At first we were in shock, how will it work out with our little foodie (3 years old) and all of our delicious, pretty baked goods?
He already has a cows milk allergy, can't he now eat no gluten as well? But then you think right, come on, there are so many children with all sorts of allergies. We 'just' adapt our bakings. But to bake something tasty and good-looking without gluten is not that easy! Although there are recipes in abundance and many different gluten-free flours on the market, you first have get used to them to bake something good.
So you go to google and you arrive in Gluten-Free land. What a revelation it is, what's on offer is bizar! If you live in Rotterdam you will probably go and see what you can find at the Groene Passage or Eco Plaza, both are already organic and vegan anyway. But they do not really have a lot of choice in gluten free. Supermarkets like Plus (store and online), Albert Heijn (the big branches and online) and Jumbo (idem) on the other hand - unexpectedly - really do!
Furthermore, you can find gluten-free stores on google all over the country, so wherever you live, it will be all right. In addition, there are gazillion webshops in all kinds of allergy-free products. We name two: winkelglutenvrij en glutenvrijemarkt. Both give great service and have a very big assortment but the second webshop has the shortest shipping time.
Really delicious gluten free bread (we have already experienced) is probably the hardest things to bake yourself. The various gluten-free bread mixes are easy to make and the result looks great, but looks can be deceiving! Gluten make the bread mellow and give it consistency. And that's just the thing we are missing in the bread mixes: gluten!! Without those your tasty looking slice of bread - if you do not eat it immediately - turns into a pile of crumbs.
These are the 3 bread mixes that we have tried thus far, with slightly varying results. Now that a bread improverment paste and a gluten substitute are on their way, we will do our tests again. All three mixes will be used again, so later more about these results.
Meanwhile we tried the gluten free white bread mix by Schär, not to bake an ordinary whitebread but to bake cottage cheese/sultana buns with it. Those were so good, you really had no idea you were eating gluten free buns!
The two ordered gluten substitutes have arrived, with which we are going to bake bread again. We are very eager find out if those products can give the improvement we hope for.
Maybe not too clever of us but we have not considered that yeast or baking powder are not always gluten-free. In principle most brands of yeast are gluten free but some brands of baking powder are definitely not. Sometimes it can contain traces of gluten with which it came into contact during processing, we now know that Dr Oetker's Backin is such a baking powder. The baking powder from Lidl contains wheat flour to prevent clumping, so that is completely out of the question!
Tartaric acid baking powder from Tammi and the organic baking powder and baking soda from Doves Farm Organics are gluten-free, which is also clearly indicated on the packaging. But always check the ingredients for safety!
Recently we found 2 stores that only sell gluten-free products, as well as ready-made gluten free bread and pastries. In the shop have a cosy tea or coffee and taste the bakings while your there. You can also have a relaxed look around and ask your questions at the same time, how lovely is that? The first shop is located at Ridderkerk and is called Compleet Glutenvrij, the second shop is called Gebaksjuwelier and is located in Culemborg. Both stores have a webshop and you can also ask for online advice, because the owners both have experience with gluten free baking and also with gluten-allergic children of their own.
Photo's: Gebaksjuwelier
We hope that this blog will inform more (Grand)parents who also run into these difficulties. Online, just like with us, especially the crumbly gluten free bread in the bread boxes of the kids is a hot issue! That's why shortly a new blog with all kinds of tasty gluten-free products and tips for in the lunchbox will be available.
Looking forward to seeing you then!