Gluten-Free on A Shoestring

I was offered the opportunity to review the book, “Gluten-free on a Shoestring”, and of course I jumped at it.  It’s by Nicole Hunn, the author of the GF on a Shoestring blog.  It’s always fun to try out new recipes!  And the recipes were truly excellent. I would particularly recommend this for someone from NY, or someone who loves NY style baked goods.

Lots of different things about this book.  For starters, it wasn’t what I expected (not bad, mind you, different).  I assumed since it was focusing on the thrifty aspect of the diet, it would be looking at naturally gluten-free recipes.  Instead, it’s a case for MYO versions of the most delicious gf foods, that either you can’t buy, or are incredibly expensive.  Think Black and White cookies, pizza, pie crust, etc.  There are also great tips in the beginning about coupons, buying in season, buying in bulk, etc.

I made quite a few recipes: the sweet pie crust, spoonbread, and chocolate chip cookies.  They were all delicious.

Pie crust: This crust rolled out like a dream and was very easy to work with, which I appreciated.  It also received the highest of high praise from my sweetie.  Every couple of years, he’ll taste something, say he likes it, and then later say something about me making food that has gluten (as I stare blankly at him).  Somehow he thought the pie crust was “the real deal”.  And, of course, I feel the need to tease him for suggesting something so silly–there has been no wheat flour in the house for 6+ years, you’d think this might have caught his attention by now.   I made the crust and filled it with my Chocolate Raspberry Love pie–talk about a match made in heaven!

Spoon bread: (see above) easy, naturally gluten-free, delicious. My only comment is that the size pan it calls for is way off.  The recipe says a 6 inch cassarole dish, and I filled one, then an additional 4″ dish, and both were overflowing with yum.  Just one 6″ dish would have caused a world of mess in my oven.

Choc Chip Cookies–in a lot of ways, this is the benchmark against which recipes are measured. DH liked them, but not as much as our usual recipe from GLG. However, the fingers stealing the cookie was not scripted–their lack of utter perfection did not keep him from inhaling copious quantities of said cookies.  We’ve frozen the rest to bake off later, and so I’ll have to post on those, too.

So overall, great book with solid recipes.  Love the faux matza ball soup recipe and I am eager to make that, too!

My main criticism is that almost all recipes used dairy and no substitutions were given, which is a bummer since so many Celiacs are lactose intolerant/dairy allergic and subs don’t always work.