Working with your Intolerance
Be positive and work with the foods you can tolerate
It is important to recognise and memorise the list of foods that can be included in your diet. Your Dietician or doctor will provide this. Once you have this information you will soon become accustomed to reading labels of every product that you buy. Never buy a mixed product such as gluten free flour that does not specify the ingredients. In Australia it is law that such products must contain this information. A product may be gluten free, but can still include milk products or other chemicals that you cannot tolerate.
Using my recipes in conjunction with the Substitutes page you will be able to make yourself almost every product gluten-free, that you could previously cook with wheat flour. If you have not tried to make such things as crumpets or breads previously don’t let this worry you, just follow the instructions step by step for success.
Do remember when you are making bread that “homemade” bread is not meant to keep fresh more than on day, if you remember, in years gone by bread was baked every day and in Europe and many country areas still is.
The ingredients that are added to commercial breads to extend the shelf life are chemicals and additional gluten. If you are gluten intolerant these ingredients are a problem for you.
You will find that once you organise yourself to bake gluten free foods, you will enjoy the challenge of producing fresh chemical free foods. Bread mixes can be weighed in loaf quantities, bagged and kept in your cupboard until you are ready to bake. You can do the same thing with cookie or pastry mixes. When you are blending your own flour, always mix at least three kilos at a time and store it in a large calico bag then it will keep indefinitely for you. It has been tested here for four years without signs of rancidity.
Psyllium is used in my recipes to add elasticity and fibre that is so important in a gluten free diet where gums are regularly used. Fibre is not a laxative, as a jelly like substance it collects seeds and hard pieces of food from the intestine that can cause inflammation; easily removing them without the scouring of laxatives.