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The moment I was diagnosed with CD I started collecting cookbooks! At 
last count I think there were around 40 at my house. Obviously, I 
have always liked to bake and was even more pleased by the challenge 
of having fresh baked goods available, both for myself and for my 
family.

The first two cookbooks I bought used the rice flour/tapioca 
starch/potato starch combo. In 1999, when Bette Hagman's "G-F Gourmet 
Bakes Bread" came out, I optimistically bought at least four more 
canisters for her new flour mixtures. Now, it seems every new 
cookbook calls for a new flour mixture and I certainly can't keep 
adding new canisters indefinitely.

I don't mind using new flour combinations, as I usually have all the 
various kinds of flours stashed somewhere in my freezer, 
refrigerator, or pantry, depending on the need for refrigeration. 
However, it often seems the amount of the unique flour mixture called 
for in the recipe is an odd amount, not a even fraction of the 
mixture formula (usually for 3/6/9 cups). Since I've given up on 
adding more canisters, sometimes I ignore that recipe, which may be a 
good one, in favor of one that is easier to formulate on the fly. 
(That's why I hang onto my old edition of Carol Fenster's cookbook. 
It's handy in a pinch!)

It would be SO nice if cookbook authors could either --

(1) go back to listing the appropriate amounts of the flours used in 
the mixture for each recipe -- do the calculations for us. This might 
add a couple of lines to the ingredients part of the recipe, but 
probably wouldn't cause too many layout problems.

(2) include a table in the back of the book, indicating how to mix up 
fractions of the formula for all the odd amounts used in the book. 
For example, if a recipe calls for 1 1/3 cups of the mixture, here's 
what you need to do to mix up that exact amount. Somebody who's good 
with spreadsheets could easily create this.

Again, I love to buy new g-f cookbooks, and will continue to do so 
and appreciate all of you who write them, unless the level of 
frustration in converting all these formulas gets too high or I am 
too old to make the calculations any more!

Susan Pieper
Las Cruces, NM

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