To support Coeliac Awareness Week we put some questions to our “Free From” and Vegetarian Expert, Chef Erin Baker. Read below to find out more about Erin and the great tips and advice she has to help you cook or bake Gluten Free.
Erin runs our Gluten Free Baking Class at Harts Barn Cookery School as well as a range of incredibly popular and diverse range of Vegetarian Cooking classes.
Read below for some top tips on Gluten Free Baking and Gluten Free Cooking.
Let us know if you have any questions and we’ll answer them all this week over on our Facebook Page as we support the #glutenfreevolution
Best way to bind ingredients?
Xanthan gum or psyllium husks are great to “glue” ingredients together in cakes, bread and pasties
Best Tasting Gluten Free Flour?
It totally depends on the individual – I also recommend that people experiment with a range of flours and stick to what suits your taste buds best
Best gluten free flour to thicken a sauce?
I’d say that rice flour works well in roux for thickening sauces
Is glutenous rice flour gluten free?
YES it is gluten free, it is made from sticky rice and it does what it says on the tin
Top tip on baking gluten free?
Most gluten free baked goods are best the day made, so freeze leftovers and thaw when desired
What can I do with millet?
Pop it in a high speed blender and turn it in to Millet flour it makes great bread
More About Erin Baker
Erin was born and bred in a small rural town in New Hampshire. She comes from a line of traditional home cooks and after much trial and a little error, Erin started her first culinary job at ‘The Sweet Lilac Deli‘, a take away deli at a small healthfood co-operative in Vermont. This gave her the urge to learn more about the relationship between food and health, so she moved west across the states to California, to attend the not-so-traditional cooking school Bauman College where she focussed on therapeutic healing through using whole foods.
After completing the culinary program, Erin and partners opened the award-winning ‘Sparks’ restaurant, serving electrifying organic vegetarian fare in Sonoma County, California. Now, with over 10 years professional whole foods-based vegetarian cooking under her belt, Erin now teaches cookery and has the Natural Cookery School.
What we asked Erin…
1. What is your favourite food? Mexican
2. What I love about teaching my class at Harts Barn Cookery School. The setting, nestled in the Forest of Dean surrounded by countryside, a bucolic place to teach!
3. What are your ‘outside’ interests? Four season vegetable gardener with a passion for edible flowers, walking the dog, exploring with my husband in our campervan, sneaking away on holiday to a place I can swim in warm water
4. What is your top cooking tip? You can always add, but you can never take away!
5. Please tell us something not many people know about you. I learned how to swim before I learned how to walk.
