The Super Allergy Girl Blog

Gluten-Free and Allergy Free Special Baking Pans

One of the questions that I frequently receive from customers is what pans to use and what pans are available as well as where to get them! This post will be all about the specialty baking pans. We have many different special baking pans that we use for our gluten-free and allergy free baking. I did not acquire them overnight, so one of the things that I recommend to gluten-free and allergy free bakers is to put some of these special baking pans on your birthday wish list, your Mother's Day gift wish list or any other gift-giving holiday like Christmas. I even put together a YouTube video showing the special baking pans that we use.

Here is a link to the YouTube Video:

Lisa A. Lundy YouTube Video on Baking Pans

Some of the gluten-free and allergy free baking pans we use include: a french loaf pan, mini-donut pan, mini muffin tins, mini-bundt cake pans, hot dog and hamburger bun pans, a bread stick pan, jellyroll pan, and a whoopie pie pan. I have acquired these pans over time using gift-giving occasions to pick up a pan here an there. I have picked up some of the specialty baking items - like the English muffin rings and specially shaped cake pans - at garage sales, so don't forget that as a budget friendly way to pick up great baking pans for your gluten-free and allergy free baking.

I have purchased some pans on-line, some at specialty stores, and some at garage sales. Of all of the pans that I have, the most used are the hot dog and hamburger bun pans, the mini-donut pans, the mini-muffin tins, and the french loaf pan. Years ago, I used the bread stick pan every day, but I rarely use that these days. Of course I have not listed the simple, standard baking sheet, which I imagine every kitchen is equipped with. I do use those a lot along with a cooling rack.

I try to avoid non-stick finishes on my pans or aluminum. But sometimes those surfaces are the only surfaces available. I consider these pans a very good investment. I have had some of the pans for 12 years! Chicago Metallic is one of the places that carries specialty baking pans, however you need to understand that they also carry commercial baking pans, which will not fit in a standard consumer oven. Therefore, buyer beware to make sure that the dimensions of any pan you are considering purchasing will fit in your oven - that they are not made for commercial or industrial ovens. I did hear from one customer that she missed the boat on this and purchased a pan that would not fit in her oven!

Specialty baking pans for gluten-free, allergy free and special diet needs are a real blessing because they can give your homemade baked goods look profressional! What are your favorite baking pans! Let me know! I'm always on the look!

Happy Baking!

Love,

Lisa A. Lundy

Saving Money on the Gluten-Free and Allergy Free Diets

The gluten-free and allergy free diets are more expensive than a regular diet - there is no disputing that! However, there are may ways to save money whether you are on a gluten-free diet or an allergy free diet or any other special diet for that matter! We have always been very budget conscious unrelated to the gluten-free diet, so when I realized over 12 years ago that we needed to be gluten free, I made a special point to find every way to save money on the foods. One of the best ways to save money if you have celiac disease and are on a gluten-free diet or are on a special diet is to make your gluten-free or allergen-free foods from scratch. You will save money and you should end up with a better tasting food and more of it. Honestly folks, we have purchased some gluten-free and allergen-free foods at the store that were simply so bad that we didn't eat them! Fifteen little cookies for $5.00!

You can save money by making your own gluten-free or allergy-free mixes! Once you find a recipe that you know you love, the next time you go to make the food item - set out three mixing bowls and mix up the dry ingredients for three batches. Then place two of the batches in self-sealing plastic bags and label them. My sons have been doing this for years! They will actually skip putting the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and place the flours, xanthan gum, etc. right into a plastic bag! That saves washing and drying a bowl, but you should mix the dry ingredients well when you go to use the homemade mix.

Another way to save, which I highly recommend, is through a wholesaler or buying cooperative. You have to know your food prices for this because some food items are cheaper to purchase at your local grocery store than through the coop or wholesaler. I have been actively participating in buying food through a wholesaler or coop for more than 11 years. In addition to knowing your food product prices, you often have to buy products by the case, which means that you either only purchase foods that you love and will use before they expire or you find someone else to split a case. Buying foods like this could take up a whole post in and of itself!

Watch for sales and coupons! I know it does not happen often, but there are times when you can find price reductions, coupons or specials! Stock up when you find a product that is on sale. You can save a good deal of money on produce and meats by buying directly from a farmer - especially a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). We participate in a CSA - Native Offerings Farm - and a buying group that purchases directly from a wholesaler, plus we make almost all of our gluten-free baked goods and treats from scratch. I do not consider any of these activities to be too time consuming as not to be worth it! In fact, when my daughter makes gluten-free and allergy-free browie bits - I know that we are not only saving a lot of money, but the brownie bites taste just like those containing gluten and dairy! Now, go save some money!

Love,

Lisa A. Lundy

 

How to Select the right Gluten-free or Allergen Free Cookbook

This is another important topic to me as a gluten-free and allergen free cookbook author and it is an area that consumers struggle with as evidenced by the multiple e-mails in any given week. So, how does a consumer decide which gluten-free or allergen free cookbook to purchase? There are several things someone looking to purchase either a gluten-free or allergen free cookbook needs to know! The first important fact, which may be hard to believe is that not all gluten-free cookbooks are actually gluten-free! When I say that not all gluten-free cookbooks are gluten-free, I mean that some cookbooks that say "gluten-free" on the cover and in their promotional materials actually contain wheat, barley, spelt and other gluten containing grains! From my research and personal experience this has been the case since at least 1985 if not before. The same fact is true about "allergen free" cookbooks. Some cookbooks marketed as dairy-free, egg-free, peanut free and tree nut free actually contain all of these ingredients.

You may wonder - how do the authors get away with that? I really don't know, but they do. What is a consumer to do? Well, the first step - whether you are purchasing a gluten-free or allergen free cookbook is to decide what you need specifically. One potential customer wrote to me in 2007 to ask about my cookbook. I thought she was only in need of a gluten-free cookbook, so I wrote back via e-mail letting her know that if she only needed a gluten-free cookbook she would do well to get a different book...that mine was also dairy-free, egg-free and other allergen free. She thought this was funny and wrote back that while her primary need was a gluten-free cookbook, she also wanted to be able to make appetizers, main dishes and desserts to take to pot luck dinners. It turns out that her neighbor's grandson was egg-free, a relative was allergic to dairy, and someone at her church had allergies to tree nuts. Decide what is important to you before you start shopping.

I would then recommend that you read the Amazon.com reviews. The one cookbook that I am thinking of (marketed as both gluten-free and allergen free from the 1980's) has Amazon.com reviews that specifically state that the cookbook is NOT gluten-free or allergen free. Are some of the Amazon.com reviews "put ons"? Probably so. I definitely had two that made me very suspicious that they were actually reviewing another cookbook based on the content and therefore I posted factual information in response to the two comments.

The second step is to look at the author's website for additional information.

If doing both of these things do not make it implicitly clear, then look at the author's website for recipes to try. I would believe that most gluten-free and allergen-free cookbook authors websites have free recipes on them. Take a few of the recipes and give it a whirl. If they work out, then you should be in good shape. If you still have questions, e-mail or call the author. Someone who is accessible should be able to help you sort this out without any difficulty.

The worst thing in the world is to spend money and have a product that does not meet your needs! I hope this has been helpful to those of you trying to sort out what specialty cookbook to purchase! Happy Baking!

Love,

Lisa

 

Converting Recipes to be Gluten-Free and Allergen Free

This topic is one that I get a fair amount of questions on so I thought I'd do a public post in an effort to help those of you who are looking to convert family recipes to be gluten-free and/or allergen free. Before you begin you should make sure you have a good dose of faith, tenacity and patience. How hard or easy it will be to convert a recipe to be gluten-free or allergen free depends on the nature of the recipe. I should say that the only recipes that I convert as a hard rule are family recipes - recipes that have been in my family for decades. I do not take recipes from other cookbooks or the internet and convert them because that is an issue of integrity for me and of copyright. I'll use an example of a recipe that I recently converted as a way to further the instructions here.

The recipe I converted a few months ago was on I have had for more than 20 years, which was a toll house caramel bar recipe. This was not the easiest to convert because to my knowledge there is no caramel sauce made that does not contain milk. Therefore my first obstacle was making a milk-free and allergen free caramel sauce. I'll spare you the gory details, but let's just say that my first attempt was a failure probably because I did not have a recipe to start with. You who are not concerned about copyright infringement could start with an internet caramel sauce and make modifications to that. But that would not work for me legally. Suffice to say that I eventually got a caramel sauce recipe made. It has not been tested by my testers yet, but it at least worked for me and for the caramel toll house bars.

I didn't think that converting the crust would be all that difficult, but it actually took three tries before we had an edible crust that mirrored the original. For this recipe converting the flours to be gluten-free and adding xanthan gum was the easiest part. The original recipe contained rolled oats in the crust and since I do not consider oats to be gluten-free (yes, that would be a whole separate post), I had to find a substitute for the rolled oats. I started with puffed millet but the crust fell apart because the puffed millet is round little balls and the flour mix did not adhere well to the round balls. Next I tried using more gluten-free flours to replace the oats. This was not the right solution either. We ate them, but I knew immediately that this was not the right solution either.

The third attempt was a charm and in place of the rolled oats I used crushed gluten-free cereal. It was a bit surprising to me that this worked, but it did! The perfection of the caramel toll house bars took a total of three attempts for the crust and three for the caramel sauce. That's actually not bad! Some recipes require little effort to convert. Some recipes require a lot of effort, so you should be prepared when you embark on this type of project! Creating recipes from scratch with no basis for the recipe is an entirely different animal! That, too, would be a topic for another post! Good luck with converting your recipes to be gluten-free and allergen free! Let me know if you have any questions! Happy Baking!

Love,
Lisa 

Gluten Free and Allergy Free Baking: Why won't my baked goods turn out?

Boy this is an important topic! As the author of a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free and other allergen free cookbook, I know how critical this area is for people. I devoted a chapter in my book to the things that I know will make a difference. Let's start with having an oven thermometer in your oven at all times, which is my first suggestion if you have a gluten-free or allergen free baked good that is a flop. Why? Because over the last 12 plus years from my own personal experience and from teaching baking classes for almost as many years I have discovered that most home ovens are off in temperature any where from 25 to 40 degrees. This is huge. When you remove gluten and dairy and eggs from a baked good, they are more fragile and not as resilient in my humble opinion - and are therefore more sensitive to oven temperature.

So the first thing I recommend is to get and use an oven thermometer. Let me share how important I discovered this was BEFORE I published my cookbook. I was teaching baking classes at a kitchen store in 2004 and I would tell the class that they needed to get an oven thermometer and why. When I would see the students from the baking class at a subsequent celiac support meeting, without question those people who got an oven thermometer were always successful and the ones who didn't get one were not. The oven temperature fluctuation, by the way, is true for brand new ovens, old ones and those that are in between.

Another factor in success is how you measure your flour. Bette Hagman used to tell people to either sift your flour twice or tap the measuring cup repeatedly to have the flour settle (to get the same effect as if you had sifted the flour). I invented a quicker "heap and dump" method to save time. Regardless of what method you use - you need to understand how the flour is to be measured for the recipe you are using.

Something else that causes baked goods to flop is adding too much liquid, which is sometimes a function of the flour measuring issue I mentioned above. If you could remove gluten, dairy, eggs, etc. and have a baked good come out perfectly without some tricks and techniques - no one would need a cookbook. So there are reasons that gluten-free baked goods and allergen free baked goods flop. If you stick with a recipe that comes from a reputable source and don't make any substitutions in the beginning - you will find your way. If you have any questions about your gluten-free baking and allergen free baking, post a comment here so I can help you! Good luck and happy baking!

Love,

Lisa

Gluten-Free & Allergen-Free White Cake Recipe: A Cause for Health & Wellness Celebration

Last night we had a gluten-free & allegen-free white cake with chocolate frosting to celebrate my daughter's 10th birthday! The gluten-free and allergen-free white cake recipe is below. It is not only gluten-free, it is dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, peanut free and tree nut free! Why this birthday was a cause for health and wellness celebration is because my daughter was not expected to live to be 2, 3 or 4 years of age! If you have not seen the FOX 5 NYC News story on her health from 2006, you can see the FOX 5 NYC News video by clicking on this link:

Link to the FOX 5 NYC News Story, May 2006

OR, you can visit my YouTube Channel, and see it there along with my other helpful videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VpIsRiyIq4&feature=plcp&context=C3e65b7fUDOEgsToPDskLsM5ov15bZJizA0A3F1lK6

The FOX 5 NYC News story aired in May 2006, and now 5-1/2 years later she is healthy and well! To say that I have learned a great deal in the process would be an understatement! It has been an extraordinary journey from an extremely poor health prognosis to one of vital health and wellness! Is this possible for most consumers? Yes, in my humble and "non-medical" opinion - it is indeed possible with expert medical care and guidance from integrative medical practitioners using the medical testing and technology that is available! For Now, enjoy this gluten-free and allergen-free White Cake, which there is also a video about on my YouTube channel from a few years ago!

Gloria’s White Wedding Cake

The inspiration for this recipe goes to Gloria Tilley, a dear friend, and an amazing woman – hence the name!  I had given up on ever creating a white, egg-free cake until Gloria asked for help for her nieces wedding.  I created this recipe just for Gloria and I think of her every time I make it. If you change the flour mix, it will change the texture and result of the baked good.  It is a delicious cake that freezes well.

 

Preheat oven to 350°

Grease and flour two 8-inch round baking pans and set aside.  Measure all of the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and set aside. 

1 1/2 cups white rice flour (I used a mix of white and brown rice flour - half each)

1 1/2 cups of tapioca flour

2 teaspoons of xanthan gum

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 Tablespoons baking powder

4 teaspoons of Ener-G® Egg Replacer (dry powder)

Pinch of salt

 

Picture of the gluten-free flours and dry ingredients mixed together

 

ADD: ½ cup or 8 tablespoons of non-dairy margarine substitute at room temperature

Cake flours with non-dairy margarine substitute added in pieces

 

Take your margarine and cut it into small pieces and add to the dry ingredients.  Cut the margarine into the flour mixture until it is very, very well incorporated into the dry ingredients. It will look like this:

 

Then Add:

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups rice milk

Rice milk and vanilla added pictured here

Start to mix the batter. The batter for this cake will be very thick.  It will not drip off of a spoon.  It will hold it's shape pretty well.  You may need a bit less milk if you are light on your flour measurements.

Cake batter: This is a very thick batter - not like your regular cake batter.

This is the cake batter before I added two Tablespoons of additional rice milk, which make it only ever so slightly more creamy. Not much creamier, but a little bit. With the addition of 2 more tablespoons of rice milk, the batter would now drip off the spoon, or more like slide off the spoon, but it was still very thick. Underscore thick.

Extra rice milk: 1 to 4 tablespoons, as needed (emphasize the as needed part)

Mix well, but do NOT OVER MIX your batter.  You will probably see small lumps of margarine in the batter, which is fine.  Place the batter into your prepared pans and bake for 27 to 35 minutes or until done.  Oven temperature is very important.  A hotter or cooler oven will change both the baking time and results.  This recipe produced a nice, moist cake.  Because we used organic sugar and organic vanilla (both browner in color than clear vanilla or bleached sugar), our cake was not a pure white color. For cupcakes, bake for 25 to 28 minutes or until done. This recipes makes 24 to 26 cupcakes if using about ¼ cup batter per cupcake.

A few more pictures, which may be helpful...

The cake batter in the 2- 8 inch cake pans

Here are the two baked cake layers. The shine you see on the top is the waxed paper that I used to line the bottom of the baking pans. It guarantees that the cake layers will slide out of the pans. Great baking tip for cakes if you are not aware of it. I then just peeled the waxed paper off the bottom. Actually, the kids did this for me...

Final cake all frosted with leftover frosting from the fridge...No, I did not get my cake frosting tool out to frost this...Nor did I get all my fancy Wilton tools out to make flowers and pretty leaves. Some birthdays are just this way.

 

Both cake layers were full size and nice texture. No gummy insides. Use a cake tester and touch the top of the cake to see that it bounces back if you are not sure if it is done on the inside. An oven thermometer is not optional - use one for accuracy or deal with the consequences.

Tales from the Crypt: Gluten Free and Allergen Free Baking Disasters

The biggest topic that I get private e-mails about is kitchen failures when it comes to gluten-free and allergy free baking. So, now it is time to tell a whopper on myself! Today I had a baking disaster! I mean a total and complete gluten-free and allergen free baking bummer. Of course, I can think of other adjectives to use here, but I don't want to be overly melodramatic. I share this with you to bring comfort to the beginners - even those of us with 12 plus years of gluten-free and allergy-free baking experience bomb in the kitchen now and then! Even those of us who have published a celiac and allergy cookbook have failures now and then! So what was the problem? Yes, I really want to share that with you as well as the total experience! The problem today was the fat that I used to grease the mini-baking muffin tins. Say what?

Yes, in the gluten-free and allergy-free baking arena the fat that you use to grease a pan matters. Let me tell you what does not work - at least not of late - one non-dairy margarine and one non-dairy margarine substitutes (brand names excluded for legal liability reasons)! I ran out of the normal baking spray that I use to grease the mini-muffin tins, so I used some non-dairy and mostly allergen free margarine (contains some soy) and the brownie bites that I was making would not come out of the pan. Let me say, even with a knife going gently around the edge of the pan, these brownie bites could not be saved! If a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a picture to show my gluten-free and allergen-free baking disaster of the day.

 

Let's take one more look at this:

These brownie bites were literally in pieces! Now, here is the upshot - they will be eaten. How they will be used up eventually is in ice cream sundae's. Non-dairy, gluten-free, allergen-free ice cream sundae's that is. They will also be used in our "pretend" DQ™ Blizzards - the ones that we make at home with non-dairy (and gluten-free) ice cream and candy or cookies. Yes, these bits and pieces of brownies will definitely be eaten over time. For now, they have been lovingly thrown (LOL) into the deep freeze. Another use for these could be dried out a bit and crumbled for a dessert pie crust.

Going back to greasing the pans. Did anyone notice in the last few months to a year that the baking sprays have changed? I noticed the label and the ingredient change a while back, but I didn't think much of it...it seems to me that the brownie bites that we have been making for years just don't slide out of the pan like they used to. Where else does the non-dairy (allergen free) margarine substitute not work out as well? Two recipes come to mind immediately - one is frosting and the other is rice crispy treats (made with a gluten-free cereal of course). The frosting with some non-dairy margarine substitutes will be too runny for my tastes and not very creamy or soft. One of the non-dairy margarine substitutes we use makes the rice crispy treats seem stale. It is definitely the margarine substitute and not the cereal.

I hope that this will make some of the beginners feel a tad bit better. I recommend that beginners stick to a few helpful guidelines to avoid failures in the beginning:

1. Use a proven recipe (just any old recipe from the internet may or may not work)

2. Don't make any substitutions in a recipe until you have had success

3. Make sure you understand how the flour is measured (I use the method invented and supported by my friend and mentor, Bette Hagman, may she rest in peace)

4. Use an oven thermometer

5. Turn OFF Convection Bake if you are using my recipes

I hope you have many, many successes in the gluten-free and allergen-free baking area! Let me know how I can support and empower you in the kitchen!

Love,

Lisa 

 

Gluten Free and Allergen Free Dressing: Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette

One of the problems with salad dressings is that they often contain either gluten or allergens. In the allergen department the most common offenders in salad dressings are gluten, dairy, soy (soybean oil). Some dressings can contain MSG and other preservatives that some of us try to avoid. We tried a store bought salad dressing that was delightful, but it contained milk! Since my daughter has a life-threatening IgE allergy to milk, it was not something she could even try. After playing around a bit, I came up with this gluten-free and allergen free recipe for a Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette! We love it. To reduce the calories (and sugar), I used a dash of stevia, which makes it more diabetic friendly. If you don't have stevia, then you can use a little sugar to taste. 

Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette

1/2 cup pure water

1/3 cup of acceptable oil

1/2 to 3/4 cup roasted red pepper puree

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 tablespoon tomato paste

Dash of salt

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Dash of black pepper

Dash of xanthan gum

Optional: 1 tablespoon roasted red peppers, finely diced

For the roasted red pepper puree, you can either puree roasted red peppers that you buy at the store, or roast and puree your own red peppers. Blend all ingredients in a blender. This makes about 2 cups of dressing. Here is a picture of the dressing:

The black spec you can see is part of the roasted red pepper. Here is what the dressing looks like on the salad that we ate with the dressing:

It was simply delicious! And everyone in our family can eat this dressing! The irony is that my daughter didn't like it at all! O.K. this was not a big surprise since she really doesn't like red peppers! But my son who loves the roasted red pepper dressing and does not tolerate milk well is quite pleased to have this new recipe in our array of dressing recipes! Enjoy!

Love,

Lisa

Harvest Salsa

It is that time of year when the gardens are ripe with produce. I made salsa a few weeks ago, which we just loved. The recipe is easy and the perfect use for tomatos that are ripe. If you have never made homemade salsa, I highly recommend it. It is by far the best salsa I have ever had and my children agree. Here is the recipe for my Harvest Salsa along with some pictures.

 

 

 

 

Salsa Ingredients are pictured Above

 

 

Harvest Salsa 

 

Harvest Salsa

2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes

1/2 cup finely diced green pepper

1 cup diced onion

1 clove garlic, minced

2 teaspoons vinegar

3 tablespoons tomato paste

Dash of stevia OR sugar to taste

Dash of cayenne pepper or other hot peppers to taste

Salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a small to medium sized bowl. This makes about 3 cups. Enjoy!

Love,

Lisa

 

New Non-Dairy, Milk-Free, Casein-Free "Cheese" that actually Melts

We've been dairy-free ever since my middle child was an infant  - or roughly eleven and a half years now! Non-dairy cheeses have been a problem for that many years. Either the non-dairy cheese doesn't melt or it doesn't taste good or both! Another issue with non-dairy cheeses is that so many of them that stake the claim that they are "non-dairy" actually contain casein - a dairy protein. As a mother of a child with a life-threatening food allergy to milk, which includes casein - this is a real problem. I am so excited that I could just scream!! I am please to say that we found a new completely allergen-free non-dairy "cheese" that tastes great and melts! It has been very exciting around here as I have converted old family recipes that really require a cheese that melts! The cheese is made by Daiya and is listed as dairy, lactose and casein free, gluten free, soy free and cholesterol free. Here is a picture of the two types of cheeses we have found made by Daiya.

 

 

Here is the Mozzarella Style Shreds

Here are the ingredients of the Mozzarella style shreds: Filtered water, tapioca and/or arrowroot flours, non-GMO expeller pressed canola and /or non-GMO expeller pressed safflower oil, coconut oil, pea protein, salt, vegan natural flavors, inactive yeast, vegetable glycerin, xanthan gum, citric acid (for flavor). The packing further states: Made in a facility fr ee of animal products, milk, egg, soy, peanuts and tree nuts (excluding coconut).

Their website address is: www.daiyafoods.com. The "cheese" is manufactured by Daiya Foods in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The phone number to reach Daiya is 1-877-324-9211. We found an 8 ounce package (about 2 cups) cost us $4.99 retail. We are now purchasing this through our organic cooperative and we will receive significant savings on a per package basis.

We found this product, quite by accident, in the refrigerated section of our local Wegmans Natures Market about 3 weeks ago. Since that time, we have purchased many packages - before deciding it was worth ordering through the coop - and made many new and old dishes! I give this product a huge thumbs up and high approval rating! If you have any comments to share on this, by all means, I'd love to hear them! Fire up your ovens for pizza, stromboli, lasagna and all those cheesy dishes! Enjoy!

Love,

Lisa