Gluten Intolerance
General Advice on Gluten Intolerance and Food
NO
Wheat (including bulgar wheat, cracked wheat, puffed wheat), wheat flour, wheat starch, cous cous, semolina, tapioca
Barley, barley flour
Oats
Rye, rye flour
Spelt, spelt flour
All the stores referred to are UK ones - maybe someone could be helpful and give listings for Canada, the US...
Density, dryness and flavour of the following flours are a tricky and very personal balancing act. When you have a bread or other recipe where the texture and moisture level works for you, I'd suggest sticking to it and seeing whether herbs, seeds, spices or other additions can vary the flavour pleasantly without breaking the balance. I ended up making a lot of lightly cinnamon or seeded buns.
basic ingredients
NB To make baking powder (commercial brands often add wheat flour) mix one part bicarbonate of soda to two parts cream of tartar.
All gluten-free flours will absorb more water than ‘normal’ flours, so add a little more water if you’re attempting to adapt a recipe from regular flours (be careful not to flood them, or you’ll end up with an unbaked nightmare).
Pre-blended gluten-free flours are OK, especially if they don’t have much buckwheat flour in, however, I always make them up with a little (at least aoz/25g) cornflour and, if possible, 2oz/50g or so sorghum flour, as this usually improves the texture (less dry, less stodgy).
Sorghum flour is sold as Juwar flour from some Indian grocery stores. Produces a less dry bread and therefore preferable to most other gluten-free flour options. I always put some into a bread mix.
Sweet chestnut flour is great - similar effect to Sorghum/Sorgum/Juwar flour, but does not keep for long and is expensive. Available from December to about late March from swanky delicatessens/Italian grocery specialists.
Rice flour is relatively easily available and helps keep a lighter (&crisper) texture.
Corn flour is easily available and helps keep a lighter texture. go for fine ground. However, Polenta is useful in place of breadcrumbs.
Gram flour has no particular merits (except when it comes to pancakes) but is a good staple/cheap bulk flour
Potato flour - I haven’t used this, but it appears in some recipes and I believe it’s holds moisture OK, but not as well as sorghum flour.
Buckwheat flour is really stodgy, so I try to avoid using it, and never buy it separately. It’s in a lot of pre-mixed gluten-free flours.
Soya flour is available from some health food stores, but has a strong, unpleasant taste and odd texture, so is hard to use up - I’d avoid buying it.
At the minimum (assuming you're the one with difficulties, not just catering for a guest), I’d recommend trying to have a pre-mixed flour, a large tub of cornflour and some rice flour in your cupboard. If you can get sorghum flour, try to have that in stock too. (If have a reliable source of sorghum flour, then you don’t need to keep a pre-mixed one in stock, as you can mix your own).
Gluten-free breads are made without yeast. They rely on sugar reactions to rise, and require some oil/fat, some sugar (inc. fruit sugars), egg and raising agents including tartaric acid. Using milk and water, instead of water alone, is slightly better for flavour/texture. The process means that you have to mix the liquids in quickly and then get it as rapidly as possible into the oven - hanging about or over-mixing = flat, wet, stodgy bread. Mix the raising agents thoroughly through the flour and never be generous when measuring tartaric acid.
My most successful baking involved starting off for 30 min on gas mark 5/6, then moving down to gas mark 4 for the remaining period. Cooking for longer periods at lower temperatures ensures evenness and developed a moister bread, while the initial hot period helped raise the bread and keep the air, so created a lighter texture.
Xanthan gum (sold in jars at either Sainsburys or Tescos stores) is a natural gluten substitute already widely used in the food industry. It should be possible, using this, to use gluten-free flour with yeast to make bread but not otherwise. I haven’t experimented with this yet. You can use polenta in place of breadcrumbs for coatings etc, but I haven’t worked out if it’s best to use it dried of sprinkled with water or made up according to the instructions, then crumbled. Apparently particularly good mixed with gluten-free flour and grated parmesan, then mixed with beaten egg (or other suitable binding agent).
Foods and commercial products
Pancakes 5floz milk: 2oz flour: 2 eggs. (Add a touch of salt or sugar if you must) can taste almost identical to wheat ones, so long as you avoid buckwheat flour and soya flour - I usually used the pre-mixed flours or gram flour with one other flour (usually cornflour). I don’t know how these would work with soya milk - I’d be tempted to try a milk and water mix if you can get away with it. Remember that this won’t form a batter, so just add the milk/water (a little at a time to keep it smooth), then the eggs, (never the egg first) mix it up (if you get lumps, smooth them against the container with the back of a spoon). Stir it up again before you pour another pancake out. The mix keeps in the fridge for up to 2 days (covered) but settles, so stir it up again. Perhaps Xantham gum would allow a proper batter to be made, but I haven’t experience with that.
Pasta You should always go for a corn-based one. The buckwheat are really stodgy. Corn and rice are fine. The best one I’ve tried is the Biona spirals stocked by Tesco. I haven’t found a good tagliatelli. I’m usually a little generous with the cooking time, but don’t leave these too long, or you’ll end up with polenta-sludge.
Noodles Sharwoods Rice Noodles don’t appear to contain gluten and neither do Blue Dragon Bean Thread Noodles (sold at Tesco). The latter are quite slimy in texture but really healthy and absorb sauces really well, they work well in noodle soups. Neither work as a straight substitute for egg noodles.
Bread My easiest and best bread recipe is the Honey Bread, which is very easy to mix up and produces loaves or buns of a consistent quality. (The 1lb loaf quantity makes up a muffin tray of buns.) I’ve had more hits and misses with the Apple Buns, and they’re messier to prepare. Marks and Spencer does some gluten-free stuffings around Christmas time, but otherwise sucks for gluten-free produce. I haven’t tried any gluten-free packet bread mixes, as they’re all so expensive, ,and mostly done by brands who’s ready-baked products I don’t regard too highly.
Biscuits If you like Italian biscuits, and are not coeliac, some Amaretti types and some Ratafia biscuits don’t have any gluten flours in (eg Amaretti Virginia, Amaretti Morbidi), but always check the ingredients list. Expensive, though.
BRANDS & Sources
DS (Dietary Specials) does the best commercial range of gluten-free products - I particularly recommend their Fruit Loaf (light and brioche-like, good toasted and passable unheated), their Sweet Breakfast Rolls and their Multigrain Sliced Loaf (the only decent gluten-free shop bread I’ve found, though I haven’t tried all of the really expensive white ones). www.nutritionpoint.com All sold at Tesco. The Fruit Loaf is good to satisfy cake cravings, as it doesn’t contain the vast amounts of fat/oil in all gluten-free cakes, muffins etc. The Multigrain loaf can be frozen, lightly toasted makes good breadcrumbs for stuffings, coatings etc and is the only multigrain gluten-free bread I’ve found (NB all brown gluten-free bread is deadly dry). It is also packaged as 2 separately-wrapped small loaves and not stupidly expensive. Sainsburys sells this bread also.
Trufree do good ‘free of everything’ crackers and the herb ones are very nice.
Tesco does nice own brand Apple Pies and Bakewell Tartlets (comparable with Mr Kipling’s). They also do muffins (passable), their own gluten-free bread (a cheap last resort, if you can’t get the DS one and don’t have time to cook). They stock Proceli Hamburger Rolls (round, made in Spain), which I like, all the DS products mentioned above and some pastas, including the Biona one.
Sainsburys does good savoury biscuits (own brand), a bit like oat biscuits, passable shortbread (own brand), other biscuits and snack bars (ditto) and some pastas. If you are not coeliac, some of their own-brand Italian biscuit range are without gluten.
Almond Biscuits
3 baking trays (or use relays) - 30 - 40 biscuits
· 4oz/100g sugar
· 4oz/100g butter/margarine
· 4oz/100g ground almonds
· 2oz/50g cornflour
· 2oz/50g rice flour*
· 1 egg
· few drops almond essence, if you want a stronger flavour
Line baking trays/swiss roll tins with greased metal foil
Heat oven to gas mark 4/180oc
Cream the butter and sugar together
Work in the ground almonds and flour
Separate the egg put some of the white to one side (or use white from another egg)
Beat the rest of the egg (add almond essence, if using) and add it slowly to the mixture, while stirring, and mix until even dough is produced
spoon out lumps to form into balls (around 2cm diameter)
press out to circles about 2 inches (3or 4cm) diameter, 1/4inch depth (3 or 4mm) thickness or so
Press flaked almonds into surface
Brush with egg white (to make go golden)
Pop into oven for 10-20 minutes, until lightly golden
Remove.
Allow to cool for a while, then slide a knife under to lift them off the metal foil and transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.
These keep for a few days in an airtight container (if you don’t munch through them)
Makes very extravagant crumble topping or cheesecake base instead of digestives.
French Sponge Biscuits
Makes 1 medium baking/swiss roll tray
· 4 eggs
· 4oz/100g sugar
· 3oz/75g rice flour* (2oz/50g if doing lemon version)
· 1oz/25g other gluten-free flour (not buckwheat)
plus1oz/25g ground almonds only if doing lemon version
· few drops vanilla essence or ½ tsp ground ginger or grated rind of 1 lemon
Line a baking tray/swiss roll tin with lightly greased greaseproof paper
Heat oven to gas mark 4/180oc (gas mark 3/160 oc for lemon ones)
Separate the eggs
Mix the yolks with the sugar to form a smooth paste
add the flavouring and mix
for lemon version, add ground almonds at this point
add the flours, mix
Beat the egg whites til stiff and fold into mixture gently
Pour/spoon into baking tray and shake gently/push with back of large spoon to level off
Mix should be at least 1/4inch, 0.5cm thick.
Pop into oven for 8-12 minutes, until lightly golden
Remove
If lemon version, move onto wire rack at this stage and return to oven for 1 hour on gas mark 1
Let cool slightly and gently cut through to form slices
then lift/slide onto wire rack to cool
These work fine as sponge cake or sponge finger substitute for trifles, tiramisu etc (NB these go softer when stale, not harder)
*Rice flour is available from some co-ops, most Asian grocery stores and some supermarkets.
Honey Bread
Makes 1x2lb loaf, but I recommend you either make 2x1lb loaf or 12 individual buns (in a deep muffin tin), so you can freeze some, pack some etc.
Low fat, low fiddle, low fuss. Versatile. My favourite GF bread so far. Consistency is rather like a wheat bread with some rye flour blended in the mix.
This may work in a bread-maker, but I haven’t tried as I usually do buns.
· 16oz/400g gluten free flour (If not using a premixed one, try to use mostly sorgum flour and at least 25g of cornflour)
· ¼ tsp/1.75g tartaric acid
· ½ tsp/2.5ml cream of tartar
· 1tsp/5ml bicarbonate of soda
· 300-450ml 1 milk and water (best if at least 2/3 milk)
· 2tbsp/20ml olive oil 2
· 1tbsp-1oz/10ml -25ml olive oil (butter OK if no oil about)
Optional extras
· 2 heaped tsp/15ml cinnamon/mixed spice plus cinnamon
· 2 heaped tsp/15ml chopped walnuts or sunflower seeds or sultanas/dried fruit
· or your preferred flavouring
Carefully grease tin with butter or oil. 2 If feeling really enthusiastic, line tin with greaseproof paper (greased both sides). 3
Heat oven to gas mark 4½ /190 degrees c
Sift all the fine dry ingredients together, mix in the sugar, then the larger dry stuff.
It is vital not to hang about while doing the next bit, as the gas will start to develop and it’ll all escape to leave you with flat, wet bread if you delay:
Make a dip in the middle and gradually add the liquid, stirring it in after each slosh is added. After you’ve added the first 300ml of the liquid, make sure you stir it until it’s a roughly even mix each time, before you decide whether to add more. The odd trapped bubble of dry flour is not going to ruin things. You want it to be sloppy, just runny enough to pour freely (not stiffly). Definitely not a dough. Stop as soon as you’ve achieved this consistency.
IMMEDIATELY pour into tin or spoon into bun moulds (around 3 generous dessert spoon dollops per bun). Shake tin slightly to even out mix. Wipe excess off edges with a damp cloth, to make turning out easier later.
IMMEDIATELY pop into the middle of the oven (unless fan-assisted) for 30 minutes on Gas Mark 4½, then turn heat down to Gas Mark 4/180 degrees c and cook for a further hour (give or take 5 minutes - assuming your oven temperature is consistent) until browning on top. 4
Check buns are cooked through to the centre with a skewer (or sacrifice one to eat as soon as it’s cool enough). Stick back in oven if the not done yet. 5
Remove.
Allow to cool for a while, then slide a knife around the edges, pop out and transfer to wire rack to finish cooling (or eat some once cool enough to avoid burning yourself).
Serve warm or toasted. Good with cheese, butter, jam, honey… Microwave reheating perfectly acceptable, but I can’t remember right now whether it’s 20 or 40 seconds on full power to reheat each bun. Nor can I recall the defrost or reheat from frozen times - sorry.
NB As always with GF bread, only slice it at the last minute, or it'll use the spare time to disintegrate into crumbs. Also, it's useful to note that it can go softer when stale, rather than harder.
1 Yes, I know it’s inconsistent not putting the imperial measure in, but I always use the ml side on that particular measuring jug - feel free to convert it if you want. Actually adding all the advice that’s in the back of my mind when I cook this is taking quite long enough already.
2 Experiments have show olive oil is better for making the buns and butter for greasing. Margarine really doesn’t help the flavour and I think gluten-free things deserve all the help they can get.
3 These things want to stick, so don’t give them the chance. I no longer use non-stick tins for gluten-free bread, as the apple buns recipe from another book stuck in them so firmly that, when I finally prised them out, the coating flaked off with the bread. No - I hadn’t put alien acids in there.
4 If it’s gone lumpy, smooth the larger ones out by crushing them against the side of the bowl with the back of a spoon, sliding it sideways to smooth it out and drag liquid into the squashed lump. Don’t be too fussy as the time factor is very important.
5 Moist is OK, wet isn’t. If they’re hard on the outside and half-hollow, half wet on the inside, you either left the mix standing too long after adding the liquid, or your oven temperature is not consistent/what it says when you set it.