This post is a sequel to Gluten for Punishment, which is why I called it Gluten for Punishment, Too.  What do you do when you have the challenge of multiple dietary restrictions to consider?

I have been experimenting at home and in my workplace featuring gluten-free, grain-free, and sometimes dairy-free recipes. This week, the recipe testing happened to include all three restrictions!

This would make most chefs shake their heads, shiver in their toques, or briskly march their chef-clogs out of the kitchen. Not this chef, since I have a virtuous reason why I am persisting in this culinary undertaking. I need to provide my daughter with ideas regarding a very special 1st birthday cake. Why, you ask? The one-year-old has an Auntie who has a gluten-free, grain-free restriction and follows a Paleo Diet. As well, our tiny guest of honour is lactose intolerant.

If this happened to you, what would you do? You may not necessarily be facing the restrictions listed above; however, most gatherings have guests with some type of restriction that you have to consider when planning your menu. This does not necessarily mean that you have to serve sorbet for dessert, although it certainly provides an alternative.

My suggestion is to list the restrictions of your guests and make sure you review the ingredients that you will be using in your recipes carefully and methodically. Eliminate or modify any recipe that will be problematic for allergies, sensitivities or intolerances (these reactions are all different).

In many cases, you can exclude or substitute an ingredient in certain recipes and they will not affect the end result. For example, the addition of heavy cream or butter to your pan when making a sauce for chicken breasts or other meats can be omitted for your dairy sensitive guests without adversely affecting the sauce. In this situation, you can use the reduction method by simmering the liquid in the pan until it thickens.

Taking the concept of substitution into consideration, my challenge was to develop a birthday cake or dessert recipe that is gluten-free; grain-free and dairy free.

The birthday cake recipe that I developed is a flourless chocolate cake, using a nut meal (if tolerable), coconut flour or sunflower seed flour as a flour substitute. Typically, I would cover this type of rustic cake with a ganache made of heavy cream and chocolate. Since dairy ingredients are an issue, I made a ganache from fruit puree – in this case, raspberry puree. Raspberry puree is easily made by pressing fresh or thawed berries through a sieve to remove seeds and sweetened to taste. You can find out How to Make Raspberry Coulis post here.

Another dessert option for this type of dietary restriction (if a cake is not required), is a sabayon (the French culinary term) or zabaglione (Italian culinary term). A sabayon is a sweet sauce produced by a similar technique used in the popular savoury hollandaise sauce (Eggs Benedict). There are only three ingredients in a sabayon: Egg Yolks, Sugar, a speciality wine blend. Marsala is typically used, although an Ice Wine is also brilliant (although very expensive).

Another dietary restriction challenge has been unravelled. There are others to be solved! Stay tuned.

LEARNING TIPS:  

Please CLICK the link above to access my UrbnSpice LEARNING TIPS, which are listed alphabetically on the Learning Tips blog post under the following subheadings:

• Gluten-Free Flour Blends
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Urb’n’Spice Books:

Chocolate Desserts Made Easy and Delicious – The Cookbook Series from Pastry Chef Denise Paré-Watson of Urb’n’Spice

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Denise Paré-Watson

The Urb’n’Spice Chef

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