Gluten-free baking

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On Saturday I decided to do some baking, it was a while since we last had any peanut butter cookies and I really fancied some. I was wondering whether to make them with the gluten free flour; the problem was I couldn’t be sure that no-one had ever stuck a knife back into the big tub of peanut butter after spreading it on bread, thus contaminating it, in which case they wouldn’t be completely gluten free even if I used the right flour. So when our lodger appeared I consulted him and he told me that actually his wife has a slight intolerance to peanuts as well. A definite no then! However he immediately produced a similarly big tub of almond butter, and suggested I use that instead. I’d already mixed up the peanut mixture but I just made a parallel batch and then baked the gluten-free ones first to be sure there was no gluten in the oven to get on anything. The result was delicious, not quite as tasty as the peanut ones because almonds have rather a milder flavour, but really yummy and the texture was no different to the ‘normal’ ones. None of them will be around very long for sure! I really think the lodgers and I should put together a book of gluten-free recipes, or make some YouTube videos or something. The wife and I could make the recipes and we could do the commentary in both English and Italian, and the husband could certainly feature as the satisfied consumer! All rights reserved. © Text copyright Fleur 2026.