I WILL Be Gluten-Free!

Years ago, I decided dairy was a no-no for me (being of asian decent and lacking the enzyme to break down lactose), and I've felt much better since making the change. It's not a hard thing to live by. There are tons of soy products including milk, ice cream, cheese, etc. Also, rice and nut milks are a great choice. Coconut milk is by far the best non-dairy alternative. Creamy and delicious. Especially in smoothies, ice cream, and even soups and sauces! Needless to say, dairy-free is the way to be for me.

This brings me to the subject of this post. In the recent months, I self-diagnosed myself as having a gluten-allergy. They all say "whole wheat this, whole wheat that, it gives you fiber which is good for you, etc." I've decided it's a big conspiracy from the big corporations. Wheat is cheap to grow and an easy filler. It isn't good for you at all! There's a lot of research behind how it negatively affects your body, which I will not go into now, but just trust me on this. I challenge you to start reading labels. You'd be surprised at all the places you'll find wheat listed. Besides the obvious breads and pastas, you'll find it in tons of other unsuspecting ingredients, as in this list from the Gluten-Free Goddess (Btw, I love her website. It has tons of amazing gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan dishes): 


Hidden gluten can be found in gravy, broth, bouillon, soy sauce, tamari, marinades, sauces, salad dressings, cured meats, sausage, hot dogs, vegan hot dogs, sausages and burgers, self-basting poultry, flavored and herb cheeses, blue veined (bread mold based) cheeses, spice blends including curry powder, dry mustard, canned and prepared soups, tomato paste, sweeteners, confectioner's and brown sugar, beverages, flavored coffees, herbal teas (watch for barley), roasted, flavored or spiced nuts, jerky, flavored yogurts and puddings, some chocolate and chocolate chips, cocoa and instant coffee mixes, flavored vinegars, cooking wines, flavored liqueur and liquor, wine coolers, some ice cream and frozen desserts*
*http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/


So, you see, it's all over the place! You might wonder, how is anyone to avoid all of this?! It seems like it would be, indeed, difficult, but I'm finding that I've been doing just find the past few months. Besides feeling MUCH better than I did when gluten was a daily staple, I've been able to nurture my creativity a bit. I challenge myself to create new dairy-free, gluten-free things almost every day. I've been doing gluten-free baking for a little bit, and it has been a learning experience for sure. There are a ton of gluten-free flours out there, but they all behave differently and add things to the finish product: elasticity, moisture, etc. Previously, I had not known this and just bought a gluten-free flour to replace regular flour with in all my recipes. That worked out alright, but now I'm diving in to mixing all the different flours and playing with protein replacers (gluten is the protein in regular baked goods that holds them together). There have been multiple trials and errors thus far...


Last night was yet another adventure in gluten-free baking-dom. It was my fourth attempt at a gluten-free bread. The first one was overly yeast-y. The second: rather flat for a loaf of bread and lacking flavor and the third: cooked unproperly (aka burnt by my toaster oven; you should always use the regular oven!). After doing much research, I finally got it right! A loaf, large enough to make a sandwich out of, soft, moist, delicious. It's just what a homemade bread should taste like! Thus, now I can proceed to make multiple loafs at a time, therefore saving myself quite a bit of  "dough". Excuse the pun. Do you know how much a small loaf of gluten-free bread costs at the store? At LEAST $5.00. I could probably make 3 loaves for that price. Here it is:

 Definitely one of the easiest things to jump into when trying to cook gluten-free are pancakes. I made pumpkin spice pancakes:

 And, I made vanilla cupcakes. Yes, I baked up a storm last night! This was only my second attempt at the cupcakes with the new gluten-free flour blending. It really is an art. I'm slowly learning how each different flour behaves. So, I'm the kind of person that can never, and I mean NEVER just stick to a recipe exactly. I took one of the GF-Goddess' recipes and tweaked it a little. I changed some of the flour, and with my novice gf flour experience, did not realize that I needed much less leavening. Hence, I ended up with this:

They taste great! They just grew too much... 
I might make some icing for them tonight to try to cover up the damage...


There you have it. A novice gf baker at its best.


Love, 
Angel