Thursday 21 August 2014

Gluten free might be catching on in Jakarta...

Ok, so you can't imagine my joy when recently during a visit to Ranch market in Lotte shopping avenue I saw perched on the shelf packets of gluten free flour. Healthy food products can be quite expensive here in Jakarta as most of them are imported. At the moment I am trying to make any baked goods, like my waffles, with alternative flours. So far I've worked with coconut flour, banana flour and almond flour. Banana flour was the cheapest but probably the more challenging to work with as it sucks up all the liquid in a recipe very quickly so you have to make sure you add extra. Coconut flour is similar in that it absorbs the liquids very quickly. Almond flour is more stable but is also very expensive. So once in a while when I feel like making a batch of waffles it's good to know that I can use some gluten free flour. When I bought this flour, I was a little dismayed to see that there were no ingredients listed on the packet. Not to be deterred, I emailed Ranch Market and asked them to let me know what was in it. They replied fairly promptly and informed me that there was :
1. Tapioca Starch
2. Rice Flour
3. Potato Flour
4. Corn Starch
This is quite a normal mixture for a gluten free flour as I have seen various websites listing these same ingredients for people interested in making their own versions of the flour.
Once I knew what I was dealing with I was able to set out on making my gluten free lemon poppy seed waffles. They turned out really well. They were very light and airy and didn't feel heavy in your stomach. There was a good crisp to the waffles and they freeze up very well. So, if you need to take care of that gluten intolerant member of your family, now you can, with a little help from Ranch Market.

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