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Let's Eat

Saying it with new flours

Asperger's Syndrome and a diet free from sugar and gluten has not prevented teenager, Olivia Daly, from creating recipes

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How many teenagers can boast of writing a cookery book?

Thirteen-year old Olivia (Liv) Daly has penned not one, but two volumes of recipes. Only a handful in the first book, but nonetheless, an impressive feat for someone of her tender years; and even more remarkable as she is on the autistic spectrum, having been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.

One of the behaviours symptomatic of her condition is that she fixates on things. Her preoccupations are music - "I'm obsessed with Queen" - and baking.

"I learned to make pastry with my South African grandma when she visited. Once I had learned how, I made it loads and then I made cupcakes and just went from there," says Liv, who talks with huge energy about her special subject, as she flies around the kitchen baking shortbread, cookies and flourless chocolate cake.

While many of her contemporaries are swooning over One Direction, her crush is on someone a little bit different.

"Paul Hollywood is my role model, my icon and my guru. He has good recipes. They're fool-proof, especially his bread recipes, and his croissants are to die for."

In April, Liv and her mother, Andy, set up a blog - www.autbook.com - as a means for both of them to communicate with others facing similar issues and to pass on their learning on health and nutrition. The site already has 5,000 registered users, so Andy feels that they are reaching those affected by autistic spectrum disorders.

Liv has used the blog to talk about her life generally, which has included her baking.

"I can bake almost anything and have every conceivable baking book and appliance in my mum's kitchen."

"She would cook all of the time if she could. She's very happy baking," smiles Andy.

"She used to get up at 5am to prepare croissants and pain au chocolat for their final prove, so she could bake and take them to school for her teachers and friends," says the South African former lawyer, now a trainee nutritionist.

Liv's school friends and teachers at Highgate School were the lucky beneficiaries of her baking passion, enjoying regular deliveries of breakfast pastries, cakes and biscuits.

But the sweet days of home baked sugary treats had to come to an end.

"I took Liv to see a nutritionist, whose tests showed that her insulin levels were really high. Asperger's children often crave starchy carbs, which can make their insulin and blood sugars unstable," says Andy, who is more than halfway through her studies at London's Institute for Optimum Nutrition.

The nutritionist recommended that she stop eating all processed sugar and gluten, so Liv made it her mission to develop versions of her favourite treats free from both.

"We use Xylitol, Stevia, coconut palm sugar, coconut blossom and sometimes organic maple syrup - which is far less processed - and after a few months on the new diet, she had more energy and was much calmer," says Andy.

Regular wheat flours are substituted for gluten free flours made with quinoa, tapioca flour and sorghum - a gluten free grain more commonly used as animal fodder. She also uses a lot of ground almonds.

Liv has spent hours online looking for sugar and gluten free versions of recipes that include granola, shortbread, a flourless chocolate cake, no-bake flapjacks and ginger cookies. She also used the internet to study for her Level Two food and hygiene certificate - the level needed to bake as a trade.

"She just got on and did the course when she was only 12," says Andy. "We didn't help her."

The first cookbook Daly Bakes was compiled by Liv as a thank you to her teachers, who had been asking for her recipes.

The second, Flours in my hair, has been commissioned by charity Shaare Zedek UK. The 30 recipes will include breakfasts, like granola and gluten free bread; lunch or dinner ideas which include quinoa or polenta coated chicken, turkey meatballs and a range of sauces; healthy snacks - sweet potato muffins and gluten free "paleo" rolls; and desserts like cheesecake and chocolate cake.

"They are all healthy and actually good for you," enthuses Andy, who has provided nutritional advice and assisted her daughter with some of the savoury dishes, which Liv is fairly new to. "You could eat them instead of a meal."

A year into he teens, Liv is proving an inspiration for teenagers. In a climate where sugar has become public enemy number one, the book is bound to provoke interest.

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