Cooking Free, by Carol Fenster, Ph.D.

Cooking Free

200 Recipes for People with Food Allergies and Multiple Food Sensitivities

by Carol Fenster, Ph.D.

There is so much information packed into this 320 page book besides recipes, that it’s a must for the GF beginner, or anyone on any restricted diet, including gluten, dairy, eggs and sugar. It includes a glossary of all the new, strange ingredients you encounter in GF cooking, conversion tables for common ingredients you may now be banned from having, GF cooking tips, table of properties of all the unusual flours you must use and much more. It’s more like a manual than just a cookbook.

This book contains all the traditional cookbook categories, but I find the strongest section is baked goods. The author has spent years perfecting her personal flour mix for baking  (p.276), and I have a container of it ready to go at all times. All GF cookbooks and most GF cooking websites have their own variation of flour mixes, and any of them are good to start with if you don’t quite feel confident to experiment yet, but hers is one of the best.

When you get the book, turn to page 57 and try the Blueberry-Lemon Bread first!