People with celiac disease and wheat sensitivity may feel as though their world of great food has been cut-off from them. Either products are off-limits or too expensive. Learn some gluten free recipes at home, however, and it becomes clear that your food can still be tasty and various, if slightly different in texture.
For example, with an expanding market of celiac and wheat sensitive individuals, choice has expanded tremendously. Several flours can be exchanged for the regular white or whole wheat sort: tapioca, rice, chick pea and potato are just some. The resulting product may have a heavier or more coarse texture than its wheat-based cousin, but if you can adjust and also experiment, you will either get used to the change or find ways to mitigate it.
Certain recipes are okay just as they are, even some cakes. In fact, certain recipes were never meant to flour. These cakes contain plenty of eggs for bulk plus more butter and often chocolate. All of their components hold the final product together and give it a dense, rich quality.
Even pancakes can be made without gluten. Just check your baking powder. Some packages are gluten-free while other brands are not. Replace white flour with any one of the many choices above, being careful that the alternative is acceptable. Some are just as dangerous for sensitive individuals such as kamut and spelt. Mix your flours too to get the combination of flavors and textures you like best. Along with baking powder and flour add some xanthum or guar gum to replace the binding quality of gluten.
Cookies and brownies can be dense. They need the same binding, though eggs help with that. If you make a trail mix cookie, for example, you want a bit of crunch too, so a rice or corn flour with its crunchy texture goes very well with nuts and coconut.
To mix batter for muffins and get maximum lift, a little trick will help. Divide wet from dry. For the wet side start with plain yogurt. Mix appropriate baking powder into the yogurt and let sit for a few minutes. The combination will froth-up. Those bubbles add lightness to your batter. Another way to do it is by mixing buttermilk or soured milk with the baking powder. Add other wets ingredients to this mixture.
After adding oil and egg to the wet side, combine your flours, gums and spices to the other. To mitigate the effects of a dense alternative mixture, use cocoa powder. This can help lighten the final product in small amounts, no more than one third of a cup in one twelve-cup batch. Other components to consider include oat bran or oats and non-wheat grains which bulk-up your batter with the minimum of rice, potato or corn flour. Let everything sit for at least ten minutes before baking so the dry can absorb moisture, leaving you with a less crunchy finished dozen.
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Chick Corea Akoustic Band – Spain
Chick Corea Akoustic band playing Spain at the Montreal Jazz Festival 2004.
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