Gluten-Free Inca Red Quinoa (Ancient Harvest) Review

Ancient Harvest Inca Red Quinoa : Cooked

Gluten-Free Inca Red Quinoa Product Review

I have been a fan of Quinoa (the grain - pronounced "keen-wa") for quite some time - a couple years now in fact. Quinoa is a gluten-free grain that, prior to going on a Celiac-safe gluten-free diet, I had never even heard of. It is nothing short of amazing for its nutritional value as well as its versatility and flavor. Although I am discussing the whole-grain here, I also use quinoa flour in breads and other recipes.

For those of you who are new to Quinoa, it is gluten-free (of course, or I would not eat it), and it is considered an ancient grain that dates back to the Inca civilizations in South America. It originates from Bolivia these days. It is one of the best sources of vegetable protein around, and it has a fair amount of dietary fiber. The grain has a delicious, somewhat nutty, light flavor that goes well with many other dishes.

Some other selling points that are noted on the packages of Quinoa include:

• Quinoa contains more high-quality protein than any other grain


• Quinoa provides all the essential amino acids in a balanced pattern


• Quinoa contains no gluten (of top concern to Celiacs of course)


• Quinoa is light, tasty, and easy to digest


• Quinoa is quick and easy to prepare (a personal favorite-feature)

We buy the Ancient Harvest brand of Quinoa, which also happens to be certified organic for anyone that prefers that designation. And, we typically use the "traditional" Quinoa (tan in color), but have recently discovered a variety called Inca Red Quinoa. This variety is similar to the traditional type, but is a red/burgundy color, and has a slightly different texture and taste.

Whereas traditional quinoa is very mild in flavor, this Inca Red variety has a slightly more pronounced flavor. It is in no way overpowering though, and still makes for some very good gluten-free quinoa dishes. Its texture is similar to the traditional type, though I think it is maybe just ever so slightly more dense. This fact is reflected in the nutritional breakdown I believe, since it has a bit more fiber and protein than the traditional type.

Nutritional Breakdown: Regular Quinoa versus Red Quinoa

Specifically, for a 1/4 cup of the uncooked dry Quinoa (considered to be one serving), here is how the two varieties compare (below, T = Traditional, R = Inca Red):

• Calories: nearly identical at around 165 calories


• Protein: T has 5 grams, R has 6 grams


• Dietary Fiber: T has 3 grams, R has 4 grams


• Carbohydrates: T has 30 grams, R has 29 grams


• Iron: T has 10% of RDA, R has 13% RDA


• Phosphorous: T has 15% RDA, R has 25% RDA


• Calcium: zero for T, 2% for R


• Riboflavin: 8% for T, 10% for R


• Sugars: T has 1 gram, R has 5 grams (this surprised me, since I noticed no sweetness in the Red per se).

Regardless of the variety you choose, they are both very nutritious. The Inca Red variety (as you see in the list above) tends to have a bit more nutritional density across the board, with slightly more dietary fiber, protein, and minerals than the traditional version.

Serving Suggestion:
In a previous blog about Quinoa, I discussed a gluten-free garlic, pepper, and herb Quinoa recipe that we favor in our household. To make the recipe pictured above, we actually used about half each of the traditional variety of quinoa and the Inca Red quinoa. The rest of the recipe stayed the same.

The results were fantastic! This dish tasted absolutely wonderful, and was fulfilling on many levels. Full of flavor, plenty of texture, and simply satisfying. It went wonderfully with some oven-roasted chicken my wife baked up the same evening. The chicken was an adaptation of our gluten-free pulled-chicken recipe - same recipe, just minus the "pulled" part, and using some skinless chicken thighs this time.

If you encounter this Ancient Harvest Inca Red Quinoa at a grocery store, I'd certainly recommend giving it a try. Yet another item you can add to your gluten-free baking repertoire. It's bound to satisfy everyone, gluten-free, celiac, and non-GF persons all the same.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Inflation hitting my gluten-free baking budget

We were just out shopping at BJ's Wholesale Club today, which is where we purchase a substantial portion of the ingredients we do all of our gluten-free baking with. We frequent this store because, to date, we have found them to be the most reasonably priced nearby option for large quantities of ingredients we use most often. Large quantities are especially important when we are "experimenting" and creating or perfecting new recipes, since it may take a few iterations to get something just the way we want it.

Well, I have been noticing some serious price inflation hitting these ingredients over the past few months. And, the pace of inflation has been nothing short of speedy. In fact, prices moved upwards so fast and so often on eggs, that I had to look at my receipts from prior purchases to make sure I was not dreaming about my "ideal" price vs. actual. Here's what I have found, on the identical product recently.

Eggs: 2.5 dozen grade-A Large eggs per flat/carton. Just a few months ago, these were running $1.99. I found that to be a bargain. Then, just a month or two ago, I see they have gone up to $2.99 (that's fifty percent increase in case you were opening Windows calculator program). But, it does not end there. Only a week later, it was $3.15. Then, today, nothing short of a shocking $3.59! (yes, now we are at eighty percent increase over a few months for my eggs!).

I can probably find them cheaper elsewhere on sale, but for an apples-to-apples comparison, and for the same product at the same store, this pace of inflation just shocked me. I wrote a prior blog entry back in September of 2006 about how I was concerned that Ethanol production was going to hit my gluten-free baking. Well, that time has come!

If you see similar increases in the prices of eggs you bake with, or in other ingredients or foods, here's some of what is driving the cost:

1. The price of corn has doubled in the past year! (this is due, primarily to demands for Ethanol production)
2. Corn (feed) is one of the largest price-components in raising chickens - which tend to be required for creating the eggs :)
3. Corn is used to feed other livestock as well - so don't be surprised if meat goes skyward in general too - this just furthers demand for the commodity.
   
4. Energy costs are high - you need to keep greenhouses and livestock (in this case chickens) warm in the winter, and this gets expensive.
   

These price pressures are filtering their way down through all sorts of products. I sure hope it is a temporary "egg bubble" or something, but I honestly think it is something that may only get worse as the push to use corn for ethanol increases. And, other grains are not off limit either - in the past year, most commodities (be it soy, wheat, etc) have had huge price increases too because of energy prices and demand for anything to make ethanol with.

Sugar will soon follow, since sugar beets and cane are also used for ethanol production. Then my molasses will go up (and Sorghum flour too). The worst thing is, there will be no avoiding the cost - it's not like purchasing pre-packages gluten-free foods will avoid the increases, since all the manufacturers are facing the same raw material cost increases that I'm seeing too. My favorite Bi-Aglut pasta is made primarily from Corn, and it is already expensive - wonder what it'll cost by year's end?

I apologize if I went on a bit of a rant here in my blogging. I'm just a bit concerned about this trend on a few levels. Anything that threatens my gluten-free food prices is always troubling to me. Now, I guess I could convert my front-yard into a corn-field in the springtime, and put some chicken coops out back for egg production... but, even that would likely fail since my favorite neighborhood roaming raccoons would probably eat all the corn before I could harvest it. Arghh... there's no escaping it.

Gluten-Free Breadsticks Recipe

Dairy-Free and Gluten-Free Breadsticks Recipe, Baked

Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free Breadsticks! 

Here they are - the gluten-free breadsticks recipe (dairy-free too) you have been waiting for. And, they were worth the wait, trust me! Wonderful taste and texture, especially soon after emerging from the oven. And, now we have also tested freezing the dough, thawing, and baking at a later time.

If you have been reading my blog lately, you probably read the blog entry about our gluten-free baguettes, French-bread, and breadsticks recipe. The breadsticks shown above are a variation on that theme, with the variation being in technique and process instead of altering the recipe itself. The recipe is super-versatile, and is proving even moreso over time.

The focus of this particular gluten-free breadstick experiment was perfecting the technique for mass-production, consistent size/shape, and freezing for extended storage. Everything has worked out well.

The recipe can be found here: Gluten-Free Breadsticks Recipe. And, you will see a discussion all the way at the bottom of the page about the techniques used to form the breadsticks and freeze them for later, and then defrost and bake them. This ability to create a large batch of GF Breadsticks at once, freeze them, and then bake them at any future time is critical to anyone wishing to serve gluten-free foods at a gluten-free restaurant, or to anyone that wants to sell frozen gluten-free breadsticks to others.

We will be mixing the GF breadstick dough up in one or two batches at a time, and then freezing them for later. Since, it is much easier to just take a few out of the freezer and bake them any time I want (versus mixing dough from scratch each time), not to mention the fact that I can not possibly eat an entire batch of these myself before the would otherwise dry out or go to waste. This is perfect for me! And, I am already getting requests from others for the bread sticks, and now I have a way to deliver them easily in a way others can bake them fresh any time they want.

I hope everyone likes them. And, if anyone is getting their gluten-free catering business or gluten-free foods business ramped up, this should make a fine addition to what you can offer your clients. The only thing I ask of anyone that wants to use this gluten-free recipe commercially is that you give credit to Laura for developing it. Laura has put a lot of effort into perfecting this recipe, and I am so proud of her baking skills!

I hope everyone likes these glutenfree breadsticks as much as we do. Now, what recipes to work on next?

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Gluten-Free Baguettes, Breadsticks, Bread Recipe

Gluten-Free & Wheat-Free Herb French Bread / Baguettes / Breadsticks

New Gluten-Free Bread Recipe : Highly Adaptable

This is a picture of Laura's newest recipe, one that yields lightly-herbed Gluten-Free Baguettes, Mini-Baguettes, Breadsticks, and/or French-Bread with a fantastic texture and taste. The recipe is highly adaptable, and can form any of a few varieties of bread just by altering the size and shape of each loaf or stick (even down to tiny little crispy breadsticks the size of straws; we also plan to try making both soft and crispy pretzels with a variation of this GF recipe).

I promised to get this new gluten-free baguette recipe published this week, and I definitely dragged my feet a bit, waiting until today - Friday! If anyone was waiting anxiously for it, I apologize for being distracted. I actually had the recipe online yesterday over at my cookbook site, but only today wrote this corresponding blog entry.

Of Practical Intelligence and Dealing with Gluten

Last week I finished reading the January 2007 special issue of American Psychologist dealing with Leadership. I found it rather interesting, and also pulled this following quote from page 37 inside a segment called "A Systems Model of Leadership" by Robert J. Sternberg of Tufts University - discussing the concept of "Practical Intelligence":

Practical intelligence is the set of skills and dispositions used to solve everyday problems by applying knowledge gained from experience to purposefully adapt to, shape, and select environments. It thus involves changing oneself to suit the environment (adaptation), changing the environment to suite oneself (shaping), or finding a new environment within which to work (selection).

This got me thinking about how the average gluten-free person is so directly implicated in this paragraph. We all go through at least one of these changes - adaptation - when we first learn that we can no longer consume gluten after being diagnosed as Celiac or discovering we are otherwise wheat or gluten intolerant. We have no choice (aside from causing our bodies harm) - we must adapt to our new glutenfree environment.

Next, quite a few of us have moved through the subsequent phase - shaping - as we shape our environment to better accommodate our condition. My personal approach to shaping was to tackle one of the first perceived obstacles to remaining gluten-free; that was, the lack of great tasting gluten-free foods from which to choose, and on which I could rely, to satisfy me and help me remain gluten-free for life. In particular, I needed some great desserts to lean on through my period of adaptation, and with the help of my wife and daughter, I achieved that goal and ultimately published a gluten-free cookbook to help others facing the same situation. I have shaped the gluten-free environment for the better, as have many others within the gluten-free community.

Finally, this leads to enabling selection and finding new environments within which to work. By definition, the only environments all of us gluten-free and coeliac types can live within are ones without gluten. But, this does not imply we must select environments that are lacking in fulfillment, flavor, and overall enjoyment. Sure, we have complications to consider, but who doesn't sooner or later in life? Many of our issues can be addressed through dietary concerns and related lifestyle changes. There are ups and downs along the way, but we generally have the ability to choose to lead rather normal lives.

We have all been forced to work on our practical intelligence skills in order to solve the everyday problems of Celiac Disease and gluten-intolerance. We apply apply our knowledge and experience to purposefully adapt to, shape, and select our environment. Given that "practical intelligence" is one of the criteria posited as essential for leadership, perhaps our gluten-free experience has given us all a dose of valuable leadership skills exercise.

I'm not sure if that this argument will hold any weight if used to argue for a promotion at work, but one way or the other, you have faced, and worked through, the steps required to develop this quality of practical intelligence that is considered a valuable trait when it comes to leadership assessment.
Well, that's enough for the gluten-free blog today, and it should give you something to think about while you're baking our newest gluten-free bread recipe this blog posting started out with. Enjoy!

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Gluten-Free in Amish Country

This weekend, we had a chance to take a short drive to what's known as "Amish country" here in Ohio. It's a region of Ohio centered around Holmes and Tuscarawas Counties that has a very high percentage of Amish residents, and plenty of Amish businesses, buggies, farms, and the like to go with it. There are plenty of German and Swiss-themed buildings and establishments throughout the region, including some of my favorite reasons for visiting Amish country like the Guggisberg Cheese Factory and various bulk foods stores catering to both the local community and tourists.

On this particular trip, we made it into Sugarcreek, Ohio and stopped by a place called Swiss Village Bulk Foods (at 309 S. Broadway, Sugarcreek, OH). Much to my surprise - especially for a store in a town of less than 2200 people, this business had an incredible amount of gluten free baking products and ingredients. They had the most diverse display of Bob's Red Mill products I had ever seen in one place, with flours like teff, rice, brown rice, sorghum, and so on (the ONLY noticeably absent one was Sweet Rice Flour, aka glutinous rice flour - which I use regularly). I picked up some of the Mary's Gone Crackers that I like (and, there are a perfect complement to the various cheeses I had earlier acquired at Heini's Cheese Chalet in Bunker Hill, OH - a favorite being the Bermuda Onion cheese, or the Smoked Hot Pepper cheese (wonderful on homemade nachos, tortillas, or even crackers of course).

The thing that struck me as most surprising with this glutenfree encounter, was of course the setting. Who would have thought that in such a small town, a little bulk foods store would have a rather substantial selection of gluten free baking ingredients and such? Certainly not me. I'm always excited and glad to see gluten free diets get more attention, and it seems that awareness is spreading throughout the population. Our next stop after the bulk foods store was another Amish-themed shop in the area, and even there I ran into some pre-packaged gluten-free pancake mixes and more of the Bob's Red Mill products. So, it was more than just a freak encounter at the first place.

On the way back, I stopped at a Super-Walmart in Wooster, OH, since I heard they may have the new Anheuser Busch gluten-free Sorghum Beer called Redbridge (reviewed at that link). Sure enough, they did! So, I picked up a 6-pack for a taste test. ($7.99 / six-pack of 12-ounce bottles: nearly 1/3 less than Bard's Tale) See the aforementioned link for a more detailed product review, but the quick bottom-line is this: excellent! I really enjoyed the beer, and although it is a bit sweeter than some beers I used to like, I really think it is quite like a "real" beer!

It rained for the entire trip on Saturday, and has been raining ever since. In fact, this weather is nothing short of strange for Cleveland in January. We have daffodils emerging from the ground (some are nearing 6" tall already), as well as grape hyacyinth and crocuses. Our lawns are green, and it is anything but a typical mid-winter month here.

The ice storm that pounded the Midwest just missed us to the North and West it seems, so instead we are getting our precipitation as rain (and many a yard look like shallow ponds now). I'm thankful the ice missed us, since it can be utterly devastating to the trees — we went through that a couple Springtimes ago here. According to the forecasts, our bizarre warm January is to finally switch gears and enter a deep freeze this week, which is probably a good thing overall even though I don't care much for the cold. I've been waiting for some cold weather to do a bit more baking and working on some other gluten free recipes I keep promising to get to.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Gluten-Free Traditional Thick Pizza Crust Recipe

Gluten-Free Pizza Crust Recipes

Gluten-Free Traditional / Thick-Crust Pizza Dough

Traditional Thick-Crust Pizza, now Celiac-safe

One of the all time most-missed foods for Celiacs and persons that must adhere to a gluten-free diet is pizza. I know that I personally suffered withdrawal symptoms and anxiety when I was told I would not be able to eat my favorite Chicago deep-dish pizza, or my favorite Denver thick-crust pizza from Beau Jo's, or even my local favorite Donte's Pizza here in Cleveland, Ohio. Pizza was a large part of my life back in the pre-Celiac and pre-gluten-free days, and I have longed for a wonderful replacement pizza that fits into the GF diet.

I have tried a few different purchased glutenfree pizza crusts and pizza dough mixes over the years, and none really made me think I was eating real pizza. My wife has worked on various pizza-crust replacements, and came up with some decent ones that used a batter approach for quick and easy iron-skillet pizza crusts, and more of a dough-type thin-crust sheet-pizza type recipe. These were fine, but admittedly not nearly the same as the "real" thing.

The new Yeast-Raised Gluten-Free Pizza-Crust Dough Recipe

Enter the latest pizza crust from Laura: a traditional yeast-raised gluten-free and dairy-free pizza dough recipe that produces a wonderfully convincing pizza crust that has excellent taste and texture, including a nice crusty crust with a soft bread-like interior. It holds together wonderfully, just as a pizza crust should. Some of its wonderful flavor comes from Teff and Millet flours, along with rice flour.

I can not do this recipe justice with just words, so check out the pictures here and on the dairyfree and glutenfree traditional thick-crust pizza recipe page, and then make it for yourself. Being a yeast-based GF pizza crust, you will need to be patient and allow the crust to rise, and ideally you will have a candy-thermometer or similar device handy to get the warm-water temperature right for best yeast-development results.

And a Homemade Gluten-Free Pizza Sauce Recipe

Laura also included her homemade gluten-free pizza sauce recipe on our website in case you need or want one. It's really simple to make, and has a good flavor on pizzas, as you would expect of a pizza sauce.

Normally, my wife and daughter give in and order their pizzas from a nearby pizza shop instead of sticking to a gluten-free diet with me (thankfully, they do not need to adhere to a Celiac or GF diet as I do), but this pizza crust recipe is close enough to the real thing that my daughter will actually accept it as "pizza". And, that is saying a lot! I too can accept it as pizza. It is not as good as my old favorites from Chicago and other places, but it has reached a level of desirable taste and texture where I can actually be satisfied that my pizza dinner satisfies my craving for a pizza.

Comparing this Gluten-Free Pizza-Crust to "Normal" Pizza

I give it a 7 out of 10 rating, compared to the 10/10 rating my all-time real pizza crusts would get - so, this "7" is a very strong rating considering it is a gluten free pizza crust. This is by far the best gluten-free pizza crust I have ever had, and if Laura ever creates a 9/10+ rated crust, she will have accomplished the "impossible" in my opinion. In fact, I already tell her she's more or less done it with this one. Who knows, maybe she will find a way to tweak this thing up to an 8/10 yet (I want to try making a Chicago deep-dish with it yet and see if that does the trick, though I need a deep-dish pizza pan to try it in).

Slice of Gluten-Free Thick-Crust Pizza

That is a picture of the interior of the crust, showing how it raised nicely and how the bottom and outside exposed dough browned and crusted beautifully, while the inside rose well to deliver a thick-crust / traditional style pizza. I am rather sure you enjoy the Recipe as this has been quite popular with everyone who has tried it!

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available, including some other pizza-crust variations.

Blueberry Buckwheat Teff Gluten-Free Waffles

Blueberry Buckwheat Teff Gluten-Free Waffles

Incredible Gluten-Free Waffle Recipe

These waffles are definitely a favorite breakfast recipe of mine. There will be no more boxed waffles for me now that I have a far superior glutenfreee buckwheat variety available fresh from scratch. And, my wife created these wonderful treats for part of my Christmas gift!

These waffles make use of buckwheat and teff, but yet remain a wonderfully light and fluffy waffle with the perfect flavor combination from Blueberries, grains, and a hint of Cinnamon. With your own waffle iron, you will soon find you are not missing out on anything when it comes to your waffles. Here's a link to the Blueberry Buckwheat Teff Gluten-Free Waffles Recipe.

I have not been making the daily gluten free blog posts recently, as I have been rather busy lining up book sales avenues for us. This week we added a large online GF-products retailer that should have our books in stock within the next couple weeks (I just shipped them a batch this morning, and was told it will take 7-14 days for them to make the journey). We are certainly happy to have them offering our book soon, since they have national coverage and a good presence on the web.

This same firm can supply the Sweet Rice and some other flours/ingredients for the gluten free baking at the same time, by mail order. I actually considered selling ingredients with my books at one time, but I am not quite ready to go into the GF baking supplies business - I don't want to stock all that stuff per se, and the only reason I would do it is to make glutenfree baking as simple as possible for someone to get started with. 

I considered working out some sort of "gift basket" package for the Gluten Free Desserts Cookbook, where I make a "Starter package" (or a few variations) that include all the ingredients needed to start baking a Gluten Free Carrot Cake, or a Gluten Free Boston Cream Pie, or some other popular desserts. That way, when someone purchased and receives the book, they would be all set and ready to go. But, I really don't have any easy way to stock all those supplies, not to mention the shipping is complicated compared to simply mailing books.

Next, I still have a new, and absolutely wonderful, gluten-free pizza-crust recipe [there it is now!] to post in the next few days.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Gluten-Free Buttermilk Millet Flax Waffles

Gluten-Free Buttermilk Millet Flax Waffles : Laura's Awesome Recipe!

Buttermilk Waffles: Gluten-Free Recipe

Here is a recipe to start off any day in a great way — Glutenfree Buttermilk waffles recipe, for waffles that are light and fluffy, with a mild flavor, and simply delicious! I just top mine with a bit of pure Maple Syrup end enjoy eating waffles as good as any "regular" ones.

You will need a waffle maker for these, which thankfully I received for Christmas this year (a dedicated gluten-free one, only to be used with Celiac-safe recipes!). It's probably no coincidence that my awesome wife created this new recipe about the same time she presented me with the waffle maker as a Christmas gift : perfect! This new waffle maker is the only one we own, and it will not be a problem keeping the wheat-eaters happy, since these new GF waffles are just as good as any alternative (the only thing better may be this gluten-free blueberry buckwheat waffles recipe my wife also create for Christmas)!

Hope you enjoy these latest GF recipes, the waffles, and the blog. Happy baking!

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Brown Honey Bread

Laura's Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free Brown Bread (with Honey Accents)

Another Holiday Gluten-Free Recipe : Brown Bread

The holiday break afforded my wife the opportunity to do quite a bit of baking and developing new recipes. The above pictured Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Brown Bread with Honey Accent is one of the winners that emerged from the kitchen during the past couple weeks. It has been through the taste-testing and confirmation phase now, both here at home and having been served in a rosemary/garlic variation for a Christmas dinner among other things.

This bread has a wonderful "honey wheat bread" flavor and texture, and is great for sandwiches, toast, French-toast, and so forth. We sprinkle the top with whole buckwheat kernels prior to baking, just for a little something extra. If you have an event coming up where you want to serve a great tasting gluten free bread, bake this bread recipe a few hours before the event and you will be sure to have a fresh-out-of-the-oven hit with your guests (and, chances are, most people will not even have a clue it is gluten-free). As I mentioned earlier, the bread lends itself to some rather easy variations — one being the rosemary/garlic version we served for Christmas (If anyone wants the exact formula, let me know and I will see if my wife kept the formulation written down somewhere). So, have fun with changing it up a little if you want a slightly different accent flavor.

The GF bread uses a variety of healthier and nutritious gluten-free grains, including: teff, buckwheat, and flax. So, if you have these grains/seeds nearby and wanted a recipe to use them in, here you go.

More recipes are on the way in upcoming blog entries for 2007!  And, be sure to check out the recipes at my cookbook website (link below).

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

No Gluten or Dairy Pumpernickel Bread Recipe

Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Pumpernickel Bread

Pumpernickel Bread: Full of Flavor and Gluten-Free with this Recipe

The Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Pumpernickel Bread Recipe is now available at our Glutenfree recipe library! I had promised this recipe a few days ago, and it seemed I had a few people getting a bit anxious for it, so there is the link to it. I described this recipe in my previous post where I showed it in use as a gluten-free pumpernickel sandwich bread. It works great for this, since it has a nice hearty crust and a soft spongy center, all infused with plenty of pumpernickel bread flavor.

Complementary Dill / Spinach Dip Recipe

In addition, I posted a recipe for a simple and versatile dill and/or spinach dip recipe. I don't know about you, but spinach-dip served with cubed pumpernickel has been rather popular at parties - both around the holidays and any other time of the year. Many people carve the center out of the loaf of pumpernickel bread, and fill the bread with the dip... using the carved out portion to form the cubes of bread for dipping. This glutenfree pumpernickel will work fine for that, since it is made in a round pyrex 2-liter dish, and achieves a height of about 4 inches when baked. So, plenty of volume for holding dip. Personally, I prefer keeping the dip in a separate bowl so as not to cause the remaining pumpernickle loaf (the part of the loaf you are using for a "bowl") to become soggy. This goes for bread with or without gluten. Why waste any great GF bread to sogginess?

Here's a picture of the dip with some cubed-pumpernickel bread - all glutenfree of course.

GF Pumpernickel Bread with Dill Dip

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Gluten Free Perfect Pumpernickel Bread

Laura's Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Pumpernickel Bread Recipe : Perfection!

Incredible Gluten-Free Pumpernickel Break Recipe

My wife has worked tirelessly on perfecting a GF pumpernickel bread (dairy-free too!) over the past few weeks, and she has finally achieved her goal! I just had to take a picture of my lunch today, which is a tuna salad sandwich on this new glutenfree pumpernickel bread she just finished baking earlier today. Here's a direct link to this wonderful Dairy-Free and Gluten-Free Pumpernickel Bread Recipe.

The bread is wonderful. A nice hearty crust, and a soft spongy center! What more could anyone ask for in a pumpernickel? Oh, yeah... taste... it tastes great too! I think it is very much like a real pumpernickel. In addition to the sandwich, we tried it with a gluten-free dill-dip / spinach-dip (recipe here) that was being made as I type this. Once again it is time to start planning how to burn off these extra calories! But, I much prefer having this "problem" of calorie expenditure over the problem of not being able to find good food to eat as a Celiac person.

With a fair number of breads in our repertoire now, there really isn't too awful much I find "missing" from my daily eating habits when compared to the pre-gluten-free days. I am so glad to have a wife that is quite gifted with baking gluten free recipes, and most food in general. And, if something gives her a rough time, she takes it as a challenge to figure it out and perfect it. This recipe and a couple others now join our online GF recipes collection (see links below).

I noticed Lynn Barry just finished a version of pumpernickel recently too! I guess it is the perfect season for pumpernickel! Can't wait to serve it at a Christmas party or dinner.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

GlutenFree Sesame Cookie Recipe

Gluten-Free Sesame Cookies : Yum!

Sesame is the star of these Gluten-Free Cookies

This one is definitely a winner - a delicious gluten-free sesame cookie recipe! I think I put on a pound today as I ate about a dozen of them! That's not likely to be a pound of muscle either, though I did make sure to go outside afterwards and walk a mile and jog another mile. Still, I doubt that will offset the calories in these gluten-free temptations of the day, but better than nothing.

I have to give credit to my daughter for this recipe. She just wrapped up another semester at college and is done with her GRE's, so she finally has had a bit of extra time between grad-school applications to get back into the gluten free baking spirit! This recipe took her a couple tries, but she definitely prevailed with a tasty cookie that has a wonderful texture.

This GF cookie has sesame and coconut inside and out, with sesame tahini in there too! So, plenty of flavor, and plenty of calories to boot I'd guess. But, it is a cookie and as such calories just have to take back seat to wonderful taste! Now if this recipe would have come along a few months back, I'd surely have considered putting into our new gluten-free desserts cookbook, but this recipe was just a bit late arriving on the scene.

I have another recipe to post soon, also from my daughter: a gluten free tea-leaf and honey cookie.  That one reminds me of a sugar cookie, but not. It worked well for holiday cut-out cookies for Christmas, and was delightfully crisp and crunchy with accents of honey and tea. Different, and good. It'll be coming soon.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cake Recipe - Bundt

Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cake, Bundt Pan style

Gluten-Free Bundt Cake Recipe : Pumpkin and Spices

Here is another gluten-free recipe, a lovely GlutenFree Pumpkin Bundt Cake Recipe which I just uploaded to our free recipes library for anyone that is looking for a holiday pumpkin treat that is a bit different than a traditional pumpkin pie.  Some other pumpkin-theme blogs also recently included a spectacular Gluten-Free Pumpkin-Roll recipe my wife created for the holidays.

This recipe is easy to make, and it has much of that pumpkin-pie type flavor but in the form of a cake. All sorts of flavor comes together in here: clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger - and even a bit of cocoa. This recipe is also dairy-free, in our push to accommodate those of you who can not tolerate milk products very well.

We made this recipe for Thanksgiving dinner, but it should be equally welcome around the Christmas holiday table - whether for dinner or at a party. We have tried it both with and without added Xanthan gums, and it works fine either way (the Xanthan gum does give it a bit better bounce, and makes it less likely to crumble), so take your pick whether to include that in your gluten free recipe or not.

Now, if I can only remain this productive in my blog postings for the rest of the week! I am finally catching up on posting a few of those outstanding recipes. Some of the others recent recipes include a new type of GF and dairy-free/casein-free muffin my wife came up with, some cranberry pumpkin muffins, and there is also a chocolate angel-food cake to post eventually.  I did get around to posting a gluten-free chocolate-chip angel-food cake (variation to one in our book), a GF pumpernickel bread, and a few others. I have quite a few other things I want to still get done this week though, so time will tell whether they are posted sooner rather than later on this blog.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Gluten-Free Panettone Bread Recipe

Gluten-Free Panettone Bread Recipe, baked, and sliced

Holiday Sweet Bread with Citrus: Gluten-Free Panettone

My daughter recently created a rather tasty gluten-free Christmas Holiday bread in the style of traditional panettone bread. It features orange/citrus flavors in a sweeter dough that has dried fruit and nuts in it. Here is a link to the gluten-free panettone bread recipe (as pictured above).

I promised this recipe to my blog readers a while back, and finally the gluten free recipe is online and ready for others to try. Baking a panettone, in the traditional full-cylindrical form would probably be a bit rough for a variety of reasons: the first being the tall cylindrical shape, which I doubt many would have a specialized panetone pan for. I have wondered if it could be baked in a coffee-can or a couple smaller cans, though I do not know if it would come out of the can easy when done, or if it would rise enough to fill the entire height like a gluten-containing one would probably have an easier time of.

Regardless, this version of a panettone is done glutenfree (sorry, not completely dairy-free this times), and is baked in a standard springform pan. The bread has a nice mellow flavor, with a touch of sweetness, and accents of orange. Perfect for the Christmas holiday. If anyone tries it, please let me know your thoughts. And, as always, if you have variations or improvements, feel free to share them.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Dairy-Free Focaccia Bread & Crouton Recipe

Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free Focaccia Bread Croutons

Gluten-Free Focaccia Bread / Croutons Recipe 

I had time to post the Gluten-Free and Dairy Free Focaccia Bread and Croutons Recipe today that I promised in my last blog. It features plenty of pictures to go with the various steps too, like these:

The Fresh Gluten-Free Bread Dough Rising, with Caramelized Onions on Top

Beautifully Caramelized Onions used on top of the bread dough

The picture above shows those wonderfully tasty caramelized red onions that are both in the dough and on top of the bread. The onions combine with garlic, pepper, rosemary, and more to create a very flavorful bread and crouton. It's a bit of a specialty bread, and I have not had focaccia in a long time (since going GF), so we may still end up tweaking the recipe a bit over time. But, I think it is plenty good enough for public release — readers, you tell me what you think after trying it.

Hope everyone enjoys the recipe!

I have been busy reformatting quite a few other gluten-free recipes from Word into an HTML format for upload to my gluten-free recipes-library, so stay tuned as more GF creations are coming and will be online soon.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Almond Paste in Baking GlutenFree Recipes

Solo Foods Gluten-Free Pure Almond Paste

I have had a few people ask me about Almond Paste as an ingredient in various Gluten-Free recipes. We use it in a fair number of recipes, as it adds a nice flavor to certain desserts and breads. To being with, Almond Paste is not to be confused with Almond Butter. Almond Paste is a combination of Almonds, Sugar, and water basically — it is a very thick paste. We use a canned variety of pure Almond Paste from a company called Solo for our GF recipe baking.

Solo Foods offers this nice gluten-free "pure Almond Paste" product (which has been GF for quite some time now, and although their company produces other products that are not GF, they have not had any issues with cross-contamination). I also inquired about the ability to purchase direct from them, which you can since they are one of the few manufacturers that will sell directly to the consumer as a benefit to persons that can not locate the product close to them. Moreover, if you call their customer service number (800-328-7656) you can order a 6-pack of 8-ounce cans on the phone with your Visa, and with shipping included in the price, it is only $22.50! ([Note: 2006 price; call them to get current rates] at $3.75/can, this is much cheaper than we were buying from our local store before - they were over $5/can there), and direct to your door!

I tend to stock a dozen or more cans at a time for friends and family that need a quick source for Almond Paste when they are doing their glutenless recipe baking, especially if they do not want to order 6 cans at a time.  Perhaps you can find a few fellow bakers that want to split an order.  I have to believe this stuff will last "forever" (years?) in the unopened cans. We use a can per month or more, but then again we do a lot of baking.

I plan to put eventually place a link to this article and to the Solo Foods site from our cookbook website. Although I would love to simply allow people to purchase a can of Almond Paste along with my recipe book, shipping makes that impossible, so it is best to get it in the supermarket or direct from Solo Foods. I know we use it in our wonderful Pecan Pie / Tart, and a few other tasty gluten free dessert recipes. It really adds a nice flavor to so many recipes.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free, Dairy-Free Cornbread Stuffing / Dressing Recipe

Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free, Dairy-Free Cornbread Stuffing / Dressing Recipe

Gluten-Free Cornbread Stuffing / Dressing Recipe

This is a timely (though perhaps a bit last-minute) Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free, Dairy-Free Cornbread Stuffing / Dressing Recipe (with Cranberries) perfect for the Thanksgiving Holiday! Enjoy!

Corn Bread Ingredients:

• 1 Egg
• ¼ Cup Sugar
• 1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
• 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
• ¾ Cup Cornmeal
• ¼ Cup Glutinous Rice Flour
• ½ Cup Sorghum Flour
• ¼ Cup Flaxseed Meal
• ½ Cup Water

Additional Stuffing Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2.5 Cups Diced Onion
• 1 Cup Chopped Celery (approximately 2 stalks)
• 1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic
• ½ Cup Dried Cranberries
• 1 Teaspoon Sage
• 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 2 Tablespoons Fresh Parsley, Chopped (can used dried)
• 1 Tablespoon Chives
• ¼ Teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper (optional)
• ½ Teaspoon Pepper
• ½ Teaspoon Salt
• 2 Eggs
• 1½ Cups Vegetable Broth*
• NOTE: *Vegetable Broth used in recipe: Pacific Natural Foods -- Organic Vegetable Broth (Gluten Free)

Directions:

Start by creating the cornbread: In mixer, mix egg, sugar and vegetable oil on medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Add remaining cornbread ingredients and mix until combined. Pour corn bread into greased Pyrex 11 x 7 x 1.5 inch baking dish and cook in 425° oven for 15 minutes.

While corn bread is cooling, start preparing the additional stuffing ingredients. Place olive oil in large skillet that can be placed in the oven (if not using an oven proof skillet, the stuffing will need to be transferred to an oven safe casserole dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray), cut up the onion and celery and place in the skillet (such as a cast iron skillet), cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until slightly tender. Add minced garlic, cranberries, herbs and salt and pepper, cook for 2 additional minutes. Turn off heat.

Crumble the baked corn bread into the stuffing ingredients and mix gently.

In a bowl, combine vegetable broth and eggs, whisk together. Pour over corn bread/stuffing ingredients and gently mix until combined. Place all the mixed stuffing and additional ingredients into an oven-safe cast-iron frypan/skillet, and bake at 375⁰ for 45 minutes (again, if not using an oven safe skillet, place corn bread into an oven safe casserole dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray).

Recipes to Enjoy during your Gluten-Free Thanksgiving: Stuffing and Pumpkin Bundt Cake!

These recipe should do the trick! The picture above shows the final product (some stuffing shown in our preferred baking equipment: a cast-iron fry-pan).

Note: I have added this recipe and a bonus holiday recipes to our online GF recipes library, here:

• Gluten-Free & Wheat-Free Dairy-Free Cornbread Stuffing / Dressing Recipe (the recipe listed above)
• Gluten-Free & Wheat-Free Pumpkin Bundt Cake Recipe : a complementary Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday-season dessert recipe, I also added this recipe:  to our online library.

Other Cookbook Happenings...

I was a bit distracted this week when I got word from my Shipper that my recipe books, which were supposed to ship last week out of LA, were still sitting in a warehouse there instead! Oh, I had some choice words about that situation. It seems that, as of just a bit ago, the shipment has been "expedited" and released, but this puts the ETA a week later than expected.

I apologize to anyone waiting anxiously for their books, since I am now not supposed to have the new cookbooks in hand until next week (Nov. 30th). Needless to say, I am disappointed, since we, like every other person with a product to sell, wants to get our product out for the all important holiday season. Now, it seems I will miss the entire first week of that holiday rush, and my distributors/retailers are certainly going to miss out a bit. And here I thought I had ample slack time in our plans for anything like this.

Well, here's a happy Gluten-Free Thanksgiving to all my loyal readers! Best wishes and may your gluten-free feast be joyful and memorable!

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Gluten-Free Garlic, Pepper, and Herb Quinoa Recipe

Quinoa with Garlic, Pepper, and Herbs : Gluten-Free Dish

Quinoa: the wonderful Gluten-Free Grain

Another day, another recipe. I may have mentioned this dish before, since it is a favorite of mine. Simple to make, and should be "Safe" for not just gluten-free/celiac-disease folks, but also for the casein-free, corn-free crowd too.

Here's a link to the Gluten-Free Garlic, Pepper, and Herb Quinoa Recipe (as pictured above).

I like this quinoa dish both as a main course and as a delicious side dish. I have been wondering, in fact, whether or not this quinoa could be prepared as such and then used to stuff a turkey? I have created gluten-free quinoa-stuffed poblano peppers, so why not? I don't see why it would not work. Though, perhaps it is best to just serve this as a side-dish in place of stuffing and not worry about actually placing it inside a turkey - since there is probably little benefit other than perhaps keeping the turkey more moist and having some turkey flavor permeate the quinoa. Oh, just thinking as I type by gluten free entry of the day in my blog again.

For anyone that cares about the "healthfulness" of quinoa, I did a prior blog entry on quinoa
where I discuss the protein and fiber content and such. It really is an awesome gluten-free grain, and I have seen the grain gain more attention and popularity lately - even our latest issue of Cooking Light has a quinoa dish in it, which thrilled me.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Roll Recipe

Laura's Incredible Gluten-Free Pumpkin Roll Recipe

Gluten Free Pumpkin Roll Recipe : Awesome!

I promised this Gluten Free Pumpkin Roll Recipe a while back, and finally got around to posting it on my cookbook website. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, this may be a recipe a few readers would like to try out. My wife adapted a pre-gluten-free-days version of a pumpkin-roll recipe that her grandmother often made around the holidays.

And, much like the original pumpkin roll recipe, this wheat-free and GF version has plenty of pumpkin and spice flavor throughout, all coupled with a creamy sweet cream cheese filling.

I have a few more Thanksgiving and Holiday gluten-free recipes, both here on this blog and over on the cookbook website. These include things like a Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bundt Cake, a Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free Pumpernickel Bread, and many other goodies.  Laura has been so busy baking and being utterly creative in the kitchen lately, and I must say that I am very much enjoying sampling all these treats.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

The Baker's Edge pan review - with pictures

I recently purchased a new specialized baking pan called The Baker's Edge in order to try out a some gluten-free recipes baking in a pan that is basically "crust optimized". Now, why would anyone want a pan that produces much more crust (or edge) surface area than a regular baking pan? For a variety of reasons actually!

First of all, I love the crust on breads, brownies, and so forth - in fact, in must be a genetic predisposition to those chewier and crunchier edges, because, I recall how while growing up there was always a battle between my father and I to see who could first lay claim to the edges and crusts. There is just something special about the consistency of those edges where sugars have so perfectly caramelized to form a crispy, crunchy, and/or chewy surface. The innate appeal of a chewy brownie crust extends far beyond my own family, as I have witnessed quite a few others similarly drawn to that prized corner brownie square at parties.

The good news is that the rare corner brownie, or end-crust piece, is no longer rare when using The Baker's Edge. In fact, that is the whole point of the pan -- to maximize the proportion of edges & crusts throughout a dish. This works great for brownies, cakes, breads, and even dishes like lasagna.

My second attraction to the pan has to do specifically with gluten-free baking. For anyone that has any experience baking without gluten (i.e., without "normal" flour - meaning: no wheat, rye, or barley products allowed), as most anyone with a wheat-intolerance or Celiac Disease would have, there is a challenge to getting some recipes to come out as nice as their gluten-containing/wheat-containing counterparts. Since gluten is the protein that adds elasticity and binding capacity to standard wheat flour, baking without gluten means getting recipes to hold together without that all important intrinsic stickiness that gluten contributes to the chemistry of a recipe.

The typical option gluten-free recipes rely on is added vegetable/plant gums (like Guar, Xanthan, etc) to mimic the elasticity that gluten would otherwise add. If you do not wish to use added gums, one of the best things you can do is maximize the ratio of crust in your dish, since the caramelization of sugars and such that occurs at the edges of your baked goods also adds much-needed binding capacity and outside-edge rigidity to help your foods hold together well.

This is where The Baker's Edge pan can be quite advantageous to glutenfree baking: by maximizing the amount of crust area throughout your entire dish. The pan is shaped a bit like a maze, or a giant "M" shape, with its back and forth trenches. My wife tried the pan out with chocolate brownies and biscuits; each worked quite well in the pan. As you can see here, the brownie has all sorts of edge-area, with each brownie that you cut having at least two edges that are nice and crunchy/chewy.



In addition to having the promised extra edges, the brownie (if left whole) is bound to garner some attention for its rather unusual shape. In this case, I have the luxury of telling everyone the giant "M" stands for "Mike" of course :) I liked the resulting brownies quite a bit, as there was no shortage of that coveted prize: the corner brownie!

Likewise with the biscuits - no shortage of crust here!



Here are my overall observations of The Baker's Edge in general and in regards to glutenfree baking:

• It is a well built pan. Sturdy construction of heavy gauge aluminum that is coated with a wonderfully effective non-stick surface.
• Price: it currently costs $37.00 (that includes shipping), which is certainly more than the price of a standard bread pan, but it compares favorably with other high-quality specialty pans.
  
• It is simple to clean! Even though it has a maze-like layout, the interior corners are all smoothly rounded and clean easily. Although you can get "maximum crust" by simply baking your recipes in muffin pans or mini-loaf pans, there is no comparison when it comes to cleanup time: The Baker's Edge pan wins easily when compared to cleaning all those individual muffin cups and such. No contest.
• Bake times have to be adjusted a bit, since all those interior surface areas also decrease the bake time a bit. When we use the pan for a recipe, we will note the new bake times on our recipes for anyone else using a Baker's Edge.
• The pan's internal volume is optimized for standard cake-pan recipes - so, you don't have to adjust your brownie or cake batter up/down to fit the pan.
  
• As mentioned earlier, the final food product sure has a unique look that is bound to get attention at a party or event.
• Although the pan comes with a cute little serving spatula that fits perfectly within the "maze" sections to remove your foods, if you have a thicker dough/batter to distribute throughout the pan, it is a bit of a challenge getting your product to be evenly dispersed throughout all the channels. This is not a huge bother, but it will help if you have a spatula about the width of the grooves. In all, it still takes less time to distribute your batter/dough throughout the channels than it would to fill a dozen or more mini pans.
  
• Gluten-free foods do certainly benefit from the additional surface area and tend to come out with more texture and substance. Yes, you could use a bunch of little pans to accomplish similar results, but this is much simpler.
  

The bottom line: The Baker's Edge works as promised, holds equal promise for gluten-free baking, and is bound to be a crust-aficionado's delight! I certainly enjoy the results we achieved.

We finally bought an ice-cream maker.

We have considered purchasing an ice cream maker for nearly 15 years now it seems, and each time we contemplated it, we decide that we would not get enough use out of one to make it worth the bother. Well, yesterday that changed.

We finally gave in and purchased one - a simple $50 Cuisinart model where you freeze the bowl part of the machine for a few hours (6 or so is recommended), and then put the frozen bowl into the electric-powered machine once you have your ingredients ready to pour into the bowl and turn the thing on for 20-25 minutes. Our first experiment was Italian Lemon Ice (pictured above), and oh my god is it so good. Much better than any I have purchased pre-made.

Note: I placed some gluten-free frozen dessert recipes on my website now, including:

• Lemon-Ice Recipe - as featured here
• Chocolate Hazelnut Cinnamon Ice Cream Recipe

Recipe and method to make your own delicious Lemon Ice

The formula is so simple:
You dissolve 2 cups of sugar into 2 cups of water on the stovetop (only heat as much as needed to dissolve sugar easily). While that is cooling, zest and juice a pile of fresh Lemons until you have 1.5 Cups of fresh-squeezed juice, and a couple tablespoons of lemon zest. Mix that into the sugar/water.

Now place that (room temperature) mixture into the machine, and run it for 20-25 minutes. Then, place the (rather soft) lemon ice in the freezer to firm up the rest of the way.

Ahhh... how refreshingly tangy and sweet and satisfying the end result is! Glutenfree, wheat-free, dairy-free... but, not sugar free of course :)

The inspiration for this purchase is twofold. First, we have seen a lot of The Food Channel personalities making ice-cream and/or frozen desserts lately (nearly as many as are pushing alcoholic beverages of recent), and second, I ran across this vegan ice cream blog yesterday that had so many wonderful ice cream (well, vegan - so iced soymilk or such) & flavored ice recipes... that pushed me over the top. Check that site out... nearly everything is GF from what I could tell.

Since the original lemon ice creation, my wife has created a chocolate-blackberry ice-cream in the mixer. Still gluten-free, but not dairy-free needless to say (the recipe called for heavy cream). And, it too is just oh so good! Perhaps not good for you, but who is making icecream for the health benefits anyhow? (though, that vegan ice cream surely should not be TOO bad for you aside from the sugar)

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

GlutenFree Oats for Breakfast (certified gluten free)

Yes, you read correctly! I have eaten gluten-free oats for breakfast today!

It has been so long since I had any oats, and I must say, they tasted darn good! There has been a lot of controversy about whether or not oats are gluten-free, and whether oats are safe in a Celiac diet. This was one of the topics discussed at the Columbus Celiac Conference this prior weekend, and the bottom line from the latest in scientific and medical research is simple: oats themselves are gluten-free by nature; it is only any cross-contamination (with gluten-containing grains) that would render oats anything other than gluten free (GF).

I have been following the back-and-forth arguments about whether oats are "safe" for a long time now - years in fact. And, with this latest information, coupled with the availability of certified gluten-free oats, I finally have given in and tried oats again. At the conference, one of the vendors this year was a certified gluten free oats grower called Gifts of Nature, Inc. They had a supply of oats on hand and were selling 2.75lb (44 ounce) bags for about $10/bag (i.e., $3.63/lb!). A bit steep for oats! But, they are independently certified free of cross-contamination and all. Even at this price, they easily sold out their entire stock before day's end at the conference. I guess I am not the only one that so badly wants the taste (and health benefits) of oats back in my diet.

I did try earlier in the year to order some GF Oats from another place online, but when I did, the vendor was out of stock for a couple months or more (due to super-high demand). What I expect to see happen is this: 1) short-term prices will remain high, or perhaps even spike higher with increased demand; 2) other suppliers will start popping up all over the place as they see how they can turn a piece of fallow land into a serious cash-maker by producing certified gluten-free oats (compared to very low prices for standard oats - which I can get for 40-cents/lb or less at retail in some places yet)... $3.63/lb is nearly 10 times the price for essentially the same commodity; 3) at this gold-rush kicks in over time, the supply will finally exceed demand, lowering prices. This will likely take 10 years or more to play out, but one way or the other, it will happen given enough time.

So, I just consumed my oats about 1/2 hour ago. I took it light -- 1/4 Cup uncooked this time. I want to see how my system takes to these things before I start ramping up. Other conference attendees that had tried the GF oats before all said to start out with small amounts and work up. Most had good experiences and were able to tolerate them if they started small and worked up. So, that is where I am at too. I'll report in on the outcome over time.

Now, one thing I have been waiting a long time to make again are a couple recipes I really love: Oatmeal Cookies (I have a nearly-perfect gluten free oatmeal cookie recipe we left out of our book due to the potential "controversy" about oats) and another thing I called the Triple-Oat-Energy-Bar (I use Rolled-Oats, Oat-Flour, and Steel-Cut Oats) that is sort of a really hearty granola bar. I have not had either one for at least a couple years. When I first went gluten-free, I was tolerating oats yet, but that ability slowly went away until I could not eat them. That was in the days of non-certified-GF oats, so I really hope these certified gluten-free oats make the difference and bring back some of my favorite Oat recipes (oh, and my mother has this rather tasty oat-flour chocolate cake recipe too). If all goes well, I will bring all these recipes back out of the archives and put them online for others.

Extended life - for mice only?

Have you heard the latest research news on attempts to extend lifespan in mice? Researchers have succeeded in doing so by giving the mice large amounts of a molecule called resveratrol (a compound derived from plants put under stress; and, which occurs in red wines). The findings were remarkable in that not only did mice on the resveratrol supplement live longer, the effects of aging, in nearly all categories, were diminished even when the mice were put on high calorie diets!

Oh, if only they could get this available for humans.

First of all, I, like most people, certainly find the prospects of living 30% longer rather interesting, especially if that extra lifespan is a healthy one. And, that "high calorie" diet thing, with no ill effects... oh, the possibilities! :)

Here is a link to the reveratrol molecule and mice life-extension findings. It is worth a read. Fascinating to say the least! I thought I heard elsewhere that the concentration of resveratrol the scientists were giving mice would be the equivalent of us drinking 100 bottles of red wine a day... so, I guess drinking wine to get such effects is just a bit out of the question.

I know this doesn't have much to do with gluten-free diets or anything, but I thought it interesting enough to share.

Now, back to work. Just finished uploading my book PDF to GoogleBooks for inclusion in their online book-search, and hoping that gets setup properly without any more involvement. I'll probably make the same file(s) available on my website within the next few days. Needless to say, I stripped out the actual recipe/directions text from the book, and included only sample-images, but it should give people a decent feel for what recipes are in the new gluten free desserts book. So much to do, so little time... oh, if only I could get some of that mouse-potion, I could get 30% more time!