Baking without Limits: Dietary Restrictions

Hello everyone and welcome back! Today we will be talking about baking with dietary restrictions specifically gluten free baking.

I chose to focus on Gluten Free baking because my roommate, Sophia, who I currently live with is gluten free and I was able to talk to her about it.

Sophia is on the left

So what is gluten and what does "gluten free" mean?

Gluten is a structural protein naturally found in certain cereal grains. Although "gluten" often only refers to wheat proteins, in medical literature it refers to the combination of prolamin and glutelin proteins naturally occurring in all grains that have been proven capable of triggering celiac disease. These include any species of wheat (such as common wheat, durum, spelt, khorasan, emmer and einkorn), barley, rye and some oat cultivars, as well as any cross hybrids of these grains (such as triticale).

Being gluten free means that you exclude any foods that contain gluten. It means eating only whole foods that don't contain gluten, such as fruits, vegetables, meat and eggs, as well as processed gluten-free foods like gluten-free bread or pasta.

Sophia also has Celiac Disease which is a digestive and immune disorder. This disease is caused by eating foods that contain gluten.

To better understand what a gluten free diet is, here is a short informational video!

Being gluten free is very common, nowadays you will see many items that have the gluten free logo on them which looks like this:

There are many desserts and baked goods that are made without gluten ingredients. You can pretty much make any dessert without having to add gluten to it. Here are some common brands that have gluten free dessert:

I asked Sophia a couple of questions about being gluten free and one of these questions was "What is the hardest part about being gluten free and having Celiac Disease?" She responded with this answer:

"I would say the hardest part is finding places to eat, or when people make food and I have to tell them I can't eat it. With finding places to eat, if I've never been there I'll look at the menu before going and see if they have anything gluten free. When I have to tell people I can' eat the food they made, they often get defensive and ask me why but I just tell them that I have Celiac Disease and then they understand."

"What would you tell people who are new to baking gluten free desserts?"

"I would tell, if they are baking for a group of people, I would just ask the group if they have any allergies or restrictions and to just go off of that."

I also asked Sophia what her favorite dessert or baked good is and she said she "loves a really good warm chocolate chip cookie."

Here is a recipe for a good gluten free chocolate chip cookie!!

Thats all for this week's blog post I hope you all enjoyed it and got to know a little bit more about gluten free baking!! Stay tuned for next week, we will be talking about how to layer a cake!!