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How Can It Be Gluten Free
The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook Volume 2: New Whole-Grain Flour Blend, 75+ Dairy-Free Recipes
Our all-new collection of gluten-free recipes features a new whole-grain flour blend, more than 50 dairy-free recipes, and nutritionals for every recipe.
Building on the best-selling success of The How Can It Be Gluten- Free Cookbook, we’ve gone back into the test kitchen to expand our repertoire of revolutionary gluten-free recipes, including developing a whole-grain flour blend that brings earthy flavor to a variety of baked goods such as sandwich bread, waffles, rustic walnut-cherry boule, chai spice bread, sesame crackers, and a free-form rustic tart dough used to make a stunning pear and cranberry tart. Throughout there are recipes that use the test kitchen’s all-purpose flour blend, such as bagels, hamburger rolls, brioche, baguettes, and easy-to-make pan pizzas, as well as sweet treats like yeasted doughnuts, blondies, lemon layer cake, and Dutch apple pie. Also new to this book are nutritionals for every recipe and dairy-free versions of more than half the baked goods based on extensive testing done with alternative milks and yogurt and vegan cream cheese and butter. Innovative techniques and discoveries are explained a simple oven proofing method that helps gluten-free breads rise taller and more consistently, foil collars that ensure hamburger buns that are the right size, and a double-batter-ing and double-frying method for fried fish with a crispy gluten-free coating. From breakfast foods, grains, and comfort foods to a whole range of baked goods, this new volume delivers groundbreaking recipes plus information on the best gluten-free breads and pastas on the market today and an essential resource section that is a road map for cooking and baking without gluten.
Building on the best-selling success of The How Can It Be Gluten- Free Cookbook, we’ve gone back into the test kitchen to expand our repertoire of revolutionary gluten-free recipes, including developing a whole-grain flour blend that brings earthy flavor to a variety of baked goods such as sandwich bread, waffles, rustic walnut-cherry boule, chai spice bread, sesame crackers, and a free-form rustic tart dough used to make a stunning pear and cranberry tart. Throughout there are recipes that use the test kitchen’s all-purpose flour blend, such as bagels, hamburger rolls, brioche, baguettes, and easy-to-make pan pizzas, as well as sweet treats like yeasted doughnuts, blondies, lemon layer cake, and Dutch apple pie. Also new to this book are nutritionals for every recipe and dairy-free versions of more than half the baked goods based on extensive testing done with alternative milks and yogurt and vegan cream cheese and butter. Innovative techniques and discoveries are explained a simple oven proofing method that helps gluten-free breads rise taller and more consistently, foil collars that ensure hamburger buns that are the right size, and a double-batter-ing and double-frying method for fried fish with a crispy gluten-free coating. From breakfast foods, grains, and comfort foods to a whole range of baked goods, this new volume delivers groundbreaking recipes plus information on the best gluten-free breads and pastas on the market today and an essential resource section that is a road map for cooking and baking without gluten.
328 pages, Paperback
First published October 13, 2015
123 people are currently reading
217 people want to read
About the author
America's Test Kitchen
252 books602 followersAmerica's Test Kitchen, based in a brand new state-of-the-art 60,000 sq. ft. facility with over 15,000 sq. ft. of test kitchens and studio space, in Boston's Seaport District, is dedicated to finding the very best recipes for home cooks. Over 50 full-time (admittedly obsessive) test cooks spend their days testing recipes 30, 40, up to 100 times, tweaking every variable until they understand how and why recipes work. They also test cookware and supermarket ingredients so viewers can bypass marketing hype and buy the best quality products. As the home of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines, and publisher of more than one dozen cookbooks each year, America's Test Kitchen has earned the respect of the publishing industry, the culinary world, and millions of home cooks. America's Test Kitchen the television show launched in 2001, and the company added a second television program, Cook's Country, in 2008.
Discover, learn, and expand your cooking repertoire with Julia Collin Davison, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop, Dan Souza, Lisa McManus, Tucker Shaw, Bryan Roof, and our fabulous team of test cooks!
Learn more at https://www.americastestkitchen.com/.
Discover, learn, and expand your cooking repertoire with Julia Collin Davison, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop, Dan Souza, Lisa McManus, Tucker Shaw, Bryan Roof, and our fabulous team of test cooks!
Learn more at https://www.americastestkitchen.com/.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
February 20, 2017
A great companion to the first book, this one includes recipes for their all-purpose gluten-free flour blend, but also introduces a new whole-grain gluten-free flour blend. Unlike the first book, the majority of these recipes are either dairy free or can be made dairy free through substitutions.
Their AP GF flour does have non-fat milk powder in it, but can be left out, or replaced with soy milk powder, and they use both xanthan gum and powdered psyllium husks in their baked goods. They offer some possible substitutions for the xanthan gum in the introduction, and each recipe will tell you whether you can or can't leave it, or the powdered psyllium husks, out.
Their whole-grain flour blend is made of teff flour, brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, and ground golden flax seeds. They recommend Bob's Red Mill for all but the flax seeds, as Bob's grind is too coarse. For the flax, they recommend a product with the totally ridiculous name of "Flax USA 100% Natural Flax, Cold Milled Ground Golden Flax Seed." I really feel like they could have worked flax in there at least one more time: FLAX FLAX FLAX. Ground flax seeds are tricky because they go rancid fast, so you want to buy them fresh and then use or freeze them. This brand is for sale on Amazon, but I don't know how long they've been sitting around, and I don't know yet if I can find them for sale locally.
The introduction includes a lot of the same information as the first book: What gluten is, how to bake without it; dairy-free products; gluten-free flours, meals, grains, and leaveners, where to buy them, how to use them, where to store them. Their product reviews for gluten-free breads, pastas, and flours have been updated. They tested whole-grain breads this time around, as well as whole-grain premixed flour blends. They liked a couple of the breads, but could not find a whole-grain flour blend they found satisfactory. Like the first book, each recipe has a little GF Testing Lab box where it goes through possible substitutions, and if they're using their own AP GF Flour mix, they'll tell you if you can substitute King Arthur's or—and this is new—Betty Crocker's GF flours and the results. For the recipes that use their whole-grain blend, they don't recommend a premixed flour, so you have to use theirs or cry. As far as I can tell, the recipes are pretty evenly split between the AP and the whole-grain flours.
The book covers breakfast, grain dishes, rice noodles, some breaded meats and fish, breads and crackers, cakes, muffins, pies, and fruit desserts. Again, a lot of the recipes are for basic things I'd totally make. Especially the hamburger buns, bagels, New York-style crumb cake, and graham crackers. And the doughnuts, except I will never make them because I don't deep fry. Still, they look SO GOOD. They're on the cover if you want to gaze at them lovingly, as I do, every time I pick this book up.
There are color photos for nearly every recipe. Each chapter has a contents page where it indicates which recipes can be made without dairy. There's an index, and nutritional information for each recipe in the back of the book, too, which is new. Another great resource, and another book I'll probably buy.
Their AP GF flour does have non-fat milk powder in it, but can be left out, or replaced with soy milk powder, and they use both xanthan gum and powdered psyllium husks in their baked goods. They offer some possible substitutions for the xanthan gum in the introduction, and each recipe will tell you whether you can or can't leave it, or the powdered psyllium husks, out.
Their whole-grain flour blend is made of teff flour, brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, and ground golden flax seeds. They recommend Bob's Red Mill for all but the flax seeds, as Bob's grind is too coarse. For the flax, they recommend a product with the totally ridiculous name of "Flax USA 100% Natural Flax, Cold Milled Ground Golden Flax Seed." I really feel like they could have worked flax in there at least one more time: FLAX FLAX FLAX. Ground flax seeds are tricky because they go rancid fast, so you want to buy them fresh and then use or freeze them. This brand is for sale on Amazon, but I don't know how long they've been sitting around, and I don't know yet if I can find them for sale locally.
The introduction includes a lot of the same information as the first book: What gluten is, how to bake without it; dairy-free products; gluten-free flours, meals, grains, and leaveners, where to buy them, how to use them, where to store them. Their product reviews for gluten-free breads, pastas, and flours have been updated. They tested whole-grain breads this time around, as well as whole-grain premixed flour blends. They liked a couple of the breads, but could not find a whole-grain flour blend they found satisfactory. Like the first book, each recipe has a little GF Testing Lab box where it goes through possible substitutions, and if they're using their own AP GF Flour mix, they'll tell you if you can substitute King Arthur's or—and this is new—Betty Crocker's GF flours and the results. For the recipes that use their whole-grain blend, they don't recommend a premixed flour, so you have to use theirs or cry. As far as I can tell, the recipes are pretty evenly split between the AP and the whole-grain flours.
The book covers breakfast, grain dishes, rice noodles, some breaded meats and fish, breads and crackers, cakes, muffins, pies, and fruit desserts. Again, a lot of the recipes are for basic things I'd totally make. Especially the hamburger buns, bagels, New York-style crumb cake, and graham crackers. And the doughnuts, except I will never make them because I don't deep fry. Still, they look SO GOOD. They're on the cover if you want to gaze at them lovingly, as I do, every time I pick this book up.
There are color photos for nearly every recipe. Each chapter has a contents page where it indicates which recipes can be made without dairy. There's an index, and nutritional information for each recipe in the back of the book, too, which is new. Another great resource, and another book I'll probably buy.
October 27, 2016
Oh, American Test Kitchen, how I love thee...
I haven't read the first book yet but I'm probably going to but both. I have to be gfs on doctor's orders. This book is amazing. Savory, sweets, and everything in between. There is a new whole grain flour blend and over 75 dairy free recipes. But it's not just the recipes but the science behind how gf cooking is different and how to achieve great results that sets it apart from the pack.
How to get your bread to not be a dense brick or goo ball, get those blueberries to stay suspended in those muffins, taste and performance charts for flour brands and types. Basically your tested sour e of gfs advices. All the stuff you wish you new at your fingertips.
If you have to be gfs, buy it!
I haven't read the first book yet but I'm probably going to but both. I have to be gfs on doctor's orders. This book is amazing. Savory, sweets, and everything in between. There is a new whole grain flour blend and over 75 dairy free recipes. But it's not just the recipes but the science behind how gf cooking is different and how to achieve great results that sets it apart from the pack.
How to get your bread to not be a dense brick or goo ball, get those blueberries to stay suspended in those muffins, taste and performance charts for flour brands and types. Basically your tested sour e of gfs advices. All the stuff you wish you new at your fingertips.
If you have to be gfs, buy it!
January 27, 2019
There are a lot of great things about this cookbook. For example, it's an excellent resource. At the beginning of the book are all the gluten-free basics, such as the science of gluten, strategies for replacing wheat flour, making recipes dairy-free, and taste tests.
Then there are so many delightful recipes, including yeasted breads, sweet breads, pizza, crackers, cookies, bars, pies, tarts, cakes, muffins, grain salads, waffles, pancakes, and more. Each recipe has a full-color photo and nutritional information is included in the back.
The cookbook uses its own gluten-free flour blend and gluten-free whole-grain blend. However, each recipe comes with a clear guide including the ability (or inability) to use the Betty Crocker or Bob's Red Mill pre-made flour blends. Each recipes also includes helpful information about how to make the recipe diary-free, heads-ups about ingredients that are sometimes NOT gluten-free (depending on the brand), and other crucial information.
Something I don't like about this book is it isn't always user-friendly. It's like a few key details on how-to are missing. For example, you're instructed to "cut out" donuts or "roll" bread to shape it... this just doesn't work. Gluten free "dough" isn't the consistency of gluten-full dough. It's much more like a thick batter, and so it doesn't roll or cut very well. It's like the book is trying too hard to act like gluten-free can follow the same techniques when it's trying to make the same flavors, but this isn't true. The donuts were much too difficult to roll out and cut, and it worked SO much better to just pipe out the batter. The bread dough didn't roll at all, but I could pat and form it into a bread-shape.
The last things missing, the final polish needed for this book, would be a better acknowledgement of how unwieldy and sticky gluten free batter is, and how it therefore requires different techniques sometime: less rolling, more spreading; less cutting and shaping, more piping and spooning; etc. Several recipes now have been like this. And despite what the guiding pictures seem to show, there has to be a better way.
Then there are so many delightful recipes, including yeasted breads, sweet breads, pizza, crackers, cookies, bars, pies, tarts, cakes, muffins, grain salads, waffles, pancakes, and more. Each recipe has a full-color photo and nutritional information is included in the back.
The cookbook uses its own gluten-free flour blend and gluten-free whole-grain blend. However, each recipe comes with a clear guide including the ability (or inability) to use the Betty Crocker or Bob's Red Mill pre-made flour blends. Each recipes also includes helpful information about how to make the recipe diary-free, heads-ups about ingredients that are sometimes NOT gluten-free (depending on the brand), and other crucial information.
Something I don't like about this book is it isn't always user-friendly. It's like a few key details on how-to are missing. For example, you're instructed to "cut out" donuts or "roll" bread to shape it... this just doesn't work. Gluten free "dough" isn't the consistency of gluten-full dough. It's much more like a thick batter, and so it doesn't roll or cut very well. It's like the book is trying too hard to act like gluten-free can follow the same techniques when it's trying to make the same flavors, but this isn't true. The donuts were much too difficult to roll out and cut, and it worked SO much better to just pipe out the batter. The bread dough didn't roll at all, but I could pat and form it into a bread-shape.
The last things missing, the final polish needed for this book, would be a better acknowledgement of how unwieldy and sticky gluten free batter is, and how it therefore requires different techniques sometime: less rolling, more spreading; less cutting and shaping, more piping and spooning; etc. Several recipes now have been like this. And despite what the guiding pictures seem to show, there has to be a better way.
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April 15, 2016ATK did their very best work. For a cohort of people who probably wouldn't go gluten-free for the heck of it, they really went all in on these recipes. I salute their geeky assiduous approach.
December 2, 2016
I checked this out from the library and I think it's a good enough reference book that I'd buy it! It has actual information about gluten-free cooking beyond just recipes. Very helpful!
July 5, 2019
My biggest gripe (again) about GF recipes is the need for hard-to-find and expensive ingredients. Thankfully, and I'll forgive it this time, the hard to find ingredients are limited to the gluten-free flour blend BUT ATK included some commercially available flour blends in case this is difficult. On that note, I also love that they included the price, ingredients, and what the commercial flour mixes worked for and what they did not work for. In fact, they included a lot of commercially available ingredients and options with notes and how to keep the items at their best state.
ATK constantly delivers in pulling together a cookbook and a knowledge base into one book. I always enjoy learning about different things in baking and cooking, such as resting the batter or utilizing different mixing methods. They include pictures of different results to show what XYZ does compared to ABC. There's such a variety in this book that I feel like this is a must have for celiac folks or celiac households: cooking GF, especially baking, is a science that can be extremely frustrating without some type of helping hand like ATK.
ATK constantly delivers in pulling together a cookbook and a knowledge base into one book. I always enjoy learning about different things in baking and cooking, such as resting the batter or utilizing different mixing methods. They include pictures of different results to show what XYZ does compared to ABC. There's such a variety in this book that I feel like this is a must have for celiac folks or celiac households: cooking GF, especially baking, is a science that can be extremely frustrating without some type of helping hand like ATK.
October 20, 2022
I love that the recipes include not just the how but also the why. Great pictures, lots of variations. Borrowed this from the library and am probably going to buy a copy for myself.
January 2, 2018
This is a gem. Very helpful for gluten free bakers. Good recipes, helpful explanations and techniques. Product/ingredient reviews helpful as well. I use this book the most for gluten free baking. Has many whole grain recipes. All have been winners so far. Covers all the bases.
December 30, 2017
Spectacular companion to the first GF book, and truly one of my saviors as I feed my celiac child
March 6, 2018
There's at least 10 recipes in here that I want to try. I'm not gluten free, so I'll be subbing the ATK gluten free flour for all purpose. It worked well for the banana bread recipe I used from the first book. All the recipes have photos which is a major bonus.
4/5stars
4/5stars
March 14, 2022
The pie crust recipe is by far the best gluten free crust I have made. It does take more ingredients than usual, such as xantham gum, which is expensive, but it baked beautifuly without burning and didn't crumble.
November 15, 2015
It provided good information, especially with comparing different flour brands, etc. if I had more time to focus on GF baking, I would have this book on my shelf.
December 21, 2015
I LOVED the first volume, and it revolutionized my GF baking....now if I could only find teff flour in central PA, I could try their whole grain GF mix too! Can't wait.
July 14, 2017
Great cookbook if you're looking for gluten free versions of more traditional baked goods.
November 4, 2018
The introductory sections of this cookbook are phenomenal with the descriptions of the grains, and comparisons of the popular widely available products in North America.
Why did I rate it only 3 stars? Two reasons. (1) The vast majority of the book is cooking breads and treats. While I realize that the majority of concerns is gluten in grain-based products, which fall into this category, there are plenty of recipes in main courses that have grain... and more importantly (2) I did not find any recipes that said "eat me." In my meat-and-potatoes blue-collar world, these recipes seem to have more plate and price than flavor if served in your $100 fru-fru platter at your upscale chrome and glass bistro.
Why did I rate it only 3 stars? Two reasons. (1) The vast majority of the book is cooking breads and treats. While I realize that the majority of concerns is gluten in grain-based products, which fall into this category, there are plenty of recipes in main courses that have grain... and more importantly (2) I did not find any recipes that said "eat me." In my meat-and-potatoes blue-collar world, these recipes seem to have more plate and price than flavor if served in your $100 fru-fru platter at your upscale chrome and glass bistro.
February 26, 2018
A little repetitive from Volume 1. But if you have to pick one or other to buy, get this one, with updated info.
February 9, 2019
Checked out from library, will purchase for the whole grain chocolate chip cookie recipe alone!!!
March 10, 2019
Fantastic recipes! I love the fact they've developed recipes from a lot of testing
January 26, 2020
More fantastic recipes and insight into the use of gluten-free flours from America's Test Kitchen! I highly recommend both Volumes 1 and 2 to anyone who is gluten-intolerant or celiac.
January 6, 2021
Full of great information about how different flours react to baking. The gluten free noodle recipe is perfection.
April 19, 2021
This book has great advice on brands and substitutions. Interacting with the recipes will teach you how to think and create gluten free. Can you tell how much I like and love this book!
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April 8, 2023to-read
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April 20, 2025Book two is an abbreviated version of the original. I prefer it to book one.
July 10, 2016
Good cookbook and rating if you are unfamiliar with gluten free at all.
January 13, 2018
Best GF doughnut recipe.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews