Gluten-free Gourmand

I have to confess that I'm not very good at following directions.  In fact, I almost never cook anything exactly as instructed, and I am pretty savvy about when and where to skip steps or make substitutions.  When I saw that the King Arthur Gluten-free Bread Mix called for three eggs I was tempted to change the recipe entirely, but I was afraid that if it didn't turn out I wouldn't be able to legitimately review it.  So I started off to make the bread as directed. I threw in the three eggs, warm water, and 4 Tbsp of walnut oil.  I mixed with an electric mixer as instructed.  I added the flour one cup at a time.  Somehow, in the middle of it all, my subconscious took over and I ended up doing things my own way by sheer force of habit.  Sure, I added the three eggs, but I skipped another step entirely.  And it still came out. I've been making a lot of gluten-free bread recently, and I've figured out that you can completely skip the second rise...

When I created my Gluten-free Quinoa Pancake Recipe , I promised to give you a variation on it soon. That was six months ago. Since then I have been diligently trying to come up with a new twist on the recipe. Well, here is my variation: Substitute 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour for the 1/2 cup of quinoa flour. Why did that take me six months to figure out, when I was pretty sure that it would work from the beginning? Buckwheat is a fairly complicated foodstuff. It can be processed and milled in a variety of ways before it hits the shelf. I was trying to manipulate this recipe using a buckwheat flour that I wasn't familiar with, and which had a completely different consistency and grind than what I was used to. The flour kept absorbing too much of the liquid, producing a gummy, thick batter that was nearly impossible to cook. I ended up switching to Bob's Red Mill Organic Buckwheat Flour , even though it is not one of their specially processed "certified gluten...

  I have been struggling to fine-tune these pancakes for several weeks now. I had never used quinoa flour before, and wanted to feature it in a new recipe creation. I also wanted to give people who read my blog a taste of how I mix flours together for general-purpose mixes. These pancakes come out pretty thick and fluffy with a moist and tender yet resilient texture. The quinoa flour lived up to its reputation of having a slightly bitter flavor. I used Ancient Harvest brand. Does anyone have any tips for another brand to try? I thought the best way to work with this flavor was to use buttermilk instead of or in addition to milk. The sourness of buttermilk counteracts the bitterness of the quinoa. Update: I've made these pancakes several times since I posted this recipe and they have never failed.  I serve them to people who normally eat wheat with good results.   I have my flour arranged in my cupboard now so it's easy to mix everything together. ...

I don't exactly think of Carson City, Nevada as a gluten-free mecca. While my relatives there are very supportive of my diet and have made wonderful meals for me, when I travel back to Carson City to visit I always wonder what exactly I'm going to end up eating when I go out on the town. Well, no more! I found out by accident that Carson City has some of the best wheat-free, gluten-free bread I've ever tasted. The City Cafe Bakery at 701 S. Carson Street is the producer of this fine GF product. They make a whole host of gluten-free treats, including sandwiches, scones, and muffins. They bake the bread on-site, and they sell it by the loaf. Loaves come sliced, frozen, and unlabeled. My stepmother Penny helped me vet the bread, and she said that she tasted corn flour. I called to get the list of ingredients, and corn starch is definitely in there. The bread also contains eggs and milk. Penny noted that the bread is much lighter than most GF breads. In fact, I thi...

Last month I wrote a post about basic gluten-free flours : their properties, their uses, their virtues, and their downsides. Here is the promised extension to that original post, which hopes to shed some light on some other more specialized GF grains. Amaranth flour (also known as Inca wheat or quihuicha): This flour behaves quite a bit like sorghum flour, and has a lot of flavor. It is a grain high in protein and very nutritious. A dough made with amaranth is very delicate, wet, and tricky to handle. I only use a small portion of this flour in my all-purpose mixes for the flavor it adds. Buckwheat flour : a close relation to rhubarb, this grain is in no way related to the wheat family. It is a very dark flour with a strong, distinctive and pleasant nutty flavor. The flour has a very fine grit, and can be used in making whole-grain products. It does not behave well on its own, producing very dry and brittle product unless it is mixed with other flours. I usually recommend s...

The first time I tried to make scones with a GF flour mix the dough smelled like salty beans. I looked at the ingredients on the store-bought package only to find - sure enough - garbanzo bean flour. After trying a few other pre-made mixes with similarly disastrous results, I decided I could do better on my own. Over the last year or two I've been experimenting with making my own gluten-free flour mixes. While I'm not quite ready to share this secret concoction with the world, I do want share what I've learned about the properties of some basic gluten-free flours. Brown rice flour : It gives your product lots of texture and flavor. However, it is not pliable enough to be used by itself in most recipes, and it produces a dense, heavy, whole-grain feel. White rice flour : This gives you a somewhat lighter and more pliable dough than brown rice flour, but without the benefit of the flavor of the whole grain. It is made from raw white rice. Glutinous rice flour (or stick...