Ah, flour... or, in Celiac terms, the root of all evil. All-purpose flour and its fancier cousins are the forefront of the gluten menace, and holy toast are they ever in everything.
The good news is, there are substitutes. Good substitutes. Yes, that does mean you'll have to substitute it yourself, but if you're complaining about making your own food AND you've been gluten intolerant for more than five minutes, you clearly don't want those gluten-free cookies badly enough. Get your lazy arse off my blog, and don't come back until you've sorted out your priorities.
For the rest of you, here's my go-to all-purpose flour recipe:
-3 cups rice flour (I use brown rice flour, because it's all healthy and stuff)
-1 cup potato starch
-1/2 cup tapioca starch
-A pinch of xanthan gum, if you're feeling frisky (Fun Fact: xanthan gum helps your food stick together, since gluten isn't around to do it. It's not always necessary, though--especially if you're using eggs--so I usually leave it out of the flour mix and just add it to recipes that need the extra bit o' binding)
If you want a smaller or bigger batch, that's where logic comes in. Just stick with the proportions--in other words, 6 parts rice flour to 2 parts potato starch to 1 part tapioca starch. Plus maybe some xanthan gum, for friskiness.
Now, this is where you can afford to be kind of lazy-- if buying a bunch of different flours and mixing them yourself isn't cheap and easy enough for you, Gluten Free Pantry's All-Purpose Flour is made of the same blend of flours, in similar enough proportions that it works just the same.
There are also plenty of good mixes available for more specific baking, but for replacing glutinous all-purpose flour in most recipes, this blend is the tops. Go buy a box or whip some up yourself, then dig up your grandma's most Celiac-unfriendly muffin recipe and try it out. In roughly 20-22 minutes (not including prep-time, of course) you'll be frolicking in baked success. And muffins. Tasty, tasty muffins.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Why Gluten Can Suck It: A Brief Treatise
Unfortunately for me, I can't eat gluten. If I do, my immune system ceases to coexist peacefully with my digestive system, and the result is something very much like intestinal Ragnarok.
Unfortunately for a lot of people (an increasing lot of people, at that), gluten intolerance and Celiac Disease are becoming more and more prevalent-- or at least, more and more noticed/acknowledged by healthcare professionals and amateurs alike. That means an increasing lot of people whose intestines--like mine-- conspire to keep them from enjoying pretty much every food on God's green earth besides the green parts.
That's where the up-and-coming market for gluten-free foods and flours at health food stores (and, as of now, even respectably-sized grocery stores), gluten-free menus, and kind, allergen-conscious people at potlucks come in handy. It's also where I come in handy.
I've been a Celiac for the last 6 years, which means I have plenty of experience living with it, but not so much that I've forgotten what 'real food' tastes like... and believe you me, I don't stand for food that tastes like crap, no matter what the allergenic limitations are. I was even vegan for a few years in there, so when I say limitations, I mean limitations. Italicized.
For the record, I've returned to the meat side because it's full of iron and protein. And DELICIOUSNESS. For any gluten-free vegans, though, suffice it to say I know your tribulations and totally intend to share lots of recipes just for you. Just, y'know... don't be too frightened if you visit the page and the first recipe is something with twelve different kinds of meat and a pound of cheese on top.
From here on out, I'll be posting the best recipes I've found, fixed, or fabricated all by myself. I'll also be giving out helpful tips and tricky tricks, along with any grand new gluten-free discoveries. There's a whole gluten-less world of surprise ingredients and substitutions, just waiting for you to conquer it and bend it to your will.
The point is, there's really no reason you should be kept away from awesome food just because your body has decided it wants to unleash all hell if you so much as look at gluten. It's time to rise up against the tyranny of your own intestines. I'm a firm believer in the right to bear arms and beer batter (even more so in the right to beer-battered bear arms... YUM), and I don't see why we can't eat exactly what we want, WHEN we want.
As long as, y'know... we have a few minutes to make most of it ourselves.
Unfortunately for a lot of people (an increasing lot of people, at that), gluten intolerance and Celiac Disease are becoming more and more prevalent-- or at least, more and more noticed/acknowledged by healthcare professionals and amateurs alike. That means an increasing lot of people whose intestines--like mine-- conspire to keep them from enjoying pretty much every food on God's green earth besides the green parts.
That's where the up-and-coming market for gluten-free foods and flours at health food stores (and, as of now, even respectably-sized grocery stores), gluten-free menus, and kind, allergen-conscious people at potlucks come in handy. It's also where I come in handy.
I've been a Celiac for the last 6 years, which means I have plenty of experience living with it, but not so much that I've forgotten what 'real food' tastes like... and believe you me, I don't stand for food that tastes like crap, no matter what the allergenic limitations are. I was even vegan for a few years in there, so when I say limitations, I mean limitations. Italicized.
For the record, I've returned to the meat side because it's full of iron and protein. And DELICIOUSNESS. For any gluten-free vegans, though, suffice it to say I know your tribulations and totally intend to share lots of recipes just for you. Just, y'know... don't be too frightened if you visit the page and the first recipe is something with twelve different kinds of meat and a pound of cheese on top.
From here on out, I'll be posting the best recipes I've found, fixed, or fabricated all by myself. I'll also be giving out helpful tips and tricky tricks, along with any grand new gluten-free discoveries. There's a whole gluten-less world of surprise ingredients and substitutions, just waiting for you to conquer it and bend it to your will.
The point is, there's really no reason you should be kept away from awesome food just because your body has decided it wants to unleash all hell if you so much as look at gluten. It's time to rise up against the tyranny of your own intestines. I'm a firm believer in the right to bear arms and beer batter (even more so in the right to beer-battered bear arms... YUM), and I don't see why we can't eat exactly what we want, WHEN we want.
As long as, y'know... we have a few minutes to make most of it ourselves.
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