Madonna biscuits

Gluten-free baking can be a challenge. And, in my experience, no form of gluten-free baking is more challenging than the humble biscuit. 

Gluten-free biscuits either turn into buttery pancakes or gritty sanding blocks. Or, if you're particularly lucky, some weird combination of both. 

I've tried countless recipes for gluten-free biscuits with little success. I thought maybe it was just me. Perhaps I just had biscuit-cooking incompetence to go with my intolerances? 

But my mother has assured me that is not the case. My Mother's garden statue, Madonna, has been lovingly doused with baking on a number of occasions after ill-fated attempts at making gluten-free biscuits - and Mum's a baking guru.   

So, in the end, I have given up and decided to make up my own biscuit recipes. 

These are my super easy peanut brownies. They are gluten-free, low in FODMAPs, and low in sugar. Plus they are pretty tasty. Sorry, birds - none for you today!

They also make use of Healtheries ground LSA (linseed, sunflower, and almond mix), my favourite new addition to our kitchen. Add a tablespoon to brown rice porridge for a delicious, wholesome breakfast.

Enjoy!

Madonna biscuits.

Madonna biscuits 

Ingredients 

25g butter 

1/2 cup of oil

1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter

1/3 cup of golden syrup

1/2 cup of desiccated coconut*

1/2 cup of ground LSA (linseed, sunflower, and almond mix)* 

2 cups of gluten-free flour blend (Edmonds is good)

1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips* 

2 tsp vanilla 

1 egg 

Method

Preheat oven to 180'C. Gently heat butter, oil, peanut butter, and golden syrup in a pot until a smooth consistency. Set aside to cool for a few minutes. In the meantime, grease your oven tray. Then mix together coconut, LSA mix, and flour blend in a bowl. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and egg to the wet mix and stir. Combine wet mix to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Roll into balls and place on the oven tray (2-3 teaspoons of batter per biscuit). Flatten biscuits slightly with a wet fork. Bake for 12 minutes. Makes 20-24 biscuits.

Note: I don't like my biscuits too sugary, but you could add a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar to the pot if you want some more sweetness in your life. And, if you can tolerate it, these would be amazing with melted chocolate drizzled on top. 

* These quantities are such that a 2 biscuit serving is low in FODMAPs. Larger quantities can be high in FODMAPs, so eating the whole batch in one sitting should probably be avoided if you have IBS.

  

PS: You can now follow A bit moreish on Facebook. Just go to www.facebook.com/abitmoreish and like the page to stay updated. 

Not-so-forbidden fruit

One of the challenging things about the low-FODMAP diet is that it restricts a number of healthy, wholesome foods, which is a key reason why seeking professional advice about the diet is important. 

Fruit, in particular, can be tricky. 

Mandarins - a year round FODMAP friendly fruit.

A number of fruits trigger symptoms of irritable bowel. This includes some quite common fruit varieties - apples and pears, for example - and many that tend to be canned or dried, like peaches and apricots. 

An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Ah, no. Not in this case.   

Thankfully, there are a number of fresh fruits that are easy on the tummy. So there's no need to sacrifice nourishing fruit - and the accompanying fibre or flavour - when pursuing digestive health. 

Blueberries and lactose-free yoghurt.

To help you make the most of tummy-friendly produce, I've put together a guide to low-FODMAP fruits by New Zealand season.

Shopping by season is great for ensuring that you are getting the freshest of flavours. The economist side of my brain likes the value-for-money aspect, too.

There are exciting flavours available no matter the time of year, including a number of options that are available year round.

In fact, there are so many fruit options. You might just discover some new favourites!

Add stewed rhubarb or defrosted berries to your breakfast (or your pudding, for that matter!). Make fresh fruit salad with pineapple, grapes, and berries, adding kiwifruit or melon depending on the time of year. Or pop bananas, mandarins and kiwifruit into your lunchbox (because you're never too old to own a SpongeBob lunchbox). 

Low-FODMAP fruit by season

This guide was put together using the Monash University app and 5+ a day website. A vegetable guide will follow in a subsequent post. 

Some of these fruits (denoted by asterisks) are high in FODMAP when consumed in large quantities - check the Monash University app for details. 

PS: Yes, I know that rhubarb is technically a vegetable; and tomatoes (which have been omitted) are technically a fruit. The way I see it, if it could conceivably go in a shortcake, it makes the list. Tomato shortcake anyone? Didn't think so.

Rhubarb and berry shortcake.

Friday night in

Looking for an easy, tasty Friday night dinner? Something to go with a glass of wine and back-to-back episodes of Gossip Girl, perhaps? Yeah, me too. 

My easy Friday-night-in dinners usually involve pasta, or some other form of carb-filled deliciousness (oven fries are another winner). 

But unfortunately on a low-FODMAP diet, easy pasta sauce options are pretty limited. Cream, garlic, onion and mushroom are all out. So.... yeah.

Today's experiment: low-FODMAP / gluten-free pesto. 

Simply put a good handful of fresh basil, some pine nuts, parmesan, and 3 teaspoons of garlic-infused oil in a food processor. Whizz it up, add pepper, and season generously with salt. 

The key here is to make it to your taste. Hmmm, does it need more cheese? Of course it does. 

In a matter of minutes, you'll have an easy pesto base from which to make whatever pasta dish you fancy. 

You'll be on the couch watching Gossip Girl in no time. 

Happy Friday!

Pesto with gluten-free pasta, cherry tomatoes and prosciutto ham.

Taking me back to my gluten days

The closest us gluten-free kids might ever get to KFC: Rick Grant's chicken seasoning mix.

Plus - you guessed it - it's low-FODMAP (finding products like this without onion and garlic in them is actually quite incredible).

                             

All you need to do is whip up the batter, coat, shallow fry, bake and serve. (For the full experience, deep frying is optional - though it really isn't necessary.) 

This little number will take you back to your good old gluten days - only without the heinous stomach problems, gut damage, and tiredness. 

In fact, I'd even recommend this little gem for people who aren't gluten free. Let's be honest, fried chicken is going to test the stomachs of even the most gluten-tolerant of us. And it's low fructose, dairy, egg, and soy free. (I'm going to take a punt here and guess that the secret ingredient is salt.)

Whip this up and you'll have yourself a tasty, nostalgic dinner - only with zero fuss and zero gluten.

Pair it with Lingham's chilli sauce (low-FODMAP and gluten free), and you'll have yourself a spicy, tasty treat.

Fried chicken with, rice, bok choy, carrots, and a splash of chilli sauce. 

You can get these sachets through New World, but you may have to ask someone to order it in for you (sadly, New World Thorndon hasn't responded to the email I sent them about it...). 

We've checked out all the supermarkets in Wellington trying to find it, but to no avail. So if anyone happens to come across this little treasure, I'd love to know. 

This sachet was sourced in Christchurch (thanks, Carol!), so stock up next time you are visiting! 

Marriage brownies

This week I started the 'challenge phase' of my low-FODMAP diet. Taking high-FODMAP foods out of my diet has improved my symptoms considerably. My stomach pains have subsided, my bowels are less irritable, and my tiredness has gone. 

So now it's time to figure out which of the sugars I am sensitive to and how sensitive I am. 

First up, was lactose. 

I started this week absolutely convinced that the lactose challenge would be easy. I thought that I would be able to eat milk, yoghurt - a tub of ice cream if I was allowed - with absolutely no ill effects. Completely and utterly convinced. 

Unfortunately, not so. 

My lactose challenge. Not so challenging to eat, at least. 

After a rather unpleasant couple of days, it has become apparent that lactose might be an issue, after all. We'll see what my dietitian says - cutting back on dairy products is a big deal, nutritionally speaking, so shouldn't be contemplated without professional advice - but it is possible that I might have to keep my lactose intake fairly contained going forward. 

Thankfully, cheese and butter have very low levels of lactose, so I can still get my dairy fix. Plus, these lactose-free treats are pretty amazing. 

But, I'm fairly gutted about the implications for my dessert consumption. 

So, in light of that, I thought it was time to share the joy of marriage brownies - so named, because they are supposedly "marriage-proposal inducing" (someone else's words, not mine). 

These puppies are gluten free and can be made dairy free. They are also low-FODMAP, provided you keep the serving size contained. Large quantities of cocoa / chocolate are high in FODMAPs. And while butter and white sugar aren't high in FODMAPs, large servings of these aren't recommended, either. 

Marriage Brownies

Ingredients

200g butter (or dairy-free spread) 

1½ cups of sugar

1 cup of cocoa

3 eggs 

¾ cup of gluten-free flour blend (we like Healtheries and Edmonds)

150g dark chocolate chips 

Method

Preheat oven to 150'c. Grease and line a 20x20cm cake tin. Cream butter and sugar. Add cocoa and beat well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour. Then stir in chocolate. Bake for an hour.

If the brownie looks a bit undercooked when it first comes out of the oven, don't worry - it isn't.

You can used a different shaped cake tin, but try not to use one that's too big. The brownie needs to be sufficiently thick to have the optimal level of squishyness. 

If you want to cut the brownie up into tidy pieces, leave it to cool overnight. This will allow the brownie to set. Alternatively, it is excellent warm and squidgy with vanilla ice cream (So Good soy ice cream is good). 

And, if you can tolerate it, a good dollop of cream on top is pretty scrummy too!

It will be a pretty thick mixture.

Don't worry about pressing it flat. It will melt into shape.

The optimal level of squishy.

My low-lactose treat with So Good soy ice cream.