gluten tag

greetings from the frozen arctic!  okay, okay, i'm not really in the arctic, but with more than 2' of snow on the ground and snowbanks that tower above my head, it certainly feeeeels like the great snowy north. 

i suppose i should come clean right off the bat and warn you that this post is.....spelt free!  gasp!  i still think i can eat spelt (although these days i'm so confused about food that i really don't know), but i've realized that no matter what, i need more variety in my day-to-day diet.  overall, i think my diet is reasonably varied (possible wishful thinking....), but i tend to eat the same things over and over day after day until i get sick of them and move onto the next thing that i will eat over and over.  there is a theory out "there" that one way to resolve/prevent food intolerances is to adopt a rotational diet.  the general premise is that you can eat foods that you might otherwise be intolerant of if you space them out over many days.  since i don't seem to have any severe food allergies (other than to tree nuts- which i'm not even sure of anymore), it might mean that i can eat certain foods as long as i can muster up some discipline.  i'm still learning about it, so we'll see......

anyway! in the search for variety i have decided to explore some gluten-free baking.  i still love spelt (which is a good thing since i still have at least 15lbs of spelt flour.....), but eating a spelt-centric diet seems almost as bad as a wheat-centric one.  right?  time to let some other grains in on the fun!

one of my favorite blogs is gluten free girl.  even though i don't have celiac disease, i find her writing to be incredibly inspirational.  for gluten free baking she suggests a 70/30 ratio of grains to starches (see this post for more information).  following her suggestions i made my own mix using potato and arrowroot starches and brown rice and oat flours.  i don't have a kitchen scale (yet!) so i used this handy conversion chart to work out the amounts.

my mix was:

1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup arrowroot starch

1 1/4 cup brown rice flour
1 cup oat flour

which i used to make......

gluten free tollhouse cookies!  yum!  because honestly, what diet doesn't need MORE cookies?


update! (2/7)

i've been playing around with the various gluten-free flours and starches trying to come up with just the right combination of flavors and textures.  i made this same recipe using some of this mix:

2 cups king arthur ancient grains flour (which is 30% amaranth, 30% sorghum, 30% millet, 10% quinoa)

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup white rice flour (used as a starch)

1 tablespoon arrowroot starch

the texture of the cookies was good- but the taste was off....kind of grassy?  i think it might be the amaranth or the quinoa that i don't like....

anyway- i'll keep trying!

spelthouse cookies

as you may have gathered from my previous posts, i'm not a big fan of super duper whole grain foods. don't get me wrong, i like to eat (mostly) healthy foods, but i just don't think that everything needs to be made with 100% whole grains.



take chocolate chip cookies, for example. sometimes it is best not to muck around (too much)with a classic.




spelthouse cookies (very slightly adapted from the tollhouse classic)


2 1/4 cups white spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (corn-free)
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips




preheat oven to 375


beat softened butter, both sugars and the vanilla in a medium bowl until creamy.


add the eggs and beat until well incorporated.


add the spelt flour, baking soda and salt. stir to combine.


stir in the chocolate chips.


using a small scoop or spoon, portion out roughly 12 cookies per baking sheet.


bake for 8-11 minutes.


place on cooling rack until you can't stand it anymore and must have a cookie!!  (ahem)


makes roughly 60 cookies.