When my son, Joe, was diagnosed with celiac disease a few months ago, it definitely shifted how I bake. Needless to say, finding gluten-free ingredients and baking tools was crucial.
Joe has always been my taste-tester and he loves baked treats and homemade bread. I wanted to make sure at least this part of his life wouldn’t change drastically because of his diagnosis.
The Holidays & Gluten-Free Baking
The holidays, especially, is a time for me to bake all kinds of treats and we cherish our family traditions. And so I made a plan. I started researching what I need to know and started testing new recipes I found as well as worked on converting some of my own recipes – or latest finding gluten-free recipes that were very similar.
Some of My Favorite Gluten-Free Baking Tools & Ingredients
While I’m still learning about gluten-free baking, I do have a few of my favorite gluten-free purchases, mostly from Amazon, that I want to share with you:
Gluten-Free liqua-gel food coloring from Chefmaster (To be honest, I hadn’t even thought about how some food coloring isn’t gluten-free until I jumped in to my holiday baking. Now I know — and I can stock up on brands like Chefmaster.)
Valrhona dark French semisweet chocolate discs for baking (I use these in gluten-free peanut butter blossoms from Heartbeet Kitchen – so good and a fun switch from Hershey’s Kisses, although you can certainly use those too as the regular milk chocolate version is gluten-free!)
Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free White Rice Flour and 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Flour (I use the white rice flour for a fabulous chocolate layer cake that you would never guess is gluten-free; and I love the 1-to-1 flour from Bob’s Red Mill for so many baking recipes, including these chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies from Heartbeet Kitchen.)
PBfit peanut flour baking blend – I use this for a gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe I found in Zoe Bakes Cookies.
Sweets Indeed Christmas sprinkles (I use these to zhuzh up my peanut butter balls, which can be made gluten-free by using Malt-O-Meal crispy rice cereal and gluten-free almond bark.)
Silicone pastry mat and French rolling pin (I keep some separate tools just for my gluten-free baking, including this pastry mat and rolling pin.) I also love my Nordicware mixing bowl set that’s BPA-free, lightweight, and cleans up like a dream!
The Loopy Whisk’s cookbook – The Elements of Baking: Making Any Recipe Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free or Vegan (I bought the Kindle version so I could access it digitally with a Kindle App on my iPad and iPhone.)
Along with the Peanut Butter Balls, Ginger and Molasses Cookies, and Peanut Butter Blossoms I mentioned above, I have either made or am planning to make the following cookies this holiday season:
- Gluten-Free Andes Mint Cookies (Heartbeet Kitchen)
- Gluten-Free Iced Oatmeal Cookies (Sweets and Thank You)
- Macarons – These cookies are naturally gluten-free and use almond flour, which is fantastic since they are a family favorite; I have the best luck with the macaron recipe in Sara Kieffer’s cookbook, 100 Cookies.
- Kringla (Definitely NOT gluten-free but it’s a family tradition and I might try to adapt a gluten-free version yet this season.)
- Lefse (Another tradition that is definitely NOT gluten-free but I’ve already experimented with Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 flour substitute with some pretty decent results, all things considered. This is lefse with flour – not potatoes – so if you want to learn more, go to my blog post on this!)
I’m still learning everyday about gluten-free baking but hopefully this little list helps if you are looking for some gluten-free baking tools and ingredients!
Note: I am sharing affiliate links fro Amazon above and may receive a small commission if you purchase through these links. I only share products that I use and trust.