Aaron Stein-Chester

Elemental Superfood Seedbars

Three years ago, Nicole Anderson started making Elemental Superfood Seedbars out of necessity. The mother of a child with autism, Anderson noticed dramatic shifts in her daughter's behavior when she ate wheat, dairy and sugar, the cornerstone ingredients for almost all conventional snack foods. So Anderson created her own snacks -- organic, raw seed bars, free of all the foods her daughter was allergic to -- and somehow, against all odds, they were delicious.

Perhaps "against all odds" isn't exactly fair. What we mean is that to us, the unallergic lovers of sugar and wheat, phrases like "sugar-free" and "gluten-free" are tantamount to cursing. They conjure images of laboratory foods: rice flour pizza crust, Splenda and "special beer." They're buzzwords for the kombucha guzzlers. For those who "cleanse." And so rarely do they align with anything as unpretentious and wholesome as Anderson's Elemental Superfood Seedbars.

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Chronicle Books

Gluten-Free Baking for the Holidays

Whether you love the holidays or they send you into Christmas carol-induced therapy, both are a handy excuse to spend exorbitant amount of time baking. If your gluten-intolerant or know someone who is, Jeanne Sauvage's timely new book, Gluten-Free Baking for the Holidays is a great new speculaas and springerle recipe source.

Get more, and the recipe for the real gem of this book - "Jeanne's Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour" - after the jump. Gingerbread-persimmon cakes, mincemeat tarts, cinnamon rolls and buttermilk biscuits await.

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Flickr/cookbookman17

Basmati rice

Rice, seemingly so bland and innocuous, harbors the same deadly poison beloved by Victorian mystery writers. In a new study, Consumer Reports has found varying levels of arsenic in more than 60 rices and rice products. Among the consumer goods that contained "worrisome levels" of arsenic were organic rice baby cereal and rice breakfast cereals.

Consumer Reports tested more than 200 samples of a host of rice products, including infant cereals, hot cereals, ready-to-eat cereals, rice cakes and rice crackers. They bought products often used by people on gluten-free or other special diets, including rice pasta, rice flour and rice drinks like rice milk. They included iconic labels and store brands, organic products and conventional ones.

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Domino's

Domino's new "gluten-free" crust

Domino's is proud to be the first national pizza delivery chain to introduce a gluten-free pizza crust for their "choice consumers." There's just one little hitch: They can't guarantee the pizza is actually gluten-free. So it's not recommended for those with celiac disease, but rather, only for those with "mild gluten sensitivity," Domino's said in a statement.

We're not sure what interest frat boys and stoners would have in a gluten-free crust anyway. It comes with the appetizing slogan: "Finally a gluten-free crust that doesn't taste like the box it comes in." (Apparently "doesn't taste like cardboard" was already taken.) The crust, made of water, rice starch, rice powder, potato starch and olive oil, will be offered in nearly all of Domino's 5,000 U.S. operations.

The pizza costs $12, about $3 more than the gluten-filled option (just lost the frat boy/stoner market). One slice of a 10-inch pepperoni pizza has 170 calories, 3.5 grams of saturated fat and 410 milligrams of sodium.

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Screenshot of Gluten-Free Girl's Twitter page

So many gluten-free cookbooks have the word "diet" slinking around somewhere on the cover. Presumably to catch the eye of those who might not have celiac disease but actually (really?) enjoy constantly running from one restrictive eating treadmill to another. A doctor-prescribed limited diet is not something anyone who truly loves and respects food would wish upon themselves. But in The Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef cookbook released a few days ago, that four letter word is noticeably absent.

This half cookbook, half personal essay charmer from 44-year-old Shauna James Ahern (her online alter identity is the "gluten-free girl") and her wheat-averse-by-marriage husband, Daniel Ahern, is bookshelf proof that people who actually do have the disease, can and do love food -- and cooking -- as much as the rest of us. Food that's made from real ingredients, not those gluten/dairy/corn/soy/everything-free bread mixes lining grocery store shelves these days that no one really wants to try. Really.

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While announcements of gluten-free desserts make up a surprisingly large percentage of the contents of our in-box every morning, the phenomenon has done little to stir Squid Ink's soul. Because while we realize the presence of gluten may be a problem for the people unable to tolerate it, gluten-free products tend to resemble vaguely sugary rocks. Almost everything worth contemplating about baked goods is concentrated in those magical protein strands.

So we were surprised the other day when a friend insisted that we try the new gluten-free cookies at Little Flower Candy Company, not because she suspected we suffered from wheat allergies - we were eating an herby goat-cheese muffin at the time - but because it was so good. And once we got past our prejudices, we had to admit: the cookie was crumbly and actually delicious, a dense, frieze of roasted pecans and chocolate chips bound with peanut butter and a bit of rice flour that is worth eating on its own terms. Pass this on to Gluten-Free Girl if you should happen to run into her.

Flickr/Calamity Hane

Little Flower Candy Co.

Little Flower Candy Company: 1422 W. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena; (626) 304-4800.

Unless you're Elisabeth Hasselbeck--The View's resident Republican published a gluten-free "survival guide" in May--the gluten-free vegan pancake is not something you will want to try at home. Amateurs are less likely to wind up with pancakes than very unappetizing pan-bricks. But because Los Angeles is the city where most dietary restrictions were invented, there are a lot of eggless, wheatless, dairyless options out there. Here are four great places you might try. And the winner? That's after the jump too.

Photo credit: Dave Smith

Real Food Daily's vegan blueberry pancakes

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