Helping you find peace within the chaos of a gluten-free lifestyle
This Chia Seed Pudding with Tahini Caramel recipe is quick, easy, and delicious. It’s perfect as a healthy breakfast, snack, or dessert. This recipe closely resembles my Vegan Caramel Chia Pod recipe but with slight variations. What is Chia Seed Pudding? When you combine chia …
The relationship between celiac disease and mental health might not just involve the stress of a gluten-free lifestyle. Mental health struggles are being found to present as symptoms of celiac disease and of non-celiac gluten sensitivity. If you are struggling with certain mental health issues, …
This gluten-free buckwheat coffee cake is easy and delicious. Coffee cake is one of my favorite treats so I knew I had to honor it with this recipe.
I love buckwheat because it’s gluten-free and thus, buckwheat is safe for people with celiac disease.
Not only that but Buckwheat is:
First, Wikipedia defines coffee cake as “any cake flavored with or intended to be eaten with coffee”.
However, the coffee cake I am used to is a buttery fluffy cake topped with a healthy layer of cinnamon sugar crumbs. This is the coffee cake I tried to recreate with the nutty flavors of buckwheat in this recipe.
I love coffee cake because it’s so delicious and it’s paired with my favorite drink. Honestly, what isn’t there to love?
Really quick, before we dive into this gluten-free coffee cake recipe, I want to talk about some of the ingredients.
Sometimes you can get away with only using buckwheat flour in recipes (like in my Double Chocolate Buckwheat Cookies recipe). Other times, like in this recipe, you need to use it with an all-purpose flour blend.
Buckwheat is a pretty dense flour, using it with a blend of other flours helps keep whatever you’re baking fluffy. So I urge you, don’t just try to use all buckwheat flour in this recipe. Please add in the gluten-free all-purpose flour, the fluffy texture of this buckwheat coffee cake depends on it.
Using buckwheat flour in this recipe gives it a nutty flavor that elevates this coffee cake to a whole other level.
I used light buckwheat flour in this recipe because light buckwheat flour has a lighter flavor and I didn’t want the buckwheat flavor to overpower this coffee cake. I just wanted the buckwheat to offer a subtle nice nutty flavor profile.
You can try dark buckwheat flour if you’d like in this recipe, but be ready for a stronger buckwheat flavor.
You can substitute the eggs for 3 mashed bananas, or 1/2 cup apple sauce but this will impact the texture a little bit. I like to use eggs in my recipe because I prefer them over plant-based options. That being said, I have been known to use apple sauce when I find out I’m out of eggs but still really want to bake.
The original coffee cake topping option in this recipe is for those who don’t have Drizzilicious snacks on hand or are looking for a more traditional coffee cake experience.
The Cinnamon Swirl Drizzilicious topping is an incredibly easy and delicious option. The frosting of the Drizzilicious snacks melts into the top of the coffee cake creating this delicious flavor, while the cinnamon rice cake on-top offers a delicious crunch to the soft texture of the cake.
Honestly, all bias aside (because yes, I do work for Drizzilicious), this would be my favorite option now that I have tried it.
Now that we’ve got all of that out of the way, let’s make some buckwheat coffee cake!
Preheat the oven to 350F degrees
Combine the flours, salt, and baking powder into a medium size bowl
In a separate bowl, add the eggs, agave, and butter and mix until well-combined, then whisk in the milk and lemon juice.
Slowly combine the flour mixture into the wet mixture
Pour mixture into a lined loaf/bread pan
Prepare the topping of your choice and place on top of the mixture in the loaf/bread pan
Bake for 55 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean)
Combine the cinnamon, sugar, and melted butter until well-combines
Crush the drizzilicious cinnamon swirl snacks and they are ready (bonus if you're using the bottom of the bag where all of the icing crumbs are)
So you or someone you know has been diagnosed with celiac disease, and you’ve been told (hopefully) to avoid gluten, but why? What is gluten? Why do you need to avoid it? What foods can or can’t you have? In this post, I’ll tell you …
Ingredients:
2 cups buckwheat flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup agave syrup
2 eggs
I filmed a story on my Instagram the other day where I showed you how I try to keep my gluten-free grocery bill affordable. In my story, I showed you my pantry which featured a lot of canned beans and vegetables which lead to a lot of questions about the safety of canned foods for people with celiac disease. This inspired me to write this post to answer your questions on if canned foods are gluten-free and celiac-safe.
The answer? It depends on what kind of canned food we are talking about. I like to break canned food down in two 2 categories when talking about their safety:
This is any canned food that is a mixture of ingredients. Think soups and sauces.
It’s safe if it has a “gluten-free” certification/claim on it.
Mixed canned foods can also still be gluten-free without a gluten-free claim or certification if it does not have the following:
This is any canned food where it’s just the food item in it. Like canned vegetables and fruits.
It’s safe if it has a “gluten-free” certification/claim on it.
Plain canned foods can also still be gluten-free without a gluten-free claim or certification if it does not have the following:
As you can see, label reading is very important when it comes to determining if anything, including canned food, is gluten-free.
| Type of Food | Food Label | Is it Gluten-Free? |
|---|---|---|
| Canned Black Beans (Plain Canned Food) | Ingredients: Black beans, salt, water Allergen statement: Processed on the same equipment as wheat. No gluten-free claim. | No. The black beans were processed on the same equipment as wheat and there is no “gluten-free” claim or certification, thus they are not considered safe due to potential cc. |
| Canned Black Beans (Plain Canned Food) | Ingredients: Black beans, salt, water Allergen statement: Processed on the same equipment as wheat. There is a gluten-free certification. | Yes. The black beans were processed on the same equipment as wheat but have been tested by a third party to contain <20ppm of gluten (often even less depending on the certifier) which is considered celiac-safe. When this happens, typically it’s because the manufacturer has good cleaning practices when swtichen between allergenic foods (like wheat) and foods that don’t contain allergens. |
Canned Black Beans (Plain Canned Food) | Ingredients: Black beans, salt, water Allergen statement: Processed in the same facility as wheat. No gluten-free claim. | Depends, but probably yes. The same facility as claim doesn’t mean much. These facilities can be the size of a football field and/or have multiple floors. For all you know, soup was being canned on the first floor, and the beans were being canned on the 3rd. Pro-tip: If you’re concerned, contact the manufacturer. |
| Canned Black Beans (Plain Canned Food) | Ingredients: Black beans, salt, water No allergen statement or gluten-free claim. | Yes. There is no allergen statement suggesting that these beans have come into cross-contact with wheat or that they contain wheat. |
| Canned Chicken Noodle Soup (Mixed Canned Food) | Ingredients: Chicken broth, cooked white meat chicken, carrots, egg noodle (semolina wheat, egg*) Allergen Statement: Contains wheat, egg, and soy ingredients. | No. The soup has the obvious unsafe ingredient, wheat. Not to mention the allergen statement clearly identifies the presence of wheat. |
| Canned Lentil Soup (Mixed Canned Food) | Ingredients: Water, lentils, celery, tomato paste, spinach, natural flavor Has a gluten-free claim. No allergen statement. | Yes. Though this product does have a suspicious ingredient (natural flavors), it is safe. The gluten-free claim means this product has <20ppm of gluten in it which the FDA has deemed generally safe for people with celiac disease. |
Often people who are just starting out with a gluten-free lifestyle stick to only buying foods that are clearly labeled gluten-free. While this helps with adapting to the lifestyle, this is usually not necessary as you build your label reading confidence and skills.
That being said, there is also a small group of people with celiac disease who react to amounts of gluten that fall below the standard <20ppm. These people can react to 10ppm or lower and might need to be more stringent in their selection of canned foods. A dietitian specializing in celiac disease can help you decide what’s best for you if you’re unsure.
As always, if you don’t know if something is safe, say no. Additionally, a dietitian can be a great resource for determining what is right for you. We all have individual needs and while there are general recommendations, it can be helpful to tailor these recommendations to you with the help of a dietitian who specializes in celiac disease.
DISCLAIMER: This post was with USA labeling in mind. Please keep in mind – a gluten-free diet requires a lot of individualization. This case study is based on general safety recommendations for celiac disease and how I read labels – but is certainly not “LAW” by any means but more of a starting point to help you get more comfortable with reading labels.โ
Lastly, as much as I can prepare you for the label reading world – labeling can get a little crazy in the USA – so if you don’t know if a food item is safe, say no – or contact the manufacturer.
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Being newly diagnosed with celiac disease can be super overwhelming. You’ve lived your entire life up until this point not thinking twice about gluten and now suddenly you’re supposed to completely remove it from your life. Seems easy but then you find out it’s in …
