Preparing sweets without wheat

Usually, this column is about the health benefits of cooking with some ingredient or other, but this week’s column is going to be about the health benefits of not using an ingredient: wheat.

I have a friend who is among the many people who can not eat wheat, or any foods with gluten — not because of a no-carb diet but because of celiac disease. Of course we spend a lot of time at The Lakeville Journal talking about and thinking about food, but we’ve been thinking about gluten-free foods in particular this month because this friend recently broke a leg while doing something fairly non-threatening.  

We were pondering the dangers of everyday life and wondering if any one of us could break a leg bone while, say, stepping  out of a car. My friend explained that poor bone density is one repercussion of celiac disease.

Celiac is one of those things like low blood sugar or an allergy to cigarette smoke. People tend to diagnose themselves with it even if they don’t have it. How do you know if you have a bona fide allergy to all gluten products? Well, there is a definite link between untreated celiac disease and osteoporosis and low bone density.

Other celiac symptoms include  bloating and pain in your abdomen, chronic diarrhea and other unpleasant gastrointestinal problems, weight loss and irritability. Apparently what happens is that if you have celiac disease, it keeps your body from being able to pull nutrients out of foods in a normal and healthy manner.

If you think you have it, and if other members of your family have or had it (it’s genetic), then see your doctor. But also, try cutting wheat out of your diet (which is hard) as well as barley and rye (not quite as hard). Some people believe that oats and oatmeal can cause a reaction in people with celiac disease. There’s some debate on this topic, but the new thinking on this seems to be that it’s not the oats that are the problem; it’s that oats are often grown or processed around wheat (or rye or barley) and are tainted by association.

And once you’ve cut out the gluten from your diet, you’ll want to boost your calcium, preferably by taking a doctor-recommended supplement (the responsible method) but also by eating foods that are rich in calcium, a nutrient you can get from almonds and dark leafy greens and, to a lesser degree, from delicious cream.

This has been a great year for pears and apples, and if you’re lucky enough to have a friend with an orchard you probably are beginning to look for new ways to cook them. I don’t think of these two as being interchangeable, but I do think they mix well in certain dishes, such as cobblers and applesauce (which is also excellent with raspberries). Pears melt into sweet liquid pretty quickly so for applesauce add them at the end, just before you put the fruit in a food processor.

For cobblers, of course, you’ll need to cook them all at one time. The trick with this recipe, though, is how to make a cobbler without using flour. This recipe is from a 2007 issue of Food and Wine. The original calls for lebneh, or Middle Eastern yogurt. We’ve substituted Greek yogurt, which is easy to find around here and is nice and thick.

Flourless apple-pear crumble

Adapted from Food and Wine magazine

Makes four servings

6 tablespoons unsalted butter;  2 large tart apples, peeled, cored and sliced;  1 ripe pear, peeled, cored and sliced;  1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar;  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon;  pinch of fresh nutmeg;  optional1/4 teaspoon finely chopped fresh lavender;  1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice;  1/4 cup apple cider or water;  2 cups Greek yogurt; 1 cup good-quality granola

Sauté the apples in butter in a large skillet, stirring occasionally until they are tender and just beginning to brown. Add the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lavender if you’re using it, and lemon juice and cook, stirring, until the sugar is melted and the apples are lightly caramelized. Be patient, this takes at least five minutes. Add the cider (or water) and cook, stirring, until a sauce forms. You can do this part ahead of time, and reheat the apple/pear mixture just before serving (if it were me, I would wait to add the pears until the last second).

Spoon the yogurt into bowls and then spoon the apple mixture and the pears on top. Finish it all with the granola and serve.