"Fake" GF food tastes awful!

[computerdyslexic]

I have always cooked many naturally GF dishes like soups, stews, and simply cooked meat served with mashed or baked potatoes and simply cooked vegetables, and I have also made and loved home baked bread, pies, cookies, and other dishes. These food treats (and staples like bread) all contain gluten and as far as I am concerned, they can't be duplicated with GF substitutions. Any of that phony GF baked stuff tastes like and feels as if the baker made a mistake! Every time I read on the forum that a particular GF baked product "really tastes good" I rush out to find it and taste it and am immediately disappointed. Please don't tell me I will get used to stuff that tastes and feels like shingles, sawdust or cardboard. At this point I have decided to be certain everything I eat is GF, and I hope to have the will power to stay at this until 1-1-10. If I experienced debilitating diarrhea shortly after eating gluten I would probably be better motivated. However, other than a life long irritable bowel, with nothing like celiac sprue, my symptoms are increasing muscle pain and spasms and fatigue that has reached exhaustion over the past two years. When I first was told by my MD that I had CD I went on the GF diet and I remember telling my best friend that if gluten hasn't caused any small bowel destruction that I would rather keep the pain and fatigue and eat food that satisfies me. At this point the MD says the biopsy didn't show any damage but I do have some strong positive tests results that say I have CD. I would like to know if there are other CD folks on the forum who agree with me. "Fake" GF baked products taste awful!
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Nancy in New York's Finger Lakes
Rescued Siberian huskies Zeke, Vixen, Duke and Moxie
Rescued DSH cats Timmy, Toby and Madeline-Rose
Please Google to learn about prosopagnosia, a neurological condition also called faceblindness.

[The Edifying Conscience]

[mom2cassie]

[Home-Based-Mom]

Soups and stews can be thickened with corn starch or potato flakes.

Meats, veggies, mashed potaoes and all that are gluten free anyway.

The only real problem is with breads.

JMHO
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Sandi ~ learning to live in a world obsessed and infested with wheat.
"If it wasn't food 100 years ago, it isn't food now." Mike Huckabee
Support Operation Christmas Child

[jeant]

[celiacmaine-iac]

I tend to agree that most of the commercial GF foods are pretty bad, with a few exceptions. I believe it is essential to cook if you want to eat like you did before you went GF.

The pie crust recipe I use is virtually indistinguishable from my former NGF pie crusts. I use Bette Hagman's Featherlight Vinegar Pastry from her GF Gourmet Cooks Comfort Food book. It's flaky and tender, just perfect.

For my cookies, cakes, muffins and quick breads I use the Wendy Wark flour blend and simply use my old recipes. You cannot tell the difference. My best friend who is NGF told me my waffles are the best she's ever had in her entire life.

I make the Cindy's Wraps that are in the breads section of the forum, and just love them. The first time I made them my daughter, granddaughter, and myself (all of us GF) were amazed at how good they were.

Using super-fine ground rice flours in your flour blends makes all the difference in the texture of baked goods.

It sounds like you are an experienced cook, so it shouldn't be too hard to make the switch, but there will be a transition period. I found it best at first to try new things when I was alone, so I wouldn't be distracted by conversation. You will only have to leave the xanthan gum out of something once to understand why it's there.

I would recommend going to a good-sized bookstore and pulling a ton of GF cookbooks from the shelves. Find a comfortable spot and browse through them until you find the one with the cooking style that best matches the way you cook and eat. You might even be able to find a few in your local library so you can try them before buying.

It's a big adjustment making the switch, but the improvement in your health will be more than worth it. Good luck!
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Steph

[teacherpat]

One product I like a lot better than the gluten version is the Teff burito wrappers. I never ate buritos before going gf because I thought the nasty white pasty wrappers tasted like glue. Now that I've discovered Teff, I eat buritos all the time!
I also think anything chocolate tastes better gluten free, because wheat and chocolate together has always tasted weirdly bitter to me. Without wheat, chocolate baked goods taste much improved.
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Pat

[computerdyslexic]

I visited a health food store that the staff in the MD's office suggested. I was hungry and decided to try a big chocolate cookie--Nana's No Gluten Chocolate Crunch Cookie. It was a disaster trying to eat it in my car because it crumbled as soon as I bit or broke a piece off. My shirt front and car were really messy. The consistency was dry and I thought it would be better if I could taste and feel some shortening in the recipe. I had been looking for Kinnikinnikk white sandwich bread all over the state and I found it there today. It cost a small fortune but I have read it is pretty good. I tried it when I got home and it is slightly better than the EneRG (or however it is spelled) that was the first loaf I had bought after going on the GF diet. Although I love baked sweets I don't often allow myself to make any. I live alone and whatever I make has only me to eat it. Still, I would like to hope some of the recipes mentioned might pass muster with my very picky taste so I can bake when I decide I want something special. Really, if I can find a white bread that I can eat for toast and sandwiches my life will improve greatly. I am 65 and have never bought a standing mixer or food processor, and I find that modern recipes usually expect these appliances to be in place. I guess I have to buy something so I can make modern, and especially, GF bread recipes. I already tossed my contaminated pastry cloth. I know GF baked goods don't keep well so maybe I should get a bread machine for small loaves? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Celiacmaine-iac--I am going to the New England Celiac Conference outside Boston on the 3rd. Maine is my favorite of the 48 states I have lived in or visited, and if I get as close to "The Way it Should Be" state as Boston I am going to head north for a few days. I usually concentrate on the coast and Route 1 from York to Schoodic Point, but will stay in a Motel 6 in Augusta. If you have any good stores or restaurants to recommend I will check them out. I am using this trip to test my ability to stay GF while traveling. I have always traveled with a small microwave and a good ice chest and I plan to take 3 or 4 containers of my own casseroles and chili. I have always gone to a supermarket in Ellsworth because they have a big salad bar. I hope to be able to get safe salads there and I am going to carry my own salad dressing. I will start out with sliced turkey and ham from two home stores that carry these GF. If I find I can't eat GF I can simply give up and drive home. I live about 8 hours from Wells and always drive home from any place in ME in one day. I plan to leave ME via Rt. 2 and head east through NH and VT.

Thank you to all who offered encouragement and suggestions. It must be very apparent to all that I am a person who truly lives to eat.
_________________
Nancy in New York's Finger Lakes
Rescued Siberian huskies Zeke, Vixen, Duke and Moxie
Rescued DSH cats Timmy, Toby and Madeline-Rose
Please Google to learn about prosopagnosia, a neurological condition also called faceblindness.

[rpf1007]

You are right- home-made GF baked goods do not last long. I live alone so when I bake anything I stick it in the freezer. It defrosts pretty well. I slice the bread (or banana bread or whatever) and stick it in the freezer.

The wrap bread recipe on this forum is very reliable. I never made bread before going GF so I was a tad intimidated at doing so afterwards. It was frustrating at the beginning because all of the sandwich bread I would make was variable. Sometimes it worked, lots of times it didn't- and I wasn't doing anything differently. The wrap bread though works everytime and it is one of the very few that I can eat without toasting. So, I can bring sandwiches to work again.

It's an adjustment...but when you find things that you can make that taste great- it is even more exciting!
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Rachel

[teacherpat]

You've heard the Ener-G grilled cheese joke, right?

"For grilled cheese, take two slices of Ener-G white rice loaf, sliced cheese and a stick of butter.
Melt butter in a shallow pan. Prepare cheese sandwich. Cook sandwich in butter, turning often, until butter is absorbed and bread is starting to soften."


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Pat

[smalltownslackermom]

We think K-toos are better than Oreos in our house. and Glutino Pretzels better than wheat-based. I think it has to do with the gluiness that teachpat doesn't like in wheat tortillas. And cupcakes and cakes don't need wheat, they're not yeast-based - don't need the gluten. I prefer GF cupcakes by far now but it is true that using a finer textured rice flour and even soaking it a while in the wet ingredients will help with texture. Once you are onto the fine rice flour you get a delicate cake that is sublime!
Many of the breads will never be the same but that Cindy's wrap bread recipe here is very good!
I think the Food for life Rice Almond bread is good for some applications - esp. stuffing!
I am a foodie from a family of homemade bread bakers so I get it about crusty French bread, etc. I think not even trying to eat the GF alternatives for a few months is a good idea. I did that in part because they are also expensive. If you try to do the switch immediately or go back and forth for a while, of course those differences will seem magnified.
Good luck!
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son - high ttg - 4/09, pos. biopsy 5/09
self - negative blodwork 5/09, pos. biopsy 11/09
sister - gf for 2 years and is a new person

[jeant]

I also freeze baked goods, especially cookies. Homemade goodies don't keep that long, and I don't want to have to hurry to eat them.

I like the wrap bread but I don't use it for sandwiches. I cut it into squares and make toast with it. My non-GF husband likes it too. For sandwiches, I buy brown rice wraps. Like teacherpat, I look back on gluey flour tortillas and wonder what I ever saw in them. I was always a big cracker eater and had a hard time finding a cracker that I liked, but now I buy Crunchmaster and really enjoy them. I disliked most GF pastas that I tried, but then I found Sam Mills corn pasta which I really like.

For treats, I'm lucky that most of my favorite things are easily found/made as GF--tortilla chips and salsa, nachos, popcorn, chips, ice cream, candy, pudding, coconut macaroons, and even creme brulee. I rarely buy cookies (other than macaroons) as I prefer making them myself.

When you're in Maine, see if the Pat's Pizza restaurants near where you are offer their GF pizza. I eat it regularly and really love it, although I'm not sure if all their locations offer it yet. I know the Yarmouth, Hamden, and Orono locations offer it. There also is a bakery in Portland (with a second location opening in Saco) that have some GF items. I haven't been there though, so I can't say if they are good or not.

[ostrich]

[aklap]

[The Edifying Conscience]