A Venture into Gluten Free

As always with me I process, think, worry, talk, think, process some more, do some talking and then start my venture (whatever that may be).  In this case, it's going gluten free.  At first thought, I basically felt like "AAAAAH!!"  Then, I moved into thinking that it *had* to be a substitution game like it is with dairy.  We can easily live dairy free at this point, there has to be a similar learning curve with gluten.

I started pulling breads, crackers, cookies and the obvious gluten items (which gluten, btw is the protein in wheat... similarly Josh is allergic to the protein in milk. Gluten only gets tricky bc it's grown intermixed or near barley and/or oats, making them not-so-gluten free and wheat is used as a thickener in a lot of sauces and such.  At this point I'm not worried about the barley, oats, or sauces, but I am a step further than when I started.)

Then I researched, talked to gluten free folks (my mom and aunt mostly) and was given some gluten free cookbooks.  Then the wheels started turn and I realized I needed to get a mixture of gluten free flours to create a gluten free flour that would have a 1:1 swap out with wheat flour.

I headed to this AWESOME store near us that stocks all different natural foods.  I got sarghum flour, potato starch (they were out of tapioca flour), millet flour and came home to add these to my already almond flour, cocnut flour, xanthan gum, and buckwheat flour stash.

I found an amazing baking mix recipe:  (http://www.recipesfromhome-online.com/gluten-free-flour-mix.html)

Homemade Gluten Free Baking Mix #2

• 1 cup of sorghum flour

• 1 cup of tapioca flour

• 1/2 cup of millet flour

• 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum

And I went to town.  This morning I woke up raring to go.  I made pancakes out of my almond flour cookbook.  They were fluffy, tastey, and easy.  June said on the delicious scale, they were at the top. :)

(http://www.elanaspantry.com/pancakes/)

No wheat in those puppies, my friends... but delicious nonetheless! 

So I moved onto an apple crisp using my baking mix.  Admittedly, it was too cake-ish for me, but uh, take a step back... all I've ever heard from gluten free baking is that it tastes funny and is flat with a weird texture.  My apple crisp turn out CAKE-LIKE!  I count that as a success for the flour and I noted to "up" the apples and "half" the batter next time.

Lastly, as I type I am letting my gluten free pizza crust rise. EEE! We will see how it turns out but if I can master a pizza crust for my little GFCF (gluten free, casein -milk protien- free) Josh I will be THRILLED!  I can use Daiya cheese and my little man can have a totally safe pizza to enjoy.  

I'm sure there will be bumps but I am thrilled at the progress so far of going gluten free.  I haven't had to throw out a baked-good yet! ;)  More than that, the kids have liked everything they've tried so far... score! 

If you would have told me that I would have a big gluten and dairy free family as an adult I would have laughed at you.  I pictured myself with my 2 kids living in a big house, keeping up with the Joneses while living in normal suburbia.  HA! I wouldn't change a thing though.  Not that I enjoy all the food substitutions but it's totally worth it.  My family is thriving and we are creating our own path...