Gluten free baking

Tink_04

Ok I’ve been gluten free for a couple of months and it’s made a huge difference to my health and medical condition. Howerever im now getting a bit bored and buying ‘special’ stuff is expensive!

I’ve never been a great baker - I can cook but baking is a whole different area for me. I’d like to make a GF pizza doh or a loaf and maybe some baked snacks? I’ve looked online and there is a lot with a lot of strange ingredients - I’m looking for more of a basic OS recipe that I can either adapt or a place with easier recipe idea?

What sort of store cupboard stuff is worth it if I’m GF? I’ve got flour and that’s about it so far! I didn’t think it would be this complicated!

Thanks - Tink

theoretica

Buckwheat and gram (chickpea) flours are worth trying out. Also just about all recipes need more water when changing from wheat to gf flours.

wort

I'm coeliac and find it quite easy these days, I've baked cakes using juvela white mix, the box comes with a sachet of yeast to make bread but I've never tried it.
A basic cake is delias all in one. 2 eggs then 4 oz of all other cake ingredients, plus a teaspoon of gf baking power.
The white mix is easy to use as you find a lot of g free recipe books use about 3 different kinds of flour just for 1 recipe.
I think juvela website has some recipes, to follow using their mixes.
I did once buy xanthine gum but only used it once.

Nicki

I've tried all of these cake recipes which all work really well

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/lemon-polenta-cake
https://www.nigella.com/recipes/flourless-chocolate-brownies-with-hot-chocolate-sauce a
https://www.nigella.com/recipes/chocolate-olive-oil-cake

I've always found gluten free bread and pizza making a challenge however

XSpender

The only GF bread I have made that I liked was using the Juvela mix in the breadmaker.

Most biscuit recipes work, the texture is just shorter so you get a dryer crispier biscuit than a chewy one.

I make Mary Berry's Victoria Sponge cake (8oz of flour, butter, sugar, 1 tsp of baking powder and 4 eggs) but add an extra egg to help with the raising.

Meringues are gluten free.

Bakes using ground almonds are good too.

Katieowl

I do a LOT of GF baking, for work and at home, I don't eat wheat at all. Or things like malt vinegar, soy sauce etc. I check ALL my labels.

At home my go to for a starch substance is pancakes made with GF Flour. I usually use about half GF buckwheat flour too. I also use pancakes to make lasagne for the family or 'cannaloni" savoury stuffed roll ups.

Not all GF flours are equal. Asda and Aldi both have potato in their plain white, which is good if you want a chewier base. I tend to prefer Doves plain white GF for cakes, and lighter pancakes.

I use Xanthan gum in a lot of recipes now, it vastly improves the structure, and also physillium husk. Apart from that you don't need much except to check labels on things like baking powder, stock cubes etc

Gram flour makes a good savoury pancake, google besan chilla, and of course can be used for pakora a great GF snack.

I do love buckwheat flour, I like the taste of it, and I add it to lots of things I bake. You can very rarely do a straight swap for ordinary flour in a recipe though. My top tip on cakes is to look for recipes that use very little if any actual flour. Polenta cakes (get a fine grind or it's gritty), ground almonds or other nuts made into flour, anything with a low flour content ie choc cakes with 150g of flour or less will prob sub ok.

If you want bread try this recipe as a starting point :
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/may/23/baking-white-bread
I didnt think it looked particularly healthy, so I've played around with it and come up with a more nutritous loaf, but it doesn't behave like bread dough, throw the rule book out, it needed loads more liquid not be too dry, so it is more like a batter, and very very sticky, but it cooks up great, just be sure to well oil and flour (rice flour) the tin. Or use a liner.

Also if you are using oats, you might want to make sure they are GF too? Not all coeliacs can tolerate them anyway, but Aldi and Tesco both sell certified GF oats in the free from section, I'm sure other supermarkets do too. Twice the price, but hey!

Fen1

Hi. I have to be gluten and dairy free. I looked up the Juvela as it has been mentioned on here a few times, but it contains milk.


I'm not much of a baker, either. After trying umpteen different ways of trying to make decent bread, Ive given up. I now buy M&S own brand brown seeded bread which is good both toasted AND untoasted!!!!

Tink_04

Wow this sounds more complicated than I thought! I thought I could just sub normal flour for GF flour and all would be good ...... I’ve never heard of any of this other stuff!

theoretica

You can just replace with the gf flour (and usually a bit of water) in most recipes, and it turns out OK, but to get better than OK you will probably find it good to expand into some of the more specialised stuff.

Katieowl

Tink_04 wrote: »

Wow this sounds more complicated than I thought! I thought I could just sub normal flour for GF flour and all would be good ...... I’ve never heard of any of this other stuff!

Straight subs rarely work because the gluten is the element that holds things together... so it allows the stretch that allows air pockets to form in bread and makes a cohesive crumb in cake...the more other things you remove, for example eggs, the harder it is to make something that doesn't just become a pile of soggyness. So Xanthan puts back some of the glue, and physillium seems to make a stretchy texture. Just a heads up if you tip over the xanthan don't take a wet cloth to it, to clear it up, brush up as much as possible. or your hands will end up covered in goo in a really BAD WAY!

Lots of the almond cakes (very nice by the way) are quite high in eggs. Don't be put off, just find a recipe that loads of people have raved about and follow it to the letter. If you want books...there are a couple of River cottage ones that are straight forward and a great Darina Allen one!

maddiemay

There are a couple of really kind and helpful groups of the book of faces if you have that. One lady who makes fab bakes swears by the Asda flour and on another thread the guy is more than happy with Doves. Not sure if I should post details here, but can pm if interested.

Taste is a very subjective thing and my (non GF) OH and I both dislike the graininess of the Doves, but so far are happy with the couple of things I have tried with the Asda.

At the very least with GF flour I find that more liquid and more egg is needed to help replace the gluten and if not included i.e. plain flour probably Xanthum gum or physillium husk. I have a couple of goto bread recipes, but they involve quite a lot of ingredients (I am retired so quite happy to fiddle around making up flour blends). I keep reading about Juvela, do they sell to one if not coeliac does anyone know?

If you can eat oats, either standard or GF you could try flapjacks/breakfast bar type things adding seeds, nuts, dried fruit etc, lots of recipes on line, as said anything that uses ground almonds such as brownies, macaroons (not the posh time consuming ones perhaps) and good old cornflake/rice crispy cakes and coconut pyramids are quick and easy. All a bit high calorie, depends on what you need.

I don't have a sweet tooth and find the savoury route much more difficult, but GF Jusroll pastry will make cheese straws, pinwheels etc. I have a great cheese scone recipe, but it is one of the more complex mix ones, so I tend to make a batch and freeze, they defrost well. I love the Nairns GF cheese oatcakes, but like most of the other stuff they are pretty expensive, for me they are great to carry one of the little packs with me and eat when having soup or a salad when eating out.