Due to the fact I have Crohn’s disease I’m on a wheat free diet. I’m not allergic to wheat, but definitely intolerant to it and I know quite soon after eating something that contains wheat. Wheat free food and all specialist food can be quite expensive so my way around that is to shop around and to make as much of my own wheat free food as possible. This means my cupboards are full of weird and wonderful things like Xanthum gum (one of my fav things, it has made my bread so much better) and many flours. I typically like to use rice flour, rye flour, potato flour, chickpea flour, cornmeal, cornflour and tapioca flour. Buying all these flours can certainly add up, but there are a few tips and tricks I can pass on….

• Don’t expect these specialist flours to be a good price at your local supermarket, but do keep checking as they sometimes have offers on.
• Look online at the specialist health food stores, again they often have offers on.
• Try health food shops and farm shops. One of my farm shops has the most fantastic range of wheat free foods and often has deals on.
• Ethnic shops can be great. I get my rice flour, tapioca flour and potato flour plus rice noodles from the Chinese shop and my chickpea flour from the Indian shop. Much cheaper than anywhere else.
• Although the premixed flours you can buy are easy they are not always the best, try mixing your own blends. I find rice flour with cornmeal and rye flour is good for bread.
• Making your own bread is cheaper and usually better for you as you can control what you put in and add extra bits….I like a selection of seeds in my bread.
• Most bought bread has a high salt content, when I make mine I put a tiny amount in or none at all.
• Other wheat free goodies I regularly make are crumpets, pancakes and scones. Yum.