Honey joys, gluten free sausage rolls and a birthday

When there is cornflakes in the pantry, a birthday on the weekend and not much time for baking, honey joys seems just the thing!  As a child I often encountered them at parties and cake stalls.  They were always popular.  As an adult I have discovered that they are cornflakes covered in a light toffee sauce.  No wonder they are still loved by kids.

The event as my niece, Stella's third birthday.  I had said I would bring sausage rolls.  Serendipitously while checking out the new Coles at Coburg North I found this Genius gluten free puff pastry.  I decided to make half gluten free sausage rolls (with sesame seeds) and half regular (with poppy seeds).  Which was just as well, given that the packet of pastry was only enough for half the batch of sausage roll filling.  I probably could have rolled it out a bit thinner but not too much more. 

I have tried a few gluten free pastry recipes in the past and found them hard to work with.  This pastry was really good.  It was dairy free but had egg in it.  I amended my usual vegetarian sausage roll recipe to be dairy free and gluten free by substituting 1 cup of silken tofu for the cottage cheese and gf breadcrumbs and quinoa flakes instead of wheaten breadcrumbs and oats.  I had to add a bit more breadcrumbs and quinoa flakes than when I make my regular recipe.

The honey joys were far more straight forward to make gluten free, even given that I made two batches.  It was a matter of boiling up butter, sugar and honey and then stirring in cornflakes and baking.  I always find honey joys great when I start eating them and then halfway through they are too much.  I am obviously not the only one if the amount of half eaten honey joys left about at parties is any guide.  So I made them with mini muffin cases.  They were the perfect size.

I used different coloured mini muffin papers to make it easy to tell the two batches apart.  There wasn't much difference between the traditional and gluten free honey joys.  The gluten free cornflakes were more sturdy and didn't rustle as much as the traditional ones.  Yet everyone seemed happy to eat either (other than the celiacs).  I also added coconut sugar to keep down the refined sugar.  This worked really well and probably added to the toffee flavour.

We rushed down to Stella's baking party (run by Little Wren Cookery School).  Her little friends and cousins decorated chef's hats, donned striped aprons and got to work baking while the parents went down the road for a coffee.  When we came back at the end they had made pizza, decorated cupcakes and made freckles on sticks. 

We then returned to Stella's place where my sister Fran had a birthday cake for Stella with more of her cousins.  I heated up the sausage rolls.  They went down very well.  Fran is a big fan of them and the coeliacs in the family were impressed by the gluten free pastry.

The honey joys also went down well.  I knew Sylvia would love them because I had had to keep her away from them the night before when I had baked them in advance.  I was surprised to find that my niece Maddy was very fond of them.  My parents could not be there but I am sure my mum would have appreciated us having honey joys which is the sort of thing she might make.

Fran had also made cupcakes with Peppa Pig toppers and had ordered a gorgeous gluten free chocolate cake with a Peppa Pig scene on it.  Stella was delighted and had fun blowing out the candles.

I think this is the age when kids start to really notice parties.  Stella was so delightful to watch with her sense of wonder and excitement at all the food and presents and company.  She checked over a toy cow with her new doctor's kit and danced to a card that sang happy birthday.  Sylvia and I stayed the night at Fran's.

The next morning Fran had guests for more birthday celebrations but we just stayed for green and pink pancakes for breakfast, a game of hide and seek and some fun on the kiddie keyboard.  Then we headed home, well rested and with not a leftover in sight!

I am sending this post to Gluten Free Fridays, Free From Fridays, Inheritance Recipes and Recipe of the Week.

More gluten free party snacks on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

Savoury:
Baked rice paper spring rolls (gf, v)
Cashew cheese stuffed dates (gf, v)
Cheesy almond muffins (gf)
Pea, quinoa and feta fritters (gf)
Sesame hummus bites (gf, v)
Sushi with vegan salmon pate (gf, v)
Voracious vegan pate (gf, v)

Sweet:
Apricot delight (gf, v)
Cherry Ripe cake pops (gf)
Coconut ice (gf)
Donna Hay brownies (gf)
Gluten free gingerbread cut out cookies (gf, v)
Maple meringues (gf)
Vanilla cupcakes (gf)

Honey Joys
Adapted from Kelloggs
Makes about 18-20 mini honey joys

3 tbsp butter or margarine*
3 tbsp coconut sugar*
2 tsp honey
2 cups corn flakes*

Melt butter, sugar and honey and gently bring to boil so that mixture is bubbly.  Remove from heat and mix in corn flakes.  Spoon into mini muffin (or patty pan) tins that are lined with papers.  Bake at 150 C for 10 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

*NOTES: traditionally honey joys are made with butter, castor sugar and Kelloggs cornflakes.  I used margarine to keep it dairy free, coconut sugar because I could and I made one batch each with Kelloggs cornflakes and gluten free corn flakes.

On the Stereo:
Flood: They might be giants