Gluten Free Goodness

I would not be happy if I could not have pancakes, brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Since I'm suppose to avoid gluten (wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, kalmut), I have to bake these items myself. Luckily I like to bake, and, since my mom rarely bought mixes of any kind when we were kids, I've always understood that if you want sweet treats, it's going to take a bit of work and preparation.

The UK is definitely gluten free friendly, and I've located all the necessary ingredients: brown rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, gram (chick pea) flour, almond meal, gluten free baking powder and xantham gum. My pancake recipe is just a modified version of a Betty Crocker one where I substitute a mix of brown rice flour, gram flour and almond meal for one cup wheat flour. I also add 3/4 tsp xantham gum which helps bind the pancakes (this is what gluten does and xantham gum mimics this behavior). Now, I'm an approximator (I fill up the one cup measuring cup with the flour mixture-I don't measure each ingredient separately), so the pancakes may turn out differently each time. Today I made them with a little more gram flour (about 1/3 cup), and we think it made them lighter.

The brownie recipe is also a modification of a recipe-Epicurious' Best Cocoa Brownies. The recipe is easy to modify without too much of a change in flavor because it only calls for 1/2 cup flour to begin with. Once again the mixture I use changes each time, but I mostly use brown rice flour and a bit of almond meal. I sometimes use gram flour. I'll also add about 1/2 tsp xantham gum to the dry ingredients. I've also made them cholesterol free (for M*) with egg whites and vegetable based shortening. Thanks to the use of high quality cocoa and sugar, these are still moist and chocolaty enough to serve to friends.

Once I find a bag of chocolate chips that contains more than 12 pieces, I'll be making chocolate chip cookies. The recipe is from a fabulous gluten free cookbook-"Gluten-Free Baking Classics" by Annalise G. Roberts. Her recipes first appeared in Gourmet magazine in November 2005. The big plus about her book is that you don't have to create a gazillion different gluten free flour mixes to make the recipes in her book. There's one basic one using finely milled brown rice flour, tapioca flour and potato starch. Then there are a few modifications if you want to make breads and certain cookies.