Gluten-free?

[brie]

I have a friend who recently found out she is intolerent of gluten. She is a pastry and bread freak, and wants to find good, tried-and-true recipes for breads, doughs (pizza dough, especially) and cakes/cookies that can be made with a minimal amount of gluten.

Anyone have experience in this area?

[Ruth]

spelt flour,which comes in whole wheat,and white is the flour to use.spelt is a grain and was around before wheat.is it very low ,very low in gluten.baking with it requires practice.it can be used in all phases.vita spelt is a company that makes the flour and also has a line of products,pasta(which is the best no flour pasta out there)cookies,snacks...... they have a web site
www.vitaspelt.com.
good luck

[kthull]

You can order gluten-free mixes from King Arthur Flour at http://www.bakerscatalogue.com

Just do a search for gluten-free. Don't know how good they are.

[mike]

Ive recently been on a weeks course for diet chefs & used a lot of the gluten free bread and pastry mixes.
I would give the following tips.

The bread mixes are really sticky so grease and line your tin with greasproof paper.Use cornflour to get a better texture & to knead & roll

The pastry mixes are really hard to work with as the texture resembles soft butter ! Again use cornflour to roll and improve texture.
Neither products brown like traditional flours so keep an eye on them. Use brown sugar for sweet pastry as this improves the appearance for sweet tarts

[LotusCakeStudio]

If she can tolerate spelt, you can use it measure for measure in cakes and supposedly pizza dough. I just had a request for a spelt wedding cake and the customer mailed me some organic white spelt to experiment with. On first try, it came out perfect. In fact, I thought it was superior in texture than usual. This customer said her fiance uses it to make pizza dough and I forget what else, but they seem to have no problem eating all their favorite foods.

[Mari-lyn]

And should not be considered a source of flour for people diagnosed with Celiac disease or who are gluten sensitive and wishing to eliminate gluten from there diet. The offending agent that can cause multiple health problems including damage to the villi of the small intestine, is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Wheat is of the genus species Triticum aestivum...so is spelt. Rye is not as closely related as spelt and is not considered a "safe" grain for celiacs.

Bette Hagman's book The Gluten-Free Gourmet has several flour mix recipes. Bean flours have been used very successfully and have the advantage of adding protein to the diet as well. Good luck.

There are several reliable websites for Gluten Free Information

Marilyn, RD.LD.
Jones County Area Celiac Support Group

[Luc_H]

Very informative Mari-lyn.

I guess the degree of intolerance needs to more specific before attempting to use spelt.

Luc H

[Mari-lyn]

The problem protein is the same but the reaction (and health consequences) are different. Celiac Disease is an immune response like an allergy. An intolerance, as with fructose or lactose, the response is limited to the gut because the sugar or protein is not absorbed. So, where an intolerance may result in gas, bloating, and other GI problems, Celiac disease is more systemic. People with CD may or maynot have all of these symptoms as well as fatigue, depression, skin rash. Several people in our support group were diagnosed with fibremyalgia long before CD was diagnosed. The average number of years someone lives with CD before being diagnosed is 11 years. We hope to save people the suffering and expense by getting the word out. 1 in 130 people have CD and it is genetic. Thanks for the response.