Gluten-Free Peach Cobbler

Warm from the oven. My gluten-free peach cobbler recipe.

Cobbler Redux

Is Mercury in retrograde? And if so, Darling, do I believe it can wreak havoc with recipes? I started out with a different approach to this peach cobbler recipe, you see. I thought I'd try out the new Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Bisquick mix I bought this week. I imagined a golden topped biscuity crust you could sink your teeth into, a melt-in-your-mouth forkful of shortcake, dripping with warm and sticky-sweet juice.

But what I got was a bone white mound of anemic dough (scarily reminiscent of Play Dough baked into what can only be described as yesterday's mashed potatoes. It didn't even try to turn golden. And it didn't melt in your mouth like a biscuit.

It just sat there on your tongue.

Flavorless.

Bored.

Expecting to be admired without effort.

Like those fame junkies who are famous for simply being famous. They haven't actually accomplished anything to garner their celebrity status. They just nurture a deeper narcissistic ambition than your average high school beauty queen. They expect adulation because they exist.

Like an awful lot of the gluten-free foods churned out by corporate entities.

They expect we'll fall to our knees with gratitude just because it sports two little words on its label. As if the virtue of being gluten-free is enough. Enough to get us to shell out almost seven hard earned dollars for two and a half cups of cheap refined starch and the privilege of convenience.

And don't get me wrong. I get the allure. I do.

I mean, you're standing there in the supermarket. It's late. You're hungry. And it's right there in front of you. Right next to the 40 acres of shiny wheat laden stuff you can't have. Ever. And those magic words: Gluten-Free! They sparkle. Someone up there in the land of corporate giants has heard of us! They validate you and your odd little disease.

We exist!

And hence, we may consume.

They are recognizing us now, Sweetpea, because we constitute a billion dollar windfall. The food industry has awakened to the perky reality TV version of celiac disease. And sure, I know. The argument is, It's all good. Any awareness is positive (even though the gluten-free diet may be in danger of losing street cred because of its faddish status with actresses who subscribe to its hyped promise of weight loss).

Can the drive for GF profit lead to better eating, though?

I'm not so sure. If the tepid taste of Betty Crocker's Bisquick is any indication, we have not come a long way, baby. Big companies use the cheapest ingredients they can to conjure stuff for the growing gluten-free demand. That means there's an awful lot of "old school gluten-free" going on (based on Bette Hagman's twenty-year old white rice flour and starch blend, perhaps?). G-free mixes and packaged foods use predominately refined white rice flour and inexpensive starches. A glut of empty calories.

Like @AutumnMakes tweeted yesterday, "...funny how it seems the big corps are years behind the everyday gluten-free bakers..."

Indeed. We humble home cooks have discovered the soft, lovely crumb of sorghum and almond flour. Gluten-free cornmeal and buckwheat. Our baking isn't dull or crumbly, dry, or without pizazz. Our flour choices reflect a preference for taste, texture and higher nutrition. And I think we're smarter than the average consumer.

So for now I'm going to continue to eschew the walk down the center food aisles (as Michael Pollan advises). I'll focus on my own gluten-free flour blends and eating whole foods daily.

And in a pinch, when some wild craving hits and I'm too tired to deal with three separate flour bags, I'll use a GF pancake mix (both small family companies who have been in our celiac corner from the beginning).

And I'll create my own cobbler topping, thank you.



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Quinoa Breakfast Bars with Blueberries

Quinoa flakes make a delicious gluten-free breakfast bar.

Blueberry Quinoa Bars

For gluten-free folks who prefer to avoid rolled oats (even certified gluten-free oats and oatmeal), I have good news. Quinoa hot cereal flakes are enough like rolled oats that I use them in all kinds of baking recipes. From classic fruit crisps and crumbles, to chewy cookies and cinnamon laced carrot raisin cake, quinoa flakes are a tasty, nutritious alternative to gluten-free oats. 

I love the nutty, complex taste quinoa flakes bring to a gluten-free recipe. 

I hope you do, too.

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FODMAPs Friendly Recipes

Gluten-Free Goddess Zucchini Bread - low FODMAPs.

FODMAPs-- What?

Time to discuss a rather- ahem- delicate matter. I am risking this flight of indelicacy on a food and recipe blog for the sake and comfort of those of you who happen to find yourselves in the same irksome boat, paddling (frustratingly!) upstream to symptom-free.

Despite going gluten-free- and six years later, dairy-free- certain individuals (that would be... moi) still endured unexplained bouts of bloating (we're talking epic, pregnant belly style bloating, Babycakes) and IBS-D (take this as a euphemism for spending untold hours reading last year's IKEA catalog perched on gleaming porcelain). Beyond annoying. All this unpredictable, stabbing pain and general, all-around unpleasantness- despite being scrupulously gluten-free and dairy-free, shunning such risk-taking activities as eating out with friends, or trying a new gluten-free product labeled "processed in a facility that also processes wheat, dairy and nut products" (this is easier than it seems- truth is, I am never really tempted, thanks to my tendency toward humbling, capricious IBS-D).

Then... I discovered The Culprit.

An unholy cluster of indigestible sugars called FODMAPs. Aka Fermentable Oligo-Di-Monosaccharides and Polyols. Yep.

Glancing down the list of foods high in FODMAPs, I saw my triggers confirmed, listed one by one in all their nemesis glory. Wheat. Lactose. Onions. Sorbitol. BEANS. (See below recipes for a basic FODMAPs list.)

Sound familiar? Ring any bells?

Not every FODMAP rich food is a trigger for everyone- we each seem to have our own FODMAP Top Ten List. (I am lucky enough to be able to handle a modest amount of avocado now, or a quarter cup of roasted broccoli, for instance. But if an onion sneaks its way into guac, or pasta sauce, or soup, I am one expanding, hurtin' unit.)

Start a food diary to help identify your triggers and keep track of your symptoms. Be vigilant with knowing your ingredients. Avoiding FODMAPs might be the missing puzzle piece. Like me, you just might find your life (and tortured gut) transformed.

I decided to gather all my gluten-free dairy-free FODMAP friendly recipes in an index- for your consideration and convenience- just in case your tummy has trouble with these sneaky little indigestible sugars, like mine. Some of these recipes may contain a trigger ingredient for you- so read recipes carefully, choose wisely, omit an ingredient, as necessary.

What is a FODMAP?

Short-chain carbohydrates such as fructose- certain fruits (apple, peaches, watermelon), agave, honey, high fructose corn syrup (aka evil HFCS)

Lactose- milk sugar

Fructans and inulin- wheat, onion, garlic, chicory, etc

Galactans- beans, lentils, legumes such as soy, etc

Polyols- alternative sweeteners sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, maltitol, and stone fruits such as avocado, apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums, etc

Read more about FODMAPs and IBS here.

Get the Stanford Hospital Print-Out on FODMAPs here.

More on short-chain carbohydrates here.

(Find my FODMAP friendly recipes on the next page.)

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Gluten-Free Peach Crisp Recipe

Fabulous and peachy. Gluten-free peach crisp with oats.

 

Peachy Goodness.

Your plucky gluten-free goddess at large has been conjuring egg-free disasters- one after another- in her tiny blue-tiled cocina. And tossing said disasters (affectionately known as drek) into the trash bin left and right, developing quite an aim despite her gloomy disposition.

She shoots- she scores!

In fact, the greenbacks spent on the alternative flours, gluten-free casein-free mixes, tiny allergen-free chocolate chips and organic bananas could have bought said Gluten-Free Goddess a lovely bottle of Lavanila Summer. The big bottle, not the purse size. 

And by the way, don't believe what they tell you about subbing eggs with bananas in a chocolate recipe, Babycakes, unless you have a taste for tacky, gummy brownies that have a faint but distinct Eau de Baby Food top note.

But in every third act... there's a moment.

You know, that pregnant pause, where our bruised but glistening heroine turns- damp and tendrilled, emotionally raw, soy-free chocolate smears artfully adorning her noble apron- and tucks an errant wisp of hair behind her left ear as she squints into the radiating oven, inhales a whiff of cinnamon-laced peachy heaven and senses deep in her fragile loyal heart she's got a winner. 

Cue music.

Darling, this summery vegan treat is so luscious your gluten-eating wiener-chomping friends will scrape their plates shiny clean and beg for more. They will. Promise.

So you may as well make two. One for them.

And one for you.

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