The Best Recipes for Gluten-free Grain-Free Baked Goods

The hardest meals for people with celiac disease (who cannot eat gluten-based bread or flour products) to quickly prepare are breakfast and lunch. Gone are the handy delights of bread and toast and thus, sandwiches. That is, of course, unless one purchases expensive and hard-to-find bread substitutes, or prepares gluten-free breads at home, ahead of time. To this end, one of the most useful sources I've found, of recipes for baking gluten-free breads, cakes and cookies is Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall.

This book, first published in 1994, and now an old standard for people with celiac and a number of other intestinal disorders, is based on a rather unusual regimen called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I would encourage anyone who has celiac, or whose children who have it, to read the whole book and contemplate its approach to treating the disease-- which differs a bit from standard approaches. But regardless of whether one adheres strictly to the book's theories, one will love the outstanding and useful recipes it provides. When prepared, they surpass most of the commercial gluten-free products. And while all of the recipes in this book are excellent, it's the baking recipes that I am particularly recommending.

The book has also spawned several websites, particularly, http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info and http://www.scdiet.org/ which provide lots of additional recipes as well as much useful information

Gotschall's book emphasizes the use of nut flours, particularly almond flour-- as a wheat flour substitute. Almond flour, which has been traditionally used in German baking, imparts a wonderful flavor to breads, cookies and cakes. It both blends in, and mimics wheat flour, and also adds a moistness and sweetness when mixed with honey for cakes and cookies. In terms of texture, almond flour is preferable to rice flour, which often imparts a dryness and flat taste tot breads, and is superior to bean flours which often contribute a bitter or acrid taste to baked goods.

These recipes are also remarkably healthful. They avoid all processed sugar and use only honey. They also make use of yogurt, cottage cheese, and farmer cheese as essential baking ingredients. Gotshall discusses the need to use homemade yogurt-and uncreamed cottage cheese- as a way of insuring that all is lactose free-- because she views lactose intolerance as contributing to intestinal problems. This stricture may-- for people who already have celiac under control-- be an unnecessary inconvenience. If one is using the book for the exceptional recipes, one can use their own judgment on this issue.

Some of my favorite recipes in this book include the Basic Muffin and Bread Recipe; Lois Lang's Luscious Bread; Nut Torte; Almond-Honey Crisps and Sandwich Rolls.

What a pleasure it is for celiac sufferers to have an array of high quality bread, rolls and other baked goods on hand-- to toast, to make a sandwich with or just to eat as is.

The only problem you will have with the recipes in this book is that the the gluten-free breads, cakes and cookies you bake will be eaten so quickly, even by family members who don't have celiac.