Lifesaver for my little boy's 1st Birthday!

books:


	• Gluten-Free Baking Classics Annalise G. Roberts Surrey Books, 2006 - 190 pages average customer review:based on 52 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

best GF chocolate chip cookies ever!!!

I got this cookbook about a year ago and have been happily using it ever since. It has the best recipe for GF choc chip cookies I have ever tried. I think the big difference is in the superfine flour blend, which I order now from authentic foods. I also love the pie crust. I have taken a pie and the cookies to a family reunion and no one even suspected they were gluten free. They were gone in minutes!! I make all my kids birthday cakes using this book. Also great muffin recipes, apple pie, pizza crust is wonderful if you like a crispy cracker thin crust like my family. If you buy one GF cookbook to bake with, make it this one. Everything I have tried in it is excellent. You will love it.

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Fabulous

Purchased for my mother and she loves her desserts. However, it is very difficult to find gluten free desserts in the store. She loves this book and recommends it to anyone.

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Judia's Review

The recipes are great but I am a visual person when it comes to recipes. little or no color pics left me a little less than excited about my purchase...

Lifesaver for my little boy's 1st Birthday!

It isn't often I feel passionately enough about a book or product to actually pen a review, but as the mother of a one-year-old with anaphylaxis-level allergies to wheat, I could kiss this author for "saving" my son's birthday party! My baby's wheat sensitivity is exactly the type parents dread, so severe it landed us in the ER the first time he was exposed to wheat, with such virulence his pediatrician banned wheat from MY diet as long as our son nurses. Overnight, our household became a wheat-barren landscape: our child never knowing animal crackers or teething biscuits, all of us happily substituting rice pasta into homemade mac-and cheese, my husband sneaking Subway at lunch.

A month ago, though, we began planning the ubiquitous overdone first birthday celebration. We had some degree of faith we'd find a cookbook, but having tried market-ready wheat-free products ourselves, slogging through the dry, dense world of commercially-prepared baked goods and deciding we'd rather go without bread in the house than provide storage space for yet another crumbling compacted rice block, we had little faith in our final preparation. I did the requisite research, reluctantly settling on Ms. Roberts' Gluten-Free Baking Classics; the reviews looked good, the recipes at least had some variety, and if it was going to be bad, at least it was the best of the awful available in our newfound wheat-free world.

So imagine my surprise when my husband, fearing social ostracization in the face of a probable brick-cake debacle, coyly suggested he'd like some cupcakes when our cookbook arrived? The author's introductory chapters list very specific mixing and handling instructions for her basic flour (another plus for this book, it uses a singular flour mix for the majority of the recipes), and while I followed her mixing instructions, I did defy the author's admonition not to scoop right out of the container once our project was underway! Having no idea how this wheatless batter would react anyway, I halved the recipe and only partially filled the cupcake tins, expecting little rise or texture. After all, these suckers would clearly not be something we wanted excess of cluttering our counter or fridge space with a party coming up. But within half an hour, lo and behold! Beautiful, peaked, butter-colored mounds rising just above the rims? The scent of warm vanilla permeating the kitchen?? My husband sneaking in, peeking into the oven, drooling with anticipation??? And me, ever the pessimist, shooing him away and reminding him this was, after all, gluten-free!

The final verdict, though?
Light, fluffy, sweet, moist cupcakes, spongy on the inside with delicately crisped edges: a resounding success! Ms. Roberts' vanilla cupcakes were our first outright baking success in almost a year!! We used the Coconut layer Cake recipe as a stepping-off point for my son's birthday cake (I adapted a certain cable "Network" that does "Food"s "Lime in the Coconut" cake instead, using this as my template). We've only had our cookbook two weeks, but if the rest of it is as good as what we've tried so far, we look forward to many continued successes!

I guess the two questions I had when I was looking to at least be able to give my son a REAL birthday cake were a) can you tell these dishes are wheat-free, and b) despite all the glowing reviews, are these things really any good-- or just good by a wheat-free standard? Well, when it comes down to it, they are a tiny bit different, but not in a way that's truly discernable, and certainly not in a way that's "bad." It's hard to put your finger on exactly what varies from the original, and unless you've been baking (or eating baked goods) for some time, there's nothing you'll sincerely miss from the original. These products' difference may be as simple as their "lacking" the flavor of wheat, but when it comes down to it, there's no negativity implied in that difference. It's simply a new breed of culinary aestheticism. Ms. Roberts' recipes are truly priceless in the niche they fill, representing works of culinary art and sensory pleasure in their own right. And yes, they are good. Great even in some senses. Nothing you will ever regret, and certainly nothing that would ever lead you to look back on the wheat and gluten-laden diet you once revelled in with any sense of longing.

This book quells the great carb demon, and re-establishes the parts of your diet you really do come to miss living wheat-free: pizza, cookies, sandwiches. Yes, even birthday cake, too. Follow the directions for the author's flour mix, blend well, and you'll have a canvas from which to work, take liberties, create your own decadent wheat-free treats.

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THE Gluten Free Cookbook

I discovered I have celiac disease almost four years ago. I started out researching online, leafing through the old recipes my grandmother had written. I graduated to Bette Hagman's books. Those didn't quite it hit it, but I figured, eh, such is life, and went on about my way. On a whim, I picked up this book in a bookstore, and my baking life changed. I want pizza? I make pizza. I need chocolate chip cookies for a dozen people? I make them. Sandwich rolls? Sure, no problem. How about a pie crust that you can roll out instead of press into a pan? (Granted, a little plastic wrap will help.) I'm in the process of culling all the unnecessary things out of my kitchen (I've managed to collect two shelves of cookbooks!) but this one and Gluten-free, Sugar-free Cooking: Over 200 Delicious Recipes to Help You Live a Healthier, Allergy-Free Life are NOT leaving my kitchen.

Bottom line: If you can only afford to get one cookbook, get this one. And follow the recipe! The flours really do matter!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

For celiacs and others unable to eat wheat, it?s not just the dessert tray that?s forbidden: hearty staples like bread and pizza are also off limits. Now, this exciting cookbook allows allergy sufferers to indulge in a wide variety of baked goods, all delicious and all gluten-free. Featured are more than 100 recipes, including homey treats like biscuits and blueberry muffins; chocolate chip and other cookie jar classics; old-fashioned favorites such as eclairs, pie crust, and lemon squares; artisan style breads; and more than 20 cakes, from a simple vanilla layer cake to a decadent German chocolate cake. A thorough grounding in classic baking techniques, as well as detailed instructions in how to buy, mix, and measure gluten-free flours, ensure success for even novice gluten-free bakers. Rounding out the book is a pertinent discussion on how readers can incorporate baking into busy schedules, and why it is so important for emotional, as well as physical, well-being.

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