What Would You Like To See In A Cookbook?

[Juliebove]

  On 5/24/2011 at 9:58 AM, freeatlast said:

How about coconut milk? I sub that all of the time in biscuits and they come out great.

Well, we don't like the taste of coconut milk. And what do you use in place of butter? I haven't found any gluten-free biscuits that are good at all. They all come out really sweet. And sweet is not what I want in a biscuit.

[Juliebove]

  On 5/25/2011 at 1:58 AM, Marilyn R said:

OMG. I cook homemade chicken vegetable soup in six minutes. It tastes like it cooked all day. I make all of my own stocks (vegetable, beef, chicken) in 10 minutes. And they're good.

You can cook a split pea soup in six minutes without soakiing the peas first. Granted, you have to chop up those onions and carrots first, and brown them.

I'd give up my oven before I gave up my pressure cooker. I use it three times a day sometimes. There are days I don't use it at all, but I'm always glad I have one r used it.

Well I don't make my own stock and my chicken and vegetable soup cooks pretty quickly. Is that all it's good for? Soup?

[freeatlast]

  On 5/25/2011 at 7:54 AM, Juliebove said:

Well, we don't like the taste of coconut milk. And what do you use in place of butter? I haven't found any gluten-free biscuits that are good at all. They all come out really sweet. And sweet is not what I want in a biscuit.

Can you use shortening? The recipe I use most often calls for 3T butter and 3T shortening, but you could probably just use the shortening for both.

They taste great and have no sugar or sweetener. I don't like sweet biscuits either.

[vegoutpittsburgh]

  On 5/23/2011 at 4:35 PM, Kelleybean said:

Re other allergens ... one of the cookbooks I have gives you the recipe, then in a sidebar tells you how to make it dairy free. I found that really helpful.

When I'm looking for cookbooks, I look for one that has at least a couple of recipes that are super fast and easy. I don't mind more complicated recipes when I have time to cook, but I like having options when things are crazy. I also agree with others that I hate it when a recipe requires another recipe - you look at the list of ingredients and one of the ingredients refers you to a recipe on another page. I pretty much always skip recipes like that. Total psychological thing b/c I suspect that frequently it's not any harder or time consuming.

This might be too specific, but I'm always looking for recipes that sneak nutrition in (carrot bread, zucchini pancakes, etc.). My son is autistic and super sensitive to food texture, so I have to get really creative sometimes.

What is the name of the cookbook that offers dairy substitutions?

[mommida]

Substituting egg really changes the recipe. It may not work at all. There are at least 20 different substitutes for eggs and it can really change the recipe from the intent too. substituting gelatin for the egg and it is no longer vegan, if that was the intent.

Gluten free egg free is really challenging for us. You lose 2 texture components.

The flour mixture is a turn off sometimes, but if your cookbook has excellent directions (side notes for subs, comments about pans and such, that shows me you know this recipe backwards and forwards I have enough trust to try it) great pictures, and finding ingredient hints for allergies beyond just gluten.

Multiple food allergies need more great recipes than gluten. A great gluten free flour blend sub like better batter makes switching to gluten free very easy when you compare that to eliminating all top 8 allergens and gluten.

[Marilyn R]

  On 5/25/2011 at 7:55 AM, Juliebove said:

Well I don't make my own stock and my chicken and vegetable soup cooks pretty quickly. Is that all it's good for? Soup?

No, a PC is great for anything that usually takes a long time to cook. I've cooked ribs, thick pork chops, roasts, artichokes, beans, chicken, lamb, curries, beef shanks, etc. in the PC. It saves so much money because you can buy inexpensive cuts of meat, buy bags of beans vs. cans for about 1/3 of the price. It saves on power and you add less to the landfill. So it's green, it's cool, and that's why I thought you might be interested in it as an idea to write something new with a gluten-free cookbook.

I do tend to cook quite a few soups because I have to pack a lunch every day, and try to rotate my food protein sources so that I don't develop more food intolerances. The PC has been worth it's weight in gold for soup cooking alone. Having stock in the freezer always makes me feel good: I know exactly what went in there and I know it was prepared by someone with clean hands because I made it myself. I worked in a canning factory once. I quit after less than three days, and I'm not a quitter.

Good luck with your venture.

[MissBonnie]

great suggestions! and yes it will be an easy cookbook, my skills and attention span are both limitted lol

[Cara in Boston]

I get tons of gluten-free cookbooks from our library and read them daily . . .

Very surprised at the number of OBVIOUS recipes that just take a regular dish and sub gluten-free ingredients. I even had one (for kids) that had instructions on how to make a grilled cheese sandwich (using gluten-free bread, of course)! Well, duh, I could have figured that out.

Helpful cookbooks have pointed me to substitutions I may not have thought of (like spaghetti squash in a recipe for a sesame noodle-like salad or Eggs Benedict on a Portobello mushroom . . . still kind of obvious, but with a bit more creativity. A good example is lasagna using sliced zucchini instead of noodles for the layers . . .

Baking ideas would be great or even just a section on naturally gluten-free desserts (puddings, custards, candy, etc.) Really, really good ones so we don't miss our old favorite cookies or cakes.

Creative lunch-box ideas for young children would be great. My son's school is nut free so I can't send a lot of the prepared gluten-free stuff. He gets tired of tortillas and things . . .

[kareng]

I think I really want the chef to pop out and cook stuff! Could you invent that?

Just tired of cooking.

[color-me-confused]

  On 5/21/2011 at 12:08 AM, MissBonnie said:

what would everyone like to see in a gluten free cookbook? im having sections like 'kids' 'christmas' 'snacks' 'dinner' etc... i create alot of my own recipes and then record them, test them over and over, and then put them in my notebook ready to go in my gluten free cookbook i will hopefully someday publish! im only 22 and i figure if im going to be trying this lifestyle out the rest of my life i might as well make a book out of it

Here's what I'd like to see...there's lots of cuisines the world over in which wheat, barley, and rye play a minor role if any. I'd love to see a collection of recipes from South America, the South Pacific, India, etc. that are tasty, don't require tons of ingredients (my main grief with Indian cooking), and not too hard to make.

a bit of googling turned up this web page: Open Original Shared Link

which I'll quote:

Latin America is rich with traditional gluten-free foods. That

[love2travel]

  On 6/3/2011 at 6:45 PM, color_me_confused said:

Here's what I'd like to see...there's lots of cuisines the world over in which wheat, barley, and rye play a minor role if any. I'd love to see a collection of recipes from South America, the South Pacific, India, etc. that are tasty, don't require tons of ingredients (my main grief with Indian cooking), and not too hard to make.

a bit of googling turned up this web page: Open Original Shared Link

which I'll quote:

Latin America is rich with traditional gluten-free foods. That

[love2travel]

  On 6/2/2011 at 10:08 PM, Cara in Boston said:

I get tons of gluten-free cookbooks from our library and read them daily . . .

Very surprised at the number of OBVIOUS recipes that just take a regular dish and sub gluten-free ingredients. I even had one (for kids) that had instructions on how to make a grilled cheese sandwich (using gluten-free bread, of course)! Well, duh, I could have figured that out.

Helpful cookbooks have pointed me to substitutions I may not have thought of (like spaghetti squash in a recipe for a sesame noodle-like salad or Eggs Benedict on a Portobello mushroom . . . still kind of obvious, but with a bit more creativity. A good example is lasagna using sliced zucchini instead of noodles for the layers . . .

Baking ideas would be great or even just a section on naturally gluten-free desserts (puddings, custards, candy, etc.) Really, really good ones so we don't miss our old favorite cookies or cakes.

Creative lunch-box ideas for young children would be great. My son's school is nut free so I can't send a lot of the prepared gluten-free stuff. He gets tired of tortillas and things . . .

Soooooo true about most recipes (aside from baking). Very simple to make the obvious changes!

I can recommend a really good baking book that contains yummy classic desserts such as:

- crepes

- popovers

- buttermilk biscuits

- madeleines

- ladyfingers (great in tiramisu)

- shortbread

- biscotti

- graham crackers

- tarts (savoury and sweet)

- pies

- cobbler

- many cakes

- cheesecake

- profiteroles (cream puffs)

- eclairs

- custard

- trifle

- souffle

- clafoutis

It is called "Blackbird Bakery Gluten Free" by Karen Morgan. Another I like is the CIA gluten-free book with doughnuts, sourdough bread, croissants and so on.

[GlutenFreeManna]

  On 6/3/2011 at 6:45 PM, color_me_confused said:

Here's what I'd like to see...there's lots of cuisines the world over in which wheat, barley, and rye play a minor role if any. I'd love to see a collection of recipes from South America, the South Pacific, India, etc. that are tasty, don't require tons of ingredients (my main grief with Indian cooking), and not too hard to make.

a bit of googling turned up this web page: Open Original Shared Link

which I'll quote:

Latin America is rich with traditional gluten-free foods. Thats because wheat and other foods containing gluten didnt even exist in the Americas, except possibly in a few small areas, until after the Europeans arrived.

Sounds good to me!

My favorite cookbook for this type of thing is Mark Bittman's "The Best Recipes in the World--more than 1000 international dishes to cook at home". It is not a gluten-free cookbook but many, many of the recipes are gluten-free or easy to make gluten-free. He makes most things pretty simple too. He wrote a cookbook called "How to Cook Everything" that is very good for beggining cooks, IMO.

[hannahp57]

what i would like to see: POPTARTS!

i'm not buying another cookbook til it contains a "poptart" recipe that actually works. i want pictures to prove it. i have been gluten free since 2005 and to this day the only two things i actually miss are poptarts and the kind of rolls that don't belong in a muffin tin. that have their own shape and have a crusty top that you can melt butter over. other than those two things, i have recipes (tried and true) that work for everything i have ever desired to make.

[GlutenFreeManna]

  On 6/5/2011 at 2:15 AM, hannahp57 said:

what i would like to see: POPTARTS!

i'm not buying another cookbook til it contains a "poptart" recipe that actually works. i want pictures to prove it. i have been gluten free since 2005 and to this day the only two things i actually miss are poptarts and the kind of rolls that don't belong in a muffin tin. that have their own shape and have a crusty top that you can melt butter over. other than those two things, i have recipes (tried and true) that work for everything i have ever desired to make.

I have seen lots of gluten-free pop tart recipes online. I have not tried them because it's not really something I miss, but maybe these will help you:

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

[hannahp57]

thank you for the links! i have blueberry spread i plan on using for the filling..

gluten free poptarts...here i come!

[MediumJimmy]

  On 5/21/2011 at 12:08 AM, MissBonnie said:

what would everyone like to see in a gluten free cookbook? im having sections like 'kids' 'christmas' 'snacks' 'dinner' etc... i create alot of my own recipes and then record them, test them over and over, and then put them in my notebook ready to go in my gluten free cookbook i will hopefully someday publish! im only 22 and i figure if im going to be trying this lifestyle out the rest of my life i might as well make a book out of it

definitely an awesome pancake recipe.

too often they have an annoying texture, i want some fluffy gluten free pancakes!