Baking And Cooking

[lasal]

I've noticed that many gluten-free recipes say to use aluminum foil to line a pan, or to use foil on top of bread when baking. Why is this and can something else be used instead?

My daughter has celiac (as do I), but there is also early onset Alzheimer's in her blood line, and I want to avoid aluminum whenever possible because of that. Does anyone have any ideas?

thanks, lasal

[RiceGuy]

Well, I do not recall seeing any gluten-free recipe suggest aluminum foil to line the pan. Covering a bread pan with a foil "tent" is a common suggestion, but in this case, the foil isn't supposed to contact the food at all. It's only to help the dough retain moisture longer, AFAIK. I use this technique, and I can also reuse the same piece of foil several times, because it doesn't touch the food. If you have an oven-safe glass cover for your bread pan, that'd probably work, I think.

Aluminum isn't something I want to ingest either, so I never use anything made of aluminum where it would be in contact with the food. I don't use teflon or silicon coated stuff either. I prefer glass baking dishes.

As for Alzheimer's, I suspect the family history is because of Celiac. Since you've got that under control, I would think you can rest easier, knowing that your daughter's long-term health prospects are probably a lot brighter than they'd be otherwise.

[samcarter]

To line pans, I would use parchment paper instead. It makes cakes and loaves slide out easily. It's just paper with a coating of silicone, easy to cut.