Any bakers out there? Gluten free cookbooks?

I love to bake and already it's hard as I can't eat dairy or eggs. My husband decided to go gluten free to see if it'll help his problems and I'm just at a loss. I feel like I was kicked out of my kitchen. Anyone know of any good GF Australian cookbooks or cookbooks I can get in Australia? I'm gonna head down to my library tomorrow. I just want to know what to look for. I'm specifically interested in baking, desserts, and breads. Also has anyone found they get better results from mixing their own flours rather than buying store brands?

[ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYandZ]

I have Celiac too
Betty Crocker makes gluten-free mixes
there might be a subsitute for eggs...

[CalGal]

Ducky, it's not so much the recipe in my opinion, it seems to be the type of flour you use - or at least that's what I've run into. I've tried a variety of recipes and varied the flour because of the taste that results. I've begun to rely on a flour from a company called Authentic Foods. It seems I can use it for almost anything I bake - cookies, cakes, etc (but haven't tried bread) - with great success. I've specifically stuck with their Pancake and baking mix.

I don't have the time to mix my own flour - or I'm just too lazy??? So I've never gone that route.

Also check out the 'gluten goddess' website. I've found a lot of information there since my husband also has to be dairy-free in addition to GF. I typically substitute soy or rice milk in my recipies with good results.

[ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYandZ]

I have Celiac too
Betty Crocker makes gluten-free mixes
there might be a subsitute for eggs...

[ducky406]

Unfortunately Betty doesn't have much of a say down under. You might be lucky to find one or two mixes, but I honestly prefer to bake everything myself because of my diet restrictions. Also, sad to say Authentic Foods is an American site and mailing basic flour here would be about 10$/lb of flour. Can't afford that, so I may just be stuck with flour blends they have at the local supermarket.  :/

Anyway, thanks for the gf goddess website though, it looks pretty awesome.

[achilles2]

Look into gluten free girl-- you can find them on amazon.(She also has a blog called glutenfreegirl)

Carol Fenster typically has some good cook books

I hope this helps,
achilles2

[ducky406]

Thanks I really like the look of gluten free girl, she's got a ton of things on her site. Unfortunately Fenster seems to use a lot of sorghum, which I can't get here :/. Tried to sub corn flour for it and it just didn't work out nice. It might be me though.

[FurballsMom]

Follow Lexie's Kitchen on Facebook.  Another good one is Gluten Free Pantry.  I haven't noticed a lot of sorghum use with their recipes.  I do notice other allergens--sometimes.  Lexie's Kitchen is really good about all other types of allergens.  Her household is dealing with Celiac and multiple allergies.

[ducky406]

Wow that looks amazing! I can't do dairy or egg yolks, so that's been a nightmare trying to bake gluten free.

[FurballsMom]

I know what you mean.  Lexie does a great job in using great substitutes that don't have other allergens.  You know, like no soy alternatives to replace milk and cheese.  Soy is another known major allergen that is all over the food market that many of us need to be aware of.

[ducky406]

Yeah I'm paranoid that one day I'll get goiter from soy, so far it's just been an irrational fear (thank goodness!). But too much processed foods make me nervous. I've also got gallstones and a huge diabetic risk factor so most of the gluten free baking I haven't been able to touch; too much oil and way too much sugar!

I've been playing around on her site for an hour and I think I'm in love!

[Caryopteris]

My problem is that all the cookbooks rely heavily on nuts!  If it's not nuts, then it's cheese!  Give me a break!

[ducky406]

Yeah that's my other too. I can't do dairy or egg yolks or a lot of nuts and oils. Lexie on FB is pretty awesome so is gluten free girl. the Gluten free goddess uses too many eggs and sorghum in most of the recipes so I've had to adapt all of them before using. (Like her 12 inch pizza, half of it is 800 calories for just the crust!)

[FurballsMom]

I've had to adjust recipes myself.  But, fewer with Lexie's kitchen, since she is dealing with a family with a whole host of allergies.  I think she is the one I learned about using chia seeds or flax seed meal as a substitute for eggs.  I haven't tried the chia seed substitute yet, but I plan to.  I think it will have a gentler or more neutral flavor.  Plus, less is needed to make the "egg" substitute with chia than flax seed meal.

Some recipes rely too much on corn and potato starches.  Tapioca, arrowroot or SWEET rice flour can be used instead.  You will find the sweet rice flour in the Asian section of your store.  But, I'm not so sure about Safeway.  If not in your standard grocery store, look for it in one of those little Asian specialty markets--if you live in a large enough area to have one.  The one I recommend is in a small white box and isn't very expensive at all.  It is called Mochiko, and most of the labeling is in English.  It even says that this flour is made with equipment dedicated exclusively to rice.  :-)  That bit is on the back of the box, and it should be a relief for anyone who is especially sensitive to the minutest amount of gluten.

[FurballsMom]

Here is a recipe that should work great for beginners.  If you find garbanzo bean flour to have too much of a "beany" flavor, it should work with a different flour.

http://www.thewholegang.org/2012/01/gluten-free-shake-and-bake-chicken-recipe/

[ducky406]

Yeah the starchy recipes make me nervous. Very low on everything but carbs and calories. I try to remove almost half of them and substitute other flours -rice, buckwheat, soy, millet, anything instead. Some have come out very good.. some went straight to the bin. :/

Awesome! I've been looking for a shake and bake recipe. All the bread crumbs and everything I've tried using have failed miserably. I think they'd work if I fried them; they just aren't made for baking.

I've been a little nervous to try adding chia and flax seed, do they add a lot of fat and oils? The reason I can't have eggs or dairy is I have lots of gallstones and cannot handle fat.

[FurballsMom]

Actually, this is what I'm making for dinner tonight.  It's the first time making it, but it looks like a well-tested recipe.  I do know that rice flour should work if you don't like the garbanzo bean flour.  I also know that if you find you don't like to bake with garbanzo bean flour that all is not lost, since it will still work well for homemade hummus.

[ducky406]

It's good that the flour can be easily substituted- looks like I'd have to order in garbanzo bean flour from Sydney. One very bad thing about living in a smallish town. :/ I swear they just want to make it difficult.

[FurballsMom]

The same thing would happen in small town America, too.  I grew up in small town America, so I know how limited the availability of the things needed for a gluten free diet or for people with other food issues is in small towns.  Especially if the next largest town where the availability of such foods is a considerable distance and you have no transportation of your own to get there.  Nowadays, the cost of fuel is sky high, too.

I have the bag from Bob's Red Mill flax seed meal, so it says that the full serving size is 2 Tablespoons (13 g) and the total fat is only 4.5 grams (7% daily value).  That is very low when you consider that a tablespoon of olive oil has 9 grams of fat.

I have no idea what the fat content is in chia seeds, but I'm certain it is lower in fat, too.  I'm certain it's still less than olive oil.  In any case, both chia seeds and flax seed meal have the healthier form of fat.  Both have omega 3.  It is said that chia seeds are actually superior in health properties to flax seed meal.  I know that it is worth trying both of these egg substitutes.

I have a different reason for avoiding eggs.  Too many and I start getting worse GI symptoms and I get migraines.  A limited quantity is all I can handle.

[ducky406]

Lol, at the moment, I can't handle more than a tsp of olive oil, but I can handle almost 1/2 tbsp of avocado without too many problems so perhaps the flax seed won't be too bad. Worth trying. Bound to work better than just egg whites.

Does it cause a variation in texture, rising, or baking time?

[FurballsMom]

Flax seed meal does make for a denser product.  I made some gluten free muffins from a mix with it.  The recipe called for 4 eggs.  So, I used the equivalent in flax seed meal.  I don't recommend this.  It was way too dense and the muffins tasted way too much like bran muffins.  They also didn't rise any or much.  So, I would only make a recipe that only needs one egg replaced when using flax seed meal.  And, make sure that the recipe doesn't depend on the eggs to have air beaten into the batter for some of the rising.

Oh, by the way, the "shake 'n bake" recipe I shared worked great and didn't taste "beany" to me.  I used it on chicken thighs, because I know what the commercial product is used for.  So, I knew it should work on any part of the chicken as long as the skin is still left on it.  So, I'm sure you can make it with skin on and bone in chicken breasts.  You will likely have to cook the chicken breasts longer.  But, I think it will be okay, just the same, because I cooked the chicken thighs longer than what was mentioned, because the meat thermometer was too low the first couple of tests.  The bean flour and spice mixture did not show any signs of burning.  I think the only thing you have to do with the recipe is convert the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius, since I'm pretty sure that's the temperature measurement used in Australia.

http://www.sensorsone.co.uk/temperature-units-conversion.html#converter

This page said 350 degrees Fahrenheit converts to 176.66666666666663 degrees Celsius.  So, whichever temperature setting is closest to this on your oven should suffice.

[ducky406]

Thanks for the info. I do my best to avoid recipes with more than 1 egg as it is, so flax seed should work beautifully. Fortunately this conversation is on grocery shopping day -now I have an excuse to buy and bake.

No worries about the conversions though. I'm an American (married to an Aussie) so I've become a confusing hybrid. My husband laughs at me because I measure in imperial cups and bake in Celsius. My meat thermometer is Fahrenheit, my candy one is Celsius. The poor guy has no chance when he gets into my kitchen. :D

[FurballsMom]

Hee hee hee.  I can just see that.  I would have to take my imperial measuring cups and my favorite recipes with me if I were moving to a different country, too.  It's easier than trying to convert those recipes into metric measurements.

Actually, I bought a small kitchen scale last year, because some recipes I wanted to make were all in metric measurements.  It's a lot easier than trying to do conversions, and more accurate, so long as someone remembers to tell me the Fahrenheit temperature setting.  Fortunately, most recipes call for 350 degrees Fahrenheit, so I would agree that this is one temperature setting that is easy to figure out if I need to convert a recipe that calls for 175 degrees Celsius.  I'm willing to bet that you do actually have one of these small digital scales in your kitchen by now.  If not, since you're in a country that uses metric measurements in the kitchen, one of these scales would make life easier for you when you are following a recipe written in metric measurements.  They are not complicated to use.

[ducky406]

I have tons of recipes handed down through my mom and grandma- no way I could sit through and convert all. Although I'm currently converting many of them to gluten free. (Btw, rice cakes work beautifully in meatloaf, who would have thought. Although I don't know how you could make it if you can't eat any eggs.) Two very strange things I brought for my kitchen-my meat thermometer and a good can opener. Left lots of clothes, books, and year book like stuff- tells you where my priorities are huh?

I do have a couple cheap scales -one goes up to 500g one goes up to 2kg. They're accurate to about 5g and 100g- so not really. They're still a life savior with flours- I find it's much better to weigh special flours than to try volume. Really wanting a digital scale, but the one I want is 50$. Thinking I might convince my husband to buy it for my birthday. Might work.

[FurballsMom]

You don't have to add fillers to your meatloaf, which means you can totally eliminate the eggs.  I learned this recently myself.  You know that the traditional recipes use either standard bread crumbs and eggs or oatmeal and eggs or a combination thereof.  Every time I have tried to make meatloaf of any sort, whether traditional or gluten free, it falls apart.  If you simply season your meat, including a very small amount of tomato sauce if you are using tomato sauce.  You won't be using as much directly in the meatloaf itself or it will still fall apart.  Mince any vegetables you plan on adding finely.  Quickly sauté them before adding to the meat mixture if you want them to meld into the meat and not have any firm texture.  Form the meat into its final shape, then add your usual sauce to the top and bake until it is finished and cooked through and the meat thermometer is at the correct temperature.  Egg problem solved and the meatloaf won't fall apart and no concern about whether or not it has gluten in it.  You can follow the same steps for meat balls, since they're essentially miniature meat loafs.

[ducky406]

That makes sense -I think that would work for almost any meat. Unfortunately, I have to use kangaroo mince. I once tried making hamburgers one time with it (without eggs) and ended up with minced meat on bread. I think it has a higher water ratio than other meats; it just doesn't act like normal meat. I'll keep that in mind for when I can use poultry and beef again. At least all my food issues are a fun challenge right?

[FurballsMom]

True.  As you know, kangaroo meat is definitely a unique challenge for you compared to where you're from.  I'm sure it must be more plentiful than beef or poultry.  Or, at least less expensive.  Yeah, from your experience you mentioned, it sounds like that's one that definitely needs a binder in order to make it become a meatloaf or even a burger.  Although, it sounds like it would be relatively simple to to make it similar to a sloppy Joe to just use the minced 'roo.  The trick is getting a decent gluten free bread for it.  Here is a recipe you can try.  You can join this site for free.  Save all the emails when you do, though, because unless you join with a paid membership, the only recipes you can have access to are the ones she emails out to all members.  She had a different hamburger bun recipe that I never tried.  I haven't made this one yet, but it should still be alright for you since you won't be getting a full egg in any of the individual buns you will make from this recipe.  The entire recipe calls for two eggs.  She doesn't say what the number is that it will yield.  Nevertheless, you still won't even get a whole egg with just one of these buns.  I know the author won't mind more publicity exposure to her site.  Good news about this recipe that will put most on this forum at ease, too, is that she didn't use sorghum.  If you have blood type "O" you wouldn't want sorghum anyway.  Especially not when already dealing with Celiac or gluten intolerance.  For those with casein issues, use a milk substitute that you're able to tolerate, like rice milk.  I mentioned the rice because nut allergies were already mentioned on this thread.  

I would not use soy milk, though, because soy has phytoestrogens in it that will mess with your hormones.  Many with Celiac have thyroid issues, too, so you don't want to aggravate the issue by using soy products.  Dr. Mercola says that the only soy product that is a useful food is a traditional Japanese food made with ORGANIC soy (very important so as to avoid GMO soy) that is called Natto.  It is the only traditionally fermented soy food that is actually beneficial and no longer carries the risk with the phytoestrogens.  It provides vitamin K-2.  For more information, you would have to go to his site and type into the search engine "natto" or "nattokinese" or "natto K2" or something along those lines.  

So, use rice milk if you can't use the almond milk or other nut milk substitutes if you're dealing with the casein issues.  I don't know that it actually needs milk or milk substitute instead of water, but if you use rice milk anyway, at least you know it's the one you can handle.

http://www.glutenfreeclub.com/Recipe.aspx?nid=68&utm_nooverride=1