a badly written post about gluten

One of the things I keep in mind about being vegan is that it is a choice rather than a requirement, health or otherwise. So whilst I obviously appreciate efforts made to feed me nice food, I'm happy just to choice from what's available, I don't expect anyone to make anything specially for me (and hey, sometimes they don't).

Health requirements, though, are different; perhaps I'm just glad I'm not limited in that way, but I do try to make an effort. Two different friends are made ill by gluten in food, so I bought some gluten-free flour. The first attempt to use it was in a vegetable crumble topping; fairly disastrous, I didn't put nearly enough fat in as it seemed to need, even though there was plenty in there, and it stayed drty, and white, and fairly inedible.

Next attempt was a birthday cake, to accommodate the celebrant's flatmate; vegan, of course, so I could have some too. I think this is wherte the gluten was really missed, as we were without eggs, too. Despite baking powder (which of course had wheat in anyway), what should have been a fairly light carrot cake with walnuts & apple completely failed to rise, and indeed 'set' rather than cooked. On the grounds that it's the thought that counts, I covered it in Green & Blacks Maya Gold, and presented it anyway, and got away with it.

No pictures of either to illustrate this post - probably a good thing. ;-)

Obviously I suspect with a little more practise I'd find better ways of using the flour, but I think in future I'll just avoid flour-based foods when they're around - easier with main meals rather than cake; in some ways I wanted to make something they wouldn't normally get to eat, but I'd rather be more successful otherwise, I think. I'm also used to using wholemeal flour, and the gluten-free type is very 'white', with no real fibre to it.