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gluten_freeGluten-Free Baking at Home: 102 Foolproof Recipes for Delicious Breads, Cakes, Cookies, and More, by Jeffrey Larsen:
The introduction wants you to believe these gluten-free recipes are also designed to be free of dairy, soy, nuts, and eggs, but not all are free of each, and some have no suggested substitutions at all. Some will have substitutions for eggs or dairy, but for instance, the substitution offered for sour cream is vegan sour cream, which often has soy in it, so don't go into this expecting to be accommodated for multiple restrictions. However, if you're only trying to avoid gluten, this cookbook is gorgeous.
Larsen covers yeasted breads, quick breads and muffins, scones, cakes, cookies, pies and tarts, crisps and cobblers, and anything you might want to drizzle, spread, frost, glaze, or top your desserts with. The things in here are pretty standard, no exotic fruits or elusive spices, and it doesn't require any custom flour blends. Larsen uses Bob's Red Mill products for almost everything.
Ingredients include oats, sorghum flour, almond flour or meal (he says you can use them interchangeably in his recipes), teff flour, millet flour, potato and tapioca starch, xanthan gum, and psyllium husk powder. Most recipes depend on oat flour, sorghum flour, and a starch. Rice flours occasionally pop up, mostly in the form of sweet rice flour, but rarely, as Larsen tries to avoid using them.
Every recipe has a headnote and storage advice. Measurements are in grams and U.S. volume. Most come with a lovely photograph of the finished product. Sprinkled throughout are illustrated guides for techniques like making pie crust or scones, and Larsen gives out a lot of solid advice, making this book good for a beginner baker. He has a lot of confidence—in himself and his readers—that will feel either reassuring or bossy, depending on your mood.
At the back is a guide for sourcing ingredients and an index that is thorough but not totally complete.
I haven't made anything from the book yet, but I did save a few recipes to try including the s'mores bars and some sandwich breads.
The introduction wants you to believe these gluten-free recipes are also designed to be free of dairy, soy, nuts, and eggs, but not all are free of each, and some have no suggested substitutions at all. Some will have substitutions for eggs or dairy, but for instance, the substitution offered for sour cream is vegan sour cream, which often has soy in it, so don't go into this expecting to be accommodated for multiple restrictions. However, if you're only trying to avoid gluten, this cookbook is gorgeous.
Larsen covers yeasted breads, quick breads and muffins, scones, cakes, cookies, pies and tarts, crisps and cobblers, and anything you might want to drizzle, spread, frost, glaze, or top your desserts with. The things in here are pretty standard, no exotic fruits or elusive spices, and it doesn't require any custom flour blends. Larsen uses Bob's Red Mill products for almost everything.
Ingredients include oats, sorghum flour, almond flour or meal (he says you can use them interchangeably in his recipes), teff flour, millet flour, potato and tapioca starch, xanthan gum, and psyllium husk powder. Most recipes depend on oat flour, sorghum flour, and a starch. Rice flours occasionally pop up, mostly in the form of sweet rice flour, but rarely, as Larsen tries to avoid using them.
Every recipe has a headnote and storage advice. Measurements are in grams and U.S. volume. Most come with a lovely photograph of the finished product. Sprinkled throughout are illustrated guides for techniques like making pie crust or scones, and Larsen gives out a lot of solid advice, making this book good for a beginner baker. He has a lot of confidence—in himself and his readers—that will feel either reassuring or bossy, depending on your mood.
At the back is a guide for sourcing ingredients and an index that is thorough but not totally complete.
I haven't made anything from the book yet, but I did save a few recipes to try including the s'mores bars and some sandwich breads.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-02 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-02 03:53 pm (UTC)I know many of us have more than one thing we need to avoid--I sure do--so I like to get cookbooks from my library and interrogate their ingredients. That way I'm not buying cookbooks I can't use, and even if doesn't work for me, it might work for someone else.
Interrogate is a great word
Date: 2021-06-03 09:30 pm (UTC)and now I have an image of a cookbook (or maybe its author?) sitting behind a battered metal desk in the box
and I'm glad this book is available at my library.
Re: Interrogate is a great word
Date: 2021-06-04 05:12 pm (UTC)Now add in me slamming my hand down on the table and demanding to know if the cookbook provides non-soy-based substitutions for dairy.
(I used to have a Bayliss icon! Guess I'll use Bones and Booth instead. Bones has a flashlight she can shine in people's eyes.)
no subject
Date: 2021-06-02 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-03 02:13 pm (UTC)Hmmmmmmm. I guess it depends on how much you like, say, homemade cookies.