A Healing Kitchen

Celiac disease has a long and ancient history. The Roman physician, Aretaeus chronicled the very symptoms we associate with it today and a number of historical celebrities, including royalty were afflicted.

When Marie Antoinette uttered her most famous quote, she didn't have us in mind. Still it's good to know that "Let them eat cake," can be applied to us.

Elaine Gottschall had her daughter treated by celiac specialist, Dr. S.V. Haas over half a century ago. She received few instructions. and she left his office wondering what kind of treats she could feed the child. Suddenly she recalled a friend who baked those classic Viennese tortes made with ground nuts. And thus it came to pass that people on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet got very just desserts, cakes, cookies, muffins, biscotti and meringues that were "gut-friendly" and an absolutely superb cheesecake that takes about five minutes to get oven ready in a food processor!

Below are the ingredients in "Susie's Cheesecake" (That entire gluten-free recipe is elsewhere on this site).

Ingredients:
¼ pound gluten-free sweet butter
1 ½ cup sugar
32 ounces whipped gluten-free cream cheese
16 ounces gluten-free sour cream
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla
1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice
5 eggs


Now here is the Specific Carbohydrate Diet version.

I wish someone would make the recipe more difficult as I tend to make the cheesecake often and eat the whole thing over a two day period.

2 cups dry curd cottage cheese
3 eggs
2 teaspoons Frontier vanilla (it's gluten free)
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1.2 cup Specific Carbohydrate Diet home made yogurt or filter dripped Specific Carbohydrate Diet yogurt
1/3 cup clear honey no syrup or added sucrose

Combine the yogurt and cheese in a food processor and process four minutes. Scrape sides down. Add remaining ingredients and process just until blended. Pour into a pie plate or loaf pan and bake in a 350F oven, on the center rack for 20 minutes. It will be jiggly. Turn off the oven, open the oven door slightly and allow to cool in the oven one hour or until it is room temperature. Chill at least two hours, but overnight is best. You can swirl in fruit or nut butter or add strong coffee to the batter for variations.