Easy Gluten-Free Baking [Spiral-bound]

Elizabeth Barbone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2009

Over 125 gluten-free recipes that taste just like-or even better than-their wheat counterparts. Plus helpful baking tips for creating light-textured breakfast favorites, muffins and quick breads, yeast breads, cookies, cakes, and pies. This book makes living a gluten-free life simple, affordable, and delicious! NEW UPDATED EDITION.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Mmmmm...these baked goodies are DELISH!" --Rachael Ray, author; host of the Rachael Ray Show; Food Network star

About the Author

Elizabeth Barbone is the founder of GlutenFreeBaking.com and an alumna of the Culinary Institute of America. With her solid professional baking background, Barbone is known for creating gluten-free recipes that taste just like their wheat counterparts. In addition to creating recipes for GlutenFreeBaking.com, Barbone travels the country speaking to celiac groups and teaching gluten-free baking classes. She lives in Troy, NY.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 272 pages
• Publisher: Lake Isle Press; Spi edition (March 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891105418
• ISBN-13: 978-1891105418
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best gluten-free cookbook available, May 20, 2008

By 

4bears "miamill" (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Easy Gluten-Free Baking (Perfect Paperback)

If you are going to get only one gluten-free book, this is the one. Elizabeth Barbone has created wonderful recipes that taste like the old favorites that you remember before going gluten free. Before I had this book my family would always ask me to bring a gluten-free dish to family events--and I was basically the only one who ate it. Now I bring food from this book, and my family begs me to leave the leftovers with them. I recently brought the Classic Chocolate Cake (which is actually the same as the cake recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa box except gluten-free) to my mother's birthday, and my family raved. My mother went on and on about how it tasted just like her grandmother's chocolate cake--which, of course, was full of gluten.

One thing that I love about these recipes is that they come out every time. The author has tested every recipe 30-40 times before publishing. My one daughter doesn't eat dairy, so I have exchanged soy milk for regular milk in some recipes and shortening for butter, and the recipes are still fantastic. There is a wonderful recipe for sugar cookies that actually roll out and taste great. I have made these and brought them to baby showers, birthday parties, and church events, and people always say the same thing to me. The comment on how pretty the cookies are and how great they taste. Many, many people have told me that their experience with iced sugar cookies is that they look great and taste awful--not these cookies--they taste as good as they look!

Although the book is called Easy Gluten-Free Baking, there are also recipes for main dishes like meatloaf and chicken and pizza. Our family favorites from this book are: No-Bake Peanut Butter Balls, Classic Chocolate Cake, Molasses Crackle Cookies, Chocolate Pixies, Rosie's Pumpkin Bread, Applesauce Bread, Snowball Cookies, Pie Crust II, Sugar Cookies, Thin Crust Pizza, Chicken with Apple Cider and Onions, Meatloaf and Cod Cakes.

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect baking book for the gluten-intolerant, July 25, 2009

By 

B. Hoffman (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Easy Gluten-Free Baking (Spiral-bound)

I started a gluten-free diet about a month ago and, as a serious baker, was gravely concerned about my ability to reproduce all my favorite foods. I researched and purchased many books to help me with the transition. This book has been, by far, the most successful and reliable. There has not been a single failure, and several recipes have become fast favorites, competing with or even exceeding past baking favorites made with wheat. Also, the book has a helpful lay-flat spiral binding and some lovely, always appreciated pictures.

I'd say two things cause this book to stand out above the competition. First, the recipes are obviously exceptionally well tested. Second, these recipes are carefully calibrated to produce foods that very closely resemble the classic baked goods most Americans were likely familiar with before a gluten free diet. If you're craving chocolate chip cookies, pancakes, or chocolate cupcakes, this book will give you versions that, frankly, no one would guess lack wheat. The author herself is not gluten-intolerant, so she eats and compares 'regular' versions and gluten free versions. I think this perhaps gives her a leg-up in reproducing wheat based foods so exactly, without letting wishful thinking or shifting taste buds influence her judgments. There is even a chapter devoted to replicating store-bought products like twinkies, oreos and graham crackers. Although this book would be perfect for a family with celiac children, or all-american tastes, the basic recipes and techniques are so well-tested that it would be very useful to the celiac gourmet looking for help adapting the base recipes in his or her favorite creations. [The author also has a paid web site with more well-tested recipes and some product reviews. Although somewhat expensive, I have ultimately found this to be a good value given the quality of the recipes.]

The 'classic american' focus of the book is it's main virtue, because most celiacs will be craving just these kinds of foods. However, this is not the book to turn to if you are looking to make healthy, low-calorie, or 'whole-grain' type recipes, multi-component five star restaurant style desserts, or want to experiment with the newest, most unusual or health-food-store type ingredients like stevia, amaranth flour, or mesquite. Most recipes use some combination of white rice flour, cornstarch, sweet rice flour (and also xanthan gum)-- i have often substituted brown rice flour with great success, just to avoid a totally refined sugar/starch bomb (and I have found that purchasing finely ground rice flour does make a difference for products like cakes). Otherwise, most of the ingredients are pretty standard ones: butter, sugar, eggs, baking powder, cinnamon etc.. There are occasional uses of ingredients like shortening and jello (in poke cake), but not very often. Except for those who object to refined products like sugar and cornstarch, it's hard to imagine a gluten intolerant baker who wouldn't find this book extremely helpful.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book, October 25, 2007

By 

Celiac Baker "Celiac Baker" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Easy Gluten-Free Baking (Perfect Paperback)

I own at least 15 other gluten-free cookbooks and this is one of the two best. The waffles are better than the best wheat-flour ones I used to make.