Sharing a funny Gluten-free video

Gluten-free Cooking 'Scratch' That

When first told to take gluten out of their diet, most people feel like something you see in the cartoons. The ground beneath them is suddenly gone. They're hanging in mid-air waiting to fall. The struggle to cook gluten-free wasn't like that for me. I had already learned about dealing with a dairy-free diet and I had fell head-over-heels in love with heath food, herbs, and the vegan diet.

During the ninety's I worked in a health food store where I learned about the vegan diet. It felt so good. Veganism naturally reduces gluten, corn, and bake goods from the diet, and incorporates a larger variety of foods into the diet. Unable to stay on the diet I continued to have health issues.

So, for me, the bottom didn't fall out. It more at slowly crumbled. It started with starch. Starch, with its high pectin content, is the quickest, easiest, and seemingly best substitute for gluten. Gluten provides quite a bit of the nutrition and the strength to hold a rise in breads and cakes. Starch's lack of nutrition lead me to develop a number of my recipes free of it. Although, cakes, breads, and cookies can be made without starch, pie crusts, crackers, tortillas, and biscuits don't hold together,crisp up or roll out with it's absence.

It was after embracing starch I hit that emptiness. Potato and corn starches have larger starch molecules. The larger the molecules the better it works as a replacement for gluten. They also tend to be cheapest. Well, what do you do if you're allergic to potatoes and corn. First there is tapioca starch. It's too close to the potato family. Crossover allergy problems happen there. So, scratch that. Arrowroot starch is an excellent corn starch substitute. Turns out, it's not unusual for manufactures to cut potato starch into a batch of arrowroot, if they are a little short during bagging. Well, scratch that. Kuzu starch made from the kudzu plant costs 7USD for 3.5 ounces. Are you going to stick a cup of it in your baking? I think not! Scratch that.

With so many foods scratched from my diet, it has been an ability to cook from 'scratch' that has been the biggest help in my struggle to live with, not only a large number of allergies, but to also put together a family meal which considers other family member's allergy concerns. It helps with remembering the ingredient combinations needed to make a cake rise, or to take out out one nutritious food and replace it with another. It makes me brave enough to can my own food, so I can avoid the starch not listed on a food label, but used to make factory canning machines work smoothly without oil.

What has helped you the most in your struggle with gluten/allergy-free cooking?

This weeks highly recommended website for understanding gluten sensitivity.

The World's Ultimate Resource On: Gluten Free Diets, Gluten Free Research, Gluten Free Help, Celiac Disease, and Gluten Free Recipes. Gluten Free Society

Gluten-free 'Butter' Cookies

I mustn't linger here, today. I am afraid something else may happen to pull me away before I'm finished. It's been quite a week, but I think I will recover.

I thought about butter cookies for a couple of weeks. They are a traditional Christmas cookies in my husband's family. I have put together a recipe I am very pleased with and want very much to share it. They are light crispy and very much like real cookies.

Without further adieu:

Butter Cookies

Make 3 dozen

Blend together:

3/4 c. brown rice flour

¼ c. tapioca flour

½ millet flour

½ c. almond flour*

1 c. white sugar

¼ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. sea salt

2 tsp. guar gum

Add and mix well:

1 tsp. vanilla

5 Tbs. coconut oil or shortening

5 Tbs. butter or butter substitute

These cookies spread when baking so place small spoonfuls 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Because of the way this dough spreads it is not worth your time to use cookie cutters on it. See the picture to the right? That's a star.

*If you cannot have nuts try flax seed meal instead of almond. Because of flax's thickening tendencies cut the amount of guar gum in half.

Ginger Cookies

It's Thanksgiving, for goodness sakes, don't keep the cookies from the kids. Jared is about a year old in these pictures. He decided he had to have cookies. Despite his best efforts he just couldn't reach them. After a lot of trying, and some pushing and pulling on me, I brought them down to his level.

It seems like cookies were the first thing I set my eyes on when I walked in the door of Grandma's warm and cozy home. Her home was always full of things that had been there forever or was homemade, especially the food.

Grandma couldn't have managed a Thanksgiving feast without a buffet. Otherwise, where would she keep the cookies, four kinds of pie, a cake, the three tiered tray full of things like green olives, black olives, sweet pickles, baby dills, and cream cheese stuffed celery.

Remember the Thanksgiving it snowed so much you could make a snowman in the front yard. I do and I did. In 1974, my cousin Debbie and I went out, and amid the kids throwing snowballs and pulling sleds, we built a pleasant, little four foot, very traditional snowman.

It's been so chilly I'm surprised we don't have snow on the ground, this year. Not that I want snow. Snow is pretty to look at, but I hate the cold and the way it can permeate to the bone. I do, however, have an answer to the cold, coffee and ginger cookies.

I wish they were ginger snaps, but I can't, yet, get that hard snap in my cookies. In this case I'm considering on increasing the fat and lowering the baking powder amounts.

I find their flavor a bit milder than ginger snaps and I will increase the ginger and molasses the next time I bake some. But here is what I did this time:

Ginger Cookies

Makes 3 dozen small cookies

Preheat oven to 375°

Grind 10 pieces of Reed's crystallized ginger chews in a mini chopper or food processor until it is the consistency of a meal. Place in mixing bowl, then mix in:

3/4 c. rice flour

½ c. millet flour

½ c. almond meal *

2 tsp. guar gum

½ tsp. baking power

½ tsp. salt

1 Tbs. ground ginger

½ tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg (optional)

¼ tsp. ground cloves

1 c. brown sugar

2 tsp. lemon zest

Add to this mixture:

1 egg

1Tbs. molasses

Cut in:

1 Tbs. Coconut oil*

2 Tbs. shortening

2 Tbs. smart balance light

Roll dough into small balls, place on greased cookie sheet, and flatten into cookie shapes.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until browned.

* I f you can't have nuts exchange the almond for flax seed meal and the coconut oil for shortening.

Remember the sights sounds, and smells of Autumn?

Apples, pumpkins and candy,
pies, cookies, and haunted houses,
cider, donuts, and a hayride,
Halloween, Harvest Feasts, and Thanksgiving Day,
children running, laughing and jumping,
crisp leaves on crisp days,
the list could go on.



As a little girl my best friend Mary Ann and I would rake leaves into rows, making corners, and going around until we had a series of boxes representing the walls of a house. After we made a quick trip to the corner store for candy we played house. We lived in a neighborhood filled with kids and in great hordes, we went tricker-or-treating. Each coming home with a grocery sack of candy.

It must have been as a baby when I fell in love with the Fall Season, because I can't remember a time when I didn't love autumn. It has the most beautiful mix of warm colors with cool days, with crisp leaves to shuffle your feet through.

Crisp is the word that keeps coming to my mind. It is one of my trouble spots with gluten-free cooking. I'm pleased with my cookies, but they still don't have the crunch I'm looking for, I believe I have, however, learned a few tricks.
Starch has the ability to provide flexibility during the dough stage of a bake good and adds a bit of crispiness in the finished product.
Almond meal can make a cake product more tender, yet help things like cookies, pies, waffles, and fruit crisps have a melt in the mouth flavor and a satisfying crunch.
Flax seed meal is nearly as good as almond meal, but beware to use one or the other in most cases. Using both can make bake goods stick in their pan.
Coconut oil works better than palm shortening when you are looking for a flaky, tasty, crispy, crunch.
Palm shortening works better than Smart Balance Light, when looking for crunch but it won't add the buttery flavor.
Water will make a crispier waffle than milk ever will.
With these facts all lined up I have created a fruit crisp that surprises even me. Even better, I have my Hubby's seal of approval. Give it a try and let me know how the recipe worked for you.

Fruit Crisp
Melt :
2T Smart Balance Light
2T Coconut oil

mix with it

¾ c. brown sugar
1 tsp. guar gum or xanthan gum
¾ tsp. cinnamon
½ c. rice flour
¼ c. millet
¾ c. almond meal or flax seed meal
2 Tbs. cup tapioca flour or potato starch
¼ c. quinoa flakes or oatmeal
1/4 tsp. each baking powder, salt, and baking soda

Sprinkle this over sliced fruit in a 9x9 cake pan.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350°.

For apple
peel, core and slice 6 medium apples, mix in ½ Tbs. Lemon juice and 1 Tablespoon of arrowroot starch.

For peaches
use 3 15 oz. Cans of peaches in juice. Drain off the juice. If desired add a ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg and 1 Tablespoon or 2 of sugar.

Cinnamon Raisin Muffin Cake

I've been brewing a mock cornbread recipe in my brain for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately I haven't been able to coordinate time, energy, and supplies to actually make some. I set out to make the recipe this morning only to find I didn't have what I needed. There I stood with a greased cake pan waiting for mock cornbread. Okay, what I need now is to employ my free styling tendencies. I'll make muffin cake instead, because I have muffin supplies and I have to put something in that pan before I wash it.

Starting with my Anything You Need Muffins recipe I put together the following.


1 ¼ cup brown rice flour
¼ cup millet flour
¼ cup garbanzo bean flour
¼ cup almond meal
1 tsp. guar gum
3 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup raisins
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup soy milk

To make muffins, combine dry ingredients, then mix in wet ingredients until moist. Grease and flour a muffin tin and fill the cups full or pour into a greased 9x9 inch cake pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 400° for 20 minutes for muffins, 30 minutes for cake.

How Fat Affects Your Gluten-free Cooking

The house is quiet. Lisa and Ken really should get out of bed, but school is out for her and he is laid off. I often don't have the time or inclination for their type of luxuries.

Although I have a skirt to let out for Lisa, some cooking, cleaning, and editing to do; I wanted to take the time to talk to you about fat. I'm not talking about the polyunsaturated, mono-saturated kind, nor how we all eat far more fat than we think we do. I wanted to share how fat affects your gluten-free cooking.

Each ingredient in a recipe has a job to do. Understanding the role of each item brings a balance to the whole recipe. Then converting recipes to suit your health needs and taste preferences become a joy, not an overwhelming task. You will be set free to engage in freestyle cooking.

Fat can be a great flavor enhancer to regular baking, however it has another job. Fats such as shortening, and butter in gluten baking reduces moisture's ability to form gluten protein chains. These chains bring strength and elasticity to bread. Without these chains fat helps to produce a more tender cake.

Non-gluten flours are bulk and flavor. Without the gluten proteins fat becomes unnecessary to produce a moist, tender cake. It's use in a gluten-free recipe can be a flavor enhancer, but in the case of rice flour it tends to create a mushy mess that does not rise.

To summarize, when converting a recipe consider the purpose of the fat in the recipe. If it is to make a tender cake-like item such as pancakes, muffins, quick breads, or cakes you may be able to eliminate the fat altogether. If fat is in the recipe as a flavor enhancer cut the amount in half (or more)and use butter or a butter substitute. If the recipe calls for applesauce or other fruit puree leave out the fat, altogether.

Since I have posted breads, banana bread, and muffins previously, I will provide you with my fat-free apple cake. I use chopped apples instead of applesauce, because applesauce tends to sink to the bottom of the pan before the cake is cooked.

Gluten-free low-fat
Apple Cake">

1 cup rice flour

1 tsp guar gum

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1½ cups sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

1 cup chopped apples

1/3 cup apple juice

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all dry ingredients.

Add all the wet ingredients and mix just until uniformly moist.

Pour into a greased and floured 9 x 9 cake pan*.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

*I have doubled this recipe and baked it in a 9 x 13 pan, but I like the results best in smaller pans.

Yeast-free Bread

After achieving “success” with bread I learned that yeast can, not only give me a headache, it causes me to become faint. I needed a yeast-free bread. For the most part Lisa and I have been using pancakes for bread, it works, but it just isn't bread.

One day I decided to exchange one tablespoon of yeast for one tablespoon of baking powder. My previous bread recipe called for starch. Without the yeast I could feel the starch in my mouth. It was unpleasant. I could taste it too. I started over, lowering the starch amount and worked on a multi-grain bread. Let's face it without the yeast it looses an important flavor. So those who can have yeast tend to miss it in this bread, however it does have a good bread texture and it's flavor is closer to bread than pancakes.

While this recipe is not vegan, because of the gelatin, in an effort to move my bread recipe towards vegan, I'm using flax seed and water as an egg substitute. Feel free to substitute the flax and water for two large eggs.


I am not having great success with flax seed. Starting at the top of this blog are the first picture is this bread recipe using eggs, the second picture is using flax seed, and the third picture is a previous time I used flax seed. This third picture tells me that I can get a good bread using flax.

Give this bread a try and let me know how it worked for you.


Multi-grain Gluten Free Bread
Grease and flour a bread pan.
Preheat oven to 350°

Whip together in a small bowl and set aside:
2 tbs flax seed
6 tbs water

In a separate bowl mix together:
¾ c. brown rice flour
½ c. almond meal
½ c. millet flour
½ c. teff
½ c. quinoa flakes
1 package of unflavored gelatin
2 tsp. guar gum
1 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbs. corn-free baking powder

Add the flax seed mixture,
2 Tbs. honey
1 Tbs. olive oil
Mix together and add to the above ingredients:
1 ¾ c. warm water
1 tsp. Fleischman's apple cider vinegar


Mix until all dry ingredients are moist. Pour into loaf pan.
Bake for 70 minutes.
Remove from pan right away.
Let cool before cutting.

Next I'm going to learn how to make sourdough bread.

Real Grandma, Real Cookies

My grandma was short and plump, and wore glasses. When she put together a holiday feast you better come hungry and in loose clothes. Two kinds of meat,potatoes, gravy, and stuffing, two kind of vegetables and a salad, cranberry sauce, nuts, two kinds of olives, cream cheese stuffed celery, three kinds - no four kinds of pie, a cake, cookies and homemade rolls, I don't know how she did it all. Despite, after having been sent to help her, I was made to sit on a kitchen stool and watch.

She told these wonderful little tales while I watched her clean and cook. When she spoke some were told in a whisper. Her eyes filled with mischief, as if she was telling you a great secret. She had a small toy box of things to play with and there were always cookies in Grandma's cookie jar.

This is my grandma. This is the perfection my sons believe I should fulfill. When Jared and Melissa had Gordon, I was told I have to keep cookies in the cookie jar because I was now a grandma. I had been busy trying to make gluten-free family meals. At the same time I was fighting the debilitating symptoms of accidental gluten contaminations. I just haven't been able to take the time for cookies.

However, cookies have turned out to be easy. As always for rice I cut the fat and I add guar gum. The two recipes I have included here is for peanutbutter and cinnamon sugar cookies. This weekend I'm hoping to turn those sugar cookie into chocolate ship cookies.

Peanutbutter cookies
Makes 24 cookies

Preheat oven to 350°.
Mix together:
1 cup Almond meal
½ cup rice flour
½ millet flour
1 cup Brown sugar
2 tsp guar gum
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp sea salt

Using a whip blend
2 Tbs ground flax seed
6 Tbs boiling water
in a separate small dish. Set aside to thicken.

Add and blend in the first bowl:
3 Tbs shortening
1 cup peanutbutter
1 tsp vanilla

Whip the flax seed and water one more time before adding it to the mix.
Mix well.
Place well rounded tablespoonfuls on cookie sheet, then press out onto cookie sheet using a fork.
Bake 12 minutes.



Cinnamon Sugar Cookies
Makes 24 cookies

Preheat oven to 350°.
Mix together:
¾ cup rice flour
½ cup millet flour
¾ cup almond meal
2 tsp guar gum
½ tsp baking power
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 cup brown sugar

Cut in:
3 tbs shortening
2 tbs smart balance light
Whip up and then add
2 egg amount of flax seed
2 tsp vanilla or almond extract

Roll small balls of dough in cinnamon and sugar.
Place on a greased cookie sheet about 2 inches a part.
Using your palm, press down to flatten into cookie shapes.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Final note on sugar cookies: I've had these come out cake like and I have had them come out chewy. If you add a 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder you get the cake-like cookie. If you decrease the millet flour and increase the rice flour you get a chewy cookie.

What I Did for My Summer Vacation

We did what most families do on the fourth. We started with grilled burgers-all the fixing's included, potato chips, strawberry gelatin, and watermelon. After dinner Jared,my middle born (24,) and Lisa, my last (nearly 13,) had a marble fight with my decorative marbles.

Then we played a baseball game. Home base was a faded Frisbee. First base was a park bench tucked way over there in the corner, under the maple tree. Second base doubled as the pitchers mound. Shortstop was a large pine trees with a screen of branches hanging down. Third base was on the other side of the bushes at the antennae pole. And catcher, K. C. my first born (29,) slipped on the abundance of mulberries under the mulberry tree.

After our game we eat mulberry pie. My eldest son told me that my gluten-free Mulberry Pie jaded him. Each year our three Mulberry trees is full of mulberries ripe, just in time, for the Fourth of July. Every year my husband, Ken, asks for mulberry pie and each time I made one, it would come out runny, which would then turn the gluten-licious crust to mush. Yet, it was this year's gluten-free pie that jaded my son and lead him to claim that I should share my failures, too.

This year's pie had a double whammy. First, hoping to avoid the runny filling I added some arrowroot starch to the Minute Tapioca. The filling came out like gum. I could claim that I have solved the runny problem. Second, gluten-free crust just isn't your old favorite wheat and dairy pie crust. I've tried at least three different gluten-free pie crust recipes . I don't want to try any of them, again. The one, I used for this mulberry pie, came the closest to real pie crust.

It was a beautiful looking pie and we did eat it. The dough had been difficult to handle. It kept falling apart. The finished crust crumbled at a touch and was gritty in the mouth. This was the pie that jaded K.C.

I rarely find gluten-free recipes, created by others, that work for me. I have more success studying my old recipes and applying some of the science I've learned about gluten-free cooking. This was the case with my tortilla recipe, it's the tortilla recipe my husband and I decided I should turn into pie crust. It didn't work either. The dough handled better, but the finished crust was hard and slightly gritty.

The new mulberry pie was, sort of, a hit. Melissa said, “It's 100% better.”

K.C. Said, “It's 1000% better. I'm more allergic to the stems then the berries. Can't you do something about the stems?”

Jared couldn't finish it. He decided he only likes fresh mulberries. He didn't like the stems. He didn't like the crust either. It's not the same as real pie crust.

Lisa, my gluten-free gal, said, “It's perfect. Accept, I don't like the stems either.”

Ken said, “It's good. Can't you do something about the stems.”

Since, I'm not going to sit down and pick the tiny stems off of 6 cups of mulberries, I made an apple pie next. I thought if I add just a little more water the dough might handle better. The handling was only slightly better. However, the crust was tough.

I'm not sure it was the water that caused the toughness. It is possible the longer time needed for cooking the apples caused the problem. I will try again, but for now here is

My present version of a not perfect pie crust

Mix the following dry ingredients:
¼ cup Arrowroot starch
¼ cup tapioca flour
1 1/4 cup brown rice flour
¼ Millet flour
2 tsp guar gum
1tsp sea salt
1 tsp Cream of tartar
2 tsp sugar
Cut the following in with a pastry blend, until it looks like cornmeal size grain:
4 Tbs Spectrum Palm shortening
3 Tabs Smart balance, light
Add:
1 tsp apple cider vinegar*
½ cup hot water
Mix the vinegar with the water before pouring it into the mixture. Roll out half the dough on a floured sheet of wax paper. Place crust in greased and floured pie plate. Pour in the filling, place and then pinch top crust. Bake for no more than 30 - 40 minutes. I believe that over cooking is a part of what can make this crust hard. If your filling needs more cooking time then consider using precooked filling.
* I have recently learned apple cider vinegar is not gluten-free. I see it's use in many gluten-free recipes. There is many conflicting facts about what you can and cannot eat on a gluten-free diet. It is best to do your own label reading and not rely on anyone's word, not even what Celiac associations have said.

Easy Gluten Free Banana Bread

Sometimes, I like taking the easy way out. Take today for instance, one-handed typing is slow and frustrating, so I'm having my daughter, Lisa, do my typing. This week's recipe is a quick conversion of our favorite banana bread recipe, taken from Gold Medal® flour's Alpha-Bakery Children's Cookbook. Our copy was published in 1987. The book is still available though the Betty Crocker® website.

I made two simple changes and added two ingredients that make gluten free bake goods possible. The recipe called for ¾ cup vegetable oil. To avoid mushy, gooey bread when using rice flour always cut the fat in half, when converting from original glutenful recipes. Instead of one type of flour I always use a little bit of Millet flour because it provides a crisper crust.

My first addition was, of course, guar gum used to hold the air that makes bread rise. Don't forget, you can use xanthan gum instead. My second addition, unflavored gelatin, is a stronger binding agent than the gums and is necessary to make a firmer bread, keeping it from falling apart at slicing time.

The bread is not as good as the original made with wheat flour, but it is nothing to sneeze at. Lisa made a loaf Friday and it was quickly eaten. Give this quick and easy recipe a try.


Gluten Free Banana Bread
1 ¾ cup rice flour
¼ millet flour
2 teaspoons guar gum
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 package unflavored gelatin
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ cup mashed banana
2 tablespoons oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup soy milk

Turn the oven to 325°, and grease a loaf pan with gluten free shortening. In a medium bowl, mix all dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and stir well. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake for 70 minutes.