When your body can not tolerate gluten-containing foods. This disease is called celiac disease.
As a result, it can no longer take important nutrients from the food to supply the body with it. Diarrhea, underweight, fatigue, deficiency symptoms and nausea are common symptoms.
Still tasty
Gluten is a component of most cereals: Wheat, rye, oats, barley, dinkel, green spelt and einkorn contain the gluten, which is also added as a flavor enhancer or binder to many other foods. Most people can not imagine that you can bake without these flours.
It’s a bit more elaborate, but the breads, cakes and biscuits are all tasty. One preferred substitute for cereals is rice. It’s as finely ground as you need it for the dough of cookies and cakes, and in combination with a thickener it has very good baking properties.
In addition, the rice flour is neutral in taste, so that the dishes prepared with it taste good to everyone. You can hardly do without it in the gluten-free kitchen.
Flour Alternatives
Fine wholemeal rice flour is available in the health food store and in the organic grocery store. Small amounts can be ground with an old coffee grinder – but it requires some stamina. If you also want to bake bread yourself, it is worth buying a special grain mill.
Recommended is a device with a stone grinder that does not destroy the valuable ingredients of the grains. Corn flour – it is often offered in the market as polenta flour – is also suitable for gluten-free baking, but in too large a quantity it is often found to be difficult to digest.
In addition, one could use cornstarch for baking. Although it has less nutritional value than the flour, makes the cookies – if the proportion is not too high – finer and looser.
Most pastries taste very good if, in addition, you replace a small portion of the flour with grated nuts or vegetables – such as potatoes. They are peeled, finely grated and mixed raw under the dough, which makes it fluffy. Potato flour is available just like chestnut flour ready to buy in the trade.
Indispensable in the gluten-free bakery is a thickening agent, as gluten-free flour has no or very little adhesive properties: without cookies, cakes and breads crumble. Guar gum is very reasonably priced and, moreover, has hardly any flavor.
You do not need much of it: A ratio of 1/100 of the flour you use is enough. Alternatives to this are locust bean gum (also one percent) or apple pectin (two percent), which tastes slightly sour but contains healthy fiber. Those who bake gluten-free for the first time are surprised by the sticky consistency of the cookie dough.
Do not be irritated – that’s right and is due to the thickener. If the dough is kneaded with your hands, just moisten it with water or some cooking oil. And so that it does not stick to the rolling pin and the kitchen plate, it is rolled out between two layers of baking paper. From this, the pricked out cookie cutter can then be easily lifted off with a wide knife.
Natural sweetening
If the cookies are to be refined with a frosting or sprinkles of chocolate, caution is advised when buying finished products – they possibly contain gluten. But both can be easily made from a bar of dark chocolate:
It is melted gently for the frosting in a water bath and finely grated for the crumble with the help of a vegetable grater. A tip for those who are looking for a natural and healthy alternative to white table sugar: You can replace it with sugar beet syrup and honey. Both give the cookies a wonderful Christmas flavor. But you can also use maple syrup or cane sugar.
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