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!