Eating wheat free, no it don't come easy

ahavoc

Not just gluten free, but wheat free, and for me personally any sprouted grain. That doesn't leave me much and cooking can be a challenge. I've tried corn flour and rice flours when sauteing, but rice flours have a low heat tolerance and burn quicker. Anyone tried any bean flours? Like chick pea flour and the like? Haven't been able to find a no-wheat bread that doesn't taste like cardboard even when you toast the heck out of it. How about tapioca flour? Does it work? Can you bake with it? Questions, I've got questions....

G30Grrl

I'm not just wheat free, but gluten free, which is more restrictive. No wheat, barley, or rye. It's only hard in the beginning. (and when the admin *kitten*'t brings donuts into the office)

The best flours for baking seem to be the mixed variety, in my experience. If you purchase gluten free flours, they will all be wheat free. Some are better than others. I'm rather lazy, though, so I don't do much gluten-free baking. While I substituted a lot in the beginning, that was years ago, and now I just find that I eat differently. I rarely bread or pasta, any more, and likewise with baked goods. There is plenty out there to eat without trying to mimic my previous diet.

However, I do get cravings now and then, so when I do, I have found that the best gluten free (and therefore wheat free) bread out there is Udi's. They also make muffins and other delicious treats. I like to keep a box of their frozen muffins in the freezer at work so that when people bring in treats I cannot eat, I have something to make me feel less deprived. If I'm craving pasta, I go for the quinoa (my favorite, but hard to find) or brown rice pastas, rather than corn, which don't hold up as well, especially as leftovers.

Although you don't have to be totally gluten free, I'd recommend checking out the Gluten-Free Bible, which is a wonderful cookbook and oh so much more. It has many explanations and tips for cooking and baking without wheat, and will likely help with your questions regarding the different types of flours. Good luck to you!

ahavoc

Well, I may not have any flour that is derived from sprouted grains, so no rye or barley or buckwheat or any of that stuff for me either. It's kinda like a grass allergy. And since coming here I too don't eat a lot of carbs any more, rice or otherwise. But I can eat oats! Corn chips! pop corn!

I also make two meals or maybe 1 1/2 when I cook, because my daughter and husband eat everything, so I make their pasta, or their bread, or whatever it is they want with wheat, (and butter for that matter), and then make my stuff for me. Main course / protein I keep pretty clean, so that's not an issue. I find corn and oat flour is good for dredging chicken, pork, etc. for breading and/or sauteing. Rice flour is not good for frying because it can't take high heat. Rice flour is good for thickening though.

I've seen mixes with the chick pea flour and I wonder if it's any good or what specifically it is best for. Same with soy flour. Tapioca flour is another one I've seen used a lot.

It's not that I want to bake a cake. If I do, I use regular flour and I don't get to have any. But I tried to make an apple crisp the other day, and the corn flour didn't really cut it in the topping.

MiMiShelle

I have used garbanzo bean flour for making my Rue for Gumbos and other thickening. Worked like a charm and no one in my family tasted a difference. I just found out I have wheat, rice, corn, oats, beef, chicken, eggs, dairy and olive allergies. I am trying to start a rotation diet but having trouble with it.