Customer Reviews

Flying Apron's Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking Book

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I love this book, and I plan on giving it as a gift to anyone interested in GF baking. This weekend I made the Pumpkin Glory Loaf with molasses and the whole house smelled absolutely divine for hours. I plan on making the cranberry apple tart with cornmeal and pine nut crust for Thanksgiving. I'll try to update this review from time to time with successes and failures, but so far this book and I are on a serious winning streak.

As context, I've been baking GF for about two years now. I have copies of Bette Hagman's two main baking books: The Gluten-free Gourmet Makes Dessert: More Than 200 Wheat-free Recipes for Cakes, Cookies, Pies and Other Sweets and The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread: More Than 200 Wheat-Free Recipes and I adore those books as well. Bette uses a lot of eggs in her recipes. I don't fault her for that. Eggs make excellent binders and bring more protein to the equation. My family is not vegan, but sometimes I do worry about the constant stream of eggs we're pouring into our systems. I had periodically tried to make GF bread without eggs (using egg replacer mostly) and I failed every time.

Enter the Flying Apron Baking book and their ever-so-clever use of pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and yams as the missing ingredient. Magic! Without cholesterol! I'm ecstatic! (I hope I'm not giving too much away here. You should still buy the book! There's so much more to it than my own little revelation of how to get moisture and a little binder into egg-free breads.)

In short, I can't wait to try every single recipe in this book. Seriously. I'll probably substitute a bit here and there, but there's a wealth of tricks and techniques in this little book.

For those of you that are skeptical about GF baking or about vegan baking, I wish I could mail you all a baked good or two from the Flying Apron here in Seattle. They would make believers out of you!

This book was almost MADE for me as I am a gluten free vegan for health reasons. I don't have celiac disease but I am slightly gluten intolerant and while it is pretty easy to eat regular food gluten free and vegan, baked goods have been the final frontier for me. Since becoming g-free and vegan, I have stayed away from sweets and baked goods even though I knew that books like The Flying Apron were out there. After trying brown rice flour bread from the store (it's TERRIBLE and is most useful as a perishable paper weight) I was very skeptical of g-free baked goods.
But I have amazing friends who know of my odd eating habits and one of them got me this book for Christmas. I couldn't wait to try it out! I made the Thumbprint Apricot cookies and they are SOOOOOO good. I brought them to the office and they were devoured in minutes and people have been coming to my office all morning to tell me how much they liked them.
All of her recipes call for using a stand mixer. I don't have one (booo!!!!!!! I want one!) but using a hand mixer worked perfectly fine.
When you make any of the dough (almost all of her recipes have the same dough) don't be scared!! It doesn't look like dough because what makes other dough look like dough is gluten. Bonus: no dangers of over mixing!! Don't taste the raw dough like I did because you'll be even more scared. The raw dough tastes awful. But baking is magical and when the dough bakes up all of your fears will go away. Such deliciousness! A tender, chewy, flavorful cookie.
Highly recommend this book to any baker - not just g-free vegans. These recipes are delicious and therefore will make anyone happy - even those who love butter, milk, eggs, and all purpose flour!!

I have enjoyed Flying Apron Bakery's cupcakes with my children for years. The cookbook includes all of our favorite recipes, most notably, the cake and frosting recipes used for cupcakes! I will be making these regularly! It is a pleasure to have a cookbook that uses such healthful ingredients. Thank you!

So far, I have made the pumpkin pie (with brown rice crust) two times, both times a big hit. If you're not used to Flying Apron pastry, it is quite different from regular wheat-based pie dough. The texture is very crumbly, like a crumbly shortbread, and very grainy compared to conventional pastry. However, it is delicious. I was not enthralled at first taste, but I love it and so do my kids. This last time I made the pie crust, I had extra and made a little apple tart out of it (topped a circle of dough with chopped apple tossed with maple syrup and honey, and then topped that with another circle of dough which I crimped and baked along with the pumpking pie). The apple tart came out great, and I'm definitely going to be making this very easy crust to put together my own impromptu tarts for breakfast or desserts.

Tonight I made the dark chocolate cake as cupcakes and the german maple frosting. Tomorrow, I'll be serving these german chocolate cupcakes for my nephew's birthday. Beautiful!

One confession: I have a sweet tooth and have added extra sugar to both the pumpkin pie and to cupcakes. If things aren't sweet enough for you, this is an easy change to make to any recipe.

I am grateful for a commercial baker like Flying Apron who cares so much about customers that she is willing to publish her recipes. Thanks again!!

I have been a fan of the FAB since that little window opened up in the U-district years ago. I still have yet to buy something there that I didn't love. I was so thrilled about the cookbook coming out I bought it immediately. Especially when I saw it had what I thought was the coveted recipe for the buckwheat seed bread. I would actually prefer to just buy it but since they moved to Fremont it is not that convenient for me.

Well those of you who are fans of this bread should know, the recipe in this book is NOT the recipe for the bread you purchase in the bakery. I am quite sure the house recipe uses a starter. The recipe in the book uses baking soda and powder which creates an inferior product if you ask me. Perhaps she thought that the starter recipe would be too complicated for most of us, or she didn't want to give the secret away which is understandable. However I can't help that I still feel a bit cheated.

So back to the bread, I can taste the baking powder and soda, and if you think the original is tough to cut w/o crumbling the product from the given recipe is impossible. Overall the flavor is okay though, in fact my boyfriend liked it better than the original. Another note in this bread, the recipe is not too specific about the size loaf pan to use, it only gives two dimensions so I assume she meant LxW. Well I only had one slightly shorter but almost 5 inches wide. When filling my pan 3/4 full as instructed I had loads more batter, in fact made another loaf and still threw away some leftover (and expensive batter). I think it could have been more than 3/4 full, it did raise but it did not come anywhere near overflowing.

The cinnamon scones were delicious and very much like the ones I purchased at the bakery. I did however make a small adjustment to this recipe. I only used 3/4 the oil. Even still, they are 575 calories each (yes I did the math)! So as far as "focus on health" I beg to differ. Of couse using whole grains is wonderfull but the majority of Americans are overweight or obese and that is 1/3 the daily calorie needs of the average near normal weight female so don't eat too many of these unless you are training for a marathon.

I hope review is helpful to someone. Eventually I will try all the recipes and modify them as needed to my preference. If I ever get the time I am going to try and figure out how to make the buckwheat seed bread with a starter. I will update my review as I go.

I had high hopes for this book- hopes that were quickly dashed upon BAKING, and tasting, my first recipe: "Dark Chocolate Cake."

I've reviewed quite a few gluten-free cookbooks, and I've been in the food industry for almost 20 years. Why can I, on a few glances, see the flaws in a recipe like this, before I've even made it, but the author couldn't and yet the book made it to print?

This recipe was bad enough to keep me from making any of the other recipes and quickly returning it to the library with no intention to buy. I hoped I was wrong, but everything bad I suspected (and saw) in the recipe ended up being true. The end result being a totally crumbly, cloying-taste cake (where it sticks to your gums and teeth) which is not sweet enough and tastes strongly of baking soda.
A deep deep fail, and again, I do not understand *how* this recipe made it this far.
I *do* recommend these books: The Gluten-free Guide to Vegetarian Recipes The Wheat-Free Cook: Gluten-Free Recipes for Everyone
as well as many other if you look at my review page.

breakdown follows...

1 tablespoon of baking soda. Really? Anyone with *any* experience baking knows you do not go above 1 teaspoon without risking serious baking soda flavor. The result: huge baking soda flavor in the final product.
1 1/3 cups cocoa powder- it's a lot, and I won't say it's too much cocoa flavor in the cake (it is dark yes, but nice, in a way), but folks, cocoa is BITTER.... the amount of sweetener does not offset it, the result being a cake that lacks sweetness.
Water not milk (soy, rice, almond, coconut, etc.)- not the biggest mistake, but no flavor is added.
The biggest flaw- and again, one I noticed, but hoped I was wrong- there is NO BINDER.
I'm sorry folks, but if you are not using a flour with gluten (which binds), you need to add *something* which binds. Eggs work. They are also an allergen, so if you're not using them, you NEED to add either applesauce, flax, tapioca or arrowroot or corn starch, mashed banana, xanthan gum, ANYTHING.... but if you simply bake gluten free flour, water, and some flavorants you end up with a cake that crumbles to little bits and does not hold together.

My son can't have gluten/wheat/soy/corn/egg/etc. We tried the thumb print cookies with a prune filling and was delicious!! This was the first gluten free cookie that tasted good and didn't fall apart(as long as you cook full length of time)

I was looking for GF and eggless, natural cooking. This is it. The Indian Pocket is awesome. I've tried many recipes, all good. Not a lot of strange ingred, just normal GF flours and ingred in your pantry. More for adult palate.

I was excited to get this book since it had great reviews. I'm debating about sending it back.

I'm horrified that most of the desert recipes call for at least ONE cup of oil. This is not even considering the frosting recipes. One cookie recipe calls for 2 cups. I checked to see how many cookies it made thinking it was going to be dozens and it's ONLY 18 cookies.

I made one of the recipes and reduced the oil down to 1/2 a cup with the same results for anyone else that's concerned about going through gallons of oil while attempting to make most of these recipes. I took 2 stars away because while I expect to have to adjust recipes here and there I shouldn't have to do it to half the book.

The pictures are pretty though.

It seems almost impossible to find vegan baking/ dessert cookbooks that do not use soy products. I am very grateful for these recipes and delectable photos. Being new to gluten free eating, I desired the chewy texture of gluten which is missing from these recipes. The chef uses mainly whole and minimal processed foods such as brown rice flour and demerara sugar. The recipe quantites are party size which isn't convenient for small families. However the base ingredients will allow you to explore your many options and create your own delectable treats.

I have been vegan and gluten free for many years now and have literally dreamed of the delectables that this cookbook treasure offers. I can't say that I have a "favorite" because each one is a true gift and incredibly mouthwatering. I have prepared these delicious items for several of my non-vegan friends and family members and they are the first to say that these creations are not to be missed.
Not only are they scrumtious, but they are a visual delight to your dining table.
This author makes these recipes quite user friendly and you can feel the love and joy that she brings to each offering.
I am grateful to this author for creating this healthy and tasty masterpiece.She is our pastry and main dish "Guru"!!
Much Gratitude.