I know this could have gone in the special needs section but it didn't seem very active. I'm having trouble finding more information about wheat-free baking that doesn't necessarily have to be gluten free. Everything is about gluten free baking!
My son was just diagnosed with a wheat allergy, but this is really different from a gluten intolerance or celiacs. It means he could have an anaphylactic reaction to wheat but the reaction is to a protein that's more wheat specific that is not gluten. Which means he can have barley and rye and oat and other things that might be off-limits to celiacs. I have to think this is an advantage!
Anyway, I've had my starter going for about 2 years, but to be safe I'm attempting a new, separate starter with only rye, and will obviously be attempting the Scandinavian-style 100% rye breads. I'm curious about barley and other possibilities though.
Ingredients/grains that are off-limits: wheat, kamut, spelt, vital gluten, einkorn, farro, durum.
Grains that are ok: rye, barley, buckwheat, oat, and then of course the safe gluten free types like amaranth, millet, quinoa, rice, corn.
Gluten free baking tends to be stuck with rice and potato and garbanzo. Has anyone experimented with mixing rye/barley/buckwheat type things. Do you think it needs to be just sourdough or could I do something interesting with commercial yeast as well? I've had a few failures with trying rice waffles already and that led to a lot of waste, so thought I'd ask for advice first before wasting a whole lot of different grain flour!
I understand the distinction between a wheat allergy and a gluten allergy/intolerance but it is easiest to find good recipes and information on celiac/gluten free sites because that automatically eliminates wheat. There are a lot of delicious recipes out there-I think you haven't found the right ones.
First of all-beware the sites that tell you "he won't react to ancient grains". Horse hockey. Sounds like you may be aware of that already.
Food Allergy Network. It has changed a lot over the last 30 yrs but it was very helpful to me when I needed it. Here is the link:
https://www.foodallergy.org/
This site looked promising,too:
http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/page/recipes-diet.aspx
I really found this next site helpful in trying to figure out GF flours.
https://glutenfreegirl.com/
This next one may have gone more commercial (have to buy):
https://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/
There is a science to figuring out how to get the proper structure for baked goods. It is the proper proportions of whole grain (rice,brn rice,sorghum,millet,etc), starch (potato,tapioca,corn) and gum (psyllium,flax,pectin,xanthan,etc). Different grains add different flavors. Some good and some....not my favorite.Teff adds brown color and a delicious nuttiness. Most people love sorghum and millet but my palate is different. Find what works for you.
I am afraid you are in for a learning curve. Try and work on a few staples first-pancake, sandwich rolls, crackers/cookies, brownies.
The biggest problem people have in adapting to such a major change is expecting the substitutions to be exactly like a wheat product. Try to have the viewpoint of exploring new deliciousness. Name things differently,esp for a child. My kids hated beef stew. I renamed it to meat and vegetables and they loved it. Same stew-different outlook. Call sandwich buns-rock"n"rolls, call pancakes.....?Frisbees?,....you will probably be more creative and will know what will appeal.
Also, if a product (in the USA) is labelled "gluten free", it has to meet legal standards that should prevent cross contamination with wheat. On the other hand, they can put a disclaimer on a product saying "processed in plant that also processes wheat" and they are off the hook. It cannot be labelled "GF" (and therefore wheat free) but it may be. Food allergies are not fun. Good luck!
EDIT:
Who knew rye could make delicious cookies:
http://www.foodgal.com/2014/03/tartine-bakerys-salted-chocolate-rye-cookies/
OR BROWNIES!:
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-fudgey-hazelnut-rye-brownies-recipes-from-the-kitchn-199521
100% Rye cookbook:
http://ryebook.nourishingdays.com/
I got a lot of hits for a google search "100% rye flour cookie recipe". Rye flour is easy to obtain and since GF is not an issue, good to work with. It has been around for eons and there are TONS of recipes.
You can bet I'm going to be stocking up on rye flour as I get into the swing of things. Thanks!
I have one customer who won't do wheat or commercial dry yeast. I make him a variety of rye-based sourdoughs, many based on Emmanual Hadjiandreou's rye sourdoughs in "How to Make Sourdough" (good book). The method and formula works for me. I make one with added orange zest and crushed coriander seeds, another with chopped prunes and pink peppercorns (sounds weird, but it works). One of his recipes uses a rye sour starter and then mixes it with barley flour in the final dough. I often use some barley flour (whole milled) and keep little frozen pucks of cooked rye berries, barley grains and buckwheat which I will put into a rye and barley flour sourdough loaf. Stan Ginsberg has lots of 100% rye recipes on his site The Rye Baker as well.
They are moist and dense and certainly not like wheat-based bread, so it's an acquired taste. If dry yeast is not a problem then I might suggest boosting the sourdough with a bit of dry yeast. Also, you might need to re-learn proofing times and temperatures as rye is a different animal and generally proofs (and over-proofs) very quickly.
I also make a few gluten-free breads for special customers. Most of these are based on brown rice, sorghum, and teff flours with tapioca starch and/or potato starch added. Sometimes I use amaranth, corn, potato, coconut or oat flours too. Then there's the egg, psyllium, xanthan gum, flax, etc. that are used to bind and provide structure, and a whole bunch of other things to make it good (seeds, nuts, fruit, dairy, etc.). GF is a whole different world, and a whole different learning curve!
You've got my grains-of-interest covered, thanks! Dry yeast isn't a problem so once I have my rye starter live and healthy (I'm only on day 2) I'll give that a go. I'm very purist about my wheat sourdough, nothing but fermented flour and salt and a tiny amount of sugar to give it a boost, but I also make a wheat bread every week or so for every day use, pb+j for my non-wheat-allergic kid, etc, so I always have dry yeast on hand.
Good to know about shorter proofing times; I would have assumed the opposite.
I also got coconut flour and was messing around with that in combination with rice flour and that was a miserable failure. Coconut seems to be pretty temperamental as a main ingredient!
I know the low amounts of gluten in rye and barley are not going to provide the same crumb that wheat will, but I keep telling myself it will make a difference in him being able to eat actual bread, and not just imitation bread. No offense to the gluten free, though. I just think bread made out of rice and potato is another kind of food entirely, but I'll also be giving that a try. I'll report back here as I figure this out in case this post is helpful to future people looking to eliminate wheat without eliminating gluten entirely.
While I don't have any wheat allergies, I really enjoy playing with the different flavours and nutritional profiles of other grains.
With rye, the best and most flexible "base" that I have yet found is Mini Oven's here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/15736/mini039s-favorite-rye-ratio. You can use it with 100% rye, or mix in some other flours (barley or oat or buckwheat) for different flavour profiles.
You will find that there is a variety of different rye flours available, ranging from fresh milled whole rye (chops or meal or flour), to dark rye flour, medium rye flour, and even light and "white" rye flours. The light (http://www.bobsredmill.com/light-rye-flour.html ) and white (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/white-rye-flour-3-lb ) would be the equivalent of a "white" wheat flour, and will give you a totally different rise and crumb.
To give you an idea of the difference, a bake I did back in May was a couple of loaves using all whole kernel rye (a mix of whole kernels, coarse chops, and whole flour) with one baked per Mini Oven's method and the other baked overnight as a Westphalian pumpernickel style --- and the other loaf using all dark rye flour with some dried fruits and Mini Oven's method:
The much higher rise and lighter crumb is just from using dark rye flour instead of freshly milled whole rye --- and would be even more light and airy if I had used a light or white rye flour.
I often do muffins or scones with random mixes of flours, such as rye / arrowroot / oat, or barley / oat, or rye / buckwheat. I find that different grains go with different fruit or vegetable flavours and different spices (carrot muffins / cake made with rye is fabulous; pumpkin goes amazingly well with rye and buckwheat and lots of ginger and molasses, oats and barley flours work great with any berry, and my favourite chocolate muffin is made with beets and cranberries and a mix of rye / arrowroot / oat flours).
For a bread using 100% barley, Lechem posted this: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51443/venturing-barley-bread
While none of these will have the same crumb and flavour as a wheat bread or muffin or scone or cake, they all can be delicious in their own way. The trick really is to not compare, and to try to judge them on their own merits.
Good luck, and remember to get your son involved in the baking --- the more input he has in to what is made and how, the more likely he is to enjoy it (and it will give him more confidence in his ability to get out and enjoy life while still keeping safe from his allergies).