Gluten-Free Baking with Flour Arrangements

For this month's round of Adopt A Gluten Free Blogger I went for some baking instruction from Sophie of Flour Arrangements. She's a real adventuress in the kitchen and knows how to bake, which is something that particularly flummoxes me. I end up getting distracted in the assemblage of the myriad flours and leavening agents need for baking up GF things and usually end up missing a step or putting in a tablespoon of something when a teaspoon is called for. Clearly, I need more guidance in the kitchen to hone my less than "mad" GF baking skills.

So Sophie was my Baking Guide last weekend when I attempted two of her wonderful recipes. Both came out as luscious as advertised on her beautifully-designed and photographed blog and my GF husband was delighted to have two new treats to devour.

First on my agenda was Sophie's Cracker Recipe. I had some success in making some crispy Sesame-Rosemary Crackers and Chickpea Hearts in the past, but these looked thicker and had a nice combination of flavors, so dug out my rolling pin, bought a fresh roll of parchment paper and popped out a batch of Sophie's Crackers.



They reminded me of Wheat Thins in texture and had a nice hearty flavor. I made up a batch of Vegetable Cream Cheese to spread on them (I whizzed up 1 pkg. softened cream cheese with a few radishes, celery stalks, carrots, chives, dill, and part of a red bell pepper) and Dan tucked into the cracker stash with gusto. They are also not so fragile as to buckle under the heft of a slice of cheese.

Bursting with self-esteem over the success of this first Flour Arrangement project, I decided to tackle a yeast bread. I was enamored of her photo of her Gluten-Free Honey and Flax Yeast Rolls and liked incorporating the fiber-rich powers of the flax seed, so I devoted an afternoon to the coddling of these yeasty babies. Man, they were good! Once again, with Sophie's detailed instructions, I produced a winning recipe. The rolls were great warm out of the oven and nuked up the next day in the microwave (I froze the immediately uneaten rolls in a bag in the freezer so they wouldn't dry out). Next time, it will be a double batch!

The rolls are soft, yet chewy, with a nice crunch from the flax seeds and a honey-tinged, nutty flavor. It's a time consuming recipe, as most yeasty breads are, and one does need a full gluten-free pantry supply as you need 1/4 of this and a 1/4 cup of that, but the end result is really lovely. A lot of gluten-free baked goods are somewhat on the white and fluffy side, and this was a hearty and substantial roll that my husband particularly enjoyed. He misses the "chew" of glutenous breads and these rolls gave his choppers the right amount of workout.



Sophie's blog is a visual delight to peruse. It has a clean layout, appealing graphics, and widgets that pop up and allow you to easily print out recipes. Her writing style is funny and engaging, and it is easy to lose track of time while browsing her posts, like standing in front of a great big GF bakery showcase.

Sea at the Book of Yum is the founder and current host of this edition of the Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger Event. Check back during the first week of October to see the roundup of all the other GF blogger adoptions and to see how we took our test drives with their recipes.

My Cucumber is Famous

The glistening forkful of cucumber and mint salad photograph that graced this blog two days ago has made the big time by appearing on the front page of Tastespotting. That was a surprise, because I've been regularly submitting food photos to this breathtaking and hunger-inducing website for a couple of months now and nary a photo has been picked. This time I thought I might have a shot, so to speak, because the timing worked out perfectly in catching the elusive drip of salad juice off the fork. It required balancing my old old clunky Sony Mavica (with its whopping 2.0 megapixels and slot for a floppy disk to record the photos) on the ground and using my left hand to dip the cucumber fork repeatedly in the salad juices and pressing the shutter button with my right hand. All that happened on a blastingly hot and humid afternoon, where I had as much sweat dripping off my nose as left the fork, but didn't that shot look cool.

Off to read my old camera manual some more....

Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger: The GFCF Experience

For the last two three rounds of the Adopt A Gluten-Free Blogger Event started by Sea at the Book of Yum, my adoptees were all female bloggers, but this time I thought I'd check out one of the male GF bloggers, Thomas at the GFCF Experience. He also happens to be the current host for this round, which runs through June 9th.

The GFCF Experience is a labor of love for this devoted father of four, one of whom resides on the autism spectrum. A gluten-free, casein-free diet has been shown to have many beneficial effects in treating kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Thomas' blog has many informative links and resources on this subject. He is also an awesome cook, as a list of his many recipes show.

I tried out the Brownie Tart recipe that Thomas had modified to be GFCF from the Barefoot Contessa. I didn't have a 9 inch tart pan and used an 8 inch springform pan instead. I also didn't have a bag of gluten-free flour mix on hand and substituted brown rice flour. The tart came out nice and chewy, with a meltingly rich chocolate-coffee taste, that was perfect with a cup of coffee on the side. Bravo GFCF! Another dessert winner for our family recipe box!

Check back with The GFCF Experience after June 9th for a roundup of all the blogger recipes from adoptees.

Adopt A Gluten-Free Blogger: Fresh Ginger

For the third installment of the Adopt A Gluten-Free Blogger Event I chose Fresh Ginger.
I had the impression from her blog name and pineapples lounging on the beach masthead that she lived in Hawaii or some other Pacific paradise, but it turns out that she's a Michigander. Ginger is also a beer and cider brewer, gardener, knitter and from a family of fruit farmers, so her blog is an interesting mix of these interests.

Fresh Ginger also provides a lot of cocktail and appetizer recipes which I have bookmarked for future consumption. However, the recipe that triggered her adoption was for Lard Nah, which does not contain lard, thankfully, but is a traditional Thai noodle dish. This worked out beautifully in my wok with some collard greens, tofu and mushrooms, although I did hold back on the amount of water mixed with tapioca starch as my Lard Nah seemed adequately hydrated. This is really a tasty stir-fry dinner with delicious sauce that I look forward to trying with other garden greens.

A note of caution to other gluten-free folk who want to check out this great blog. Fresh Ginger is able to tolerate spelt, so if you can't eat any kind of gluten, not just wheat gluten, please do not cook up any recipes using spelt.

If you are interested in adventurous cooking from around the globe, this is the blog for you. Fresh Ginger features lots of different cuisines: Scandinavian, Indian, Thai, Cuban, etc., and has a breezy, fun writing style, so it's a lot of fun to read. I look forward to cooking up some more of her wonderful recipes, and soon!

The Adopt A Gluten-Free Blogger Event, started by Sea at the Book of Yum, continues until May 11, 2008, so look for a roundup after next weekend. There's still time to participate in this event and if you are interested in doing so, check out this link.

Bonkers for Bhajis

The Book of Yum is hosting an Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger Event and I decided to adopt Jeena's Kitchen over in England. Jeena is a professional chef with a blog full of clear and detailed recipes for healthy cooking, many of which are also gluten-free, as noted in her index. She has lots of photographs to guide you through each step of a recipe, which is so helpful when you are first attempting a dish or cooking technique. Many of the recipes are vegetarian as well, and many are twists on traditional Indian recipes.

I had long bookmarked Jeena's recipe for Onion Bhajis (pronounced "bah-zhees"), which are a popular British-Indian starter in many restaurants and a close cousin of the pakora or pakoda. Typically they are deep-fried, but Jeena's recipe calls for baking. I made her recipe and everyone in the family really liked them. I have paired them with basmati rice for dinner twice now and that makes an easy meal for everyone in the family to enjoy, even my vegan teenager. Jeena's recipe directs you to drizzle oil on the bhajis midway through the cooking time, but I found that flipping them over instead worked well in my often balky oven.



After a little bit of bhaji research, I found that they are usually accompanied by a cucumber raita or a mango chutney, so I will be whipping up some condiments for upcoming bhajimania. You can also serve bhajis on a bed of shredded lettuce with a squeeze of lemon or lime juice.

I tried making bhajis a third time with chickpea flour instead of buckwheat flour and they were even more delicious. The beaniness of the chickpea flour, which I don't fancy in my sweet treats, is perfect in this savory recipe. We're going to keep experimenting, as other bhaji recipes I've seen utilize other vegetables, such as string beans, cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, peppers, spinach and even brussels sprouts. The versatility of this recipe is exciting for me, and I can't wait to try other add-ins, like snipped chives, cilantro, mint and peas. When the garden produce starts flying in July and August, I look forward to playing around with other bhaji delights.

Vive Le Bhaji! And thank you, Jeena, for turning me on to a new family favorite recipe!

Foodie Blog Roll Announcement

I have come to the realization that I am a foodie - not defined in my trusty Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary, but a term I understand to mean someone who enjoys and thinks about food every day. Food ain't just fuel, it's something to savor. I have been enjoying many other food blogs and websites since becoming savvier at this Internet stuff and am proud to announce that I am now an official member of the Foodie Blogroll, starting by her Royal Highness, The Leftover Queen. It's a great way to troll for new dinner ideas, slaver over food photos and check out fun recipe contests. I have posted the Foodie Blogroll listing on the right-hand sidebar for you to drift into.

I immediately got lost in the blogroll and found lots of recipes to bookmark and even downloaded a free Italian cookbook which helps fund America's Second Harvest, a nonprofit organization which helps fight hunger. Click on this link by the end of this month to download a nice little cookbook with recipes by Mario Batali and gorgeous table settings by David Tutera inspired by Natalie (Chickpea Fritters!) Portman, Marisa Tomei, Stanley Tucci, Chris Daughtry, and Debra Messing. Every download nets America's Second Harvest a $1.00 donation, so we all win.

The Gluten-Free Kitchen Cupboard

As if her post on Fried Chickpeas wasn't blogworthy enough, Gluten-Free Gobsmacked has another recent post on how to stock your gluten-free cupboard. The plethora of baking products that has sprung up in my kitchen to replace two bags of flour (white and whole wheat) is just out of control these days and I will have to absorb Gobsmacked's educational post several times.

The good news is that the Wheatless One, Dan, has been hard at work to create a built-in corner cupboard in our kitchen. Here's a shot of the venerable bead-board under construction.

I anxiously await filling it with my heavy food processor and stand mixer and various other appliances and dishes that lurk around in odd corners, needing hefting and dusting whenever I ratchet up the dinner preparations. The plan is to then have a separate couple of shelves in the other cupboards in our kitchen devoted to gluten-free baking supplies.

Adopt A Gluten-Free Blogger Event #2

The Book of Yum is again hosting an Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger event. From now until April 7th, bloggers are encouraged to pick a food blogger that has lots of gluten-free recipes and "adopt" them by trying out a recipe, blogging about it, and linking back to the Book of Yum so she can make up a roundup of recipes.

Last time around, I had a lot of fun making Gluten A Go Go's Cola Cake and this time, I am adopting a U.K. blogger, Jeena's Kitchen, and plan to try out her Onion Bhajis recipe. This has been a good way for me to actually do something with all those great bookmarked gluten-free recipes.

See you in the test kitchen!

Coca-Cola Cake KO'd by Canine

I made a delicious Coca-Cola Cake as per Gluten A Go Go's wonderful recipe. This cake is moist, chewy (as most gluten-free cakes I bake don't seem to be) and has a great, exotic flavor. The Turbinado sugar crystals also give a nice crunch to the cake. I substituted equal amounts of cornstarch for arrowroot powder and xanthan gum for the kudzu powder called for by Sheltie Girl, Head Baker at Gluten a Go Go, and this seemed to work out just fine.

All humans in the family gave this cake a thumbs up when I served it for dessert. Unfortunately, a certain thumbless member of the pack

got her snout under the cake cover during the night and gobbled up and licked a third of the remaining deliciousness. It is a testament to the delectability of Sheltie Girl's creation that we all just cut off the dog-slobbered part and chowed down on it the next day. It's that good.

This chapter in my Adventures in Gluten-Free Baking was brought to you by Sea over at the Book of Yum who is hosting an Adopt A Gluten-Free Blogger Event to get us all trying out some new recipes. Gluten A Go Go has lots of great recipes, particularly for baked goods, as well as wealth of interesting links and articles, and I would urge you to check it out. Thanks Sea and Sheltie Girl!

Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger Event

Sea over at the always-enlightening and droolworthy blog, The Book of Yum, has a gluten-free blogging event under way. The idea is to familiarize more gluten-free folks about the wealth of safe, delicious recipes by having people "adopt" their favorite gluten-free blog. Then we each have to cook up a recipe from this blog within the next two weeks and link up to Sea's website.

I am adopting Sheltie Girl's Gluten A Go Go blog, as I always seem to be bookmarking her recipes and posts, especially as she seems to be very comfortable baking with various flours. Stay tuned for what I cook from her blog....

Some Gluten-Free Tidbits

There are some assorted bits of news and interesting Internet posts I thought I would assemble for a gluten-free sampler:

1) The GourmetSleuth blog has a useful grams to ounces converter that is helpful when adapting a recipe from the metric system to the American system of cups, ounces and teaspoons. There are a lot of great recipes from around the world so this should help with adapting recipes for home use. I am going to be putting this as a link in the sidebar on the right side of this blog.

2) Sea over at the exceptional gluten-free blog Book of Yum has a wonderful recent post about gluten-free snack packing and preparing for a long trip AND exciting and detailed posts on Indian cuisine and what to look for on an Indian menu that is safe to eat. Fascinating and beautifully photographed as ever. A must read.

3) The Chez Pim site has organized Menu of Hope 4 to benefit the United Nations Feeding Program in Lesotho, Africa. This great event features numerous raffles for dreamy food prizes, from cookbooks and cooking lessons, to tours of famous restaurants and shopping trips with world renowned chefs. Check it out until December 21st.

4) In a similar vein, you can help the UN World Food Program by testing your vocabulary at the Free Rice site. Of course we all love gluten-free rice, and this time-wasting and addicting site promotes a great cause.

5) I ran across this article on celiac-friendly beer and wanted to share this with others. We have been very happy with Redbridge Beer available at our local supermarkets but it looks like there has been more of a growth in the gluten-free beer market over the last year, so it looks like a trip to our beverage distributor might be in order.