[Fwd: Wheat free baking]

One thing we've learned about going wheat free. It may be best to
simply stop eating anything that is supposed to have wheat in it for a
while

before you start to explore wheat free baked goods. We have found that
the things we tried early on that were completely unacceptable are a

great deal tastier after not having baked goods for a while.
Interestingly, I now find that wheat tastes bad to me. (I have cheated
on occasion

over the weeks since I went mostly wheat free - but the foods I have
eaten haven't tasted good like they used to and the pain in all my joints

when i do eat wheat has been a pretty good incentive to find
alternatives instead.)

One thing that is becoming evident is that Rod is going to be on a
pretty restricted diet for a while. He has now identified soy and milk as

additional sensitivities ... and who knows what else his body will
reject as he gets the big sensitivities under control... (No soy rules
out a lot of

the replacement foods on the market ... we thought we might have found a
cracker replacement when valeries suggest Mary's Gone Crackers.

Sadly, Rod has a reaction to them.)

One lesson I am taking away from this: eat a huge variety of foods, and
don't repeat any one food too often, lest you become sensitive to it. It's

a good theory, but hard to pull off. We can add lots of new foods to
our diet, but it's still hard to get away from the concept of "staple
foods". I

am considering the idea of putting us on a food rotation protocol to
help us develop new habits. The last thing we need is to develop a
sensitivity

to almonds, coconut and eggs! Of course, since I am rarel;y the cook
during the week, it's a bit of a hard seel to the head chef. ;)

Oh, and a number of friends have speculated that Rod and I became
sensitive to wheat because we used to grind our own. I discussed that with

our doctor and he thinks that extremely unlikely. He suspects it has a
lot more to do with how ubiquitous wheat has become in modern life (it's

not like a wheat sensitivity is rare these days, after all) combined
with a genetic predisposition to wheat sensitivity. It seems likely
that the

refined and GM wheats we ate over the years would have played a much
larger role in our troubles.

Oh, and do any of my foodie friends know...is tapioca a whole food? A
google search hasn't really turned up anything definitive though my first

thought is, probably not. (It seems pretty refined.)

Here are some recipes we've adapted from a book by Natasha Mc-Bride that
we're pretty happy with. Her GAPS protocol was originally

developed as a treatment for autism, but her recipes are based on the
foods we want to eat. (No soy, wheat, or refined additives) We find that

they're a little bland for our tastes, but that's easy enough to fix.

Pancakes

4 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil or butter (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups almond flour (can also use walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts or any
combination)
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cups coconut flour
water to thin

1. Whip the eggs up until fluffy.
2. Add the coconut oil and vanilla.
3. Fold in the flours

4. Allow to stand for at least 20 minutes (up to 24 hours).

5. Whisk in enough water (or milk, or coconut milk) to make a pancake
batter consistency

6. Fry up 1/4 cup at a time in butter or coconut oil over low heat

Note: These "pancakes" taste good and make an excellent 'flat carrier
for syrup". I recommend trying them after you haven't had "real"

pancakes for a while, though. They don't behave like wheat pancakes in
that they break easily and can't be folded and they don't really taste

much like wheat pancakes. A comparison with a fresh memory may be
pretty disappointing, but when you can taste them for what they are,

they're quite good.

Cake

6 eggs
1/2 cup of honey
1/3 cup of coconut oil or butter
2 cups of winter squash puree (we like butternut or pumpkin, but any
sweet orange fleshed squash is yummy)
2 1/2 cups of almond flour (can also use walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts
or any combination)
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cups coconut flour
1 teaspoon on vanilla, or 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and
1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger

Optional: fresh or frozen berries, apples, peaches, dried fruit, or pinapple

Preheat the oven to 300F
1. Whip the eggs until fluffy
2. Warm the honey and butter together until they're very soft
3. Add the butter and honey to the squash.
4. Fold the squash into the eggs

Optional: spead the fruit evenly across the bottom of the buttered
baking dish or cake pan

5. Spread the batter eveninly into the buttered baking dish or cake pan
(on top of the fruit, if you added it)
6. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until it pulls away from the pan slightly.

--
Misti Anslin Delaney-Smith
misti@delaney-smith.net

You're welcome to visit us at Chez Smiffy
http://chezsmiffy.blogspot.com/