This is the September 2022 selection for the the Left Coast Culinary Book Club. Now, all of this is a bit confusing, at least to me. Because I missed the initial meeting this year when the selections were made, it appears that there are multiple books in the series as well as a blog. I went ahead and purchased both.

One book is a gluten, vegan, dairy free baking cookbook. The second and more difficult to find is a more traditional cookbook. Hence, why I broke this review up into two entries. It also appears that there is a third on the way.

The official title of the book is Cannelle et Vannille Bakes Simple: A New Way To Bake Gluten Free by Aran Goyoaga. The cookbook contains 100 recipes for breads, deserts and all things baking using alternative ingredients. Her blog is a two time James Beard finalist. Those are pretty high marks in my book as those awards are the best of the best. I will say, the blog hasn’t been updated since 2019, so I am not sure what she is currently up to besides writing a third cookbook.

I started with this one because it was the one that I received first. The truth is, I don’t think that this was the actual choice of the month but it was ubiquitous compared to the other cookbook given that it is the latest publication. And the only reason I actually bought it is because my son says that he wants to open a bakery with all of these particular traits. I figured it was worth having as a reference and a starting point for him if nothing else.

In my life, my wife has inflammatory responses or another way of saying immunodeficiencies. My research into food has convinced me that gluten, sugar and carbohydrates do play a large role into triggering that. I don’t think that it is really good for anyone and it particularly worse for others with immune issues. For that reason, I have cut way down on bread and pasta. What was at least one sandwich a day has gone to a couple a month for instance.

My own experiences with gluten free has left me less than impressed. One, I don’t think fake food ever replaces the real thing. Gluten plays a role in bread and pasta that is really irreplaceable. In order to make up for the things the real ingredients are missing, a lot of chemicals and other bad (or worse) ingredients are used.

To be honest, I have yet to make anything. As I stated earlier, I bought this for my son. That being said, we have most of the flour substitutes hanging out taking up space, I might as well use them up. The area that I feel like the best place to start are items that are more dense, like pound cake. That way, we are mitigating the things that gluten bring to bread such as elasticity.

As stated earlier, I personally know people that have sensitivity to certain things. They can even have a reaction by touching particular chemicals. Did you know that Play-Dough has flour in it? The thing that I think this cookbook does well is touching on all the particular substitutions like flour, eggs or dairy. There is no judgement offering flour equivalents as well.

Aran was originally from Spain. Most of the recipes have a European feel to them. Truthfully, I only have one other cookbook that is exclusively baking but I found that over half of the deserts had fruit incorporated in them. Outside of substitute flours and dairy products, everything else seems pretty natural and oriented toward lower sugar. Those are pluses in my book.

One thing that I found surprising were the recipes containing ‘sourdough’ starter and the use of yeast with the flour substitutes. I guess I didn’t think that they would actually work. Once again, I can’t vouch for anything yet but I do plan on trying a few things. I might make the blueberry coffee cake for our monthly dinner considering it is coming up in a just a few days and I have some blueberries to finish off.

End Your Programming Routine: I get turned off by evangelists, maybe it is the holier than though or the aggressive nature of their chosen religion (like veganism). Because the approach is pretty universal and inclusive, I am more inclined to give it a shot. The truth is, I would like to do a side by side with substitutes and real ingredients just to see if there is a taste and texture difference. Maybe that will be in the near future as the weather changes.