Adventures with Jamie Oliver!

Like many people, I dutifully tuned in Jamie's Christmas Specials with the hope of creating fantastic festive fair. After a few years of preparing lavish Christmas breakfasts which saw me slaving in the kitchen, I watched in envy as Jamie cooked up griddle pan waffle for a breakfast which owing to the decadent hot chocolate it was being dipped in was probably guaranteed to win the hearts of my children on Christmas morning - more so than the cranberry muffins and yoghurt and fruit from last year. Surely it wouldn't work with gluten free flours - I imagined a gooey, stodgy creation which was sure to stick to the pan and end up a mess. However asChristmas drew closer and other preparations took over, the idea of a two pan breakfast stuck with me and I decided to give it a go.

I dutifully followed the recipe, just replacing the self-raising flour with F.G. Roberts self-raising flour - and I liberally coated the pan with olive oil to make sure that it didn't stick. I poured the batter in, and it rose beautifully - I thought it might overflow. The time came to flip the waffle, but I chickened out, it just looked a bit too sloppy on top and I was sure that being gluten free it would stick, so I chucked it under the grill to cook the top. After it turned a lovely golden colour I took it out and flipped it onto a bread board. Guess what - it didn't stick! I couldn't believe it! We sliced it up, drowned it in golden syrup and served it with the really decadently thick European hot chocolate and it was awesome. Nice and spongy and airy - I couldn't believe it was gluten free! Oh, and we still had some beautiful fresh fruit...just to make it healthy!