Xanthan gum – Clinical Alimentary

It’s the first of December today – and so the countdown begins. I hope you have had a nice surprise this morning when opening your advent calendar for the first time. The evenings are dark early and it is a really frenetic time of year. I wonder how many of you will have carol singers arriving at the door in two or three weeks time? Have you ever wondered if any of your visitors have food intolerances when handing them a warm mince-pie after their efforts? Is offering mince-pies too old-fashioned do you think? Would they rather have money? That would be a little sad and not really in keeping with the spirit of the season. I have decided to rewrite the Christmas favourite – mince-pie, to provide a different alternative for those people who want to avoid a bout of symptoms after their festive singing. The recipe is based on rice flour – the pies are baked blind so the filling really is up to you, if you want to avoid nuts or other ingredients, you can base the filling on something else. The pastry is a great base for jam, lemon curd tarts or custard tarts you can add any other filling you can imagine!

Ingredients

1) pastry recipe

240g Rice Flour

50g Dairy free margarine

50g Light muscovado sugar

2 Eggs

1/2 Teaspoon of xantham gum

pinch of salt

2) Filling

60g Light muscovado sugar

20g Treacle

45g Golden syrup

1/2 Cap of vanilla essence

50g Dairy free margarine

1/4 Teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 Teaspoon of mixed spice

1 1/2 eggs (use the other half for brushing the pastry)

50g Pecan nuts

50g Banana chips

Method

Add the rice flour, salt and xantham gum to a bowl and mix. Melt the margarine and sugar in a small pan and allow to cool a little. Add the eggs and sugar mix to the rice flour and knead thoroughly. Pastry without gluten needs working to give a good texture, if you need to add a little more egg then do. It really is different to cooking with standard pastry – you should not need to allow it to rest either. You can roll this out between cling film but I used a little rice flour and had no problem in rolling and cutting the pastry. Cut the pastry and add to a well greased pie baking sheet. Add baking beans to each tart case and cook for 10 minutes gas mark 5 or 190°C. Allow to cool, makes about 20-25 tarts depending on how thin you roll the pastry.

Melt the sugar, golden syrup, treacle, margarine, vanilla essence and spices in a pan under a low heat – allow to cool a little to ensure it doesn’t scramble the eggs. Add this mix to the eggs whilst beating. Save a pecan nut or banana chip as decoration for each tart and chop the rest separately. Split the sugar and egg mix into two – add chopped pecan to one and chopped banana chips to the other. Mix well then add a small amount to each tart and top with the decoration. Cook at the top of an oven at gas mark 5, 190°C for 15 minutes (do keep checking them to ensure they don’t burn.)

Be aware that these pies do contain fibre – so only eat a small amount! They are small pies just a morsel to tempt!

Updated 22.11.14

I have been meaning to look into snack ideas for the low FODMAP diet and wondering how to make crackers. I have been reading on the internet and the methods people use seem simple enough. This is my own recipe – but thanks to those whose recipes I have read – too many to mention individually. However special thanks goes to Jonathan Itchon see the link at the bottom of the page – for providing a ratio to make the crackers. Here is the recipe:

200g of plain gluten-free flour mix

150g of water

50g of olive oil

2 tsps of chilli powder (not a blend of spices, chilli ONLY)

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp of asafoetida

1 tsp of smoked paprika

1/2 tsp of salt

Add the oil to the water, place the flour in a mixing bowl and add the spices, mix well. Add the water/oil to the flour and mix till it has bound together, too wet and add a little more flour, too dry and add water – although the mix did come together very well. Place dough on a large piece of cling film and add another piece of cling film over the top. Roll the dough till it is VERY thin – thinner dough makes crisper crackers. Cut out with a pastry cutter. This is the most time-consuming bit. the dough is quite brittle so take care – or you can always add 1/2 tsp of xantham gum to make the mix more elastic. Place the crackers on an oiled baking tray and cook on gas mark 7, 220 degrees for ten minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

With 2 teaspoons of chilli powder these crackers are hot hot hot! Reduce the amount or exclude it altogether if you find that chillies don’t agree with your digestive system, or if you are making these for children – use animal cutters! Also the whole house was filled with the smell of asafoetida – just be warned! 😉 Also I don’t tend to use much salt in my cooking so they are perhaps less salty than you may be used to. If you have coeliac disease and are following a gluten free diet you must ensure that the spices you buy have not been contaminated with gluten containing grains – wheat, barley, rye. But these crackers were easy to make and has made me feel like trying different flavours – excellent, since ready-made flavoured gluten free crackers are rather expensive. Make some for your food intolerant friends today!

http://thecanaryfiles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/ratio-rally-gluten-free-vegan-grain.html