Gluten-Free 101: The Essential Beginner's Guide to Easy Gluten-Free Cooking

by Carol Fenster

It can be upsetting and overwhelming to learn that you can’t eat gluten, or that you need to cook for someone who can’t.  Gluten-Free 101 is the guide to help make the transition a simple and positive change. It explains how to select and work with the best g-free foods from a now extensive (and sometimes confusing) product shelf, how to continue eating healthfully, and how to master basic gluten-free cooking techniques, such as cooking g-free pasta and rolling g-free dough. There are 175 simple recipes for everyday favorites like pancakes, pizza, fried chicken, sandwich bread, and cupcakes, with more than twenty-five beautiful recipe photos. Going gluten-free can be fun and delicious!

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Reference, Food, Health, Cooking

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

CAROL FENSTER is the author of ten gluten-free cookbooks including 100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes, and the award-winning 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes. She is the former associate food editor at Living Without magazine, and her work has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Gluten-Free Living, and elsewhere.

Reviews

[Mary Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Look, baking with Gluten Free options is "bloody difficult". I find it interesting that the previous reviewer is punking this book, perhaps without bothering to read any of the other books on "gluten free" options to know that NO ONE has created a book that doesn't include their own idea of a grain substitute mix.

Personally I like this book. She has some holes in it, for certain: no psyllium information, very little guiding when it comes to the vinegar/bread solution, and if you aren't using a bread machine,you will need alternative books. BUT NO ONE has made a Gluten Free Bible that includes all the 'why's and wherefores' with gluten free baking especially when you need it dairy free and predominantly low sugar as well.

She does her best. It was written originally in 2003 when there were NO BOOKS on the subject, so I commend her on how far this book goes to explain grains and flours that few even bother to include. So, let's not get down on an author who uses her own combined flours and at least does her best to include a whole spectrum of "flours" and "meal" use that can make or break your life when you HAVE to be gluten free. Because it is that challenging, STILL.

[Punk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Requires a flour mix but is flexible about it. Carol's blend is sorghum flour or brown rice flour, potato starch or cornstarch, and tapioca flour; so pretty heavy on the starch, and usually paired with xanthan gum in the recipes. Fenster does walk you through the process of creating your own flour blend and provides a helpful table showing the suggested ratio of protein to starch. She also discusses the way she alters this blend for different recipes, like adding bran for protein or extra starch for fluff, but none of those alterations are actually present in her recipes. They just call for a cup of flour mix and damn whatever happens to your crumb. While I appreciate that flexibility, I use cookbooks to take the guesswork out of gluten-free baking, and I hate authors knowing how to improve a recipe and not telling me.

The fifty page introduction covers a lot of ground, including substitutes for dairy and eggs, and lots of tips on how to make bread, both by hand and with a bread machine. Recipes are sweet and savory, and each one has nutritional facts, cook and prep time, and yield, but no storage advice, and very few pictures.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've tried a couple of recipes so far and they worked well. I've copied a lot of recipes so I can return the book to the library.

The instructions are well written and there are pictures showing many dishes.

I will get back when I have more to say about her recipes.