I talked about ‘the trimmings’ that go with turkey a couple of days ago; but what about the ‘trimmings’ that go with mince pies or Christmas pudding?
These could be:
- brandy butter
- custard
- cream
Cream, whether single, double, whipped, sour (!) or pouring is naturally gluten free, so unless you’re adding something very odd indeed, this should be fine.
Brandy butter should just be butter, sugar and brandy, though if you’re buying ready-made, do check the ingredients because as we know, manufacturers do tend to add flour to the oddest things. Brandy, incidentally, is gluten free (unless something is added post distillation). I always make ours, and I do it by eye (and taste), not by measure, so here are a couple of proper recipes for you. Interestingly, both use brown sugar where I use icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar) so I might try it with brown sugar this year:
- Delia’s brandy butter
- Antony Worrall Thompson’s brandy butter – he adds citrus zest and spices too
Custard may be more risky. Traditionally, this is made using cornflour (see Mary Berry’s recipe for custard), and it is surprisingly easy to do, though I confess that when I make custard I omit the cream… If you’re buying custard, do check just in case. If you’re in the UK, then you can rely on Ambrosia and Bird’s.
Another option is to use a good thick yoghurt, probably Greek. And Greek yoghurt is available at 0% fat, if you’re trying to monitor such things over Christmas…
  |
I’ve written a book summarising what we’ve learnt over 20 years of dealing with the gluten free diet, and it might be just what you’re looking for. It packs the lessons we’ve learned into what I hope is a helpful and straightforward guidebook. It’s available on Amazon, as a paperback or for your Kindle… |
