Gluten-Free Goodness
27 January 2009 | by Jen in Domestic
Cold and bright sunny days are so good for baking. I love spending time in my little yellow and green kitchen whipping up some goodies.
I’ve been doing a little experimenting in this department. I’m not sure what is going on but I’ve been finding myself having some digestive disagreements (Don’t worry, this blog won’t turn into my daily log of ailments!) and I’m beginning to suspect that it’s something specifically that I’m eating. So I thought I would remove some foods from my diet (namely [wheat] gluten and dairy, the usual suspects) and see how things go.
But for someone who loves to bake this could be quite the problem. But I know there are lots of alternatives out there and I’m determined to have my gluten-free cake and eat it too.
I found some gluten-free chocolate chip cookie dough mix at Whole Foods (a house brand). It’s basically a box of the dry ingredients (stuff like rice flour and sugar) to which you had the wet ingredients. I did a little substituting here as I’ve had gluten-free cookies before and they are not always, err, good.
My boyfriend’s step-mom got this delicious vanilla extract from a recent trip Belize (I think…although it says product of Mexico). I doubled the amount which always seems like a good idea. I also used walnut oil instead of margarine since it’s not hydrogenated and is loaded with healthy omega-3s.
I added an extra egg too for protein and bindy-ness. (That’s a word, yea?)
The dough was quite gloppy and sticky but as you can see from the first pic, they look like regular cookies and tasted pretty good too as long as you ignore the slight sandy texture of the cookie part.
My next test would be some gluten-free cupcakes. I recently gathered up all of my liners into this cookie jar so I can see all of them and how pretty they are. They are also tempting me, so I’ll have to keep you posted on this next attempt; I know a lot of folks out there have similar issues with gluten and dairy.
Have a sweet Tuesday!
What are your thoughts, dears? | ♥ 16 Comments
Oh, good luck.BR/BR/I have a niece and nephew with celiac, and i’ve found that it’s lots of fun to bake with almond “flour” (really just super crushed up almonds). It makes fantastic tart shells and things. You can also get hazelnut and probably a few other nuts. You’ll have to adjust recipes, or just find new ones using the almond flour online. It’s good stuff- I bake for myself with it now all the time even though I can eat real flour.
I have those bird salt and pepper shakers and I love them. From target right? I love your blog, it’s very cozy. BR/BR/Erin
I have to second Wendy on the almond flour suggestion. I’ve had pies with almond- and hazelnut-flour crusts, and they have always been absolutely to die for. Good luck!
I went through what you’re describing last year. I’ve now been off gluten for 90 days, and it really did fix things.BR/BR/I have not tried any gluten-free breads. I’m trying to change my diet to be more about fruits and veg instead of starches, so I haven’t had any bread in 90 days. I’m OK with that, but man, do I miss some of the microbrewed beers!BR/BR/I made my holiday pies with rice flour crusts and they were great. I use half brown rice flour and half sweet rice flour, and there are no other changes.BR/BR/Fudge is gluten-free!
They sound wonderful! I went to Earth Fare yesterday (similar to Whole Foods) and it’s amazing all the wonderful healthy choices you have. Have you ever tried Almond Breeze? It’s in the dairy case and you can heat it for a cup of hot chocolate (without all the sugar, etc!). I have been adding it to cold coffee, too for a afternoon treat! Yum!
Good luck figuring this out! I had a similar problem a few years ago… turns out I have a corn intolerance. Anything with cornstarch, corn meal, or, um… plain ol’ corn was making me quite sick.
they look delicious! my daughters have problems with dairy. it is hard to deal with food problems, as some things are not so obvious sometimes. i had a similar problem and found that it was any kind of onion was killing my stomach!
Don’t forget to nix coffee ASAP. That’s a pretty common gut culprit. Good luck solving the problem. I would not want a life without regular baked goodness (and thus, I have constant gut issues).
You’re so good! When I discovered that dairy was making the skin peel off of my hands, I decided to live with peel-ey hands rather than give up the dairy. I still think it is worth it.
I’m gluten free
I’ve just recently been singing the praises of using a gluten substitute like orgran (using gums like xanthiam and guar gum are quite average). I really lost my want to bake after i discovered i was gluten intolerant but it has since returned with a vengance, it tastes like real baking!! You should try it 
Let me know how it goes.
Here’s a link to a friend’s website, A HREF=”http://www.dcgluties.com/” REL=”nofollow”DCGluties.com/A. They have a lot of cookbook recommendations and you can always email them on specific questions. I used to work with Brooke so tell her I sent you. Good luck!
Spelt is gluten free I believe and it’s just a little bit denser than wheat flour and is really easy to work with.
those are sweet cupcake liners, so cute in their glass jar.
Little white riding hood!? So sweet! (This is Rebekka from Maple Sugar, btw…from my new blogger home
Hello! I absolutely love your blog! Could you please let me know where you got the blue salt and pepper shakers? I have been looking for that color forever.BR/BR/Thank you so much!BR/BR/Becca
Hi Becca,BR/BR/I got them from eBay after a long and arduous search.
They are made in Japan and are vintage (’60′s?) if that helps. Good luck!BR/BR/j