I eat real food. I swear. It isn’t all butter and sugar and gluten-free flours over here.
Some times there is soup that will make your heart sing.
I eat real food. I swear. It isn’t all butter and sugar and gluten-free flours over here.
Some times there is soup that will make your heart sing.
Sometimes I need to hit the pause button on my life and remind myself what is that is important. To take the time to enjoy the time I have with those I love.
My life is a little hectic since I moved back to Chicago. I met Rick Bayless at a crazy awesome fundraiser for the French Pastry School’s scholarship fund. I got press credentials for the International Home & Housewares Show. I went to the Joy the Baker book signing. Busy busy. Read more
I might have a thing for doughnuts. I made 3 kinds of baked doughnuts earlier this summer with grown up flavors like honey lavender and ginger brown butter. (I might have also shown you that I have a ridiculous sweet tooth with those powdered sugar doughnuts).
When we were kids, doughnuts were a special tradition. On the morning of my first day of first grade, the ceiling collapsed in the kitchen. The fan was still spinning while it was sitting on the kitchen table. My dad, the breakfast superhero, couldn’t cook. So, he did what any dad would do. He went out to get doughnuts and started a tradition that lasted until I went away to college.
My favorites? Chocolate snowballs (powdered sugar-covered, chocolate whipped cream filled), Boston Creme and strawberry. Oh and pumpkin or apple spice doughnuts.
For this month’s Gluten Free Ratio Rally (in which we all create a recipe based on a ratio – you can learn more at Shauna’s introductory post), Meg thought we should all make doughnuts or fritters. The timing was perfect. School has just started; the air was cool this morning. And I had a whole bottle of canola oil.
My first two attempts at doughnuts were miserable failures. I tried one where you create a yeast sponge that you let sit overnight (hockey pucks) and another with the ratio that everyone else seemed to find workable (sand).
I sat down and did some math from recipes of chefs I admire (Jamie Oliver, Baked, Alton Brown, etc.). My ratio is radically different from the other ones that you will see. I used no eggs. I used a lower flour to liquid ratio. But I ended up with doughnuts that are like eating clouds. They were good plain (I had to taste to make sure), they were excellent with just the glaze (again, I had to taste them to verify) and they were pretty close to perfection once I filled them with cream and dipped them in the glaze again.
My ratio was 3:2:1:1. Flour:Liquid:Sugar:Fat. Pretty simple. You can scale this recipe down if it is just for 2 or scale it up to feed a small army.
If you are going to buy a flour blend, I made some of these with the Cup4Cup flour from Williams-Sonoma (that bag cost $20! You better believe I will be baking with it). You will have equally fantastic results with Jules’ Nearly Normal Flour. Want to blend your own? There is a break down in the recipe notes on how to do this.
Yeast doughnuts are not for the time-pressed, and I made these a little more complicated than just your basic doughnut. There is time involved (lots of waiting). You don’t have to fill yours, or cook raspberries to make a juice. (I also used the pulp to flavor my yogurt and cooked the leftover juice into a syrup for adding to bubbly water).
Think of the doughnut as a blank canvas with infinite possibilities. And then think of just how worth it a warm straight-from-the-fryer doughnut is. (KrispyKreme did not end up all over the country for nothing! Warm doughnuts are a superb treat).
Before the recipe magic, here are links to all the other participants in this month’s event, hosted by Meg at Gluten-Free Boulangerie
Charissa from Zest Bakery made Picarones (Sweet potato/pumpkin fritters)
Jenn from Jenn Cuisine made Mini raspberry doughnut cakes
Lisa from Gluten Free Canteen made Apple Butter Maple Syrup Donuts, GF
gretchen from kumquat made peach cider doughnuts
Brooke from B & the boy! made Apricot Fritters
Meg from Gluten-Free Boulangerie made Old-fashioned raised doughnuts & cake doughnuts
Rachel from The Crispy Cook made Chocolate Doughnuts with Chocolate Glaze
Caneel from Mama Me Gluten Free Thai Fried Bananas
Jean Layton made Cinnamon Apple FrittersOK
Silvana from Silvana’s Kitchen Vanilla-Glazed Chocolate Chip Doughnuts
Claire from Gluten Freedom made Chocolate Coconut or Cinnamon-Glazed Vanilla Cake Donuts
Jeanette from Jeanette’s Healthy Living made Pumpkin Spice Donuts
Shauna from Gluten-Free Girl & the Chef made Gluten-free yeast doughnuts
Caliegh from Gluten Free(k) made Beetroot Fritters
TR from Nobody Likes Crumbly Cookies made Sweet Pepper Fritters
Pete from No Gluten, No Problem made doughnut holes
Britt from GF in the City made fritters
Tara from A Baking Life made Gluten Free Brioche Doughnuts
Irvin from Eat the Love made Vanilla Doughnuts
Gluten Free Raspberries & Cream doughnuts |
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*If you are not using a pre-blended flour, you can either use [url href=”http://glutenfreegirl.com/gluten-free-holiday-baking-2010/”]Shauna’s All-Purpose Blend[/url] and add 2 teaspoons xantham gum. Whisk well before using.
Or you can make your own with 90 grams (3/4 cup) tapioca starch, 100 grams (1/2 cup) sweet white rice flour, 60 grams (1/2 cup) sorghum flour. Add 2 teaspoons xantham gum and whisk together well to ensure that the gum is spread throughout the flour.
**I made mine by cooking a half pint of raspberries in 2 cups of water with a half cup of sugar for about 30 minutes – you can use store bought or just use milk and vanilla extract
You are probably not going to be all that excited about today’s recipe. But you should be.
Pastry Cream is one of those things that you should know how to make. It can fill your cream puffs, it can be served as a vanilla pudding or make it the filling for a fruit tart.
It is also frequently made with all-purpose flour. This recipe isn’t.
I also like making it with So Delicious (a coconut milk). I don’t drink milk, so that is usually all I have in my fridge. So, this can be made dairy free. The only thing that it can’t be (as far as I know) is vegan.
This post is about doughnuts.Rich, chocolate doughnuts.
And maybe some bittersweet thoughts.
Nope, currently I don’t have any of those. Currently the only thoughts I am having are about how to keep the kitten from trying to sit on my chest while I sit and type this. And how to train him that feet are not toys. And that Cecilia is the boss.
Back to the doughnuts. These doughnuts might even make you feel sophisticated. Really, they just might. They are dairy & gluten free. And chocolate. Deliciously chocolate.
These are the last doughnuts that I am going to invent for a little while. Although, these have all been so delicious, I need an excuse to bake them all again. Quick, someone have a brunch party!
Gluten Free Chocolate Doughnuts with bittersweet glaze |
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I might have made a third type of doughnuts. How could I not? The mini doughnut pan that I got for my birthday is just so adorable. Blondie picked it out hoping he was going to get some doughnuts…too bad these will probably all be gone by noon.
I am going to have the basic recipe memorized by the time I finish that Next Food Network Star application (shouldn’t be too hard to make it…these doughnuts could take on Bobby Flay in a throwdown any day.)
These are not as inventive as the honey lavender doughnuts or the ginger brown butter ones, but they are darn tasty. And they melt in your mouth. Just like a doughnut should.
You know those little doughnuts that come all stacked up in a plastic bag at a gas station? These are better than that. But just as addictive. And they are gluten and dairy free.
Powdered Sugar Doughnuts |
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If you want to make these vegan, skip the egg and use a flax egg: 1 tablespoon ground flax and 3 tablespoons warm water stirred together until it is thick and gelatinous.
I used So Delicious Plain Yogurt, but you could use regular plain yogurt (not greek), if that is what you have.
You can swap the flours for 1 cup all puropse blend and 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum (or 1 cup Jules’ Nearly Normal Flour)
Apparently, today was National Chocolate Pudding day. I wish I had known before 4 o’clock today, or I would have invented the most amazing chocolate pudding that you had ever eaten. But, as is frequently the case, when I need it, I was out of milk, eggs and butter. But I could not let the day go with out celebration.
I remembered a post from Joy the Baker from earlier this week where she made a risotto rice pudding. The method was perfect for the ingredients that I had in my fridge after 4 days away. The risotto rice lets off a lot of starch, so there is no need for eggs or flour to make a creamy pudding. It is simple, easy and almost cathartic to make.
(After some googling, I found that chocolate rice pudding is a traditional French dessert, I no longer feel super creative).
Chocolate Rice Pudding |
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If you use regular milk (or an unsweetened variety of non-dairy milk), you will most likely need to add sugar. Between 1/8 & 1/4 cups should be plenty. Add this in at the end with the chocolate, vanilla and salt.