Today's Gluten Free Pizza
 

Tonight was my first foray into gluten free cooking. Despite being a regular reader of You Know Who's blog I was without the key ingredient (not gluten, the other key ingredient) xanthan gum.

Ordinarily, I use high gluten flour for my dough because it is teh awesome, but our nutritionist has us all on a gluten free diet. (Except for Mrs. Squirell who left the tell tale empty bread bag in an obvious place.)

So tonight's pizza received negative reviews from the hard core pizza eaters in the house who cut their teeth on NYC's finest pies. (not to mention mine)
It was summed up as being "Really, really bad" and "an ethnic slur"

Back to the drawing board. If it doesn't get a whole lot better with xanthan gum, then it will be a pizza-less world from now on.:(

Why are you all on a gluten-free diet?

Please remember that NYC pizza is trying to be Endicott pizza. ;) Nirchi's in the Binghamton area makes decent gluten free pie. My homemade gluten free isn't great but it is okay.

1 tablespoon yeast dissolved in
3/4 cup room temp milk
1/2 cup potato starch
3/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup shortening

keep it thin and hide it under a good sauce

Well, the inchling has had this perpetual sinus congestion since about 4 years ago. After a number of different docs had looked him over suggesting all sorts of things from a course of antibiotics (worked great as long as he was taking them, back to square one as soon as he stopped) to getting rid of the cats (Oh happy day!) to living in a dust free house, (not possible) we ended up at a nutritionist who has helped a number of friends of mine who have these mysterious ailments that no doctor can cure.

So she had him quit freebasing maple syrup, honey, and sucanat for several weeks and that helped his moods somewhat, but not his nose. So her next plan of attack is eliminating gluten. So out of solidarity we are all going GF since it is hard for a 7 year old to accept everyone else having a jolly good time while he can't.

My assertion is that the easiest way to avoid gluten is to avoid eating processed and refined food in general (I feel that is as big a problem as gluten in many cases) and would rather we just ate real whole foods instead of ersatz bread.

So tonight I capitulated and attempted pizza. There's a line from Bruno Schulz's "Street of Crocodiles" that captures the futility of the attempt: "And one's wandering proved as sterile and pointless as the excitement produced by a close study of pornographic albums."

Although, to be honest it was closer to gossip than pornography.

I'll never be like Endicott:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xj0...-endicot_music

So how long have you all been on the gluten free? Any improvement yet?

I'm assuming no antihistamines have helped? Did he go through allergy testing? Did wheat show up?

There actually has been some improvement, but it has only been about two weeks. Antihistamines are not very helpful, occasionally they give him some short term relief. I stopped taking them years ago since it was usually a case of trading one set of symptoms for another or finding out that the new side -effect free wonder drug has the tiny side effect of causing heart failure or permanent kidney damage or something.

Allergy testing showed (awesome, yes!) severe allergy to cats and dogs. (suh weet! bye cats! and can we get a dog? is already been answered) but no other allergies except to dust (not mites)

So, we'll see.

weird that there would be no reaction to grain if gluten is suspected. I guess those were skin tests, though, and an allergy could be different from an intolerance.

Gluten free diets suck, though, especially of you can't just lapse a little, occasionally -like on Pizza night. :(

Good luck with the next attempt

I think the secret is not to attempt to make gluten free pizza, as everything you make will be compared to pizza and rejected, even if it's better, because it's not the same.

Invent a new concoction, gluten free, which satisfies the same cravings and you would like to have repeatedly. Something that when you suggest it, they think yummy, and not pizza substitute. Maybe a gluten free version of this...

GF baking is hard, man. Really, really hard. And a lot of it still tastes like shit even when you get it "right." Xanthan gum is definitely a critical ingredient though, you can't just omit it and hope for the best. :) What kind of flour did you use? A blend that is high in tapioca starch is likely to be the most palatable to a kid.

Personally, if you're trying to keep a 7-year-old motivated, I'd let him have a commercial pre-made GF crust for now, and expand your repertoire later. Kinnikinnick is by far the best, IMHO. My non-GF family members openly like them. They make fantastic hamburger/hot dog buns too.

Imma have to try them but...

I used Bob's Red Mill, but at 4.80 a bag (less 22% discount at the coop) I don't think there will be many more forays into GF pizza. It's easy enough for me to say "The nutritionist said no, so, no."

Thankfully, he likes a lot of veggies and things like lentil dahl, hummus, guacamole, carrots, etc. He'll be ok. The nutritionist will also let him have "an event" each week. So he can decide what he wants his "event" to be, sugar or gluten, I guess.

That has sorghum in it which makes it taste the shit.