Wednesday, June 29, 2011

almond flour, yes!

It's truly hard to believe that another June is ending. I'm a bit embarrassed that I think of days and dates in terms of occasions, events, and meals. Yes, I'm obsessed with food. That obsession got a little easier to mesh with my annoying dietary limitations today. I started reading Elana Amsterdam's (Elana's Pantry) The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, and I have her cupcake book on my bedside table.

I love everything I've read, so far. I've seen Elana's name, read her blog, noticed others' comments, but this is the first time I actually sat down with the books. And I fell in love. Who knew? All right, a lot of you knew, but I guess I'm slow on the uptake. I've known for some time that I can't handle grains well. I had toyed with the idea of almond flour and just let it go. As any of you who are exploring gluten-free eating know, there are just SO many flours and starches and grains and gums and, and, and. It gets crazy and many of us give up. We buy ready-made if we can tolerate it, or we do without. I've been doing without. I am not a big cake, pie, bread, pastry fanatic. But you know, every-once-in-awhile it would be fun to indulge. For me, it's mostly been in my imagination because eating the wrong thing scares me beyond words. Yep, I'm a coward.

About this cowardice thing, probably the most unnerving aspect of finding my way through the food maze is eating what I think is perfectly fine only to have my body tell me in no uncertain terms that I was quite mistaken. My coworkers know the look well. The bewildered, what the hell, I did everything right---I thought, look. So I've given up virtually all grains and sweeteners, on a regular basis anyway. I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to try a bit of foods I love but no longer eat. My true fantasy is Point Reyes Blue or even Humboldt Fog with a bit of crusty bread. Gluten-free of course, I'm dreaming not crazy!

But for now, thank you Ms. Amsterdam. I have a plethora of outstanding recipes to try, and I will report back. This weekend I'm starting with lemon bars (yes!) and working my way through as many as I can. Right now for me anyway, it almost doesn't matter if the recipes work, though they look quite workable, it's a great adventure unfolding. And as always, if need be and in a pinch, the wine cabinet is stocked, and wine is gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free.....

4 comments:

  1. lemon bars with an almond flour crust are fantastic! I think I made mine from Gluten-free Goddess blog though. I'm really loving almond flour and like the idea of coconut flour too... though, so far, my results with that have not been great.

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  2. That is encouraging. I noticed Elana uses coconut flour as an addition in some of her recipes. I've had some sitting in the freezer for months unsure how to proceed. I've mentioned baking is not my focus, but lemon bars sound really good. My daughter makes them and people rave about hers, but I've never been able to taste them.

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  3. lemon bars were the first gluten-free baking I did. They came out so good, the kiddo still begs me to make more of them. It was very encouraging. Make some, you'll be happy :)

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  4. LOVE Elana's cookbook! It's one of the most loved & well-used in my kitchen! I actually make more of her savory main dishes even more than the baked goods! Love her!

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