Perfect Gluten Free Granola Bars

So I made granola bars last night because I've been craving something easy to make for breakfast, and cereal doesn't agree with me too much these days (well, the milk really doesn't agree with me). I was vaguely hoping for something healthy... but convenience won out once I found this recipe, and they *are* semi-healthy (I put flax seeds in them ;). I thought, "this is good, the recipe makes a whole pan and I can eat a couple a day and they'll last me a while."

I didn't reckon with Hubs and his munchies whenever I make something (although I'm flattered that he likes my cooking so much). I also didn't plan on how much *I* would like them. This morning I've already eaten 5! They are sooo delicious, though a bit on the sweet side. I might cut the sugar next time.

King Arthur Returns! (To my diet, 1 March 2010)

Just a few weeks ago Hubs asked me if King Arthur flour had any gluten free baking mixes and I said no, but I wouldn't be suprised if they were working on it. Imagine my delight when I discovered that, lo and behold, as of March 1, they are launching a whole line of gluten free flours and mixes! Thanks, King Arthur!

In case you can't read that super-fine print, the forthcoming lineup includes mixes for:

• Multi-Purpose Flour (and there is NO BEAN FLOUR in it. YES!)
• Pizza Crust
• Brownies
• Cookies
• Bread
• Pancakes
• Muffins
• Chocolate Cake

Also, they'll be offering potato starch, tapioca flour, and rice flour in individual bags. That's quite an impressive array of products to begin with. Hopefully they will succeed and keep offering these products!

I'm very excited about this announcement, though the prices look a bit steeper than I like (~$7/mix). Still I intend to try the mixes and see how they compare to both gluten-filled varieties and the gluten free ones I've made (from scratch and mixes). I'm especially excited about the Multi-Purpose mix.

New Flour

I found a new kind of flour through some internet browsing that I want to try: Tom Sawyer's Gluten-free blend. It looks similar to another mix I like, Jules Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour.  Have any of you tried the Tom Sawyer's? Would you recommend it?

I haven't been around as much lately, and it's been harder to blog since I'm looking for a job. It's more fun to blog than hunt a job, of course. The job-hunt is turning into a very slow, very overwhelming project. I hope there will be a light at the end of the tunnel soon.

In the mean time of course, even though I'm not blogging as consistently, I'm still living as gluten-free as ever and working on new and delicious food every day.

I'll have some pictures and recipes coming soon.

Celiac Testing: the results are in

Yesterday I got the results back from my biopsies and blood tests that were done at the beginning of February.  All of them are negative for Celiac Disease. And I am not sure how I feel about this.

It is good if I don't have celiac disease. It means that my accidental ingestion of gluten may have less severe long-term impacts for my body. It means that if I slip up now and then, it's not necessarily a big deal. It also means that others in my family are less likely to have it, and my future children as well. All this is good. But I am confused.

Wheat that Celiacs can eat? Yes, please!

An article in the WSJ Market Watch today caught my attention: Apparently there is a company in California, Arcadia Biosciences, that is working on developing wheat with less gluten in it, with the goal that it can be tolerated by people who have celiac disease and gluten intolerance. That sounds amazing! I'm a little bit skeptical since from what I understand, Celiacs can't tolerate even the tiniest amounts of gluten without sustaining damage. However, they are moving the project to Phase II, and have just received large amounts of grant money, so there must be some promise of success. I found this paragraph of the article very interesting:

"Arcadia and WSU received a Phase I grant in 2005 through which the organizations applied TILLING(R), a high-throughput genetic screening technology, to identify wheat plants with low levels of proteins that are most toxic to individuals with celiac disease. Significant progress in the Phase I program drove the Phase II application and grant funding. Phase II activities will take a broader approach and seek to remove a far greater number of toxic proteins while maintaining levels of proteins that are critical for bread-making qualities. The company also believes that removal of targeted toxic proteins could cause an increase in beneficial proteins and potentially lead to more nutritious bread."

 That sounds incredible. Maintaining the bread-making properties while removing the toxic gluten properties. Success of such a product would mean that people with gluten intolerance could eat wheat again, though I'm sure that the general food-making industry wouldn't switch over to this low-gluten wheat. Celiacs would still have to purchase specially marked "gluten-free" foods and flours, but if wheat were among them, that could make some things a whole lot easier.

View the entire article: Arcadia Biosciences Receives $855,500 Grant to Fund Next-Stage Development of Wheat with Reduced Celiac Disease Potential

Thoughts on Baking Gluten Free bread

Tonight I'm baking a loaf of gluten free bread. It's been a while since I've had a fresh loaf, and it always tastes better fresh than pre-packaged from the store. I haven't had much time lately (with so many other things I've needed to make), so I'm making it from a mix. The best mix I've found for gluten free bread is from the company Schar. They advertise themselves as the #1 gluten free brand in Europe, and all their stuff is reliably delicious. Their pasta tastes like regular, their pre-packaged bread is the best I've had, and their "sandwich bread" mix is also delicious.


It's also very easy. Just add a little oil and water to the mix and yeast (also included in the mix package), pour into pan, and let rise till doubled. Then bake and you're done.

While baking a lot of gluten free goodies like cakes and cookies there isn't a lot different, beyond finding a good flour substitute for the wheat, when baking bread you have to completely rethink the chemistry. The reason our regular bread works the way it does, with the rising and the kneading is because all the gluten in the bread is what works in conjunction with the yeast to make all those little bubbles that trap the air. The gluten is what makes the bread elastic-y when you knead it, and the more you knead it the better it works.

A disaster, and then gluten free Chocolate Stout Cake

We are snowed in again, which has resulted in more hanging out with our neighbors downstairs. It's wonderful when you have friends as your neighbors (and in this case, tenants). We've had so many snowbound days this winter that it's become a tradition for us to get together on them. Early in the day, T&B (downstairs neighbors) knocked on the door and invited us to dinner, along with R, our neighbor on the other side of the building.

Basic Principles... there are some

I've learned a lot since beginning the gluten free diet, and what I've learned has made me enjoy it more and more. I started it with some of the same misconceptions that many others have:

• "everything" has gluten in it
• you'll never be able to eat bread and all those other things you love again
• it's hard cooking gluten free
• gluten free food tastes gross

But cutting gluten out of my diet made me feel SO much better, that I was encouraged to keep at it. The more I learned, thought about it, and lived it, the more I realized some basic principles. Here are 8:

• You can still eat BUTTER and tons of other foods/ingredients that are naturally gluten free: meat, eggs, vegetable, fruit, nuts, spices, beans, rice, corn, maple syrup, honey, sugar, butter, cheese, milk, chocolate, coffee, tea and much more that I can't even think of right now. These "always-have-been gluten free" foods didn't used to put that on the label, but as folks are becoming more aware of gluten intolerance, they are doing so, and it's incredibly helpful. Heinz Ketchup, for example, says "gluten free" on it now.
  
  

See! It's Gluten Free! 1.1

It's snowing again, and work is cancelled, so Hubs and I got up late and had breakfast even later. I made us scrambled eggs, melting butter in the frying pan, and whisking the eggs with a little milk, garlic salt, oregano and pepper before cooking them in the nicely browning butter. Then I melted a slice of provolone cheese over the top before serving, along with a (very juicy) clementine.

Why do some people think that gluten free food tastes bad? Or that "nothing" is gluten free and you have to go through contortions to make it so? This tasted every bit as good as it looks. And really, many foods are naturally gluten free, especially if made from scratch. 

Gluten-Free Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

This weekend it snowed in Philly. A lot. It was a good excuse for a little baking. I'd planned to make this scrumptious-looking poppy seed lemon cake from smitten kitchen. But the ONE thing I'd forgotten to stock up on before the snow storm (well actually, I only stocked up on one thing: ice cream, naturally) was lemons. But I always have a lemon or two withering away in my refrigerator fruit drawer, so I expected to find one there as usual.

But no. Not a one. I guess they had withered to the point of no return and I'd thrown them away some time ago. Well, no lemons = no lemon zest. And no lemon zest = no poppy seed lemon cake. 

Since life clearly wasn't giving me lemons, I had to find another cake to make. I was in the mood for raspberries so I looked for a recipe with those, and happened upon this Raspberry Buttermilk Cake, also from Smitten Kitchen.

And I made it. Twice. It is that good. 

Both cakes are now completely gone (and no, I didn't eat them all myself). 

* both photos are of the first cake. the 2nd one looked even better*

It was really easy to make this cake "gluten-free." I just substituted the original flour with one of my favorite all-purpose gluten free flour mixes. And also made sure all the other ingredients were gluten free, which most of them naturally are anyway (eggs, milk, butter, etc). 

In which the Damozel undergoes an endoscopy

So yesterday was my big celiac testing day! Hubs was a darling and took the day off of work to drive me back and forth from the procedure. There was anesthesia involved, so I wasn't allowed to drive myself home. Besides, it was just comforting to me to have him there.

We got there plenty early (9:30am for the 10:15 procedure) to fill out any remaining paperwork. Then I was taken back into one of the exam rooms, given a gown to change into, a bag to put my belongings in, and then I just sat and waited, perusing the sparse assortment of magazines to help keep my mind off my very hungry stomach (I'd had to fast - no food and no water - since the night before) and suppress my slight fear.

Testing Day

Well, today's the day - blood test and endoscopy at 10:15.

I really want a cup of coffee right now. But I can't. Fasting for the test - not allowed to eat or drink since midnight. 

I hope this was all worth it!

Genetic Testing for Celiac Disease - Consults Blog - NYTimes.com

Genetic Testing for Celiac Disease - Consults Blog - NYTimes.com

I thought this was interesting, since I've been thinking about gene testing lately.

Gluten Free fraud?

What?! Wow - who would have thought! I can understand this happening as an accident out of ignorance, but not intentionally. I guess someone figured out there's money in lying about whether a product is gluten free. 

Bread seller charged after gluten-free claims

It doesn't sound that serious, but really it is VERY serious for people who have celiac disease. For them, ingesting even the smallest amounts of gluten can lead to life-threatening illnesses and cancers. Not to mention the pain, exhaustion, headaches, digestive upsets, etc, that eating gluten causes in the near-term.

Gorging myself on Pillsbury (& the like)

                                                (pssst.... this is what I've been eating lately)

So normally Hubs and I eat home cooked foods, and very very little pre-packaged processed foods. Well, that has majorly gone down the tubes since I started on the gluten challenge.  I've lost my will to bake from scratch, for at least two reasons: 1) I am so tired I don't feel like doing anything except the bare minimum & 2) all the recipes and ideas I want to try involve gluten free ingredients. I just don't derive the same joy anymore from cooking the old way, in part because I now have a mild phobia of wheat flour.

Plus, why not milk this for all it's worth? I've had 6 weeks to eat all the foods that had been off limits before.  At the beginning I was surprised at how hard it was for me to make myself bite, chew, and swallow these gluten-filled foods. I know, surprising! You'd think I'd be scarfing them down in ecstasies of delight. But I know how sick they make me feel, and that turns me off. Still, once I got going I started to enjoy re-tasting all the junk/fast food that ordinarily I can't eat. It's been a bit of a race to fit it all in.

Below, a smattering of what I've lived on for the past 5.5 weeks: