Tastier than they look

But that wouldn't be all that hard, would it? From my box of Glutafin freebies, two rolls that looked even scarier in the packaging. I know they could easily be mistaken for plastic rolls from a kids' play bakery, but filled with egg mayo they were ok. I did hollow out some of the dough to make the egg/roll ratio a bit more palatable, mind. Still, all is not lost.

Pizza Palaver

When I was first pondering my diagnosis of coeliacs I had a moment of mourning my trusty breadmaker. It's a Panasonic that I've had for 5 years or so, during which time it has produced many a tasty gluten-filled loaf and vast quantities of pizza dough. But as I've started to discover how expensive and generally yucky shop-bought GF bread is, I've started looking and found a good many recipes for bread machines. Mine even has a GF setting.

My first attempt at a loaf this weekend was too disastrous to write about (let's just say very very soggy) but this evening I decided to have a go at a pizza base. Not having stocked up on all the different types of GF flour yet, I used a Doves Farm white bread mix. Putting it all together with milk and eggs and things was a bit more complicated than the usual mix, but not that hard. And once I'd scraped the flour off the sides at the start of the programme it all started to look a bit, well, dough-ish.

First surprise: the instructions say "spread the dough on to an oiled tray". I didn't realise they really meant "spread". It's like a very thick cake mixture, and needs spreading on to the tray with a spatula. OK. We can do that, although non-GF husband is starting to raise his eyebrows and mutter in the background. Into the oven though and after ten minutes it's smelling like a pizza base - even NGFH admits so. Bring it out browned and looking ok, top with tomato, cheese, veg etc (and ham and pineapple on NGFH's side) and back in for 15.

The verdict? "Edible". With a flavoursome topping the first few mouthfuls were "hmm, yes, not bad" but then the general blandness and spongy-ness of it started to kick in. It certainly would have been better as a very thin base (note for next time) and it needed more salt. Mind you I used to make pizza dough with pesto in it, so we're used to more flavour.

Have heard good things about this mix that I'm going to try soon. Hints and tips gratefully received. For now, missing wheat.

Passable Pita

Had a remarkably edible sandwich for lunch using Tesco's Free From pita bread, filled with grilled halloumi cheese and some chopped red pepper. I think I would just about say that it could have passed for normal pita, in both texture and taste. Yay.