Lesson Two... Give into Cravings

As I mentioned before my one gluten weakness is pizza. A really great thin crust pizza that is soft and foldable just cannot be made gluten free. The reason is its the gluten that is developed in the kneading process that makes pizza crust so soft and pliable. Most gluten free pizzas have more of a cracker texture or a thick biscuit dough for a crust. While that may make a perfectly fine pizza for most people, I am looking for a New York style pizza that you fold in half to eat. That can be really difficult to find, especially in takeout.

I have attempted to order gluten free options from local pizza pizzerias and have not been really successful. Either the pizza is not good, or I have had gluten reactions to the cross contamination that runs rampant whenever you mix gluten and gluten free doughs.

I did find an eat-in gluten free pizza at Shoeless Joe's Sports Bar in London, Ontario, on Wonderland Rd that is pretty good. It comes in a small / personal sized pizza, I was told the crust is made by French Meadow and is only available in the US. Make sure if you are ordering you double check on the toppings. The first time I ordered it I was assured that all of the toppings were safe, and so I ordered the buffalo chicken pizza. Unfortunately it came with breaded chicken on it. The next time I ordered I double checked and was able to substitute grilled chicken for the breaded. A much better option. I will be back for this pizza, too bad it is not available in delivery.

I recently made my last attempt at ordering a gluten free pizza from a local pizzeria, Pizza Tonight. I had a huge gluten reaction as the cross contamination was terrible. The pizza itself was very tasty, but not worth the after affects.

I am sick of the bad pizza and gluten reactions so now I am attempting to find a good crust that I can make my own pizza at home. First up is Udi's Gluten Free Crust. I originally found it in the freezer section of many US grocery stores, and recently found at Metro in Canada. It is a nice thin crust that bakes up soft in the middle and crispy around the edges. I added a little too much cheese, but it was a very tasty pizza. And better, it was completely contaminate free as I controlled all of the toppings and the environment in which it was baked.



My First Pizza with Udi's Crust

My second attempt was much more successful as I did not add as much cheese and you can actually see the crust. It is not the foldable new york style crust that I originally set out to find, but it is a nice soft thin crust pizza. 

Second Attempt with Udi's Crust

Lesson One... Double Check Everything.

Someone once posted to an online group that I belong to that her stomach was angry with her and a thread went around about the terminology we use to describe how our bodies react to being glutened. We all agreed that we generally humanize our bodily symptoms of ingesting gluten containing foods. For years I have always said that my stomach/body was angry with me when I was feeling symptoms and could sympathize with the original posting.

Recently I have been rethinking this idea and realized that why shouldn't my body be angry with me. Whether I ingested gluten intentionally or not I was the one who did it to myself. If it was intentional, then my body has every reason to be "angry" with me. If it was unintentional then I did not check things as carefully as I should have. Either way, it was my own fault that I am experiencing symptoms.

I recently experienced symptoms after eating a "gluten free" pizza from a local pizzeria. I am usually very careful in checking everything out before I eat it. But pizza is my one gluten weakness and I was excited when I heard they offered a gluten free option. It was my own fault because although I checked into the crust and was assured it is baked on its own aluminium pan, I did not follow up with all of the toppings and every possible cross contamination source. It was only when I was finished and throwing away the pan that I realized the bottom of the pan was covered in flour. My body had every right to be angry with me as I was the cause of its distress.

Lesson to be learned, double check everything and then check again.

The Ultimate Cake Challenge

In my opinion the ultimate dessert is a layered cake.

A layered cake is usually one of those things that we think is so complicated that we end up leaving it to the professionals and buying one for our special occasions. 

There are several problems with buying a cake, the most important being it can cost a fortune to get a really nice one, especially if it is gluten free. Most standard bakeries do not make gluten free cakes as you have to be super careful to avoid cross contamination. To get a safe gluten free cake there are many things to need to take into consideration to ensure it is safe to eat. You need to make sure that:

• ingredients are kept safe in sealed containers and different utensils are used, such as scoops, and they are cleaned regularly.
• the storage, baking, decorating areas (basically the entire bakery) is cleaned and sanitized after the regular cakes are made and prior to making anything gluten free.
• the batter is made at a different time so the gluten filled flours are not flying around in the air mixing with the gluten free batter.
• gluten free cakes need to be baked in separate ovens and pans from the regular gluten filled ones, which means having double the equipment.
• the decorating surface is clean and sanitized to ensure no crumbs from the regular cake get mixed in with the icing/filling and then spread on the gluten free cake. And I learned cakes can be very crummy as you are decorating them.

So most of us will seek out a gluten free bakery, which has a dedicated gluten free facility, to purchase our cakes. This is why they can cost so much.

Since a layered cake is for very special occasions we do not often buy these kinds of cakes and may not know the quality of the bakeries in our areas who do gluten free cakes. This comes down to the last issue, taste. Gluten free anything can be finicky. It can be dry, crumbly, tasteless, or even mushy. Even the regular store bought cakes have issues with taste, most often that they don't have any. Store bought cakes can often be too sweet as they are covered with too much icing and the cake itself does not have much flavor. The best thing about making your own cake is you can control all aspects of taste. You choose the cake flavors, the icing and the fillings.

I decided since I really do not like the regular store bought cakes that I was going to make the cake for the party I was hosting for my parents 40th wedding anniversary. Since I was making it, this would naturally be a gluten free cake. I used the Luscious Lemon Cake recipe by Mary Capone from the April/May 2012 Living Without Magazine that I earlier tried as lemon cupcakes and made a 2 tiered lemon cake. The lemon flavor in this cake counters the sweetness of the icing and makes a natural paring.

I can definitely say that if you are to attempt a feat such as this, make sure you have at least a full day to complete the entire cake. Baking two of each of the 6" and 9" cakes took the morning with the cakes cooling till the afternoon, then they needed to be carefully sliced in half. I made the lemon curd for the filling and the lemon butter cream icing. Again I reduced the amount of milk in the icing recipe to make a thicker icing that would set hard on the cake. Layering the cake with the lemon curd and icing filling and then icing the outside of the cake took the rest of the day. I left the cake in the fridge to wait until closer to the event to finish the decorations including adding the fondant flowers I had made a couple weeks earlier. I think the only thing I would change would be to make the cake closer to the event date so it is little fresher and not quite as dry. The lemon curd filling is a nice touch as it adds moisture to the cakes themselves.

If you can bake, you can make a layer cake. Decorations can be as simple as just icing the cake and adding confectionery decorations that can be purchased at local cake decorating or craft stores, or as complicated as you can make it. The only limit in decorating is your imagination. Gluten free cakes should not be a daunting idea. Just take your time, plan your steps, put on some music and go for it. Be adventurous and you will be surprised what you can accomplish.