The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook [Paperback]

Elana Amsterdam (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 28, 2009

The prevalence of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity among millions of adults and children has created the need for gluten-free recipes that are as nutritious and tasty as their traditional counterparts. Popular food blogger Elana Amsterdam offers ninety-nine family-friendly classics--from Pancakes to Eggplant Parmesan to Chocolate Cake--that feature her gluten-free ingredient of choice, almond flour. Because these recipes are low glycemic, low in cholesterol and dairy, and high in protein and fiber, they are also ideal for people with diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol.

So whether you’re looking for a quick breakfast treat, a comfort food entrée, or a showstopping dessert, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook proves that gluten-free cooking can mean healthy eating for everyone.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Outstanding gluten-free goodies... this lovely cookbook, full of enticing photos, has my mouth watering.”
—DeliciousLiving Magazine: Blog
 
“The need is huge for cookbooks for celiacs on limited diets. They will welcome The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook when it arrives.”
—Providence Journal
 
“Flour Girl: Gluten-Free Almond Joy”
—Washington Post

“Amsterdam’s recipes will carry you through the day, with pancakes for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and quiche for dinner. She takes classic recipes...and adapts them to almond flour, creating plenty of meal options.”
—Cookbook Digest

"We all need to pay attention to the food we eat, all of the time. For people with celiac disease, this is normally an even greater challenge--but not for Elana! Her healthful and flavorful recipes taste as good as they are good for you. Made with almond flour and high in protein and fiber, these dishes are sure to even please the gluten eaters in your family!" 
—Alice Bast, President and Founder of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA)

“For many people, normal food becomes off-limits when they find they have an allergy or condition, such as celiac disease. To wrestle new limitations into foods that are every bit as delicious and appealing (if not more so) is a coup to be celebrated. Having tried the chocolate chip cookies, I speak from experience when I say there is nothing lacking in these recipes. They are truly wholesome and delicious!”
—DEBORAH MADISON, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

“Elana has a tremendous gift for creating classic recipes using healthy ingredients. Her high-protein, gluten-free treats are incredibly tasty! I highly recommend this book if you are looking for good food that is also good for you.”
—DR. ROBERT ROUNTREE, Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child

“Local hero Elana Amsterdam (straight out of Boulder) offers dozens of wheatless recipes from chicken parmesan to chocolate cake, all of which call for gluten-free almond flour. Enough of the recipes will appeal to gluten-eaters to make this collection a great go-to resource for blended families and/or hosts cooking for gluten-intolerant guests. Readers with a sweet tooth are especially well-served here, but savory recipes like salmon burgers round out the roster.”
—The Denver Post, “Causing a STIR: Best Cookbooks of 2009”

“In her Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, the ingenious celiac Elana Amsterdam offers another possible approach, a sandwich bread made from finely milled almond flour (do not use Bob's Red Mill brand) and almond butter that is nutty and versatile. Amsterdam's recipes are refreshingly simple, as the almond flour reduces the need for the expensive and obscure mix of flours other gluten-free recipes require.... But the ground nut has other virtues, including high amounts of protein and vitamins and low glycemic impact. Amsterdam employs it in a range of dishes, from shortbread cookies and carrot cake to a savory tart with kale. Her snappy herbed crackers, which are a welcome change from commercial nut-thins and dry rice crisps, are equally easy to make and delicious.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Gluten-Free But Still Tasty”

From the Publisher

* A full-color collection of 99 no-gluten, lightly sweetened, quick-and-healthy recipes made with almond flour.
* Almonds are today's superfood: high-protein, low-glycemic, low-cholesterol, and full of fiber and antioxidants.
* Author's website on gluten-free cooking receives 50,000 hits per month.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Celestial Arts; 1 Original edition (July 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158761345X
• ISBN-13: 978-1587613456
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.4 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (340 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Nutrition > Food Allergies
  • #10 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Diet > Allergies
  • #12 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diets & Weight Loss > Low Fat

More About the Author

Wellness expert and gluten-free guru Elana Amsterdam is the founder of elanaspantry.com, a website where she shares simple, healthy recipes and lifestyle advice with her readers. She has written articles for Parents, Shape Magazine, The Denver Post, and Delicious Living and has been featured in a variety of media outlets including Fortune Magazine, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on CNN and MSNBC.

Her first book, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, published by Random House in 2009, was named one of the "Best Cookbooks of 2009" by The Denver Post. Gluten Free Cupcakes (Random House 2011), is full of spectacularly delightful, yet healthy and nutrient dense desserts.

Her forthcoming book, Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry, a gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, nightshade-free collection of quick and easy recipes ranging from dinners to desserts, will be released in June 2013. Elana lives in the heart of Boulder, Colorado with an assortment of grueling taste testers that range from her brutally honest husband of 18 years to her two teenage sons.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

207 of 209 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a great resource for alternative baking March 12, 2010

By B. Hoffman

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm giving this book 5 stars even though I have had some issues with it, because the author has created a great resource for alternative baking. Many people avoid starchy flours because of allergies, special diets, or a combination, and Elana has done a great job experimenting with the use of almond flour in a very wide range of baked goods. There is no other resource for almond flour baking that remotely approaches the breadth of this cookbook. You really can make everything from chocolate chip cookies to chocolate cake to pie dough with almond flour. I'm incredibly grateful to the author for trailblazing into this new frontier. The recipes do have various notable peculiarities (see below), and of course different readers, especially in the context of the specialized diets to whom almond flour baking will appeal (including scd, paleo, low carb, celiacs) will have different tastes, needs, and restrictions. However, I have found the recipes to be very adaptable where my tastes or needs diverged from the author's.

Potential buyers should know that this book is not only geared towards grain-avoiding and celiac diets, but also aims for a 'healthy' approach to baking, in the name of which it largely avoids butter and refined sugars. In addition to the titular substitution of almond flour for wheat flour, there is a relatively single-minded substitution of grapeseed oil for butter/shortening and agave nectar for white sugar. While I don't have any general problems with agave or grapeseed oil, unlike some readers, I'm not satisfied with these ingredients in all cases.... In particular, I generally prefer the flavor and mouthfeel of butter over grapeseed oil, and I find agave nectar imparts an unwelcome sticky, flaccid texture to baked goods like cookies and biscuits, especially over time (I like it just fine in cakes and muffins). Still, I've had fantastic luck substituting 'back' butter and sugar where i want them, although when agave is removed, one sometimes needs to add more recipe- appropriate liquid (e.g., milk or egg) to compensate. These recipes are highly adaptable, which makes the book that much more user-friendly.

I'd say that this is also a baking book aimed more towards cooks than bakers. The recipes are pretty quick and dirty- dump and stir affairs. There aren't a lot of fiddly steps, using 7 different bowls to mix subrecipes, or explanations of techniques and experimentation a la cooks illustrated. I'm sure that aspect wins the book lots of fans among busy parents and those who don't enjoy the craft of cooking, but as someone more in the love-to-bake camp, I would have appreciated more attention to detail, use of various baking techniques that lead to a better texture in final products and experimentation with the kinds of fillips that separate the pedestrian recipe from the sublime. For example, in some of the cake and muffin recipes, I find the recipes substantially improve if one takes the time to beat sugar (or agave) and eggs to a ribbon, or beat egg whites separately and fold them in. I also wish the ingredients were given in weight (at least somewhere in the beginning)-- I had a number of failures until I realized the author packs her almond flour. Some of the baking times and such have also been off-- these kinds of details really matter for baking, and hard core bakers will be frustrated at the lack of precision.

As I've said, even though this isn't the perfect cookbook for my particular needs, it is a wonderful starting place for my gluten free and grain free baking experiments. (There is also a savory chapter, but I haven't really used it.) Some particular favorites are the crackers (all fantastic), chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cherry cookies, and pecan shortbreads (all of which I strongly prefer with creamed butter and sugar, though.) Although the cookbook is pretty small, I've still only cooked a small portion of the recipes (the author's website provides a lot of additional inspiration as well). I'm looking forward to baking through more of the recipes, adapting and changing as I wish. Read more ›

147 of 152 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars recommended with reservations February 25, 2010

By Tiffany

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you are simply looking for GF recipes, there are better books out there. I made a few of the sweet items along side other similar GF recipes using Pamela's mix (biscotti for example) and found I preferred the items made with Pamela's mix for flavor and texture. The almond flour items weren't bad, it's just that the things I made with Pamela's tasted more like traditional nonGF food. If carb consumption is your main concern, then this may be more suited to your tastes.

I also tried several savory recipes. I have been searching for a savory GF pie crust that won't impart that sweetish aftertaste to my favorite quiche recipes. While I am not completely satisfied with this recipe, it's the best GF savory pie crust to date. Also, the pizza crust, again not the best taste/texture but it is really handy to throw together in just a couple of minutes and it is way better than any frozen crust I've had. It's also very filling. Finally, I tried the eggplant parmesan and it is the best eggplant parmesan I've had since going GF. For me, that recipe was worth the cost of the book.

Finally, like others have said, the final verdict is still out on the agave nectar and grapeseed oil. I used them for the first time I made a recipe because I wanted to follow exactly. If I repeated the recipe, I replaced them with sweeteners and fats I am more comfortable with.

432 of 469 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Some Good Ideas, but Edit Out the Agave Nectar October 26, 2009

By vintner VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book has a number of good and SIMPLE recipes for gluten-free and low-carb dishes using almond flour. Well worth adding to the shelf; it simplifies and collects a lot of information about almond flour that is widely scattered.

The one big caution is that the author uncritically uses agave nectar for sweetening in almost all the recipes. She says this is because agave nectar is "lower on the glycemic index", but that's not an advantage, that's merely because agave nectar is largely fructose, the most dangerous of the sugars.

From Stephan Guyenet, Ph.D. in neurobiology (blog at [...]

"Agave syrup is made from the heart of the agave plant, which is pressed to release a juice rich in inulin. Inulin is a polymer made of fructose molecules. The inulin is then broken down either by heat or by enzymatic processing. The result is a sweet syrup that is rich in fructose. Agave syrup is marketed as a healthy, alternative sweetener. In fact, it's probably as bad or worse than high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). They are both a refined and processed plant extract. Both are high in fructose, with agave syrup leading HFCS (estimates of agave syrup range up to 92% fructose by calories). Finally, agave syrup is expensive and inefficient to produce. The high fructose content gives agave syrup a low glycemic index, because fructose does not raise blood glucose. Unfortunately, as some diabetics learned the hard way, using fructose as a substitute for sucrose (cane sugar) has negative long-term effects on insulin sensitivity...."

I find that these recipes can be adapted by omitting the ill-chosen agave nectar sweetner, in favor of either ordinary sugar (sucrose) or for low-carbs an equivalent combination of Emerald Forest Sugar Erythritol, 1-Pound (Pack of 6) and NuNaturals NuStevia Pure White Stevia Extract, 1 Ounce (Pack of 2), as recommended by Lauren at Healthy Indulgences blog [...] Read more ›

83 of 88 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointed... I can't understand how there are so many positive reviews. February 4, 2012

By Nova19

Format:Paperback

I haven't left many reviews but I was so disappointed in this book that I felt obligated to set the record straight.

I've recently had to go on a low-sugar, gluten-free diet and was upset that I was going to miss out on all the Christmas baking this year. However, a friend of mine made me a delicious gluten-free cake and I realized that I could make delicious desserts that everyone would like if I did some research.

And so, last Christmas was full of cakes and cookies all gluten-free, made from "regular" recipes I modified through a lot of research and a lot of trial and error. Success! But I don't always have time to hunt down new recipes so I figured I'd buy a cookbook to help me out. The reviews on this cookbook seemed very positive so I purchased it.

Well, what a disappointment! Many of the recipes are oily and bland tasting. The author uses Agave as a sweetener in most recipes and despite what the book says, this ingredient is NOT good for diabetics (you'd be better off using a sugar alcohol like xylitol). Sure, the author would probably say that Agave is "natural" unlike sugar alcohols (which are known for being more processed) however, Agave isn't 'natural' like maple syrup, it' is also highly processed sweetener that has more fructose than high fructose corn syrup.

I also assume she is trying to be "healthy" by staying away from milk, butter, and eggs in her recipes. Unfortunately, this ends up doing the recipes a lot of disservice. The use of grapeseed oil (light and relatively flavorless oil) makes her desserts taste heavy and (for lack of a better word) oily. The chocolate chip cookies I made came out as flat as a pancake... if she used ingredients like eggs it would help bind her recipes together better.... Another alternative to help the texture (which I tried) is to add coconut flour which gives the dough more shape (but I understand that this is an almond flour cookbook so why bother adding in ANOTHER expensive flour to the shopping list).

I just feel like the author's quest to be 'healthy' and 'natural' most of the recipes flat and tasteless. What's even worse is that her approach isn't necessarily healthier. Many people can eat dairy and ordinary sweeteners (although we should all try to keep sugar to a minimum). A better approach would have been to give us some alternatives in these recipes and let the reader decide. For instance saying "3/4 Cup Agave nectar OR 1/2 Cup Sugar + 1/3 Cup Water" (or whatever liquid was needed to make up for the missing moisture when omitting the Agave). I'm sure some of these recipes would be better substituting in butter or another type of sweetener, but if I'm going to go through the trouble of doing that then I'd rather do it from a 'normal' recipe that I already know tastes good. Out of 7 dessert recipes I tried in this book, I didn't like any of them.

The bottom line is that the desserts contained in this book fall short and some are inedible which is really disappointing when you're spending a lot of time (and ingredients) making them. Read more ›