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

Socca Gluten Free Chickpea Crepe

Socca with sage brown butter

Socca Gluten Free Chickpea CrepeThis is winning. Crunchy & creamy. Smoky & herby. A giant plate of yum. And it is fairly healthy, naturally gluten free and French. Maybe it is good because it is French (call it Farinata or Popodum and it just isn’t going to be as delicious). And, it is healthy. The whole recipe has about 1200 calories (until you add the butter) and makes about 6 servings.

Somehow when I was in Nice I didn’t eat this. I didn’t learn what this was until last summer and I didn’t make it for the first time until February. And then I let the chickpea flour hide in the back of my cabinet until I found it during my spring cleaning.

Socca cut in squaresNow, I know some purists will tell you to eat it plain. And that is all fair and good. The flavor of the chickpeas stands out. Have a glass of white wine and munch on this on your porch while chatting away with an old friend. The next time you make it, have it for dinner with sage brown butter. Or hummus. Or feta and roasted peppers. If you can’t have beans (I’m looking at you, Dad), make it with quinoa or millet flour. Maybe even buckwheat. Skillet crepes. From the oven. Smoky. Crispy. Simple.

Oh, and make sure you use the French name, Socca. You will sound sophisticated that way.

Socca with sage brown butter
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Recipe Type: Side
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Total time: 45 mins
Serves: 6
This is a traditional Provencal (or Italian) dish. This is the result of experimenting with various methods and seasoning. I took a cue from David Lebovitz and added cumin.
Ingredients
  • 250g (2 cups) Chickpea (garbanzo/gram/besan) flour.
  • 2 – 2 1/2 cups water
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon + 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • Sea salt for topping
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
Instructions
  1. Whisk together chickpea flour, 2 cups of water, salt, cumin and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil until smooth. If the batter is too thick, add more water.
  2. Heat oven to 500 degrees farenheit with rack as high as it will go.
  3. Put 1 tablespoon olive oil in a seasoned cast iron skillet and heat in the oven for 5 minutes.
  4. Once skillet is hot, remove it from the oven and pour in about 1 cup of the batter.
  5. Put it in the oven and turn the temperature to broil (high broil if your oven has it). After about 5 minutes, the socca will be dry around the edges and will have started to blister and get dark in places. Remove it from the oven, it should come right out. If it still stuck, give it a few more minutes.
  6. Repeat this step until each socca is cooked. Sprinkle cooked socca with sea salt.
  7. Once socca are cooked, melt butter in a heavy bottomed skillet. Add sage once melted. Cook until the butter is turning brown and smells fragrant and nutty.
  8. Drizzle over socca when served.
Notes

Your batter should be pretty thin, if it is too thick, add more water. You want it to be about the consistency of crepe batter, maybe a little thinner.

Be creative here, the gluten isn’t what holds these together, so any strongly flavored, whole grain flour should work. Also, you can add herbs directly to the batter if you would like.

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Moo Juice & Pancakes

me & my dadI love my Dad. You might know that my dad makes a mean loaf of gluten free bread. And, maybe some day, I will share his popcorn bread recipe with you. Maybe. But for now, a few things that make my dad awesome.

  1. My dad is the pancake master. He is the earl of oatmeal. Maybe he is just the breakfast king. Dad would make oatmeal when it was cold. I would add brown sugar, raisins and milk. I grew up eating pancakes on Saturday mornings. It was the 80s and the 90s, we didn’t know we had gluten & wheat problems then. Somedays, there would be bananas or blueberries in the pancakes. Some times they would just be smothered with some cherries in syrup. Some times (my favorite times), they were shaped like Mickey Mouse. Dad had mad pancake skills. Whenever friends spent the night, Dad would be up early making pancakes for the riffraff. And not just any pancakes, he used his mom’s recipe. It is still tucked in her recipe box in the kitchen.
  2. Moo Juice. I hate milk. I disliked it as a child, to the point where my parent’s had to give it a new name so that I would drink it. Dad called it moo juice, a ruse that worked until I was old enough to know better.
  3. Boats. I am certain that other people might have had meatloaf baked in loaves of bread when they were growing up. But I am also certain that those people did not have sail boats. I did. Dad made sails out of half slices of American cheese on tooth picks and stuck them in our boats.

So, basically, my dad is awesome. Now, go make some pancakes with your dad (or kids). Add food coloring if the occasion calls for it (St. Patrick’s day or a birthday – Dad, if you are reading this, I want purple pancakes for my birthday next year). Add fruit if you have it. Or chocolate chips. But don’t use that syrup that comes in a bottle shaped like a woman. Get the real stuff. And enjoy your morning.

pancakes

Basic Pancakes
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Recipe Type: Breakfast
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Serves: 4
This recipe is adapted from the Fanny Farmer cookbook and is a staple in our kitchen.
Ingredients
  • 3/4 – 1 cup milk
  • 2 Tblsp. melted butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup (120 g) GF flour blend – any AP blend will work, or use 40 g Brown Rice flour, 40 g Sorghum flour and 40g Sweet Rice flour
  • 1 t xantham gum or flax (omit if using Jules’ Nearly Normal Flour)
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 Tblsp. sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
  1. In large bowl, whisk together wet ingredients.
  2. In a seperate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.
  3. Add dry ingredients, to wet ingredients and mix well.
  4. Pour in a skillet or on a griddle that has been pre-heated.
  5. Once the bubbles start to look slightly cooked, flip the pancake.
Notes

My dad always adds a bit of cinamon or vanilla.
If you want to add fruit (or chocolate chips), sprinkle it on the pancakes right after you pour the batter.

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Stove top mozzarella mac

This is not my best photo. I was in a hurry. I was hungry.

That said, I found myself in a bit of a pickle. In fact, it was worse of a pickle than normal. I had a fridge full of nothing to eat and a dad who had driven me from Chicago to Champaign for the bajillionth time this year and he was in the garden pulling weeds (and scolding me for planting cilantro where he told me he had planted the beans, oops).  I had to make dinner. I couldn’t let my dad go hungry.

My fridge had: caramel sauce, 3 bottles of beer, mustard, jelly, half a bag of shredded mozzarella, eggs, milk, yogurt and cilantro. This is not the stuff of great recipes. It is the stuff of a single girl who had not been home all weekend. I couldn’t let my dad go hungry. I found myself wishing that I had cheddar cheese and evaporated milk to make Alton Brown’s stove-top mac and cheese. I couldn’t get mac and cheese out of my head, no matter how many things I pulled out of the cabinets, nothing else sounded good. Or wouldn’t kill my dad.

So, out of desperation was born a new favorite around here.

Stove-top Mozzarella Mac
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Recipe Type: Entree
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 25 mins
Serves: 4
Inspired by/ adapted from Alton Brown’s Stove-top mac & cheese.
Ingredients
  • 8 ounces gluten free pasta
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
  • 1/8 cup whole milk
  • 2 T butter
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella
  • 1 can fire-roasted tomatoes, drained
  • 1 1/2 t granulated garlic
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Fresh basil (optional)
Instructions
  1. Boil pasta & drain. Return to pot.
  2. Whisk together egg, milk, yogurt & granulated garlic.
  3. Put pot on low burner and add the butter. Stir until butter is melted.
  4. Stir in egg mixture & shredded cheese until a uniform sauce is made. It will be stringy & thick.
  5. Stir in tomatoes & season with salt and pepper to taste.
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Strawberry Chocolate Brownies

Strawberry Brownies

Strawberry Chocolate BrowniesI have been dreaming of this recipe all day. My birthday was Sunday and 2 coworkers had birthdays (and days off) today. And I promised a treat.  This morning, I had a thought: chocolate and strawberries. Ooey, gooey, melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness. These are some darn good brownies. The are one bite and you are sold on being my friend forever in hopes of getting these brownies again good.

I found out that brownies were invented in Chicago in 1893 for the Columbian Exposition. They had apricot glaze and walnuts. The grocery store had strawberries on sale. Strawberries + chocolate = bliss. (You think I like those together?)

I couldn’t just chop up strawberries and toss them in my mom’s brownie recipe. She would probably be pretty mad at me if she knew that I even had that thought. Her recipe is top secret, and I like to share.

I had to come up with something different. I had to come up with something better. Sorry mom. I win this one.

Let this be the end to brownies from a box. The strawberry jam that you make melts into the chocolate and creates an intense chocolate and strawberry flavor. It is like warm, baked fudge. You can’t get this kind of flavor from a box. I know gluten free baking is scary, but you can do it. And, brownies are forgiving – chocolate, butter and sugar make anything delicious.

Strawberry Brownies
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Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Total time: 1 hour 10 mins
Serves: 16
This brownie recipe is based on a recipe that appeared in Baked Explorations for Salted Caramel Brownies, but these are gluten free and strawberry filled. And thus, they are better.
Ingredients
  • 250 grams (1 quart) strawberries, finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup strawberry liquor (or 1 t vanilla plus a scant 1/4 cup water)
  • 100 grams (1/2 cup) sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 310 grams (11 ounces) dark chocolate, chopped
  • 230 grams (8 ounces/ 2 sticks) butter, chopped in 1 inch cubes
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 10 grams ground flax meal
  • 40 grams sorghum flour
  • 20 grams brown rice flour
  • 20 grams white rice flour
  • 30 grams tapioca starch
  • 30 grams sweet white rice flour
  • 10 grams (2 tablespoons) cocoa powder
  • 300 grams (1 1/2 cups) granulated sugar
  • 110 grams (1/2 cup) firmly packed brown sugar
  • 5 eggs
Instructions
  1. Combine strawberries, sugar, water & strawberry liquor in a medium size sauce pan. Heat over meadium – high heat, stirring frequently until the jam starts to thicken, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9×13 pan with parchment paper, and then grease the parchment paper. On a low burner, melt together chocolate & butter. While chocolate is melting, whisk together flours, cocoa and salt.
  3. Once chocolate & butter have melted, turn off the burner but leave the pot in place. Stir in both the granulated sugar and the brown sugar. Remove pot from burner and stir in 3 eggs. DO NOT BEAT. Once eggs are combined, add in remaining eggs, stirring until just combined. Sprinkle flour over the bowl and stir in slowly. Make sure most lumps are out – but it is ok if there are still a few, they should disappear when baking.
  4. Pour half of batter into prepared pan & smooth with a spatula. Spread in the warm jam, being careful to keep it away from the edges so that it does not burn. Pour the remaining batter on top to cover the jam.
  5. Bake for 35 minutes.
Notes

If you prefer to bake by volume, use 1 1/4 cups all-purpose gluten free flour (such as Jules Nearly Normal Flour).

If you don’t want to make your own strawberry jam, warm up 1 cup of good quality strawberry jam or jelly so that it has the consistency of thick syrup after the batter is ready.

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Artisan French loaf from GF Boulangerie

Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger : Bread

Artisan French loaf from GF BoulangerieArtisan bread is one of the things I miss most of all. In fact, I find gluten free bread to taste so terrible, that I hardly ever eat it (although my dad’s English Muffin Bread is quite alright). I think it tastes funny. I am not sure how to say it, but it just tastes off. The texture is dense and chewy. The bread frequently only tastes good warm. And, for the most part, I am really OK with not eating it.

But, I really do miss biting into a slice of bread with the right mouthfeel. You know the one – the insides are tender and moist but there is air in there to lighten things up. The outside is crusty and takes a good bite. I lost all those things when I lost wheat. And I stopped trying to find it.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that a twitter follower had a blog with the most amazing looking loaves of bread. I was hooked and had to bake one. I tried GF Boulangerie’s Artisan French Loaf. oh em gee. I made 2 loaves. I will be baking more. This girl is a gluten free bread savant. She explains why you do certain things, and how her bread differs from the gluten-y type.

Now, I couldn’t find expandex (which the recipe calls for) and my dad has a severe bean allergy, so I had to avoid the bean flour. But, since the recipe was by weight and not my volume, I used regular tapioca starch in place of the expandex and brown rice (because that is what was here) in place of the bean flour. If you need a guide, see my flour substitution chart.

I made this bread and thankfully made 2 batches at once. The first loaf was gone as soon as it was cool enough to eat. My parents (both gluten free) adored it. I couldn’t eat enough and it was 10pm. Now, go bake some bread and take back the dinner roll!

Mulberry tart

Mulberries

mulberry tree! This recipe tastes like childhood. It brings back the days of coming home when the sun went down and playing across every back yard on the block. It tastes like sitting on my dad’s shoulders and grabbing berries from trees as we walked to and from the ice cream shop or a movie. There were a couple of mulberry trees that every summer would be heavy from juicy, sweet berries. It was my favorite part of the walk. My hands would be stained purple from berries when they burst. My shoes would have gooey purple messes on the bottoms. It was summer. At it tasted good.

Imagine how excited I was to discover that there is a mulberry tree in my backyard. Right there, shading my tomato plants. A tree heavy with the flavor of childhood summers.

mulberries

I couldn’t pass it up. Plus, I recieved a tart pan (along with a dutch oven & a gym membership) from Blondie for my birthday. It was fate.

Now, mulberries have a tart & sour flavor if they are not yet ripe, and even at their juicy best, they are not as sweet as a black berry. But they are darn tasty. If you don’t have access to a mulberry tree in your back yard, front yard or down the street, you can always use raspberries, blackberries or strawberries.

Mulberry tart

The tart recipe has been de-glutened from a recipe and technique shared by David Lebovitz. Visit his site for more in-depth directions and photos of the process. There are no gums, just some flax, and you can use my substitution chart if you are working by weight and want to swap out some flours.

Vanilla Bean Tart with Mulberries
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Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 45 mins
Total time: 1 hour
Serves: 8-10
Thanks to an incredible method shared by David Lebovitz, the tart has an incredibly tender, melt-in-your-mouth crust
Ingredients

For the crust

  • 6 tablespoons (3oz/90 grams) unsalted butter, cubed
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 10 g ground flax seeds
  • 50 g sorghum flour
  • 30 grams brown rice flour
  • 30 grams white rice flour
  • 30 grams tapioca starch

For the pastry cream

  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup + 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 4 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
  • 2 T unsalted butter
  • 1 pint fresh berries, picked over with stems removed
Instructions
  1. For the crust: Preheat the oven to 410º. In a medium-sized ovenproof bowl, add the butter, oil, water, sugar, vanilla and salt. Place the bowl in your hot oven for 15 minutes. The butter should be bubbling and the mixture should be slightly brown around the edges. While it is baking, whisk together your flours. Carefully remove the bowl from the oven. (Don’t be like me and forget a pot holder, it will be HOT!) and dump in the flour and stir it in quickly, until it comes together and forms a ball which pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Put the dough in a 9in tart pan, and when it is cool enough to touch, press it into the tart pan with your hands, pinching dough up the edges. Prick the bottom with a fork and then bake for about 15 mins. The crust should be a light golden brown.
  2. For the pastry cream: While the crust is cooling whisk together cornstarch and 1/4 cup sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in 1/2 cup of the milk. Blend yolks into the mixture, stirring until smooth. Prepare an ice bath (a very large bowl filled with ice & water – it should be a bowl that the sauce pan you are using does not quite fit in). Combine remaining milk (1 1/2 cups), salt and sugar (1/2 cup) in a medium sized sauce pan (non-reactive is ideal). Bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring constantly. Temper the egg mixture with about 1/3 of the hot milk (you have to whisk constantly – you do not want to cook the eggs unevenly) Add egg mixture to remaining milk mixture and return the pan to the heat. Continue to cook over medium heat, vigorously stirring with a whisk until the mixture boils and a trail forms after the whisk, about 5-7 minutes. Transfer pan to the ice bath and stir occasionally until the pastry cream is cool.
  3. Assemble the tart: Pour pastry cream (or vanilla pudding) into the crust and top with your fresh berries and enjoy the taste of summer.
Notes

If making pastry cream is too fussy, you could try a vanilla pudding.

If you wish to see the original crust recipe, visit David Lebovitz’s site.

Want to make the crust by volume? Use 1 slightly rounded cup of gluten free all purpose flour (I like Jules’ Nearly Normal Flour), if you use a flour without xantham gum or flax, add 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum.

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gluten free pretzels

Bavarian Breakfast

gluten free pretzelsThe first person to tell me that beer is not a breakfast food, needs to go to Munich in September and experience Oktoberfest. You will then know that, at times, beer is perfecctly acceptable, and possibly even necessary for breakfast.

This story begins with a trip to the University of Illinois’ Meat Sales Room. There was a large sign on the door advertising frankfurters and weiswurst. I had never eaten weiswurst, but they were loading up the cases with some of it, so of course, I had to try it. (Weis in weiswurst is for the color white, not the same as the weiss in weissbier which is wheat). The ingredients made it sound delicious, so of course I had to buy it. So, $3.50 later, I had a new kind of sausage to try. After some googling, I found out that you eat it for breakfast with a soft pretzel, mustard and beer. Blondie was coming to town for the weekend, so I knew what I had to do.

St Peter's Gluten Free Beer Review - pictured with pretzels & mustardI was prepared with a recipe for gluten-free soft pretzels from Gluten-Free Girl & the Chef, I had mustard that my mom had made in my fridge begging to be served with some sausage and I had one wheat beer from the last time Blondie & I did a pick a six at Friar Tucks. We went to go get a gluten free beer for me to have with our breakfast, and while looking for cider (what I normally pick over beer because of the awful flavor of some of the easiest to find gluten-free varieties), I found this ridiculously expensive sorghum beer ($4.99 for a pint). But, I had to try it because it came in such a fantastic bottle, and I wanted the bottle to be a little vase.

Turns out that the bottle is based on ones from the 1770s. This beer is imported from the UK, so it is only available at specialty liquor stores (and not your typical grocery store).

Sunday morning rolled around and we had home-made mustard, our pretzels and our beers. The beer was probably one of the most delicious ones I have tried since going gluten free. It was bright and hoppy. It had a great mouth feel and even Blondie wanted some of mine. I didn’t want to share. It is amazingly better than that mass-produced beer from St. Louis. And totally worth a treat. If you like a good beer, this one is labeled as a pilsner style sorghum beer and is worth every delicious penny.

gluten free birthday cake

Classic Birthday Cake

gluten free birthday cakeI spent the afternoon baking today. I made 2 loaves of bread and a birthday cake for my little sister. I made yellow cake from a closely guarded secret family recipe (it is at the end of this post). I have made this cake before with lots of success. It is everything a yellow cake should be – rich and moist with a delicate crumb.

I tried it with a new AP flour blend that my parents had at their house, where I was this weekend for a wedding, my sister’s birthday and a trip to the annual Wilton tent sale. This blend is not one I will buy or use again, because it does not actually work cup for cup. And I know that for most people, a cup for cup blend is the least scary approach to baking. So, here is a recipe that my family has been making for quite a while, copied from the sheet where my mom has it written down.

At least now that it is frosted it looks good. And, the frosting makes it super delicious. (Ok, so I eat cake for the frosting).

Yellow Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting
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Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 55 mins
Serves: 12
A classic yellow cake with delicious chocolate frosting.
Ingredients
  • 3 cups Gluten-Free Multi-Purpose Flour or 13 1/2 ounces of your own blend
  • 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if using Jules’ Nearly Normal Flour)
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 cup room-temperature milk
  • 1 3/4 cups unsweetened natural cocoa
  • 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, very soft
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or use chocolate extract if you have it)
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 2 8″ round cake pans.
  2. Whisk together the flour or flour blend and xanthan gum.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat together the sugar, soft butter, salt, baking powder, and vanilla until smooth. Add 2 eggs, and beat for about a minute at a high speed, until fluffy.
  4. Scrape the bowl and beat in the other 2 eggs.
  5. Beat in the milk and flour alternately (adding about a third of each at a time).
  6. Separate the batter evenly between the pans. Bake for about 25 minutes. A cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  7. Remove from the oven, and cool for 5 to 10 minutes before turning out of the pan to cool on a rack.
  8. Once the cake is cool, you can make the frosting.
  9. Sift together the 1 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar with the cocoa.
  10. Bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. Stirring constantly so the milk does not scald. Whisk this into the powdered sugar mixture. Let cool to room temperature, about 20 mins.
  11. Beat soft butter, vanilla extract and salt until creamy. Add the 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and mix slowly until incorporated. With mixer on low, add the chocolate mixture a spoonful at a time.
  12. If the frosting is too loose, add up to an additional half cup of powdered sugar.
  13. Frost the cake and enjoy.
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gluten free frybread on a plate

Frybread and local sausage

gluten free frybread on a plateThis is one of those times where I make something that I had never eaten a glutinous version of and hope to goodness that it still tastes yummy. I saw a similar recipe on Jamie Oliver’s website and thought that it looked delicious. I made fry bread. And it was good. Not as good cold and left over as it was fresh out of the frying pan. But it was still delicious. It has a smorgasboard of flours. Mainly, because that is what is in my kitchen. 15 kinds of flours and about a half cup of an all purpose blend.

I also needed something to eat with the andouille sausage that I picked up at the University of Illinois’ Meat Sales Room. If you are ever in Champaign on a Tuesday/Thursday afternoon or a Friday morning, I highly reccomend you go grab yourself a bit of what ever it is that they have fresh that day. If you live near a university with an agriculture school, you might be lucky enough to have something like this too. The sausage got rave reviews at our memorial day cookout, and sliced it complimented this fry bread well.

Now, go make this super easy bread to accompany whatever it is that you are eating tonight.

Frybread
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Recipe Type: Entree
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
A whole grain frybread that has a smoky flavor, even if you make it in a skillet.
Ingredients
  • 5 oz ground flax seeds
  • 3 oz sorghum flour
  • 3 oz brown rice flour
  • 2 oz buckwheat flour
  • 1 oz sweet white rice (glutinous rice) flour
  • 5 oz corn starch
  • 5 oz tapioca starch
  • 1 T baking powder
  • 1 T coriander (optional)
  • 1 t cumin (optional)
  • 1 t salt
  • 1 teaspoon honey (optional)
  • 1 cup water (you may not need it all, or you may need more – this is just how much I used)
Instructions
  1. Whisk dry ingredients together to create a uniform powder.
  2. Add the honey, if usuing. Mix in water 1/4 cup at a time just until you have a dough that is similar to a sticky play dough. Knead it to make sure that it is well combined. Let rest so that the water is absorbed by all the grains for about 10 minutes.
  3. Divide the dough into six balls and press into pancake shapes between your palms. They should be 1/4 inch thick.
  4. Cook in a hot skillet that has been lightly oiled, or cook on a grill for about 3 minutes per side.
  5. Keep warm until all are cooked and enjoy promptly.
Notes

Do not substitute the flax, it is the binding agent. It is also very good for you.

If you need to bake by volume, use 2 cups of an all purpose or whole grain flour blend. The absorption rate may differ, so you may require more or less water than I needed.

I served mine with grilled andouille, a yogurt sauce, lentils and feta, but any spicy topping will be delicious.

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Chai Cream Puffs

Ratio Rally: Pâte à Choux

cream puuffsgluten free ratio rally logoI am a joiner. And this time it was for something really great – the blogging event started by Shauna at GlutenFreeGirl – the Gluten Free Ratio Rally. It is all about the relationship between the ingredients. It gives you freedom to just cook. And bake. We start with a ratio for a well known (& loved) product and go from there.

This month’s rally was Pâte à Choux. A perfect opportunity to indulge in French pastry. I adore french pastries. (Okay, I adore all pastries). This particular technique for pastry dough has many applications – from sweet to savory, I had to stop myself from cooking myself into a sugar coma. After reading up on the dough, I found out that there are so many different things that you can make with this dough. There were the usual: eclairs, gougeres and profiteroles (cream puffs), the extravagant: croquembouche (a large number or profiteroles) and St. Honoré Cake, the surprising: churros and the one I had never heard of and absolutely had to make and make my own: Marillenknödel.

Chai Cream Puffs

I needed to start with the basic Pâte à Choux. The ratio here is 2:1:1:2. 8 ounces liquid, 4 ounces fat, 4 ounces flour, 4 eggs (8 ounces). Simple math and stunning results.  Getting this dough right, once you understand what is happening, is simple (although easy to mess up). This recipe works in traditional baking, not because of gluten, but because of the starches and the eggs. Like all baking (especially pastries) it is important that you pay close attention to what you are doing. There are a very specific chain of chemical reactions taking place.

This mix works because there is a good mix of starches & whole grains. If you need to know what flours to swap for (the brown rice & sorghum are whole grains, the sweet white rice and tapioca are starches), you can reference this chart. Only replace starches with starch and grains with grains for predictable results.

If you want to read about my foray into German apricot dumplings, read part 2 of this post.

A special thanks to Erin at the Sensitive Epicure for hosting this month’s event!

And here is a list of this month’s participants:

[box type=”info”]If you have never baked by weight, I encourage you to try it. Scales can be obtained relatively inexpensively and help you to achieve consistent results in your baking. [/box]

Gluten Free Pate a Choux with Chai Pastry Cream
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Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
Prep time: 60 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Total time: 1 hour 40 mins
Serves: 24
Cream Puffs with a spicy twist
Ingredients
  • 8 oz (by weight) whole milk (a scant cup)
  • 4 oz (1 stick) butter
  • 1.2 oz sorghum flour
  • 1.2 oz brown rice flour
  • 8 oz tapioca flour
  • 8 oz sweet rice flour
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/4 teaspoon xantham gum
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup + 1/2 cup sugar
  • 21/4 cups milk
  • 2 T loose chai tea
  • 4 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 T unsalted butter
Instructions
  1. Make the choux: Whisk flours, cardamom & xantham gum together. Boil milk, butter & salt. Reduce heat to medium and add the flour all at once. Stir until ingredients start to pull away from the sides of the pot. Remove from heat & put in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each one before adding the next one. Chill the dough covered for at least half an hour.
  2. Make the chai milk: Simmer the milk and chai over medium-low heat for 20 mins, stirring occasionally. Strain milk into measuring cup, discarding any extra.
  3. Make your puffs: Preheat oven to 425 degrees.Spoon small mounds of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 20 mins and then reduce temperature and bake for another 20 mins. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 mins. Poke a hole in the bottom (with a skewer and transfer to a cooling rack.
  4. Prepare the pastry cream. While the puffs are cooling. whisk together cornstarch and 1/4 cup sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in 1/2 cup of the milk. Blend yolks into the mixture, stirring until smooth. Prepare an ice bath (a very large bowl filled with ice & water – it should be a bowl that the sauce pan you are using does not quite fit in). Combine remaining milk (1 1/2 cups), salt and sugar (1/2 cup) in a medium sized sauce pan (non-reactive is ideal). Bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring constantly. Temper the egg mixture with about 1/3 of the hot milk (you have to whisk constantly – you do not want to cook the eggs unevenly) Add egg mixture to remaining milk mixture and return the pan to the heat. Continue to cook over medium heat, vigorously stirring with a whisk until the mixture boils and a trail forms after the whisk, about 5-7 minutes. Transfer pan to the ice bath and stir occasionally until the pastry cream is cool.
  5. Assemble the puffs. Once everything is cool, slice the top third off of your puffs and pipe in the pastry cream. Melt white chocolate in the microwave on medium power, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. Replace tops and drizzle with white chocolate. Share.
Notes

To cook by volume: use 1 cup of sifted flour. No tapping of the measuring cup. You want 4 ounces of flour, which is the average weight of a cup of cake flour. You want 7/8 cups of whole milk.

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