Gluten & Dairy Free

As many of you know I (Jinny) am Coeliac so Gluten free bakes are very important to me. I didn't want to have a separate section for Gluten/ Dairy Free as many of our bakes can be converted. So using the method below, any of the recipes that can be converted will have a GF or DF symbol on the recipe. Unfortunately, I am still working on converting the cookies but I will get there. I use Doves Gluten Free Plain Flour, so this is what I would recommend, just swap the flour in the recipes like for like. If you have ever had a gluten-free bake and it had an awful sand-like texture that's due to not enough liquid and batter that was not rested. To increase my liquid content I add an extra egg. Resting the batter means simply leaving the mix in the bowl once it has been made, this gives the flour a chance to soak up the moisture from the ingredients. This must be left for a minimum of half an hour, preferably in the bowl as a very fine, almost invisible skin forms across the top and this will affect the rise of the bake.

So in a nutshell

Find the indicated recipes

Add an extra egg (large), just 1 is fine

Rest that batter for half an hour at least

For biscuits in a recipe, substitute for gluten-free ones

Buttermilk can be made in the same way using soya milk

For Sour Cream use Soya Yogurt

You will need to increase the bake times by around 5 mins as the liquid content is a little more.

Dairy-free I am meant to avoid dairy too, but I do slip up… I mean I have to eat some nice stuff sometimes!!!! Replace any milk with soya milk ( I have only used this so I can't comment on almond milk or any other that may alter the flavour) Replace the butter with a vegan version. I use Flora Plant Block. It's so good and there is no difference, I use it for all my buttercreams too, including Connors. To replace yoghurt, again I use soya yoghurt. When I have used sour cream, you can again use soya yoghurt or dairy-free greek yoghurt. Callebaut does a Dairy Free Milk and Dark Chocolate called NXT which is amazing and again just swap like for like.

PLEASE BE ADVISED TO CHECK THE LABELS OF THE PRODUCTS THAT YOU BUY FOR HIDDEN GLUTEN. KEEP AREAS CLEAN AND FREE FROM GLUTEN/DAIRY CROSS-CONTAMINATION