My baking life can't be over can it - newly diagnosed coeliac needs help

[Lizcat]

The title says it all I love baking, but I have been diagnosed a coeliac done and exclusion and then awful challenge so all the gluten has to go. I don't currently make bread, but think this maybe my best option as I always prefer the artisan type bread. Do you have wonderful recipes and ingredient recommendations please.

Oh you poor thing! I'm not sure how I could live without wheat.

Spelt flour is gluten free I think? I've successfully made some spelt loaves. The texture is quite heavy and cakey as bread goes, but it's nice.

Sadly Spelt is not gluten free it is a variety of wheat and as such is gluten laden (coeliac society info). My knowledge of what contains gluten has suddenly rapidly inceased even a lot of baking powders contain gluten.
I really think my baking life maybe at an end.

No !!! I'm not a coeliac but have a dd who is dairy and soya free. In order to have a balanced diet we find we do way more bake / cook from srctach than if we didn't have any intolerances.

Give it time and you will adapt well loved reciepes using gluten free flour etc. Get yourself to the allegies section for loads of ideas on where and what to buy for substitutes.

I've been coeliac for 14 years now, and apart from bread (which is vv tricky), you can make anything you like. For cakes etc, I use normal recipes and just use Doves Farm GF SR flour - you may need to add a little more liquid, but it usually works out fine.
Loads of fab specifically gf recipes out there too.
If you want to try making bread, Dan Lepards looks nice

Thank dibbler it was the tips on how to convert regular recipes to gluten free that I had hoped for. Have you ever tried bread at all?

I have tried bread, but mainly it has not been worth it tbh. I have moved away from sandwiches etc over the years, but the more recent commercial gf breads are a million times better than they used to be. In fact I bought one today (Yes! You Can ) which made a real sandwich.
For cakes, honestly just go for a reliable recipe and sub in DF - I make quite a lot of cakes, and no one ever notices that they are GF.
Pastry is very short, so you need to roll out between silicon parchment or in clingfilm

Nope, deffinitely not over! I don't make much bread, so can't help you there (though am v excited at the thought of trying a new flatbread recippe made from chickpea flour). The gf packet mixes for bread have worked fine. And I make my own pizza dough every week (recipe on bbc food site).

I think you need to look at Phil Vickry's gluten free baking book. Everything I've ever made from it has worked ,has been easy and delicious.
If you're a cake baker look at 'red velvet & chocolate heartache' by harry eastwood.

At your nearest health food shop stock up on GF baking powder ,xanthan gum & dove's farm gf plain flour mix.

To adapt recipes (i'm thinking cake/muffin recipes here) generally, switch to gf flour, add about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum into the mix, add an extra egg to help with the binding and make the batter wetter than you're used to (as gf flour is mainly rice-based and soaks up more liquid than wheat flour).

I also look at the "pig in the kitchen" and "healthy indulgences" blogs.

Hope that helps to get you started.

Thank you am fortunate to have a waitrose that stocks all the DF GF products so am able to get those easily. I get good food mag anyway do had seen some of Phil vickery's recipes so will try some of those. I would love to crack the bread thing so think I will experiment with recipes.

I haven't tried this, as thankfully haven't needed to, but Dan Lepard's recipes are usually brilliant. You might need to hunt down some odd ingredients first: here. And this might be worth a read.

I feel like a walking advert for Dan Lepard at the moment, but his recipes are brilliant, and clearly well tested.

I have taken to replacing regular flour with almond flour in most of my cakes and cookies, and generally speaking they come as good if not better than with regular flour.

Dh used to make me rice bread when I was on an elimination diet for ds1, it wasn't great but was edible. The rice flour flatbread type thingies he did were better.

I can't remember whether oats are OK or not for coeliacs, but if they are then the addition of them to flour free bread improves it dramatically.

You may have to make your own yeast as well, I guess.

Oats aren't OK (some people can tolerate special gf oats, but you do need to be careful on quantities). I haven't found a yeast yet that wasn't ok though

If you follow @friendlyfood on twitter, she links to lots of good recipes and blogs, as well as her site The Intolerant Gourmet. Her recipes are also egg, dairy, yeast and soya free yet she does the most amazing Bakewell tart...

No, it's not at an end, just the focus will change! You'll eat a lot more brownies and tea bread than airy fairy Victoria sponge!

Muffins work well, and using ground almonds makes for heavenly (and v v wicked) brownies.

Darina Allen's (Ballymaloe Cookery School) Healthy Gluten Free Eating has some good recipes, including a fantastic banana loaf which doubles up as a muffin batter. I've fed it to non coeliacs without them realising!

Re bread, I've never made my own other than from packet mixes, but like CMOTdibbler, I have gone from bread being my lunchtime staple to rice, or potatoes. Commercial gf bread has come on leaps and bounds, even since my dx 8 years ago, but still not great. Genius is good, esp the seeded one, but I think it's always better toasted!

And as an aside, Salute pasta found in Waitrose is the best I've come across, and Nature's Path Mesa Sunrise breakfast cereal (known here as sunshine flakes and loved by my kids) Is fab, if a little bit expensive! so they only ever get some as q treat!

It does get easier. After dx, my usual shop took three times as long whilst I scrutinized labels. Now I cook much more from scratch, and know which things I can and can't buy the non gf alternatives.

Good Luck!

Oh, and Honeybuns cakes, found in Waitrose cafe, are to die for!

Agree it's not an end to your bakign career. Rather, you'll just get a bit more sciencey (technical, moi!). And you're a vet, aren't you so you'll be fine with that.

Have you seen www.tarteletteblog.com/ ? Bee-yoo-tiful food styling and photography, and the vast majority is GF. And there's loads of hints and tips in there about how to adapt. That site it my go-to when my coeliac friend comes round. She also says good things about Phil Vickery's book mentioned above.

definitely sign up to the Coeliac society - you pay an annual subscription, but they update lists of things that are and not gluten-free, ans you get a little book you can take out with you.

you have to check every time because companies change recipes.

get yourself a bread maker and hunt out gluten-free flour.
for normal, basic flour, Doves Farm is your friend.
you can get all sorts of different flours - not just soya.

and get yourself a gluten free recipe book :)

here's a good one
and this one
yummy yummy

OOH CMOT-what was the yes you can bread like?
DP and I are both coeliac and we get bread on prescription but each type has something different up with it. Juvela v small slices, Glutafin sticks to the roof of the mouth, Warbutons too crumbly.... Genius ok but for some reason DP reacts to it (its like hes been glutened- not sure why but it seems to be a common problem).
I read about the Yes! You Can bread in the Coeliac UK newsletter and have been meaning to try it.

To the OP- I second what others have said about cakes being easy to substitute normal recipes. I havent had much success with baking bread but I did perfect myself a bit of a pizza dough the other day which was very nice if I do say so myself!
Will post recipe if anyone else wants to try it.

you normally need to add extra liquid, i think, if you use a substitute flour.

Not over at all. Swap to Dove's farm Gluten Free flour, and Dove's farm baking powder and Bicarbonate of soda, as normal ones sometimes contain gluten, but the Dove's farm doesn't. Never had an issue with it, even have a recipe for GF dumplings for stew! PM me for anything you are wanting to adapt a recipe for, I'll try my best to help. My DS1 was dxd coeliac 5 years ago!

I even bake him character iced birthday cakes. None of the PARENTS at his parties realised that not only were the cakes GF, but his last one was also dairy and soy free too, so DS3 could have a slice. Not heavy either, and the only extra liquid I add is a squeeze of either orange or lemon to flavour it, does two jobs at once!

DorisisWaiting - did you know that Block Stork is dairy and soy free? Bakes like a dream.

Terrywoganstrousers - it is amazingly nice. I bought the brown loaf, and even today, the sandwiches are soft and didn't fall apart. Am genuinely impressed

For pizza, I always use chebe bread - you can get the mix from Rebeccas Brazilian foods, sold in Waitrose, and it is soft and cheesy and lovely. But eaten in minutes by the non coeliacs of the house

stork's full of fish oil though [yuck]

yes, be careful of anything that's powdery - that's why you need the Coeliac's book each year - things like mustard powder have flour in, but mustard seeds are generally okay.

coeliac uk