Enjoy Healthy Eating With Gluten Free Recipes

Families make the move away from wheat for many reasons. One may be digestive problems and other symptoms due to intolerance or allergies. Another is coeliac disease, a dangerous and often painful condition caused by serious intolerance to gluten. Though wheat is not its only source, gluten free recipes will necessarily be wheat free.

They will not feature barley, spelt or kamut either. All of these contain gluten, but they would be safe for people avoiding just wheat. When baking or cooking for sensitive individuals, check all ingredients. Stock cupboards with gluten free baking powder, and watch out for baking mixes.

Bread and muffin recipes will want something to take the place of gluten, the main role of which is to keep the finished product from crumbling. Suggested ingredients include xanthum gum, guar gum and pre-gel starch. All of these can be found at health food and specialty stores, although as supermarkets become increasingly aware of the demand for gluten-free baking products, they will sometimes carry such things or will order them in.

They will also increasingly stock a variety of safe flours. These include soy, potato, amaranth and tapioca. Compare these with all-purpose flour and you will see they are more dense, requiring different treatment.

This will mean that trying to create something identical to a recipe requiring wheat flour will not result in an exact replica. Your cakes, muffins and cookies will often feel heavier. Their texture will include the grainy or dense quality noticed in the uncooked product. Mixing flours together sometimes works better than working strictly from one particular variety.

One useful item to use when baking muffins, for example, is yogurt. Combine this with gluten free baking powder, then let them sit for a few minutes. Watch as the two react to create a frothy mixture. When folded into your batter these air bubbles will give your recipe a lift. Substitute sour cream, buttermilk or soured milk and do the same thing, achieving the similar results.

For thickening a gravy or sauce, stock regular items such as cornstarch or tapioca starch. Use these safely as before. When creating a custard or thick filling in baking, make sure products such as custard or pudding powder do not contain thickeners with gluten in them. If you can get rid of all wheat from the kitchen, all the better. If not, at least dedicate a cupboard and label it up for safety.

Many gluten free recipes can taste horrible as I’m sure you’ll know if you have a gluten allergy. Allergydiet.co.uk provide a variety of gluten free recipes, including gluten free bread recipes that have become extremely popular, purely on the strength of the recipes themselves.