Cookbook offers variety — just no gluten

Quick look: This isn’t just a baking book. With more than 100 recipes for gluten-free eating – from soups and salads to savory mains and desserts – there are ideas for every meal, including snacks.

What’s inside: Recipes in this hardcover, 192-page cookbook are divided into six main chapters: basics, indulgence, small cakes and cookies, sweet, savory and salads, soups and snacks. There’s a short guide to gluten-free diets in front and glossary of gluten-free flour types in back.

Basics are tucked inside the last main chapter. Look for ice cream cones, crepes, blinis, pancakes, waffles, corn tortillas, gnocchi and more.

Savories include Swedish meatballs, sweet-and-sour pork, Chicken Kiev, fish fingers, fish pie, salmon with dill crust and Pizza Margherita. Indulge in Sweet Caramel Millionaire’s Shortbread, profiteroles, tiramisu, chocolate fudge cake, pecan and pumpkin pies, a lemon tart and the dramatic-looking strawberry sponge cake that graces the cookbook’s front cover.

Smaller treats such as scones, lemon cookies, biscotti, chocolate cupcakes, blueberry muffins and cinnamon spiral buns round out the recipes.

Booth is a self-taught chef and former “Recipes Without” columnist for the Guardian newspaper.

What’s not: This book offers variety. There isn’t a lot of any one thing.

Biscotti

From “Gloriously Gluten Free” by Susanna Booth

1/3 cup whole almonds

2 eggs, separated

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup ground almonds

3/4 cup Gluten-Free Plain White Flour Blend (see recipe below)

Pinch of salt

Sunflower oil, for greasing

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place the almonds on a baking sheet and roast for 5 minutes until just lightly toasted.

Whisk the egg whites in a thoroughly clean bowl until stiff. Using the same whisk, whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a separate large bowl until pale and frothy. Fold in the ground almonds, flour blend, salt and egg whites until combined, then fold in the toasted nuts.

Lightly grease the baking sheet with sunflower oil. Using a spatula, spoon the dough into 2 rectangles on the sheet, then pat out to about 3 by 6 inches. Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the cookie dough from the oven and let cool slightly. Loosen the dough from the baking sheet and cut each piece into diagonal strips using a sharp knife, then spread out the pieces on the sheet.

Reduce the oven temperature to 250 degrees, return biscotti to the oven, and bake for 45 to 60 minutes until pale golden and completely hard. Let cool. Store in an airtight container.

Note: Add zest of 1 large unwaxed orange for a citrusy variation on this recipe.

Makes: about 16

Gluten-Free Plain White Flour Blend

From “Gloriously Gluten Free” by Susanna Booth

2 cups brown rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1/4 cup potato flour

1/3 cup cornstarch

Place all flours together in a bowl and stir well.

Sift the flours into a funnel placed in the neck of a storage jar. (This not only minimizes clumps, but also blends the mixture more fully.)

Store the flour blend for up to 1 month, or no longer than the earliest “best before” date of the flours used.

Makes: about 15 ounces