June 2008

Time for another gluten-free tip from Edible Options:

* This tip is particularly helpful to people who are not yet experienced in gluten-free baking.

When hankering for the taste of some of your old family-favourites but need to eat gluten-free, look for recipes that have no flour. Two examples of desserts without flour are macaroons, which I have two recipes for in my book Cookies Naturally as well as good old-fashioned rice pudding, which not only is a comfort-food but can be dressed up to look elegant enough to serve at a dinner party as in the accompanying photo. The recipe below is from No Grain No Pain.

Rice Pudding

• ½ cup uncooked rice
• 1 ½ cups milk (the recipe calls for 2 cups but the extra ½ cup isn’t necessary as you then have to cook it for so long)
• 2 eggs separated
• ½ cup sugar (1/4 would be fine if you add raisins as I always do)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• cinnamon to taste
• 1/ 2 cup raisins

Put rice and milk in top of double boiler. (have the bottom pan about ½ full of water). Cook about 45 minutes uncovered. About half way through the cooking time add the raisins. Cover and continue cooking. Beat egg yolks and sugar. Add some of the hot mixture to the egg /sugar before adding it into the egg/rice mixture. If mixture looks too soupy, reduce heat and cook until desired consistency. Cool. Top with whipped cream. Dust with cinnamon.

Enjoy!

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A Follow-Up to Last newletter’s Tip:

In addition to looking for recipes without flour, look for recipes with small amounts of flour. These recipes will allow you to substitute the flour to gluten-free without altering the taste and texture too much. One of my favourites is Canadian Lace from my book Cookies Naturally, also No Grain No Pain.

Canadian Lace (note that this recipe has no milk or eggs in it.)

• 2/3 cup maple syrup
• ¼ cup butter
• ½ cup flour (your favourite gluten-free mix)
• ¼ cup slivered almonds (or coarsely chopped pecans)
• ½ cup unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Heat syrup and butter in a small pan. Once butter is melted and blends with syrup, boil 30 seconds. Remove pan from heat and stir in remaining ingredients. If the mixture is too runny, let set a minute to thicken slightly.

Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper or a non-stick pan leaving lots of space to spread. (no more than 6-8 cookies on a small cookie sheet). Spread batter with wet tines of a fork so the cookie is thin. Bake 8 minutes. If batter is right on the cookie sheet, cool just long enough time to harden slightly. If using parchment, cookies will be a snap to lift.

Enjoy this sweet treat-even gluten-free.

Until next time

Shirley
Edible Options

*Don’t forget to check out my other books on my website.