For the second year, Glutenfreeda has had a busy summer hosting gluten-free vacations of beautiful San Juan Island in Washington state. Our gourmet, custom meals are always gluten-free and also specifically prepared to accommodate any other food intolerances our guests may have. We have prepared gourmet meals without casein, eggs, sugar, corn and many other ingredients. We’re not talking ‘it’s OK, I can choke it down meals’, we’re talking delicious, flavorful and beautiful meals.

As many of our subscribers also struggle with additional intolerances other than gluten, we’d like to share some information and tips that will help you create great meals using substitutions.

The first and most obvious step to success, is to begin with recipes that do not have the ingredient you are trying to avoid. There are numerous recipes in every food category that do not have corn, gluten, eggs or dairy, as an example. If you strive to cook naturally ‘free’, you will find that your cooking experience will be easier and your results better.

If you can’t find a recipe that does not have the offending ingredient, choose one that has a minimal amount of ingredients that will have to be substituted or eliminated. If you cannot eat eggs, choose a recipe that has only one egg instead of trying to make an egg-less meal from a recipe that calls for three eggs.

Here are some ‘free’ categories with recipes and tips to help you get the best results.

Gluten-free:

We’ll skip this category because our entire magazine is dedicated to cooking gluten-free.

Casein-free:

We have had tremendous success with casein-free cooking and baking. We find this category easy to substitute with near perfect results. In fact, many of the desserts we make for all our guests are gluten and casein free and no one ever suspects.

Our favorite products in the casein-free category are:

Ingredient Substitution

Earth Balance is a great substitution for sautéing and baking in cakes, cookies, cheesecakes, or just about any dessert. We use it as a straight across substitution, tablespoon for tablespoon, for butter.

Tofutti products are terrific substitutions and will not compromise a recipes texture, flavor or appearance. We have made our Pumpkin Cheesecake with Brownie Crust with Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and cannot tell the difference from real cream cheese.

Soy milk can be substituted for dairy milk in any recipe.

Soy creamer can be substituted for cream in most recipes. The one exception is that it will not whip. Our best advise is to choose a recipe that does not include whipped cream.

Goat cheese is a great substitution for dairy cheese, although it does have a strong and unmistakable aroma and flavor. Green Valley is a brand that produces goat cheese in mozzarella, cheddar and jack cheese varieties.

Sugar-free is can be a little more difficult, depending on one’s level of intolerance. If one has diabetes, one must be very specific about how many carbohydrates are in any given recipe.

In our opinion, the best substitution for sugar is honey. If you cannot have honey, other options would be fructose or Splenda. We have recently prepared meals for diabetic children who were allowed only fructose as a substitution for sugar. Although fructose looks like sugar it is almost twice as sweet. When substituting fructose, you can add a half to two thirds as much as sugar to attain the same level of sweetness.

The bad news is that it is difficult to bake with. Cookies baked with fructose tend to resemble puffy airy balls instead of cookies. We suggest that when cooking with fructose, try to choose recipes that call for as little sugar as possible.

Splenda is an approved sugar substitution for diabetics. It is a 1 for 1 straight across substitution. We found that it has an after taste, but many people find it to be a satisfactory substitution.

Corn-free presents a challenge in the fact that it eliminates the use of cornstarch and corn syrup, two common ingredients found in many dessert items and gluten-free flour mixes.

To cook corn-free, you must first find or prepare a gluten-free flour mix that does not have cornstarch as an ingredient. There are many gluten-free flour mixes that use tapioca starch instead of cornstarch. You can substitute potato starch, but we find it produces a heavier result.

The great news is that Tinkyada makes all their pastas (our favorites) without cornstarch, dairy, sugar or eggs. Tinkyada’s pastas are available in many shapes and widely available.

And then of course, there is egg-free. Admittedly, this is the most challenging ingredient to substitute and still achieve great results. But, not impossible! Again, the first step is to select a recipe that calls for only one egg. It will be much easier to substitute an egg when the entire recipe does not hinge on eggs.

There are many substitutions, here are a few:

For 1 egg:

• 1 Tablespoon water
• 1 Tablespoon oil
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

For 1 egg:

• 1/4 cup tofu

For 1 egg:

• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 3 Tablespoons water

Ener-G Egg Replacer: Many people use this product as an egg substitution, although we have heard mixed results.

We have had success with the first formula. We have used this substitution in the following cookie recipe with surprisingly good results.

Egg-free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chunky peanut butter
• 1 cup gf brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons water
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup gf semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix together all ingredients, except chocolate until blended. Stir in chocolate. Form generous 1 Tablespoon scoops of dough into balls onto ungreased cookie sheet about 2" apart. Bake for 15 minutes. Half way through the baking time, gently press tops down with a fork. Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet. When cool, remove to rack or plate.

- Glutenfreeda