Gluten free desserts

My friend coming for christmas and hes informed us that he is gluten free and dairy intolerant. He was a great trifle fan, has anyone got a dessert that could replace this for, so me missus can make it.

Homemade pavlova is gluten free (as long as you use g-free cornflour and g-free vinegar - not malt vinegar)Not the same as trifle but still yummy!Instead of cream on top you could serve with lite licks icecream (dairy free) and berries

I mentioned in another thread a product I have recently found useful. That is almond meal. It is made in Australia and not as expensive as I would have expected. It can be used in the same way as flour and produces a lovely soft biscuity base and tastes nice too. I just beat it up with a bit of butter egg yolk and a small amount of sugar as almond meal seems to reduce the need for sugar. Then I add a beaten egg white to it with a little salt. It goes flat in the oven and it doesn't take long in a not to hot oven (160 degrees is fine). I use it as a base for fruit and custards and cream when I have gluten intolerant guests. I imagine if you used this as the trifle base this would be very nice as it is soft and by the time it has all the soft wet stuff on top of it, the almond base would be fine.

opera cake

Almond meal does make delicious cake! It is just ground almonds, so you can make your own. It seems a shame to disguise it as trifle, though - the pav idea sounds great, piling it high with fruit and dairy-free ice-cream on the side sounds perfect to me. :-)

He doesnt like pav.I will try the almond mix, is there a exact recipe so I dont stuff up, almonds arent cheap. How do I solve the custard mix as dairy intolerance

The almond meal I used was bought from Countdown. The brand is Freshlife and the pack is 150 grams. It states on the packet that it is suitable for wheat free cooking and the ingredients are one word almonds. There is a recipe on the pack for chocolate cupcakes and also some further information and recipes on www.freshlife.com
There is a gluten free section. I imagine a bit of websearching will produce a recipe you feel comfortable to adapt and I also found a list of Gluten free products which contained other gluten free flours. I use the almond meal because hubby is diabetic and it is lower carb. Also I can get away with less added sweetening. For him I do not add the sugar but for others I add castor sugar.

I understand that some icing sugars may contain gluten starch but Chelsea Icing sugar has tapioca starch added and so claimed to be gluten free. I wonder about custard powders;not sure aboout those. Anyway if you keep this bumped a number of posters on here live with gluten free diets and will know a recipe of the kind you need.

If you google Elana's Pantry she uses ground almonds for all of her recipes.

Hi Just use a light soya milk for the custard or the other choice is to make a sabyon over a waterbath
also for deserts you can use tofu ( I use the soft tofu) whip up in the foodprocesser and it will go like creamcheese then add your sugars ie jelly crystals ( use your imagination here) pour out onto a GF dairy free biscuit base and you have an amazing cheese cake top with berries& spun sugar. yummo

If you want my twopenneth worth - Don't try to make substitutes. If he can no longer eat his favourite food then don't try and make it for him, using ingredients to fit in with his new regimen. Just cook him good, healthy meals. Meat, fish, eggs, fruit, vegetables, wine vinegar and nuts have no gluten and no dairy so concentrate on those. Olive and nut oils along with vegetable oils, lard and duck fat are also dairy free. If your friend wants sweets ask him what he likes to eat. He has probably learned to go without by now and won't miss them at all, but he will feel like he is missing out if he is not served up deeply nourishing, healthy food.

Mediterranean Orange Cake (2 days)
23cm tin



3 oranges – cut off tops and bottoms, simmer 2 hours, drain, puree.Cover and chill several hours or overnight
15g baking powder (check that it is gluten-free)
310g ground almonds
8 eggs
310g caster sugar
flaked almonds

Grease and line tin.Heat oven to 170 C.
Mix baking powder & almonds together.
Mix eggs & sugar together until just combined.Do not beat.
Measure 375g of orange puree, add to eggs along with almond mixture.
Mix gently until well combined.Pour into tin and scatter with flaked almonds.
Bake 70 - 80 min.Cool overnight in tin.

So then just wondering if you make pav what vinegar can you use instead of malt!

White wine or apple cider vinegar. Lemon juice maybe and even rice wine vinegar would work.

Buzzy have you used any of those vinegars for pav!xmas is round the corner and im trying to sort outgluten free dessertsfor the first time and am going totally gluten free for everyone to save me time.

I mentioned in another thread a product I have recently found useful. That is almond meal. It is made in Australia and not as expensive as I would have expected. It can be used in the same way as flour and produces a lovely soft biscuity base and tastes nice too. I just beat it up with a bit of butter egg yolk and a small amount of sugar as almond meal seems to reduce the need for sugar. Then I add a beaten egg white to it with a little salt. It goes flat in the oven and it doesn't take long in a not to hot oven (160 degrees is fine). I use it as a base for fruit and custards and cream when I have gluten intolerant guests. I imagine if you used this as the trifle base this would be very nice as it is soft and by the time it has all the soft wet stuff on top of it, the almond base would be fine.

If you google Elana's Pantry she uses ground almonds for all of her recipes.

Gluten free desserts

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