Celebrate Coeliac Awareness Week by hosting a GF High Tea with inspiration from Coeliac NZ Ambassador Sally Holland.

Start by working out the menu so you know well in advance what needs to be done. Shopping for ingredients can be done in advance as well. Have a good balance of sweet and savoury goodies as not everyone has a sweet tooth. Savoury items can include muffins, scones, mini quiches and sausage rolls with gluten free pastry and cheese straws. And, of course, little sandwiches are always popular. Just make sure you use a gluten free bread that feels soft and squishy in the packet and trim the crusts off to make them extra special.

Think about variety in textures too. For example, have a crisp biscuit, soft cake and a chewy slice. This helps make the high tea more interesting and appealing.

Many gluten free items such as cakes, biscuits and savoury items can be made well ahead and frozen. In fact, this works really well for gluten free cakes if you want to make them ahead of time. They’re often not so good one or two days later but if they are frozen, they will be fine when thawed. They may just need a little warming in the oven or microwave to give them that just baked flavour.

If the cake is to be iced, do this after defrosting. It will look more appealing if iced and decorated on the day.

Muffins, pikelets and scones are all best made on the day.

Think about portion sizes as well. If you are serving lots of delicious treats, it’s probably a good idea to keep sizes small and dainty. Cakes can be made in lovely mini cake tins and muffins work well made in mini muffin tins.

I have suggested a cheesy buckwheat scone, almond shortbread and little blueberry and lemon cakes as being perfect for a gluten free high tea (see below for recipes). Of course, you could add more items as wished. I would make the cakes and freeze them, icing after they’ve thawed on the day. The shortbread would be fine stored in an airtight container for a day or two but it also freezes well. The scones I would make right at the last minute as they are at their best super fresh with lots of soft butter.

These recipes all use a variety of flours. I have used the gluten free flour mix, which is in my book Goodbye Gluten, as the main flour and added other flours as well depending on the recipe.

Sally's flour mix:

• 2 cups rice flour, brown or white
• 1 cup tapioca flour
• 1 cup cornflour, from maize
• 2 tbsp xanthan gum

1. Sift all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Using a wire whisk slowly stir until well combined. Transfer to an airtight container.
2. In the recipe for cheese scones, I decided to use some buckwheat flour along with the flour mix. Buckwheat isn’t a wheat grain as the name might suggest, but is actually part of the rhubarb family so is perfectly safe for a gluten free diet. It works well in savoury baking as it gives a lovely nutty flavour.
3. The shortbread has extra rice flour added. Rice flour is used to make the biscuits crisper and lighter and also gives the sandy texture that shortbread is known for.
4. The little cakes have a mixture of ground almonds and cornmeal flour. Cornmeal flour should not be confused with cornmeal which is grittier and used to make polenta. Cornmeal flour is yellow  and finely textured like wheat flour. I used it in the cakes because of the lovely golden colour it gives which is particularly nice in a lemon cake. It also gives a nice soft texture rather than using all ground almonds which would make the cakes heavier.

Here is the recipe for

Almond Shortbread: Makes 24 large star shapes

• 250 g butter, softened
• 1 cup icing sugar, gluten free
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups gluten free flour mix
• ½ tsp baking powder, gluten free
• ¾ cup rice flour
• ¼ cup cornflour, from maize
• ½ cup chopped, blanched almonds

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
2. Cream butter and icing sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla.
3. Mix in the sifted flour mix, baking powder, rice flour, cornflour and almonds.
4. Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of 1 cm.
5. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out desired shapes re-rolling the dough when necessary.
6. You will need to ‘flour’ the cutter with extra gluten free flour.
7. Place on baking paper-lined baking trays and bake for 20-25 minutes until just beginning to colour around the edges. The time will depend on the size of the shapes.
8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Cheese and Buckwheat Scones: Makes 8 large or 16 baby scones.

• ½ cup natural unsweetened yoghurt
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1 ½ cups gluten free flour mix
• ½ cup buckwheat flour
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp smoked paprika
• ¼ tsp dry mustard powder
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 cup grated tasty cheese plus extra for sprinkling

1. Whisk yoghurt, sour cream and eggs together in a bowl.
2. Sift all dry ingredients together.
3. Mix the grated cheese into the dry ingredients.
4. Add the liquid ingredients and using a table knife mix until a soft dough is formed. Do not overmix.
5. Tip out onto a floured surface and gently pat into a rectangle shape.
6. Do not knead.
7. Cut into desired size scones.
8. Transfer to a baking paper lined baking tray spacing the scones quite close together.
9. Sprinkle with extra cheese.
10. Bake at 200 C for about 15 minutes until golden.
11. Best eaten warm from the oven with butter.

Little Blueberry and Lemon Cakes: Makes 6 cakes cooked in 200 ml tins.

• 150 g butter
• ¾ cup sugar
• Zest and juice of 2 lemons
• 3 large eggs
• ¾ cup cornmeal flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch salt
• ½ tsp xanthan gum
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 1 ¼ cups blueberries
• 1 cup icing sugar
• Extra lemon juice

1. Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
3. Sift the cornmeal flour, baking powder, salt and xanthan gum.
4. Gently fold into the creamed mixture.
5. Add the lemon juice and ground almonds then the blueberries mixing well to combine.
6. Tip into little cake tins or muffin tins that have been well greased.
7. Bake at 170 C for 20 to 25 minutes until cooked when tested with a skewer. Baking time will depend on the size of the cakes.
8. Leave in tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
9. Mix the icing sugar with enough extra lemon juice to make a glaze and pour over the cakes.

Provided by Coeliac NZ Ambassador Sally Holland

A self-confessed ‘foodie’ Sally had to radically adapt her culinary skills when her husband was diagnosed with coeliac disease. Her aim was to create delicious gluten-free dishes that everyone would want to eat. Because food is for sharing!

Tell us your story to be in with a chance to WIN one gift pack of FreshLife  Baking Flour worth over $30. All you have to do is email admin@coeliac.org.nz with the subject line: SHARING MY COELIAC STORY and write a short description of your life before and after diagnosis (approx. 250-200 words).

T's and C's - the winner will be announced on Friday 11th June and must be a current Coeliac NZ member.