I love baking, and I’m a fan of the Great British Bake Off, are you?
Baking isn’t easy if you have digestive troubles and need to avoid gluten (GF), dairy (DF), fruits, dried fruit, syrups (e.g., maple, golden, honey), sugar etc. I’ve altered many recipes over the years, and some were successful, others become inedible. My GF and DF blueberry muffins always taste delicious. I freeze half the batch to enjoy another time.
These are my top 10 tips
for DF, GF, and Sugar free baking
1. Dairy Free
Use plant-based milks, but about 10% less than the recipe states since they have more water in them than cow’s milk
2. Dairy Free
Use ghee or margarine (check the label though!) instead of butter
3. Dairy Free
use Green and Blacks dark chocolate 85%, and/or cocoa powder 85%
4. Gluten Free
use self-raising GF flour and add a binding agent e.g., psyllium husk (1/2 tsp for 225gm flour), OR corn starch (1/4 tsp for 225gm flour) OR egg white (1 egg white for 500gm flour) alternatives.
5. Gluten Free
Make your own GF flour mix in the following ratio 2/3 rice flour, 3Tbsp tapioca starch and 3Tbsp potato starch plus ½ teaspoon baking powder as the rising agent.
6. Gluten Free
Take care with 100% almond flour recipes. Almonds are high in salicylates which may cause abdominal pain, wind, and/or diarrhoea if you are sensitive to them. Consider oat flour, rice flour as alternatives.
7. Sugar Free
Sweeten the recipe with a banana (blended), unsweetened apple puree instead of cane sugar and adjust the weight of dry ingredients for a successful mixture.
8. Sugar Free
Sweeten with Stevia if you are avoiding fruit, syrups, and sugars. Adjust the weight of dry ingredients for a successful mixture.
9. Vegan
Make it DF, use Stevia instead of honey and use alternatives for egg (1 egg = 1 tbsp of ground flaxseed and 3 tbsp of water, OR 1 tbsp of chia/flax seeds mixed with 2 tbsp of water and left for 10 minutes in the fridge OR egg replacements).
10. Flavour
Always add a pinch of sea salt and 1 tsp of vanilla extract especially if you’ve removed other ingredients
Disclaimer: The information in this blog is explanatory in nature and/or provides general dietary advice. It is not personalised nutritional and lifestyle recommendations.