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Recipe: Gluten-Free Gingerbread House

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

Have you ever wanted to build your own gluten-free gingerbread house? In the past we’ve discussed how you can purchase the supplies to build your own gluten-free gingerbread house, but who wouldn’t rather build their own? It is also dairy free, egg free, and soy free!

If you’d like to check out other recipe ideas, check out our gluten-free recipes page!

Gingerbread House Ingredients:

  • 1 bag Pamela’s Wheat Free Bread Mix (Do not use enclosed yeast packet)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1/3 cup unsalted shortening
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg (or egg replacer for 1 egg, prepared)
  • 1/2 cup mild or light molasses for lighter cookies or dark molasses for darker cookies
  • 1 to 2 Tablespoons water

Gingerbread House Directions:

  1. Use heavy duty stand mixer, dough is heavy.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine Pamela’s Wheat Free Bread Mix with salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and ginger. Whisk together thoroughly. Do not use the yeast packet in this recipe.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream shortening with sugar. Add egg, mix to incorporate. Add molasses, mix to incorporate. Add dry ingredients, mix to incorporate. Add water. Continue mixing gently together until dough comes together. If needed, add an additional tablespoon of water. (Dough prepared with egg replacer may require more or less water.)
  4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour before rolling out.
  5. Use template (provided below) to cut out house pieces. Roll dough out at 1/4 inch. Cut out one house piece at a time on parchment using template. Leave the cookie on parchment and pull away excess dough from around cookie. Trim excess paper around cookie to about 1-inch, then transfer cookie on parchment to baking sheet. Multiple pieces can fit on one baking sheet. Remove templates from cookies before baking.
  6. Bake cookies twice to dry enough for building a house. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Then turn off oven leaving cookies inside with door shut. Leave them to cool completely in the heat of the oven (3 to 4 hours).
  7. Once cool, remove cookies from oven, preheat oven again to 350°, then bake for an another 10 minutes. Turn off oven with cookies inside with door shut, leave until cool. Construct the house using Pamela’s Royal Icing (see recipe below) made with Pamela’s Vanilla Frosting Mix. Decorate using candies stuck into the icing.

Gingerbread House Icing Directions:

  1. Mix one bag Pamela’s Vanilla Frosting Mix with 1 teaspoon Cream of Tarter and two egg whites. (For salmonella concerns, substitute equivalent of 2 eggs with dried egg white powder or meringue powder prepared).
  2. Mix on high until icing thickens and stiff peaks form. Icing will harden when dry. For the truly creative, try adding food color for colored icing.

Templates for building your gluten-free gingerbread house (PDF):

  • Gingerbread House Front & Back
  • Gingerbread House Roof
  • Gingerbread House Sides

Gluten Sensitivity is More Than Just Celiac Disease

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

If you are a reader of this website, you probably either have Celiac Disease or have a family member or friend that has Celiac Disease. I’m sure by now we’ve all heard the statistic that it is believed roughly 1 in 133 Americans have Celiac Disease.  However, did you know that it is believed that a significantly higher percentage of Americans actually have some form of gluten sensitivity?

If you’d like to learn more about gluten sensitivities, Whole Health Source recently took the time to explain that gluten sensitivity is much more than just Celiac Disease:

Approximately 12% of Americans can be diagnosed as gluten sensitive using blood antibody tests (anti-gliadin IgA or IgG). A subset of these have full-blown celiac disease. The vast, vast majority are undiagnosed. Gluten sensitivity associates with a dizzying array of diseases, including autoimmune disorders, cancer, and neurological problems. The problem with the blood tests is they aren’t very sensitive. The most common blood tests for celiac disease look for a class of antibody called IgA. IgA is produced by the mucosa, including the gut. Unless gut damage is already extensive, the majority of IgA stays in the gut. This may cause the assay to overlook many cases of gluten sensitivity. A negative blood antibody test does not rule out gluten sensitivity!

I recently discovered the work of Dr. Kenneth Fine of EnteroLab. He has developed an assay that detects anti-gliadin IgA in stool. Gliadin is one of the problematic proteins in gluten that is implicated in gluten sensitivity. Dr. Fine has been conducting informal research using his fecal anti-gliadin IgA test (data here). He has found that:

  • 100% of untreated celiac patients are antigliadin IgA positive by fecal test, compared to only 76% by blood (n= 17).
  • 76% of microscopic colitis (a type of chronic diarrhea) patients are positive by the fecal test, compared to 9% by blood (n= 57).
  • 57% of symptomatic people (digestive problems?) are positive by the fecal test, compared to 12% by blood (n= 58).
  • 62% of people with autoimmune disease are positive by the fecal test.
  • 29% of asymptomatic (healthy) people are positive by the fecal test, compared to 11-12% by blood (n= 240).
  • Baby and cow feces are 0% positive by the stool assay.

He also later mentions:

Not everyone who is genetically susceptible will end up developing health problems due to gluten, but it’s impossible to estimate how many of the problems we attribute to other causes are in fact caused or exacerbated by gluten.

If you think you have Celiac Disease, you may actually simply have a gluten sensitivity of some sort, which is why it is so important to go through the proper channels and to get an official diagnosis.

Most Common Symptoms of Celiac Disease?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

Over the past few years, the medical community has finally come around to the fact that many people with Celiac Disease don’t have the common symptoms that doctors used to look for.

Recently The Savvy Celiac took a community survey of symptoms that lead to a diagnosis of Celiac Disease, and today they shared the survey results. The survey was actually broken down into two sections: children’s symptoms and adults’ symptoms.

Here are the results with the most common symptoms on top:

Children’s Symptoms with Celiac Disease

  • Diarrhea
  • Failure to Thrive
  • Distended Belly
  • Stomach Pain
  • Vomiting
  • Fatigue
  • Constipation

Adult Symptoms with Celiac Disease

  • Diarrhea
  • Fatigue
  • Stomach Pain
  • Anemia
  • Nausea
  • Asymptomatic
  • Weight Loss
  • Constipation

They are definitely interesting results, though they were taken from a very small sample (68 people), so it should be used for informational purposes only. Click here to read their post announcing the survey results.

Red Robin’s Gluten-Free Menu

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

Traveling to a Red Robin in the near future? We’ve been doing some research and discovered that Red Robin is one of those good restaurants that actually publishes their gluten-free menu on their website! Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have a direct link to it (you have to email them for a link to the current menu).

Official Website Menu Information: Red Robin’s Gluten-Free Menu
Location Finder: Find a Red Robin Location Near You

For your reference, we were able to obtain a recent Red Robin gluten-free menu, released only a few days ago! If you are viewing this post more than a month after publication, you’ll want to contact Red Robin for the most updated version of their gluten-free menu or use the menu link above simply as a general guide.

For your reference, here is the information provided in Red Robin’s menu:

Red Robin General Information:

  • Red Robin will customize orders to meet dietary needs.
  • Salad Dressings and mayo do contain vinegar in the ingredients list. The vinegar is not malt vinegar.
  • The Red Robin Seasoning is sprinkled on the beef patty and steak fries after cooking. The Seasoning does not contain wheat, barley, oat, or rye glutens. It may contain naturally occurring glutamates. These items can be ordered without Red Robin Seasoning. Please inform your server if you desire no seasoning.
  • Corn strips may be fried in a common fryer.
  • Steak fries are fried in a designated fryer.

Red Robin Produce Items:

  • Salsa
  • Black Beans
  • Turkey Breast Meat
  • Beef patty
  • Lettuce Wrap Burger
  • Carnitas meat
  • Grilled Chicken Breast Fillet
  • Egg
  • Turkey patty
  • Grilled Salmon
  • Rice
  • Side of cooked vegetables

Red Robin Current Entrees:

  • Cobb Salad
  • Crispy Chicken Salad, substitute crispy chicken with grilled chicken
  • Fajita Pollo, minus corn strips.

As always, when dining out gluten-free, do your due diligence and make sure the staff understands your needs. There are very few restaurants that are 100% gluten-free, so cross-contamination is always a risk. If you don’t feel comfortable with what you are hearing from the staff, perhaps it is best to dine elsewhere.

For information about other gluten-free restaurants menus, check out our gluten-free restaurants page.

Ruby Tuesday’s Gluten-Free Menu

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

Plan to visit Ruby Tuesdays in the near future? Though this particular restaurant has long been hesitant to actually commit to anything being gluten-free (or to place anything on their official website), it looks like they have finally come out with an official response when asked for a gluten-free menu!

Official Website Menu Information: Ruby Tuesday’s Gluten-Free Menu
Location Finder: Find a Ruby Tuesday Location Near You

For your reference, here is the information we obtained regarding Ruby Tuesday’s gluten-free menu; however, because foods and ingredients are constantly changing, please verify with your server prior to ordering anything off their menu:

Currently all of our fried food is prepared in soybean oil.  Our French fries are fried in the same oil as our breaded items.

Please be aware that we do serve white and wheat hamburger buns which all contain wheat flour. Our premium knot roll and rolls used for Ruby Minis are white bread, while our Golden Bun used for most burgers is a wheat bun. All are made from wheat flour.

The following menu items are acceptable for guests with a gluten intolerance or Celiac Sprue disease:

  • Steaks (with Ruby’s seasoning only)
  • Chicken Oscar
  • Chicken Fresco
  • Any burger without bread (EXCLUSIONS: turkey burgers, the onion tanglers on minis, French fries)

Sides

  • Broccoli as currently prepared
  • Mashed potatoes as currently prepared
  • Baked potato without sour cream
  • Salad bar with discretion (excludes prepared salads on the salad bar)

Acceptable salad dressings:

  • Bleu Cheese
  • Ranch
  • Lite Ranch
  • Honey
  • Mustard
  • Caesar
  • Thousand Island
  • Italian
  • French

Unfortunately, for all other food items, Ruby Tuesday, Inc. cannot provide a listing of allergens that might be present in our menu items for the following reasons:

It is always possible, as we are preparing food in over 800 restaurants every day, that one item will be substituted for another, and that the substitute product’s contents may be different from the ingredients in the products we normally use.

As food is being prepared in our restaurants, it often comes in contact with other food, so even though a specific item may not contain allergens, it could be affected by another food item that does.

As always, when dining out gluten-free, do your due diligence and make sure the staff understands your needs. There are very few restaurants that are 100% gluten-free, so cross-contamination is always a risk. If you don’t feel comfortable with what you are hearing from the staff, perhaps it is best to dine elsewhere.

For information about other gluten-free restaurants menus, check out our gluten-free restaurants page.