Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Gluten Free Baking!

Yesterday was my maiden voyage into gluten-free baking. My cousin was diagnosed with Celiac Disease a couple days ago, which means no more gluten for her, but I wanted to be sure that she wasn't left out of dessert on our family trip to Yosemite.

Internets to the rescue! Seriously, I am so grateful to the online community of vegan bloggers and message boarders. I was totally undaunted. "Oh, now the cookies need to be gluten-free AND vegan, no problem! I'm sure they'll be delicious!" I'd never done gluten free baking before, but thanks to so many bloggers, and the PPK, I knew it wouldn't be hard.

First up, I made the "Gluten-Be-Gone Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies" from Dreena Burton's book "Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan." I had to cook them a bit longer than she suggested (13 min instead of 11 min), but the flavor is great and they are delicious. I even had a bag of special GF-chocolate chips in my cupboard for the past many months - finally, a perfect use for them!

Next up, I turned Dreena's "Super Charge Me Cookies" into GF cookies. Instead of the spelt flour that the recipe called for, I used the same flour mix she prescribed for the chocolate chip cookies here. I tweaked it a little: some amaranth flour, some chickpea flour, some brown rice flour, + tapioca starch + 1 tsp xantham gum. Easy! (Also, a big shout out to my local natural food store, Staff of Life, which had ALL these things in the bulk section!!) These cookies turned out SO well. Totally perfect, totally vegan, totally gluten free!

Finally, I made the "Brownie Bites" from Babycakes. I found the recipe in an old thread on the PPK (scroll down). They are SO GOOD! Wow. Moist, and chocolatey and cakey... and perfectly morsel-sized.

I'm really impressed with the results, and I look forward to experimenting with more GF baking in the future... Meanwhile, we're off to Yosemite with lots of GF Crackers, GF veggie burgers, bean salad, tofu eggless egg salad, and Lara Bars. Fun! I'll try to document my eats in the High Sierra and report back next week.

:)

16 comments:

  1. They all look so good! I'll have to try those "SUPER CHARGE ME" cookies.

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  2. It looks like everyone will be well-fed on your trip. These treats look delicious, and cutting back on gluten is probably a good thing for everyone.

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  3. Those cookies look wonderful! Have a fantastic time!

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  4. amazing!! i thought i was celiac for a while, so i basically used bob's red mill all-purpose baking mix ALL THE TIME. i didn't really know much about gluten-free baking at the time, but now that i'm not celiac anymore i know more about it. the book babycakes is also a really great one to get for gluten-free vegan dessert lovers. the brownies are SO intense. they use lots of garbanzo bean flour and coconut oil. yum!

    i'm going to yosemite in a few days--can't wait to see your photos!

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  5. ooh thanks for telling us there is a gf cookie recipe in ED&BV, I have this book and never knew that! I'm avoiding gluten for a month or so and am making cookies for a potluck on saturday and was gonna wing it. But now I will check this recipe out instead so I don't make a massive cock up.

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  6. I just made the GF chocolate chip cookies from V'con yesterday! Perfect timing! Yours all look quite yummy!

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  7. Awesome! I'm glad it went so well for you.

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  8. All these treats look simply amazing. Especially those brownie bites-- yum.

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  9. you are a better woman than i. i am holding out for xanthan gum in bulk, the bags are almmost fifteen bucks!
    xo
    kittee

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  10. Yay! I'm glad you'll be gluten free baking so I can get recipes from you! Super Charge Me cookies are my favorite...

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  11. Looks great. I NEED to give these a try.

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  12. Isn't it funny how easily we can tackle something like gluten free baking? Most people would be losing their minds, but after years of veganizing things, I guess this is pretty simple :D

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  13. Congrats on the gf baking success! It's really not so bad if you have all the right flours and stuff. The brownie bites look really good!

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  14. You make GF baking look effortless- and so delicious! I've been dabbling a little bit too and I love exploring different flours! Oh the things that excite me...

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  15. I'm curious about the GF veggie burgers---what kind did you buy and how were they?
    Thanks

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  16. Hi Jill,
    The Gluten Free burgers we brought were Amy's brand Bistro Burgers. Very yummy, indeed!

    :)

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