6 Gluten-Free Gifts for Christmas or Hanukkah

There's no getting around the fact that living gluten-free means cooking more frequently. Luckily, there are plenty of great gluten-free cookbooks available to help with the task. My personal favorite is the Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam of Elana's Pantry. There's also Deliciously G-Free by Elisabeth Hasselbeck, which was one of the first mainstream gluten-free cookbooks. There are many more you can choose, including cookbooks for gluten-free vegetarians.

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One of the first things I recommend for people who are newly diagnosed is to get rid of their non-stick cookware — the non-stick surfaces can harbor gluten. If you have celiac or gluten sensitivity and you're sharing a kitchen and cookware with someone who eats gluten, stainless steel cookware can help keep you safe — and, it makes a wonderful Hanukkah or Christmas gift, even for someone whose kitchen is entirely gluten-free.

Few things occupy gluten-free folks more than the pursuit of decent gluten-free bread. Although commercial gluten-free bakeries have made great strides in recent years, there's still nothing like your own gluten-free bread, fresh from the oven. A bread maker and some well-tested gluten-free bread recipes make the task so much easier. Some bread makers, including models from Breadman and Zojirushi, even include a pre-programmed gluten-free setting.

When you go gluten-free, you have to give up many of your old favorite cooking utensils, as there's no way to get the gluten cross-contamination out of them. I really mourned for my pizza stone, even though it went to a good home. It's hard to cook a pizza — especially a pizza with a gluten-free crust — without a proper pizza stone. So I was overjoyed to receive a replacement as a gift. It's entirely possible someone on your list would like one, too.

There's really no way around it — when you're gluten-free, you have to cook a lot more. A lot more, especially if you need to stick to any kind of a budget (my 6 tips for eating gluten-free on a budget might help). To help in your cooking prep, there's really no substitute for a really good blender or food processor (or one of each, if you have room for them). I don't know many people who would turn one of these down, gluten-free or not.

A few years ago, if you wanted to give a gluten-free gift basket for Christmas, Hanukkah or another occasion, you had to make your own. Not so anymore—now multiple specialty and mainstream merchants such as gourmet food company Harry & David offer pre-made gluten-free gift baskets. You can choose from Kosher gift baskets for Hanukkah, gift baskets intended for children, fruit gift baskets, gluten-free/casein-free gift baskets and vegan gift baskets.