Mother’s Day: Gluten-Free Flour Power

Alexander Talbot and Aki Kamozawa

Got gluten-free folks coming for Mother’s Day and you don’t know how to make a gluten-free meal?

Relax.

Don’t think of gluten-free cooking as restrictive-think of it as changing your perspective. Creativity loves working within new parameters, and this is an opportunity to think outside the box when it comes to recipes that you may have been using for years….Gluten-free cooking is easier than you may think. (p. 5)

It turns out all you need is Aki Kamozawa and Alexander Talbot‘s Gluten-Free Flour Power (Norton 2015) and you’ll feel like a Super Hero on Mother’s Day.

Gluten-Free Flour Power by Aki Kamozawa and Alexander TalbotDon’t dive into the recipes before you have read and prepared some of the staple ingredients. You don’t have to work with all the different flours, but you might want to start with familiarizing yourself with many of them. The book includes three very helpful flour mixes that can make switching to gluten-free much easier. What IiF Flour 3.0 (p. 29) is a gram-for-gram equivalent for all-purpose flour with xanthan gum. Batch-3 Flour (p. 30) is an equivalent of whole-wheat flour with guar gum, and finally Aki’s Low-Allergy Blend (p. 31) has no xanthan gum, guar gum, dairy, or soy. It has six ingredients, including tapioca starch, sorghum flour, and golden flaxseed meal that make for “slightly chewier” baked goods.

The recipes range from breakfast to flatbreads to layer cakes and pies. If Mother’s Day starts with breakfast in bed, what about Blueberry Streusel Muffins (p. 35) with one of the gluten-free blended flours, oats, and a buttery streusel topping? If everyone is meeting at the breakfast table, then Peach Breakfast Cake (p. 43) will feed a crowd. “We like to serve slices of this breakfast cake with lightly sweetened yogurt and granola.”

For lunch, serve the crowd homemade pizza with Pizza Dough (p. 113) that’s best with Masa Harina Puree (p. 13) and topped with whatever you like that doesn’t have gluten. The book also has recipes for homemade pasta and even Asian Dumplings (p. 152) filled with pork, and served with a dipping sauce. They might take some time, but you can make a huge batch for a large crowd wishing Mom a Happy Mother’s Day.

For dessert? A Strawberries-and-Cream Cake (p. 257) with early strawberries or a classic Carrot Cake (p. 261) with candied walnuts, ginger, and citrus. But you will be tempted to make the Triple-Chocolate Cake (p. 247) on the cover of Gluten-Free Flour Power? The authors promise that this is the chocolate cake for serious chocolate lovers. It’s a tall four-layer job with thick, rich frosting and bourbon soaked chocolate cake. It is sure to warm the heart of any gluten-oholic and make them give gluten-free a try.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *