Need to start experimenting with gluten free baking.

[Sturgcl1]

Hi all. I've always been a keen cake baker until my hubby discovered he was CD/GF. He's been GF for 1 yr now & living off supermarket free from food, which is very limited.

I've been experimenting trying to make GF food using the GF all purpose flours, but with no success.

I did do a nice lemon cake (made with mashed potato!) but am really after some good food recipes that taste nice! Does anyone make good fresh pasta? Tge dried stuff is a little weird & he misses nice ravioli type fresh pasta. Also I would love a tasty & sucrssful bread recipe! The stuff in the shops is terrible! It's just soooooo dry!

Gluten free scones/ gingerbread / a nice farmhouse cake / suet pastry for steak puddings / dumplings? I'm really after all the good high carb stodgy stuff that he misses that I can recreate myself.

Tesco does a good gluten free pastry now which is wonderful as I can now make quick & easy pies & pastys.

I have a day off a week so I feel I should start making a real effort to get away from the mass produced GF food & start home baking again.

I know I can google recipes, but I've done a few which were pretty rubbish & wondered if anyone had any favourite recipes they wouldn't mind sharing?

Thank you xx

[Mike52]

Hi! as I like fooling around in the kitchen here's a spong cake recipe for you. I normally do them in muffin cases so I can that one to work with me but comes out well in normal cake tin as well.

150g sugar

150g mart of dread of your choice I use pure sunflower

150g self raising floor i use Doves farm

2 eggs

Drop of vanilla essence

Mixed fruit if wanted

4 tablespoon water or milk

Cream sugar and marg until smooth

Add vanilla and eggs beat well add fruit if using

Fold in floor

Add water or milk and wiz up with mixer

The mix should be a little wetter than a normal spong mix

Place in tins/cases and bake for around 15 to 20 min at 180 if using a fan oven

[Sturgcl1 in reply to Mike52]

That's great thank you, looks like a great place to start experimenting, I can adapt this for various flavours, thank you so much x

[Hidden]

Hi there, I make all my own bread cakes and biscuits and have been for many years, so here's a link to my recipe site and there are recipes from other GFG members:

withoutgluten.co.uk

With bread I practised by making rolls as they are a smaller mass and seemed to be easier but now I make a large loaf and rolls.

So good luck and if I can make bake gf then so can you...

[Sturgcl1 in reply to Hidden]

That's perfect thank you, I will check your site out, sounds exciting.

[PoDundee]

Dove farm (from their web site) Madeira cake recipe is good. I only use one large egg instead of 3 eggs, which improves the texture.

Join Pinterest. I have loads of recipes on mine. If you go on to Pinterest and search for gluten free recipes, you will find loads. Good luck.

[Sturgcl1 in reply to PoDundee]

Thanks, I'm already on Pinterest, not sure why I didn't think of that! I got loads of recipes off there for slimmingworld in the past. Thanks

[Pink_Bear]

bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/322... I find this recipe works really well - I just substitute the SR Flour with Rice Flour and do everyting else the same.

[Sturgcl1 in reply to Pink_Bear]

So is that something that often works with cakes? I tried substituting the regular SR flour for doves SR flour for a biscuit recipe but it was so wet, it wouldn't roll out so I assumed the flours had different properties. I really hate wasting a whole batch of batter when things don't work right.

[Pink_Bear in reply to Sturgcl1]

No, I don't think so, not as a general rule. I've had some awful results, but this one works for me. I think it's because it's a very moist mixture. Visitors don't notice any difference when I give them this, so I regard that as a big success.

[Karen77]

Try elanaspantry.com and againstallgrain.com. They both have delicious GF baking recipes.

[Sturgcl1 in reply to Karen77]

Thank you, I will have a look

[abibunny]

If you like you could follow my blog about gluten and dairy free cooking, it's brand new at the mo but will feature a section on baking. Gf flour is great but you have to add things like xantham gum and flaxseed to stop things drying out. There are other flours out there like almond flour or buckwheat which r also good to bake with. Www.gdfree.wordpress.com Its a great idea to start home baking Coz so many of the shop bought products esp cakes biscuits and bread, are chock full of sugar. Good luck!

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to abibunny]

Love your blog I agree, I have found so many of the commercially produced GF products si horrible that I have stopped buying them.

[Penel]

Hi Sturgcl1

I don't get on too well with Doves Farm all purpose flour, so when I do bake I use a variety of more robust individual flours.

Chickpea or Gram flour is good for savoury-type foods, it's used a lot in Indian cooking. I use it to make a pastry topping for meat pies, or for pancakes ('socca' or 'farinata'), with the batter left overnight in the fridge.

If your husband is ok with corn, have a look for recipes using polenta. I use it, along with almond flour, to make sponge cake, as well as the occasional corn bread.

Buckwheat flour, if you can get some that is certified as gluten free, also makes tasty pancakes (galettes), but it has become very expensive recently. It is used to make pasta, but I've never tried it.

It can be a bit difficult to find 'like-for-like' replacements for gluten containing foods. Perhaps have a look at recipes from countries with a tradition of using naturally gluten free products.

[Sturgcl1 in reply to Penel]

Thanks ever so much. My 5 yr old son is also being tested as good chance he has CD also, if that's the case in going to give up gluten as well & have a gluten free house, so I need to learn a new way of cooking. I've got some fantastic ideas, and lots to try now, thank you.

[LizzieJ]

A friend has had great results using Phil Vickery's recipes. Many are free from his web-site vickery.tv/phil-vickerys-re...

I used his GF Christmas cake recipe this year and everyone enjoyed it.

[abibunny in reply to LizzieJ]

Yes I have his cookbook too and it's ok although I really love The Intolerant Gourmet by Pippa Hendrick and the Honeybuns baking book, they're both excellent books for a gf household.

[appletina]

ready made pastry or pastry mix? I miss chocolate eclairs, strawberry tarts and tiramisu.

[Hidden]

If you are a keen baker and don't mind mixing your own flour, 40%urid lentil (from indian shops, its what they use in poppadum), 40% tapioca and 20% rice lets you make almost everything (not so good for yeast and layered foods like croissant) using ordinary recipes . Don't need any gums. To make pasta with it mix with water, less good with egg, fine for ravioli etc.

If your husband has tenderness in his abdomen do explore the issue of whether the gums everyone uses in gf food is the problem (hopefully he will be fine) as they are a known irritant.