A trial of gluten...

Well Lachie saw his paediatrician this week for his six monthly allergy check-up. During this last six months we were meant to have attempted to introduce dairy and egg to his diet. We did try the dairy. 'Hidden milk' (in biscuits and things) had no immediate effect on Lachie but cheese and yoghurt gave him hives. After a couple of weeks on 'hidden milk' his eczema flared up on his face so we went back to no dairy. And I couldn't face trying egg as it made him so sick the one time he has had it. So far from introducing more foods, we have gone the other way in continuing to avoid dairy and eggs and now avoiding gluten. Lachie's paediatrician took very seriously his apparent improved digestion on his gluten-free diet and has now suggested a test for coeliac disease. But of course this means he has to start eating gluten again. So for the next six weeks Lachie is gluten-eating.
Our nice paediatrician has suggested trying to get Lachie to eat a small portion of cereal and two pieces of bread a day. This is going to be no problem at all because our little Lachie likes nothing better than things containing gluten. Are they a bit addictive?
Back in the kitchen and dairy-and egg-free cooking now feels like a walk in the park. Fingers crossed that Lachie's tummy can cope...

Tis the season for chocolate biscuits

Yes, it is March and yes, Lachie is wearing a Father Christmas outfit. He is super cuddly in all that red velour. Yesterday we made our favorite biscuits - I can't believe I havn't posted this recipe before! These biscuits came from the Pure margarine website which is excellent - you tell them what you want to avoid and they give you recipes. They have lots of different versions of a shortbread recipe and this chocolate chip version is really very fine. I have been eating these biscuits all morning. They are loved by the gluten-free and gluten-eating alike and have a lovely melt in the mouth texture that you don't seem to get that often in gluten-free baking!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free)

200g Pure (dairy-free) margarine
100g caster sugar
200g rice flour
30g cocoa
100g chocolate chips (eg Dr Oetker plain chocolate chips which are dairy free)

Cream together the margarine and sugar and then mix in the other ingredients to get a thick dough. Lachie loves pouring in the chocolate chips (and then stealing them back out of the bowl).
Roll into little balls and arrange on a baking tray - I usually get at least 30 biscuits - and flatten each one with a fork. The biscuits don't spread when cooking so they can be fairly close together.
Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 12 - 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and try to resist eating them all while the chocolate chips are still molten.

If we are going to toddlers we usually take a couple of these in a tin for Lachie to eat, and Hamish is also partial to a couple on the way home from school.

Back from the brink...

It has been a quiet time on Lachie's Allergy Cookbook, primarily because Lachie hasn't needed much cooking. The wee chap has been poorly for a long time now, or that is how it feels to me! His third ear infection since Christmas was treated with a double dose of Erythromycin which gave him awful nappy rash and made him sick. He then picked up a horrible gastric bug which lasted another 5 days (and which he kindly passed on to his big brother), and that was followed by another 7 days with no appetite and much sleepiness. It is a very very sad time when Lachie cannot be tempted by crumble or cake and when he sits in his buggy just holding a biscuit because he doesn't have the appetite to eat it.

Anyway, this weekend he seems to have turned a corner and is back to three meals a day. This morning at the swimming pool his little trunks, usually skin tight, were all baggy and he spent most of the session saying 'Hungry! Hungry!' So it is official, Lachie is back from the brink.

Iced Chocolate Fairy Cakes

This is a recycled recipe as the mixture is the same as for the Snowflake Chocolate Cake, but in celebration of Lachie's return to normal life I made him some Chocolate Fairy Cakes. Half the Snowflake Chocolate Cake mixture will make 12 fairy cakes and I bake them for 20 minutes. When they were cool I iced them with simple water and icing sugar white icing and decorated with chocolate sprinkles - multicoloured hundreds and thousands contain gluten! So chocolate sprinkles it must be. Lachie was very pleased with them and after his first bite said... 'Mmmm'.

Welcome back Lachie!