Wheatfree from scratch for a keen baker?

knittysewer

Hi everyone,
To my dismay, I must face reality and not eat wheat.
This is very hard as we bake all our own sourdough bread and make virtually everything from scratch. We have homemade pizza at least once a week!

Help!

How am i going to do this without breaking the bank and without buying factory-bought stuff? All the wheatfree breads I've tried from the shops taste like a chemical cocktail and cost a small fortune!

Little_Vics

I can totally help with this!

Your best friends will become Doves Farm wheat/gluten free flour and xanthum gum. If you want a shop bought loaf, look no further than Genius seeded - although at £3 a loaf it's very pricey. There are a some great recipes online - I'll have a hunt in a minute and try to find some for you.

Cakes are pretty straight forward - just make sure you add baking powder. A standard 4oz butter, 4oz sugar, 4oz flour, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon baking powder will make a good sponge. Phil Vickery has some good recipes, and the bbc food website is also good.

Pastry is tricky. I've found a recipe for a very short shortcrust using Doves Farm flour and gram flour - I'll try to find it for you. Genius have just launched a frozen pastry but it's not available anywhere near me so I can't tell you if it's any good.

Pizza - I use Warburtons wheat free wraps or Tesco free from bases. The others I've tried have been very salty. Pizza Express will do any of their pizza on gluten free bases if you are ever eating out.

There are loads of tips I can give - DON'T PANIC!

Little_Vics

Pastry recipe - the gram flour trick is in one of the comments: http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipes/gluten-free-pastry/

Recipes involving yeast - http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipes/search-recipes/?rs_ik=&rs_pu=61&diets[]=34&recipe_submit.x=66&recipe_submit.y=9

gsymoo

I haven't been able to eat wheat for 7 years (I go into anaphylactic shock and have to carry an epi-pen). I have no problems with gluten. Gluten free flour is good but I've found spelt to be brilliant. It does contain gluten (not an issue for me) but is closer to regular wheat flour for doughs / sponges.

Little_Vics

Spelt is interesting - the wheat intolerance runs in our family. Spelt makes me sick, but my brother is fine with it. It might be worth trying, but be careful!

Nargleblast

If you go on to the Juvela website there are a load of wheat and gluten-free recipes covering the basics, lunches, dinners, cakey things, puds, pasta dishes etc. Also the Doves flours have recipes on the back of the bags ( I can recommend the chocolate brownies!) Xanthan gum is used as a binder for pastry - GF pastry thrives on being mauled about and kneaded as opposed to normal pastry, where the least you touch it the better.

Patchwork_Quilt

My secret recipe for gluten free pastry is 8oz Dove's Farm plain flour, 4oz butter and 1 beaten egg to bind it.

Shhh!

Having said that, I've never been able to bake nice gluten free bread with any flour. I buy Genius, if I have to.

Eyeore

Hi, I am GF and like to bake so another vote here for Doves Farm flour. For all cakes I just follow recipe and replace wheat flour with Doves GF. I order GF bread from a specialist baker in Scotland, it is the nearest to 'normal' bread I have found and delivery day is a very happy day when I can eat a slice of fresh poppy bloomer with butter on! I order the bread and bagels for the freezer and also bread mix so I can knock up a loaf when needed by hand. (always smells so nice when proving and baking!)

Patchwork_Quilt

Could you tell us who that is please? I used to love bread

Eyeore

Hi Patchwork, am happy to recommend but not sure if I am allowed to so can the lovely Board Guides let me know? If not PM me and I can reply!