Oat Topped Cardamom Peaches with Sweet Coconut Cream
Time for another food post I feel. It has been a little while since the last one and I was so grateful for the reaction to that one since it was a bit more personal than my usual fare. Thankyou!
We don’t normally eat many puddings here but when I was out shopping last a huge tin of peaches caught my eye and it reminded me of the delicious yet simple peach crumble my mum used to whip up for us when we really wanted dessert and she (probably) was too tired to make too much effort. Luckily we all loved tinned peach crumble so were easily pleased with the offering.
Cardamom is one of those spices that goes beautifully with peaches and cinnamon goes without saying, we are huge cinnamon fans here. To serve I chose to take another tin out of the cupboard, this one was coconut cream, the type that solidifies in the tin. Be sure to discard the watery bit if you can then whip up the creamy sold stuff with a little icing sugar to sweeten. Delicious, who needs dairy cream?!
Oat Topped Cardamom Peaches
- Tin of 8 peach halves or 8 peeled, stoned, or the same of fresh peach halves
- Seeds from 5 cardamom pods crushed (pods discarded)
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 160g/ 6oz/ 2 cups oats
- 80g/ 3 oz/ ½ cup light brown sugar
- Pinch salt
- 4 tbsp dairy free margarine, melted
Simple stuff here; Lay the peach halves over the bottom of an oven-proof dish, add a little of the peach juice from the can if you like. Sprinkle over the spices.
In a large bowl add the oats, sugar, salt and the margarine and maybe a little extra cinnamon. Combine thoroughly then tip over the peaches and use your fingers to make an even layer.
Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes at 180 c until golden and aromatic.
Serve with coconut cream whisked with icing sugar to taste and drizzle (pour) over;
And in the words of my eldest son; “that was really yummy Mummy, I will have that again!” 
indeed.
It’s not personal but my son can’t eat your cakes.
I admit it, I feel bad, guilty even when a mum has gone to extra efforts to include my son when they make birthday treats for the whole class or when they offer to make him something special at a party. I feel bad because nine times out of ten I still have to say, “no, he cannot have that”. I say sorry (a lot) I feel totally neurotic and over bearing but honestly more than I feel bad, I feel terrified that my worst fears will be confirmed; that these well-meaning, kind people really do not understand the precautions needed. They do not understand that I cannot give him the crackers wrapped up so beautifully especially for him because I did not see the original packaging to know if they are ok for him to eat, they just don’t get it. Recently a well-meaning mother made plain cupcakes for the class and said to the teacher “it’s ok they don’t have chocolate in, just butter”. Now I do not want to sound mean but I do question whether she either did not realise my son had a milk allergy (amongst the others) or (more worryingly) if she was unaware that butter comes from milk comes from a cow….. ahem.
I have had a person offer my son pasta from a bowl of “pasta and cheese” insisting that “that bit doesn’t have any cheese on it”. I have kindly said thankyou but no thankyou to a very lovely friend who offered to make special cakes for a party for Levi and then also tell me that the birthday cake is her daughters favourite chocolate hazelnut cake, my thoughts on this is that if the yummy sounding hazelnut cake is being made in the same kitchen by the same cook it kind of falls into the “may contain” category quite heavily.
I know people will think I am over the top and over protective about things but it is how it is. People often don’t believe in illnesses that are not constantly visible to the eye, I have Crohn’s I know the score. But when you witness your child swell, wheeze, vomit and become covered in nasty hives or worse instantly after coming in to contact with an allergen almost before you eyes it convinces you this type of precaution is needed.
On the other side of this I feel bad that my son can sometimes not be included. I am considering writing a list of brand treats my son can have and giving to parents asking them kindly to either use one of those or let me know when a birthday is coming so I can try to replicate as closely as possible the treats they are making. My son notices now when he is not getting what everyone else is. It is not nice to feel like “mean old mummy” and see his little face fall when I have to say “no you can’t eat that”. Life as an allergy mum is hard I tell you. It doesn’t get easier either you have to be constantly on alert wherever you go if food is present.
One way I try to get the message across to people is by taking photos of reactions when they occur. For one thing it is useful to show the allergists at appointments as it helps them understand in some way the severity of his reactions to various things. It also gives a little “shock factor” to carry the message home a little better. I have a whole album on my Facebook page of these pictures so feel free to look and send me your pictures if you would like to contribute. It can also help people to understand what reactions can look like if perhaps they suspect they or their child is having them.
On the subject of Levi; he had an allergy appointment recently with skin prick tests and IgE blood tests. He has not outgrown any of his existing allergies sadly, we had hoped soya was gone as the skin prick was negative but he is still reacting in his blood so he must still avoid for now. He can also add beans and peas to his allergy list.
Here is a pic of the skin prick test;
histamine
white fish (cod)
salmon
control
RIGHT top to bottom;
egg white
cows milk
soya
potato
Always a silver lining xOat Milk – make your own!
Having recently discovered the goodness of oats in the bath I also tried oat milk for eating/drinking and loved the creaminess in comparison to rice milk which is much thinner (although still brilliantly useful). The great thing about this recipe is that what you essentially get is an oat “cream” that can be used in place of cream in recipes (although it will not whip up like cream), it is great in sauces, milkshakes, porridge etc. You can also water it down to make it go alot further and have a more “milk-like” end result; I have started using it to replace other milks in baking recipes with great success. It’s very versatile. Here is the recipe;
Homemade Oat Milk
- 5 cups of water
- 2 cups porridge oats
Pour the water into a pan and heat until “hand hot” but not boiling.
Remove from the heat and stir in the oats before pouring into a tub. Allow to cool. Once cool seal tub or cover with plastic film and store in the fridge overnight.
The next day pour the mixture into a blender and add extra water to thin if desired. You can skip the blender step if you like and just squeeze oaty mixture through a sieve. It will make a less thick liquid but still a great milk.
Next strain your milk; you can use either a sieve or cheesecloth if you like a finer liquid.
Taste and add either salt or sugar to sweeten (optional).
Store in the fridge and use within 5-7 days, or freeze excess for longer.
So once you have your oat milk you will also have some leftover oat bits and it seems a waste to just throw all that goodness away doesn’t it? …..
So here is a recipe for banana muffins that uses that all up to, they were good muffins too if I may say so!
Banana Oat Muffins
- 170 g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 big banana, mashed (remember the blacker the skins the better.)
- your leftover oat mixture
- 175 g white sugar
- 80 ml sunflower oil
- 125 ml apple puree
Preheat oven to 180 c
Mash the bananas with the oat leftovers until there are no big lumps, then simply add all the other ingredients and stir until combined. Spoon into muffin cases to half full.
Bake in the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes until risen and golden. Done!
* I have since made a chocolate version of the muffins that the kids loved. Just add 1 to 2 oz of cocoa to the muffin recipe.
Don’t forget to stick a date on the bottles and use within about 7 days.
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Colloidal Oatmeal Bath Soak (with chamomile)
My sons eczema is having a bit of a flare up at the moment. I want something soothing for him in the bath that is as natural as possible because he has enough pharmacy creams and medications for his various “problems”. I have heard of colloidal oatmeal bath for eczema; how soothing it can be and how it is supposed to help ease the itching (it helped with the boys chicken pox no end). So I decided to have a go at making some myself. In case you wondered colloidal oats basically is oats ground to a fine powder that will “float” in water.
To call this a recipe feels somehow wrong really. It is just pure porridge oats ground to powder. It will really help if you have one of those nut grinder attachments to your food processor as that gets good results. The chamomile is an optional extra really, I have used it in the bath before and find it nice and gentle on my sons skin. If you are not keen on seeing bits of tea floating in the bath then leave them out by all means or put mix into a muslin bag or the cut off foot from old pair of (clean) tights (stockings) then tie the top, hang over tap so water runs through the bag/stocking. You can then rinse and re use muslin/tight (stocking). Also you can rub the muslin straight onto your dry skin for a really intensive wash.
Soothing Oatmeal Bath Soak
- 5 cups of porridge oats
- The contents of 15 chamomile tea bags (optional)
Combine the oats and (if using) chamomile tea. Blitz until as fine a powder as possible is achieved, you will need to do this in batches but fill the grinder almost to the top as this will make a finer powder.
Next sieve the powder to be sure to remove any large pieces.
Store in a large jar or a plastic tub and use at least ¼ cup for toddler/child bath and at least ½ a cup for adult bath.
* Use a non slip bath mat for kids as it can make the bath slippery and rinse straight after with the shower to get rid of any oat or chamomile residue.
This is so much cheaper and easier than other similiar products you can buy and apparently is also a wonder for most dry skin and even sunburn just for a couple of very simple “ingredients”;
ps. Also good for babies and toddlers who like to “drink” small amounts of bath water!
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Sunflower Seed Butter
One thing I really miss since our home became a “nut free zone” is peanut butter, love the stuff. But I am here to let you know that there is an alternative and actually it is not at all a compromise because this sunflower seed butter is just as nutty and delicious as the real thing, hell my other half actually thought it was peanut butter.
The “secret” here is that you have to pre-roast your seeds, but this is a super quick and simple thing to do so don’t be put off from trying it out. Use this to replace peanut butter in any recipe; is lovely to dip apple slices into as a snack, on toast, in sandwiches and in baking. You can make a pumpkin seed butter the same way.
Sunflower Seed Butter
- 250g sunflower seeds
- Pinch of salt
- 1 to 2 tsp honey/ sugar/ agave (optional)
- sunflower oil (you can use olive)
1/ First you need to roast your sunflower seeds, this releases their nutty flavour and makes for a much more delicious end product. The easiest way to do this is to get a large baking tray and line with greaseproof paper. Spread your sunflower seeds onto this evenly.
2/ Place in the oven. You need to check these every couple of minutes, this doesn’t take long and also it’s good to give the tray a little shake every now and then to make sure they roast evenly. Once you notice the seeds have started to go slightly golden and are releasing that telltale nutty aroma they are ready. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
3/Next you need a way to grind them up as small as possible. I use a nut grinder attachment for my blender, it doesn’t make a fine powder but I’m ok with little crunchy bits in the end result. If you want a smooth end-result you need a spice or coffee grinder to make a finer powder.
4/Once you have your powder transfer to a food processor and add a pinch of salt and if you want to add a little sweetness a little sugar, syrup or honey.
5/ Add the oil a tbsp at a time and blitz in between until you get a paste you are happy with (I find around 4 or 5 tbsp is about right). Taste and decide if it needs extra salt/sugar then simply bottle and store in the fridge.
Rock Cakes – Wartime Recipes
I have always been hugely interested in the way women lived in the Second World War. Obviously for me a huge part of that interest centres on what they ate at a time when food was rationed and not as plentiful as it is today. They would have had to make do without using a lot of eggs for example or would use “dry eggs”, meagre amounts of butter meant using cheaper fat like lard in recipes and even dripping (yuk). Anyhow this works out very well for me because having got my hands on books featuring recipes used at the time I see that these housewives made excellent use of what they did have and were not shy to improvise and with a little allergy boy around “improvise” should be my middle name.
I am trying a good few of these baking recipes out and I will say I have had a few disasters and a good few successes so far. The first recipe I tried out was Rock Cakes from this book;
I will point out that I did use lard in this recipe but having made rock cakes as a child with my mum I can happily say you may just switch this to margarine with no problems. Rock refers to the rugged appearance of the buns and not the texture, these are not heavy at all. Lard does not leave a nasty flavour either trust me these were delicious, those wartime housewives knew their stuff!
Recipes will be in imperial measure as in book, feel free to convert online. I will of course adapt as needed to make “free from”.
Rock Cakes.
- 8 oz plain flour
- 3 oz lard (or dairy free margarine)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- flavour e.g lemon extract/ vanilla extract/ pinch cinnamon
- 3 oz sultanas (raisins)
- 2 oz light brown sugar
- 3 tbsp apple puree mixed with 1/2 tsp baking powder (to replace 1 egg)
- pinch salt
- milk to mix to dough (I used rice milk)
Preheat oven to 170 c
Rub lard into flour until you achieve a “bread crumb” consistency. Then simply add all the other ingredients and mix with a fork until you create a dry paste/dough that is not too wet like so;
Dollop lumps of the mixture onto greaseproof paper;
Bake for about 12-15 mins until they a lovely and golden.
When I used to make them with my mum I preferred chopped glace cherries instead of raisins but feel free to experiment.
Chocolate Concrete with Pink Custard – School Day Memories
Chocolate Concrete (or Crunch depending on who you ask) is the stuff of British School Dinner legend. It was always served as a pudding but is actually more like a hard crunchy cookie. Known to bend spoons if not eaten with care and skill this delicious school time goodie is also served with a pink strawberry flavoured custard.
When I was at school I used to look over longingly at the school desserts from the designated packed lunch table. It was only when I was a bit older that I realised if you offered to help tidy the canteen then you got to eat leftover dessert! So you know me….
I know this one is in demand so here is the recipe;
Chocolate Concrete
- 200g plain flour
- 200g sugar
- 50g dairy free margarine
- 50g lard (you can use all marge if you like)
- 50g cocoa
- pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 180 c
Mix all the dry ingredients into one bowl
Gently melt the marge and lard then pour into dry ingredients mix in then use your fingers to rub together mix until it resembles a crumble mixture.
Pour into a brownie tin lined with greaseproof and push down with your hands until level.
Bake for about 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and mark out slices with a knife. Sprinkle the top with a little caster sugar.
Gently slide out of tin (but still on paper) onto a wire rack to cool.
Make Pink Custard (if you like)……..
Pink Custard
- 5 tbsp cornflour
- 3 tbsp sugar
- a few drops pink food colour
- 1/2 tsp strawberry extract/essence
- 500ml rice/coconut/oat Milk
Combine the cornflour, sugar, food colour and extract in a bowl.
Measure the milk into a jug and use a little to combine the other ingredients to make a paste, using a whisk.
Pour the rest of the milk into a saucepan and gently heat until hot but not boiling. Once hot pour into the pink paste, whisk to combine and pour everything back into the saucepan. Now you need to keep stirring with the whisk until the mixture just comes to boil and thickens to a nice custard consistency, this won’t take long. Once thickened remove from heat and pour over your Chocolate Concrete. Yum.
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Custard and the story of Mr Bird and his wife
They say you learn a new thing every day. Well the other day I learnt to my surprise that Bird’s Custard Powder does not and has never contained egg. It sparked my interest so I went about having a look online to see the actual ingredients and whether or not I thought I could come up with something similar. Whilst looking I discovered the story behind its origins so thought I would share;
This distinguished looking fellow is Alfred Bird. He was a maker of food and a chemist in the 1800′s. Alfred’s wife Elizabeth was allergic to eggs so in order that she could have something lovely to pour onto her desserts he went about creating an egg free version of custard. Apparently the concoction he created (that we Brits now know as Bird’s Custard) was only intended for use at home for his wife but the story goes that it was “accidentally” fed to guests at a dinner party and then Alfred realised that perhaps his invention may be appealing to a wider audience and so Bird’s Powdered Custard was born.
I love the advert clearly stating at the bottom “custard without eggs!”.
Further interesting allergy information is that Albert Bird is also the man who first came up with baking powder. Elizabeth was also allergic to yeast. Whether or not Elizabeth was or not allergic to egg and yeast or even if she was perhaps intolerant to them I think Albert Bird is quite clearly an allergy food hero and at the very least a great husband who didn’t see why his wife should miss out on the good stuff because of her inability to eat certain foods. Yay for Mr Bird! He is rightly honoured and acknowledged in the town he used to live;
So, thanks to the lovely Mr Bird we have Bird’s Custard Powder. The other thing that is great is that it is a fairly simple thing to make yourself at home. It is basically just cornflour with a few little extras added. The ingredients list on the tin reads; Cornflour, Salt, Colour (Annatto), Flavouring.
To make the powder into custard you add milk and a little sugar for sweetness. Obviously my custard would need to also be dairy free so I set about experimenting a little to come up with the best texture and flavour. I decided that for flavour I would use vanilla pods for the best flavour and the lovely speckled effect but you may use extract if you prefer.
I made two batches because I wanted to see how best to get the right colour. I used rice milk as the liquid in both of these batches.
For Batch one I used yellow liquid food colour;
The flavour was nice but I thought the resulting liquid was somewhat translucent and not creamy enough. The food colour gave quite a pale colour.
In batch two I used turmeric to colour the custard;
This gave a more authentic colour but you could taste the turmeric slightly which although was not unpleasant I feel some people may not like that and again I felt it was not creamy enough.
Below is the recipe I decided on. I decided that flavour should win over colour being authentic and used yellow food colour with a little orange added (my thought was to make more egg yolky in colour) and used half rice milk and half coconut milk for a creamier end result. I have to tell you that yes you can slightly taste the coconut in the end result but we all found the custard so creamy and delicious that we didn’t mind. You could always play around with the rice/coconut milk ratio but trust me and try it this way first. Would make amazing custard tarts!
Custard
Mix together;
- 5 or 6 tbsp cornflour (depending how thick you like it)
- 3 or 4 tbsp sugar
- Teeny pinch salt
- About 8 drops of yellow food colour or 1/8 tsp turmeric for colour
Measure;
- 250 ml rice milk
- 250ml coconut milk
- Seeds from ½ to a whole a vanilla pod
- Nutmeg to taste (optional)
- Mix a little of the milk with the cornflour, sugar and salt and food colour until a paste is formed.
- Put the remaining rice and coconut milk in a pan with the vanilla seeds (and also throw the pod in).
- Heat until hot but not boiling. Pour over the paste and keep stirring with a whisk to make sure no lumps are formed.
- Pour back into the pan and keep stirring with the whisk over a medium heat until it starts to boil and thicken.
- Now Remove and discard the vanilla pod. If you think it needs more colour now is the time. You could also add a few gratings of nutmeg if you fancy as well.
- Now you remove from the heat and either use straight away for pouring or if you want to leave to set for trifle or tarts (e.g.) then put a piece of cling film onto the surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming the refrigerate until needed.
*Variation; 1 tbsp of cocoa or 3 oz melted chocolate for a chocolate version. Add at step 3.
Lovely poured over pudding or set as a dessert in it’s self or in tarts and trifles. yum.
Pretzel and Sunflower Seed Cookies
When I happen upon food my three-year old allergy boy can eat my first thought is usually ” ooh I wonder how I can bake this in something”. So, these have it all (as far as I am concerned) they are nutty, salty, sweet, chewy and crunchy. Yummo. I also made a chocolate chunk version much to the delight of my older son who kept on asking for “one more” again and again.
I really love pretzels and my boys both share the love, the sunflower seeds are dry roasted before hand to release their delicious nutty flavour. We all loved these, do try them;
Pretzel and Sunflower Seed Cookies
- 1 tbsp of ground flax mixed with 3 tbsp warm water (to replace 1 egg)
- 75g sunflower seeds
- 150g dairy free margarine
- 75g dark brown sugar
- 225g white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250g plain flour
- Pinch salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp instant espresso
- 75g broken up pretzels
- Preheat oven to 170 c.
- Mix together the flax and water and put aside to thicken.
- Dry roast the seeds in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat until they start to turn golden and give off a nutty aroma. Take off the heat and leave to one side.
- Cream the margarine and sugars together until combined and smooth (I used a fork).
- Next add the vanilla and the flax mixture, mixing in gradually until combined.
- Stir in the remaining ingredients gently until all combined and a dough is formed
- Roll into balls, flatten and bake for about 12 to 15 mins depending on how soft or crunchy you like them.
- Leave to cool then drizzle with dark chocolate of push some chocolate chunks into them before you put them in the oven as I did.
MMMM Everything is better with chocolate!
Coffee Creams – Allergy Free
The latest in the “creams series” is coffee creams. For these I made two batches, one with coffee extract and the other with coffee I had pre-made and cooled. I tasted both and decided to post the best one.
The coffee extract ones had a nice colour;
But I thought the flavour was horrible, maybe if you can find a nicer extract then please do go ahead and make that way (just use the peppermint creams recipe and replace peppermint with coffee extract)
The ones made with pre made coffee had a much nicer sweeter coffee flavour. They were much paler in colour as you see;
This is the recipe I used below;
Before you start first make up a coffee mixture using 2 tsp of your favourite instant coffee (or whatever coffee you love) mixed with 5 tbsp boiling water, or just strong coffee.
Coffee Creams
- 250g icing sugar, sifted
- 2 tsp liquid glucose
- 5 to 6 tsp of your pre-made cooled coffee
Mix everything together until it starts to form a dough, get your hands in there and work until you have a smooth dough. Add more water/icing sugar if needed.
Roll out and cut into shapes or roll into balls and flatten gently with a fork, (or whatever takes your fancy, be creative). If you roll out and cut into shapes as I did you will have to make sure the surface is kept very well dusted with icing sugar or the dough will stick.
Leave to firm up on a tray on greaseproof paper, do not cover or put in the fridge and leave at least over night.
Once set they are ready to eat, dip in chocolate or wrap up as gifts.
Done and dusted!
