Elena A. Haller 
Baking is so much fun. For many people, baking at home provides them with that calm and meditative state that allows them to relax and find some mental peace and quiet away from their daily stressful lives. If you have recently been diagnosed with coeliac disease and you love baking, this might cause some mild distress to wonder what you will now be able to bake in the future! Luckily, there are some great gluten-free snacks that you can try out to begin with, as well as a whole host of gluten-free baking ideas to get you started on your gluten-free baking journey.
It doesn’t matter whether you are new to baking or a veteran, gluten-free baking is a whole new challenge. Gluten is a protein that is found in barley, wheat and rye, and helps to trap air into cakes and bread. This is how you get them to rise during baking and gluten is a crucial part of the texture you find in most baked goods. Without gluten, one of the challenges is that bread can be less chewy and much denser, for instance.
Finding the right texture and taste might be challenging when using gluten-free ingredients, but once you get it, you’ll soon be making the same delicious baked goods that you would with gluten!
One of the best things to do first is to familiarise yourself with gluten-free flour mixes and gluten-free flour. These are stickier than traditional flours when mixing, and this is why you’ll find that there are slightly different techniques for gluten-free baking, and you’ll see this from recipe to recipe (we would always advise being ultra-careful to follow the recipes when first baking with gluten-free ingredients). In some cases, recipes might ask you to mix gluten-free flour (such as buckwheat or potato flour) with flour mixes, but this isn’t always necessary and if you have access to gluten-free flour mixes on prescription, there should be no need to mix further with other flours.
Examples of gluten-free baking
Here are a couple of examples of gluten-free baking recipes:
Gluten-free white bread
Taking just 45 minutes to bake, this recipe from Glutafin (a brand of foods available only on prescription to people with coeliac disease) makes one large 2lb loaf of warm white bread. The proving time is 45 minutes, and you need to pre-heat your oven to 200oC/180oC Fan/Gas Mark 6.
Ingredients:
- 500g packet of Glutafin Gluten Free Select Multipurpose White Mix
- 10g Dried yeast
- 1tsp Caster sugar
- 1tsp Salt
- 400ml liquid (125ml just boiled water, 100ml cold water, 175ml semi-skimmed milk)
- 2 tbsp Sunflower or vegetable oil
Method:
- Combine the white mix, year, sugar, and salt with a fork
- Add the liquid and oil and stir with the fork until a stiff, smooth batter is created
- Spoon into a lightly greased 2lb loaf tin (we recommend a non-stick bread tin measuring 18.5×11.5×8.8cm) and smooth the surface with the back of a dessert spoon dipped in water
- Cover with oiled cling film and prove for up to 45 minutes in a warm place until the batter has risen to near the top of the tin
- Remove the cling film and bake for 45 minutes until golden
- Allow to cool before slicing
Gluten-free lemon drizzle cake
Taking only 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes in total, this BBC gluten-free lemon drizzle cake remains moist and delicious. Pre-heat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 4.
Ingredients:
- 2 large, well-scrubbed lemons
- 300g granulated white sugar or golden caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 200g cubed, well-softened butter
- 200g gluten-free self-raising flour
- 50g ground almonds
- ½ tsp gluten-free baking powder
Method:
- Grease and line the base and sides of a 2lb loaf tin with baking paper
- Put 200g of the sugar in a large mixing bowl with the eggs, flour, almonds, baking powder, butter, and lemon zest. Beat until pale and thick
- Spoon the cake batter into the tin and level the surface
- Bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes until well-risen, firm, and golden
- Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes in the tin
- Turn the cake out onto a wire rack and turn the cake the right way up, before making 60 deep holes in the cake using a skewer
- Squeeze one of the lemons and mix 3 tbsp of the juice with the 100g of sugar left. Slowly spoon the lemon sugar over the cake to penetrate the full sponge
- Leave to set for an hour to allow for the icing to crystalise before slicing to serve.
We hope that this has been a helpful start to those of you with a sweet tooth who are looking at ways to get into gluten-free baking. If you love baking as a hobby but have recently been diagnosed with coeliac disease you might have been worried that you’d lose out and have to stop baking in the future. Fear not! As you can see, there are some great gluten-free baking ideas and recipes that you can start with.
