I always think of myself as a connoisseur of gluten-free flour mixes, since I never have enough time to make my own from scratch.  The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) tipped me off about 1-2-3 Gluten Free, Inc., a mother-daughter company that makes multipurpose gluten-free flour mixes as well roll, pancake, cookie, pound cake, devil’s food cake, brownie, muffin, and cornbread mixes, to name a few! In addition, all of their products are produced in a dedicated gluten-free facility, also free of wheat, dairy, casein, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and soy.  If you still had any concerns, they are certified gluten-free and Kosher Parve.

1-2-3 Gluten Free got its start when owner Kimberlee, already diagnosed with celiac disease, learned her nieces and nephews also have celiac disease.  Kimberlee felt like the sacrifice of gluten foods was not a big deal to her, but to see her family members mourn the loss of those goodies motivated her to take action.  She began creating food that was enjoyable and edible for individuals with celiac disease and their non-celiac friends alike.

I decided to test 1-2-3 Gluten Free Olivia’s Outstanding Multi-Purpose Flour Mix, which as I learned is as easy to use as saying 1, 2, 3!  Most gluten-free food has not been fortified like many of its gluten counterparts, but not so with 1-2-3 Gluten Free!  Not only does the mix contain rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch and xanthan gum, but it is also fortified with niacin (vitamin B3), reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), and folic acid (vitamin B9).  I decided to try this enticing mix in three different baking experiments to see how it tested overall.

I made buttermilk pancakes with and without blueberries, lemon squares/bars, and banana muffins.  In each testing round, I weighed the flour instead of using its equivalent cup measurements, since gluten-free flour is generally denser than gluten-containing flour and usually requires a bit less of it in baking products.  In all three cases, I had several people of the gluten-friendly world sample the products as well.The buttermilk pancakes came out beautifully, browned on the top and bottom with white fluffy edges.  They felt light in your hand and equally light in the mouth.  Somehow, the buttermilk flavor was not as strong in these, but didn’t seem to deter us from eating them.  They were of a marginally chewy consistency, different than I am used to, but not bad.  I did detect a slight aftertaste, which I would guess was due to the extra vitamins in its fortification. My daughter didn’t complain once, and devoured the whole plate before more could come off the griddle!  We even tried throwing some blueberries in, which added a burst of sweetness.  We thought the pancake batter would easily accommodate your choice of fruit or even gluten-free chocolate chips. And of course, what are pancakes without maple syrup?

Next, I made my mom’s amazing lemon square recipe that never fails.  There is a bit of flour in the lemony filling on top and the bottom layer is dough made up of lots of flour.  The end result was gorgeous.  I certainly could not tell a difference between these and the one my mom makes.  The lemony filing coated my mouth with a tangy and sweet jelly, while the crust crumbled along with it.  The taste was brilliant, but my testers and I wished the crust held together a bit better, and my mouth also had that aftertaste feeling.  Still, it makes an excellent dessert or snack at any time of day!

The final test was my banana mini-muffins to which I also added a bit of shredded carrot and squash.  The flour rose splendidly and did not deflate once the muffins were removed from the oven.  There was a light, sweet, moist taste to them.  Though the overall taste was great, that chewiness that I experienced in the pancakes, I also experienced in the muffins.  It gave them a gum-like quality that while was not bad, was not necessarily what I was expecting.

Overall, the products cooked out flawlessly and the taste was terrific.  Only the consistency wavered a bit from what I remember of the old-fashioned gluten days.  Thank you to those as 1-2-3 Gluten Free for the opportunity to test and review their product!

-Annsley

Share on Facebook

I started with a recipe I found on Betty Crocker’s official site for Gluten Free Cheese Garlic Drop Biscuits. Since I wanted the younger members of the household to be able to try them I left out the garlic powder, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. It is only a tiny bit more complicated then the standard directions for drop biscuits, so it was not very hard to make. Nor did it take very long. In less than a half hour the biscuits were done and ready to taste.

The finished product did not look exactly like traditional drop biscuits. I partially credit this to trying out a new recipe.  In addition the flour mixture, a combination of rice and potato flour, was much finer than the original. They did not taste exactly like traditional drop biscuits either. To me they tasted too much like potato. However everyone else in the house liked them. Even though I didn’t enjoy the flavor as much as everyone else, I was pleased with how fluffy and moist they were.

Since the cheesy drop biscuits had a potato after taste I was concerned the pancakes would as well. I couldn’t have been more wrong. In addition to being fluffy and moist they tasted exactly as pancakes, gluten-free or not, should taste.

Though I do not agree that Bisquick Original or Gluten-Free is the right choice for a pizza crust or maybe not even a pie crust, it is amazingly handy for early morning pancakes and dinner biscuits.  Especially when you are short on time. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the gluten-free consumer has to pay a bit more for this convenience. For a 16 oz box of Gluten-free Bisquick I paid $4.99, while the same size of Original Bisquick was only $2.29.  On the positive side, individuals diagnosed with celiac disease may be able to receive tax deductions for expenses associated with gluten-free foods in instances were the cost is higher than that of regular items.  To learn more on how this works check out Celiac Central’s Tax Deduction Guide for Gluten-Free Products.

If you would like to learn more about Betty Crocker’s Gluten-Free Bisquick as well as get great recipes and more visit www.bettycrocker.com.

Share on Facebook

GalloLea Organics began making whole wheat pizza kits, with the goal of making a great tasting pizza that was quick and easy for everyone to make and enjoy. After perfecting their whole wheat version, GalloLea Organics reformulated the flour mix in their kit to make it gluten-free.

For this review GalloLea sent me some of their kits to sample. The kit itself came in a small and simple paper bag. What they fit into that little paper bag was quite impressive. Each bag contains a pizza dough flour mix, sauce, and a piece of parchment paper.
The only ingredients required to make the dough is a half cup of warm water, and a teaspoon of oil. What ever toppings you choose to add are also up to you.

I was very impressed with how easy the pizza dough was to make. My experience with home made pizza dough always seems to be very messy and often complicated. So this is what I was expecting. But after reading the instruction, my concern turned from the mix being too messy to the dough being too dry to shape. To my happy surprise, the dough was as easy to make as promised. After adding the water and mixing the dough for approximately 75 strokes (as the instructions suggested) the dough was easy to handle and form into a ball. Pressing out from the center, the dough easily spread out on to the parchment paper. Did I mention how impressed I was yet?

After shaping the dough, we slid it onto the oven rack to par bake it. 5 minutes later the crust was starting to get a nice color, so it was time to add the included sauce. The sauce was thick and is paste based with a pleasant flavor. The package of sauce provided was very generous so whether you like your pizza with just a dash or smothered in tomato sauce you are covered. Because I wanted to make the pizza crust and sauce do the majority of the work for this review I just added some mozzarella cheese as a topping. After baking it for 8 more minutes, I had a lovely looking pizza that tasted great, and was very easy to make. I have no doubt the finished crust would have held up to a variety of toppings. Suggestions for toppings and helpful tips for cooking the pizza crust with them are included in the instructions.

Before ending this review I just want to share some information about the ingredients. All the ingredients used in this kit, including those used for the sauce, are organic and natural. The dough is made with organic brown rice and buckwheat, which gives the pizza crust a great color, texture and makes it a bit healthier for you. I was also pleased to see the addition of yeast and the absence of Xanthan Gum. I do not have anything against this ingredient. However, it does get leaned heavily upon for gluten-free foods so it was very refreshing to see a flour mix with out it.

If you would like to learn more about GalloLeo Organics Gluten-Free Pizza Kits visit www.gallolea.com.

Share on Facebook

The Chewy Granola Bars call for a variety of ingredients, making it easy to get creative! Perhaps the greatest feature of this recipe is the ability to adjust the ingredients based on individual preferences, tastes and other food allergies or intolerance.  In my case, I chose to omit the oats and nut ingredients and substituted gluten-free crispy brown rice cereal and sunflower “nut” butter.
After the chopping, grating and measuring, I quickly realized that I was going to need a bigger mixing bowl. One recommendation: use the biggest mixing bowl you have! This is ALOT of ingredients (all nutritionally dense by the way) and it’s important that all of the items be mixed together evenly. Once the mixing was finished, I spread the fusion of ingredients onto a baking sheet and stuck it in the pre-heated oven.

I’ve watched enough Food Network to know that once you can smell the food baking in the oven, it’s time to check on it. Once the wafts of cinnamon hit my nose I tested the bars out with a toothpick. However, I ended up cooking the bars for an additional 25 minutes and I definitely think they could have gone even longer. My recommendation for anyone doubling the recipe is to bake the bars for an additional 25 minutes and then keep a close eye on the cooking status to prevent burning.

The results? Delicious! The Chewy Granola Bars were flavorful, had the perfect variety of texture and kept my appetite at bay for hours. And most importantly, I didn’t feel like I was missing out on the crunch you expect of gluten-containing bars. I will definitely be using Jules Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour to bake these bars again!

Want to try them out? Get the recipe on NFCA’s Recipe of the Week blog.

Share on Facebook

Gluten-Free Customer

Kristin N. Voorhees, Program Associate for the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA)

The gluten-free phenomenon is not coming to a halt anytime soon and Eric Paraskevas, Executive Chef of Terra Restaurant in Philadelphia, is entirely aware of this dining need becoming a standard in today’s restaurants.

Another business well acquainted with the rising gluten-free marketplace is Domata Living Flour, a leader in the manufacturing and production of gluten-free all-purpose flour. Domata’s signature product, gluten-free all-purpose flour, is truly unique in that it can be used as a cup-to-cup exchange for regular, gluten-containing flour. This is undoubtedly the product’s most important characteristic since the majority of gluten-free flours on today’s market require different measurements when incorporated into recipes that call for “regular” flour.

Earlier this summer members of NFCA staff and their family had the privilege of dining at Terra Restaurant to taste Executive Chef Eric Paraskevas’ recreations of several popular menu items he prepared using Domata Living Flour. Thanks to GREAT Kitchens, an NFCA program that trains members of the restaurant industry to effectively offer patrons gluten-free options, Chef Eric knew how to safely prepare his menu items to be gluten-free using Domata’s products. We had on hand three celiacs and two gluten-eating folks to taste test the dishes. The results? Delicious!

Lamb Pizza
While gluten-free pizza has become a popular addition to several menus, many restaurants fail to offer versions beyond the traditional cheese and tomato or cheese and veggie combos. However, Chef Eric was able to offer not just one, but two original takes on the Italian classic! We enjoyed a Lamb Pizza, complete with feta, hummus, olive oil, and red onion, and a Prosciutto Pizza, topped with pear, mozzarella, red pepper pesto, and balsamic.

The best part about both the Lamb and Prosciutto Pizzas was the similarity to its gluten-containing counterpart – there was actual flour on the bottom of the crust! This characteristic is almost unheard of in the gluten-free world, and the celiac folks really enjoyed this ability of Domata’s flour. While both pizza crusts were very thin and airy, the Lamb Pizza was much crunchier.

Prosciutto Pizza
It was a challenge to choose a “winner” among the pizzas. Everyone was in agreement that the Prosciutto Pizza was super cheesy and sweet (thanks to the balsamic and red pepper pesto), but the crunchiness of the pears was missing. On the other hand, the lamb offered a unique, sweet flavor, the hummus was incredibly creamy, and the lightness of the dish provoked everyone to reach for a second slice.

We also had the good fortune of homemade, gluten-free pasta on the dinner menu. (That’s a sentence you aren’t often able to write!) Using Domata Living Flour to create the pasta, Chef Eric prepared Roast Chicken & Manchego Tagliatelle Pasta in a Harissa Cream Sauce.

Gluten-free Tagliatelle with chicken, mushrooms, peas, and cheese, in a spicy cream sauce
Although the cream sauce was on the lighter side and not very heavy, it managed to hold very well to the Tagliatelle pasta. So well in fact that the two non-celiacs at the table were the first to recognize this aspect! Both remarked that they wouldn’t have known it was gluten-free unless they had been informed. Compliments to both Chef Eric and Domata! This is indeed an attribute that all gluten-free chefs and manufacturers strive to hear.

The noodles had a thick width, but were rather thin in depth, which made them less ideal for soups and better fit for pasta dishes. With this dish, Chef Eric provided our table with a true comfort food that we were able to share family style. It was also a pretty meal to just look at, as the green peas added a nice pop of color among the chicken and Tagliatelle. The hint of spice and the creaminess of this pasta dish made the Tagliatelle a hit!

A big thanks to Domata Living Flour! Your product is proof that gluten-free pizza and pasta can be delicious too!

Interested in checking out Terra? Be sure to try their other menu items too. Whitney Ehret, Kristin Voorhees, and Chris Auman and her twin daughters, Madeline and Samantha, enjoyed these tasty dishes and dessert too!

Other menu items enjoyed included:

• Terra Salad with mixed greens, grilled red onions, cucumber, roasted beets,creamy dressing, hazelnuts
• Baby Spinach Salad with blue cheese, spiced almonds, mangos, apples, red onion, three-herb vinaigrette
• Salmon with asparagus, cauliflower, truffle vinaigrette
• Chicken Breast with honey mustard spatzle, lemongrass bisque, radish tomato salad
• Scallops with broken red pepper vinaigrette, polenta, mushroom sauté
• Pork Chop with sweet potatoes, pear salsa, fresh horseradish jus
• Crab Cakes, a menu special that evening
• Caramel and Ginger Ice Cream Sundae

Chef Eric Paraskevas

Recently I was asked to cook with Domata Living Flour, a gluten-free flour substitute designed for people living with celiac disease. The gluten-free flour is known for its cup-to-cup exchange, an attribute expected to recreate the taste and texture of “regular” foods in the gluten-free versions of dough, pasta, breads, and other similar items.  Determined to find out whether Domata Living All-Purpose Flour is as easy to use as the product reviews claim, I used the gluten-free flour to recreate two menu items I make on the regular: pizza and pasta.

The outcome? Domata works exactly as it claims. I changed nothing in my recipes and got nearly identical results to my regular, gluten-containing menu items.

I tasted the finished products and fed my staff and a table of both non-celiacs and celiacs. The celiac folks loved the dishes, and my staff didn’t notice a difference until I told them. The resounding response was: “the flavor was that of real flour.”

The people at Domata have created a superb product by taking out the guesswork and giving all cooks simplicity. If you can read a recipe then you can use Domata Living All-Purpose Flour!

It is a product that everyone should have on hand because you never know when you’re going to have the chance to make someone’s day, week or even month.

Individuals diagnosed with celiac disease that still have a memory of what “real” pizza and pasta taste like now no longer have a reason to miss out on old favorites. With this product chefs can provide dishes to those who thought certain foods were forever gone.

It has been, and continues to be, very satisfying to watch a gluten-free customer eat a dish as familiar as pizza  – it is almost impossible to overlook the nostalgia and memories that emerge.

Now, because of Domata Living Flour, we can bring back all of those memories and good feelings more often.

Share on Facebook

A while ago a box of very interesting products arrived at the NFCA’s office. The shipment contained flours and grains from Zocalo Gourmet.  Zocola is a small company that supplies gourmet cultural ingredients and foods to the U.S. In the case our shipment, Zocalo Gourmet provided Peruvian Heritage flours and grains.

Peru is home to a long list of very diverse and hardy plant life.  Among that list are highly nutritious grains, potatoes, and corns. Zocalo offers many of these healthy foods as whole or puffed grains, and as flours. Today’s review will focus on four of Zocalo Gourmets products, Kañiwa flour, Mesquite (Algarroba) Flour, Purple Corn Flour, and Sweet Potato Flour

Kañiwa (pronounced ka-nyi-wa) is very similar to quinoa.  It is packed with nutrition and is very high in protein. Zocalo offers Kañiwa as whole or puffed grain and as flour. When this mighty grain is puffed it can be served as cereal, or added to a granola mix. Whole or  toasted and ground into flour, Kañiwa’s, makes a wonderful addition to breads, muffins, cookies and more.  Because is such a potient grain it is best used when blended with other flours. The result of adding it to your mix is a product that has a more earthy flavor and texture with the additional bonus of all the nutrition Kañiwa grains contain.

Mequite Flour is made from the dried and milled pods of Algarroba trees. When included in a recipe, the MesquiteFlour imparts a sweet and slightly smoky flavor.  In recipes utilizing cinnamon, chocolate, caramel, or coffee, the Mesquite Flour enhances those flavors. This multipurpose flour can be used to add nutrition and a warm yet sweet flavor to cookies and pastries, or to spice up and sweeten protein drinks or energy bars.

Purple Corn is very similar to table corn except for its deep purple color.  The pigments that give this corn its rich dark purple are also high in antioxidants. Purple corn flour can be used in any recipe that normally calls for corn flour or corn meal. Use it to make breads, tortillas, pancakes, muffins, and cakes and those dishes will have the added benefit of amazing color and nutrition.

The sweet potato is an amazing source of fiber, vitamin A, iron, and calcium. Since Sweet Potato flour stays moist and has a smooth texture and semi sweet flavor it is a great ingredient to use  in gluten-free baking which often depends of potato flour to prevent gf baked goods from being to dry or grainy. Though this flour makes a great addition to baked goods, such as breads, cookies, muffins, pancakes and crepes, cakes, and doughnuts, it can also be used in soups, as a thickener for sauces and gravies, and in breading for fish.

In addition to being gluten-free Zocalo Gourmet’s offers these flavor and nutrition packed flours free of preservatives or additives, GMO, Trans Fat, Sugars, Nuts, Wheat, Soy, Casein, and Dairy. To find out more about these products as well as all the products Zocalo Gourmet offers visit www.zocalogourmet.com.  If  you like the idea of these products but are not exactly sure how to implement them or just want a few new ideas, visit Zocalo Gourmet’s Blog for useful recipes.

Share on Facebook