Gluten-free eating made easy with Rowie Dillon

February 6th, 2012

Ovens & Cooking Recipes

Late last year Appliances Online was lucky enough to welcome Rowie Dillon – creator of Rowie’s Cakes and author of Indulge – to our staff kitchen.

After noticing that bread, wheat products and pasta made her feel tired and bloated, Rowie was diagnosed with gluten intolerance over ten years ago. And it was her refusal to view her diagnosis as a prison sentence that inspired her to start Rowie’s Cakes – a kitchen that bakes gluten, yeast and wheat free.

Following on from the success of Rowie’s Cakes, Rowie published her gluten-free cookbook Indulge last year, a beautifully photographed book that covers everything from pasta to pastries to cakes and more.

When we caught up with Rowie, she had this advice for anyone with a food intolerance or allergy:

“If you’ve just been diagnosed with gluten intolerance or Coeliac disease, my advice is to not feel like you’ve been confined to a life of culinary boredom. In my world, there is no such thing.”

See Appliances Online’s exclusive interview with Rowie here:

Coeliac disease is a condition where the lining of the small bowel is damaged by the gluten protein (gluten is found in wheat products). The development of coeliac disease is related to environmental and genetic factors, and symptoms can include abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhoea, vomiting, constipation, irritability, vitamin deficiencies and more.

While around 250,000 Australians are affected by coeliac disease, thousands more suffer from varying degrees of gluten intolerance, causing a similar range of symptoms.

In both cases, the only real solution is to stop eating foods which contain gluten.

Since gluten intolerance is a fairly recent phenomena, Rowie explained that there are many more options available at supermarkets and in restaurants than there used to be, and that as Australians we’re lucky to have access to such a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables.

“Gluten free in the food industry is the fastest growing category year on year,” Rowie said, “…so there is a lot available compared with what there was ten years ago.”

Rowie’s gluten-free cookbook Indulge is available nationally from Dymocks, Booktopia and other good book stores. In the meantime, here’s a recipe to get you started:

Gooey Dark Choc and Orange Biscuits

Makes 48

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, chopped and softened
125g (1 cup) pure icing sugar
130g (1 cup) buckwheat flour
210g (1 ½ cups) brown rice flour
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl using electric beaters until pale and fluffy. Add the flours and orange zest and beat on low speed until combined.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into two equal portions. Roll into two 25cm-long logs. Cover each log with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut each log into 1cm-thick slices and place the rounds 2cm apart on the prepared trays. Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly golden. Leave on trays on a wire rack to cool completely.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let the bowl touch the water). Set chocolate aside.

When the biscuits are cool, dip halfway into the melted chocolate and place on a wire rack until the chocolate has set. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.