Gluten free naan, the next great experiment with Figgins reborn?

 I used to make naan every now and again (whether it was authentic or not, I do not know, but it was good!) back in my wheat days, now that those days are alas gone, I thought to try it again on the gluten free frontier.  I found several recipes, but all the best call for yogurt, and being unable to eat dairy and reluctant to eat non-dairy-dairy substitutes, I wasn't quite sure what to do, then I remembered my old friend Figgins.  I have an on-again-off-again romance with a sourdough culture affectionately named Figgins, who has appeared in both a gluten and gluten free version, but basically it is one part flour to one part milk to one part sugar plus a teaspoon of yeast to get it going (an amish friendship bread starter) and let it sit a few days until the worst of the bubbling is over.

I've replaced buttermilk in recipes with sourdough starter, why not yogurt?  But what about the milk?  Replace it with non-dairy milk (was there ever such an oxymoron?) or water or even coffee creamer (1 part dry coffee creamer to 2 parts hot water).  In a previous incarnation I used 100% oat flour but this time around I used 1 part each tapioca, corn starch, and brown rice flour, which I don't really like for this purpose as it get really sticky on the bottom leaving the rest rather thin.  But I used what I had and went ahead with it (I'm a little impatient sometimes!) and tried making naan last night.  I was using 'gluten free on a shoestring's' recipe, substituting oil for butter and the sourdough for yogurt.  I need to adjust the water because it really got soupy and I had to add extra starch, but even then it was still sticky and hard to work.

It made some really good bread, not quite the texture of the wheat version, but good in its own right.  Maybe if I leave it more of a batter and treat it like a pancake it might be easier to work but I don't know what that would do to texture.  I'll have to play with it and see what I come up with, maybe I'll post a recipe if I can get this madness (or genius?) to work!

Turning the world on its head?

 Here's an article for all you confounded homemakers, did you know you're warriors first and foremost?  But then this is the faith that 'turned the world on its head,' or rather endeavors to set things back the way they should be, enjoy!  

Yay and meh!

 I once tried to make 'non-dairy cheese' and ended with bacon flavored gelatin, ugh!  This time I thought I actually had something edible but ended up with something merely meh, not bad but not good either, just meh.  The commercially available stuff seems to be rice or soy based, while most of the recipes require agar agar (that gelatin stuff they grow bacteria on?) or cashews, neither of which I was excited about, why can't I find a rice flour based recipe?  Then I did, you basically mix rice flour with vegan butter, herbs, and water and then steam it.  It looked promising, it felt great, sliced great, smelled great, and tasted fine, but it wasn't cheese.  It wasn't melty, gooey, browns to delightfulness under the broiler cheese.  I even tried deep frying it, as I love mozzarella sticks, but even that was meh.  The texture was about what you would think steamed rice flour would result in, then deep fry it, talk about adding insult to injury!  It just wasn't cheese!  I can added the flavor to things without the mess, hassle, nuisance, and meh of making fake cheese, I can just sprinkle nutritional yeast on stuff and have the same effect without the gritty texture.  I don't understand replacing real cheese with the fake stuff if the fake stuff can't melt and make me happy, why bother with the expense or mess if it only adds extra calories and neither culinary delight nor nutritional value?  Maybe there is a melty fake cheese out there, but it wasn't this one!

Nutritional yeast however, was definitely a yay!  You've probably even eaten it, though unwittingly, go check the bag or box of your favorite salty snack, savory cracker, or prepared sauce, and look for 'yeast extract' or other yeasty beasties.  It really adds a savory kick to just about anything.  I was really missing parmesan on my spaghetti and this is a great substitute, just shake it on and enjoy.  It does sort of look like fish food but apparently it is fairly good for you, unlike my fake cheese!  I've mixed it with chili powder, garlic, salt, and sugar for a 'nacho' type seasoning for chips and popcorn too.  Now if only it would melt!

Wild comet chase!

Have you heard about the comet neowise?  I guess it's been haunting the early morning hours for a while now, but decided to check out the night scene on the 12th of July, 2020, and I was determined to capture it on film.  Get out and look, it is a good show but it will be gone as of the 22nd!  I saw hale-bopp and Kawasaki back in 1997, or at least I thought I did, but this is way cooler though I thought I had read it wasn't as good?  Weird!  Definitely have a pair of binoculars or a telephoto lens for the best show.  I had read that it was 'right after sunset' but full dark would be a better description. I actually despaired of ever seeing it, I went out looking the last three nights, but between low clouds and obstructions on the NW horizon, I didn't see much.  Last night I took all my junk out (spotting scope, tripod, binoculars, folding chair, camera and two lenses, flashlight, bug proof clothing) and sat watching, waiting, hoping, but again, no comet and low clouds, ugh!  But Jupiter was bright on the opposite horizon so I got the spotting scope out and had fun with that, trying to take pictures through a spotting scope with a telephoto lens in the dark, yes it was as awkward as it sounds!  Saturn was just to the left as well, and that was amazing, with the 60x spotting scope I could actually see 4 of Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings, and yes, I did get an awful picture of Jupiter and 3 of its moons (or 1 big bright blob and 3 specks) but it was fun and cool.  Then I looked in the opposite direction and there it was!

Yes, my pictures are pixelated (I'm photographing with a telephoto lens in the dark!) and there are overhead wires, but it is still way cool.  I remember those 1997 comets as just a slightly oblong star, this baby looks like what a comet should in one's imagination!  Just seeing it was amazing, it was also fun to try photographing it (please don't use your phone?!), I've captured lightning and fireworks and a planet, now a comet!  Definitely get out the binoculars, but find the Big Dipper after full dark and follow it straight down to the NW horizon, look for a blurry bit of light, and there you go!  We won't see this particular phenomenon again, and who knows when we'll get another to equal it, so be wild, skip an hour or two of sleep and go star gazing!

The Long-sought 'Basic Bread' Recipe, Gluten-free Version: Loaf Bread, Buns, Pizza Crust, Fry Bread!

In the good old days, when wheat was still a thing at my house, I used to have what I called the basic bread recipe, and used it for everything from French bread to buns to fry bread to bagels and pizza crust, it was the same dough but a different technique.  Enter the gluten free days, when I need a very specific recipe for everything, and then it has to be modified and tweaked until it uses what I can eat and have on hand, a tedious process indeed!  But I think I've finally found my new basic bread recipe, one I have used for loaf bread, buns, pizza crust, and even fry bread!  It is a batter, not a dough, so the technique is strange at first but it gives very edible results when I had all but despaired of 'real bread' again!

Basic Bread Recipe: Gluten Free:

1/2 cup each millet and oat flour (brown rice flour works too instead of millet)
1 cup each tapioca and corn starch (white rice flour isn't a great substitute, potato starch might work?)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp instant yeast
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp xanthin gum
1/4 cup sugar (I like brown for bread, white for pizza crust, add brown to liquid ingredients)

Combine in a bowl and whisk together, set aside.

Beat three egg whites into stiff peaks and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (regular beater) or a bread machine, add:

3/4 cup warm water
1 tbsp vinegar
1/4 cup oil (and brown sugar, if using)

Add the dry ingredients and the egg whites and beat until smooth, it will be a thick batter.  Scrape sides as needed.

For loaf bread:
Spray with cooking spray and flour a loaf pan, spread batter evenly into pan, cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm oven to rise for 1 hour, bake at 350F for 48 minutes (may vary for your oven).  Turn out of pan and cool, wrapped in a towel on a wire wrack.  Cool completely before slicing.  Freeze anything you won't use immediately.

For buns:
Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and divide batter into 12 globs, using wet fingers, shape each glob into a hamburger or hot dog bun shape, for hamburger buns, it should look like a peanut butter cookie.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise 20-40 minutes in a warm, moist place.  Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350, until cooked through.  Cool completely, slice and freeze or serve.

For pizza crust:
For thin crust, spread on two big cookie sheets (sprayed with cooking spray), spreading as thin as you can, sort of like frosting a cake.  Cover with a towel, let it rest 15 minutes, bake in a 425 oven for a few minutes until bubbly and solid, top and broil until cheese is golden otherwise cool completely and freeze, to use, just top it frozen and bake at 385 until hot and gooey.

For thick crust, just use smaller pans (it puffs up a lot!) and let it rise a little longer.  I use my cast iron skillets.  Bake before topping though!

For fry bread or elephant ears:
Spread dough out on two large cookie sheets (sprayed!) as for pizza crust, cut each into 9 squares, smoothing edges and making a little space between squares with a rubber scraper.  Allow to rise 20 minutes, covered.  Meanwhile, heat an inch or two of oil in a skillet until hot.  Using a wet pancake turner (mine was silicone) push in the sides of a square until it is about half the size, and awkwardly scoop it up using the turner and your wet hand, drop it into the oil, 'stretching' it out as you do so (the first one will be messy!).  Immediately poke several holes in the mess using a sharp pointy oil and heat resistant object (I used a meat thermometer, but try a kabob skewer or a chopstick or a meat fork?), to allow the hot oil to seep through and cook the entire the blob through without burning the edges (like the hole in a donut but tiny).  Turn frequently and removed when golden brown, drain on a wire rack and eat hot, either with sugar or with your favorite taco toppings.  I used an 8 inch skillet and did one at a time, they didn't take long to fry but are putzy!

Homemade everything?

I've been making my own bread for years, though as I mentioned in a previous post that this seems something of a pandemic fad as well, but even I am discovering necessity is truly the mother of invention.  It is strange what I can get and what I can't.  Mayonnaise is apparently on the list of things that are currently hard to find on local shelves, at least at a reasonable price.  So I tried my hand at making my own, I'm personally a fan of Miracle Whip and looked for a recipe for just that, it was pretty easy and used stuff I always have on hand, we'll see how it turns out.  I've also been trying to make fake cheese, which hasn't had near the success.  My first attempt was basically bacon flavored jello.  Yesterday's trial had a promising texture (fresh mozzarella) but it didn't really melt or taste like anything, though one attempt did yield a promising parmesan substitute; we'll see what happens!  I also discovered the margarine I've been using instead of butter has whey in it (which is why I can't do real cheese!) and locally I can't find any of the 'plant butters' so I've been trying reliable recipes with peanut butter and or canola oil instead, everything but the frosting has turned out, but that was because I added cocoa powder which made it really stiff, I had to hand shape a toupee for each cupcake but it tasted great!  With google to supply recipes, what can't you make at home?  And hopefully you can still eat the failures!  Well, everything except the fake cheese...

Birthday Custard Pie?!

Gluten free baking is quite an exciting animal in its own right, but then throw in a recipe transcription error and it really gets interesting!  I made this cake the other day, I halved the recipe and substituted my own flour blend (1/2 cup each tapioca and corn starch, 1/4 cup millet) and it made wonderful cupcakes!  Then my little son decided he wanted a yellow cake for his birthday, and I thought I had my recipe.  I ended up with a gluten free impossible custard pie!  It actually was quite tasty but it wasn't a birthday cake.  I had transcribed the recipe wrong, leaving the sugar at 2 cups but halving everything else, oops!  I tried again and it was delicious and now we have a memory to laugh at for every birthday here on out!