Desserts Without Gluten: A Few Suggestions

 People seem to believe that adopting a gluten-free lifestyle entails avoiding sweet shops—at least, nice desserts. Nevertheless, things don't necessarily have to be that way.

It's advisable to avoid the "Free From" aisles when looking for gluten-free treats. To be completely honest, I wouldn't eat those other than pasta. Most of the goods are, at best, fairly tasteless and extremely expensive.

But, there isn't much of a requirement for flour in sweets anyway. Ideally, you will have had enough food in the main course to fill you up, making the sweet course more of a codicil and taste sensation.

What can you consume for afters that isn't gluten-free, then? Here are some recommendations.

First off, a fresh fruit salad is one of the nicest things to eat in the summer and is also extremely simple to make. Simply buy a lot of fruit, chop it up, and add juice or syrup. The secret is to save the fruit that ages in the air till last. Hence, go ahead and add banana and apple chunks, but add them after you've prepared the liquid that binds everything together. Add some lemon or orange juice as well, just to be cautious (the acid stops the reaction from occurring).

Chop the fruit into roughly equal-sized pieces. Go for that size if you're adding grapes or cherries (which you'll likely chop in half to remove the stones or pips). Raspberries and blackberries are always served whole, but if strawberries are too large, they might be chopped in half or even into quarters. When cutting up Chinese gooseberries or kiwi fruit, the skins should be removed. The simplest method for doing this is by slicing off the stalk end, scoring them all over, and then submerging them briefly in a dish of extremely hot (even boiling) water before placing them in a bowl of cool water. The skin should then readily peel off after that.

You can either use grape or apple juice, which is preferable, or you can make a sugar syrup by dissolving some sugar in some hot water and adding cold water to make up the liquid. My friend uses bubbly lemonade, but I've never found it to be particularly appealing. Also, you might add the juice from a tin of mandarin oranges. As a dessert, serve the fruit salad on its own or with a dollop of cream, another garnish, or some gluten-free ice cream.

You may make a fruit jelly if you have a little more time to prepare (jello). It may seem like kid-friendly fare, and kids will probably enjoy it, but it's actually rather pleasant, and jelly naturally has no gluten.

Fruit can be used either fresh or tinned. I usually use canned, and when preparing the jelly, I include some of the liquid from the can. Simply add your jello mix or cubes to a measuring cup, stir to combine, then add the least quantity of boiling water necessary to completely dissolve the mixture before adding the can of juice. If you don't have enough juice, you can add water to make it just the correct amount. Don't use too much water because there will still be some juice on the fruit!

Pour the jelly over the fruit in the bowl or jelly mold, cover, and place in the refrigerator to set. This is delicious with ice cream made without gluten or evaporated milk, as well as your preferred topping.

You may make a pavlova for a truly unique dessert that you'll probably want to save for rare occasions. Simply said, this is a sizable nest of meringue that is deliciously stuffed with fruit and cream. The meringue is prepared the day before so that it has time to chill, and it is filled right before serving. Pavlovas can also be purchased frozen (remember to check the label). Although it is spelled correctly, the word pavlova is derived from the name of the dancer, Anna Pavlova, for whom the dish was initially developed. I'm not sure how frequently she consumed it, though, as ballerinas are required to maintain a healthy weight, and this delicacy is definitely not for those on a diet!

A homemade rice pudding is an additional suggestion that is a little outdated but quite tasty. A large casserole dish, 112 quarts of breakfast milk (or full cream milk), 4 ounces of pudding rice, 2-4 tablespoons of sugar (depending to taste), and a dash of nutmeg or cinnamon are required. If you use nutmeg, take care not to use too much because the pudding will become bitter and become entirely unpalatable. When it comes to nutmeg, less really is more. If the milk isn't creamy, you should add two or three tiny pieces of butter.

Although adding some raisins is an option, I prefer my rice pudding without them.

Just combine all the ingredients in the casserole dish and bake it in the middle of the oven, or near the bottom if you're also cooking something else at the same time. Set the oven's temperature to around 300°F (150°C, gas mark 2). Stir it once after 30 minutes and once more after another 30. Cook the rice for one another hour, then check to see if it's nice and soft. Carefully lift the lovely brown skin so as not to ruin it, then spoon out a small amount. Let it cool, then taste to see if it's ready. If not, wait a further 15 to 30 minutes.

As you can see, making a good rice pudding takes a lot of time. Although the aroma of rice pudding cooking is nearly too irresistible, the wait is well worth it. If you prefer, you may prepare it ahead of time and simply reheat it for 15 minutes while you eat the main dish. If the pudding seems to have too little milk, add a little more before reheating it or additional milk or cream when serving it (this also helps to cool it down a little, which is helpful if you're serving it to kids). Naturally, you could also consume it cold, but if you're going to do that, you might as well purchase a can.

Yet, you can't find that delicious skin in a can (and I'm not sure how wonderful it would be frozen).

After enjoying their amount of skin, kids frequently like adding a spoonful of jam (jelly) to their dish of rice pudding and stirring it in before eating. Children adore the lovely swirly pattern it creates.