5 Tips for Converting Home Baking to Gluten-Free

Sarah Sankow, pastry chef at Madison Beach Hotel, offers the following five tips and tricks to convert traditional baking recipes to gluten-free delights.

1.       Make sure that nothing else is in the oven with gluten while baking a gluten-free item. A mere crumb of gluten can spark the autoimmune response in people with celiac disease and food sensitivities.

2.       Use dedicated baking pans and utensils when baking gluten-free items to avoid cross-contamination. Gluten is a protein and proteins cannot be “killed off” using heat or disinfecting agents.

3.       Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour is great for baking cookies and bars. Both blends contain tapioca flour and sorghum flour. The tapioca flour adds a light texture and sorghum flour has a mild flavor, smooth texture, and high protein content.

4.       When using Bob’s 1-to-1 flour for baking a cake, be sure to add ¼ cup of liquid to prevent the cake from being too “spongy”.

5.       Always double-check labels or suppliers to make sure product is safe. More and more labels are clearly indicating gluten-free. Watch out for yeast extract and modified food starch as these are glutinous, but not readily known. A phone app called “The Gluten Free Scanner” can scan product bar codes to be sure the item is safe to use.

All made with Gluten-Free Ingredients

As the pastry chef, Sarah has the perfect opportunity to make everyone smile as they indulge in beautiful and tasty desserts at The Wharf Restaurant. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America in Baking and Pastry Arts, Sarah enjoys the creativity and freedom to innovate in the pastry kitchen. Her current favorite dessert is her Icebox Cake – which tastes like a banana split with a cookie crumble crust made without gluten. Sarah designs a new menu seasonally. Stop by The Wharf to try her creations.