Speedy "Danish" Pastries

Having bought some Silly Yak ready made Gluten Free puff pastry, and looking for some breakfast ideas to tempt Sous Chef J, I hit on the idea of a sort-of Danish pastry.  We've also been blackberry picking this week and had made some stewed Blackberry and Apple... a plan formed.  A very SIMPLE plan.

Ingredients -

Silly Yak Gluten Free puff pastry (half a pack)
Four tablespoons of stewed fruit
a little beaten egg

To decorate/drizzle - two tablespoons of icing sugar and a small amount of warm water (make this as thick or runny as you like... it's your choice!)

Starting with the pastry block, it was rolled out to about 5mm thickness (we do this on a silicone sheet dusted with gluten free flour). 

The pastry was then cut into four squares.

An Lshaped cut was made to opposite sides of the square, the inner square's edges were brushed with egg and the cut section was carefully folded to line up with the inner square.

The pastry shapes were then put onto a non-stick baking sheet, brushed with egg and put in the fridge to chill whilst the oven reached baking temperature.

Once chilled, about a tablespoon of the stewed fruit mix was placed in the middle of each pastry.



Baking the pastries in a preheated oven at 180ºC for 8-10minutes, we checked them and turned the sheet, baking for a further 2 minutes before removing and cooling on the baking sheet.














The pastries were then drizzled with icing as decoration, just before serving. 

Breakfast on the go...

We were staying away overnight last month and knew there'd be no suitable Gluten Free breakfast 'offerings' as part of the budget-hotel's B&B deal.  So, it was very timely to discover some Perk!er foods instant porridge pots and Nairn's Breakfast biscuits in our local Sainsbury's Free From shelves.

The Perk!er porridge pots were simple to use and provided a warming, tasty start to the day.  We tried the Apple, Cinnamon and Raisin and also the Fruit Berry flavours.  Making the porridge is easy - just fill to the line marked on the outside with boiling water, stir and wait...

 ... Sous Chef J tried them both and decided the Fruit Berry pot was his favourite.  We'll be sorting out a supply for mornings where we need a speedy start over the winter months.

Another breakfast item that is popular with Sous Chef J is Nairn's biscuit breaks.  There are two varieties to choose from - oats & syrup or oats & fruit.  Sous Chef J favours the fruity ones and likes the fact that the biscuits come in handy 4 biscuit packs...or pouches as Nairn's call them... there are 4 pouches per box.

It's good to know we now have on the go Gluten Free 'options' for breakfast which are quick, easy and tasty too.

Great Granola

For months we have been trying to get Sous Chef J to eat more ... and breakfast has been a particular challenge.  So, it was lovely to be contacted and asked if we'd be interested in trying a couple of new Gluten Free Granola products by Nature's Path.




First off we tried the Nice and Nobbly Granola with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries with yogurt chunks... and Sous Chef J chose to have this with some fresh strawberries, nectarines and double cream. 

He said it was 'crunchy and tasty' and particularly like the 'fruity bits'. 

The pumpkin seed, almonds, raisins and cinnamon version of the granola is also dairy free and Sous Chef J likes it as an 'anytime snack'... by the handful.

Although it doesn't mention it on the front, my detective Sous Chef noticed, when weighing out a 30g 'portion', that there was "another something" in the mix... reading the ingredients list, it was found to be dried cranberries, and discovered there's also coconut.  It smells divine and tastes good too!

Having had the granola to try, Sous Chef J has been on the look out when we've been shopping and he's now spotted them in Waitrose and Tesco but we're told it's also available in Sainsbury's and online at Ocado. 

The granola is packaged in a re-sealable pouch and retails at £3.49 for 312g.

DISCLOSURE - we were sent two packets of granola to try but have not been paid for this post.  These opinions are our own.

'Our' BLT Sarnie

Having been trying to 're-brand' a few food types to encourage Sous Chef J to eat more (and stop losing weight) a weekend breakfast option had been bacon sandwiches but he's not keen on 'thick' meat.  So, we thought about an alternative and pancetta came to mind.

As usual, we gathered the ingredients needed - in this case, Genius Gluten Free Seeded Bread, tomato ketchup, lettuce and tomatoes.  

For the 'bacon', we got a pack of pancetta and fried it til crispy.

Whilst the pancetta was being cooked, the bread was spread with tomato ketchup then lettuce and tomato slices added.

Finally, the fried pancetta was added, the top slice of bread was flipped over to top the sandwich.

All that was left was to eat the delicious breakfast sandwich.  Sous Chef J ate almost all of his and that's a real improvement on previous "offerings", as he calls them!

Genius Breakfast Pastries

Last week, after a particularly wearing hospital appointment, we took Sous Chef J to a Tesco Extra as a treat (yes, really!)  It was late morning and, luckily, the shop was quite empty.  J busied himself with "perusing the bakugan and pokemon offerings" (which B was left to supervise) and I dashed off for a speed shop.  Having located the, frankly very reduced in number, free from shelves I spotted the Genius Gluten Free breakfast items I'd been reading about... and, even better, they were on offer.  So, I bought the pain au chocolat 2 packs to try.

What was really amazing was that when we got home, we found we'd won a twitter competition and were being sent some croissants from the Genius range. What luck.... more on them later.

Saturday morning came and Sous Chef J was keen to taste test the pain au chocolats.  We were rather naughty and decided to ignore the cooking instructions on the pack.  Instead, we used the bun warming rack on our toaster.  We had the heat setting on 4 and did each side once.  This was enough to melt the chocolate hidden within the crispy pastry.  We all loved them and couldn't wait for our twitter treat to be delivered so we could sample the croissants too.

Happily, we didn't have to wait long and on Monday we opened a package that contained a 2 pack of croissants, some recipe cards and a Genius wooden spoon.  We had an early start ahead of us the next day so decided that the croissants would be a great way to keep us going.

Once again, when it came to preparing the croissants, we ignored the 'cook in a preheated oven' instructions (sorry, Genius) and used our pastry rack on the toaster. 

Once heated through, we sliced into the croissants to check the look of the pastry and were very pleasantly surprised.  The croissants looked just like gluten-containing ones!  So, we buttered, jammed and ate.

Having only had one pack of croissants to eat, and given Sous Chef J is a "growing lad", we supplemented our breakfast eats with some toasted fruit loaf.  Sous Chef J also added some nectarines to make it a fruity fruit loaf feast.

We are delighted to have found a lovely selection of gluten free breakfast items.  Although, as in our gluten eating days, they won't be daily breakfast items and we will be saving them for high days and holidays.