As some of you may know, Wednesday, January 13th happens to be National Gluten Free Day! To celebrate, here are some fun gluten free recipes to try. Disclaimer: I am not celiac, have any sort of gluten intolerance, or even follow a gluten free diet. I am doing this as a sort of experiment for myself, as I am curious as to whether the absence of gluten makes a big difference in treats. 

The first thing I tried to make was a Gluten Free Naan/Flatbread. This sounded like an easy recipe to make, and is a nice addition to any meal. This recipe is from The Gunny Sack, and you can use their link to find more helpful tips on how to make this. https://www.thegunnysack.com/two-ingredient-dough-naan-flatbread/

Ingredients for the dough: 

1 cup of gluten free self rising flour

You can make this by mixing 1 cup of gluten free all purpose flour, 1½ teaspoons of baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon of salt. I used Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 flour. This flour blend already has xanthan gum in it, so there is no need to add any more in. This particular recipe doesn’t call for a xanthan gum blend, but the next one does, and I figured that it’s better to be safe than sorry. 

1 cup of plain, fat free, greek yogurt. 

You want to make sure to use plain flavored yoghurt, as you don’t want your flatbread tasting like strawberry. 

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Possible garnishes:

2 tablespoons of melted butter

2 teaspoons of salt

1 tablespoon of cilantro, parsley, or your herb of choice

Directions:

Mix together the flour and yogurt. 

The website says to use the bread hook attachment if you have a stand mixer. I initially mixed with a spatula, then switched to kneading with my hands. 

Knead for 3 minutes, making sure everything is fully combined.

Seperate the dough into 8 chunks, and roll them out on a floured surface.

The website also recommended using a rolling pin to roll out your dough. I just used my hands, which maybe wasn’t the best idea, because the flatbread turned out a bit too thick. Also, don’t worry if they look a bit small! Mine looked a lot smaller than expected, but were great. 

Heat up your pan with some olive oil! Either use a cast iron pan or a regular skillet, but make sure it is hot. 

Start cooking! You’re gonna want to keep watch on your flatbread, and flip it when it starts to puff up. Aim for a kind of spotty pattern with a nice brown color. 

I don’t really have a time estimate for this, just make sure you are keeping an eye on them. 

Lightly butter your flatbread, and sprinkle on any toppings. 

I may have over buttered mine, so they got a bit soggy, but the salt I sprinkled on top was quite nice. 

Review:

Overall this recipe is very easy to make, and a great thing to serve with a meal! I couldn’t even tell that the flour was gluten free! It tasted and smelled like normal naan. My attempt turned out a bit odd, but I would definitely try again. I think my main problem was overbuttering the flatbread, which made it soggy and damp (which is not a good thing). The butter tasted great, but it wasn’t what I was going for. Also, the inside was very odd. I think it was not thin enough, so it didn’t properly puff up or cook. I would describe the middle as the texture of cheese in a grilled cheese, that’s really not what naan is supposed to be like! Anyways, I really enjoyed making this recipe, and would definitely make it again, just with less butter. 

My next recipe is one of my favorite treats. I love the artificial grocery store-ness of these cookies. Of course, I am talking about the infamous Gluten Free Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies! Lofthouse knows their stuff, and these cookies are no exception. I remember always begging my mom to buy these cookies, and now I can make them at home! To go along with these cookies, Flippin Delicious (where I found the recipe) recommends making some of their American Buttercream Frosting, so I’m going to give that a whirl as well. Check out these links to find the website, and their tips. 

Cookie Ingredients:

½ cup of butter, softened

To soften the butter, you can just pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds.

1 cup of white sugar

2 eggs

¾ teaspoon of salt

1½ teaspoon of baking powder

1½ teaspoon of xanthan gum 

If you have a flour that already has xanthan gum, just skip this step. 

1½ teaspoon of vanilla extract 

3¼ cups of gluten free flour

If you’re using Bob’s Red Mill 1-1, the recipe recommends you only include 3 cups, so it doesn’t get too dry.

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F°

I did this step later, while I cut out my cookies, but you can do it whenever.

Cream the butter and sugar together on low-medium speed. Add your eggs, and beat until it’s smooth.

Add in the salt, baking powder, xanthan gum, vanilla extract, and flour and mix until combined.

I would recommend not using the mixer for this bit. I initially tried mixing all the ingredients in with the mixer, and that was not quite working, so I ended up mixing it by hand. 

Roll out the cookie dough and cut into shapes. You can make dog shaped cookies, flower shaped cookies, really any shape, or just the standard circle ones. 

For rolling the cookie dough out, make sure your workspace is floured. Like, very floured. My dough stuck to everything, and flour was my best friend. 

Place your cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes. They are not going to look done, take them out immediately if they start browning. Let them cool for 5-10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack. 

Frost, decorate, and enjoy!

Frosting:

I tried to make the buttercream frosting that the recipe recommended. I followed all the steps, used the correct ingredient measurements, did everything as I should. It turned out absolutely terrible. So, my cookies are not frosted. I only frosted them for a picture, but didn’t eat those ones, because the frosting is basically inedible and way too buttery tasting. The cookies are great without frosting, so it’s fine. If you have a good frosting recipe, definitely use that, because frosting the cookies is the best part. 

Cookie Review:

These cookies are great! Sure, the lack of frosting is kinda sad, but the cookies themselves are really tasty. They don’t exactly have the look of a grocery store soft frosted cookie, but they have the taste and texture. I would for sure make this again, and hopefully next time with better frosting. 

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you can make some of these recipes, and that my tips help you out. Have a great National Gluten Free Day!