Gluten Free Sweet / Teatime Scones

This is a sweet twist on the new cheese scones recipe we posted last week and perfect for a picnic or cream tea, just add some fresh cream and jam!

Preparation time -  5 minutes
Cooking time - ~15 minutes (less for a fan assisted oven)
Makes / Serves - 6 average sized scones
Child friendly - 3/5
Difficulty rating - 1/5

Ingredients:

200 g gluten-free plain flour alternative
25 g caster sugar
40 g butter (or good quality spreadable)
100 g natural yoghurt
50 ml milk (plus extra for brushing)
1 tablespoon gluten-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 230 C / 450 F / Gas Mark 8 and prepare a baking tray by lightly greasing or lining with baking paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, caster sugar, baking powder and xanthan gum, mix well.
3. Add the butter and rub into the dry ingredients with your fingers until it has a consistency similar to breadcrumbs.
4. Add the milk and yoghurt, then use a spoon to blend everything together into a dough.
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed gently until it reaches a consistency that can easily be rolled out.
6. Roll out the dough to a thickness of around 2-3cm and cut out the scones with a 5 cm round cutter (or similar), re-rolling the left over dough and cutting out more until you run out of dough.
7. Arrange the scones on your baking tray, leaving as much space between them as possible, and brush them with a little milk.
8. Put the baking tray near the top of the oven and bake for around 15 minutes or until risen evenly browned.
9. Leave on the tray to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Tips:

1. If you do not have a suitable cutter just improvise with an upturned ramekin, small glass, or something similar!
2. This recipe can be easily adapted to make traditional fruit scones by adding either 80-100 g of halved or quartered glacé cherries or 50-60 g of sultanas.

Gluten Free Banana Loaf

This recipe is a little more recent (mid-2007), but proved extremely popular on our old site. I've also updated it a little to include a small amount of xanthan gum, which can be left out if you don't have any. Getting enough fibre into a gluten free diet can be very difficult and this recipe can be a great help in that regard.

Preparation time -  under 15 minutes
Cooking time - 50-60 minutes
Makes / Serves - One small loaf is approx 8-10 servings
Child friendly - 5/5
Difficulty rating - 1/5

Ingredients:

170 g gluten-free brown or 'fibre' flour alternative
150 g caster sugar
75 g softened butter
3 large or 4 small bananas (mashed)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum (optional)

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C / 350 F / Gas Mark 4 and prepare a small loaf tin, if not silicone it is a good idea to line with baking paper as well as greasing.
2. Place all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat together until completely mixed.
3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes, check with a skewer to ensure the loaf is cooked right through and bake for a further 10 minutes if needed.
4. Allow to cool slightly in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Tips:

1. If you're in a hurry an electric hand mixer can really speed up this recipe, however a low speed setting should be used.
2. You can make this recipe a bit more interesting by adding 120 g of either sultanas or chopped mixed nuts, it's also delicious served with toffee sauce, especially if it's warmed for ~20-30 seconds in the microwave first.
3. This recipe also works very well with golden caster sugar which gives the loaf a subtly different flavour, particularly when sultanas are also added as above.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

This was one the first recipes I adapted from my Nan's old cookbook in 2005 as it was the thing Abigail missed most at the time, but unlike the shortbread this recipe wasn't included in the cookbook itself, it was a recipe my Nan came up with herself in the 1960's, jotted down on a scrap of paper and tucked into the biscuit section! These aren't your average cookie, not overly crunchy like a typical British cookie but not overly soft like American cookies, they sit somewhere in between!

Preparation time -  under 15 minutes
Cooking time - ~20 minutes (slightly less for a fan oven)
Makes / Serves - This depends on the size you want them, we usually do 8-12.
Child friendly - 5/5
Difficulty rating - 1/5

Ingredients:

150 g gluten-free plain flour alternative
150 g caster sugar
125 g softened butter
100 g chocolate chips (or chunks)
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons water

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C / 350 F / Gas Mark 4 and prepare a baking tray by either greasing it or lining with baking paper (which seems to work better in this case).
2. Add the flour, baking powder and caster sugar to your mixing bowl and mix well.
3. Add the butter, egg and water to your mixing bowl and mix until smooth.
4. Add the chocolate chips (or chunks) to the mixing bowl and mix well.
5. Using a tablespoon put blobs of the mixture onto the baking tray at least a few centimetres apart (to allow for spreading).
6. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Allow to partly cool on the tray before transferring to a cooling rack.

Tips:

1. If you're in a hurry these can be made with an electric hand whisk in just a couple of minutes, just add everything except the chocolate chips at the same time, mix well, and then mix in the chocolate chips by hand.
2. You could replace the chocolate chips with any number of other things, such as fudge pieces, sultanas, dried apple (plus a teaspoon of cinnamon), be creative!
3. For a slightly different taste you can use golden caster sugar, which works best when you've replaced the chocolate chips with something fruity (like the suggestions above). 
4. For an extra chocolatey twist replace 30 g of the flour with cocoa!