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Cooking without gluten is becoming a mainstay in our house, ever since our daughter’s allergy to gluten turned fairly serious. She can’t even have it in her environment or she breaks out in hives, so our home needs to be gluten-free.
I love to bake and am a sucker for cookbooks. I collect them like my three-year-old collects Hot Wheels. I enjoy flipping the pages, seeing the photos of the various foods, and dreaming about a day when I can cook for joy instead of rushing through while someone is tugging on my leg. Granted, by that time, I’ll have fewer mouths around to sample my cooking, so there’s always pros and cons!
Recently, I was gifted How Can It Be Gluten Free, by America’s Test Kitchens. Just like other cookbooks, it’s full of beautiful pages of delicious looking food. But what’s included in this cookbook that I’ve never seen before is a lengthy description of why gluten can be challenging to eat and bake with. It gives insights into gluten-free cooking that I found incredibly helpful.
There is also an extensive review of many of the gluten-free flour blends on the market and how they fared in different recipe categories. Each recipe lists several flour options and how to adjust the recipe or how the taste fared using that specific type of flour.
As an added bonus, a recipe for their own all purpose flour blend is included, as well as a critique of how it fared in various recipes.
One tip I found extra useful was that I needed to invest in an electronic scale. I learned that gluten-free flour settles and weighs differently than traditional all purpose flour, so if you’re simply spooning and leveling it into your measuring cup, you may be adding too much flour.
If you’re one of the many families who have started cooking gluten-free, I highly recommend picking up the How Can It Be Gluten Free cookbook!