After weeks of complicated bakes, this week brought about a new challenge, the humble digestive biscuit.  The reason behind our need for digestives was the upcoming Enrichment morning at school.  The previous 3 such mornings have been crafts, but this one, the last of the year, saw G and M preparing vegetable soup, bread rolls and a chocolate and biscuit dessert for their lunch. School had been great about making sure both children could fully participate in the activity and had emailed me the recipes, so that I could make any adjustments needed.

Courtesy of artisansbaking.co.in

The vegetable soup contained a number of vegetables – butternut squash, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms – as well as potatoes, mustard, paprika and cheddar cheese.  I asked if they could exchange the potatoes for sweet potatoes, which M can eat and miss out the cheddar cheese completely.  The answer was a resounding yes and the result, according to M, was delicious, although he felt it would have been even better without the broccoli!  He enjoyed it so much that he’s keen to have a go at home for a family lunch one weekend.  I didn’t bother with the bread roll as I’ve yet to find a good, simple and tasty rice flour bread recipe and I simply sent it some slices of M’s bread to be toasted and eaten with their soup.

The bigger challenge was the dessert.  It was a relatively simple recipe and I could easily replace most of the ingredients with M-friendly ones.  However, digestive biscuits were more of a challenge.  Due to our current exclusion of potatoes from M’s diet, it is almost impossible to buy safe biscuits for M as potato flour is a commonly used replacement in gluten-free recipes. So. there was only one thing for it and I rolled up my sleeves, pulled out my trusty tablet and found a great recipe for gluten-free digestives.  I replaced the oats with millet flakes so that they were G-friendly too and quickly baked a batch.  I measured out enough for the school baking project and tried the leftovers on my 2 willing taste-testers.  Another instant hit and I have to admit that even I was impressed with how much like “normal” digestives they look, a bake I’m definitely proud to have made.

Even better, and just in time for enrichment morning,  the brand new allergen substitution sheets produced by the amazing Allergy Adventures fell into my inbox.  These simple and easy-to-follow sheets show easy substitutes, including quantities, for common allergens and give useful notes about the ingredients too.  We first discovered Allergy Adventures at last year’s Allergy and Freefrom show and have found them a brilliant source of information and tips for families dealing with food allergies.  If you’ve not visited Allergy Adventures before, I would highly recommend a look.  I printed the sheets out and handed them into school, not so much for this baking session, but rather as a reference for future planning when it comes to both G and M.

Enrichment morning was a great success.  Soup and toast was eaten and their chocolate/biscuit creation enjoyed.  There was even a little leftover to bring home to finish off at home, even if it looked a little nibbled when I took it back out of the box.  A great end to the week!

Not much was left, but it definitely tasted delicious!

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