Wheat Less Wonders

Do you know that your food is Wheat-Free ??

Not one of us missed the wheat in the gluten-free recipes in our Sweets Without Wheat feature.

Below is a rundown of the ingredients that make most recipes work Without the Wheat and the Gluten:

(1) The brown-rice flour should be extra finely ground, or the cookies and cake will be gritty and heavy instead of tender.

(2) Tapioca flour, which dissolves quickly and thoroughly, helps give the cake and cookies, in particular, a fine texture.

(3) Potato starch contributes to the delicate crumb and rich mouth feel. Both tapioca flour and potato starch are available at natural foods stores and most supermarkets.

(4) Xanthan gum, developed in an Illinois lab around 50 years ago, is the product of the fermented micro organism Xanthomonas campestris. A common thickener and stabilizer in processed foods, it compensates here for the lack of gluten.

(5) Guar gum, another commercial stabilizer, is extracted from the seeds of the Indian legume Cyamopsis tetragonolobus. It has about eight times the thickening power of cornstarch. Both gums are available at natural foods stores.

(6) Millet, a staple crop in much of the world, is used mainly for birdseed in the U.S. Our loss. Millet flour gives the pizza dough structure and flavor; it's found at natural foods stores as well.

Excerpt Fm : Jane Daniels Lear, Gourmet, November 2005

For a Mouth Watering Wheat & Gluten Free Blueberry Muffin ...