My six-year-old daughter, Megan, recently decided she wanted to do baking as her chosen activity at after school club. Which is easier said than done.
Having coeliac disease means this activity is NOT a piece of cake. So I had to write a letter to the school teacher to check if it was even possible. I said I would be happy to bring in any additional ingredients but it was cross-contamination that I was most concerned about. This is where it becomes rather handy having the Safer Eating ‘gluten‘ and ‘keeping your kitchen safe‘ info at your fingertips.
Anyway, I received a lovely letter from the teacher saying Megan could go to the baking class. This was great, but I knew it would be rather a challenge, especially when the first class was on January 4th, when nobody is back in any sort of routine.
I’ll set the scene of the first session’s prep for you…
It’s often like an episode of that Motherland in my house… both children crying, cats miaowing for their breakfast, me trying to put the kids’ coats, shoes and hats on and making sure the two school bags, one nursery bag and two work bags are packed – all whilst tripping over the cats and continuously swearing under my breath. And this is all before 7.30am.
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As we were literally walking out the door, I suddenly remembered the baking! Arghhhhhh! They didn’t give me the first recipe either.
Right, improvise… I grabbed some gluten-free plain and self-raising flour, gluten-free baking powder and xanthan gum. There, that should cover most things? The first thing I found for an airtight container was a big, empty Haribo’s Halloween tub – fantastic. I stuck a label with ‘Megan – strictly gluten free’ on the top. Sorted. Nothing like a dollop of stress before you even leave the house.
Megan came home on top of the world with her homemade buns… that hadn’t even risen half way up the bun cases. And also clutching the ingredient list for melting moments for the following week. The teacher sent home a letter that week saying that her and Megan were really disappointed with the biscuits. Bless. I sent back a note to say Megan was fine and that gf baking can be tricky and sometimes you can’t just substitute the gf ingredients. The next two weeks were great – we just took in a gf panini as a pizza base and school bought some ready to roll gf pastry for jam tarts.
So what started out as quite a stressful experience, ended well. And Megan felt included in something I wouldn’t have thought possible a few years ago. She absolutely loved it.
It really is important for kids with food allergies, intolerances and coeliac disease to be included when they can be. It makes them realise that with a few adaptions and education, lots of things are possible.