No!!!

Yes, (evil laughter), another Mommy Blog (more evil laughter)!!! Life is a story, mine at the moment just happens to occur mostly at home, which means no sword fights or dragons, but plenty of peril, misadventure, and food. Like all good stories we will skip the boring parts (like laundry). So gird up your loins and let us commence with some real domestic adventures; don't forget your sense of humor.

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Real Stuffed Crust Pizza: Gluten Free Edition

My son's favorite meal is stuffed crust pizza (pizza crust with a ring of melty cheese running through it) and with his wheat sensitivity, I thought he could never eat it again.  I'm rather partial to pizza myself and have spent a year looking for a good gluten free crust recipe, while I've found some edible variants, they just aren't pizza!  I had perfected the stuffed crust pizza with a wheat based crust, but my gluten free attempts were more cake or biscuit like than pizza crust.  Light, chewy, crisp, body...that's a pizza crust.  The gluten free variant minded me of the baking powder crusts my mother used to make: more biscuit than yeast bread and I didn't want that, not in the least.  Then I rediscovered bread and wondered if I could use it as my pizza crust recipe?  The result was amazing, I couldn't tell the difference from a wheat crust!  My picky, wheat loving husband thought it was spot on too!  It is a little putzy, but worth the effort.  It also works well for thin or pan crust if you don't want to mess with the cheesy ring.  You will need either a pizza pan with a tall rim or a cast iron pan for the magic to work (even with a wheat crust).  You could try a jelly roll pan or cake pan if it can stand 450F.

Follow the recipe link above and the day you want pizza, take your dough out of the fridge.  Add a little corn starch or tapioca if it sticks.  Work it until it is silky and smooth but not crumbly (wet your hands if it starts to fall apart).  Roll into the size of crust you would like, if doing a stuffed crust, add an extra inch or two to the diameter.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450F with a pan of water on the lowest oven rack.  For thin crust, preheat the pan too.

For thin crust, place the rolled crust onto the heated pan and place back in the oven for a minute or two until bubbly and beginning to brown.  Flip, poke with a fork to disperse air pockets, and bake another couple minutes until cooked through and splotched with brown spots.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes, then top as desired (go light on the sauce, or it might become soggy).  Return to oven and broil until cheese is golden and sizzling.

For pan crust, if you are using a cast iron frying pan, heat on the stove top until pan is warm and the crust just begins to bubble before placing in the oven (un-topped) and baking until lightly golden brown and cooked through.  Top and broil.  If using a cookie sheet or pizza pan, try preheating the pan and transferring the crust to the preheated pan as for thin crust.

For stuffed crust, place rolled dough evenly into pan with extra crust draped up the sides.  Place cut cheese (1 cm x 1 cm x 6 cm) strips along edge of pan and fold extra crust over top, sealing the seam and evening out the crust.  Heat on stovetop until pan is warm and crust begins to bubble slightly and transfer to oven.  Bake until golden and cooked through.  Top and broil.  You will get some cheese leakage, but even with a wheat crust, it happens every time.  Enjoy!

'Dream the impossible dream?' Real Bread sans the wheat?!

I've been playing with gluten free yeast breads a bit of late and have had a bit of success and my flops have not been too phenomenal, I can at least salvage them for breadcrumbs!  But I had real, honest to goodness bread the other day, and this from someone who has worn out three bread machines in 10 years in her wheat years, even the gluten eaters loved it.  Every recipe I have found wants whey protein isolate, yogurt, dry milk powder, or something to increase the protein content to replace the missing gluten, but as I can't do dairy and don't really want to add pea protein (ugh!) I wasn't sure what to do, what about egg whites?  I also had to modify the flour blends as too much rice flour and the texture is awful and I can't do potato and don't like beans.  Here's what I came up with.  It is a real tasting, feeling bread, similar to a French or 'artisan' style bread and makes a wonderful pizza crust (more on that later).

In a bowl combine the dry ingredients:

1/2 cup brown rice flour (I was given some I am trying to use up, I will try oat flour in the future)
1/2 cup millet flour
1 cup corn starch
1 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
2 T sugar
2 tsp Xanthan gum

In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients:

2 egg whites
2 T oil
1/2 cup sweet sourdough starter*

I used my bread machine on the dough cycle but feel free to use your stand mixer.  Basically dump everything into the bowl and mix for 5-10 minutes, adding water or starch as needed to get a slightly moist dough that doesn't cling to the bowl or fingers.  Cover and let rise double.  Toss it in the fridge overnight or up to 5 days.  Pull out as much or as little as desired and kneed (cold) until smooth, adding starch as needed to combat stickiness.  Roll into a French bread, use as a pizza crust, make an artisan loaf or buns, whatever you want to do!  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise, slash the top, baste dough with butter for a soft crust.

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.  Place a pan of water on the lowest oven rack and fill with water (steam and heat are very important for this sort of bread).  Preheat the pan as well (A baking stone, cast iron, or a sturdy cookie sheet).  Remove hot pan from oven, transfer the loaf, and place immediately back into hot, steamy oven.  Bake until golden brown and cooked through (a food thermometer with a reading over 210 is ideal) but it is easy to over or under cook the loaf, so watch it!  Also, a long, thin loaf is easier than a stout, dense one.  Individual buns or pizza crusts are also easier to know when they are done.

*Sweet sourdough starter: 1 part milk, 1 part sugar, 1 part gluten free flour or starch or some combination thereof.  Add 1 tsp instant yeast to slightly warm mixture, mix well and let ferment on the counter for a couple days.  Keep it in a big container, it will bubble!  Stir a couple times a day and it should be ready to use in 48-72 hours.  This is the same recipe as 'amish friendship bread' starter but I like it in any sort of yeast bread, sweet or savory.  Try using your usual flour blend (I use 65-70% starch (tapioca, white rice, corn starch) to 35% flour (oats, brown rice, millet).  Replenish as necessary with the same recipe sans the yeast.

Monday, December 16, 2019

A few notes on realistic gluten free baking, especially yeast doughs

Did you know you can make edible bread with corn starch and oatmeal?  Neither did I, but even the gluten-loving husband thought it was great!  I was out of all my interesting flours (millet, tapioca) and all I had was corn starch and oatmeal (blenderized into oat flour) and I really wanted to try a few gluten free recipes, namely sourdough and Japanese milk bread, both variations I enjoyed back in those near mythic wheat days, so I made two identical batches, save the sourdough starter or gelatinized glop peculiar to milk bread and treated them like I would a usual yeast French bread, with a few differences (noted below).  I'm tired of batter breads and wanted to see if I could make an actual dough and if it was even slightly edible, but willing to use it for bread crumbs if it wasn't, my family devoured them both.  Now I'll combine the two and try a pizza crust.

Reading about gluten free baking, I feel like I'm back in my college chemistry lab: exact measurements of this, strange ingredients you can hardly pronounce, and the added delight of overzealous foodies who, as one blogger put it, 'think cooking oil will be the downfall of modern civilization.'  No gums, vegan, no genetic modification, no sugar...and it has to taste exactly like wheat bread, um yeah sort of like tofurkey is going to replace steak!  What can I do at home, with as few weird/expensive ingredients as possible?  And no, I don't like rice flour, I eat enough rice as it is, I don't want it in my baked good too, especially with that gritty texture.  I can't have quinoa, bean flours are gross, I can't afford almond flour...  I'm also not a chemist by trade, I don't do well with exactly 253 mg of X and 2.567 mls of Y; I've tried quilting with similar results: living tissue (surgery!)  is so much better to work with, it merely needs to be close to turn out beautifully, not exact.  The same with wheat bread, you add a little more flour or liquid until it looks and feels right and you're good to go.  Can I do the same gluten free?

The answer to both questions is yes, you can do it without a kitchen scale and with stuff you have in your kitchen on a regular basis (though I'd highly recommend Xanthan gum or something similar of you'll be doomed from the start).  I looked at several recipes that call for whey protein isolate and I can't tolerate whey, it is right up there with wheat for me, but maybe I could find a substitute?  Also, what about all those gluten free flour blends listing white rice flour as a flour, to me that would be a starch (sticky, no fiber, mostly carbs), but what do I know?  I did a little digging, reading, comparing and came across this lady, who seems to have a sensible head on her shoulders and has done some real life baking.  She confirmed that white rice flour is indeed a starch (brown rice flour is a flour) and breaks down many of the more common grain/seed flours/starches into either flour or starch and then came up with a handy little ratio to roughly come up with your own gluten free blend, namely 60% starch (tapioca/corn/white rice) and 40% flour (millet/oats/brown rice...).  I will note here she likes psyllium husks instead of gums, but I haven't tried that but feel free to experiment!  So using that as a basis, I began playing with the idea with what I had on hand.  Looking at other recipes and remembering what was possible in my wheat days also helped a ton.  Here are a few considerations with gluten free baking that might help you too (though they are mostly just a reminder for myself!):

Protein: a big part of what makes bread bread is that lovely gluten-y protein, so remember to use lots of eggs, cheese, whey protein, high protein grains, milk, and other such lovely things in place of it.

Structure: another important feature of gluten, so without it you must improvise.  The gums help, as does a bread pan or muffin cup or other pan with sides, you can also add physical structure into a true dough by rolling it, folding it, etc. (think croissants, French bread, Japanese milk bread).

Time: if you can stick the dough in the fridge overnight (or for several days) or leave it on the counter all day, it seems to help not only the texture but also the taste (this is for yeast doughs!).  Bring it to room temperature before working it, knead and shape it as desired, then let it rise again before baking.

Baking time: these babies take forever to bake and it is really easy to get a burned crust and a raw interior, so minimizing the bulk of the baked product can help (I had the same problem with wheat breads too!).  I like to make buns, French bread, or naan to deal with this issue, rely on internal temperature rather than looks (~210 F).

Texture: gritty or starchy is what comes to mind, especially with rice flour and gums.  Experiment with different types of flour/starch and see which ones you like (and don't!).  I like millet's light, fluffiness and the same with tapioca starch.  But even corn starch and oat flour can work in a pinch, at least if you stick to the 60% starch/40% flour ratio.  Also find a conversion chart and see how much of one flour type equals a cup of regular flour and keep that in mind.  Tapioca and millet are one to one so it is an easy conversion, but oat flour is heavier so you need to use less of it proportionally.  Also consider the desired texture of your finished product: cinnamon rolls or artisan bread?  Heavy and course might do well for the latter but not the former, oats would be great in artisan bread but a little heavy for sweet rolls!  Adding milk, butter, eggs, sourdough starter, or milk bread goo will also help make the finished product softer/less gritty.

Experiment: cooking is supposed to be fun, remember?  You will occasionally gas your family with mustard gas (trying to make my own honey mustard pretzels) or blow up the oven (the heating coil blew up right before hosting my first extended family holiday dinner!), so laugh at yourself and move on.  I am actually excited to be in the kitchen again, for one thing I feel so much better and for another I've got a new challenge in life and I really want things like cinnamon rolls and a grilled cheese sandwich!  So try it out, have fun, and enjoy!

Ingredients: what is mandatory (a severe allergy that may be life threatening or make you deathly ill) and what can you fudge on (it's trendy to eat vegan!)?  What will you eat and what won't you (kale?!)?  What is readily available for ingredients?  What can you afford?  If you omit or substitute, what effect will it have on the final product?

Precision: if you are totally new to gluten free baking, or (gasp) baking in general, definitely stick with tried and true recipes until you get the hang of it, but once you figure out this new normal, then you can be a little less precise if you like and see what happens!




Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Gluten free buns/biscuits or naan!

I'm not sure what to call these, they are sort of a cross between a yeast bun and a biscuit and began life as a failed attempt at gluten free pasta, but you can also make a nice little naan type flatbread if you thin out the batter.  I made oat flour pasta once, heavy as a brick but still pasta (the two year old loved it).  And as I'd like to eat real lasagna again, I thought I'd try it with my millet/tapioca flours...I left out the xanthan gum and the mixture wouldn't stick together in the boiling water; it was quite a mess, good thing I tested a small batch first!  But not wanting to waste so much gluten free flour, I thought I'd try making a bread batter out of it, and strangely it worked!  I miss naan along with all my gluten containing real breads, so I wondered what would happen with gluten free batter/dough if you baked it in the same style?  When the batter is thick like soggy cookie dough, it will make something reminiscent of a cross between a dinner roll and a biscuit and when it is thin like thick pancake batter, it will spread and make a naan type flatbread, solid enough to cut a pocket in or slice in half and use for a sandwich/grilled cheese.  Much easier than baking a loaf (that never seems to finish cooking) and then slicing it and freezing individual slices.  You could probably make a loaf with this batter as well, making it thick like the biscuit version, if you prefer.

For the batter/dough:

3 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bread machine or instant yeast
1 tsp salt
3.5 cups gluten free flour/starch mix (I used 40% millet flour and 60% tapioca starch)
1/4 cup powdered coffee creamer
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tsp garlic powder (optional!)
1 tsp vinegar
*warm water

Mix everything well, add enough water to make desired batter/dough consistency (around a cup or more for the naan, 1/2 or so for the buns, add a little at a time and mix it in and eyeball it).  Check it again in a few minutes to see if you need to add more as the starch absorbs the liquid.  Let it rise in a warm place, covered for an hour or so.  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F, place a baking stone or cast iron pan in the cold oven and preheat with the oven, grease if it isn't well seasoned.  Place 1/3 cup of the dough/batter on the hot stone and replace in the hot oven, when the top appears puffy and dry, flip with a pancake turner and bake until cooked through (only a minute or two, depending on thickness!).  Enjoy!

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Yes Virginia, there are Gluten free cinnamon rolls!

I haven't had a cinnamon roll in over a year, while I appreciate how much better I feel avoiding the long list of foods that disagree with my gut, there are just some things I miss, like cinnamon rolls.  Some things you can find a substitute or a replacement for, but there really isn't anything I've yet found to replace the soft, ooey-gooeyness of wheat saturated cinnamon buns drenched in frosting.  But I finally decided to give it a try, for one thing it is a Christmas tradition at our house and for another, my son has started a wheat-free diet (apparently he has food sensitivities as well) and since there are now two of us, I'm feeling a little bolder in experimenting with wheat-free yeast breads.  For those of you who don't believe in miracles, apparently you've never tried making wheat-free bread!

Gluten is a miracle, it makes all sorts of wonderful baked goodness possible, with just flour, salt, sugar, water, and yeast, you can make that staple of human civilization: bread.  While man may not live by bread alone, it sure makes existence so much tastier and cozier!  With five simple ingredients you can create a miracle, otherwise you need a list as long as my arm, some rather expensive or hard to find, and then have to employ all sorts of creative processes to mimic what happens naturally when you mix flour and water, and the end result isn't the same, it is a passable facsimile for those of us who can't eat the real thing, but for all of our creative chemistry and kitchen ingenuity, it just isn't the same.

I started with a basic millet based bread recipe, and as that turned out, I decided to try something a little more complicated: cinnamon rolls!

As I had the millet and tapioca starch, I looked for a recipe that called for those ingredients, many of them out there call for a store-bought, pre-blended gluten free flour mix but as most contain something I can't (quinoa) or won't eat (garbanzo beans, ugh!), I was happy to find this one.  It seems rather flexible with people swapping out all sorts of flours/starches for one another and looked like a good place to start.  I did 1/2 cup each tapioca and corn starch and used millet for the flour as written.  It would have been a disaster to roll out, but happily I found a great tutorial here.  It was still a mess (how I miss you gluten, when rolling and shaping dough!), but not an utter disaster as it otherwise might have been.  Boy were they ugly, but the taste was right on and the texture was very close (more cake-like than bready, but it's the gluten that makes bread, bread!) and I found something we can enjoy this Christmas while everyone else is devouring my beloved sourdough cinnamon rolls!

My next project will be a millet/tapioca pizza crust, I'll keep you posted!