Politicised Flapjacks

With a parental state visit occurring last week, we were prepping hard to pretend that we live like human beings. We did the hoovering, watered the houseplants, wiped and/or dusted all surfaces, and the plants on the balcony were either replaced or pruned to within an inch of their lives. The flat was sparkling but I wasn’t finished- what about food? My dad’s a coeliac, which means he can’t eat wheat. Now here’s where I get political: the government has decided to stop funding the special bread that my dad and countless others get on prescription from the pharmacy.

Gluten-Free Mince Pies

With Christmas just a few days away, I’m off home back to Yorkshire. But I couldn’t arrive empty-handed. My dad can’t eat wheat- he’s one of those genuine coeliacs, rather than the hipster type you see nowadays. That said, hipster trends have opened up the gluten-free market no end. You can actually go in a shop any buy something gluten-free by mistake because it actually resembles real food.

Gluten-Free Scottish Oatcakes

Since moving back home I feel this blog has taken on a theme; that of cooking meals my dad likes! I don’t have a problem with that; I’ve lost weight since moving, so clearly the meals I was making for myself in York –or should I say the endless stream of Pringles and blue cheese- weren’t doing me any favours. Living in the middle of nowhere means that a 2 mile round-trip walk, usually in the rain, separates me from indulging too much. Something anti-indulgence to me now is soup- it's the one thing in our house that never goes amiss and I make a lot of it. I’ve mentioned in a previous post that my Dad simply doesn’t eat lunch if there’s no soup. But I haven’t mentioned that he goes crazy for oatcakes- must be a Scottish thing! When I moved back, we had a hot July of oatcakes with goat’s cheese, made from a great little Midlothian recipe in The Scottish Cookery Book by Elizabeth Craig. I used coarse oatmeal bought randomly from the Baxter’s Soup Factory Shop somewhere on the Borders but when it ran out, any subsequent oatcakes I made had the texture of dust. Glutafin, who make the gluten-free flour we use, changed their white four mix recipe around the same time and now I have problems with lots of my baking. As a result, I’m turning to substitutions to help stabilise things and for this recipe, gram flour, with its nutty flavour worked as well as I’d hoped. Obviously if you’re on the oats-count-as-gluten side of the fence these aren’t for you, but non-allergy sufferers are free to use plain flour instead.