Monthly Archives: March 2010

Gluten-Free Matzoh Recipe

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Creating gluten-free food products is all about experimentation. The more you play with different flours the more you learn how they interact, how they taste, what works. It takes a lot of time and patience but it can also be a lot of fun, and when you end up with something that tastes great it’s a celebration.
I wanted to make gluten-free matzoh so I could eat matzoh during the Passover seder. I haven’t had much luck in past years with anything that tasted good to me, but this year I got it right and I’m really excited about it. I created 2 recipes that are really easy and that make a decent tasting matzoh. It’s homemade so it’s not going to look like the matzoh that comes out of the box. My family, friends and I prefer it that way anyway. These will either come out round or square, depending on if and how you roll them out or simply press them down with your hands. I tried both and frankly the pressing with my hands was super easy. The recipes made about a half the size of a regular piece of matzoh. If you press it more it will make thinner and larger, less will make it smaller and thicker.

Recipe 1:
2 ounces of potato starch flour (approximately 1/3 cup)
1 ounce of brown rice flour (4 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4-5 tablespoons of water (more or less as desired)
salt

Recipe 2
2 ounces of tapioca starch flour (approximately 1/2 cup)
1 ounce of brown rice flour (4 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4-5 tablespoons of water (more or less as desired)
salt

Measure out the flours into a bowl. Mix in the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the water. Mix with a spoon, a fork or your hands. Add in more water by tablespoon until the mixture is completely blended and moist and you can roll it into a ball. The one with tapioca starch was a little goopier and spread more easily than the one with potato starch flour.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper and put the ball of dough on it. Use a rolling pin to roll it out to the thickness or thinness you’d like (use flour as necessary to roll it out if it sticks) or simply press with your hand. Sprinkle with salt. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Less baking will yield a softer, chewier taste, more baking will yield a more brittle cracker taste.

You can buy these flours at natural food stores and natural food supermarkets. Let me know how you make out with these recipes!

How Do You Cope Without Bread and Chocolate?

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When people hear that I became allergic to many foods after a lifetime of eating them they tell me how sorry they are and how hard it must be. Often they look so sad for me. They ask me how I could cope without eating any bread or pasta or chocolate . . . and the list goes on.
About 5 years ago when I was finally diagnosed with multiple food allergies I was so so sick that I could not live a normal life and certainly was not enjoying myself. So while I was devastated at the news that I could no longer eat wheat, corn, soy, milk or nuts I was relieved to know what was wrong with me! I already knew I could no longer drink milk, eat peanuts, shellfish or chocolate as I had had major reactions to these foods over the prior 15 years. But now I was really restricted . . . or so I thought.
It took my body about a year to recover. During that time I ate a very restricted diet of protein (meats, chicken, fish), cooked veggies and fruits. After about a year as I started to feel better I began to crave cookies and went to natural food stores to satisfy my cravings. I did buy many of the cookies available at that time. Most of them are made with corn flour, soy flour and nut flours, none of which I could eat, or bean flours which did not appeal to me in a cookie. Many were very sandy in texture and others were spongey. None of them satisfied me. As a lifelong baker I started to play with recipes in an effort to develop cookies that I would actually like to eat! More on this next time.
But the moral of this story is that it is not the end of the world to become wheat and gluten-free or to have to restrict what you can eat. It may feel like it at first, but there are so many options available now. And, besides, I eat in a healthier way now than I was growing up and for many of my adult years And, my kids have learned about different foods, how to substitute one food for another and to be empathetic to others. It’s all good!

Can Dogs Be Gluten-Free?

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I think my 10 year old Great Pyrenees might have a gluten allergy. She’s been having skin problems on and off for a few years (itchy, scaly). The vets can’t figure out what’s wrong; when we use special shampoo her skin tends to get better. She also has runny eyes and recently she’s been limping and having trouble getting up. She’s still pretty active and loves, I mean loves to go on walks. She absolutely insists that we take her around the neighborhood even though she ends up limping when she gets home. Much to her dismay we stopped taking her hiking or on long walks a year ago and now we go on slower and shorter walks with her. The vets have confirmed that she has arthritis but otherwise she is very healthy. They have recommened she take glucosomine and cointrodine (?) and MSM, whatever that is. I bought her some and know it will take a while for it to take effect, if it does at all. She also has rymidal for very painful times. But I hate to overmedicate her.
It hit me the other day that perhaps she has a gluten allergy after discussing her symptoms with someone. After all gluten is known to cause inflamation and arthritis in people, so why not dogs. So I’ve begun the hunt for gluten-free dog food. First I’ve been asking everyone if they can recommend any gluten-free dog food. I went to PetCo to see what they have. They have all of the regular foods all of which have gluten. And then there’s the isles of organic and all natural dog foods. Several say that they are wheat-free, but most contain barley or rye so they are not gluten-free. One I saw, called Happy Hips, I think, has Gluten-Free in bold on the packaging and yet in the ingredients they list rye and barley. That really made me mad and I’ll probably shoot them an email. I only found one brand that was truly gluten-free. It’s by Dan Perkins, I think and I can’t remember the name. I am going to search around several stores and the internet to see what is out there and then I am going to put her on a gluten-free diet for a month to see if she improves. I’d love to hear what others have done about eliminating gluten from their pets’ diets and if they’ve seen an improvement in their pets health.