Why is gluten-free so tricky?

On Sunday for breakfast, had a craving for quiche. It had been a while since I made quiche so to get a jump on it I made the crust the day before and did what I would have done with a wheat pastry crust (put it in the fridge to rippen for an hour before rolling). Big mistake. Needless to say it had solidified into a cracker type (yes there must be another recipe there - as you say "crackers?" where they good?) hard bite that was to me just bad. I had used part white rice flour, part brown rice flour.

The pastry the next morning was a delight - light, flakey, tender and delicious. I omited the brown rice flour and used only the white rice flour as the rice portion of my flour mix. I did not put the dough in the fridge to ripen, nor did I let it ripen at all. I rolled it and baked it. Just lovely. Look for the recipe in the up and coming cookbook.

Special Occassion Baking

Do remember that I bake for special occassions if you need a wedding cake, birthday cake or party item, please let me know. All gluten-free of course.

Experiments continute with great results - spring rolls

One of my friends has asked me if gluten free is more health conscious, more nutritious or good for weight loss. If you are celiac you will most likely find you start gaining weight as you have not been absorbing your nutrients while eating wheat and other gluten. Celiacs also have to be careful to make sure they do get enough nutrion into their diet as rice/corn/tapioca flours are not enriched as their wheat counterparts are. Gluten free can be more nutritious - but you need to chose products made with the more healthly flours from the list. Gluten-free is not a diet to lose weight. It is a diet to gain health for any celiac.

The experiments continue: I was craving a spring roll yesterday - have not had one in nearly 6 years so this craving is not something I am looking to fulfill on a regular basis. I just simply don't like being told I can not have something or that I can not do something for that matter. Those of you who know me well will understand this and smile.

So, I have a really delicious vegetable roti that will be in the cookbook - but it is still not an egg roll/spring roll. I pulled out the rice wraps again and really started to think about the science behind g/f - as I often do. Call me a food geek and you would be correct.

When you make an egg roll out of the rice wraps, they are too thin and absorb too much of the oil regardless of the temp. cooked at. Cooking tip: The higher the temp in frying, the less oil absorbed. I rolled the wrapped spring roll in something else and voila - the perfect egg roll. The batch made 15 of them and there are 3 left at the moment. They were crispy and tender in the middle, just the way I remember them. Taste really great cold, so they could be tossed into a lunch for a special treat. These are the types of tips and tricks that will appear in the cookbook.

Jim has told me he is waiting for recipes to be put up on the website. I am putting together the cookbook for this purpose. I am reluctant to post recipes on the website as recipes are available all over the place and yes I know many of them are free.

Any ideas on this? The tips and techiques I have developed have taken years of kitchen testing and are beyond what I have seen out there. My question of the day is how does one build the library resource for the cookbook and get paid for it, like everyone else does for published cookbooks that take years to compile? Thoughts? Rants? Anything you want to see?

What's in Your Pantry?

Tell me what's in your pantry. How can all these lovely ingredients be boring?

Here is what's in mine:
amaranth flour ~
white rice flour *
brown rice flour **
Asian rice flour
glutinous rice flour (a.k.a. sweet rice flour) *
rice bran ~

chickpea flour (a.k.a. gram flour, besan flour) * ~
sorghum flour *
buckwheat flour ~
teff flour ~
white corn flour **
yellow corn flour
corn meal *
corn tortilla "masa" mix

corn starch *
potato starch *
potato flour
yam flour
tapioca starch **
tapioca flour (a.k.a. cassava flour)
"Only Oats" regular flake oatmeal ~

xanthan gum
baking soda
baking powder
bird's custard powder

oxo (knorr) beef bouillon in the sachet powdered form (UPC code: 68400 16461 in Canada)
McCormick vegetable bouillon cubes
cocoa powder
sea salt
organic sugar
brown sugar
locally grown honey
Crosby's molasses

apple cider vinegar
white vinegar
olive oil
safflower oil
coconut milk - liquid form, not the thick variety (shake the can - if you can hear it giggling it is the thin kind)
yeast (in the fridge after opening - I just buy it in the jar) - don't worry you will manage just fine with this stuff

* denotes items used more
** denotes items used the most
~ denotes high nutritional value compared to wheat and other flours

The Joy of Gluten Free is about to be born. I am so excited.

Reader Poll

Upon going gluten-free or attempting to: What food do you/did you miss the most? Please be as specific as possible.

Commitment to Create Cookbook.

OMG. Here I am blogging!

I am so excited!

My Mission: to organize (have the content), create and publish my gluten-free cookbook.

My "thing": I have secrets. Good secrets. Awesome g/f life-changing secrets!

Inspiration: Most of all my girl-team. thanks Laura, thanks Catherine! You are amazing and I am so thankful to have you in my life. Major inspiration in the last five years: g/f food sucked. notice how that is in the past tense. Sucked.

No more mixes, reliance on pre-packed and mixed flours. Back to life. So much yummy food.

Deadline: Nov. 10th - three months from todays date.