Published

Gluten Free? Why bother?

ATK's Gluten Free coolbook

     America’s Test Kitchen has been the number one cooking show on public television for 14 years. (The January 2014 Nielsen rating was a heavyweight 1.68 with 2.3 million viewers per week.) But America’s Test Kitchen Radio was launched just two years go.

The first 2014 radio special investigates the mysterious, perplexing world of gluten-free baking. Gluten, the essential protein in wheat flour, creates structure and helps baked goods rise. Without it, cookies spread like hot lava, breads rise up out of their loaf pans, and pizza tastes like crackers.

Over 18 months of hard test kitchen work and scientific exploration led to a whole new approach to gluten-free baking including new techniques, unusual tricks, and a different approach to ingredients. The test cooks even figured out how to make a great chocolate chip cookie — you know, the kind that you would really want to eat!

A book about this process, with over 100 recipes, was published March 1, 2014 — The How Can It Be Gluten-Free Cookbook.