The Gluten Free Bore

It's official, I'm a gluten free bore.  As a foodie, being diagnosed with coeliac disease and discovering that I'd never be able to eat 'normally' again without serious, painful and eventually life threatening repercussions, sucked the big one.

Every single thing that goes into your mouth has to be checked.  You do of course learn what's gluten free and safe, and the bulk of your diet is managed accordingly but sometimes a company will change their recipe and you can get caught out.  And of course, if like me you like variety in your diet, you're always on the look out for new fun things.

This means I talk about gluten and gluten free foods, eating out, suppliers and recipes.  A lot.  I'm also a research geek so I've got a lot to say.  So, if you're looking for that elusive gluten free pork pie, pineapple tart, ditali, afternoon tea or recipe for best ever brownies, I'm probably a good place to start.  You know.  If you know who I am.

And, well, if you don't want to know any of those things, you'll probably end up finding them out if you spend any time in my company.  I'm going to try and reduce the boredom impact on non gluten free friends by posting information here about recipes, suppliers and places to eat out (or not as the case may be).

This is one of my current favourite things to make.  According to non GFers, they can't tell that they're gluten free and they were impressed, they're also easy to make, and if you wrap them individually they can be frozen well.  Just remove from the freezer, micro for 20 seconds or so and serve with butter melting into the cheesy lushness.

Cheese Scones
(Makes approx 8 square scones)

Ingredients
225g gluten free plain flour
1 ¼ tsp gluten free baking powder
½ tsp english mustard powder (not the made up version, that's likely to have wheat in it)
55g butter
55g mature cheddar cheese – finely grated plus extra for topping
160ml milk
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 220c/200c fan
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl
Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs
Stir in the cheese
Mix in enough milk to make a dough that's not wet or crumbly, you may not need all of it
Knead slightly on a floured surface
Flatten to 3/4 of an inch thick either with your hands or a rolling pin.
Cut into 2" rounds or shape the dough into a rectangle and cut into 8 pieces
Arrange on a greased baking sheet and brush the tops with milk
Top with a little cheese - or, frankly a lot and bake for 12 mins