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Summary: Delectable recipes perfect for the wheat and gluten-free!
Review: As a person who must avoid gluten, desserts are the thing I miss most. Try one of these and you'll think you were in heaven. I prepare these recipes for company and special events and everyone has enjoyed them. They are truly fine examples of the best European desserts! * Hints* The author calls for grinding the nuts in a hand mill. These are expensive and hard to find. I use a coffee grinder instead and have had no problems. * For celiacs- beware of the instruction to dust the pans with spelt flour--use another GF flour instead. Please yourself and your guests with flavor and style!
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Summary: Excellent GF recipes based on ground nuts
Review: Contains excellent info on working with many kinds of ground nuts for baking. The results are exactly like what you'd find in a fine Viennese konditerei. GF flour is typically used to dust pans. And, if you're tired of eating rubbery baked goods, there's no xantham/guar gum in these recipes. I've made about 12 recipes and they are clearly written and easy to follow. Not too many weird/hard to obtain ingredients. Invest in a good quality spring-form pan (~$15) if you buy this book.
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Summary: Safe for people with gluten and lactose allergies.
Review: Do you know that the most delicious cakes and pastries are made with ground nuts - no flour at all? And that they have a very long shelf life? And lend themselves to freezing? People with an allergy to gluten can use these recipes without fear, because nuts are gluten-free. And these deserts do not contain dairy either, making them safe to use for those with an allergy to lactose and for those who observe certain religious customs.
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Summary: Yet Another Reservation
Review: For those who are truly wheat and dairy intolerant, this book is rather a taunt than a solution. It is of little solace for anyone who is allergic to eggs, and many people who are allergic to wheat are also likely to be allergic to nuts. It is a parade of all the delicious things one cannot have.
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Summary: Not Dairy Free
Review: I am allergic to wheat and choose a vegan diet. I purchased this book due to the summary and fabulous reviews only to find that the title of this book is completely innaccurate. It is NOT dairy free, but instead it is lactose free. Most of the recipies call for at least 4 eggs and often they're separated, which makes it difficult to use egg replacer. The use of nuts is an excellent alternative to flour and I feel that this book is suited to persons with a wheat allergy. However, this book is not suited for those that choose to live dairy free.
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Summary: Good for low carb dieters, too
Review: I bought this book hoping that I could adjust some of the recipes to use splenda or stevia to substitute for some of the sugar in the recipes, since otherwise, the recipes usually are low enough in total carbohydrate grams to be do-able on even the more restrtictive low-carbohydrate diets. The best luck in terms of lowering the sugar content while still keeping a good flavor and texture involved switching out half the sugar for splenda, and not using stevia at all except in the darkest chocolate of the recipes, where the herbal note of stevia doesn't compete with the other flavors. The sugar is still there, but there's less, and a low-carber can feel like they're not being _completely_ bad, as well as not _completely_ deprived of desserts.Some of the recipes involve higher-carb fruits like bananas, but in general, the use of the nut flours brings most of the recipes (using your food counts book) to within the realm of possibility.
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Summary: Best desserts found in 20 years of looking
Review: My father was diagnosed with gluten intolerance over 20 years ago. My whole family loves to cook and has tried every book on the market, and every experiment with weird flours you can possibly imagine -- mostly with so/so results. Overly dense bread, cakes with strange aftertastes... acceptable but not stellar. Then I saw this book and I bought it! Wow! As a birthday present I made the hazelnut brownies for my father and you'd think I had given him a new house or something. YES, these recipes are work, not something you can do with what you have on hand... HOWEVER, I can honestly say that even I liked the results of this book, and the brownies... well, you'd never know they didn't have flour in them. REALLY. A few notes: if you're going to do the hazelnut recipes, do yourself a favor and mail order them roasted and skinned. I bought them raw at a coop and roasting and removing the skins was the most annoying part. Second note on the brownie recipe: It can be a bit hard to get the brownies out of the pan without breaking. The second time I made them I used a springform pan and I was much happier. If you want your friend/familymember/yourself to love you forever, I highly recommend this book!
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Summary: A Health Warning
Review: Wonderful variety of recipes for those who must be flourless in their lifestyle. It will take me a couple of years to try and eat all the recipes which caught my eye. However, a word of caution to the reader. Many of her recipes call for raw eggs which are never cooked. Since these foods will be left at room temperature for extended periods of time, the danger of salmonella infection is very real. I would hope that, in this day and age, an author would consider this commonly known danger and comment on it in the book. So use the raw egg recipes at your own risk.
That said, I would not hesitate recommending this book for its scrumtious, yet fairly simple recipes that any home baker should be able to master.
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