So, I have a lot of updates to make here. And I will! But I’m happy to say, I seem to have discovered the balance of ingredients necessary to reliably produce edible gluten-free, dairy-free, yeast-free, egg-free bread.

The basics are:

20% base flour, like sorghum or chickpea
60% starches, like tapioca flour, corn starch, and potato starch
20% flavor flour like coconut, almond, teff, or sweet rice OR more starch
1 T baking powder per cup flour
2 T fat (oil) per 1 cup flour
1 T flax seed mixed in 3T hot water let sit for 2 min (mimics egg, so 1 per 1 cup flour)
3/4 cups water or other liquid per 1 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt per 1 cup flour
1 T sweetner (sugar of some kind—not honey) per 1 cup flour
1 tsp xanthan gum per 1 cup flour
1 tsp guar gum per 1 cup flour

Sift the dry ingredients to get them well mixed. Mix the oil with the guar gum and xanthan gum ahead of time, to let it bond correctly. Pour wet ingredients into a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Reserve the water from the other wet ingredients, because you’ll want to be able to adjust it. The dough should be very wet. Beat it as little as possible. Put it in the oven immediately. I’ve been making them in muffin molds to test them in small batches (which also allows me to see exactly how high they rise), and I bake them at 400F for 25 minutes.

Other than that, I’m still experimenting! More or less baking powder, more or less fat, changing the proportion of starches… Generally, I don’t like it when I use too much starch because it gets too gummy. Some of the base and flavor flours seem lighter than others, and seem to cause differences in consistency. Still, I’m glad that most of my experiments at this point are edible!

Little known fact: I have died for gnocchi before. Okay, that’s not true. But I would certainly have considered it. Gnocchi is among my favorite things. I’ve never had the cheesy version, as I didn’t discover it until after my dairy allergy, but the non-cheesy version is just as scrumptious. Unfortunately, it also normally has wheat and often some yeast in it.

So, when I saw this recipe for gluten-free vegan gnocchi that promised to be “exactly like regular gnocchi, except better”? I was excited.

Of course, I was also intimidated. I’ve never made pasta at home before, and I was quite sure that something so fluffy and delicious could not possibly be easy to make.

I’m happy to say I was wrong! This recipe was sinfully easy. The potatoes took forever to boil, as potatoes will, but other than that it was also very quick. Which was awesome, because I was in a hurry—as you can probably tell by the less-than-perfect curls of my gnocchi and the very few pictures.

And my verdict? It is delicious and fluffy. Certainly miles better than any gnocchi I can buy at the store to re-make at home, glutinous and yeasted or not. Even my Non-Allergic Person (NAP) said it’s very solid for gnocchi (though he is not a gnocchi fan). It’s not the best gnocchi I’ve ever had—some gnocchi I had in Hawaii has that honor—but it really is a divine and simple dish. I’ll have to experiment with adding a little basil or something to make a variety of these heavenly little pillows.

* * *

Time: 15 minutes of prep, an hour of boiling potatoes
Effort: Easy
Servings: 2-4 servings
Yum Factor (Me): 4.5 out of 5 stars
Yum Factor (NAP): 2.5 out of 5 stars (high for gnocchi)
Will I Make It Again? Probably every week!

Beginning my search this time, I looked for a dutch oven no-knead bread recipe, per rachelelm’s advice. Without yeast, none of the recipes I can use require rising or kneading (since most GF recipes are very wet in order to keep any moisture through baking), but I looked for a dutch oven recipe. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any that meet my requirements or come close enough for me to fake it yet. Still, I did find this recipe on Celiac Chicks, which is super promising, as it requires no substitutions on my part. Though, I did end up using honey instead of molasses because I am not a molasses fan.

So, having selected a recipe, I got ready to start baking it, and immediately had to stop. One thing about gluten-free, yeast-free, dairy-free, egg-free baking? It seems no matter how many different kinds of flours and starches and gums I have, when I try a new recipe? There is always some other variety of flour I am missing! I swear, I have a whole cupboard full of flours at this point.

This time, it was rice bran. When I saw it I was like, surely there isn’t something called rice bran as well. I mean, I’d heard of wheat bran, but surely rice bran was just another name for white rice flour or brown rice flour, or even a combination of the two! Not something that required an additional trip to the grocery store to scour the shelves for another elusive gluten-free baking product. But when I looked it up, it turns out that yes, rice bran is totally a thing. Basically, when you turn brown rice into white rice, it’s the healthy part you strip out of the brown rice. It’s filled with vitamins, used for fattening horses, pickling things, and, apparently, makes an excellent dish washing detergent. Which really didn’t excite me about the possibilities of using it to make what I hoped would prove a decadent loaf.

I mean, I know healthy is good, and I am in pursuit of being healthy by doing this food allergy restriction diet, but with all the healthy I’m doing? I really just want a gluten-free, yeast-free, dairy-free, egg-free bread that tastes decadently like glutinous bread. I’ll get my vitamins somewhere else. Still! This recipe had rave reviews and a beautiful picture, so I decided to give it a shot.

It was an easy loaf to mix, and took only a 70 minutes to bake. However, and here’s my familiar story, I’m not sure if I did something wrong or if it’s just gluten-free baking in a humid climate, but it did not look as fluffy or as yeasted as the one in the picture. It was far more like a quick bread. And, indeed, it rose a lot, as the recipe suggested—but instead of poofing up, it poured over the sides of my bread pan. I wonder if that was due to the foil being too tight over the top?

To taste it, I prepared to slices, still warm but not piping hot, with 1/3 of them covered in jam, 1/3 covered in Earth Balance margarine, and 1/3 plain (plain and with jam were best, according to my Non-Allergic Person (NAP) and me).

And I have to say: it was not at all what I expected! I had kind of expected this to replace a normal loaf of bread. It looked like it was going to taste like wheat bread. But it tasted and crumbled like a muffin. Like a fluffy honey-bran muffin. Which is tasty, but wasn’t what I was going for. Of course, since it looks different from the one on the picture, I have no idea if I did something wrong, or if it turned out right. But, hey, it was definitely worth making, and I’ll likely make it again—only, when I do, I’ll make it in a muffin tin!

* * *

Time: 1.5 hours
Effort: Easy
Servings: 1 loaf
Yum Factor (Me): 3.5 out of 5 stars
Yum Factor (NAP): 3.5 out of 5 stars
Will I Make It Again? As muffins, for sure! It will make a solid breakfast for this week.

Back when gluten was my favorite thing under the sun aside from chocolate, I loved this recipe from Vegetarian Meals for People-on-the-Go. It’s simple, relatively quick, and creamy in a way milk-allergic folks rarely get to experience. Also, as a secret bonus, it’s relatively healthy!

The only adaptation necessary for this recipe is changing the angel hair pasta to gluten-free pasta. I say “only”—but really, that’s a pretty hard transition. I’ve yet to really find a type of gluten-free pasta that has a good texture. So much of it tastes so grainy to me! And in this case, my substation was wrong on another level as well: I couldn’t find GF angel hair, so I used GF spaghetti, which doesn’t capture enough of the zucchini in its tangles. My Non-Allergic Person (NAP) and I both agreed that if I had found a GF angel hair pasta, it would have tasted significantly better. Next time, I’ll try spiral pasta, or some other pasta with more places for zucchini adherence.

That being said, the flavor was still as good as I remember. I’ll just have to keep on in search of a GF pasta more to my taste!

* * *

Time: 30 minutes
Effort: Easy
Servings: 4-6 servings
Yum Factor (Me): 3.5 out of 5 stars
Yum Factor (NAP): 3.5 out of 5 stars
Will I Make It Again? Yes, though with a different pasta type.

When I saw the recipe for the Sunflower Lentil Loaf in The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook, I was dubious. I’ve never been a fan of brown rice—it tastes inexplicably sweet to me—and lentils… Let’s just say that, like most vegetarians allergic to milk, I’ve had more than my share of lentils over the years. I was also not a fan of meatloaf, back when I still ate such things. But, that being said, it had been a couple years since I’d overdosed on lentils, brown rice might be better cooked in things than on its lonesome, and I love sunflower seeds and anything toasted.

Also, I find having food allergies means you quickly run out of options, if you want to keep any degree of variation in your diet.

So: Sunflower Lentil Loaf it was!

It was not a difficult dish to make—not that much chopping or art to the mixing. However, it was time-consuming one. In the future, I’d probably cook the lentils and rice earlier in the day, as preparing them adds a solid hour to prep time.

I’m not sure if I did something wrong or not? But while it was a lovely loaf shape in the pan, it completely refused to maintain its integrity when I tried to pull out a slice. The rest of the loaf would remain intact, as the part I’d partitioned for eating crumbled into the more familiar rice and lentils dish. So, it was a bit more of a bowl meal than a plate meal. It was a relatively mild dish, and both my Non-Allergic Person (NAP) and I preferred it with ketchup, just to give it some brightness in the absence of spices. It was rib-sticking without being too heavy, though, and had a nice texture. I was surprised to find I actually liked the brown rice in this dish—more than I would have liked white rice. I think it was the celery and lentils that together made the brown rice taste better. The only sad part was that I didn’t really taste any sunflower seeds at all.

My NAP said that this recipe was fine tasting, but that he didn’t think it had a lot to offer over typical lentils and rice. I agree—it was a lot of extra time without a significant improvement over unloafed lentils and rice. In the future, I think that I may use most of the parts of this recipe, but I don’t think I’d make it into a loaf. I’d cook the lentils and rice, and while I did that, I’d sauté onions, celery, and garlic in olive oil in a big pan, then add sage, probably some other spices to be determined, and possibly some vinegar, and then add the finished rice and lentils. I’d probably leave out the sunflower seeds except as a garnish, as well as the cornflake or brown rice bread crumbs. The result, I think, would be a similar taste in about half the time.

* * *

Time: 2 to 2.5 hours
Effort: Easy—but time consuming
Servings: 6 servings
Yum Factor (Me): 3.5 out of 5 stars
Yum Factor (NAP): 3.5 out of 5 stars
Will I Make It Again? Not as is—though I’ll likely deconstruct it and take it into account when making my own rice and lentil dishes!

Today, armed with internet research and the insights from gluten-free girl, I made my second attempt on bread. Also known as the holy grail of gluten-free, yeast-free, dairy-free, egg-free cooking. This time, inspired by a gorgeous, Vogue-ready picture of a particularly fluffy-looking loaf, I used the “gluten free yeast free bread rolls” recipe from over at celiactravel. The recipe had this to say about the bread:

It doesn’t sound very likely does it? Gluten free, yeast free, egg free bread? Bread that actually rises and ends up, well, bread-like?

And not only that, but gluten free, yeast free bread that actually tastes like bread - like yeasty bread in fact. How do they do it? I really don’t know actually, it’s some kind of magic.

I only made one replacement, based on a friend’s insight. Xanthan gum, it turns out, is made from a bacteria—which sometimes feeds on gluten or dairy or other allergens. Bob’s Red Mill’s xanthan gum is fed a product made from part of wheat, and the resulting xanthan gum tests gluten-free. So—I have no idea if I’m reactive to that or not? But I decided I wanted to replace xanthan gum this time around, anyway.

Doing further research into xanthan gum, however, led me to believe that replacing it may not be so easy as I’d expected. As this article on xanthan gum vs guar gum on Bob’s Red Mill’s blog suggests, xanthan gum helps to capture air bubbles within the flour. Guar gum, on the other hand, helps to keep heavy particles afloat in the dough. Together, it sounds like a master plan for fluffy! However, it’s clear guar gum does not accomplish exactly the same thing as xanthan gum. (It also suggests mixing the gums with the oil for the bread ahead of time, for maximum effectiveness.)

EHow suggests that you replace xanthan gum with equivalent amounts of coconut flour (with extra liquid) or milled flax seed. However, research into both coconut flour and milled flax seed suggests that while they add texture, nutrition, and taste, they do not seem to help with the air pockets problem.

Nonetheless, I decided to play it safe this time, and I replaced the xanthan gum with coconut flour. Just to see. You never know—the air pocket side effects of coconut may just not be well expounded upon!

The recipe was easy to make, taking all of 10 minutes to prepare and 25 to bake. However, something is definitely wrong with my gluten-free cooking! I blame kitchen imps. Or perhaps faulty measuring cups. But for the second time, adding only half of the amount of liquid suggested in the recipe led my dough to be a soupy mess, not the “thick but wet” dough. In an attempt to rescue the dough, I added the ingredients in proportion to one another until it was at least recognizable as dough—though still wetter than I think was intended by the recipe. (I was still traumatized from my latest, over-floured venture.) And, as there was no way I was making drop rolls out of my bread soup, I used a muffin tin, then baked as usual.

When I tore into the first roll—too desperate to see if it worked to wait for it to cool—I actually gasped out loud. It tore—the bits pulling and stretching with little air pockets—just like bread! I immediately divided it into six pieces, and tried it plain, with margarine, with jam, and with jam and margarine (the last of which was the best). It was amazingly breadlike.

However, it still wasn’t quite right, perhaps due to my mishap with the liquids. Bits had cooked flat, on top of the muffin tin, and if I closed my eyes, I could swear they were saltines, the taste was so alike. And they didn’t rise as much as the bread—and numbers of rolls—in the pictures at celiactravel seemed to suggest they would. (A function of not using xanthan gum, I’m pretty sure.) They had one texture throughout—not harder crust and softer insides—and the crust was nonporous, again much more of a drop biscuit or a muffin than a traditional bread. It also tore and stretched a bit too wetly—almost gummy. Leading me to believe, in combination with the insights from gluten-free girl, that so much effort was put into making the bread fluffy (with starches) that it lost the balance of flours required for a true bread.

Still—the texture was that of bread. It wasn’t grainy at all. And it did rise—and it did taste good. So good I “tested” way too many of them. And—best of all—they’re easy to make. Meaning they’ll be easy to experiment with—and hopefully easy to tweak to suit my tastes.

* * *

Time: 35 minutes
Effort: Easy
Servings: 6 servings
Yum Factor (Me): 3.5 out of 5 stars*
Yum Factor (NAP): 3.5 out of 5 stars*
Will I Make It Again? Absolutely!

*We actually reduced the Yum Factor of the Buttery Nut Biscuits because these babies raised the bar!

Since the Moroccan Vegetable Tagine had to cook for a while, I decided it would be an excellent time to try one of the desserts from The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook. I decided to make the Pear Crumble. Only—the Pear Crumble says it can be made with all kinds of different fruits and berries…

So—there is this Peach Crumble that Whole Foods used to carry, made by Good Earth. It was Vegan, but likely not gluten-free or anything like that. But it was delicious. Amazing. Decadent. They haven’t had it in two years, but I still searched for it every time I went to the store. Just in case, you see. It was seasonal, after all! Then I discoved more about my allergies, and it was a moot point.

So, Peach Crumble it is!

Now, this dish has a pretty funny description: “This dish is a great way to get the kids (or anyone else for that matter) to eat fruit.” I’ll say! I could eat a whole bushel of fruit in a crumble! And I’ll also accept fruit in the form of pies, turnovers, and tarts, just in case it comes up. And that has absolutely nothing to do with the nearly cup full of fat and nearly cup and a half full of sugar included in this decadent dish. (Hey, it is a dessert after all!)

For the Vegans out there, I recommend using maple syrup in place of honey.

The Peach Crumble was easy to make—it took me less than ten minutes to throw together and put in the oven—and it made the kitchen smell amazing. Enough to remind us to actually save room in our stomachs for dessert.

It was really, really, really good. So good, we may have eaten half of it in one sitting. Kind of. Accidentally. I’m sure it does actually feed eight people who hate the taste of delicious food. Or eight people with any actual restraint. But we are not those people. And it was amazing. I imagine if you could eat ice cream, it would be marvelous with vanilla ice cream. Hmmm—maybe vanilla coconut cream? I will have to try it! My Non-Allergic Person (NAP) said it was very, very tasty. He loved it—he thought the fruit worked very well and highly recommends it as a whole. The only changes I might make are to skin the peaches, and to use margarine instead of crisco. The book doesn’t use any soy products, but as I can eat soy (right now anyway!), and as I love the taste of Earth Balance margarine, I think it would be a good substitution for me.

* * *

Time: 50 minutes
Effort: Easy
Servings: 4-8 servings, depending on the size of your hunger and the strength of your desire.
Yum Factor (Me): 4.5 out of 5 stars
Yum Factor (NAP): 4.5 out of 5 stars
Will I Make It Again? Absolutely!

Today made Moroccan Vegetable Tagine with Saffron Rice, both recipes from The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook. I tend to be drawn to recipes that look like they are naturally allergy-free, as one of the saddest parts of having food allergies is encountering all these tragic little dishes trying oh-so-hard to be just like some delicious, allergy-laced dish—and failing, leaving you feeling more deprived than you did before. Don’t get me wrong—I am a fervent believer and seeker of a future filled with amazing allergy-free food. But I’ve found that naturally allergy-free foods are often the most effortlessly tasty—and are thus comforting.

I was attracted to the Moroccan Vegetable Tagine by both its seemingly naturally allergy-free nature, as well as by the mouth-watering list of spices it mentioned (like saffron, cumin, and paprika!). At first, I was intimidated by the almost page-long ingredient list:

(And I even skipped the turnips!) But, like it was reading my mind, the recipe said, “Don’t be put off by this long list of ingredients. This dish is actually quite simple to make, and well worth any effort.” So… I decided to let the book win. After all, while I haven’t had a lot of Moroccan food, the Moroccan food I have had has been extraordinary, so why not give it a shot?

I made one substitution: I used golden raisins instead of normal raisins, just because I prefer their flavor. Agave can be substituted for the honey for Vegans.

The recipe is right on in that it certainly is fairly simple to make. However, it also took me about 50 minutes of prep time to get everything organized, chopped, and grouped. Then, the cooking itself took another 70 minutes—which is like forever when you’re hungry! But it wasn’t an intensive 70 minutes, and the smells coming from the Tagine were heavenly.

The saffron rice was simple and easy, and it complimented the Moroccan Vegetable Tagine perfectly. It had me thinking of all the other dishes I could use it with! I think next time I’ll add more salt (I wasn’t sure how much my vegetable broth would add, so I skipped it), but that is totally user error.

It is best started in the last 30 minutes of cooking for the tagine, as it takes almost no prep time, and cooks in 20 minutes (I let mine rest for 5 minutes afterward). Also, that way, you’re not trying to balance stirring the onions and spices with one hand while browning rice and adding vegetable broth with the other.

The resulting Moroccan Vegetable Tagine with Saffron Rice was aromatic, light, and sumptuous. It was filling without being heavy. The flavors of the rice and the tagine went beautifully together. My Non-Allergic Person (NAP) thought it was very tasty—and had very good flavor—compliments he used at least three times during the meal. I agree—it’s one of my new favorite recipes for sure.  And I’m pretty sure almost anyone would find this recipe tempting—allergic or not! Which has to be my favorite part.

* * *

Time: 2 hours
Effort: Easy
Servings: 4 filling servings, 6 servings if you have a side dish
Yum Factor (Me): 5 out of 5 stars
Yum Factor (NAP): 4.5 out of 5 stars
Will I Make It Again? For sure. Though I’m not sure how often I can make it during the week!

Tonight I decided to make Thai Yellow Curry with Eggplant and Sweet Potato along with Coconut Rice, both from The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook. Thai food is my absolute favorite. And besides that, it’s rich in two foods I used to hate when I was a kid, pre-food allergies, but now love: coconut and cilantro. (Isn’t that just the weirdest thing? It’s like allergies made my taste buds adapt or something.) So I had some pretty high expectations.

The recipe calls for yellow curry paste, which I was a little worried about, since that means the quality of the dish would largely rest on the curry paste, and because it’s hard to find a curry paste without fish sauce or other allergens in it. But happily, Whole Foods had a brand that’s virtually allergen-free. Vegans will note there’s honey there on the table; agave works equally well. I didn’t have Kaffir Lime leaves, as I couldn’t find them, but they are optional, and I used cilantro (as the recipe suggests), not Thai basil, because I love cilantro.

The coconut rice was far simpler. The recipe is very similar to this one except with some cilantro on top for garnish, and a dash of honey/agave in the rice. Also, I used jasmine rice instead of basmati because I adore all things jasmine.

It was an uncomplicated dish—very easy to make, and reminiscent of college for me. And taste-wise, it was an acceptable dish, and I look forward to eating it for lunch again tomorrow.

The toasted coconut was the best part, and we both liked the coconut rice (though I feel I could strive for fluffier). My Non-Allergic Person (NAP) didn’t fancy the eggplant, but liked the rest of the curry. For me, the curry was a bit one-note. The lime flavor was overwhelming, and the eggplant didn’t really pick up any flavor. If I made it again, I’d slice and salt the eggplant ahead of time and stick it in the fridge for a couple hours, so that it would dry out enough to soak up the flavors of the dish. I’d also add more variety—maybe bell peppers?—and cut the lime down and possibly replace the sweetener with some spice. And, as much as I love cilantro, I don’t think it’s as good in this dish as Thai basil would have been. But it’s hard to tell if the flavor issues were due to the recipe itself, my cooking, or the curry paste I used as a base.

* * *

Time: 1 hour
Effort: Easy
Servings: 4 filling servings, 6 servings if you have a side dish
Yum Factor (Me): 3 out of 5 stars
Yum Factor (NAP): 2 out of 5 stars
Will I Make It Again? The coconut rice? For sure. The curry? Probably not exactly as is written—but I’ll certainly use this as a basis for experimentation.

In doing research for my next attempt at gluten-free, dairy-free, yeast-free, egg-free—and yet effortlessly fluffy bread—I pulled out Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef to see if it had any insight. This book is gorgeous and well-written, but I haven’t used it before because the recipes have dairy, meat, and yeast. However, when it comes to insight, I was happily surprised to find this gem:

The main difference between gluten-free baking and the more traditional kind is that you must combine flours to bake gluten-free. There are a few exceptions—chickpea flour for socca, sorghum flour for rotis—but for the most part, you will need at least three flours.

One of the three should be a whole-grain, a solid base: sorghum flour, brown rice flour, garfava flour. The next shold be a starch, to lighten up the mixture, since gluten-free baked goods tend to be dense: potato starch, tapioca starch (also known as tapioca flour), cornstarch, or arrowroot powder. The third flour should have a particular personality you want to add to your baked goods. Amaranth flour has a soft texture and slight malt flavor. We like it in cookies and cinnamon rolls. Almond flour adds protein and a bit of fat for flavor. Coconut flour adds taste to baked goods, but it sucks up all the moisture around it, so you have to play with the amount of liquids in your treats. Millet flour makes a great crumb. Quinoa flour is savory and great in quiches. Teff flour is the finest-textured flour in the world, so during baking it almost melts, which helps to bind together muffins and quick breads. You can have more than three flours, but work with at least three.

That certainly explains a lot about my recent too-dry, too-crumbly, too-floury biscuits! At least on my next attempt, I’ll be better armed. Now, what to do about xanthan gum? I’ve heard stories both ways: that it’s essential for gluten-free baking, and that it actually contains gluten! More research is definitely in order.