Calling all Parents, spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends & partners out there who have loved ones with food allergies. Don’t panic and despair; because help is here :).
I know what its like to grow up with allergies to food I loved; from the age of ten I had to say good bye to my favourite foods chocolate, eggs, milk, strawberries, rasberries, shellfish. At first I did miss them, back in the late 70’s 80’s there wasn’t three quarters of what is available now.
I do know what it is like having to change the way you bake for allergies, it is a learning curve.
For those with gluten allergies/intolerances it can be scary at first when using gluten free flour, but I found that adding Xanthan Gum helps bind the end product, when making pastry you have to be a little more careful than when using ordinary flour. That reason is it can break/crumble more easily. I found putting it into the fridge helped.
The taste of some gluten free foods is bland when my daughter was diagnosed with a gluten intolerance I made all the meals (stopped buying ready made Free From), so that she could taste it, and I and made notes of anything I that might of had to add more or take out. You might find that a little more sugar might be needed, I add icing sugar to the pastry makes it nice not too sweet.
The one thing I did and still do is to just do one lot of baking; not one lot for me and one for them.
1. It costs;
2. Their’s runs out quicker and they end up eating your’s.
Sometimes little ones can feel left out (as one friends daughter said ‘why does he get special food and stuff and not me?). Get the little ones involved with the baking they’ll love it; it will give them skills for life.
Switching from eggs to an egg re-placer mix changes your recipes, as you’ll see in my recipes I add milk to some of them to give them the moisture that egg gives, baking powder will give cakes and buns that soft texture. When I first started using egg re-placer my buns and cakes didn’t rise they were flat and hard, not even the birds would eat them.
In here are recipes that my mum used and still uses, and some have been given to me by my family and friends.
Come and take a look, they’ll have your mouth watering.
Michelle Yuen 