How to live without gluten and other common allergies such as dairy, egg, and soy.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
postings scant for a week or so
Folks, my postings will be scant for the next 10 days or so - work conflicts. Thanks for your understanding!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Quick pressure cooked hummus
In keeping with my 'do it quick but do it cheap' theme I'm going to share with you a favorite recipe of mine: Hummus. It's quick, it's easy, and it is cheap.
In keeping with my 'cheap' theme, here's a tip: Shop around, when convenient, for prices on dried beans/peas. I find my local supermarket has them for about double what a local health food store charges.
Now, for the directions.
Ingredients:
1 cup chick peas
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup olive oil
First, check the chickpeas for foreign objects. All you have to do for this is put them in a bowl, pour water on them, then move them around with your hands or a spoon. Any dirt should dissolve, and stones should (hopefully!) sink. Keep your eyes open!
Add the chickpeas to the pressure cooker, with 4 cups of water. Close the lid, lock in place, and bring to pressure according to your particular cooker's instruction manual. Turn down the heat and cook for 50 minutes or so, adjusting the heat to maintain even pressure. Release the pressure rapidly (as per your cooker's manual), or set to one sit and let it release naturally.
Pour off the water, retaining a cup or 2 in a bowl. Using: a) an immersion blender b) a potato masher or c) placing the beans in a food processor, process them until they are a smooth consistency. Next, add the cumin, salt, and olive oil -- as well as garlic, lemon juice, or anything else to taste.
Serve with some of the gluten free white rice bread, rice, rice cakes, and a salad.
It DOES take 50 minutes for the beans to cook BUT:
1. You can double this recipe and eat it for quite some time.
2. For the 50 minutes it is cooking you need to be aware of the pressure cooker but not otherwise involved.
3. It is tasty.
You can also use 2 cans of pre-made chickpeas, which will make it even easier.
Enjoy.
In keeping with my 'cheap' theme, here's a tip: Shop around, when convenient, for prices on dried beans/peas. I find my local supermarket has them for about double what a local health food store charges.
Now, for the directions.
Ingredients:
1 cup chick peas
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup olive oil
First, check the chickpeas for foreign objects. All you have to do for this is put them in a bowl, pour water on them, then move them around with your hands or a spoon. Any dirt should dissolve, and stones should (hopefully!) sink. Keep your eyes open!
Add the chickpeas to the pressure cooker, with 4 cups of water. Close the lid, lock in place, and bring to pressure according to your particular cooker's instruction manual. Turn down the heat and cook for 50 minutes or so, adjusting the heat to maintain even pressure. Release the pressure rapidly (as per your cooker's manual), or set to one sit and let it release naturally.
Pour off the water, retaining a cup or 2 in a bowl. Using: a) an immersion blender b) a potato masher or c) placing the beans in a food processor, process them until they are a smooth consistency. Next, add the cumin, salt, and olive oil -- as well as garlic, lemon juice, or anything else to taste.
Serve with some of the gluten free white rice bread, rice, rice cakes, and a salad.
It DOES take 50 minutes for the beans to cook BUT:
1. You can double this recipe and eat it for quite some time.
2. For the 50 minutes it is cooking you need to be aware of the pressure cooker but not otherwise involved.
3. It is tasty.
You can also use 2 cans of pre-made chickpeas, which will make it even easier.
Enjoy.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Fast meals.
Taking a break from bread today to talk about 'fast meals.'
If you are like most Americans, cooking is not a priority. We lead busy lives and, by time meal times arrive, we're feeling to wrung out to be able to do much other than sit in a restaurant and have someone take our order. We have a few quiet minutes before food arrives. Then we eat, and pay the bill - wondering at the end of the month where all of our money has gone at the end of the month when we have nothing to show for it. Restaurant bills aren't cheap.
We almost never eat out. When I say 'almost never' I mean "less than five times per YEAR." When you deal with multiple allergies such as my wife does, it is not easy to eat out. Yes, a restaurant may be able to do a gluten free meal. But when you are gluten fee, egg free, dairy free, and don't eat chicken or turkey, that is more of a challenge. Cross contamination is very easy to happen too -- did that gluten free spaghetti sauce get stirred with a spoon that had flour on it? How would you know, until you have an uncomfortable reaction to ingested gluten.
I'm not saying that all restaurants are careless - far from it. But if you're very sensitive to numerous foods there is a limit to what a commercial kitchen can do.
We aren't independently wealthy and we don't have a chef who prepares our meals for us. We also don't buy large quantities of pre-made gluten free food because of its cost and there are often other things in the items that my wife is allergic to, such as soy. The cost for me is the sticker shock -- when you look at a SMALL box of gluten free crackers and they are over $5 you start asking yourself "how much do I really want these?" At the same time, convenience is nice. If you get home and want (say) a beef stew, which normally takes 3 hours to cook, you're out of luck.
Actually, you aren't out of luck. Here is the solution we have found: a pressure cooker.
Pressure cookers cook by sealing food inside an air tight vessel (the cooking pot), and, using heated steam, raising the internal pressure over that of the outside air. At those temperatures water boils at a higher temperature than normal. At seal level, and with an additional 15 pounds of pressure inside a pressure cooker, the steam temperature is about about 250F.
This doesn't sound like a really high temperature, since we cook in the oven at 350F, 450F, or even higher. But steam has a lot of energy, and steam under pressure cooks MUCH faster than the dry heat inside the oven.
Here is an example: To cook fresh broccoli, I used to steam it. Typically it took 5 minutes or so to bring some water to boil, then the broccoli steamed for 15 minutes or so. To cook broccoli in the pressure cooker, I place 1/4 cup of water in the pressure cooker, place the steaming rack into the cooker, add the broccoli, and seal it up. It takes 2 minutes or so to bring that tiny amount of water to a boil and raise the steam pressure inside the cooker. The broccoli cooks in 2.5-3 minutes from then, and you release the pressure, and serve.
20 minutes versus 5 minutes is a huge time savings.
For more information, the best reference I have found on pressure cookers is this one:
This book is not a set of recipes of the type 'Assemble the following ingredients. Place in pressure cooker. Cook.' It is far better than that. Instead, it gives you the tools to create your own recipes and cook the food you most want to eat. There ARE many excellent recipes in it, but it is also loaded with timing charts and background information on pressure cooking. It is the best book I have found, and Ms. Sass has several great blogs too, one of which can be found here: http://pressurecookingwithlornasass.wordpress.com/.
Pressure Perfect is a book for omnivores, though very useful to vegetarians. I'm not a vegetarian but have also found this book invaluable:
If you decide to take up pressure cooking, you have many choices for types of pressure cookers you can buy. Presto, a great American brand, makes stainless steel and aluminum pressure cookers, in various sizes, at a foundry in China. [I have one of the old ones, when their foundry was still in Wisconsin, and have no experience with the new ones]. Here's a convenient link:
My favorite brand of pressure cookers is made by Kuhn Rikon. They are more expensive, but I decided to splurge. I have a personal issue about only buying USA or first world produced items, especially if they are going to touch food, and my old Presto wouldn't work on my current stove. [Note: new Presto cookers will work on electric smoothtop stoves. My old one wouldn't.] I elected to buy one of these:
As I have mentioned, we tend to use our pressure cooker daily, and sometimes more than once daily. I'll even confess that I have more than one pressure cooker, and occasionally will use two or three simultaneously.
You can buy pressure cookers that go on your stove top, or ones that are electric and sit on a counter.
I'll talk about other quick gluten free recipes you can make in your pressure cooker in the near future.
If you are like most Americans, cooking is not a priority. We lead busy lives and, by time meal times arrive, we're feeling to wrung out to be able to do much other than sit in a restaurant and have someone take our order. We have a few quiet minutes before food arrives. Then we eat, and pay the bill - wondering at the end of the month where all of our money has gone at the end of the month when we have nothing to show for it. Restaurant bills aren't cheap.
We almost never eat out. When I say 'almost never' I mean "less than five times per YEAR." When you deal with multiple allergies such as my wife does, it is not easy to eat out. Yes, a restaurant may be able to do a gluten free meal. But when you are gluten fee, egg free, dairy free, and don't eat chicken or turkey, that is more of a challenge. Cross contamination is very easy to happen too -- did that gluten free spaghetti sauce get stirred with a spoon that had flour on it? How would you know, until you have an uncomfortable reaction to ingested gluten.
I'm not saying that all restaurants are careless - far from it. But if you're very sensitive to numerous foods there is a limit to what a commercial kitchen can do.
We aren't independently wealthy and we don't have a chef who prepares our meals for us. We also don't buy large quantities of pre-made gluten free food because of its cost and there are often other things in the items that my wife is allergic to, such as soy. The cost for me is the sticker shock -- when you look at a SMALL box of gluten free crackers and they are over $5 you start asking yourself "how much do I really want these?" At the same time, convenience is nice. If you get home and want (say) a beef stew, which normally takes 3 hours to cook, you're out of luck.
Actually, you aren't out of luck. Here is the solution we have found: a pressure cooker.
Pressure cookers cook by sealing food inside an air tight vessel (the cooking pot), and, using heated steam, raising the internal pressure over that of the outside air. At those temperatures water boils at a higher temperature than normal. At seal level, and with an additional 15 pounds of pressure inside a pressure cooker, the steam temperature is about about 250F.
This doesn't sound like a really high temperature, since we cook in the oven at 350F, 450F, or even higher. But steam has a lot of energy, and steam under pressure cooks MUCH faster than the dry heat inside the oven.
Here is an example: To cook fresh broccoli, I used to steam it. Typically it took 5 minutes or so to bring some water to boil, then the broccoli steamed for 15 minutes or so. To cook broccoli in the pressure cooker, I place 1/4 cup of water in the pressure cooker, place the steaming rack into the cooker, add the broccoli, and seal it up. It takes 2 minutes or so to bring that tiny amount of water to a boil and raise the steam pressure inside the cooker. The broccoli cooks in 2.5-3 minutes from then, and you release the pressure, and serve.
20 minutes versus 5 minutes is a huge time savings.
For more information, the best reference I have found on pressure cookers is this one:
This book is not a set of recipes of the type 'Assemble the following ingredients. Place in pressure cooker. Cook.' It is far better than that. Instead, it gives you the tools to create your own recipes and cook the food you most want to eat. There ARE many excellent recipes in it, but it is also loaded with timing charts and background information on pressure cooking. It is the best book I have found, and Ms. Sass has several great blogs too, one of which can be found here: http://pressurecookingwithlornasass.wordpress.com/.
Pressure Perfect is a book for omnivores, though very useful to vegetarians. I'm not a vegetarian but have also found this book invaluable:
If you decide to take up pressure cooking, you have many choices for types of pressure cookers you can buy. Presto, a great American brand, makes stainless steel and aluminum pressure cookers, in various sizes, at a foundry in China. [I have one of the old ones, when their foundry was still in Wisconsin, and have no experience with the new ones]. Here's a convenient link:
My favorite brand of pressure cookers is made by Kuhn Rikon. They are more expensive, but I decided to splurge. I have a personal issue about only buying USA or first world produced items, especially if they are going to touch food, and my old Presto wouldn't work on my current stove. [Note: new Presto cookers will work on electric smoothtop stoves. My old one wouldn't.] I elected to buy one of these:
As I have mentioned, we tend to use our pressure cooker daily, and sometimes more than once daily. I'll even confess that I have more than one pressure cooker, and occasionally will use two or three simultaneously.
You can buy pressure cookers that go on your stove top, or ones that are electric and sit on a counter.
I'll talk about other quick gluten free recipes you can make in your pressure cooker in the near future.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Basic white bread, variation
Here's a variation of the Basic White Bread recipe for those who can have eggs and milk. It is a very similar recipe, but yields a more tender crumb.
Gluten Free White Bread (with egg)
Dry Ingredients:
5 ounces (3/4 cup) white rice flour
2 ounces (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) corn starch
1 ounce (3 tablespoons) tapioca starch
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon baking powder
Wet Ingredients:
1 tablespoon oil added to a 2/3 cup measuring cup
Add 2 eggs to the same measuring cup
Fill the rest of the cup with water
1 container Gerber First Foods Baby Pears
Mix or sift the dry ingredients. Place the wet and dry ingredients in your bread machine in the order in which your instruction manual states. (For the Zojirushi, and most bread machines I have encountered, place the wet ingredients in the bread pan first, then put the dry ingredients on top of them).
Cook the bread on the 'Quick Bread' setting.
As you can see it is very similar to the other recipe, substituting egg for the gelatin.
See yesterday's post for other details on different bread machine variations.
Tomorrow, I'll take a break from baking and talk about pressure cooking.
Gluten Free White Bread (with egg)
Dry Ingredients:
5 ounces (3/4 cup) white rice flour
2 ounces (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) corn starch
1 ounce (3 tablespoons) tapioca starch
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon baking powder
Wet Ingredients:
1 tablespoon oil added to a 2/3 cup measuring cup
Add 2 eggs to the same measuring cup
Fill the rest of the cup with water
1 container Gerber First Foods Baby Pears
Mix or sift the dry ingredients. Place the wet and dry ingredients in your bread machine in the order in which your instruction manual states. (For the Zojirushi, and most bread machines I have encountered, place the wet ingredients in the bread pan first, then put the dry ingredients on top of them).
Cook the bread on the 'Quick Bread' setting.
As you can see it is very similar to the other recipe, substituting egg for the gelatin.
See yesterday's post for other details on different bread machine variations.
Tomorrow, I'll take a break from baking and talk about pressure cooking.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Basic White Bread
Today I'm going to give you a recipe for basic white bread. The variation of today is free of as many potential allergens as I could will be cooked in a bread machine, and cooked in the Zojirushi bread machine that I have mentioned previously.
My wife eats this bread daily. Unlike many gluten free items, it has a nice consistency and texture, and even 'tastes like bread.' (For those of you on restricted diets, you know exactly what I mean!)
Measurement note: As I have previously stated, I measure using weights, on a scale, rather than by volume, using cup measures. Flour amounts are given in this recipe as a weight value, then with cup values in parenthesis.
Gluten Free White Bread
Dry Ingredients:
5 ounces (3/4 cup) white rice flour
2 ounces (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) corn starch
1 ounce (3 tablespoons) tapioca starch
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 scant tablespoon beef gelatin
Wet Ingredients:
1 tablespoon oil added to a 2/3 cup measuring cup
Fill the rest of the cup with water
1 container Gerber First Foods Baby Pears
Mix or sift the dry ingredients. Place the wet and dry ingredients in your bread machine in the order in which your instruction manual states. (For the Zojirushi, and most bread machines I have encountered, place the wet ingredients in the bread pan first, then put the dry ingredients on top of them).
Cook the bread on the 'Quick Bread' setting.
A note on bread machine cycles: The 'quick bread' setting on the Zojirushi has 1 'rise' and a bake setting. Gluten free flours do not need to rise, be punched down, and rise again, as there is no gluten to develop. (Indeed, this often makes them fall). So, look through your bread machine book to see if such a cycle exists - 1 'rise' and a bake cycle.
If it doesn't, check to see if your bread machine has a 'dough' setting and a 'bake only' setting. Doing the 'dough' setting and letting the dough rise for about 1 hour, then resetting the machine and baking should do it.
This is enough bread for a 1 pound loaf. As I have previously stated, gluten free flours don't have the ability to support their own weight that well, so making in smaller loaves yields better results.
This will keep for several days in the refrigerator, and it freezes well.
I have found that it is useful to make several batches of the dry ingredients, storing them in plastic food storage containers, and then simply making a loaf when needed.
Altitude note: I live at 5500 feet. I don't BELIEVE you will have any variation in results based on your altitude, but if you do, please let me know. If the results are not what you would like, I'd like to help you figure it out.
Spoon notes: If I have any readers outside of the USA: Here, a 'cup' is 8 liquid ounces. A teaspoon is 5ml, and a tablespoon is 15 ml.
My wife eats this bread daily. Unlike many gluten free items, it has a nice consistency and texture, and even 'tastes like bread.' (For those of you on restricted diets, you know exactly what I mean!)
Measurement note: As I have previously stated, I measure using weights, on a scale, rather than by volume, using cup measures. Flour amounts are given in this recipe as a weight value, then with cup values in parenthesis.
Gluten Free White Bread
Dry Ingredients:
5 ounces (3/4 cup) white rice flour
2 ounces (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) corn starch
1 ounce (3 tablespoons) tapioca starch
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 scant tablespoon beef gelatin
Wet Ingredients:
1 tablespoon oil added to a 2/3 cup measuring cup
Fill the rest of the cup with water
1 container Gerber First Foods Baby Pears
Mix or sift the dry ingredients. Place the wet and dry ingredients in your bread machine in the order in which your instruction manual states. (For the Zojirushi, and most bread machines I have encountered, place the wet ingredients in the bread pan first, then put the dry ingredients on top of them).
Cook the bread on the 'Quick Bread' setting.
A note on bread machine cycles: The 'quick bread' setting on the Zojirushi has 1 'rise' and a bake setting. Gluten free flours do not need to rise, be punched down, and rise again, as there is no gluten to develop. (Indeed, this often makes them fall). So, look through your bread machine book to see if such a cycle exists - 1 'rise' and a bake cycle.
If it doesn't, check to see if your bread machine has a 'dough' setting and a 'bake only' setting. Doing the 'dough' setting and letting the dough rise for about 1 hour, then resetting the machine and baking should do it.
This is enough bread for a 1 pound loaf. As I have previously stated, gluten free flours don't have the ability to support their own weight that well, so making in smaller loaves yields better results.
This will keep for several days in the refrigerator, and it freezes well.
I have found that it is useful to make several batches of the dry ingredients, storing them in plastic food storage containers, and then simply making a loaf when needed.
Altitude note: I live at 5500 feet. I don't BELIEVE you will have any variation in results based on your altitude, but if you do, please let me know. If the results are not what you would like, I'd like to help you figure it out.
Spoon notes: If I have any readers outside of the USA: Here, a 'cup' is 8 liquid ounces. A teaspoon is 5ml, and a tablespoon is 15 ml.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
More ingredients
Sorry for no post yesterday -- my need to earn a living got in the way.
I realized that I had forgotten to write about another ingredient that I use all the time: pears.
Gluten free baked goods need extra moisture, and the structure of the baked good isn't really strong enough to hold the weight of a lot of fat. Additionally, since my wife cannot have any solid fats like butter, margarine, or shortening, we use a small amount of liquid oil and pear puree instead of extra fat.
This also lowers the fat content of the item, which is also good.
Typically I use Gerber Baby Pears. This link is for the organic pears:
Non organic versions are also available in the supermarket.
I realized that I had forgotten to write about another ingredient that I use all the time: pears.
Gluten free baked goods need extra moisture, and the structure of the baked good isn't really strong enough to hold the weight of a lot of fat. Additionally, since my wife cannot have any solid fats like butter, margarine, or shortening, we use a small amount of liquid oil and pear puree instead of extra fat.
This also lowers the fat content of the item, which is also good.
Typically I use Gerber Baby Pears. This link is for the organic pears:
Non organic versions are also available in the supermarket.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Kitchen Equipment
I will soon start to publish recipes and other tips but I thought that finishing laying the groundwork for 'how to do this gluten free stuff easily' would be best.
Regarding kitchen equipment:
Ordinary kitchen equipment suffices for most tasks in gluten free cooking and baking. Obviously, breads need bread pans, cakes need cake pans, and so on. One important caveat:
If you use the same pans for gluten and gluten free baking, you must make sure that ALL of the wheat flour is cleaned off before using them for gluten free batters.
Many people simply wipe their tins down with a paper towel. This will NOT get all of the gluten residue off of them. Don't make yourself sick, take extra care to scrub and dry. Or, have two sets of pans, one for gluten and one for gluten free. This is what we do.
If your kitchen is large enough, consider having a dedicated 'gluten free' counter. We have an "L" shaped kitchen and do just this - and I measure wheat flours out in the garage as small amounts in the air from sifting can settle into things and accidentally cause cross contamination.
The other item you might find useful is a kitchen scale. Here is why:
Most of the world weighs ingredients when cooking or baking. As per Elizabeth David in her book English Bread and Yeast Cookery, she speculates that Americans switched to our volume (cup) based measurements because, being pioneers, heavy items like a scale and weights couldn't be carried in a wagon.
Recipes for cakes, breads, cookies, pie crusts, are designed for flour that weighs approximately 4 ounces per cup. Wheat flour typically weighs about 4 ounces per cup. Yet, rice flour weighs about 6 ounces per cup. This means, when using cup measurements, if you substitute rice flour on a cup basis you will have FIFTY PERCENT MORE FLOUR in your cup than with ordinary white flour. This will give bad results in your recipes.
There are several kinds of scales you can buy. They range in price from a few dollars up to hundreds of dollars. This is the one that I use:
This particular scale is quite reasonably priced, weighs up to 11 pounds (5 kilograms), has tare function, will weigh in pounds/ounces, ounces, and grams. It is also accurate.
All recipes that I give will have weight and volume measures. So if you prefer to use cup measure, that will work too. I simply find that using the scale takes less time.
The other item I have only good things to say about is a bread machine. For making gluten free bread, the rising and baking environment can be 'finicky' sometimes. I find that using a bread machine yields excellent results.
As I have said previously, gluten free flours don't have the structure that developed gluten provides. This means that baked goods may sink in some cases. Typically using smaller pans for breads and cakes yields better results. I have also found that baking gluten free bread on a short cycle works well, as multiple risings are not necessary, in fact, can cause the bread to sink. This is the bread machine we use for gluten free flours:
It is not cheap, but I also find that I can either a) spend about $2 on ingredients for a loaf of bread and bake it in this bread machine, or spend $4.50-$5 on a loaf of bread. Sheer economics makes me like this.
In addition to bread and quick bread settings, with regular and firm crusts, there are also a bread, jam, and cake settings. When I provide bread machine recipes, this is the machine I have tested them in.
We have two bread machines: a gluten and a gluten free machine. If you may only have one machine BE SURE to wipe it out thoroughly between uses, and you probably will need 2 bread pans. I don't see how you could be sure of getting all the gluten out of one.
Tomorrow I'll actually write you a recipe!
Regarding kitchen equipment:
Ordinary kitchen equipment suffices for most tasks in gluten free cooking and baking. Obviously, breads need bread pans, cakes need cake pans, and so on. One important caveat:
If you use the same pans for gluten and gluten free baking, you must make sure that ALL of the wheat flour is cleaned off before using them for gluten free batters.
Many people simply wipe their tins down with a paper towel. This will NOT get all of the gluten residue off of them. Don't make yourself sick, take extra care to scrub and dry. Or, have two sets of pans, one for gluten and one for gluten free. This is what we do.
If your kitchen is large enough, consider having a dedicated 'gluten free' counter. We have an "L" shaped kitchen and do just this - and I measure wheat flours out in the garage as small amounts in the air from sifting can settle into things and accidentally cause cross contamination.
The other item you might find useful is a kitchen scale. Here is why:
Most of the world weighs ingredients when cooking or baking. As per Elizabeth David in her book English Bread and Yeast Cookery, she speculates that Americans switched to our volume (cup) based measurements because, being pioneers, heavy items like a scale and weights couldn't be carried in a wagon.
Recipes for cakes, breads, cookies, pie crusts, are designed for flour that weighs approximately 4 ounces per cup. Wheat flour typically weighs about 4 ounces per cup. Yet, rice flour weighs about 6 ounces per cup. This means, when using cup measurements, if you substitute rice flour on a cup basis you will have FIFTY PERCENT MORE FLOUR in your cup than with ordinary white flour. This will give bad results in your recipes.
There are several kinds of scales you can buy. They range in price from a few dollars up to hundreds of dollars. This is the one that I use:
This particular scale is quite reasonably priced, weighs up to 11 pounds (5 kilograms), has tare function, will weigh in pounds/ounces, ounces, and grams. It is also accurate.
All recipes that I give will have weight and volume measures. So if you prefer to use cup measure, that will work too. I simply find that using the scale takes less time.
The other item I have only good things to say about is a bread machine. For making gluten free bread, the rising and baking environment can be 'finicky' sometimes. I find that using a bread machine yields excellent results.
As I have said previously, gluten free flours don't have the structure that developed gluten provides. This means that baked goods may sink in some cases. Typically using smaller pans for breads and cakes yields better results. I have also found that baking gluten free bread on a short cycle works well, as multiple risings are not necessary, in fact, can cause the bread to sink. This is the bread machine we use for gluten free flours:
It is not cheap, but I also find that I can either a) spend about $2 on ingredients for a loaf of bread and bake it in this bread machine, or spend $4.50-$5 on a loaf of bread. Sheer economics makes me like this.
In addition to bread and quick bread settings, with regular and firm crusts, there are also a bread, jam, and cake settings. When I provide bread machine recipes, this is the machine I have tested them in.
We have two bread machines: a gluten and a gluten free machine. If you may only have one machine BE SURE to wipe it out thoroughly between uses, and you probably will need 2 bread pans. I don't see how you could be sure of getting all the gluten out of one.
Tomorrow I'll actually write you a recipe!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)