The 125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes

I LOVE this book! Absolutely! The pineapple carrot cake is amazing. I made it for my boyfriends birthday... and any time I can find an excuse to make it. It is so moist and yummy... even people without celiacs say it is the best carrot cake they have had! I am always making the pizza crust too! I havn't tried many of the other recipes, but those 2 definetly make the book worth the purchase for me!

Celiac disease is a poorly understood digestive disorder that affects both children and adults. It is an auto-immune disease that affects the small intestine, and is the result of an intolerance to gluten found in wheat, rye and barley and products derived from these grains. There are no drugs or a cure for this disease. Only a diet free of foods containing gluten is effective in living with the disease and avoiding the symptoms which make celiac disease so troubling. While there are a number of gluten-free cookbooks on the market, Donna Washburn and Heather Butt have elevated gluten-free (GF) cooking from relatively boring, excessively "healthful" recipes to delicious, easy to prepare recipes made from easily obtainable ingredients. The book is well laid out, with good, sensible information on the ingredients required for safe gluten-free eating. The illustrations are well-done and colourful, and accurately reflect how the dishes look when properly prepared. All the recipes we have tried have been successful and tasty, but several stand out as exceptional. These include ciabatta (p. 38) an excellent substitute for regular bread, without the pound-cake texture normally found in other GF breads; the batter fried fish (p. 59); and the chocolate chip cookies (p. 160).The equipment and ingredient glossaries provide useful tips and important information for making the recipes successfully. The common sense approach to what is a serious dietary problem for many children and adults alike truly helps to demystify some of the more poorly understood aspects of this disease, and makes it less of a chore and a lot more fun to eat well without wheat and wheat-based products.

I am totally impressed with this cookbook. I have adapted recipes and cooked for my celiac husband for over 10 years and I thought I knew a lot about good gluten free baking. However, this book has given me a ton of good ideas (and recipes that work) and has rekindled my interest in baking. I particularly liked the lemon yogurt scones, shortcake, and white cake recipes.I tried the breadmaker recipe for white bread and for the first time produced bread that looked good,was sliceable, tasted great (according to my husband) and was so easy to make. Not to mention much cheaper than buying it at a specialty bakery! Another plus is that the recipes are good enough for me (a non-celiac) too! The wealth of information about alternative flours has given me the means to adapt a lot of my own recipes successfully.

Donna Washburn and Heather Butt have a real winner on their hands here. They have taken the specialized cooking and baking required for a gluten-free diet and re-thought it from starter to dessert. For those people suffering with celiac disease this book can give them back their appetites for the foods they lovingly remember. Many of the recipes are very innovative and everyone I've tried works well and is delicious. 125 doesn't begin to account for the variations given for each recipe - what a great way to make a new favourite into three new favourites. The equipment and techniques glossaries as well as the helpful hints on each recipe make this a valuable resource book for anyone stuggling with gluten-free cooking. What a treat to salivate over the delicious pictures of pizza, battered fish and cakes. Each of the bread recipes includes detailed instructions for making with a bread machine or with a mixer, so everyone can accomplish fabulous results. This book is loaded with information about the gluten-free diet and it's ingredients and will appeal to the cook and non-cook alike. My Gluten-Free cookbook library wouldn't be complete without it!