Lactose and Gluten Free vanilla cookies

With food allergies appearing to be on the increase, I thought it was high time that I started to work on a few allergen free recipes. One of the ladies who attends my sugarcraft class is gluten intolerant, since I always provide cake or cookies to my sugarcraft class I felt really mean giving Holly shop bought gluten-free food.  In addition my son’s best friend, Lisa has recently been diagnosed as lactose intolerant. Lisa regularly eats with us so I have had to radically rethink my menus.

Gluten free flour is readily available in most supermarkets these days as is lactose free milk and cheese. This recipe uses a vegetable oil based margarine and gluten-free self-raising flour. The resulting biscuit is crisp on the outside and soft inside.

Ingredients

• 100g vegetable oil based margarine
• 100g caster sugar
• 200g gluten-free self raising flour
• 1 tbs golden syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C / 170C fan or gas mark 5
2. Put all the ingredients in a food mixer and mix to a smooth dough
3. Form into 16 small balls.
4. Flatten them with your hand and place on 2 baking trays, allowing room for spreading.
5. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until pale gold in colour
6. Allow to cool slightly on the tray before moving to a rack to cool completely.

 

Related articles

• Gluten-Free Halloween Treats {Pinterest} (momathonblog.typepad.com)
• How Does Milk Allergy Differ From Lactose Intolerance? (longandhappylife.wordpress.com)
• Lactose Intolerance – Genetic Factors (23andme.com)

Flapjack

There are some recipes that are just so simple and so brilliant that they can be overlooked when searching for something yummy to bake. Flapjacks is one of those recipes. Yes, I know they are not the healthiest of snacks but I’m not suggesting you eat the entire batch to yourself and they keep really well in an airtight container.

I love the fact they are so versatile too. The ones in the photo are plain ones because my son is culinary challenged but I love them with a handful of glace cherries in, or a bit of coconut, topped with melted chocolate or with a bit a cinnamon and raisins in. I’ve even chopped up an eating apple and thrown that in too. This is a very forgiving recipe.

Ingredients

• 6oz margarine or butter
• 4 oz light brown sugar
• 4oz golden syrup
• 12oz rolled oats

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C or 160C fan.
2. Line a small Swiss roll tin with baking parchment (8 x12in)
3. Melt the margarine, syrup and sugar together in a large saucepan.
4. Add the rolled oats and any extra ingredients.
5. Stir it well and tip into the tin.
6. Press the flapjacks into an even layer using the back of a spoon or a spatula
7. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.