make a very fast, filling meal. They can be quickly reheated and are a fantastic way to make leftovers into a treat.

 It's hard to say how many this recipe will make. I made around 15 last night, plus a few that went in the bin! It depends on how thick you make them, how wide, and how many go wrong before you get the hang of it.

8 oz/ 225 g gluten free oats
8 oz/ 225 g gluten free flour*
1 Tbsp/ 15g dried active yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 pint warm water
1 pint warm milk (you may need more to thin the batter)
1/2 pint / 284 ml buttermilk

Grind the oats into a fine meal in a blender or food processor. This only takes a minute or so and doesn't have to be perfect. Or you can buy oatmeal but I've never seen a gluten free one. Add the flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Stir to mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly. Add the warm water, milk and buttermilk and whisk until it's a smooth batter. Cover and leave for an hour in a warm spot.
 Wipe a frying pan with a little oil and heat it up.  I use a non stick chapatti pan I got from Wilkinson's. It's amazing for pancakes, tortillas, oatcakes... all sorts. Traditionally you should use a cast iron frying pan but mine has bacon in it! You need a medium high heat for these. If your batter seems to be a good consistency (thicker than pancake batter but you need to be able to spread it easily so not too much thicker) then great! You may need to add some extra milk. I find it best to try out an oat cake then adjust as necessary. Put some batter on your pan - how much depends on how big you're going to make your oatcakes. I suggest starting with a fairly small one - a few spoonfuls of mixture. For a full size oatcake a ladle full does the trick nicely. Use the back of a spoon to gently spread the mixture out into a circle - pushing the mixture outwards does this best. You want the mixture to be about 3mm thick while cooking and to have holes forming. While it's cooking, the oatcake is sticky and tricky to move. Wait until the top is set and dry looking (if the bottom is over cooking before this happens, reduce the heat) then flip it over and cook for 2-3 minutes more. Just like pancakes, they tend to get better as you go along!

 The traditional filling is bacon and cheese. However just about anything is great in an oatcake! Sausage, mushrooms, onions, leftover cooked chicken, roasted vegetables... If you insist, you can even have them sweet with pancake type fillings. I tend to fill mine with leftovers and cheese while still hot so the cheese melts.

 One of the best things about oatcakes is how well they freeze and how fast you can make a meal with them from frozen! Cool your oatcakes right down before freezing them with a piece of parchment between them so you can take out however many you want. Wrap them up tightly or put them in a big ziplock bag with the air sucked out to prevent freezer burn.
 When you want to cook them, you can defrost them if you are organized. If you are more like me, take them out and put one in the frying pan. Cook for a minute on the first side, then flip. I then add my filling and transfer it to a plate to roll and eat when the cheese starts to melt. You could also put them in the microwave (I don't have one), steam them between two plates over a pan of water (traditional) or warm them in the oven for a few minutes (just watch they don't dry out).

* I favour the mock better batter blend from the book 'gluten free on a shoestring - quick and easy'. It gives good all round results but sadly is quite pricy. Doves farm plain also works. I would suggest that tapioca starch makes up part of the gluten free flour as its great for making things bendy. If you are using flour with out it, I recommend adding a tsp of xanthan gum to the batter with the flours.

Dairy and Gluten free waffles

These turn out really nice. Sweet all by themselves and very kid friendly. They don't get really crispy and they are prone to catching a little from the sugars in the apple juice so turn your waffle maker right down.

1 cup grain of your choice (I used rice but any grain will do)
1 1/4 cup apple juice
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 egg
pinch salt
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp coconut oil (or any other fat you like to use)

Put the grain, apple juice and vinegar into a blender and blend for a few minutes until smooth. Leave to soak for 12 - 24 hours (you can skip this if you like but it helps to release more of the nutrients in the grain and make it more digestible). Add the rest of the ingredients and blend smooth again. Cook in a waffle iron. If you don't have a waffle iron then you can cook these as griddle scones (Scotch or American pancakes) - just reduce the apple juice to 1 cup.

Spoonbread

This is an adapted recipe from Nourishing Traditions. I've made it on top of casseroles before but I made it on it's own this week and really enjoyed it. I managed to leave out the baking powder which gave a denser texture, somewhere between fluffy spoon bread and polenta. I really like it that way so I'm going to pretend I did it on purpose.

1/2 cup fine polenta (cornmeal)
1 cup buttermilk (or another slightly acidic soaking mixture)
1 large egg
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
1 oz grated cheese
1/2 tsp baking powder (or not)

Soak the polenta in the buttermilk for 12-24 hours at room temperature. In NT there are instructions for a previous soak to free up the vitamin B3. I've never done this as quite honestly, getting my act together to soak it once is enough of a challenge!
Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 /375 oF/ 190 oC. Separate the egg and place the white in a large bowl. With a pinch of salt, whisk the white until it forms soft peaks. Add the yolk to the polenta and whisk in. Add a pinch of salt, baking soda (if using) and the cayenne pepper and mix well. Stir in the grated cheese. If your bowl is big enough, then add the whites to the polenta mixture and cut in very gently with a metal spoon. If not then do it the other way around, but with a great deal of care so you don't lose the air in the whites.
Put the mixture in a buttered dish and bake for 45 - 60 minutes. I suggest letting it cool somewhat before serving as it gets easier. This dish is also delicious cold as a snack.

Soaked flour tortillas

I've made these two days running and the kids can't get enough of them! If you have any left over they freeze really well. Fat chance around here!

2 cups wholemeal flour (3 cups of freshly ground)
2-3 tbsp melted coconut oil or lard
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 tsp salt

Mix the ingredients in a bowl. Knead for a few minutes until a soft but not sticky dough is formed. Put in a bowl covered with clingfilm and leave at room temperature for 12 - 24 hours.
Divide the dough into 8 - 10 pieces (about golf-ball sized pieces). Roll the pieces into balls, flatten with the palm of your hand and roll out on a flour dusted surface. Heat a cast iron frying pan to a medium/low heat. Fry the tortillas for a minute on one side and 30 seconds on the other.

Pancakes!

It's Shrove Tuesday so I have been dusting off my pancake making skills. Usually I make griddle scones instead of pancakes for the kids as for some reason they intimidate me. But this year I seem to have cracked it! I managed to flip them all too. (note - pancakes are best flipped in the air after both sides are cooked. That way they flip easier and if it goes wrong the pancake isn't ruined. But your kids still think you are amazingly talented!)

250g flour (I use wholemeal, but white or a blend makes for lighter pancakes)
2 eggs
600ml buttermilk (or watered down yogurt)
Pinch salt
Lard for frying

Blend the flour with the buttermilk and leave in a warm place overnight. About half an hour (at least) before you want to make the pancakes, add the egg and salt. This is easiest to do in a food processor as you don't want any lumps. The batter should be runny but thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (dip a spoon into the batter, take it out and turning it upside down. Some batter should coat the back of the bowl if it is right). You can always tweak the flour or milk to get the right consistency when the batter is made. Put it to rest in the fridge.
When you are ready, fry up the pancakes! If you need more batter (and I have yet to manage to make enough to satisfy my kids!) then make it up with milk - it works fine even without chilling in the fridge, just not quite as well.

These are really good with savoury as well as sweet fillings. Leftover meat in a white sauce is a favorite with the kids. I love mushrooms and bacon in mine.

Pasta

I posted a recipe for sourdough pasta, but lately I haven't been using that one. Mostly because I don't have an active sourdough culture at the moment (it is dried and in the freezer). Instead I have just been making an egg pasta and leaving it to rest for longer to help soak the flour.

Serves 3
250g freshly ground wholemeal flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp buttermilk (or yogurt or another acidic liquid)

The easiest way to do this is to bung all the ingredients in a mixer and turn it on! The dough is ready when it is smooth, silky and elastic. If you don't have one or would like to get some arm exercise then put the flour on the counter. Make a well in the centre and break the eggs into it. Add the buttermilk and beat with a fork. With your fingers mix the flour in until it is combined and then knead away.
When your dough is kneaded then wrap it in clingfilm and leave it out on the side to rest. Leave it at least half an hour, a few hours if you can.
Then it is ready to be rolled out as thin as possible and cut in to shapes. If you have a pasta machine it helps but it is by no means necessary. Dust the surface you are rolling on with flour and dust the top of the rolled flour again before cutting out the shapes you want.
Cook as usual in salted, boiling water. It will be done very fast (in a minute or so) so keep checking on it.

Another bread recipe...

But you really need to try this one! It is a no knead recipe where you make the dough in advance for 2 weeks and just take out pieces as you need it. So far the bread has been good, but not perfect (tastes great but I am having trouble with getting it the shape I want). But it is so worth doing to be able to make fast naan breads and pizzas whenever you like! I can see there being a bucket of dough in my fridge on a permanent basis.
The recipe is from a book and there is a free sample online here. And a blog with a handy Q&A section and some more recipes.

Malt Loaf

This isn't like the sticky, dark, sugar loaded stuff you get in the shops. It is less of a cake and more of a bread. But a delicious snack - especially thickly spread with butter.

7 fl oz buttermilk or thinned yogurt
12 oz wholemeal flour
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tsp malt extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup raisins or other small pieces of dried fruit

Mix the buttermilk and flour and leave in a warm place for 12 -24 hours. Put the malt extract and honey into the bread machine pan. Place the flour mixture on top. Add the salt and butter in opposite corners of the pan. Put the yeast into an indentation in the middle of the ingredients. Run the machine on a whole wheat setting, light crust. Add the raisins 5 minutes before the kneading finishes (or when the beeper goes off to remind you to add extra ingredients - not all machines have this feature).

Potato bread #3 (soaked version)

I am totally in love with potato bread! I made a loaf yesterday with the flour soaked and using the timer on the bread machine (is there anything nicer than getting up to hot, fragrant fresh bread? OK - anything not involving Johnny Depp?). Soaking the flour overnight in something slightly acidic like yogurt or buttermilk helps to reduce the phytic acid content and unlock the minerals in the wheat. For more information this is a great place to look. If you can't eat dairy products then you could use water made acidic with a little lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.

7 fl oz yogurt or buttermilk
10 oz wholemeal flour
3 oz white bread flour
4 1/2 oz cold mashed potatoes
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp raw sugar
1 tsp yeast

Mix the yogurt and wholemeal flour. If you use a food processor you could probably also mix in the butter but I didn't bother. Place in the bread machine pan. Put the mashed potatoes and white flour on top. Put the salt and sugar in opposite corners and the butter in the third corner (unless it is in the flour). Make a small indentation in the white flour (making sure it doesn't go down to the wet flour underneath) and put the yeast in it.
Leave your bread machine in a warm spot and set the timer so it will be ready when you need the bread.

Potato bread #2 (wholemeal version)

I tried the potato bread with more wholemeal flour today and it has worked brilliantly again. It rose well, isn't too dense and is still soft and moist.
Today's recipe:

7 fl milk (at room temperature)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey
10 oz wholemeal flour
3 oz white flour
1 tsp salt
4 1/2 oz mashed potato
1 tsp yeast

Put the milk, oil and honey in the pan. Cover with the flours and then add the mashed potatoes. Put the salt in one corner and the yeast in the middle and run your bread machine on a basic setting.

Next experiments - soaking the flour and enriching with egg!

Potato bread

This loaf is a great option for sandwiches and helping fussy kids get used to wholemeal and homemade bread. It is soft and keeps really well. I made it with half wholemeal and haven't experimented yet to find out how much wholemeal the recipe can stand but I will update when I have tried more combinations. But my kids really liked this bread - my daughter even ate the crusts which is unusual!

3 1/2 fl oz potato cooking water (make up with tap water if you haven't got enough)
3 1/2 fl oz milk
2 tbsp oil (I used olive)
6 oz white bread flour
7 oz wholemeal bread flour
4 1/2 oz cold mashed potato
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp raw sugar
1 tsp yeast

Put water, milk and oil into the pan. Sprinkle over the flours and add the mashed potato. Put the salt and sugar in opposite corners and the yeast in the middle. Cook on a basic or normal setting. If you like then glaze the loaf with milk at the beginning or half way through the cooking time.

If you use left over mash then you might need to add a little less liquid (because of the milk and butter mashed into the potatoes). If making the potato for the bread, use about 6oz raw potatoes for this recipe.

Pizza!

Pizza is a big favorite in my house and the number one cause of me buying expensive junk food in our local shop. Sigh. And the really stupid thing is it is easy to make and I like the taste of homemade, wholemeal crust better. So I got all industrious today and made 25 pizzas for the freezer (that sounds like a huge amount but most of those are tiny child size ones).
To make life easy I used my bread machine to make the dough and used an organic yuck free jar of bolognaise sauce. The recipe for the crust is a French style one, with egg and butter rather than olive oil. No particular reason - just a change!

Makes 1 large pizza base (or two if you like a very thin crust like me)
3 1/2 fl oz water
1 egg
1/4 cup white bread flour
6 oz wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp yeast

Put the water and egg into the pan. Put the flours on top and the salt and butter in opposite corners. Put the yeast into the middle and run the machines dough cycle (or a pizza one if it has one). When it has finished knock the dough back gently and roll out to the right size and thickness. Spread with sauce and top with your favorite toppings.
Either bake straight away or freeze. I freeze mine on their baking tray, then remove the tray and wrap them in greaseproof paper and a plastic bag when they are hard. You can also freeze the bases without toppings in the same way.
This recipe doubles just fine if you are making a lot of pizza!

Wholemeal bread in a machine

I like this recipe that I've been using in my machine lately very much. It makes a tasty loaf with a good texture.

7 fl oz liquid *
2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
2 tbsp polenta or oats
325g freshly milled wheat flour **
1/4 cup white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp butter
4ml yeast (nearly a tsp)

* this can be water, yogurt, buttermilk, or a combination. I like to use all buttermilk or half yogurt, half water. If your machine doesn't have a resting phase before kneading then make sure you bring the ingredients up to room temperature.

** it is better to weigh fresh flour as it has a lot of air in it. This is about 2 1/2 cups.

Add the liquid and honey/maple syrup to the pan. Put the flours and polenta/oats on top. Put the salt and butter on the top of that, in opposite corners. Make a small indentation in the middle of the flour (not down to the liquid) and add the yeast.
Set the machine to a wholewheat cycle.

Anadama bread

I found this recipe in a bread machine recipe book I got off the market a while ago. My bread machine has been languishing in the back of a cupboard for a while but I got it out to knead some dough for me a couple of weeks ago and I'm in love with it again!
I wouldn't normally make a bread with this much white flour in it but the story was so good I couldn't resist. It goes that a man in America came home to find his wife, Anna, had gone out. All that was left for his dinner was a few spoonfuls of cornmeal and some molasses so he mixed them with some flour to make a bread, all the time muttering "Anna, damn her"!
This makes a small loaf.

7 fl oz water
3 tbsp molasses
2.5 cups white bread flour
generous half cup wholemeal flour
1/3 cup fine cornmeal (polenta)
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp quick yeast

Put the water and molasses into the pan of your bread machine (unless you have one where the yeast has to go in first, in which case reverse the order the ingredients go in). Sprinkle over the flours and cornmeal. Place the salt and butter into opposite corners of the pan (not sure why but that is what the recipe says. Perhaps they fight....). Make a small indentation in the middle of the flour (not down to the liquid) and add the yeast.
Set the machine to a basic cycle, medium crust.

We all really liked this bread. It isn't one I'd make regularly because of the white flour, but it was a tasty change.

Wholemeal crackers

I got this recipe from nourishing traditions but found the dough was waaay too wet. I added at least another cup of flour. But that could just be because my flour was fresh out of the mill and full of air! So I've put the original recipe here.

Makes about 5 dozen
2 1/2 cups freshly ground wheat, spelt or rye
1 cup yogurt
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
8 tbsp melted butter
white flour for rolling out

Mix the flour and yogurt together and leave to soak in a warm place overnight. Place the soaked flour, salt, sesame seeds, baking powder and 4 tbsps of the butter in a food processor and process. Roll out to about 1/8 of an inch thick and cut into shapes with a knife or cutter. Place onto a well butter baking tray and brush with the remaining melted butter. Cook in a dehydrator or oven at 150oF until dried through.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Wholemeal dumplings

I served these last night with a stew of beef mince, beans, tomatoes and anything that needed eating up in the fridge!

Makes 4 large ones
50g shredded suet
100g wholemeal flour (use sprouted flour if possible)
3-4 tbsp water
1 tsp mustard or a good pinch of herbs (optional)
Pinch of salt and pepper

Mix the flour and suet together and ensure there are no big lumps. Add the mustard or herbs if using and season. Add water to the mixture until it forms a thick paste. Make four balls.
These can be cooked on top of a soup or stew, or poached in boiling stock or water for about 15 minutes.

Sourdough pasta, beef stroganoff

Breakfast
Kids: Breakfast cake
Me: Fruity kefir smoothie

Lunch
Cheese on toast with baked beans and salad

Dinner
Beef stroganoff with sourdough pasta and broad beans. This was so tasty - really rich. It was very popular with the little ones too - the baby ate more than he has in weeks! This was my first go at making pasta. I've always been really intimidated by it - I had the idea that it was a difficult and involved process. In fact it was quite easy and not too labour intensive. The part that took the longest was the rolling and cutting but I got that done while the meat was cooking. My kids loved helping cut out the pasta shapes, which did add to the time to make them!

Sourdough pasta
3 cups wholemeal flour
1 cup sourdough starter
6 egg yolks
A pinch or two of salt

Mix together the ingredients and knead into a smooth and elastic dough that doesn't stick to your hands (takes about 10 minutes). Depending on how wet your starter is you may need a little more water or a little more flour. Leave overnight for the sourdough beasties to do their thing getting rid of anti nutrients. Roll out as thin as possible and cut into whichever pasta shapes you would like (or use a pasta machine if you have one and want neat and fancy pasta). Use lots of flour (I used white flour for this) when rolling out and cutting. This can either be cook straight away (it only takes a moment to cook when fresh so beware of over cooking) or you can spread it out on the counter to dry. It takes a few hours but then you can store it to cook later.
This recipe came from here. The sourdough makes the pasta very easily digestible and it isn't overly sour.

Beef stroganoff
1 lb beef strips (use steak or other tender cuts)
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 onion
250g mushrooms, sliced
1 cup beef stock
1 cup soured cream
1/2 cup red wine (optional but very tasty)
1 tsp paprika

Heat the butter and briefly brown the beef - not too much or it will get tough, just so it is coloured. Remove the beef to a clean plate and fry the onions until translucent. Add the mushrooms and fry for a couple more minutes. Add the beef, paprika, stock and red wine. Simmer until the beef is cooked and tender and the sauce is reduced. Stir through the cream before serving.
This goes well with just about anything - mashed potatoes, pasta, rice, crusty bread - anything to mop up that sauce.

Oat muffins

I adapted these from a recipe here. They were lovely - nice texture and quite light. Next time I will try adding some fruit for more flavour.

1 cup dry oatmeal
1/4 cup freshly ground wheat flour
1 cup yogurt, buttermilk, kefir, sour milk etc
1 egg
1/2 cup muscovado sugar
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 cup sprouted wheat flour
1/2 tsp each of baking soda and salt
1 tsp baking powder

Combine the oatmeal, fresh flour and buttermilk (or alternative). Leave in a warm spot overnight. Add the egg, sugar and oil and beat to mix well. Add the sprouted flour, soda, salt and baking powder. Mix, but not too much. The flour should only just be combined (a few streaks left is fine). Spoon into muffin cases and bake at 400oF for about 20 minutes (mine too a little longer) until a skewer comes out clean. Really good served hot with butter.

Bean and bacon soup, toad in the hole

Breakfast

For the kids: peanut butter on toast; glass of raw goats milk
For me: another smoothie!

Lunch

Bean and bacon soup
2-3 rashers smokey bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp lard
2 carrots, finely chopped
1/4 cabbage, finely chopped
1 - 1 1/2 pts chicken stock
1 tin cannelini beans (or a cup or so of soaked and cooked beans if you are more organised than me!)

Fry the bacon and onion in the lard for a few minutes. Add the other ingredients and simmer until the veggies are soft.


Dinner




Toad in the hole, asparagus cooked with butter and coconut oil and steamed broad beans. Followed by Yorkshire pud spread with jam and fresh strawberries.

Toad in the hole
(serves 4)
Yorkshire pudding batter
4-8 sausages (depending on how hungry every one is - I used 5, two for me and one each for the little ones)
suet, beef dripping, lard, butter or coconut oil (anything you can heat really!)

Heat the oven to 400oF. Put a little fat into each Yorkshire pudding tin (or you can use a cake tin, or even a Pyrex dish but individual tins are nice). Prick the sausages and divide them between the tins. Put them in the oven and bake them for 10 minutes. Take them out and give the batter a quick whisk. Pour over half the batter and return them to the oven until they are risen and brown. I usually put the other half of the batter in the oven for afters as I serve dinner. You can add fruit or spices to the batter if you like, or just cook it as is and spread with jam.

Toad in the hole goes amazingly with onion gravy.

Sprouted wheat flour

This is very useful to have around for when I've forgotten to soak flour for something, or can't figure out a way to soak flour in a recipe. The sprouting reduces some of the anti-nutrient content and is very easy to do. The flour doesn't seem quite as soft as un-sprouted but it could be my imagination! The food comes out just fine any way.

All I do is soak some wheat grains over night in a bowl of water. The next morning I drain them into a sieve and leave that over the bowl. When I go past the bowl I give the grains and rinse and a little stir (as the grains on top dry out faster). By the end of the day they have started to sprout and the next day have tails 2 or 3 mm long. Then I dry the grains out. Ideally I would do this in a dehydrator but I don't have the DIY ability or a few hundred spare quid so I haven't got one! I use the bottom of my oven on the very lowest setting it will go, and turn it off over night (it stays quite warm with the door closed). I spread the grains out on baking trays (I line mine with tea towels because they are getting a bit rusty and horrible) and leave them until they are dried, stirring them every so often. It takes a couple of days to get them ready - when they crunch when you bite them rather than squashing they should be ready to grind.

Here is a horrible blurry picture of the grains just starting to sprout. I forgot to take another of them when they are done - I'll try and remember next time I do some.