So if you have someone with one of the major grain allergies in your life, here are some things to look out for:
Corn - baking powder, vanilla extract, gluten-free flour mixes, xantham gum, powdered sugar, caramel coloring, food starch or modified food starch, dextrose, cellulose, natural flavors, generic "vegetable" (so if you see "vegetable oil" but not a list of ingredients it's probably corn), and decaf coffee or tea are common baking ingredients that contain corn. This is nowhere near a complete list, but it does cover the big ones for someone who is planning on baking for a corn-allergic friend.
Wheat/Gluten - spelt, bulgar, barley, rye, oats (unless certified gluten free), food starch or modified food starch, vanilla extract, natural flavors, maltodextrin, malt extract, malt flavoring (anything with the word "malt," really), beer, and grain alcohols are some of the more common items that contain hidden wheat.
I'm sure that list looks incredibly frustrating to a baker - I used to bake a lot so I should know. Baking or cooking for someone with a grain allergy is a gigantic headache, but there are a few ways to get past some of this stuff.
So anyway, here are some tips:
Ingredients
Alcohol - Here are the kinds of alcohol that people with grain allergies should avoid or consume only after checking for allergen ingredients:
Beer (wheat/corn unless otherwise specified)
Bourbon (wheat/gluten)
Brandy (caramel coloring in some brands)
Cordials/Liqueurs (corn syrup in many, neutral grain spirits in others)
Dark Rum (some dark rums are aged in whiskey barrels)
Fortified Wine (corn syrup)
Neutral Grain Spirits (made of grains)
Scotch (wheat/gluten)
Schnapps (corn/wheat)
Vodka (check carefully for potato vodka - some vodkas in the US are made with corn or wheat)
Whiskey (wheat/gluten)
Most wine is safe for people with wheat allergies, and some dessert wines do a good job of replacing spirits in a lot of recipes. If a recipe calls for any kind of brown alcohol, replace it with sherry. If it calls for any kind of sweet liqueur sherry or port will work depending on if you want vanilla or cherry notes. If you just need to set something on fire or burn off a high proof spirit, vodka works well.
Baking Powder - baking powder is made with baking soda and corn starch; there are potato starch baking powders available, but they can be quite expensive and are frequently out of stock. You can make a baking powder replacement by combining the following: 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to replace 1 teaspoon baking powder
Brown Sugar - check for food coloring; some of it has caramel coloring in it and might make your friend sick. C&H light and dark brown sugar have both been effective for my baking needs.
Chocolate - if you're trying to make thumbprint cookies for your grain allergic friend, or a chocolate cake, make sure to read the ingredients on the chocolate as well as on the flours that you are buying. Most milk and bittersweet chocolate has vanilla extract in it and, barring calling the chocolate manufacturer to find out who supplies their vanilla extract and then calling the extract company and going over an ingredients list (a frustrating, time consuming, and likely useless proposition), there is no way to guarantee that the vanilla extract is safe for your friend. But there are a few kinds of chocolate that are reliably safe for corn and wheat allergies - Trader Joe's 72% Dark Chocolate Bars and Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (can be found in the G-Free section of almost all Fresh & Easy stores) have short ingredient lists and you can always call your friend to double check before purchasing. For cocoa powder, Hershey's unsweetened is a stable option; any kind of unsweetened baker's chocolate will usually work too.
Corn Starch - many recipes call for some kind of fine starch; potato starch or tapioca starch are widely available and can replace the allergen-based starch.
Corn Syrup - brown rice syrup can apparently work as a substitute for corn syrup; cornallergens.com also suggests this recipe to replace corn syrup: 1 cup corn syrup = 1 cup sugar plus 1/4 cup liquid (water, milk, or whatever other liquid is called for by the recipe)
Flour - Bob's Red Mill flour is available at most major grocery stores. The "gluten-free all purpose baking flour" is full of stuff that people with multiple grain allergies can't have, but oat flour, brown rice flour, and almond flour in a 2:2:1 ratio makes a palatable replacement for wheat flour or cornmeal. If you don't get almond flour (either because it is expensive or because your friend also has nut allergies) you can add 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of butter (or shortening) to any recipe you're making - the texture is going to be off one way or another so adding more protein/fat at least helps to assure you that your baked treat will hold together when it comes out of the oven.
Honey - check the label to ensure that you're not buying honey syrup or honey-flavored spread or any of the other silly things people call honey flavored corn syrup.
Maple Syrup - make sure that you're buying pure, 100%, Grade A or B maple syrup. A lot of pancake syrup out there is maple-flavored corn syrup.
Molasses - check for corn syrup, artificial flavors, and caramel coloring. "Pure" molasses is usually safe but when you're dealing with someone with food allergies, you must always read the label.
Powdered Sugar - Vons Organics and Trader Joe's both have powdered sugar made with tapioca starch instead of corn starch, and Whole Foods carries a potato starch powdered sugar.
Vanilla Extract - don't use any food extracts unless you have made them yourself. I know it completely ruins the flavor to leave out the vanilla extract in a lot of baked goods, but extracts are either made with corn alcohol or bourbon, both of which may cause a reaction in people with very sensitive allergies (if a bottle of extract says natural or pure vanilla it is a filthy liar and I hate it - it is vanilla and alcohol, sometimes with corn syrup mixed in just to piss me off). If you want to make your own extract purchase a 750mL bottle of 35% alcohol that is safe for your friend (vodka and clear rum work nicely), add your flavoring agent - two vanilla beans or one bunch of peppermint or ten unsalted almonds, whatever flavor you want to use (don't crush it or mash it - the alcohol will do a good job of dissolving it), and set it in a cool, dark place for two months. After two months, strain out the remnants of your flavoring agent, and pour your fresh extract into small, dark glass bottles; use in the same amount that you would use store-bought extract and weep over the fact that the food allergic can't have nice things without two months of planning (hope you didn't want to have those cookies done in time for Christmas). If you don't want to go to all that work, you can grind up a quarter of a vanilla bean and add it in place of extract in most recipes (please note that vanilla beans are really expensive).
White Vinegar - usually made out of corn alcohol. You can typically replace it with apple cider vinegar.
Xantham Gum - Lots of gluten free recipes call for xantham gum because the proteins in alternative flours aren't quite right and things end up binding together oddly. Unfortunately the vast majority of xantham gum isn't safe for people who are corn allergic because it is grown in a corn solution. Anyway, Guar gum doesn't work quite as well (and is expensive) but you can use it. Another option is to play with the eggs you use. If the recipe calls for eggs, whip them before introducing them to the batter and it'll help with the texture and the binding of the flour. You can also add an extra egg white or an extra teaspoon of butter to most recipes to help with the texture.
Safe Food Handling
Cross contamination - Yes, we can literally get sick from a wooden spoon or a scored cutting board. Before you start to cook for your grain-allergic friend clean all of the surfaces in your kitchen, making sure to remove any crumbs and flour spills from your counter top. Use non-porous surfaces, utensils, and bakeware; metal bowls, metal spoons, and so on.
Flouring Surfaces - If you're working with dough, you'll need to flour the surface you're working on, your rolling pin, and your hands. Please make sure to use a non-allergen flour to do this; it's surprising the number of people who space out on using safe flours AFTER they've mixed the dough.
Greasing pans - Grease pans with safe vegetable oil, butter, or lard - most aerosol sprays contain allergens.
Storage - Put your allergy-friendly food in sealed, airtight containers. And then maybe close them with packing tape. If you've made a whole batch of allergy-safe chocolate chip cookies, stored them in one giant container, and then your brother puts a layer of regular chocolate chip cookies on top of the allergy safe ones, the entire container is no longer allergy safe. If even one crumb fell down and got lodged in another cookie it is enough to provoke a very serious allergic reaction in some people. So clean your kitchen, bake any allergy safe foods first, then store and seal them before you get to any other baking project.
General Issues
Texture - Pretty much everything will have a funky texture when you switch from wheat or corn flour to an alternative flour. Things that are supposed to be light and flaky are the worst, while foods that are supposed to be dense have fewer problems. Almost everything will also be substantially more crumbly than you expect, so plan to cut large slices or make large shapes - a thin slice of g-free pie crust will dissolve, a thick slice with a shallower layer of filling works better (as does doubling up the dough on the bottom of the pie-pan); a delicate cookie-cutter teapot will fall apart or won't bake cohesively in the first place, but a simple circle or diamond will hold together pretty well. You may also want to over-grease the bottoms and sides of any baking dishes; it will prevent you from having to fight to unstick your baking, which results in a spectacular explosion of gluten-free crumbs surprisingly frequently. It's better to start with something dense - brownies and cakes translate pretty well into allergy safe foods, they are expected to be served in large chunks, and they aren't as hand-held as a cookie so crumbliness doesn't matter as much. Don't go into baking allergy safe foods and expect things to be light and fluffy; most of the things I bake these days resemble hockey pucks much more than they resemble clouds, though they do taste significantly better than either of those things.
Refusal - Don't be offended if your allergic friend refuses to eat the food that you have made for them. Please, please, don't be offended. We don't want to hurt your feelings, and we don't think that you would intentionally hurt us, but we know that you just don't understand what it's like. It took me a year and a half of constantly living with my food allergies to figure out the stuff listed here, and in that year and a half I've gotten sick from the food that I cooked for myself several times, as well as food that others cooked for me. I have had well-meaning friends pressure me into eating and drinking things that meant I got to spend more time with my toilet than with my friends. I have had relatives brush off the thought of cross contamination as paranoia and pickiness. I have had people assure me, "no really, it's fine, I checked" and after I take a bite say "what do you mean X has corn it in?!?" And these are all wonderful, kind people who know about me and are familiar with my allergies, all of whom want me to be able to participate and have a good time.
If you really want to cook for your grain-allergic friend, talk to them about it (seriously, don't spring it on them) and give them a complete list of the ingredients you need for your recipe. Ask them if there are any ingredients they are uncertain of, ask them for good substitutions (including stores where the substitution is sold and brand names) and ask them again after you've bought all the ingredients to read through the nutrition information with you. Maybe even ask to come over and cook for them in their kitchen, and try to make a fun day of it - if your friend participates and watches you following safe food handling rules, both of you are more likely to have a good experience and a nice treat at the end of the day.
We don't want to make you feel bad, we aren't trying to be cool loners with twisted guts and special diets. We just want to hang out with our friends for the holidays and maybe not spend the night before Christmas with visions of sugarplums dancing in the toilet bowl.
Happy almost holidays, be nice to each other out there.
Cheers,
- Alli
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