Last week I spent a really fun evening at Jenius Social in Islington at an event hosted by Tesco. The event was to showcase their lactose free range and we enjoyed a cookery masterclass with chef Lesley Waters as well as some interesting discussion with Christine Bailey ( nutritionist ).

Firstly in case you don’t know, here is a brief explanation of what Lactose Intolerance is, from Christine Bailey:

Lactose intolerance is the inability to break down a type of natural sugar called lactose. Lactose is commonly found in dairy products, such as milk and yogurt. A person becomes lactose intolerant when his or her small intestine stops making enough of the enzyme lactase to digest and break down the lactose. When this happens, the undigested lactose moves into the large intestine. The bacteria that are normally present in the large intestine interact with the undigested lactose and cause symptoms which although not serious can be very unpleasant.

The dishes we created including a pea puree risotto and Tiramisu, all using the Tesco lactose free range. Now I am fairly used to the Free From aisles in Tesco. My youngest daughter Chloe has a number of allergies and I often buy items from the gluten and dairy free range for her. But the Lactose Free range is new to me, I don’t avoid lactose and neither do any of my immediate family so I’ve never had a reason to buy it but I was very pleasantly surprised. I am not sure why I expected the products to taste less creamy or less indulgent because they certainly don’t. In fact I think I may even prefer the lactose free blue cheese to some of the standard versions I’ve tried and the yoghurt is deliciously creamy and thick.

Lesley and her sister who is the head chef at her cookery school showed us how to create the dishes which was really good fun and I picked up lots of tips. I love when I attend an event and walk away at the event buzzing with ideas for new recipes and just excited about food. I am quite often excited about food but there is something special about time spent with fellow bloggers and food lovers that inspires me. My cooking team was made up of myself, Lucy from Supergolden Bakes and Eilidh from Mummy and the Monkeys. We made a good team, mainly as we all agreed on adding a lot more booze to the Tiramisu.

We left the event, very full and with a goodie bag laden with products to try out at home. So far I have been really impressed by what I have tried and today I made the most delicious brunch using the lactose free creme fraiche and the blue cheese, you can find the recipe below shared by Tesco with some slight changes that I’ve made – I can never leave a recipe as it is!

Lactose Free Eggy Bread with Crispy Bacon, Fried Apples and Blue Cheese

You will need:

140ml lactose free creme fraiche

3 free range eggs

15ml water

4 slices of thick bread ( I always find eggy bread works best on slightly stale bread )

a few slices of blue cheese, crumbled

6 rashes of smoked streaky bacon

2 apples , sliced thickly

rapeseed oil

black pepper and sea salt

Whisk your eggs, creme fraiche, water and seasoning together and leave to stand. Now fry your bacon until crispy until crispy and set aside, in the same pan fry your apples until golden brown. In a separate pan heat 2 tbsps of rapeseed oil, dip your bread into your eggy mixture and fry one slice at a time until golden brown on each side. Serve the bread with the bacon and apples on top and your blue cheese crumbled over.

• I was invited to this event by Tesco and compensated for my time.