Fortunately, with the current popularity of the gluten-free diet, there are a lot more resources than there used to be. Here are a few of my favorites:
Living Without magazine publishes an excellent print edition that is available in many natural foods co-ops and shops, as well as in some bookstores and supermarkets dealing with living and eating well with various kinds of food allergies, not just celiacs/gluten intolerance. The cover art alone gets my inner foodie all excited. Along with loads of yummy-looking recipes, their magazine usually features a travel section that talks about where to find delicious food in whatever destination they are featuring that month. In addition, they have a really informative website, and you can even sign up for their free "Gluten-Free Recipe of the Week" email list.
There are a multitude of gluten-free cookbooks available now, but not every cookbook you use has to be specifically gluten-free. There are plenty of dishes that are just naturally gluten-free, and many others which can be made gluten-free with a little simple substitution. Pasta dishes, for example, can be made with rice pasta instead of durum semolina pasta for a delicious gluten-free substitute that sacrifices nothing. With that in mind, if you don't already have a basic, all-around cookbook that is your go-to for whatever pops into your head to try making, it's very much worth getting one. My all-time favorite (and the one I give to newlyweds, college students, and pretty much anybody who finds themselves in charge of a kitchen for the first time) is the Joy of Cooking. It's a classic, and a great resource for learning to make all the basic things that people used to just know how to make, especially if you are just starting out as a cook as well as a gluten-free person. My dad gave me my first copy when I went away to college, and various editions have been my trusted source for basic cooking questions ever since.
If you want to have bread that is worth eating, skip the store-bought stuff and learn to make it yourself. Fortunately, it turns out that making gluten-free bread is not only totally different than making regular wheat bread, it's totally easier! My bible for gluten-free bread is The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread by Bette Hagman. Invest in a copy, and then take the time to read the first couple of chapters, where she talks about the different kinds of gluten-free flours, how she combined them to come up with her bread recipes, including some of the food science behind why it works that way, and how gluten-free baking is different from regular baking (for one thing, No Kneading!) The bread I have been making on an almost daily basis for the family is the basic "Bette's Four Flour Bread". Hot dog buns my husband made using one of her recipes came out fairly good as well, although we'll have to tweak the recipe a bit to get it just right. Watch for a future post on making bread, with pictures of what the dough looks like at various stages.
Most of my cookie recipes, including the sugar cookies that won the award at the Allentown fair and the really awesome snickerdoodles, came from The Gluten-Free Kitchen by Roben Ryberg.
Bob's Red Mill not only sells a wide variety of gluten-free flours, mixes, and other products, they also have a recipe finder on their site that allows you to search specifically for gluten-free recipes, so you don't have to wade through pages of baked goods you can't eat to find the recipe you're looking for.
Last but not least, Mary Jane Butters of Mary Jane's Farm has created a gluten-free version of her Budget Mix baking mix that comes with a recipe booklet full of recipes for things you might want to make with baking mix, including pie crusts, biscuits, scones, and her famous Bakeovers, which are just about the closest thing to a miracle meal that a busy, overworked mom is likely to find anywhere. Budget Mix is my favorite of the gluten-free baking mixes I have tried; we buy it in the 10 lb size because we go through it so quickly. Her site also hosts a chat forum where Farmgirls from all over the world come together to talk about anything and everything, and which has an entire section on food and cooking. In general, Farmgirls are friendly and helpful, and the chat forum is a great place to ask questions and get answers. Also, even though her magazine is not specifically gluten-free, and many of the recipes she publishes are not gluten-free, she frequently gives substitutions for making them with gluten-free ingredients. One issue had a whole section on how to make classic sweet treats like cream-filled sponge cakes (think "Twinkies" only homemade and delicious), cupcakes, chocolate sandwich cookies ("Oreos"), moon pies, and more - in gluten-free as well as regular versions. I haven't had a chance to try them yet, but when I do, I'll be sure to let you know how they turn out.
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