Gluten free baking

[albertajune]

Has anyone who bake, used gluten free flour? I've been reading a bit about it and as I have allergies, for which no reason can be found, thought I might give it a go. It sounds as if bakes might be heavy, I don't know why I get that impression.
I'm just going to google recipes but wonder if anyone has an opinion on it before I buy it in.

[p.penn]

I have always thought they would be heavy too.. In fact, I am probably totally wrong but they sound really unappealing to me!

[manda]

I think it does bake quite heavy June....I've got a friend who's son has gluten free everything ...her hubby's a chef so they mess about with recipes a lot...she mentioned to me a while back that they had a good recipe for cupcakes I'll try and get it.

[Mo]

Gluten intolerance seems to be hard to diagnose. SIL has improved no end by going gluten free - but it's quite hard to do as oats contain gluten too, and even if you're only allergic to wheat gluten things are processed in the same factory so get contaminated.

I think there is some ingredient you can get to replace gluten, but it is tricky to work with (someone told be but I don't remember the details)

You can get gluten free flour and oats (about 5 times the price). So maybe experiment with them using your usual recipes first.

[Mercedes]

There is some evidence that sourdough bread, even though it does use gluten, doesn't cause the intolerance that regular bread does. I have no idea how true that is, but just thought I would mention it

[albertajune]

Thanks for the input. I might give it a try, just to satisfy myself as to what it's like.

[Aspasia]

Our son's hospital doc has recently advised us to try a gluten-free diet for him, so we are also starting out on this... um... adventure. He said oats should be fine, as it's usually actual gluten, that you find in wheat, rye and barley, that's the culprit.

We've discovered a couple of chefs who have a reputation for being very good on gluten-free cooking, and the cook books have just arrived. I'll let you know whether they're any good once we've tried out some recipes. There are quite a lot of GF recipes online, too. We have already tried Doves Farm gluten-free flour, using the recipe on the side of the bag. It might as well have been sawdust.

Rice cakes are good though, and also corn crispbreads and corn & rice crispbreads. They make a reasonable lunch with cheese or other sandwich-fillings and salad or fruit. Bean thread instead of noodles. Cornflour is OK instead of wheat flour in a roux. Soups, casseroles and pastry-less quiche or frittata. Since the doc said oats should be fine, breakfasts have been heavy on the porridge (made with milk and various dried fruits) and flapjacks, along with cornflakes and rice kr1spies.

Depending on how serious you want to get about it, you might want to check ingredients of stock cubes and sauces. Soy sauce has gluten in it, but tamari is pretty much the same thing just without the gluten.

[albertajune]

Thanks Aspasia for the info which is very useful.
My problem may be nothing to do with gluten, but I'm fed up with being given meds by my GP which have no effect. On looking up about gluten, I see that it could be my problem. No harm in giving it a go.

[Aspasia]

No harm at all. If there's no improvement in a month or two, you can just go back to your usual diet and you've lost nothing but gained some information. If it does help, then you've hit the jackpot!

I'm going gluten-free along with my boy. It may help resolve some health issues for me too, with any luck. But even if my health wasn't involved, I simply couldn't make him watch me eat gluten while he has to have gluten-free, so it's just a possible bonus, really.

I hope you feel better soon.

[manda]

I got an email from these (I registered to their site and so I keep pop in to have a look saw the gluten free section and thought of you :D

They are rated by people who've tried them so I always think that's a bit of a help.
Here

[albertajune]

Thank's a lot for that Manda. I've had a quick look and all looks pretty good. I'll have a good look through when I can concentrate on it.

[chookmike]

I had a miserable 18 months of gut problems up until about a year ago when I went gluten free - even to the extent of no beer!

I have done lots of experiments - no gluten for a month then eat something with it in - a bread roll with whatever filling and see what happens. Usually bad. Wait another month then have some homemade bread - not so bad, and no problem in moderation - just a slice really.

I went though the whole ? bowel cancer investigation but when they wanted to look at my gut from the top end via the stomach they asked me to eat 4 slices of wholemeal bread a day for a month which would have meant my not leaving the house so I refused.

Bread made with gluten free flour is of no interest to me (think rock-cake) but I suspect that those of us affected should look at 'flour conditioning agent' in commercial bread and flours. If I could be bothered to find a truly pure ground flour, straight off the millstone with no idiot insisting it was not yet 'food quality' I would have a go.

Manda is the professional but if anyone wants me to explain why gluten makes you feel so awful, and why abstinence is good then I am happy to explain, but I am sure you have googled it to hell already! Cheers.

Mike



Cheers

Mike

[Maggie1]

My cousin is a severe celiac sufferer. She came and stayed with me and I thought it was going to really hard. Aldi do gluten free bread which is better than Tescos, why don't you try that before going in for the expensive flour etc.
Ireland is very good for Gluten free. Most shops have a section for it and when we went out to eat we informed the waitress and she told the chef who went out of their way to accomodate, in fact her meal looked and tasted better than ours.

[Aspasia]

I do think that flour improvers in themselves can be a problem.

From various things I've read, the Chorleywood bread-making process (which uses flour improvers) is also known to be problematic in another way. This is the method that is used by standard commercial bread-makers. It makes it possible to bake the bread despite proving (rising) it for much less time than the traditional way. However, in proving bread, the yeast actually begins the breakdown of some of the proteins in the flour, making it more digestible, so Chorleywood bread can be harder to digest. Sour dough bread is more easily digested because it proves for longer, and so more of the protein is broken down into shorter-chain (more digestible) amino acids.

For some people, though, avoiding flour improvers and Chorleywood bread isn't enough. My partner has made all of our bread for years. He makes it from local wild yeast, and it is always a sour dough or levain (a milder sour dough) bread with a lengthy proving time. Even so, my son's symptoms have led his consultant to recommend that he try gluten-free. He is definitely not allergic to gluten (coeliac) but may be gluten intolerant. It wouldn't be surprising, as quite a lot of autistic people are gluten intolerant.

[chookmike]

Aspasia - thanks for that. The Chorleywood Process was indeed the start of all that is wrong with bread. I wonder if you have read 'Not on the Label' by Felicity Lawrence (Penguin) which is rather terrifying.

Best wishes

Mike