New dessert

We have gluten and lactose intolerance among our guests. I knew that one invited person, who have declined, have lactose intolerance but a mild kind, but it turns out that we have more people with these problems.

The dinner isn't a problem. I can make gluten free tortillas and use lactose free crème fraîche and everyone will be happy. The dessert however is a different story. The rocky road I was going to make contains both gluten and lactose. The gluten can be excluded but there's no such thing as lactose free milk chocolate.

Personally I don't like gluten free flour. I have been without gluten for two weeks to check if I had celiac disease and it was a horrible discovery. Baking with gluten free flour is baking concrete. Trying to mimic something for what ever reason, is usually not a good idea, and that's as true with plastic trying to look like wood as gluten free flour trying to be ordinary flour. It's a lot better to embrace the non gluten plants we have and adjust accordingly.

This means I will not make anything containing flour, so no cakes or pies of any kind. And when you think about it, there's a lot of flour dependant desserts out there. Since we have excellent lactose free products these days thanks to Valio, I don't have to exclude milk products as long as it's not milk chocolate.

I still want to make it simple, possible to pre-make and put in the freezer, so what are the options? Meringue can be frozen for up to a month actually, if it's the kind of meringue that has a sticky core, to preserve that chewiness. This means I can make them well in advance and take them out in the morning on the big day.

So what do you get if you combine meringue, whipped cream and fruits/berries? You get Pavlova. Not very southern, but it's a dessert everyone will be able to eat and it's always a huge hit. I still haven't met one who doesn't like Pavlova.

I'm relieved to have found a simple replacement (which actually is cheaper too) but now I have a plate related problem. Need to think about that.