Against the Grain: Extraordinary Gluten-Free Recipes Made from Real, All-Natural Ingredients : A Cookbook

UPDATE 2/14/16 2 things to add: 1) Puff Pastry Croissants-- After making these several more times in various ways, I determined that doubling the recipe and using a measuring cup to simply scoop a large plop of the dough on the parchment paper makes for 6 very good sandwich rolls that tastes like buttery croissants. 2) I have now also made the Tater Doughnuts with Silky Chocolate Glaze. SO great. Just so great. The glaze tastes exactly like a doughnut store's chocolate glaze and makes what would be a good doughnut just absolutely great.UPDATE 3/29/15 I have downgraded this book to just 4 stars. I just tried a 5th recipe and it was a complete mess. I made the Puff Pastry Croissants, and the batter was nowhere near what was described and shown in the picture in the book. I ended up having to add an additional egg to make the batter anywhere near thin enough to pipe, and it was such a gluey mess that it in no way would be able to be piped in a back and forth motion. You can see my simple swipe in the pictures below. The end product tastes good, but the recipe itself was a fail.I somehow think that the author didn't actually have people test her recipes extensively in home kitchens. I live near Seattle, and have a different climate than she does, so perhaps that plays into how badly her recipes are working for me. However, I weigh all of my ingredients, use the same flours that she does, follow the directions religiously, and they still aren't turning out. I don't want to have to modify every recipe to work-- I want it to actually work on the first try.ORIGINAL REVIEW: I hesitate between giving it a 4 or 5 stars, but ultimately gave it 5 because the not-great things are vastly outweighed by the great things. I have Celiac Disease and can't have gums, so I'm always on the lookout for enlightened recipe authors who know that those aren't necessary for gluten free baked goods. I was really excited to try this book and am quite pleased with it. I have extensive experience baking gluten free (and even with gluten pre-diagnosis), and have found this book to be a great resource.I have made 4 things now from this book:*Buckwheat Waffles-- these were really light and fluffy. Almost too light, in fact. I prefer a heavier and heartier waffle, but these were still good and I would make them again.*Rustic Boule-- I don't have the four 4.5" mini springform pans in my kitchen (people actually have these?), so I decided to attempt it in a larger springform, knowing that it would probably underbake in the middle. It did, totally underbaked. I would probably not make this again, even if I decided to buy the mini springform pans for some reason. I do not blame the failure of this recipe on the book, only on my optimism.*Ciabatta Bread-- There has to be something totally wrong with the ingredients list on this recipe. In the text of the recipe, the author notes that the dough "will have a very liquid, batter-like texture". It was the complete opposite-- it had a very dense and springy texture. I compared the ingredients list to others she has in the book, and it has fewer liquids than other recipes, so I think there was a goof in the amount of milk listed for the recipe. I'm going to attempt this again with additional milk in the future because it was a good bread in spite of it. However, if you make this as written, know that kneading the additional 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour in at the end will be very difficult to do since the dough is so stiff. I ended up only doing 1/4 instead of 1/2 cup. In addition, the little rolls will not flatten as the recipes says they should with "the high ratio of liquid to flour". Again, it's actually a low ratio of liquid to flour, so the rolls stay pretty high and round. When baking, the bottoms were close to burning at 25 minutes (and my oven is calibrated), so make sure to check on them around that mark. The end result was a VERY heavy and dense roll. It was good, but it was like a rock in my stomach. Still, it was very very tasty and I would recommend making it with some alterations.*Sweet Potato Bread-- Let the heavens part and the angels sing! This stuff is excellent. Great crumb, great texture, very moist. Would definitely recommend!Things that I wish were different in this book:*You can easily tell cookbooks written by food bloggers vs. non-food bloggers. This author is very much not a food blogger. Nothing wrong with that, but food bloggers are used to answering a ton of questions and therefore anticipate them in their recipes and headnotes and are more thorough. This author does not, which can be somewhat frustrating because I know my questions are the same questions other people would have.*I wish the headnotes were a little bit more informative than stories about the recipes. For example, on the rustic boule, I would assume that the author tried it in a normal large springform pan and decided to go to the mini ones when that didn't work. It would have been nice to have that in the notes so I would know to not even attempt that alteration.By the way, I purchased the buckwheat flour she recommends and find that I really like it. I will definitely be getting it again.

The author poses a very different way to bake gluten-free, and it has recipes that generally do not contain xanthan and guar gums. This is something that people who are sensitive to these gums will be interested in. The recipes also use a very different type of buckwheat flour (Acadian silver) that bakes up golden in color, has a very mild flavor and is available from Amazon.If you buy this book, and I recommend doing so - I buy very, very few gluten-free cookbooks, you will also want to locate Ms Cain's blog. Search for "Against the Grain Cookbook FAQ" (no quotes). It extends the reach of the cookbook to dairy-free and egg-free. It also has recommendations for substitutions that you may want to use especially if "grain-free" is not important to you. Technically, most of the ingredients in the book are "grain-free." because neither tapioca starch nor buckwheat (a relative of rhubarb) are grains. As you know, buckwheat is not wheat and is not related in any way.I have been experimenting with some of Ms. Cain's recipes. In general I like them; however, I have made some changes that I think improve the result. For example, I have sought to reduce the amount of refined starch to 50% - 60% in some of the bread recipes by substituting some whole grain sorghum flour for some tapioca starch. (I'm not "against the grain".) I count "whole grain" (technically not a grain, but you know what I mean) buckwheat and whole grain sorghum in the equation that yields the percentage of whole grain products in the bread.One spectacular recipe in the book is bagels. If you look at the recipe, you'll see the spot in it where there is an opportunity to substitute a whole grain ingredient for "extra" tapioca starch. Sorghum works really well. The result is a fabulous bagel which I am still trying to refine further to eliminate the last bit of "gumminess." I'm just being a perfectionist. The bagels straight out of the book are just fine, and the sorghum substitution make them even better. Still, the recipe can be perfected. The flat bread just out of the cookbook--use the Acadian buckwheat or off-the-shelf buckwheat-- is fabulous.Please note: Different from virtually all other gluten-free bread recipes, this cookbook does not use or recommend a heavy-duty electric mixer. I read the directions and then defied them. Not a good idea. The pregelatinized mass that replaces the gums breaks down with too much energetic mixing, even mild mixing with the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. We don't have a food processor, which is what Ms. Cain suggests, so I mix by hand using a silicon rubber spatula and a large mixing bowl. This works just fine. If you have a food processor use it gently. If not, you'll do just fine with a rubber spatula.Why am I trying so hard to refine these recipes? We have a lot of really good bread recipes, and one even made the pages of Living Without magazine. However, only Ms. Cain's recipes have no xanthan or guar gum, and that makes it unique in my mind.

A truly excellent book, even for someone who has no need to avoid wheat. Superb recipes ... and a lot of them. Highly recommended.

Great recipes, have tested a few and my gluten free girl friend (gfgf) is now very happy with me :)

Not had chance to make many recipes but I like the authors values in using only natural ingredients.

Not many savoury recipies

Really helpful very good