'I make cake, is Bundt!...no is bread?'

 According to a quick google search, the only bread you can bake in a bundt pan is monkey or quick bread.  Why would I even ask such a question?  I wanted to make a pretty gluten free easter bread, basically a challah woven into a circular braid with or without a couple dyed eggs tucked into the folds.  I did make one version that I was able to braid, it was beautiful but rather flat, dense, and try, more an overbooked and crusty cake than a yeast bread, which is a common problem with gluten free 'dough' that is malleable enough to actually handle.  Since I couldn't find anything I could actually braid, I then decided to modify my artisan bread recipe and see if I couldn't bake a pretty easter bread in a bundt pan.  It wasn't a great easter type bread, but it was a fabulous French bread, something else I have tried to master gluten free but haven't had great results.  It had a beautiful chewy crust and a soft, fluffy interior, even if it was round!

I bought a heavy aluminum nordic ware bundt pan a decade back at a local grocery store that was swapping out out its inventory (I wouldn't spend $40 on a pan I'd use once a year, but I could afford $10).  And I used it about once a year or so, but that may be changing.  I'm still fine tuning the recipe (it is the artisan bread recipe in my world famous (0 copies sold!) gluten free baking book, save I use 3 egg whites instead of 2, 1/4 cup sugar instead of 2 Tbsp.  I'm going to try 1.5 times the recipe and see how that effects the size of the bread, as my only complaint was it was a little on the narrow side.  What we didn't eat right away we cut into 4-5 hunks and froze while still warm and then took them out, microwaved for a minute or two, and then sliced and ate with soup or just for fun and it was as good as fresh out of the oven.  I think they's make a good sub type sandwich as well.  

The secret to the artisan bread is baking it in a preheated dutch oven, the steam and heat allow it to rise beautifully and keeps everything soft while removing the lid 15 minutes before removing it from the oven makes the crust nice and chewy and slightly crispy and golden.  I was using a 2 quart mixing bowl which did a great job, but I don't have a dutch oven big enough to contain my bundt pan, it fits in about half way and the lid covers most of the top, but it looks ridiculous, but apparently it does the job!  The best French bread is baked on a thick, preheated metal pan and steamed like this (by various means), but the sticky nature of gluten free bread batter means you can't just slip it into the preheated pan like you can a loaf of French wheat bread, it is best to bake it in some sort of a contained in which it rose otherwise it will go flat, like my braided easter bread.

Also, a thin/cheap aluminum bundt pan probably can't handle the heat (425+) used in this process or it won't brown the crust as nicely.  Silicon can handle the heat but is flimsy and definitely won't crisp up the crust as nice.  I'll update my artisan bread recipe one of these years to reflect this new break through method (redneck gluten free French bread?), but it is an interesting variation if you miss actual French bread.  If this is a wide spread technique, I'm not finding any proof of it on google, which must mean it is unique, right?  Probably not!  Enjoy!

Jane Austen goes gluten and dairy free?

 Since my husband is currently gone for a couple weeks and PBS is premiering the second season of Sanditon, I thought I'd throw a 'Jane Austen' style celebration in anticipation, and since it was only me and the kids, two of us having wheat sensitivities and the other willing to eat anything that isn't broccoli, I had to come up with something tasty and pseudo-authentic that still met our dietary requirements and didn't take a ton of work as we are crazy busy right now and a player short.  Happily I had a few frozen sausage rolls (definitely English, not sure on the timeline though) and cream puffs are easy to make (gluten free or not!) and I had chicken in the fridge to make a honey mustard chicken salad with apples to go inside.  That left only a dessert, and I was thinking petit fours (which are probably French or something but they are pretty and associated with tea so why not?) so we whipped up a batch of brownies, drizzled melted chocolate over the top, and then added a little colored frosting as garnish, voila!

The food was really good, the show that inspired it, not so much, but you can find the recipes for gluten/dairy free cream puffs and croissant dough and brownies in my new e-cookbook and my review of the new season over at my book blog.

Haphazard the Cookbook!

 I went and compiled my gluten free baking recipes in a little cookbook, now available at Smashwords or your favorite non-amazon retailer, enjoy!

Say it sister!

 Here's an encouraging little article for all you women 'trapped at home.'

Gltuen and dairy free croissants that taste like the real thing!

 My gluten free journey started with a search for a good cinnamon roll, nothing like starting out nice and easy!  Then I had to quit dairy too, which of course meant I needed to make a gluten and dairy free croissant, nothing like changing the two major ingredients in a relatively simple recipe and expecting it to work!  I tried butter flavored vegetable shortening (crisco) in a half dozen attempts, and while edible, it was a mess and just wasn't a croissant so I gave up.  I never thought to try plant butter, little realizing the 100% fat of the crisco didn't react as well as butter because butter contains some water, which as it becomes steam gives lift to your bread, oops!  I thought the plant butter would melt too easily and just make a big mess, which it will if you aren't careful, but it can also make a reasonable croissant if treated with care.  So I tried it with this recipe and the results were fabulous, and strangely it really wasn't that different from making a wheat croissant: a sticky, putzy mess, but oh so good!  The other problem I had with the crisco croissants was they were rather dry, to get the dough to a proper, workable state I had to add so much corn starch that it dried out as it baked, but these were workable and moist, the water in the butter again?  Whatever the reason, this works!

I just used plain old water for the milk and an el cheapo brand of plant butter, I converted the grams to cups and just used volume instead of weighing my ingredients.  I also cut the 4 tsp of yeast to 1 and skipped the proofing as I use instant yeast.  I let the dough rise in a 145F oven for an hour while it was still in the bowl rather than after rolling and shaping and then chilled it before working.  I used a silicone baking mat and a silicone rolling pin instead of plastic wrap and used a flat aluminum cookie sheet as a work surface, throwing the whole thing in the fridge to chill.  I hardly touched the dough with my hands, rather a bench scraper and a small silicon spatula were really handy.  While plant butter melts more quickly than the real thing, it also solidifies faster, so I only chilled it 10-15 minutes each time.  I dusted liberally with corn starch anytime anything was sticking, it started out messy but was a rather workable dough by the end and strangely it didn't dry out in the oven.  When it says roll them loosely, she means it, all those lovely layers need room to expand, mine were perhaps a little tight and got a little dense in the middle but still good!  My flour mix was 1/2 cup oats, 1/4 cup each millet and brown rice, 1/4 cup corn starch, 2 tbsp tapioca and 2 tbsp expandex modified tapioca starch.

The croissants were a hit but I had to toss the mini pretzel bites, which was weird, as you'd think if something would go badly, it would be the croissants!  But the pretzels were way too salty and had a weird texture, they probably absorbed a ton of sodium from the baking soda in the water bath.  Good thing I'm not a huge pretzel fan anyway!  Viva la croissant!

Is pie, not bundt!

 I've recently discovered my new family favorite holiday tradition dessert, it started with this gluten free chocolate bundt cake recipe, which I tweaked by using homemade mayo (1 whole egg, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, and 1/2 cup canola oil whisked slowly together) instead of the sour cream and cut the sugar to 1 1/3 cups and then adding a sugar-lace crust to the outside by oiling and sugaring the bundt pan before adding the batter and baking.  Now it has mutated into a pie, but such a lovely pie!  When I was a kid my mother used to make a chocolate chip date cake (apparently called a West Haven cake) that had sugar and chocolate chips on top and I loved it, and wondered if I could do the same to my beloved bundt.  Instead of a bundt pan I used two 10" glass pie plates.  I coated both with canola oil and sugar then divided the batter between them, spreading it out and topped with chocolate chips and granulated sugar before baking.  The results were pretty and tasty and a new family tradition, which is saying something for a dairy free and gluten free confection!  Enjoy!

Just in time for thanksgiving!

 What better way to celebrate turkey day than to read about someone else's gut health!  Yeah, I know, nor did I ever think I'd be blogging about such a subject, but in this strange journey through chronic inflammatory disease, I've come across a few things that someone else might actually find useful or interesting that I've not found anywhere else on the internet (not that anybody will find this blog either!).  There seems to be a consensus on food sensitivity causing problems in your gut but how about food consistency or how it is processed?  I'm not talking about store bought, commercial processing here but rather stuff you can do at home.  Lately I've had two different examples in my own limited existence but I can't find any other examples on the all knowing interweb, though it is mostly because I don't know exactly what to search for, this not being a topic I've encountered in my own medical training or personal health before.

There's no doubt when feeding cows that processing makes a huge difference, especially with the size of the grain particles and the length of the forage, but lacking a rumen, I figured people might be a little different, but apparently I am part ruminant or at least my gut thinks I should be!  I've had trouble with things like pudding, ice cream, etc. for a long time, but I thought it was simply the sugar causing an osmotic diarrhea or something or maybe the dairy before I had to go off it, but it doesn't matter how much sugar is in it or if it is coconut or almond milk, I still have trouble.  I even made a smoothie the other day out of peanut butter, oatmeal, and cocoa powder with only a tablespoon of sugar in the entire thing (of which I only sampled about 1/3) and had issues, though I can eat the same exact stuff in bundt cake form and do just fine.

Then there was the hotdog incident.  I thought about making hotdogs at home, since I can't eat the store bought ones for various reasons, and saw a technique for adding water to your ground meat and processing it in your high speed blender, so I tried it just for fun.  I made my usual meatball recipe and made half into meatballs and emulsified the other half to make hotdogs, exact same ingredients, one just went through the blender and had some water added.  The meatballs were fine but the 'hotdogs' were bad news.  All I can conclude is that it is the consistency of the product and not just the ingredients.  Apparently, like the cow, I must ingest things that are as minimally processed as possible, hopefully I don't have to switch to a mostly forage diet however, hay is rather scarce this year, to say nothing of trying to consume enough of the stuff, but then I have trouble with raw carrots, lettuce, and even whole oats, so minimally processed isn't the cure either.  On that note, how do you feed a centaur?  How can a human mouth possibly consume enough forage to sate an equine stomach?

So that is my thoroughly researched case study, it isn't just the what but the how in dealing with gut issues, some food for thought (please forgive the pun, I couldn't not do it!), and I can't wait to see your paper on centaur nutrition!