I’m a fan of America’s Test Kitchen. I subscribed to Cook’s Illustrated for several years and love that there is someone out there who takes a methodical approach to recipe testing. If you’re not familiar, they usually take one recipe and then try it dozens of ways to find the very best method and recipe. Their results are always trustworthy. When I heard they had a gluten free cookbook  (The How Can it Be Gluten Free Cookbook) coming out, I was skeptical. I have to say I am generally not a fan of gluten free cookbooks. I buy GF flour, pasta, and bread and I made regular recipes with them. I don’t usually want to have to use 5 kinds of flour to make one recipe when I can buy Cup4Cup and substitute it in most recipes.

So, I was reluctant. But I bought it anyhow. And I sat down to read it and I wondered why I doubted them. They do a very in-depth comparison of existing GF flour blends and also test GF pasta and breads on the market. I found the flour testing the most useful and I agreed with their conclusions, however they did not test my go-to brand, Cup4Cup. I found the pasta and bread evaluations less useful. I can’t find some of the brands in my store that they used and I also rely heavily on my store’s in-house brand for pasta. They offer really good advice about cooking with GF products and storing GF baked goods (in short, they get stale fast). This is a book where the writers thought carefully about what they were making and spent a lot of time figuring out what works and what doesn’t. It is the BEST gluten free cookbook I’ve ever owned. It covers breakfast items, bread (I haven’t tried making any yeast bread but I am definitely going to now), cakes, pies, cookies, and more.

The real gold in this book is that they give you a recipe for their own flour blend. After testing many on the market they create one that they found to be better than everything out there (except Cup4Cup which they did not discuss, sadly). I’m not going to reprint their recipe for flour here (you’ll have to buy the book), but it was easy to make and I found all the items on the shelf in my store – white rice flour, brown rice flour, milk powder, tapioca starch and potato starch. I mixed it up and kept it in a large plastic container. A few minutes of mixing and I had a flour blend I could turn to for all of my baking.

So far I’ve made three recipes from the book so far: pancakes, coffee cake and carrot cake. I’m giving all three a big thumbs up. The recipes use their custom flour blend, BUT they tell you how much to substitute if you are using their top store bought flour blends. I love that part of the book. I made the recipes with their flour and was happy with the results, for the most part.

The pancakes turned out perfectly. Their method makes pancakes that are fluffy and cooked completely. They have some great tips about how important it is to preheat the pan and what size makes the optimum pancakes.

I was worried about the coffee cake because the batter didn’t taste great to me at all, but it turned out wonderfully – moist and fluffy. The only complaint I have about the coffee cake is that the glaze was too thin and ran off the cake.

The carrot cake was fantastic (moist with a depth of flavor), however the baking time was not long enough. I took my cake out of the oven and it was still jiggly in the center. I didn’t listen to my own instincts and let it cool, then it was obvious it was just mush in the middle. I put it back in the oven for 20 minutes, starting with a cold oven. Once it was baked completely, it was delicious.

I’ll definitely be baking more from this cookbook. If you’re GF, you want this on your kitchen bookshelf.

I’m a fan of America’s Test Kitchen. I subscribed to Cook’s Illustrated for several years and love that there is someone out there who takes a methodical approach to recipe testing. If you’re not familiar, they usually take one recipe and then try it dozens of ways to find the very best method and recipe. … Read more →

Ok not really, but it makes a nice story. This post is part of my weeklong celebration of Ireland in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. You’ve probably heard that we Americans make St. Patty’s Day into something it isn’t in Ireland and in fact, corned beef and cabbage is nowhere to be found on Irish menus. That doesn’t stop me from taking this day as a day to remember and celebrate all I loved about Ireland. My favorite part of Ireland was the food!

Before we went to Ireland I had read that it was gluten sensitive-friendly. I was completely overwhelmed at how true this was. When we visited Ireland, we did so after a week in France, where eating was a challenge. The language barrier didn’t help, although we made out quite well in Paris in general. I find that the hardest thing about traveling gluten-free is breakfast. Scrambled eggs get old really, really fast. While in Paris, I found a biologique store that sells health food and was able to buy some gluten-free bread which we then toasted each morning at the hotel breakfast buffet. It was a welcome addition to eggs, cold cuts, and fruit.

As soon as we arrived in Dublin, I sought out a store to buy some gluten-free bread. The Tesco supermarket near our hotel had an entire aisle of gluten-free bread, snacks, crackers, cookies, etc. We stocked up. The first morning at our hotel (the

Radisson Blu), we were thrilled to find that gluten free bread was available with breakfast – just sitting out in a basket with a label. I was in a gluten-free paradise! Every hotel we stayed at had gluten free bread available for breakfast, although we did have some back and forth about the oatmeal (“porridge”) and whether it was truly gluten-free at one location. I had one waiter tell me that so many people are “coeliac” in Ireland that it is simply nothing unusual. It is so common in fact, that the waitress at the not so great restaurant at the airport hotel we stayed at the night before we left Ireland told me ALL of their sauces are thickened with cornstarch, not flour, so they are all gluten-free.

My research revealed there were several restaurants in Dublin, all within walking distance of our hotel, that had many gluten-free items on the menu, or offered entirely gluten-free menus. If you are celiac or gluten-free, Dublin is a marvelous place to visit. Here are the two places where we enjoyed dinner while in Dublin:

Millstone

Our first dinner in Dublin was Millstone on Dame Street. The ENTIRE menu is gluten free. This cozy little restaurant was a perfect welcome to the country for us. Live music accompanied our dinner are we enjoyed Irish seafood chowder, goat cheese and berry compote, mussels with chorizo, salmon with prawn sauce, and pizza. Apple pie and chocolate cake ended our meal.  The food was fresh, perfectly seasoned and a glorious welcome to Ireland. I nearly cried I felt so well taken care of. Good gluten free pizza is hard to come by at home and gluten free desserts simply don’t exist in most restaurants (unless you’re having ice cream or the ubiquitous flourless chocolate cake). This is a not to be missed stop. We enjoyed the music, the comfortable setting and the sense of history we felt in the old building.

Brasserie Sixty 6

This menu had many GF options listed. The restaurant was very crowded, loud and busy  — and it is much bigger than it appears from outside. We had a good experience here as well and enjoyed crab with avocado mayo, lamb chop, cod with lemon confit and citrus salmon. Mashed potatoes and peas were to be shared. This place was hopping – a very popular spot. It was hard to hear but we enjoyed our food. The menu was a bit more creative than Millstone, but it wasn’t all GF. This is an excellent second place to go for gluten free dining in Dublin.

While there are several options for gluten-free dining in the city, alas, the one place I was desperate to try is not gluten-free in the least: Crackbird, where they make heavenly fried chicken. Maybe next time!

We don’t drink, but if you’re looking for gluten-free beer in Dublin, it can be found and I’ll refer you to an expert in this area.

Stay tuned as I continue to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with more posts about glorious Ireland.

 

Ok not really, but it makes a nice story. This post is part of my weeklong celebration of Ireland in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. You’ve probably heard that we Americans make St. Patty’s Day into something it isn’t in Ireland and in fact, corned beef and cabbage is nowhere to be found on Irish … Read more →

I recently tried Cup4Cup Gluten Free Pizza Dough Mix and am giving it 5 stars. Find out why: http://www.takingglutenoffthetable.com/?p=461

I recently tried Cup4Cup Gluten Free Pizza Dough Mix and am giving it 5 stars. Find out why: http://www.takingglutenoffthetable.com/?p=461

I’ve recently launched a new blog, called Taking Gluten Off the Table. It’s got two sections. One section is gluten-free recipes and food products. The second section is dining out – both here in my Western New York area and as we travel. My goal is to make the gluten-free life a bit easier for other people like me (and my husband) who cannot eat it. I’ve found that going GF has been pretty easy to do at home. I can make almost anything, but there are still a few things I’m desperate to figure out and am working on them, so I share that journey. However, dining out is so much harder than it should be. Hopefully my reviews will help people know where they can find good gluten-free experiences in restaurants and also make restaurants more aware of the needs of people on gluten-free diets.

If you know someone who is gluten free or has celiac, would you share the link with them? If you’re in WNY, please help me reach the people in our area who need this information!

I’ve recently launched a new blog, called Taking Gluten Off the Table. It’s got two sections. One section is gluten-free recipes and food products. The second section is dining out – both here in my Western New York area and as we travel. My goal is to make the gluten-free life a bit easier for … Read more →