Gluten free flours

woolies glutenfree
Originally uploaded by traceytakesphotos.

I don't know if Tracy made these, or bought them, but they look absolutely scrumptious and just as good as glutenous ones.

That's one of the things I miss... stretchy doughy goodness of cakes and crispness of gluteny biscuits.

I found this online and emailed it to myself a while ago, I'm afraid I can't credit the source, but I just found it in my email and must remember to refer back to it as it sounds useful!

Top tips

• Replace the role of gluten with xanthan gum or guar gum powders. These products are available from some coeliac societies and some supermarkets.
• Try adding more baking powder to cakes.
• Add an additional egg to pancake batters.
  

Make your own flours

The following mixtures may be used to make adequate flour substitutes:

• Self-raising flour - two tablespoons potato flour, sufficient white rice flour to make it up to one cup, half a teaspoon of bicarbonate soda, half a teaspoon of cream of tartar, one teaspoon of xanthan gum (or guar gum).
• Plain flour - combinations include: two cups rice flour, two thirds cup potato flour and one third cup tapioca flour; equal portions of soya flour and cornstarch; equal portions of soya flour and potato flour; equal portions of soya flour and rice flour.
• Sweet pastry - 60g cornstarch, three quarters cup milk powder, one and a half cups coconut, 120g melted butter.
• Baking powder - one quarter cup bicarbonate soda and half cup cream of tartar.

Bento #120

Bento #120
Originally uploaded by Cooking Cute.

Check out the (seems like) million and one amazing 'Bento's from Ngoc at her website Cooking Cute. The attention to detail and innovation that goes into each and every one of these gluten free boxes for herself and her husband is incredible. And to think I had never even heard of Bento before she posted in the Coeliac Flickr pool!

Malabi - milk pudding with pistachio's

Malabi - milk pudding with pistachio's
Originally uploaded by make life sweeter!.

According to 'make life sweeter' this is "A milk pudding thickened with rice flour and flavoured with rose water. Popular dessert in Israel."

The photography is sumptious, just as the dessert sounds! I hope we can get a recipe from her! ;)

Gluten Free Beer Festival!

What a wonderful notion... an actual gluten free beer festival! I'm more of a lager lover than beer lover myself, but even the gf beer is quite satisfying: being more liquid in consistency and sweeter than regular glutenous beers I had tried.

For any coeliac beer lovers lucky enough to live in the vicinity of Chesterfield, this event on the 4th February was made for you! Note that you must buy tickets in advance.
http://www.glutenfreebeerfestival.com

gf choc chip cookie VI

gf choc chip cookie VI
Originally uploaded by shaunaforce.

The latest invention of the wonderfully talented (with gf foods and with words!) shaunaforce

Look out for the amazing recipes to accompany the Flickr pics, and feast yourself on her stories to accompany them at her Gluten-Free Girl blog

Origins

I don't know why, but in the year I have been diagnosed, I have never really thought about what gluten actually means. I had thrown myself so rigorously into eliminating gluten from my diet on a per-food basis, and following my rule book from Coeliac UK of what I could and could not eat, that I came to view it as some nasty entity all to itself which manufacturers like to put in all sorts of foods (roast chicken? coleslaw?) just to taunt me.

So I was using a new reference source at work and decided to look up gluten and see if it returned anything interesting. And who would have thought it? (Probably everybody except me), the word actually comes directly from Latin:

Collins Latin Dictionary


Which makes sense when considering the definition of gluten in the Collins Dictionary of Medicine:

"...insoluble, glue-like protein constituent of wheat that causes stickiness in dough"

Additionally (I am shamed to say that I hadn't bothered to find out what exactly contained gluten, just what I could eat to avoid it, but "Gluten consists of two proteins - gliadin and glutenin. Some people are sensitive to gluten and in these it causes the intestinal malabsorption disorder coeliac disease. Gluten is found in wheat, oats, barley, rye and similar grain cereals"

If only that glue didn't make bread and cakes so ridiculously tasty! But once settled in a GF diet and feeling the relief of eating without tension and bloating, I for one would find it impossible to go back. Not even for a little nibble of sticky cookie dough!

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Additional info:

Many medicinal products contain gluten as part of their inert ingredients.
Pharmaceutical Medicine Dictionary

(Gluten) is used in gluten bread for diabetics, and as an additive to chocolate and coffee.
Philip's Encyclopedia

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Coffee? I shall be checking my information, but I've always been led to believe that all coffees and teas are gluten free. And gluten bread for diabetics? Pah, never heard of it!

Coeliac - Wheat Free Cookery!

Ok, I am coeliac myself so I know the description 'Wheat free' is not entirely accurate (it should be gluten free) but this blog came out of a group I started on Flickr with the same name. At the time I decided that for the casual browser, wheat free is easier to understand than gluten free (for the same reason I tell McDonalds I am allergic to bread, not that I have coeliac disease) so named it as such to encourage posting. I have been diagnosed with coeliac disease for about a year now, however would estimate to have had it for a good while longer, and started the Flickr group very recently.

As well as Flickr pictures, there are many other interesting things about coeliac disease on the internet. My brain is however too fragile to remember them all, so here they will also appear.