Gluten free/ dairy free pudding ideas

[Pip290]

We are hosting a big family birthday for my mum. I really need some wow celebratory puddings that will cater for BOTH gluten free and dairy free simultaneously. Bonus points if they serve lots of people or can be scaled up (there will be 35 guests). Even better if they can be made ahead!

Any help hugely appreciated!

Do you mean one pudding that is both gluten free and dairy free? That’s quite limiting (as I sadly know!). Meringue, jelly and sorbet are the best places to start. Cake recipes are doable.
Have you asked ChatGPT? It’s pretty good on this stuff.

Something with meringue? Meringue nests with fruit and fruit sauce/compote, with optional cream for non-dairy free people?

This is nice, and easier than it looks, but you’d have to make a few! Could make a couple with cream and a couple without.
https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/red-berry-meringue-roulade.html

One of my BFs is DF and GF so I have a couple of good recipes up my sleeve.

This is delicious:
obviously make sure your polenta is GF. Serve with compote, fresh berries (and maybe some creme fraiche on the side for those not DF?) I'd happily make this the day before or even the day before that, if it makes your life easier.
https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/nigella-lawsons-vegan-lemon-polenta-cake/

This is also fabulous:
I have prepped the pineapple in the morning (rather than the stipulated two hours) with no effect on quality.
www.ainsley-harriott.com/recipe/pineapple-carpaccio-with-passion-fruit-chilli-mint-and-coconut-lime-ice-cream/

Brownies work well gf and you can serve with fruit sorbet.

Becky Excell glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/ has hundreds of GF recipes and almost always suggests ways to make them DF as well if required. Is it full DF or lactose free?

Following for general ideas but just as info, if you choose to do something with ice cream the nicest dairy free is Swedish Glacé

Sorbet?

Fresh fruit salad with elderflower cordial as a dressing, served in meringue nests with dairy-free cream (coconut collaborative is good).

A big bowl of fresh strawberries, served with dairy-free ice cream. Sometimes keeping it simple is best.

Trifle made with Bonne Maman madelines (I split them and sandwich them together with raspberry jam, line the bottom of the trifle dish with them, then sprinkle amaretto liqueur all over the base). Fresh raspberries set in the jelly layer, and Coconut Collaborative/any other vegan custard and cream on the top.

GF brownies made with Stork instead of butter, served with fresh raspberries and a raspberry coulis.

Rice pudding with rice milk is very good. It can also be done in a slow cooker.

If you want to make it snazzy, make the pudding ahead with plenty of lemon zest, separate some eggs, whisk the yolks a little and fold through.

Whisk the whites to soft peak and fold through. Place dish in a tray of hot water and bake at 180 until risen and golden brown.

Pears in red wine

Try Rhian's Recipes website.

Here’s an almond flour chocolate cake that’s naturally GF and DF. Just use olive oil or margarine to grease the pan. https://www.vanillabeancuisine.com/almond-flour-chocolate-cake/

I don’t know why my reply is hidden- it’s a link to a Green and Blacks chocolate mousse cake- google will find it

it’s extremely simple and turned out very well.

been making it for years. Didn’t even clock it was GF until recently. I sub the butter for block flora for DF.

@Pip290 I make a traditional tiramisu recipe but with dairy and gluten free ingredients. It's even chocolate free as my youngest has a cocoa allergy so I use carob, but it's really nice and could easily be scaled up to make enough for more people.

https://www.recipesfromitaly.com/tiramisu-original-italian-recipe/

Thank you all so much! I am busy looking these up and writing them down in my binder. I am a good cook, but I have a number of nieces and nephews who are either GF, DF, or both, and I think it is horribly hard as a child not to be able to have the “good puddings”. It is so important to me that they look at the options for them and feel equally excited by what is on offer.

I did pick up on a little wistful sadness on Boxing Day when my niece, who is the most gorgeous, kind and polite girl known to man, politely said thank you for getting her the “delicious sorbet and fruit salad”. It was a real wake up call for me. Yes, it was a lovely fruit salad and the sorbet was a good one, but let’s face it, at seven you just really want the cakes and puddings like the others.

If I do not use them this time I certainly will in future! Thank you, and keep them coming ☺️

Meringue nests are good. I did some with whipped Elmlea and raspberries in and honestly they tasted excellent (I'm gluten intolerant and not great with cream).

I also really like M&s's GF coffee and walnut cake, although it's not dairy free.

There's also a nice frozen Free From apple crumble you can get in Waitrose.

@Pip290 I made that chocolate almond flour cake tonight and it is DELICIOUS. I used a much wider and thinner pie plate and it became a rather thin cake like you get in French restaurants, the moelleux. I served it with double cream but I’m going to make it again next week for company and serve it warm with ice cream. I highly recommend it for your little family members to make them feel included!

Macaroon style almond biscuits are quite easy - there are several recipes in Nigella’s Domestic Goddess - there’s also a German one called Zimtsterne that you can cut out like gingerbread men & ice (not in the book but you might be able to find it online) with water icing. The macaroons are basically almonds, sugar and egg white. The main thing to watch not to overcook them. They would go well with sorbet / ice-cream perhaps with meringues too. You could even look to create a sundae style dish that you see in ice-cream parlours so the fruit & sorbet etc are in a nice dish with meringues &/ macaroons & you could add a sauce & possibly some sweets. That might even attract some envy from the adults which your niece might enjoy.

There’s also an easy flapjack recipe in the Donestic Goddess book - not very exotic, but the golden syrup is child friendly. I’ve also seen flapjack with icing / chocolate drizzled over the top (admittedly I’ve not tried this).

Polenta cakes are also really good - I have a cookery book called Bake it Slice it Eat it that has several tray bake style ones (some gluten free) & their cakes are massive. My favourite one is made with orange & olive oil & pecan nuts (I use a very light oil). The book also has several other gluten free recipes.

If eggs are ok, then this is quite good:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sunken-chocolate-olive-oil-hazelnut-cake

It's easyish to make but requires lots of bowls, and it tastes yummy.

Macaroons are a good call. The multi coloured ones will look really fancy to a child. I'd buy them though. Made some last Christmas and used just about every implement in the kitchen plus a few I borrowed from a neighbour!

Macaroons or macarons?

macaroons are quite easy to make. I really don’t like them though, they’re dry with an funny texture.

macarons on the other hand a wonderful little bites of joy. If you want ready made try Picard. Keep a box hidden in the freezer 😂

There are lots of different versions of biscuits that are basically ground almonds (or other nuts), egg whites & sugar. I would use macaroon as a generic name.

Macarons are the French ones that are pretty coloured & sandwiched together with jam. I haven’t tried making these as my recipe includes grinding pistachio nuts - that’s probably why they are quite expensive. There are also the Italian amaretti biscuits that can be hard or soft (again not tried baking those).

The ones I have tried baking are a bit humbler (but can be made in large quantities) & are:

Zimtsterne are a type of German Christmas biscuits - I think there are other similar types of German Christmas biscuits in the same style. I started to make these as my favourite gingerbread recipe uses egg yolks so I wanted a recipe to use up the whites. These are quite easy (although I do have a large mixer to do the hard work of beating the egg whites) & the dough stood up to be rolled & cut out by DC.

The easiest ones I have made are Nigella’s Spanish macaroons that you just roll in rough balls - I’m not too keen on these but DS2 devours them.

My current favourite is Nigella’s Ricciarelli, which are fairly easy diamond shaped biscuits - these seem to be quite fashionable to sell in small bags at present as I’ve seen them in bakers & M&S, so it is quite satisfying to make a large batch.

Both the last 2 are quite forgiving for using substitute flavourings (eg marmalade if you want to bake at short notice & have no oranges). I tend to miss out the almond essence in all these recipes as I find it a bit overpowering.

All macaroons take a bit of getting used to compared to normal biscuits as the texture is different, but ground almonds are definitely your friend in baking gluten free if (like me) you are not an expert.

I also wondered about buying or even making ice lollies from fruit juice rather than a sorbet - I have vague memories of an Annabel Karmel recipe where she used different types of juice in a mould so you got different colour layers.

I must mean macarons then. The yummy little jewel coloured round sandwiches.

Mmmmm.

Off to Waitrose.