Category: Food

Food. Eaten. Made. Discussed. All gluten-free.

September 5, 2011

Lemon Thyme Shortbread & C4C flour review

There was a bit of hubub on twitter over this flour. Mostly it was about the price – not sure why. 3lbs of the King Arthur Gluten Free Flour is $16 and 3lbs of Jules Nearly Normal flour comes out to about $12 (she sells 5lb bags). It is a little more expensive, but not horribly so. It is a product sold at Williams Sonoma, they sell premium cookware and foods. Pasta sauce from there is expensive too ($12 a jar!). It is a premium store that sells premium products. Call me snooty, but I love shopping there. And I am ok with paying a price for luxury/ premium goods.

And yes, the flour is fairly pricey. But, is it good? Yes. Very.

Blondie and I got up early last Sunday and went to a gluten-free baking technique class. Ours was taught by a delightful pastry chef who gave some good tips for baking – and taught Blondie quite a bit about gluten-free ingredients and baking. I even learned a trick about baking cookies.

The whole point of this class was to sample their new brownie & cookie mixes (which don’t taste like they came from a box at all – but I still think they are cheating). And to demo their new flour. (Williams-Sonoma, please have more Gluten-Free technique classes!)

Cup4Cup is a gluten-free flour blend developed by Chef Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Bouchon Bakery fame. And I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the flour. I baked some shortbread cookies to test it out. I have had some disappointments in the past when it comes to gluten-free flour blends. And there are very few that I recommend without hesitation. This one is now on that list.

The batter seemed a little gummier than I am used to, but the cookies are a little chewy (but not gummy) and did not turn to dust when I touched them (this has happened). There were no strange flavors (which some brands AP blends have) and the texture of the baked good was spot on. Sometimes when you bake gluten free cookies, you need to substitute shortening for some of the butter so that they do not spread into one giant cookie. This flour held its shape in baking, a major plus.

I also used this while testing my fried doughnut recipe that will be live on Wednesday for the Gluten Free Ratio Rally. It actually seems to be working (the dough is raising now, but the texture seemed spot on. The dough had stretch and absorbed the right amount of moisture). I will have to try a loaf of bread with this next…

I also love that I can pick up a bag of this stuff when I am wandering around Williams-Sonoma ogling the kitchen goods that I am going to register for when I get married. I also am really impressed that a fancy-schmancy player has entered the game.

This blend will not work for those of you who also have problems with dairy or gums, as this blend has both. My only aversion to dairy is that I don’t like the way that milk tastes.

I am going to make sure that Blondie has a bag of this in his pantry for when I come to town. (Especially now that he finally has measuring cups and spoons – I can deal with not having a scale for our weekends together)

I would definitely put this as one of my preferred store-bought blends. I think it might have worked its way up to second favorite blend.

There are some limitations to using a prepared flour blend. You can’t change the ratio of grains to starches depending on what you are baking. (So no whole grain breads). You also can’t change the amount of the binding agent (xantham gum, guar gum, flax, expandex, etc.) But, you can make your grandma’s famous chocolate cake without doing math.

This blend beats out my other favorite blend in one aspect, I can just go into a store and pick it up. (Maybe not in Champaign, but in Chicago). No expensive shipping because flour weighs alot!

If you are baking a recipe from a gluten free site (such as this), just total all the flours and use this in it’s place. It works as a weight substitution and as a volume substitution.

So, thank you Williams-Sonoma and Chef Thomas Keller for this flour.

Gluten Lemon-Thyme Shortbread

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Recipe Type: Cookie

Author: Mary Fran Wiley

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 30

These are a light, summery cookie. They are not too sweet, but they are tangy with an herb kick. They would go great with some vanilla ice cream for a summer dessert.

Ingredients

230 grams (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
100 grams (½ cup) sugar
340 grams (2 ½ cups) gluten-free all purpose flour blend
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup lemon juice (the juice from 1 large lemon)
2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves

Instructions

Cream together the butter and sugar until it is just blended.
Add the flour in 2 batches, scraping down the sides of your mixer after each addition.
Add the lemon juice and mix to combine.
Stir in the lemon zest and thyme.
Refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes.About halfway through this time, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Roll the dough out and cut into the desired shape (I did 3 inch circles).
Arrange about a half inch apart on a greased cookie sheets and bake for 13-17 minutes.

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1.2.4

September 4, 2011

Raspberry Truffles

I really want to tell you an amazing story about something going on in my life. But really, this week was fairly uneventful. I only saw Blondie for a couple of hours on Thursday night (he brought me some Pei Wei!). Except for the part where I was in Chicago to be hooked up for a neurostimulator trial. Basically. I now have some electrical leads in my spine and get to keep them for a week to see if the big surgery where they implant the whole contaption will work.

But, that is not a fun and exciting story. It only explains why I am only comfortable lying down or standing up. For some reason, I can’t get comfortable while sitting. (It might have something to do with the multiple stitches in my back holding things in place). So, I am baking. I made lemon-thyme shortbread, these truffles and the yeast starter for raspberries & cream doughnuts.

Tomorrow, I will be baking a brown sugar spice cake to do my time arts class homework.

That’s a lot of desserts. Too bad Blondie went to South Bend for a Notre Dame football game and skipped out on coming to Champaign to take care of his invalid girlfriend. No baked goods for him until next weekend.

Maybe Emily will have a cookout tomorrow, and there will be people around to eat all these goodies. Or else I am going to have to hunt down my art class instructor and bribe him with baked goods to give me an A.

Raspberry Truffles

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Recipe Type: Dessert

Author: Mary Fran Wiley

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 90 mins

Total time: 1 hour 40 mins

Serves: 40

Truffles are deceptively easy, decadent and elegant. This recipe makes about 25 truffles and can be scaled up or down. There really is only about 10 minutes of prep, but there is an hour or two of waiting time.

Ingredients

225 grams (8 ounces) dark chocolate, the better the chocolate the better these will taste
1 cup heavy cream (or So Delicious cream will work for vegan truffles)
2 tablespoons raspberry liqueur
1/2 cup cocoa

Instructions

Finely chop the chocolate and put into a mixing bowl.
Heat the heavy cream in a small sauce pot on medium until it is about to boil.
Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 1 minute.
Stir the chocolate and cream until you have one smooth mixture.
Add the liquer.
Put in the fridge to set up for a couple of hours.
Scoop ganache with a cookie scoop (or a spoon if you don’t have a scoop) and roll into balls.
Roll in cocoa and allow to set up before serving.

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1.2.4

August 30, 2011

No, we didn’t win that ring.

It was kind of a busy weekend.

Blondie and I saw friends, had dinner with my family (because my cousin got engaged!), went to a baking demo, went out for lunch, managed to get in a few photos for my class and I made caramels.

Blondie and I were going to do a scavenger hunt/race for an engagement ring on Sunday. But we skipped it. To go to a gluten free baking demo at Williams Sonoma. But I will tell you more about that tomorrow, once I bake something with their new gluten free flour.

Blondie graciously jammed on his guitar so I could do some homework. (Rapid fire shots combined into one swell image).

The real story is this caramel recipe. And a cookbook that I think you need.

You see, I was that strange kid that absolutely adored bulls eyes and cow tail candies. The chewy caramel filled with the creamy crumbly white sugar stuff.

This was my second time making the recipe, and it is divine. (It sure made my dad happy too, he is the one who got me hooked on this type of candy as a kid).

Let me start with the book.

It is Sugar Baby by Gesine Bullock-Prado. Now, before you get all conspiracy theorist on me, yes, she is Sandra’s sister. I refuse to hold this against her (mostly because Sandra was super gracious to the neighborhood kids when she filmed While You Were Sleeping).

Almost the entire cookbook is gluten free. Simply because when you are cooking with sugar and making candies, you don’t need flour. (There are a half dozen recipes at the back of the book, but you could substitute your favorite cake, crepe or pâte à choux recipe for hers and just follow the technique and recipes for frosting and and other bits).

There are recipes for several different fudges, marshmallows, rock candy, milk candy and to top it off, cotton candy.

Another bonus? The ingredients are listed in both US measurements and by weight. (I made the caramels using both sets of measurements). For those of you afraid of relinquishing your measuring cups, the conversions are there. For those of you not in the states or who have started to use scales for baking, the weights are right there for you.

The instructions are clearly written in a friendly voice. She sounds like a friend teaching you how to do these things in the kitchen might sound. There are sweet stories in the recipe head notes and all the recipes look fabulous. (I would like an excuse to make fairy floss, so someone needs to have a party for me to bring it to).

I am sure this book is not dentist approved, but the recipes are fun and approachable. Plus, the author lists variations for each recipe.

Now, a few tips:

Use a metal bowl for your stand mixer, if you have one of those beautiful Kitchen Aids with a glass bowl, whipping the fondant takes twice as long.
The sharper your knife the better. I used a very sharp, serated knife.
Cold caramel-fondant rolls smush less. Although, I think the smushed ones taste just fine.
If it is super humid, you might need an extra tablespoon of cornstarch in your vanilla bean cream. It’s quite alright. It will still taste divine.
Don’t use vanilla extract in the fondant. If you don’t have vanilla bean paste, scrape the seeds from a vanilla bean or use ground Tahitian vanilla beans (I used vanilla bean paste the first time and ground vanilla beans the second time).
Consult the photo tutorial from the author. It helped me visualize many of the steps.

Finally, a recipe.

Salted Caramels with Vanilla Bean Cream

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Recipe Type: Candy

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 75 mins

Total time: 1 hour 20 mins

Serves: 40

This recipe is adapted from Sugar Baby by Gesine Bullock-Prado. This is a brilliant interpretation of one of my childhood favorites, and this recipe happens to be gluten free (unlike the industrial variety). These take a bit of time to prepare, and are a good Saturday afternoon project.

Ingredients

Caramel

1½ cups heavy cream
400 grams (2 cups) sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
stick (55 grams) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon sea salt

Vanilla Bean Cream

2 cups sugar
cup water
2 tablespoons corn syrup
pinch salt
stick (55 grams) unsalted butter
teaspoon vanilla bean paste or ground vanilla beans
1-2 tablespoons cornstarch, plus additional to dust counter

Instructions

Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper and grease well. Really, grease it. You do not want to end up with a sticky mess.
Prepare your mise en place. (That means get your ingredients out and measured when you start). Cut both measures of butter into small pieces.
Make the caramel. In a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom over medium heat, combine the cream, sugar and corn syrup. Clip a candy thermometer on your pot and stir the mixture gently. When it starts to boil, put your spoon down and step back from the stove. Wait while your sugar bubbles along. (If your pot is too small, it will boil over and make a huge mess. You are better off using a pot that is a little too big – as long as enough of your candy thermometer is submerged to effectively measure the temperature.) When it hits 257 degrees Fahrenheit, remove the pot from the heat, stir in the butter, vanilla extract and salt. Pour it into your prepared pan and spread evenly. Set aside.
Make the vanilla bean cream. In the bowl of a stand mixer (preferably a metal bowl), place the chopped butter. In a clean pot, combine the sugar, water and corn syrup. Put the pot over medium heat, attach a candy thermometer and stir until the mixture becomes clear. Boil the mixture until it reaches 245 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour in the bowl of the stand mixer. Slowly bring the mixer to medium and mix until translucent. Add the salt and vanilla bean paste (or ground vanilla bean). Continue beating until the mixture is white, shiny and mostly opaque. Add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Raise the speed to high and beat like crazy. I beat it for about 10 minutes the first time I made these, and 20 minutes the second time. It was super humid, so I also added a little extra cornstarch to help the mixture dry out. Once the mixture looks like it is starting to dry, stop the mixer. It should hold its shape pretty well. Turn it out onto a cornstarch dusted surface and knead. You should have a soft, pliable dough.
Assemble the rolls. Press the cream onto the caramel, leaving a half inch at each of the long ends. Remove the caramel from the pan and cut in half lengthwise (I used a pizza cutter for this). Roll the caramel and fondant into logs. Slice with a serrated knife. If your rolls smush or the fondant squeezes out, refrigerate the candies for about 10 mins. Then continue slicing.

Notes

Try using instant espresso powder in the fondant to create caramel frappucino candies.

You can make fat rolls (like the ones pictured), by leaving a half inch of fondant from the short sides, cutting the caramel in half lengthwise, and then in half crosswise to make 4 shorter, wider rolls.

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1.2.4

August 27, 2011

Gluten Free Lemon Almond Cake

Things have been a little crazy here in Chambana. The college kids are back in town, and I started classes again. I have been avoiding the grocery store like the plague to avoid the college kids stocking up on food and liquor. I am hoping that after this semester my design portfolio is strong enough to get my butt into grad school – so keep your eyes out for some fun new changes around here as I actually finish the design I started (hey, the blogging part is way more fun than the writing code to make it do stuff part!).

Now, before stuff went and got six kinds of crazy, I made this cake. And it took every ounce of strength I have to not to eat the cake before I took a picture. My kitchen smelled good for 2 days. I got the idea from David Lebovitz. Almond paste in a cake. Brilliant. But my allergies were bad. It needed an even punchier flavor. Enter the lemon I bought to put in my water. Lemons and almonds go great together.

It didn’t make as much batter as it could have, so you could easily double the recipe and increase the baking time. But for me the cake was the right height for a coffee cake.

Gluten Free Lemon Almond Coffee Cake

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Recipe Type: Breakfast

Author: Mary Fran Wiley

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 40 mins

Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 8

This is a dense cake, but it is not dense in the way that gluten free cakes normally are. The almond paste makes this a fairly sweet cake, so it pairs well with a morning coffee.

Ingredients

4 ounces almond paste
1 stick butter, softened
125 grams (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons) sugar
3 eggs
15 grams (3 tablespoons) ground flax
60 grams (1/2 cup) sweet white sorghum flour
50 grams (1/4 cup) sweet white rice flour
25 grams (3 tablespoons) tapioca starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
juice (about 2-3 tablespoons) & zest from 1 medium lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk (or non-dairy milk)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt pan.
Combine flax, sorghum,rice and tapioca starch with salt and whisk to combine a homogenous flour.
Cream together the almond paste and butter. I put the paddle attachment on my stand mixer and let it go on medium-high for about 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides and add in the sugar. Cream together the sugar and almond-butter mixture for about a minute or so. Remember, we are adding air so that we don’t have a too-dense cake.
Add in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides after each addition.
Mix in half the flour blend. Add in the lemon juice from your lemon (about 2 tablespoons). Mix in the rest of the flour, scraping down the sides of your bowl. Then stir in the zest from one lemon.
Pour your batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35-45 minutes. A cake tester will come out clean (or with a crumb or two) when the cake is done.
Whisk together the milk, powdered sugar and lemon juice and pour over warm cake. The cake will probably suck up the glaze, so if you want to see it, add more sugar to make a thicker glaze and pour it on a cooled cake. Top with slivered almonds and serve

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1.2.4

August 20, 2011

Mixing Methods – Egg Foam

The second installment in my series on mixing methods. (did you miss the first one on creaming?) This time we are talking about the egg foam method.

It sounds super exciting, right?

This is the method that is used for creating those super fancy French gateaux and genoise and jelly rolls. Oh, and angel food cake. This is the method that makes people thing that baking cakes from scratch is difficult.

Ok, this is a bit more involved than dumping a cake mix from a box into water and eggs, but the results are worth it. Really. 15 extra minutes for a delicate and light cake. I promise. Better gluten free cakes await.

In this method, we get all of our lift from the air we add to the eggs. None of it is coming from a chemical source and we are not cutting air pockets into our butter. When you make cakes this way, you use melted butter or oil to moisten and tenderize. Gluten free goods tend to be dense and chewy. We should use this method more.

This method is used in many european style cakes. Why? Typical European flours have less gluten than American varieties. So the cakes rely on the eggs to create the structure, not the gluten proteins from the flour.

This method of mixing uses the protiens of the eggs to create structure, the sugar to tenderize and oil to moisten. In traditional baking, you use this method when you want the least possible gluten formation, so why don’t we have more recipes that use this method? Because they aren’t traditional American butter or chiffon cakes. But they are darn tasty.

The nitty gritty:

You must whip your eggs. Whip ’em real good. You want them to double or triple in volume (depending if you are using yolks, whites or whole eggs). You usually add in a small amount of sugar when they are at a soft peak. If you are whipping whites and yolks separately, you whip the yolks first and then the whites. You then fold in your flour and mix about a quarter of your foam mixture with your liquid fat. This small amount will deflate, but will help the fat mix without separating or deflating your entire mixture. You then fold in that mxture and bake promptly.

Time is not on your side with this technique. The longer the eggs sit, the flatter they become. And the more dense your cake will be.

How easy is that? I used this technique when making my gluten-free swiss roll cake.

Go forth and bake light and fluffy cakes!

August 15, 2011

Sweet goodbye cake

Last week was a little hectic.

My boss came back to work after a few months out.

Someone who I trained when I was a student (and was the current office joker) had their last day.

My cousin (the one who dubbed me franny cakes) got engaged.

I got a haircut.

I made this cake.

Someone who works in the office said that where he comes from this cake would be called a gypsy arm. That was almost the title of this cake.

But it was a good-bye cake for a coworker. One who loves Little Debbie snacks and asked for something chocolate.

I first had this cake in junior high when my mom made it as a Bûche de Noël for my seventh grade French class with Mlle. Boyde.

You will never have a cake as airy as this. If you frost it with ganache and make meringue or marzipan mushrooms, you have a great Christmas treat. Or eat it naked with this shortening-butter-heavy cream-powdered sugar filling and satisfy your craving for ho-hos while realizing that this is way better.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake

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Recipe Type: Dessert

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 16 mins

Total time: 36 mins

Serves: 12

The cake is adapted from my mom who got it from Rose Levy Berenbaum’s Cake Bible. The greasing mixture is based on Alton Brown’s Kitchen Lube.

Ingredients

Pan Lube
2 teapoons shortening
1 teaspoon cocoa
cake
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (50 grams + 25 grams) sugar
6 large eggs separated and at room temperature
4 (110 grams) ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
unsweetened cocoa
filling
2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons shortening
2 teapoons vanilla bean paste
4 tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Make the greasing mixture by mixing shortening and cocoa. Grease a jelly roll pan with the mixture, line it with parchment paper and grease the parchment paper.
Beat 1/4 cup (50 grams)sugar and the egg yolks until light and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes. Pour in the melted (and slightly cooled) chocolate. Beat until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl a couple of times.
In a seperate bowl that is very clean (dampen a paper towel with vinegar or lemon juice and wipe out the bowl and then dry with a clean paper towel to be certain that your bowl is free of grease). With the whisk attachment of your mixer, beat the egg whites until foamy, then add the lemon juice. Beat until you have soft peaks when you raise the beater. Slowly add the remaining sugar while beating and keep beating until you have stiff peaks.
Fold 1/4 of the whites into the chocolate mixture with a large whisk or spatula. This will lighten the chocolate so that the air stays in in the egg whites. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites.
Pour into the prepared pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for about 16 minutes. The cake will no longer be shiny and will spring back when lightly pressed with a finger.
Dust the warm cake with the cocoa and turn out onto a clean dish towel. Remove the parchment paper and dust this side of the cake generously with cocoa as well. Roll it up in the towel and let cool.
While the cake cools, beat together the butter and shortening. Add the cream and vanilla bean paste and mix well. Add in the sugar 1/4 cup at a time to keep sugar from flying around your kitchen. Once all the sugar is added, beat until the filling is light and airy.
Remove the towel from the cooled cake. Spread the filling in a thin layer of the filling on the cake and gently re-roll.
Top with powdered sugar or ganache. Let the cake chill for a while before slicing.

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1.2.4

August 8, 2011

Mixing Methods – Creaming

While answering questions on Facebook last week, I realized that many people who are baking gluten-free don’t actually know that much about baking.

A person was upset over all of her baked goods being quite dense and crumbly. I know that my first batch of brownies after going gluten-free was actually quite atrocious. There are a million things that could be wrong, from the recipe itself, to the flours chosen to the technique used.

Gluten-free baking requires patience, practice and technique. But this isn’t much different from regular baking.

Except that you probably have more practice with how batters should look when they are made with regular flour rather than gluten free flour.

This series is going to cover everything from mixing methods, to baking tools and other skills for your arsenal.

Today, the most common mixing method. Creaming.

Most baking recipes (well, those not for fancy pastries), start out by telling you to cream the butter and sugar.

First, the science.

(oi, all my high school science teachers are having heart attacks at the thought of me talking about science).

What you are doing when you beat the butter and sugar together is creating little pockets of air where the sugar cuts through the fat. The lighter this mixture is when you are done, the lighter and more delicate your crumb will be. Because you added lots of air.

You then create an emulsion with the sugar mixture and the eggs. You need to add them one at a time. For the same reason you stream your oil into your vinaigrette while whisking, you need to combine 2 things (oil and water) that do not like to play nice.

You also need to alternate adding liquid and dry ingredients. Why? If you add all the liquid ingredients at once, your flour will lump and clump when you add it and it will cause you to over mix your batter trying to get it smooth. And an over mixed batter is dense and not so good.

How to make it work.

You need your ingredients at a cool room temperature – meaning you should take the eggs & butter out a few hours before baking. Your butter should be the texture of soft ice cream. It should not be so soft that when you touch it, it squashes completely.

A stand mixer works best for this method. (I use Old Faithful, a 30+ year old Kitchenaid stand mixer).

You first whisk together all of your flours, chemical leaveners (baking powder or baking soda) and salt. You want the leavener to be evenly distributed for an even rise.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, place your sugar and your butter. Start slowly so you don’t send sugar flying, and bump up the speed to medium. (High will create too much friction and melt your butter)

Beat until the sugar mixture turns light and fluffy. It will expand slightly in vloume. Next, you beat in the eggs one at a time. I have read that putting them in a bowl of warm water first helps them beat up better, but if you have left them out for an hour or two, you should be good.

Once the eggs are combined (and the bowl has been scraped down), you alternate adding the flour and any liquid ingredients.

See, it just takes a little bit of time (about 15 minutes max).

Next time your recipe calls for creaming, take your time and remember that a little patience goes a long way.

August 7, 2011

Quinoa with slow roasted tomatoes

I apologize for not having super awesome photos, but I forgot my camera in Chicago 🙁

I spent Saturday in the Chicago suburbs for a baby shower. I baked brownies and my mom made lemon squares and a fabulous neopolitan cake with ruffles.

Talk about sweet overload.

So, today, although I was recipe testing for a cookbook (sweets of course), I managed to make something, savory, spicy & healthy (egad! I never utter those words on this blog!).

Vegetables, protein and spice. In perfect opposition to all this sweet.

And yes, smoked paprika and aleppo pepper are necessary. Substituting them will make the dish have less pop. But, if you don’t have them, just make the dish without them. It will still be delicious.

Quinoa with Slow Roasted Tomatoes

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Recipe Type: Entree

Author: Mary Fran Wiley

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 3 hours

Total time: 3 hours 10 mins

Serves: 4

Before you tell me that this is too much work, or time, it is totally worth it. This is a perfectly easy thing to throw together on a Sunday for lunches for the week.

Ingredients

3 large tomatoes, heirloom are best
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups stock
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon aleppo pepper (or cayenne if you can’t find aleppo)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Slice tomatoes thinly and arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Bake for 3ish hours. The tomatoes should look a little shriveled, but shouldn’t be completely dry.
In a large saucepan or duch oven over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic & onion and cook until translucent. Add paprika & aleppo and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in dry quinoa and cook for 2 more minutes.
Add the stock, stir and cover. Cook for about 20 minutes, until water is absorbed.
While that is cooking, cut the tomato slices into quarters.
When quinoa is cooked, stir in tomatoes and enjoy.

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1.2.4

August 3, 2011

GF Ratio Rally: Confetti Cake

I can’t believe that it has been a month since I posted about making gluten-free pasta from scratch. Or, that just 2 months ago, I was making cream puffs and apricot dumplings.

This month’s challenge: white or yellow cake. It is the host’s daughter’s birthday, and we are all bringing cake to the party.

When I was a younger, my mom brought me up with a general disdain for baking from boxes. And I loved funfetti cupcakes when they were brought in as treats to school. Especially when they were baked in sugar cones.

As a kid, I had a cake that was decorated like a hamburger and one that was ballet shoes. I had the kind of cakes that you normally don’t get when your mom bakes your cake. Really cool cakes that taste good. But I remember being envious of those kids and their funfetti cupcakes.

I was envious of the sprinkles inside the cupcakes. Not the actual taste.

When I heard it was Kate’s daughter’s first birthday this month, I couldn’t wait to put sprinkles inside my cake. Because, really, they are better when they are inside.

I used a modified version of Ruhlman’s ratio. I couldn’t remember baking a cake without liquid. And his ratio somehow forgot that. I found an article on fine cooking about cake ratios. It was a bit less straightforward than a 1:1:1:1 ratio, but that’s ok. I did all the math for you. You can thank me later. When you squeal with delight because there are sprinkles inside your cake (or cupcakes), and you didn’t use a box mix.

My ratio ended up being 2:2:1:1:.75… flour:sugar:eggs:butter:liquid

Now, let me explain the wonky ratio. Yes, I said wonky.

Complex ratio math:

flour = sugar
eggs ≥ fat
eggs + liquid = sugar
add chemical leveners, flavorings and gums as needed.

Oi, that’s complex. What does it mean? It means that it is a good thing I paid attention in math. If you have 300 grams of flour, you have 300 grams of sugar plus some eggs and liquid that weigh as much as the sugar. Got it? Me either. I kind of winged it. Meh, it happens.

This month’s rally was hosted by Kate at Gluten-Free Gobsmacked. See all the other fabulous cakes:

Britt @ GF in the City made Boston Cream Pie
brooke @ B & the boy! made White Cake with Apricots & Blueberries
Caleigh @ Gluten Freek[k] made White Chocolate Cupcakes
Caneel @ Mama Me Gluten Free made Fresh-Squeezed Lemon Cake
Caroline @ The G-Spot made Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
Charissa @ Zest Bakery made White Russian Cake
Claire @ Gluten Freedom made Banana Rum Cupcakes with Rum Glaze (alcohol-free!)
Dr. Jean Layton @ GFDoctorRecipes made Mocha Buttercream Yellow Birthday Cake-Gluten-Free
Erin @ The Sensitive Epicure made Chocolate Hostess CupCakes Dupes
gretchen @ kumquat made coconut boston cream pie cupcakes
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Rachel @ The Crispy Cook made Czech Cherry Bublanina

Gluten Free Confetti Cake

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Recipe Type: Dessert

Author: Mary Fran Wiley

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 40 mins

Total time: 1 hour

Serves: 10

Even better than my classic yellow birthday cake is a cake with sprinkles baked inside. This cake is easily made vegan with a couple of simple swaps.

Ingredients

100 grams (1/2 cup) sweet white rice flour
50 grams (scant 1/2 cup)tapioca starch
50 grams (1/3 cup) brown rice flour
50 grams (1/3 cup) sorghum flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
4 teaspoons baking powder
300 grams (1 1/2 cups)sugar
150 grams (6 T) butter, softened, or earth balance
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 (150 grams) egg whites, or 4 flax eggs
1 cup cold milk (I don’t drink milk, so I only use So Delicious when I bake)
1/4 cup non-pareils
225 grams (2 sticks) butter, very, very soft (again, sub Earth Balance for vegan)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup powdered, dry milk, or powdered dry soymilk (Whole Foods carries this)
food coloring

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees & prepare pans by greasing them and lining with parchment paper.
Sift together dry ingredients.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
Add egg whites and beat for a minute or two on medium.
Add the flours and mix a bit more, scraping down the sides. The batter should look a little thick.
Add in the milk and mix until combined.
Add in the nonpareils and give it a quick mix. Over stirring here will cause the color to spread throughout the batter and not be in concentrated little flecks.
Pour into the prepared pans and bake for 35-45 minutes.
Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
For the frosting: whip together the powdered sugar, soft butter and powdered milk. Add food coloring as necessary and add additional powdered sugar to get the desired consistency.
When the cake is cool, spread a filling (I used lemon curd) on one of the layers and stack the cakes. Frost and top with more sprinkles!

Notes

Vegan swaps: use 4 flax eggs (1 tablespoon ground flax dissolved in 3 tablespoons water). Use Earth Balance Buttery Spread in place of butter and powdered, dried soymilk in place f the powdered dry milk.

To use a gluten free flour blend (or if you can bake with gluten flour), you need 1 1/2 cups of flour. (For a non-gf cake or if you use Jules Nearly Normal Flour, you can omit the xantham gum).

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July 31, 2011

Pomegranate Lemon Curd

I’m not really sure why, but I keep seeing lemon curd pop up everywhere. To me, it always sounded stuffy and British. Something to be had with tea and crumpets. Totally not delicious.

I probably never should have had it. Really, never should have tried it. This stuff is amazing. So amazing that I made 2 types of curd in 2 days. (I made lemon curd, and accidentally broke a yolk, so I couldn’t keep those whites for merengues and then I made a cake that needed 5 whites. What is a girl to do? Make a second curd).

There are 5 gazillion recipes for curd out there. My searching and reading taught me this: You need about 2 times as much sweetener as juice, 4-6 egg yolks per half cup of juice and 2-6 tablespoons of butter. I was very scientific for my plain lemon curd and came up with a formula. 1 lemon+2 yolks+1 T butter+ 1/3 cup sweetner. Multiply this times the total number of lemons and you have all you need.

This is decadent, tart and sweet.

Pomegranate Lemon Curd

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Recipe Type: Condiment

Author: Mary Fran Wiley

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 40 mins

Perfect as a tart filling, toast spread or ice cream topping, curd is a great way to use up any extra egg yolks you have from baking a white cake.

Ingredients

The juice of 2 lemons (about 1/2 of a cup)
The zest of 2 lemons (about 2 tablespoons)
The seeds of 1 pomegranate
1 cup sugar (agave nectar or honey will work too)
5 yolks
2 tablespoons of butter, diced

Instructions

Fill a saucepan with about 1 inch of water and bring it to a simmer. (If you are brave and promise to stir without so much as looking away from the pan, you could skip the double boiler thing and work directly over the heat. I work this way on my pastry cream (gasp!), and they always turn out ok. )
In a heat-proof bowl that fits snugly over your saucepan without touching the bottom (I used the bowl from my mixer), whisk together the lemon juice, zest, pomegranate seeds, sugar and yolks.
Place your bowl over the saucepan and start whisking. This is the long, slow, wish-it-would-hurry-up-because-you-want-to-taste part. Just keep whisking. Your curd will get foamy and then change colors. The bubbles will start getting stuck in the curd. Keep whisking. You want a trail to follow your whisk through the curd.
Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the butter.
Press your curd through a strainer to catch the zest and seeds.
Transfer to a bowl for the fridge and press plastic wrap into the top of the curd to keep it from forming a skin.
After a few hours you can put it into a jar. It should keep for about a month in the fridge, and the National Center for Home Preserving says you should be able to freeze it for up to a year.

Notes

According to the Sugarbaby cookbook, If you want to use the curd as a tart filling, reserve 2 T of the juice and add 1 teaspoon of gelatine. Add this mixture to the curd after you remove it from the heat and before you add the butter.

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