A number of my friends have gone gluten free this year. I went gluten free last year. While I firmly believe that avoidance of white food is optimal for health, you have to pick your battles. At holiday time, the battle to stay gluten free in the face of endless delightful holiday temptation is a little easier if there are tasty gluten free treats instead. Last year I did a bunch of research on gluten free baking and here are some highlights.
First, to give credit where credit is due, the best article I found when doing my research was this one by GlutenFreeGoddess. Its very useful, but quite long.
One of the points of her article is that there are a number of commercial gluten free blends that work very well as a 1-1 flour substitute. I like Namaste’ brand muffin and pancake blend, or their new product Perfect Flour Blend. I’ve used it for cookies for most of a year now and its predictable and tasty. I just substitute that for regular flour in any of my favorite baking recipes, and I’ve had really good luck using it as a base for gravy.
Pamela’s brand (unfortunately, no relation) bread mix is perfect if you want something with a bready texture. I have a recipe for a coffee cake that I invented that I’ll be making for Christmas morning and this mix (without the yeast) gave a very chewy, satisfying result. I haven’t tried it for just cookies yet but I’ll report back when I do. Pamela’s brand also makes some really lovely commercial cookies. A wide variety in a standard size and a convenient resealable bag of minis, which is what I prefer, it keeps portion control a little easier for me.
I recently found a product by Bella Gluten Free (a Colorado based company). Its become one of my favorite mixes, it doesn’t get at all gritty the way some of the others can. I’ve made a lot of successful cookies with this mix.
Another mix I think very well of is Cherrybrook Kitchen Sugar Cookies. Its a simple box mix that goes together quickly with just vanilla and milk. You can use almost any form of milk, rice, hemp, almond, personally I use coconut milk in tetra packs from So Delicious which I can now get in my regular grocery store. You can sub the vanilla with another flavored extract and get a nice variety. (You can also add in 1/4 tsp Koolaid powder for flavoring, did you know that? But in that case, keep the vanilla.) I would like to warn you that Cherrybrook Kitchen makes a ready-to-use frosting in a can. DON’T! It is perfectly awful. wretched. Even added sugar and orange juice couldn’t save it and it rendered the frosted cookies inedible. They get a fail on that.
Another fail I need to mention is Robs Red Mill. I’ve always been a big fan of their products, but their gluten free baking mix makes use of bean flours. Many people swear by them. I just swear at them. I tried their mix once and threw out the batch. The texture was nice, it was easy to use, but I just don’t like bean flavored chocolate chip cookies. The bean flavor was overpowering to me, and my beloved cookie tester also hated them. All their gluten free baking mixes use the same base. The bean flours do add protein and nutrition, so it might be worth a trial, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I’ve discovered that many of my cookie recipes have been much improved by adding an extra egg in the mix. Just one whole egg. The referenced article mentions that gluten free flours have much less protein, so they aren’t as sticky, so that could be a reason. I’ve also had good luck adding a small amount of xanthan gum. Its a vegetable gum that acts as a binder and a thickener. A very little goes a long way!
If you’re making something that should be soft in the final result, honey adds to the texture. My current favorite are Hermit cookies and I only use honey and molasses, no refined sugar at all. They are regrettably addictive.
The other commercial products I’d really like are Rudy’s gluten free bread, a fairly new product but the best I’ve tried, even better than Udi’s, which I’ve recommended before. Kinnikinnick makes some lovely donuts, if that’s your downfall.
One final note, people talk a lot about how gluten free things ‘just don’t taste the same’. That may be true, but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t tasty. Mike says the toast isn’t quite right, but he eats it happily. The cookies haven’t gotten a single comment past “these came out really good!”
Happy Baking!
We had the same issue with bean flours – we used to make bread, mostly from “Gluten Free Gourmet” recipes – and the bean flour was essential for texture and rise but the flavor wasn’t good. We decided that they cause “Bitter Bean Face” – after “Bitter Beer Face” commercials for Keystone Light Beer. We stopped making the bread – it just wasn’t that delicious, and not worth the trouble – but “Bitter Bean Face” lives on, any time we taste some GF product that has it. Any mix for cookies, pancakes, or other light-flavored items that contains any bean flour, goes right back on the shelf and not into the basket.
Ironically, people who actually make traditional foods with some of these same beans, don’t produce the same bitter product. I really enjoy a variety of Indian papadam, made from lentils. If you eat them raw, they taste bitter – but they’re cooked in such a way that they end up with a good flavor. My favorite GF secret – if you can find a food that has been naturally made with GF ingredients in any ethnic tradition, it will be delicious, and typically superior to anything you can make by trying to replicate wheat flour.
By: Michael on November 30, 2010
at 8:17 pm
I agree, proper cooking with the right balancing ingredients makes all the difference. Its grinding them up raw that causes the trouble. Papadum is lovely, as is humus. But the bean flours they use are just nasty.
By: pamelapotter on November 30, 2010
at 8:26 pm