not vegan, but...

One of our favorite GF companies is Kinnikinick foods,a company with dairy free,nut free,gluten free products. They make outstanding doughnuts, bread, English muffins, bagels, and the pizza crust is amazing! There are eggs in it, though, so mommy has to resist the temptation...The wonderful animal crackers are vegan, anyway!

Gluten free vegan apple crumble

Another fall favorite...surprisingly easy to make GF and vegan! This recipe came from a kids' cookbook and was surprisingly easy to adapt. Note, it's not a crispy apple crisp, but more of a crumbly/crumby one that does quite well with a bit of soy ice cream to hold things together.

Peel and chop 3 or 4 large apples
Toss in a baking pan with 6 Tbsp water, 1 Tbsp sugar, and ground cinnamon to taste

In a mixing bowl, combine 2 cups GF flour: we used a blend of sorghum, brown rice, and teff. No xanthan gum needed. Add 3/4 cup vegan margarine (we used Earth Balance buttery sticks), 2/3 cup brown sugar, and blend with an electric beater until mixture is soft and crumbly.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the apples and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. Enjoy with soy ice cream!

Gluten free vegan pumpkin pie!

Yummmm, pumpkin pie...as the air gets cooler and the trees start to drop their leaves, I start thinking of pumpkin pie. I erase the thought from my head, thinking of the flour, butter, eggs, and milk that went into my pies of yesteryear. But then I get to thinking that maybe it is doable. I still have frozen pumpkin puree from last year's Halloween pumpkins, and so I strike out on a mission. Success, and I didn't have to do much innovation of my own--just combining a GF crust with a vegan filling!!!

The crust: http://www.glutenfreehomemaker.com/2009/10/gluten-free-pie-crust.html. We used sorghum instead of millet, flax instead of egg, and Earth Balance vegetable shortening instead of butter.

Pumpkin pie filling: http://veganconnection.com/recipes//pumpkin_pie.htm. We used soymilk, brown sugar, and potato starch instead of cornstarch. The note about it needing to set overnight is true, but we ignored it and enjoyed mushy pie the first night, and then well-set pie for breakfast in the morning! (My daughter explained that pumpkin is a vegetable, rich in vitamin A and beta carotene, so why NOT enjoy it for breakfast?)

Gluten free, egg-free scallion pancakes

One of the things we've been missing the most since going gluten-free is scallion pancakes, you know, the delicious Chinese appetizers that taste great dipped in soy sauce. Fortunately, it is very easy to make your own at home with a blend of GF flours, and we were pleasantly surprised to learn that they turn out perfectly delicious without eggs.

1 cup GF flour blend: I used about 1/3 each of potato starch, corn flour (not cornstarch), and sorghum flour, but anything would work well

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp salt

add water until the batter is fairly thin, probably 1 to 1.5 cups water (you can put some egg in as well if you like, but it's not necessary)

add a handful of chopped scallions, then fry on a hot pan in vegetable oil. They are great dipped in gluten free tamari soy sauce!

We mixed up several cups of the dry ingredients, for a truly "just add water and scallions" mix.

Remarkably good raspberry scones

The last time I had a scone, I could still eat wheat flour, butter, cream, all those things that pretty much define a scone. I figured that my scone-eating days were gone forever, but some tweaks to a recipe I found online here (http://eagleloftkitchen.blogspot.com/2009/09/blackberry-scones.html) proved me wrong. These are disappearing faster than I can make them. In fact, I mixed up about 10 cups of the dry ingredients to save time, now that the black raspberry bush in our backyard is ramping up production. My daughter had never been willing to taste a raspberry until she tried these scones. They are so good fresh from the oven that sometimes I make half a recipe so that we don't have to eat any "cold" scones later.

Mix:
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup teff flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt

Use a beater or fork to cut in shortening, until the mixture is crumbly:
1/2 cup Earth Balance shortening (not buttery sticks, but shortening)

Mix in:
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup soy milk
2 tsp vanilla

Gently fold in:
1 heaping cup raspberries (I have mostly used the frozen red raspberries from Trader Joe's, but fresh are great too)

Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes.

Beyond rice flour...

When I first started baking gluten-free, it was all about the rice flour. I substituted rice flour with xanthan gum for wheat flour and got reasonably good results. As I learned a bit more, I created a standard blend of rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, and xanthan gum, and only sometimes added teff, sorghum, or millet flour for fun. Lately, I've been getting tired of the whiteness of it all, and I'm thinking of phasing out white rice flour from my diet. That glycemic index can't be good...

For the past few weeks, my standard "white" flour blend has been sorghum + tapioca + potato starch, and I think it keeps things a bit softer and more flavorful. I'm going to experiment to see how low I can drop the tapioca and potato starch in favor of more sorghum, millet, maybe even soy flour...Stay tuned.

Ode to applesauce

Remember back in the early 90s when everyone wanted to cook everything low-fat? I read so many recipes telling me to replace the oil with applesauce, but I never did it. Now, I have discovered for myself what a difference a little unsweetened applesauce can make, especially when baking without eggs.

If you've noticed that your baked goods are great when fresh, but go dry within a few hours, consider adding 1/4 cup applesauce. I have found that you don't really need to cut down on the liquid when adding applesauce; usually, you can just bake a few minutes longer and everything will come out fine.

While I'm sure that one could use applesauce as a wonderful oil/butter replacement, I wouldn't cut down too much on the oil or margarine in gluten-free vegan cooking unless you have a medical reason. After all, we're cutting out enough already, aren't we?

Gluten free vegan streusel coffee cake

I have probably made this coffee cake at least 30 times, and I tinker with the recipe every time. It was one of the first gluten-free baked goods that I felt comfortable serving to guests, and it's easy enough to cook up for a warm weekday breakfast before school and work. Usually there is just one piece left for an afternoon snack!

Combine:
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour blend: I use 1/2 cup each of tapioca starch, potato starch, and sorghum flour
1 scant tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

In a small mixing bowl, combine:
about 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed in a bit less than 1/4 cup water (let sit for a few minutes)
1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 cup oil (I use canola)
about 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

Mix wet and dry ingredients together until well blended, and spread into a 8 x 8 square pan or round cake/pie pan. (If you double, use an 8 x 13 pan.)

For the topping, combine:
about 1 Tbsp vegan margarine, add more as needed (I use Earth Balance buttery spread)
several Tbsp brown sugar, to taste
1 tsp cinnamon
about 1/4 cup gluten-free oats (if you can't have any oats, try flaxseed or a gluten-free breakfast cereal/granola)

Sprinkle the topping over the batter and bake at 375 for about half an hour.

Gluten free, vegan, yummy snickerdoodles!

My 9 year old made traditional snickerdoodles at school last year and was woefully disappointed with my first few attempts at making some that the whole family could enjoy. I think that the combination of sorghum flour and applesauce helps these to be a little softer than the rocks that came out of the oven the first few times.

Beat together:
1 cup vegan margarine (we use Earth Balance shortening)
1 1/2 cups sugar (we use Trader Joe's tan sugar)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 cups gluten free flour blend: I use 1 cup each of sorghum, potato starch, and tapioca starch
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls, and then roll them in a mix of 3 Tbsp sugar + 1 Tbsp cinnamon. Flatten gently on a pan and bake at 400 until done, about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them, since the bottoms can burn up fairly quickly due to the sugar coating.

Keeping it simple with packaged foods

Most of the time, I like to make my own food (in case that's not obvious). However, there are times when packaged food makes a lot of sense, such as when we're traveling. There are plenty of great allergy-friendly foods out there, but one company stands out in my mind: Enjoy Life Foods.

Now sure, I've been known to scarf down half a package of Glutino vanilla sandwich cookies or Schar shortbread rounds, but here's my beef with those and many other companies: some of their products contain milk and/or eggs, and some don't. You have to read every label, every time.

You'd think I'd be used to reading labels, and that this wouldn't bother me. However, the whole point of buying the packaged food is convenience, and what is convenient about standing at the grocery store for half an hour reading the fine print? This brings me to Enjoy Life foods. When I see a package with their familiar branding, I know that I can grab it and go. Of course, of course, I scan the label anyway because I can't stop myself, but I can do that while standing in the checkout line because I already know that the product will be free of the 8 most common allergens. I also know it will taste good and, better yet, is likely to be enriched with some needed vitamins and minerals.

In case you're wondering, this post is not sponsored by Enjoy Life foods. I just realized yesterday, while growing increasingly frustrated reading labels at a store, that there is a better way, a way that really lets us all enjoy life a little more!

Miso soup with veggies, tofu, and noodles

When you first found out you or your loved one couldn't have gluten, maybe you said "OK, I can do this." You knew that there are lots of GF products out there. You figured you'd just skip the bread and pasta at restaurants and do OK. In fact, you started to think about frequenting Chinese restaurants, where everything comes with rice. Then came the most unexpected slap in the face, when you found out that soy sauce really should be called "wheat sauce" based on its ingredients.

Sadly, Asian food is one of the biggest casualties of the GF diet. Restaurants can be tough: it can be difficult to confirm whether a dish uses soy sauce or not. Sure, if I'm traveling, I can almost always get a plate of steamed veggies, tofu, and rice with no trouble at all at almost any Chinese or Thai place. But if I want Chinese takeout, steamed broccoli is not what I have in mind!

This brings us back to the common theme of GF living: you can probably make it better (and cheaper) yourself. High-quality tamari is often gluten-free and happens to taste better than many varieties of soy sauce. Many types of miso paste are gluten-free, too. The tough part is finding a good repertoire of sauces: most of the black bean sauce, chili sauce, etc that one finds on store shelves contain wheat-based soy sauce.

I'm still working on those challenges, but in the meantime, we can start simple with a vegan noodle soup recipe. This was one of those rare dinners that the entire family ate and enjoyed. My 7-year-old, normally a beyond-tough culinary audience, declared, "I'm brimming over with snowpeas and yumminess."

Fill a saucepan or small pot with water, about half to two-thirds as much as the amount of soup you want. Bring the water to a boil and add the following amount for each person (ie, multiply by 4 for 4 people):

• 1 small bunch of rice sticks (thin rice noodles)


• 2 scallions, chopped


• 2 or 3 baby carrots, sliced lengthwise into long slivers


• about 4 ears of baby corn


• about 6 snow pea pods


• a few sliced water chestnuts


• a few slices of bamboo shoot

Let the mixture simmer for a few minutes; as the rice noodles become soft, add a handful of tofu cubes and about 1 tsp miso paste per person. Once it is well-mixed, taste and add more miso as needed. A few drops of tamari and some sesame oil are nice to add, and we were able to find a GF black bean chili paste to spice things up a bit.

A note on where to find ingredients: if you are lucky enough to have an Asian grocery store, such as the H-Mart, near you, you are all set! Rice sticks, miso, tamari, baby corn, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots are quite inexpensive at such stores, but they are pricey specialty items at most conventional grocery and natural food stores. While you're at the H-mart, you can stock up on rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, and more--and be sure to get a few red bean buns made from rice flour!

about vegan margarine...

For a long time we were using Fleischman's low-sodium margarine, as it was the only vegan margarine we could find easily at the grocery store. However, the more I read about genetically modified soy, the more wary I became of a margarine made from non-organically grown soybean oil. At the same time, I became queasy a few times after eating something made with Fleischman's. I don't know if there was any cause and effect, but I decided it was time to try something different.

We've switched over to Earth Balance Shortening, which is sold at Whole Foods and other natural food stores. Earth Balance also sells Buttery Sticks, but I find them tricky to bake with because they are so salty. My daughter refused to eat some cookies because they were too salty, and she was right. The shortening is unsalted, so there's better control over the final product. If you can only find the Buttery Sticks, I suggest cutting the recipe's salt in half or even less, depending on your tolerance for a salty flavor in your baked goods.

Applesauce Bread

If I call this bread, I can eat it for any meal, but if I call it cake, it's only for dessert. So let's call it bread, shall we?

Now, why would we want to eat this bread for any meal? Because, in the words of my daughter who can eat whatever she wants, "I thought this was just going to be another one of your boring crumbly things, but it's delicious!" Today, I was walking along with some chips in a bowl, and she looked eagerly at me and asked what I had. When I said it was chips, she looked at me with forlorn brown eyes and said "oh, I thought it was going to be that cake." I quickly whipped up another pan for her!

What I love about this recipe is that it never called for eggs or milk, so it was easy to adapt to be gluten-free. I've been able to lift some of my salicylate restrictions, but if you are a fail-safer, the cinnamon and cloves are out...

Beat:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup margarine (we use Earth Balance shortening)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce

Add in:
2 cups gluten-free flour blend: I recommend using 1/4 cup each of rice flour, potato starch, teff flour, and sorghum flour, plus 1 scant tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt

Spread into a 9 inch round pan, or whatever size/shape suits you, and bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes. Enjoy!

Crunchy oat crumblers

This is one of those recipes that first seemed like a total disaster: the batter rose up way too high and was burning on the oven floor. Then, we tasted it and decided that we had seized victory from the jaws of defeat--it has a delicious oatmeal cookie texture with a light maple flavor. It is excellent mixed into soy vanilla ice cream. That being said, a few caveats:

• The batter rises A LOT. Don't fill your muffin tins too high, especially if you use mini muffin tins.
• This might be more of a home treat than the one you bring for the school bake sale. It tends to fall apart (hence the "crumbler" name), so it's not going to win any food beauty contests.

Mix:

1 stick melted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 Tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 Tbsp water (let it sit for a few minutes)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup soy milk

1 cup gluten-free rolled oats

1/4 cup teff flour (note: if you don't have teff, just use 1/2 cup total of some gluten free grain flours--this 1/4 cup plus the 1/4 cup listed next)

1/4 cup buckwheat, amaranth, or other gluten free grain flour

1/2 cup all purpose rice flour blend (see the January 2010 post)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon (or less, or none, if you're watching salicylates)

Bake at 375 in muffin tins, loaf pans, whatever you like, until crumbly and crispy and the fork comes out clean. Enjoy!

Munchy Breakfast Munchkins

There were creative differences about whether to call these Breakfast Munchkins or Breakfast Munchies. So, we compromised on Munchy Breakfast Munchkins. But, we might change the name if we all think of something better. Someone here is very angry about our compromise. Any ideas out there?

Anyway, these are nice light maple-flavored muffins, full of fiber and protein! Enjoy!

Combine:
1 cup all-purpose rice flour blend
1/4 cup soy flour
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Cut in 1/4 cup shortening, until the mixture resembles crumbs.

Add 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 Tbsp water (let sit a few minutes first)
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup maple syrup

Bake at 400 for 18 to 20 minutes in greased muffin tins (shorter for mini muffin tins)

Grand Graham Crackers

Poor Sonia hasn't had a graham cracker since October! Poor Mommy hasn't had a graham cracker in 2 years! Fret no longer, as we've found a great way to make the old favorite gluten-free. It's so yummy that you'll definitely want to keep the dry mix on hand so that you can roll out some dough any time.

The mix:
3 cups sorghum flour
3 cups tapioca flour
3 cups potato starch flour
1 1/2 cups millet flour
1 1/2 cups brown rice flour (can use some buckwheat for part of it)
1 1/2 cups white rice flour
3 cups brown sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp xanthan gum
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp salt

For each batch of about 30 graham crackers, combine:
2 3/4 cup dry mix
7 Tbsp butter or margarine (we use Fleishman's low-sodium, which is dairy-free)
mix it with your fingers until crumbly

Add:
3 Tbsp cold water
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp maple syrup (you can use honey, but if you're watching salicylates, maple syrup is safer)

Mix until it forms a ball of dough; add a bit of water if it is too crumbly. Refrigerate for about 30-60 minutes, then roll out on a floured surface to about 1/8" thickness. Use a knife to cut rectangle, and use the tines of a fork to make the traditional graham cracker scores.

If desired, after putting them on the pan, sprinkle with sugar or cinnamon sugar (ie, sugar mixed with cinnamon). If you're watching salicylates, no cinnamon, I'm sorry to say.

Bake at 325 for about 12 to 15 minutes.

Teff pancakes

Nothing like pancakes on a Saturday morning...I used to think that the eggs made the pancakes, but this recipe set me straight!

Mix:
1/2 cup all-purpose rice flour blend
1/2 cup teff flour
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar (we use tan crystals from Trader Joe's)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Add 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 Tbsp water (let it sit for a few minutes first)
2 tsp canola oil
soy milk until the batter is thin enough to pour and spread out easily

Fry in vegan margarine (eg, Earth Balance) like you would any pancake. My kids liked them so much they didn't want any syrup to interfere with the taste!

Blondies for everyone!

When we first went gluten-free, we made Namaste Foods blondie mix quite often, as it would take us right back to our free-wheeling wheat-eating days. I still like to have a bag of their mix on hand for last-minute needs, but this recipe is a great approximation for a fraction of the price.

Melt:
1/2 cup margarine (we use Fleischman's low-sodium since it's dairy-free)

Mix in:
2 cups packed brown sugar (if you're watching salicylates, you may want to substitute some white sugar here)
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed plus 6 Tbsp water (let it sit for a few minutes first)
2 tsp vanilla

Then mix in:
2 cups all-purpose rice flour blend
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

The mixture will be pretty thick, but you can pat it down to cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes.

RASP Bread

Ever since I bought a bag of amaranth flour at the Indian store (labled as rajgira or rajgara flour, by the way), I've been eager use it. The nutritional profile of amaranth is impressive (http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/10640/2), and it has a high protein content, with amino acids that complement those found in most grains. However, there aren't a ton of amaranth flour recipes out there, so I was a little nervous about what to do with it. Here's a bread that we call RASP, for rice/amaranth/sorghum/potato. It has a nice crispy crust and light whole-grain flavor. Enjoy!

Oh, and if you want to find more amaranth recipes, try searching for rajgara/rajgira flour recipes. You'll find a lot more! As with other flours, amaranth is available for a great price at Indian grocery stores.

Combine:
3/4 cup potato starch flour
3/4 cup amaranth flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt

Meanwhile, combine 1 Tbsp yeast with a bit over 1 cup warm water + 2 1/2 Tbsp sugar (we use the tan crystals from Trader Joe's); let sit until poofy

Mix 3 Tbsp ground flaxseed + 7 Tbsp water; let sit for a few minutes

Combine the dry mix, proofed yeast, and flaxseed mixture with:
1 tsp vinegar
3 Tbsp canola oil

Mix well, and let rise about 20-30 minutes in a warm spot (eg, your microwave after boiling water in it for a while; keep the bowl of water in there to keep things warm.) Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes. We baked this in 4 mini-loaf pans, to get lots of the crispy crust.

Roasted brussels sprouts

As with the roasted cabbage and leeks, I like to save energy by popping these in the oven while bread is baking. If you can find baby brussels sprouts, they are great!

Cover the bottom of a roasting pan or baking dish with quartered brussels sprouts (or whole baby brussels sprouts)
Sprinkle with oil (eg, canola) and salt to taste
Bake at 400 (or whatever temperature your oven is at for something else) for about 40-45 minutes, stirring every 10 or 15 minutes. When some of the skins are turning crispy and brown, they are done.

Roasted cabbage and leeks

It's always best to use very fresh vegetables, but this is even more important when cooking for a low-salicylate diet. We can't hide marginal veggies behind strong spices, so the veggies themselves need to have great flavor.

I've been trying to conserve energy by roasting veggies in the oven while bread is baking. Here's one of our favorites. The oven temperature isn't set in stone, so if you have something else in the oven already, stick with that temperature.

Slice up about 1/2 head of red or green cabbage
Slice 2 leeks, discarding the thickest green portions
toss together in a baking dish or roasting pan with a few Tbsp oil (eg, canola) and salt to taste
Bake at 375 or 400 for about 45 minutes, stirring every 10 or 15 minutes. It's done when the veggies are tender, and a few of the leeks are starting to brown.

With all due respect to Bill Cosby...

When she first tasted this rice pudding, my daughter exclaimed, "This is not the sort of pudding sold by the Jello company in supermarkets. They know how to make pudding smooth, but we know how to make pudding!" (Strangely, to my knowledge, this child has never tasted Jello pudding and has never seen a commercial for it either...the consumer culture rears its invasive head once again.)

This recipe uses milk, but you can use soy milk or rice milk instead. If you're avoiding salicylates, leave out the spices and perhaps use some maple syrup for flavor. We like to make a little extra rice at dinner so we can cook this up in the morning for breakfast.

In a saucepan, combine:
Leftover cooked rice (white or brown)
Milk to cover the rice
A few spoonfuls of brown sugar, depending on how sweet you want it to be
Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, to taste

Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, for about 10 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is soft. If you like, top it with some dried grated coconut (unsweetened) or raisins.

About pasta

There are lots of gluten-free pastas out there. Some are mushy, some are, in the disparaging words of my 6-year-old, "rice corn", but a few are excellent. Here's our take on a few brands:

Trader Joe's brown rice pasta: It's OK, and the price is great. No one will be fooled into thinking it's regular pasta, but if you don't overcook it, the texture is OK. Since it's 100% rice and not enriched, the nutrition data aren't so impressive--a definite minus if you have a child who thinks plain pasta is a meal.

Tinkyada rice pasta: A little step up from Trader Joe's, but very similar. For the price, if you can get Trader Joe's, it's a better value.

Schar: This is the top-selling brand in Europe, and for good reason. It has a nice al dente texture, and you can even get annellini, tiny rings that are great for soup. Some varieties include pea protein, which improves the nutritional profile. If you need to avoid salicylates, note that this pasta uses corn, so it wouldn't be your best option. My allergy-free kid is happy to eat it.

Bionaturae: This European brand is, hands-down, our favorite. It's pricey, but worth every cent. It's made from rice, potato, and soy, giving it a good balance of nutrients. I don't know the salicylate content of the potato, but moderate amounts of this pasta don't give me any trouble. It's so good that I've been known to eat more than moderate amounts. My allergy-free kid is happy to eat it, even cold in her lunchbox.

Orgran corn pasta: This is the dreaded "rice corn" pasta. Orgran makes other types of pasta, which we have not tried, but the corn pasta is, well, corny. It has a glowing yellow color, which doesn't help matters.

Cross contamination and the home kitchen...

We insist that our store-bought foods be prepared in a gluten-free facility, but what about our own kitchens?

You've made the switch to gluten-free cooking, and suddenly your muffin tins and loaf pans don't look as sparkling clean as you thought they were. What to do? The safest bet would be to go out and buy all new stuff, and donate your old pans to a worthy cause. If you want to try to get them clean instead, here's what might work: for about the first 5 times that you bake gluten-free with your old pans, line them with foil so that the dough/batter never touches the actual pans. (Even for muffins, if there's any chance of the batter coming up past the top of muffin papers, use foil to get better coverage.) When you're done baking, scrub the pans as if they were filthy. If you do that several times, you'll probably get things pretty clean. If the pan has a lot of seams, though, it might be worth investing in a replacement.

A few other things in your kitchen to worry about:

The oven rack. We used to bake gluten-full pizza directly on the rack, which made for a nice crispy crust, but I'm pretty sure those racks will never be gluten-free. If you want to put a loaf of bread directly on the rack, think about what has been there before, and add a layer of foil to be safe.

The electric beater. This one took me by surprise, when I looked at the bottom of the beater we've been using for years. Unless you are a far better person than I am, there's a little trace of every cake you ever baked on the bottom of your electric beater, and probably a bit on the inside where the attachments get inserted. This becomes a bigger problem with gluten-free baking, especially if you have a touch too much xanthan gum, because the dough sometimes gets a bit too gummy and starts climbing up the beaters, and if you aren't careful, it could come into contact with the remains of that 2004 brownie mix. The ultra-cautious might consider replacing the beater. Then again, the ultra-cautious were probably doing a better job of cleaning their kitchen appliances after each use for all those years. The rest of us should make up for lost time and get that bottom surface sparkling. And, keep an eye on that dough: if it's climbing up the beater, stop, scrape, and slow down!

The toaster. Sadly, there's just no way I can think of to get a regular toaster gluten-free. A toaster oven gives you a few more options. You can scrub the heck out of the rack, you can order a replacement rack, or you can put your food on a piece of foil. This might be a good time to clean up those crumbs that collect on the bottom and ignite every now and then...

The pasta strainer. Even if you are super-clean, it's pretty hard to get into every little hole of a pasta strainer. A few trips through the dishwasher should do the trick, but if it's a plastic strainer with a lot of rough surfaces, it's going to be harder to get clean, and it's probably fairly inexpensive to replace.

Tastes-like-gingerbread Teff Muffins

I take it as a sign of success when the gluten-free kid is indifferent about a food, and the allergy-free kid asks for seconds and thirds, as happened with these muffins. I could only try a nibble, since the cinnamon adds too much salicylate for me, but I was told that they taste like gingerbread.

Mix:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups teff flour
1/2 cup arrowroot starch (available at a well-stocked Indian grocery; you could probably use tapioca starch if it's easier to find)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Add:
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed plus 6 Tbsp water (let it sit for a few minutes first)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (eg, canola)
3/4 cup water or soy milk

Bake at 400 for 25 min in greased muffin tins.

Teff Gingerbread

This makes a nice gingerbread, not too sweet.
Note: This one is definitely not low-salicylate due to the spices.

Mix:
2 cups teff flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cloves

Add:
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 Tbsp melted butter
1 cup soy milk
1 Tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 Tbsp water (let it sit for a few minutes first)

Bake in an 8 x 8 pan at 450 for 20 to 25 minutes.

You CAN have cookies for breakfast!

Here's a recipe we created after fooling around with a honey millet muffin recipe...We call it Maple Millet Breakfast Cookies (MMBC). The great thing about making breakfast cookies instead of muffins is that cookie sheets are a lot easier to clean than muffin pans.

Mix:
1 cup all-purpose rice flour
3/4 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup millet flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Add:
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 Tbsp melted margarine
1 or 2 Tbsp flaxseed in 3 Tbsp water (let it sit for a few minutes)
3/4 cup soy milk (may need a bit more, depending on how dry the dough is--start with 1/2 cup and add more as needed, to make a dough that is slightly wetter than your typical cookie dough, but less wet than a typical muffin batter)

Divide into 12 parts, and drop each on a cookie sheet a few inches apart. Bake 375 for about 15-20 minutes.

Red Bean Cookies

I got the inspiration for these cookies from http://joonelovesfood.blogspot.com/2005/12/red-bean-cookies.html. A few adjustments to replace the gluten, egg, and butter, and we had a nice cookie that got the thumbs up from several friends without allergies! The red beans add a bit of protein and fiber, too.

A note on red bean paste: you can buy this premade at an Asian store, but it's very easy to make your own from dried adzuki beans and a bit of sugar--google "red bean paste recipe" and you'll get plenty of recipes. It's great for making ice cream or spreading on rice cakes too!

Mix together:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Cream/beat:
1 cup margarine (2 sticks)
1 cup sugar (tan or white)
1 cup brown sugar

add in:
1 cup red bean paste
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 Tbsp flaxseed + 6 Tbsp water (let it sit for a few minutes first) or 2 eggs worth of egg replacer

Mix in the dry ingredients and place spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet; flatten slightly with a fork.

Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes, until done--time will vary depending on how wet/dry your red bean paste is.

Apparition Lemon Tea Cookies

This is a nice, light lemon tea cookie. The first time we made them, my daughter was spooning out the dough and yelled "Mommy, I see an apparition of Jesus with a kitty on his head!" Thus, the name.

Mix 2 tsp lemon juice + 1/2 cup soy milk

Stir together:
1 3/4 cup all purpose rice flour blend
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Cream or beat 1/2 cup margarine + 3/4 cup white sugar
Add 1 egg worth of egg replacer or 1 Tbsp flaxseed + 3 Tbsp water (let sit a few minutes first)
Add 1 tsp grated lemon peel
Mix well, then add dry ingredients and lemon juice mixture and mix until well blended.

Drop 2 inches apart on an ungreased pan; bake at 350 for 12 to 14 minutes. When done, brush with lemon glaze: 3/4 cup white sugar + 1/4 cup lemon juice (I used a turkey baster to apply it.)

Redemption Bread

We call this redemption bread because the first few attempts were, shall we say, a bit subpar. With experience and a few adjustments, we have this bread working so well that yesterday I had to make a second loaf in the afternoon after the morning loaf vanished! It was inspired by http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/02/delicious-gluten-free-bread.html, but we replaced the honey with maple syrup to reduce the salicylate content, and a few other tweaks.

The mix:
4 cups sorghum flour
4 cups potato starch
2 cups millet flour
8 tsp (ie, 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp) xanthan gum
5 tsp (ie, 1 Tbsp + 2 tsp) sea salt

To make 1 loaf:
Combine 1 1/4 cups warm water, 2 or 3 Tbsp maple syrup, and 1 Tbsp yeast; let it get poofy.

Meanwhile, prepare a warm spot for the bread to rise in your microwave by heating a bowl of water for 10 minutes while you get everything else ready.

Combine:
2 1/2 cups dry mix
3 or 4 Tbsp oil (olive, or if you're avoiding salicylates, try canola)
1/2 tsp white wine/rice vinegar
2 or 3 Tbsp flaxseed that has been sitting in 4 Tbsp warm water for a few minutes
yeast/water/syrup mixture

Mix it until it's a smooth batter, and then put the dough into 1 or 2 loaf pans or a square/circle cake pan. Let it rise for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes at 350. If the inside is a bit squishy, we sometimes cut off the edges, eat them, and put the loaf back into the oven for a while longer.

Cinnamon bun mix

This is adapted from a great recipe we found at http://iamglutenfree.blogspot.com/2007/03/cinammon-roll-of-your-dreams.html. A few adjustments we made were to use soy milk for all of the milk, flax for the egg, and tapioca/arrowroot starch instead of cornstarch to keep the salicylates low. We also used a bit less sugar since these are really sweet. Note that if you're avoiding salicylates, you should leave out the cinnamon at least for the person who can't have it.

We have brought this to a few school potlucks with great success.

The mix:
6 cups tapioca and/or arrowroot starch
3 cups potato starch
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
4 Tbsp xanthan gum (or a bit more-it's a balance between keeping the dough together and becoming too gummy)
4 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp salt

To make 1 pan of buns:
Combine 1 Tbsp yeast with 2/3 cup warm soy milk and part of 1/4 cup sugar; let this get poofy.

Combine:
2 Tbsp margarine
The remainder of the 1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, egg replacer, or 1 Tbsp ground flax + 3 Tbsp warm water (let it sit for a few minutes)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups dry mix
1 tsp vanilla
The yeast mixture

This mix will be pretty soft and gloppy.

Sprinkle some white sugar on a large piece of plastic wrap, put the dough in the center, and cover with another piece of plastic wrap. Pat or roll to make a 13" square of dough, then remove the top layer of plastic wrap and sprinkle on 3/4 cup brown sugar plus 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon (see note about about salicylates). Carefully roll the dough into a long cylinder, slice into about 9 or 10 pieces, and arrange the slices in a baking dish.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

After baking, drizzle the buns with a mix of 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and soy milk.

Enjoy!

Movie Night Bread Mix

This one is called Movie Night Bread Mix because we happened to make it on a night that involved watching a movie...it is so delicious that we always keep a canister of this mix on hand. For a very similar, single-batch version of this recipe, see http://aprovechar.danandsally.com/?p=228.

The mix:
1 1/2 cups teff flour
4 1/2 cups millet flour
2 cups sorghum flour
1 cup brown rice flour
6 cups potato starch flour
3 cups tapioca flour
4 Tbsp xanthan gum
3 Tbsp salt

To make a loaf:
Proof 1 Tbsp yeast in a bit more than 1 1/2 cups of warm water and 1/4 cup sugar (we use the tan crystals from Trader Joe's).

Meanwhile, if you don't have a really good place to let bread dough rise, microwave a bowl of water for about 10 minutes to get your microwave warm and steamy, and you can use it as the warm spot. This is the best method I have ever tried.

When the yeast has gotten poofy, mix the yeast/water/sugar mix into 3 cups of the dry mix plus 2 tsp oil (olive oil unless you're low-salicylate, in which case I recommend canola oil). When it's all well-mixed, spoon the dough into a greased loaf pan and let it rise for about 20-30 minutes. Bake at 400 for about 45-50 minutes, or until the inside isn't wet anymore.

Some notes on cost...millet and sorghum flour are about $1/pound at most Indian stores. Potato starch and tapioca flour can be found for a good price at many Asian grocery stores. For yeast, if you bake bread fairly often, Costco sells a brick of Red Star yeast equivalent to a few hundred packets for about $3!

Nutri-Buns

This is a quick bread that's even quicker if you make a mix ahead of time. It has a mild nutty flavor from the buckwheat and flax. My allergy-free daughter loves it with Nutella. I usually use mini-loaf pans, but you can also use muffin tins or regular loaf pans.

For the mix:
3 cups all-purpose rice flour mix
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp salt
8 tsp baking powder (ie, 2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp)

For each mini-loaf, combine:
1/2 cup mix
1 1/2 tsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp melted shortening/margarine
1 tsp flax plus 1 Tbsp water (mix and let sit for a few minutes)
enough soy milk to make a soft dough

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

Who needs eggs?

Baking without eggs was a daunting proposition at first, but then I discovered ground flax seed.

For most recipes, you can mix 1 Tbsp ground flax seed with 3 Tbsp water, let the mixture sit for a few minutes, and then add it to your recipe as you would an egg.

If the recipe is particularly "white", and you don't want bits of flax seed in there, you can also use Ener-G egg replacer or other commercial egg replacers. I prefer the flax seed for most recipes, since it costs less (especially at Trader Joe's) and adds some fiber, omega 3s, protein, and flavor.

Of course, if you CAN have eggs, any of these recipes will work quite well with a real egg. Just use 1 egg each time it says 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 Tbsp water.

Teff banana bread

This is our adaptation of the old classic.

Mix dry ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour (see previous post on how to make that)
3/4 cup teff flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Cream together:
2/3 cup sugar (we like the tan sugar crystals from Trader Joes)
1/3 cup shortening (we use Fleischman's low-sodium, which is dairy-free)
Mix in 2 Tbsp soy milk (or you can use cow's milk or rice milk)

Mix in 2 "eggs", which can be real eggs, but we use:
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 6 Tbsp water, let this sit for a few minutes before adding to sugar/shortening mixture

Add flour mixture and about 1 1/4 cup mashed very ripe bananas to the dry ingredients, and mix until smooth.

Bake at 350 for about 1 hour in a 8x4 loaf pan, or put into smaller pans and bake for a shorter time.

A few notes on cost...
Trader Joe's sells the ground flaxseed from Bob's Red Mill for less than most other stores. For bananas, I buy the over-ripe bananas in a big bag from the clearance rack of our local produce market, and then I mash them all up and freeze in ziploc bags, 1 1/4 cup per bag. I'm still working on a good low-cost source of teff flour...

All purpose flour mix: make it first!

I call this my Proprietary All-Purpose Rice Flour Mix...now sharing it with the world! Usually I make enough to fill a large canister, because I use this flour blend anytime that a recipe calls for "all purpose" flour. (Note: if you CAN have gluten, you can always use all-purpose wheat flour instead of this rice flour mix.)

Mix approximately equal parts of:
Rice flour
Tapioca starch (also called tapioca flour)
Potato starch (also called potato starch flour, but NOT potato flour)
Then, for every cup of this flour mix, add 1 tsp xanthan gum. So, if you mixed 4 cups of each flour, you have 12 cups of mix, and you need 12 tsp of xanthan gum. Since 3 tsp = 1 Tbsp, you can use 4 Tbsp xanthan gum. Get it? Good! Now make sure to mix that xanthan gum in really well, because a little bit goes a long way. You don't want a little pocket of extra xanthan gum in your flour, believe me!

A few notes on cost...
If you have an Indian grocery store near you, great! Rice flour and tapioca starch are usually available there for a fraction of what they cost at a natural food store. No, they aren't labeled gluten-free, but I have a pretty strong gluten reaction, and I've never had any trouble. I get great prices on potato starch flour as well as tapioca starch and rice flour at the Super H Market, a Korean grocery store with locations around the country.
Xanthan gum is pricey...no good solutions to that yet. I've heard that guar gum costs less, but I haven't tried it out yet.

Hello

Hello,

I decided to start this blog to share my love of cooking, which has become a bit more important for my family since we have developed a few food allergies and related issues. The recipes I post on this site are gluten-free, egg-free, milk-free, and mostly low in salicylates and amines. Most importantly, we have tried them and changed them until they are delicious!

I also will try to post ideas on how to save money while cooking for people with allergies, and other interesting information on celiac disease, salicylate sensitivity, and more.

One of my time-saving tricks is to make dry mixes so that when we want to make bread or other baked goods, all we have to do is measure the mix and add the wet ingredients. So, you'll see that my recipes usually have a single batch as well as instructions on how to make and use the mix.

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do! To good health and good eating, which go hand in hand!