Two weeks ago I stand facing my kitchen with arms crossed ready to do battle. My husband sits perched at our bar Americain watching cautiously, sipping his morning tea. I fling cabinets open and toss anything and everything with a wheat ingredient into the trash can. He says nothing. How can he? I’ve been reading aloud to him every night from Grain Brain and Wheat Belly (because I know he won’t read these on his own) and now, I’ve decided for the both of us, that the time has come to see if this whole gluten-free diet is fact or fiction.
I know it might appear that I’ve completely flipped my lid considering that only months ago I was making croissants from scratch and whipping up tarts à la minute, but since the body clock is ticking away and the nutritional supplements are piling up along with the pre-natal vitamins and the extraneous bottles of flax-seed oil, fish oil, and Bragg amino acids – why not just go whole hog?
Meyer Lemon Polenta Cake with Brown Butter and Walnuts
“Not the Acme batard! You’re really going to toss that too?” My husband jumps up from his stool and digs the loaf out of the trash. I grab it back and shove it further down. He leaves the kitchen a little teary eyed and perhaps a little deflated. He’s a sandwich guy and this, no doubt, is sacrilege. It’s not that I like to throw away food – both of us hate that more than anything – but if the science in these two books is true then the wheat of today is unsafe for human consumption.
We are not celiac and we are not trying this purge for weight loss reasons although we both could stand to lose a little around the middle. But the fact remains that over this two-week self-imposed non-gluten diet and my crazy kitchen cleanse we have both lost 5 pounds by simply NOT eating anything made with wheat. The real bonus is: I feel great. I wake up feeling GREAT! I run farther and faster, I have more energy during the day, and my clothes are fitting again!
My husband will not echo my sentiments as forthright because he, unfortunately, feels hungry all the time and has trouble getting enough food at work. He is athletic and requires at least 1000 more calories than me. He complains that his snacks choices from the complex-carbo overloaded snack bar at his start-up company are now singled out to smoked almonds. No more cereal. No more chex mix. No more beloved sandwiches piled high with fresh deli cuts and oozing with condiments. And, perhaps the worst of it all, no more pizza and beer. But regardless, he’s on board, as long as some new book doesn’t come out with a steak smear campaign. (His co-workers are all on the Paleo diet anyways – Meat!Meat! Meat!)
Gluten Free Lemon Cake with Brown Butter, Walnuts, Polenta and Almond flour!
Why cut out gluten? You should probably read the fore mentioned books and not take my second-hand wisdom but as I understand it, the evidence points out that wheat today is so genetically modified that it barely resembles the wheat from our mother’s and grandmother’s generations and it is higher in gluten than ever before which is more readily absorbed in our bodies and creates an addictive state where the body actually craves it (and other junk foods) even more. Yes, it’s true that in France and Italy it is still possible to get flour that Monsanto hasn’t altered to a frankenfood but how do we know, as consumers, specifically which type of wheat is in our daily bread?
Of course, there is more, much more, to condemn our modern wheat, but for the purposes of this post I will leave it there.
We have not cut out all complex carbs but we have cut down on them significantly. My husband is Persian and rice is never going to be eradicated from his diet or I’m afraid divorce papers will be en route. And I still like something sweet every once and awhile so refined sugar (another evil) will probably never fully disappear.
Macerated Meyer lemons line a parchment covered ring mold
Sure enough, we aren’t the only late-comers to this gluten-free craze since all of the latest food rags and mags and blogs of January are touting the usual New Years Day detox cleanses along with creative recipes sweet & savory that are wheat free.
People, there’s got to be something to this! I’m willing to give it a try – are you? Any takers? Any personal experiences out there that uphold or trash this diet?
Although I don’t feel that cutting out gluten is an excuse to overload on everything else that is ‘bad’ for you, I still would like to leave you with something sweet. And after reading the latest Bon Appetit magazine and being sorely disappointed with their Gluten Free desserts – even their Polenta cake – I thought I’d leave you with my nutty brown butter lemon Polenta cake which is super moist and dense and has much more protein, flavor, and also a nicer crrrrunch!
Ingredients
- 3-4 Meyer lemons sliced thinly, macerated in a 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1 stick sweet butter (1/2 cup)
- 2 cups almond flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup polenta (course ground NOT polenta flour)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup crème frâiche
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup walnuts chopped finely
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Macerated Lemons: Pour 1/2 cup of sugar over thinly sliced lemons and gently toss in a small bowl. Let stand at room temperature while preparing the cake.
Brown butter: on low heat melt the stick of butter in a small sauce pot. No need to stir but occasionally because the milk solids will caramelize on the bottom. This will take about 15 minutes. Once the butter is browned allow to cool to room temperature.
Prepare baking pan: I used a 6-inch ring mold buttered with a parchment circle on the bottom trimmed a little wider than the ring so the juices wouldn't run out. However, an 8-inch cake pan or square pan works fine too. This batter is not fussy. No matter what baking dish you use, make sure it is buttered and the bottom is lined with parchment. Butter the parchment as well.
Wet ingredients: In a small mixing bowl add the polenta. Heat 1 cup of milk in the microwave or stove top until hot but not boiling and pour it over the polenta to soften. Stir until the mixture has cooled to room temperature. Once cooled completely, add the crème fraîche, eggs, and vanilla extract and whisk to incorporate thoroughly.
Dry ingredients: in a large mixing bowl whisk the almond flour with the sugar, salt, and baking powder.
Putting it all together: layer the macerated lemons in a decorative circular fashion on buttered parchment. Reserve the lemon syrup left over for glazing the cake. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix to incorporate. Then whisk in the brown butter and the finely chopped walnuts. Pour batter into cake pan 3/4-full and bake until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 45-55 minutes depending on height of cake.
To unmold cake: cut around edges of pan or ring mold with a thin knife. Place a plate over the pan and flip it. Once the cake is released and upright on the plate, peel off parchment. Pour remaining lemon syrup over!
Amy, this sounds wonderful and right up my alley. Of course, I have a friend who has celiac’s who is not only gluten-free, but dairy- and soy-free as well. I always feel challenged to bake in a way that can accommodate her as well when I bake for my meditation group.
Angela – I feel for your friend. That must be very difficult to be both celiac and soy and dairy free. Perhaps not so hard when it comes to just daily meals, but I would imagine baked goods are difficult. I’m curious if you have any dessert recipes that you like that fit your friend’s health needs? I find the more events I do these days, the more people I meet who have genuine health concerns and I’m always searching for great go-to ideas….
We gave up gluten when my wife was diagnosed Celiac, but we found that gluten-free substitutes generally make us feel unwell and unsatisfied simultaneously. Paleo has worked much better – if I avoid most sugars and starches, I can skip meals without feeling terrible, and I don’t have mood swings or post-eating lethargy. I generally eat massive lunches of assorted vegetable salads and meats, two large plates piled high, and experience none of the food coma effect that plagues my high-carb coworkers.
Well Chef, I’ve worked on Celiac disease and gluten intolerance so I’m very well-aware of what gluten can do to the people who have medical issues with it.
Then again I also come from a culture where wheat and peanut gluten is actively transformed into certain types of side-dishes as an alternate protein for those who decide to become wholly vegetarian.
This is going to be interesting watching you do this because wheat products are obviously everywhere and it impacts a lot of underlying techniques. Did you look at your soy sauce?
I do see a lot of buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth in your near-term future. And muscovado sugar and agave if you really do want to minimize the refined sugar. On the rice side, you can look to germinated brown rice to improve its nutritional content (GABA rice), plus all the other colors as well (the pink Bhutanese stuff is pretty good).
I do have a potential suggestion to address your sandwich issue: the organic corn pupusa. And there’s always chestnut flour to make what would become some incredibly expensive flatbreads.
I’m very curious about this Paleo diet since it’s so fashionable with all the guys I know. I assumed it was a mostly MEAT diet and that there might be a lot of secret chest beating and grunting and one shoulder loin cloths. But it actually sounds like how I mostly eat anyways which is veg and protein with small amounts of starch. It sounds a lot like the old Pro Zone diet by Barry Sears.
I will say that even though this cake is gluten-free (and really delicious) it is NOT carb free and even small amounts make me really sleepy. However, I feel a little less guilty without the wheat.
I have trashed the soy sauce for now and replaced it with Bragg liquid Amino acids. I know this is an entirely different entity but they both have a certain similar salinity and fermented flavor. In fact I really like it salad dressings and in sauces, so I feel I discovered a new secret ingredient.
Chestnut flour?!?!?! Where does one get that?!?! Please don’t tell me I have to make it from chestnuts 😉 and how does it act in pastries? Similar to almond flour?
Love pupusas and tacos! We’ve been overdoing on the tacos I’ll admit. I even toast them with butter in the morning when I’m pulling my hair out for bread. I will say that the GF bread I’ve tried is just terrible and it doesn’t make me feel good. And the ingredient lists look worse than the regular bread.
Ok one questions for you science people out there: I recently read that Sourdough bread has less gluten because the yeast breaks it down. Is there any truth in this?
Your friend the human Guinea Pig,
Amy
The premise of the paleo diet is that you can eat whatever you want that your caveman ancestors would have been able to find, so that means any foodstuff that was readily available before the invention of agriculture. You can’t have Bragg’s under paleo.
If you want soy sauce, there are some Japanese ones which are made with soy, salt and koji (no wheat), but they’re considerably more expensive even taking into account the transport premium.
Chestnut flour can be found at Whole Foods and other specialty retailers though if you wanted to be really bada$$ you can grind your own chestnuts. I presume it would act similarly to almond flour in pastry but I’m not that good with sweets. I have made one very dense unleavened chestnut loaf, which I recall was slightly sweet and nutty. I was eating it in very thin slices because of the cost.
And yes, an overdeveloped sourdough bread has less gluten and less rise because the acid from the lactobacilli can/will break down protein. The overdeveloped loaves are definitely flat (I’ve baked several failures) and you may not enjoy the taste.
In a similar vein, there is some experimentation with very slow-rise sourdough which is said to develop less gluten but still provide rise but I haven’t really looked into it.
Wattacetti! Chef! You are a walking encyclopedia of all things food and science. What would I do without you???!!!! Thank you for the Sourdough explanation, my hubby is probably going to go fish his acme loaf out the trash now that you’ve proved his theory – which he researched online attempting to sway me to eat sourdough bread even if we foresake all other forms.
I did find the Chestnut flour and I followed the directions on the back for what they called in French a: ‘Gateaux Chataigne’ (my spelling is probably off) and it was TERRIBLE! My guests couldn’t even eat a bite of it!!! I knew it was going to be weird because it did not call for leavening or chiminique but I thought perhaps it might rise on it’s own. It didn’t. It was sort of like a dense chewy chestnut cake with toasted pine nuts but the texture and the flavor was not what I was expecting. Oh well, I’m going to give it another go but I think I’m going to make more of a genoise cake of sorts and see how it reacts.
Unless you’ve got some recipes???
I think you’ll probably want to buy him a new loaf of acme bread because he’ll have a whole whack of other problems if he attempts to eat something that’s been incubating in the bin.
But it’s also not just straight-out sourdough; it’s a sourdough that’s either over-fermented during proofing or that’s been given a super-slow proofing period (e.g. the refrigerator for several days). I don’t know what the acme is like so you’ll have to check for yourselves.
Unfortunately I don’t have a good chestnut “bread” recipe; that one I made years ago was pretty flat and reminiscent of a patio brick. I never went back to experimenting with chestnut because I stopped baking shortly afterwards and because the flour was really too expensive.
Totally not fair. In fact I’ve put on at least 10 pounds while you’ve lost almost the same amount. I don’t know why I feel like a ball of dough while I haven’t had any in over two weeks. I will say however that the cake is pretty awesome. I think it’s about 1000 calories per slice but very tasty and not too dense.
Mr. Hedayatpour, a.k.a Husband, You have NOT put on 10 pounds. Maybe 10 pounds in muscle!!! But Chef Wattacetti is backing up your sourdough theory as long as it’s heavily fermented. And he also suggests that perhaps some of that Euro-style heavy wheat bread would be a good alternative if your sandwich requirements aren’t being met.
I’m just curious – if I poke you in the belly tonight are you going to let out a Pilsbury dough boy “oooo oooo”? xoxo
Wait…no soy sauce? What’s the world come to. I’ve been having sushi almost everyday since I can’t have sandwiches. I guess I’m not so gluten free after all 🙁
Yup, no soy sauce. I think this diet is torturing you. It’s making me feel great and you feel terrible. Perhaps you are the 1% that can metabolize gluten since you seem to do better with it in your diet than without….