Gluten and dairy free breakfast - rice pudding

When following a gluten and dairy free diet it can be very difficult to get excited about breakfast. My go-to is peanut butter - or even nut free butter - on gluten free toast. 

But after four consecutive days I crave something different, something wholesome and filling. 

That's where rice pudding can step up and satisfy. When I was pregnant with my daughter I ate two bowlfuls every day! You'd think I'd have had enough to last a lifetime but I still love the creamy, warm dessert, especially when it's for breakfast!

Since following a dairy and gluten free diet I've struggled to find a good recipe that cuts the mustard - or the nutmeg! 

Initially I tried soya milk, which was OK but had a bit of an after taste. 

You'd think rice milk would work - rice and rice right? Unfortunately not! It just ended up a big congealed lump that even if you could get past how bad it looked, it tasted revolting! 

Coconut milk tasted too coconutty! I'm not sure what else I expected but whilst I can take a splash of coconut milk in my tea, I don't really like coconut flavour, so an entire carton in a rice pudding was just too strong. 

Finally I hit on the perfect recipe - oat milk. And if you add a few glugs of Oatly creamy (available from Ocado) it's even better. There's no need to be perfect with the measurements as long as you're somewhere close! In this recipe I've also cut the sugar content down, which can only be a good thing! 

Happy baking! 

Dairy-free, gluten-free oat milk rice pudding 

85g pudding rice

35g sugar

One carton (one litre) organic Oat-ly oat milk 

Half carton (125ml) Oat-ly creamy oat

5 small knobs of dairy-free spread (I used Pure Sunflower) 

a generous sprinkle of nutmeg 

Put the rice and sugar in a large roasting dish, pour the oat milk and creamy oat on top. Add small knobs of the dairy-free spread and sprinkle with nutmeg. 

Bake at 130 (fan) or 150 for two and a half hours. 

With my portion sizes, I get just four dishes out of this recipe, which is just about right for keeping in the fridge for four breakfasts unless the kids see it and then it's all gone in one go!  Normal people who aren't quite so greedy might get six portions. 

Pancake perfection

I cannot let Shrove Tuesday pass by without making some scrummy pancakes. I love them and we often have these for a weekend breakfast. Babypuddleduck (aged 6) loves to make it a treat with maple syrup or golden syrup. Me and my boy (2) can just eat them plain! 

As we are following a gluten-free and dairy-free diet at the moment, I've tried to create pancakes that we can also enjoy guilt-free. I prefer a spongy, fluffy pancake to the very thin crepe style, I think it's because they're a bit more filling and satisfying and can be eaten alone.

I've scoured Pinterest and tried a few recipes recently but tonight I followed the Doves Farm recipe for Scotch pancakes (dropped scones).  I replaced the milk with Oatly Oat drink and in my humble opinion these beat the rice milk and soya milk versions hands down.

They rose nicely and cooked well and got the thumbs up from all three of us.

Being the idealistic mother that I am, I tried to make some fun shapes for the kids' pancakes - with limited success.  They got stuck in the moulds (cookie cutters) and I burnt my fingers trying to flip them over! I then tried to do some shapes freehand - a car, a heart - but these were even worse. My boy had fun though trying to decipher what the mis-shapen ones were supposed to be..... a tree of course! 

Needless to say, they didn't last too long and we enjoyed the whole batter mix between the three of us! I ate mine with a nectarine slice rolled up in each round, the boy had yoghurt to dip in and babypuddleduck reverted to her default syrups.

I'd definitely try these with Oat 'milk' again as they had a lovely texture and taste. This poor gingerbread shaped pancake didn't stand a chance with my boy around!