Gluten-free talk

9 years ago

It seems that there are many of us who are cooking/baking gluten-free! I've been making gf since 2010 -- not for myself, but for friends who are celiacs and for BF who's allergic to wheat. It was a rough transition for me because I was known as a great baker when working with regular AP flour. I haven't bought a bag of AP flour in many years... the things I miss the most are yeast breads, of course. I miss kneading and that great stretchy texture. :( On the bright side, what's good about gf baking is the shortened rise times and the fact that it's impossible to make a tough crust. :)

I've decided to switch and try baking my gf cookies as bars instead. It's much easier to put together and less to clean up! Already tried w/ chocolate chip and they worked great. I just pulled these PB w/ brickle chips from the oven -- looks like a success, but I'll report back on the verdict. :)

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party_music50
Original Author

9 years ago

writersblock, can you handle guar gum? it usually works as a substitute for xanthan, although guar gum is supposedly better when used with cold foods.

I always found the King Arthur Flour site to be the best source for gluten-free recipes. I make a slight variation on their gf AP mix to use as the base for pretty much everything (I use less brown rice flour and I think they switched the type). Their gf sandwich bread was the best I've found.

If you don't have one, buy a USA pullman pan for your gf breads. You won't be sorry!!! I love their pans for gf baking!

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Comments (17)

season55
9 years ago
They look yummy! I've been gluten free only about a year, and I feel so much better. I've tried to make bread, and that failed because I didn't have to right flour....

My alltime favorite flour is rice flour. I use it the most in cookies. Also I use normal all pourpose gluten free in donuts. I'm not sure why people say they can't eat anything if they are gluten free. You can make perfect breads (if you have the right flours), donuts, cakes, brownies, etc... I love baking GF.

Can you post the cookie bar recipe please?
writersblock (9b/10a)
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
You can make perfect breads (if you have the right flours)

I would greatly appreciate knowing how. I must admit that I haven't yet tried a gluten free bread that seemed worth the baking to me, for all that other baked goods can be just about as good without wheat flour. (Should add that xanthan gum and I don't get along, which makes it harder.)

In my case, I avoid wheat (not gluten per se) because it aggravates my asthma.

ETA Forgot to say, the cookie bars look and sound delicious.
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season55
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I made this recipe: https://alittleinsanity.com/soft-gluten-free-sandwich-bread-recipe/. It does use xanthan gum though. I didn't use her flour mix because I didn't have sweet rice flour on hand so it kinda failed..... Next time though :). I used brown rice and 1-1 flour. Brown rice absorbs more moisture then sweet rice, so my bread was heavy and didn't rise. Fail.....
writersblock (9b/10a)
9 years ago
Thanks for that, season55.
season55
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
No problem, writersblock! I would be making artisan bread loafs or ciabatta but I don't have millet flour or sourgum on hand unfortunatley. Since we moved we had to give away all of our flours, so since we've only been in AZ for 2-1/2 months I've only managed to get a few flours.

partymusic, I looked up on my search engine a USA Pullman pan. They look very handy! I might consider purchasing one. Thanks for the tip!
writersblock (9b/10a)
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
If you don't have one, buy a USA pullman pan for your gf breads. You won't be sorry!!! I love their pans for gf baking!

Thanks for the suggestion. Oh, it's a pan de mie pan! Cool. I love an excuse to buy new cookware. :)
party_music50
Original Author
9 years ago
Amazon is your friend. I buy my sorghum there. Actually, I buy almost all of my flours there now.
season55
9 years ago
Thanks for the tip!
nancyofnc
9 years ago
For 10 years I had a GF bakery for selling treats at my local farmers market. I retired end of October last year. Several things are important - the flours must be fresh (refrigerate in glass jars or foil wrapped plastic bags (plastic breathes and takes in odors) and bring to room temp before using), don't substitute one flour for another in a recipe - there must be the right combination of GF flours to get the right chemistry to simulate the attributes of wheat. Guar gum is totally OK instead of xanthan gum for any baked recipe. There is no substitute for sweet rice flour!

Buy GF flours at www.barryfarmfoods.com that have flours much cheaper than Amazon and use this combination instead of pre packaged GF flour for most recipes: 6C fine rice flour (brown, white or mix of both), 2C potato starch (not potato flour), 1C tapioca flour/starch, 3t xanthan or guar gum.

Click on this recipe from "simply gluten free.com" for GF French Bread

or try this recipe:

Not Quite Rye Bread (for machine)

∞In bowl of a bread
machine whisk together with a fork:

1 1/4 C warm water,
2 T oil, 1 t vinegar, 2 eggs and 2 egg whites (or 3 eggs).

∞In a large
plastic bag shake to mix then put into machine on top of liquids, don’t stir:

1 C sorghum
flour, 3/4 C garbanzo flour, 1/2 C quinoa flour, 1/2 C tapioca flour, 1/4 C brown sugar,
1 T gum, 1 1/2 t yeast, 1 1/4 t salt, 2 1/2 T caraway seeds.

∞Follow
instructions for your machine with the shortest knead cycle (or GF setting) and
select dark crust. (There is a Zojirishi bread machine with a GF cycle that also browns the tops!!!)

∞Immediately put
on rack to cool completely before slicing.
nancyofnc
9 years ago
My other post was too long they said, so here is another bread recipe:

Brioche
Bread or Rolls(Gluten Free on a Shoestring Cookbook)

∞Spray PAM in a
loaf pan, 9” - 10” casserole dish, or paper line muffin tins.

∞In
Kitchen Aid mixer whisk together using the wire whisk (do not attempt
with handheld mixer - it will take forever): 2½ C GF all purpose flour
(from 2 C white or mix of white and brown rice flour, 2/3 C potato
starch (not flour), 1/2 C tapioca starch/flour, 1 1/2
t gum, 1/2 C sugar, 2 1/2 t yeast, 1 t cream of tartar, ¾ t kosher salt

∞Add and mix on
low to combine: 1 t lemon zest,
1/2 t vinegar, 5 extra-large eggs (or 7 large)

∞Add and stream
in: ½ C warm milk
(micro it @15 seconds to 100F)

∞Add 1 T at a
time mixing well on Low2 until incorporated: 10 T room temp butter

∞Beat on Medium6
7 to 8 minutes. (This long mix is important to emulsify the ingredients and is important.) ∞Use a rubber
spatula to put into pan, smooth top, and let rise to top edge @30 to 45 minutes
in a warm place.

∞Bake 375F 20
minutes. Then ∞Make a slash in
top of dough ¼“ deep, tent with foil, bake 20 to 25 minutes more until internal
temp is 190F to 200F.

∞Cool 15 minutes
in pan then put on rack to cool completely before slicing.
season55
9 years ago
I kinda new that there is no sweet rice flour substitution. Even though this one magazine (Gluten Free & More) said you can. I just thought I would risk it....
plllog
9 years ago
I was in a hurry once, and wanted a GF cake for a friend. I found a strawberry bundt cake recipe that had plenty of eggs and substituted sorghum flour for wheat flour. I just can't remember if there was a quantity change or any gum or anything, but other than an unfortunate color, it was a really good cake. Sometimes blind idiocy works. :)
nancyofnc
9 years ago
There is not a one-for-one GF flour for wheat flour. It takes a mixture of flours to come out with the right (good) taste, be enticing in color, and, to rise and be lofty and not be a brick or gum. It is best to use a recipe that is made specifically for GF, and there are many recipes on the web and in cookbooks. If you are GF or want to make GF for others------ these are the best sources: Gluten Free on a Shoestring (.com. and cookbook), celiac.com, alittleinsanity.com, Fine Cooking Special Magazine - Gluten Free, thebakingbeauties.com, glutenfreegoddess.com.

Nancy
plllog
9 years ago
LOL! Nancy, I do know that. It's just that the cake came out just wildly substituting without any proper research or recipe. :) It does help that I know how to bake. And the sorghum tasted better, IMHO, than many of the GF flours which are mostly rice and starch. I certainly bow to your expertise. I sometimes cook/bake for two celiacs and a low FODMAP, but I'm not going to put the kind of energy into it that someone would with nearers and dearers to do for.

PM, thanks for bringing it up. I've been trying to assemble some baking recipes for one of the above, but I don't have time to test them all myself.
annie1992
9 years ago
Thanks, Nancy, for those websites, and for the Brioche recipe. I've made your gluten free french bread a couple of times and it's actually good, far better than any of the GF bread I've purchased anywhere.

PM, that's a good type about those cookie bars, and they look very good. One of our favorites are these lemon bars. I like them better than my original recipe, and got them from a website called "Faithfully Gluten Free". That person says the recipe is an adaptation of one from Ina Garten. In any event, they're delicious, and the crust isn't gritty, as gluten free flours can be. This batch I was out of tapioca starch, so I subbed all the different flours with theequivalent amount of King Arthur Gluten Free blend and they are delicious. Most of them will go to my daughter, Amanda, as she's celiac and very thin and can afford all those calories! Elery and I each "tested" one, just to be sure they were OK. Yeah, that's it. And they were very OK, so I gotta get rid of the rest of them first thing tomorrow....

Annie
tishtoshnm Zone 6/NM
9 years ago
My daughter is GF as is my mom. I really should go and get my blood tested too but have not gotten around to doing it. Interestingly, my daughter's blood test is strongly positive for celiac. Several years ago, her biopsy was negative. However, she has had some complications with her type 1 diabetes so they recommended trying the GF diet. We opted against getting another biopsy for now as it was a big to-do last time.

I can highly recommend the 2 gluten free cookbooks from America's Test Kitchen. Every recipe we have tried thus far we has been good. DH did not realize the sugar cookies were GF until we told him. The lemon pound cake was superb, as well. I need to try their recipe for sandwich bread because sandwich bread is one thing I have not found an acceptable substitute of. Good flour tortillas are probing elusive, too.

I do like rice flour but I do not want to use it in everything. We are trying for a variety of flours in the diet overall. We can be somewhat carb conscious so have enjoyed some of the more "paleo" or low carb recipes we have tried as well with almond flour and coconut flour.

Next up in my quest of GF baking, is trying to find a good yeasted pastry dough. I have a recipe for cheesecake bars that uses a yeasted pastry for the bottom and top crust and also a honey almond tart that uses yeasted pastry and I want to adapt them to our current situation.

Gluten-free talk

party_music50
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Gluten-free talk

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