There are other grains besides wheat!

Recently I had a friend staying with me who has Coeliac disease and so I was looking for nice gluten free recipes to cook for her. I did a little online research and while I was searching I was struck by the sheer amount of different types of flours that were available and it got me thinking , why are we so stuck on wheat alone?

I knew from dabbling a bit in Indian cooking about gram flour which is made from chick peas but when I did a search for different flours using grains other than wheat, I was astounded at just how many there were. Here is a list that I have compiled from my research.

Almond meal/flour - Made from blanched almonds. GF*

Amaranth flour - Ground from an ancient seed. GF

Barley flour - Made from pearl or whole-grain barley.

Buckwheat flour - Made from buckwheat, a cousin of rhubarb GF

Cassava flour - Also called manioc flour. GF

Chickpea (garbanzo) flour - Also called gram flour or chana flour. GF

Chapati flour - Made of wheat and malted barley flours.

Corn flour - Milled from the whole corn GF

Coconut flour - Made from coconuts GF

Flaxseed flour or meal - Made by milling whole flaxseeds. GF

Oat flour - Ground from oat groats. GF

Peanut flour - Made from crushed, fully or partly defatted peanuts. GF

Potato flour - Ground from whole, dried potatoes. GF

Rice flour, brown - Made from unpolished brown rice. GF,

Rice flour, white - Made from white rice. GF

Rye flour - Heavy, dark flour made from rye.

Soy flour - Made from milled soybeans. GF

Spelt flour - Made from spelt, an ancient grain and cousin to wheat.

Fufu flour - Made from dried plantain. GF

Kamut flour - Made from the ancient Egyptian grain kamut.

Millet flour - Used in bread baking and pancakes. Also called bajri flour. GF

Teff flour - Made from teff grain. GF

Quinoa Flour - Made from ground quinoa. GF

*Gluten Free

So if I didn't work and have a toddler I would immediately start to use each of these sytematically, one by one in my cooking but seeing as that is not possible for me at the moment, I thought that I would start with a quick and easy favourite, Chocolate Brownies.

I found a great recipe for brownies made with quinoa flour on a gluten free website and they turned out absolutely fabulous! Soft and deliciously squidgy. They were such a success that I am totally inspired to try out some more of these other flours in the future. Any successful recipes I'll definitely put up on my food page.

So here it is:

Gluten Free Quinoa Brownies

1/2 cup butter 4 oz. (4 squares) unsweetened chocolate, chopped 2 large eggs 1 cup sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 cup quinoa flour (or substitute all-purpose)

Preheat oven to 350°F and spray an 8×8-inch pan with nonstick spray. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over medium heat, stirring until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool.

Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl until thick and pale; beat in the chocolate mixture, vanilla and salt. Add flour and beat on low speed or stir just until blended.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, until just set and the edges are starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Makes 16 brownies.

I encourage you all to try something a little different when it comes to cooking and baking. I think we have all been stuck in a wheat rut for a while and its time to get out!

Please email me with recipes and pics of your bakes!