Whether you're GF due to Celiac Disease, gluten intolerance or ataxia, food allergy, or autism, these three cookbooks have plenty of wheat free foods.
People adhere to a gluten-free diet for a number of reasons. A diagnosis of celiac disease or gluten intolerance means that you aren’t going to be eating Wonder Bread or Duncan Hines cake anymore. Finding good GF recipes can be a hassle, and some GF recipes are just disasters. Here are some cookbooks with specific recipes that you might want to try.
Gluten-Free Gourmet Makes Dessert by Bette Hagman.
After I was diagnosed, Bette Hagman's books are the first couple of books that I got, and I still use them every day. Dessert is one of the best for the extra information it includes.
While all of Hagman's books have the GF mixes, this book has a great table of the protein, fat, carb, and fiber content of many of our "funny flours" (p26-7). It's fantastic for figuring out what flours to try substituting with if you're trying to increase the protein or fiber content of a recipe. It also has an example of how to take an ordinary cake recipe and make it GF, and suggestions for how much xanthum gum to use (p30-1). There's also a great troubleshooting chapter that starts on page 33.
The "cakes from mixes" chapter is less than exciting. It's where you take a GF cake mix and then add so much stuff to it that you could've started from scratch.
Steer clear of the brownie recipe on page 138. It was rock hard on the edges and underbaked in the middle, and it didn't have nearly enough chocolate in it. I just use a regular recipe and, with the help of the guidelines on page 33, make good cocoa brownies.
Favorite recipes:
Pumpkin cake p64
Banana cake p61 (These are both like really good breads.)
Toll House cookies p157
Chocolate Mousse cake p282 (One of the better flourless choc cakes I've had)
The Gluten-Free Gourmet – Revised by Bette Hagman.
This really great book has a lot of the staples that you need. The initial couple of chapters about what you can and can't eat are worth the price of the book (sure, you can't have wheat, rye, or barley, but how about quinoa, teff, spelt, or millet?) (Answers: yes, yes, no, yes.) but the recipes are what you should buy it for. The "Revised" edition has been updated with the new "four bean flour" blend.
My Favorites:
Corn muffins - p86 - uses a polenta technique to be utterly different than cornbread
Sandwich bread - p55 - the closest thing to, well, you know.
Muffins - p77 - done in less than an hour and tasty-tasty-tasty.
The 125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt
125 Best GF Recipes is my new favorite book. Unlike some other cookbooks that include recipes that bear astonishing similarities to Hagman's recipes, Washburn and Butt have devised new, intriguing, useful recipes that use even fewer ingredients than traditional GF recipes.
One of my favorites is the "Lavosh," (p16). I omit the yeast and the vinegar (there's no proofing time, anyway,) and add a 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder and substitute milk for water. Then, don't spread it as thin as a cracker, but pretty thin, and bake it at 375F. You get something between pita bread and Indian fry bread. Phenomenal! And in under 45 minutes from start to eating! This has become my staple bread recipe.
Crispy Cheese Crackers – p18. Yum!
Ciabatta – p38. Sweet and flaky. Like a huge croissant.
Cinnamon Crisps – p166. I double the sugars and add ginger instead of cinnamon for the best GF gingersnaps ever. Drizzle with powdered sugar icing.
You can find some of the best celiac resources on the web in this article.
