Picture it, my living room, three or so years ago. I was at the tail end of an elimination diet (no sugar, dairy, or gluten), which I’d undertaken in desperation after having been told by my doctor that nothing was wrong with me. Yeah, right.

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Having an ice cream maker at your disposal can be a dangerous thing. I find that, every time I break out the machine to make a batch of ice cream, I have a thousand – well, at least a dozen – flavor ideas swirling in my head, and then I want to make batch after batch of ice cream. This is great for my taste buds, but not so good for my thighs.

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I’ve been trying to make a great gluten and sugar free brownie for at least two years, and nothing that I’ve tried has been anywhere near successful … until now. Texture, texture, texture. That’s always been my problem in the past. Pasty, leaden brownies are just not good and, unfortunately, I’ve had to toss a few pans of them because they were simply inedible. I really hate wasting food.

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Oh, granola, you were supposed to be irresistibly chewy bars like the ones I saw on Smitten Kitchen, but instead you crumbled apart and became a cereal. But, oh, what a lovely cereal you are, filled with nuts and freeze dried fruit and coconut and pepitas. I blame myself for your metamorphosis, as I probably forgot to add or adjust some ingredient here or there, but it’s all part of the learning process, so no hard feelings, okay?

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Glazes, drizzles, and any confectioner’s sugar based frostings have become the bane of my sugar free existence, so we’re just going to ignore the fiasco of an attempt at an orange glaze on what is otherwise a very nice cake. Okay, now that we’ve gotten that unpleasantness out of the way (and, hey, if you’re on a sugar free diet and have come up with a nice glaze or drizzle recipe, I’d love to hear it!), I want to talk about my new favorite flour blend.

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Cookies have been one of my biggest challenges since I started a gluten and sugar free diet. Cakey cookies are usually no problem, but crunchy, crispy, or chewy cookies? It just hasn’t been easy for me to replicate these textures with the ingredients that I use. I’m sure it’s down to chemical makeup and reaction or non-reaction, which I’m certainly finding out more about as I go along, but I’m no expert … yet. However, I am starting to get better cookie results, so I guess I must be learning something. Or it’s dumb luck. Either way, I’ll take it.

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