High-Fiber Gluten-Free Bread Recipe

The last gluten-free blog posting ended with me providing a "teaser" for today's new GF recipe, and the disclosure of my (not so) "secret ingredient"...

Here's the latest gluten-free recipe that Laura has created. This is a gluten-free and dairy-free high-fiber multi-grain bread recipe.

One of the primary challenges for those with Celiac Disease or otherwise leading a gluten-free and/or wheat-free lifestyle is getting enough fiber into one's diet. In traditional (gluten-containing) diets, high fiber almost always means high in wheat (whole wheat in particular, and perhaps oats). And, when baking without gluten, so many recipes tend to use flours that just don't offer much in the way of fiber or nutritional benefit (e.g., cornstarch, potato starch, white rice flour, and so on). As you would expect, those are mainly just starch and lack any fiber.

So, we tend to use quite a range of gluten-free grains and flours in our day to day recipes. Among them are some high-fiber ones, including Teff, Flax, and Amaranth. But, even those have their (baking) limitations since too much of any one will certainly contribute an overpowering (an likely undesirable) taste to the finished product. So, balance is key, as is exploring some other alternatives for obtaining gluten-free fiber content.

One of the options we have at our disposal, that seems to go rather unnoticed by many, is Inulin - in particular, the Chicory Root derived version of Inulin. This is a wonderful gluten-free ingredient that can be used in so many recipes because of it's properties: it is a fine powder with low sugar and low calorie content, has very little taste of its own, dissolves easily in fluids, and all while having a very high fiber content. To give you a feel for how high fiber Inulin is, a mere teaspoon of Inulin has 2 full grams of dietary fiber! It makes a great alternative to something like BeneFiber (tm) - which is simply Wheat Dextrin (which, amazingly is considered gluten-free).

We acquire our Inulin (chicory type) powder at Trader Joes. It comes in an 8-ounce container, and is sold in the vitamins/diet/supplements section. I haven't looked for it at very many other retail locations, but I have seen it also on various web-stores. They charge $5.99 per container, but don't worry - it goes a long way (there are 90 teaspoon-sized servings per container).

So, the latest gluten-free recipe for high-fiber bread relies on this choice ingredient, in addition to the flax and millet and teff, etc. It adds a substantial fiber-boost to the bread, and the bread remains wonderfully soft and spongy in texture, while having a nice mellow and delightful flavor. This bread is a winner! It tastes as great as it looks too! The only thing I wish it (and other homemade GF breads) would do is hold up better -- since, without any preservatives to maintain freshness an moisture, it will dry out quickly and is definitely best served fresh and eaten the first day.

Fiber Content Contribution (per loaf / recipe) by Ingredient:

• Inulin: 24g
• Millet: 6g
• Teff: 4g
• Flax: 8g
• Xanthan Gum: 12g

TOTAL: 54g Fiber per loaf, or, nearly 3-grams per 1/2" slice.

This makes our gluten-free high-fiber bread as high, or higher, than many commercial whole grain breads like Brownberry Classics Oat/Nut whole grain, and many other whole-grain wheat breads, all while being gluten-free!

As with our other breads, I'm sure you could always freeze part of the dough (prior to allowing it to fully rise) and retrieve it from the freezer at a later date for baking. This is helpful if you are just cooking for one or two and can't finish a loaf in a day. Also, you can certainly reduce the batch-size by half if desired.

You also will not have to worry about "non gluten-free types" not appreciating this bread: it has been well received by all who have tried it, whether they were on a gluten-free diet or not. We rather certain you will enjoy it also!

Here's another link to the Gluten-Free High-Fiber Bread Recipe.

Maximum Chocolate!

I am lucky enough to have friends that travel to the UK, and friends that are also willing to bring me back some wonderful gluten-free chocolate when I request it. I recently wrote this gluten-free blog entry about Montezuma's Chocolates, and how wonderful they were, and how most of what they sell are clearly labeled "Gluten Free". GF is great, but great chocolate that is also GF is to die for!

I first tried their chocolate-chili (pepper) dark chocolate bar a while back, and just had to have more! The subtle heat along with smooth and rich dark chocolate was excellent, and some of the best chocolate I have ever had. So, a friend doing work in London was nice enough to bring me back a bit more of this delicacy... or, actually, quite a bit more - an entire KILO of it :)

I took this picture of the back label, where you can see clearly how it is a gluten-free food (yes, I call chocolate food, because it is a food group all to its own for me), and even organic.

Now, I don't know how many other people out there are as fanatical about chocolate as I am. I rarely get overloaded on chocolate, or suffer chocolate "burn out" or anything of the sorts. In fact, it's quite the opposite - the more, the better. And, when I say chocolate, I mean dark and rich chocolate (no milk chocolate for me, and white "chocolate" isn't even chocolate).

To give you a feel for how bad this addiction is, I rarely eat chocolate with less than 70% cocoa (from the cacao tree) content, though I have had a few chocolates in the 50-70% cocoa range that are quite tolerable. This Montezuma's Dark Chocolate-Chilli is 73% for comparison, and it really does a fine job treating the addiction.

But, on occasion, I have to go all out and hit the hard-core chocolate (not for the faint of heart, or weak of addiction): 99% Scharffen Berger unsweetened fine artisan dark chocolate (marketed primarily for baking). This is the ultimate in pure chocolate - at 99% cocoa (the other 1% is vanilla beans), there is no more room for chocolate power.

I keep a bar of this around to snack on when anything else just won't cure the hunger for chocolate. Because of its concentrated strength, and lack of sugar, it only takes 1/2 ounce or so to do the trick. And, as hard as this may be to believe, I find it rather smooth even though it is unsweetened. With two ingredients (cocoa and vanilla beans), it is gluten-free as well (not to mention dairy-free and free of all sorts of other things). Chocolate doesn't get much simpler than this formulation.

From the Scharffen Berger web site:

Q: Is there gluten in chocolate?
A: No, there is no gluten in our chocolate. Gluten is a mixture of plant proteins occurring in cereal grains, chiefly wheat, rye and barley. Our chocolate ingredients: (cacao beans, sugar, vanilla bean, cocoa butter, and soy lecithin as an emulsifier) do not contain gluten. We also do not have any cereal grains present anywhere in our manufacturing facility at any time. Please note that our Cocao Powder and Sweetened Cocoa Powder are processed in a facility that handles wheat products, and thus may contain traces of gluten.

So, stick with their chocolate bars, and you should be plenty safe. And, with that 99% bar in their offering, you will always have the maximum chocolate option if you need it!

2007 Suffolk County Celiacs Gluten-Free Vendor Fair

I just wanted to let everyone know that Laura and I will be attending the 2007 Suffolk County Celiacs Gluten Free Vendor Fair in New York (out on Long Island), on Sunday April 29th, 2007 from 11:00am to 5:00pm. The event is being held at:

Farmingdale State College
Roosevelt Hall
2350 Broadhollow Rd (i.e., Route 110)
Farmingdale, NY 11735

We have registered as a vendor, and will be there to show our Gourmet Desserts Book: Gluten-Free Recipes. This is our first real event to actually exhibit at. And, to kick things off in a grand way, we are going to offer an incredible Show Special Discount Price that we can not otherwise offer elsewhere, since we won't have any wrapping, boxing, label-printing, and postage / shipping-costs to contend with for each book. Also, we won't have any Visa or credit-card fees to pay, since we have no way to accept credit-cards at the event - which, implies this is going to be a cash-only offering.

We can only offer for sale as many of the gluten-free desserts books we can bring with us in our car. This is going to be limited, since the books weigh about 3 pounds each. I doubt we can bring more than a 120 or so copies with us. So, first-come, first-serve is all we can do for this event.

Bottom line: if you have wanted the book, and you are from the area or planning to attend the Suffolk County Gluten-Free Vendor Fair, this is going to be the best price you'll ever see our book sold for. And, we hope you are lucky enough to be one of the people that gets one.

I'm also looking forward to all the other gluten-free product vendors that are going to be there. The Suffolk County Celiacs still need to update their gluten-free vendors list (on their website) to reflect all the confirmed attendees, but I have seen the list (of which we are one) and there is a wonderfully large group of vendors lined up! I hope I get time to actually do some shopping while I am there. :)

Gluten has never been so popular!

Wouldn't you know... I build a gluten-free and celiac disease news and blog posting aggregator  that keys in on news about celiac disease, "gluten", and so on, and suddenly the Internet is completely swamped with news and blog entries about the gluten in pet-food being contaminated, when in general, most people have never ever heard of gluten before.

[UPDATE: 2013 - my aggregator service mentioned here is retired; I have a new replacement GF site in the works]

So, this sudden explosion of pet-food related news (which I expect will be temporary) has become overwhelming to deal with in the "news" section of the aggregator. It is not affecting the blog-postings section nearly as much, especially for all of you who signed up for the "trusted sources" RSS blog-feed setups (i.e., the sites with the "thumbs up" rating), since I am able to prioritize your blogs as relevant celiac disease discussion and news - ahead of the likely "gluten-SPAM" of late :)

I just took additional steps to further de-prioritize the blog-posts from unknown (not "trusted") sources on the aggregator. But, I have a feeling we're going to be seeing some entries not related to Celiac showing up for a while yet. And, I gave up on filtering the news section, as it has just become overwhelming. Arghhhh! So, for the next couple weeks, I'd expect the gluten-free blog postings to be pretty good (and relevant), but the aggregated news will be mostly about pet-food.

NOTE: if you have a CD/GF blog you want added as "trusted", just let me know - and, you'll be sure not to be lost in the pet-food group :)

In this weird way, maybe it's a good thing to get more news out about gluten, what it is, and why it may be beneficial to avoid it even if you are not a gluten-free or Celiac Disease candidate elsewise. I think it is safe to say that nearly everyone has now heard about "gluten", whether they still know what the relation to CD and gluten enteropathy is. So, the next time you tell someone you are gluten-free, at least there will be a good chance they will have heard of gluten, and you'll have less explaining to do.

I did notice an increase in my gluten-free recipes book sales the past few days. I wonder if that is because people are thinking it will be safer to do some gluten-free baking themselves, and eat gluten-free foods instead of accidentally exposing themselves to imported contaminated Chinese gluten. Or, maybe they just have a taste from some great gluten-free desserts! :)