Maybe Not-So-Clueless in the Kitchen

Another gluten-free baking success story! Yay! I may not be quite ready to create my own recipes from scratch, but I can at least follow, or almost follow, a published recipe with minor modifications. It’s progress, anyway.

This is another recipe from Bob’s Red Mill. I made a few changes to this scone recipe.

Raisin Scones (adapted from a recipe by Carol Fenster, Ph.D.)

1 1/4 c. gluten free sweet white sorghum flour
1/2 c. arrowroot powder
1 1/2 t. cream of tartar
3/4 t. baking soda
1 t. xanthan gum
1/4 t. sea salt
1/4 t. nutmeg
4 Tbsp. 100% canoleo margarine
1/4 c. honey + rice milk to bring liquid volume a little more than 1/2 c. (but less than 2/3 c.)
1 large egg
1/3 – 1/2 c. raisins, sulfite free
1 Tbsp. rice milk

Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease or spray baking sheet; set aside.

Combine flours, cream of tartar, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, and nutmeg. Cut in cold margarine to resemble coarse meal.

Combine honey, rice milk, and egg. Add wet ingredients to the dry and stir until moistened. Fold in raisins.

Pat dough into an 8″ circle on prepared baking sheet. Cut into 6-8 wedges but do not separate. Brush top with rice milk.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

I tasted one and I thought it was reasonably good.  Not as good as one made with wheat, sugar, butter, and cream . . . but not like cardboard, either.  And no allergic reaction!

Stirred, Not Shaken

Success at last! Or at least, I hope it is, since I didn’t do a taste test. Here is a recipe I borrowed from Bob’s Red Mill and further adapted to suit Mrs. V’s specific allergen list. It looks and smells like a blueberry muffin. Let’s hope it tastes like one too!

Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins (adapted from Sue’s Rice Muffins)

1 egg
2-3 Tbsp. honey + rice milk to make 1/2 c. liquid
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 c. white rice flour
1 1/2 t. cream of tartar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. sea salt
1 t. grated lemon peel (I thought of this addition after they were already in the oven but I think it would make them even tastier)
2 Tbsp. finely chopped walnuts
1/3 c. frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 425 F. Lightly grease a 6-cup muffin tin; set aside.

Stir together all ingredients until moistened. Divide among the muffin cups.

Bake for 17-20 minutes. Allow muffins to cool for 5-8 minutes before removing from tin.

The original recipe calls for placing the ingredients in a quart jar to mix. James Bond may like his martini’s shaken, not stirred, but I find it easier to stir my muffins in a bowl. Besides, this actually came out fairly thick, not runny, so I think mixing in a jar would be a pain.

Ironic

I’ve never had any food allergies. Sure, I’m lactose intolerant, but that’s not a food allergy. It just means my body doesn’t have the lactase enzyme to munch up the lactose sugar that is found in milk. I can have a Lactaid pill and consume most dairy products painlessly. For the first 30 years of my life, however, I didn’t use Lactaid so simply avoided dairy. It has made me sympathetic to those with food allergies.

I’ve mentioned that I have been baking for the upcoming ladies’ retreat for our church. I’m the cook for the two ladies with food allergies. I’ve cooked for them before, and generally it hasn’t been too difficult. On Saturday, Mrs. V. mentioned that she would like to figure out how to make a cereal bar similar to one she purchased at $1/bar. I thought that would be something nice to make for the retreat since everyone else gets some sort of snackages.

Off I went in search of the few flours she can have . . . amaranth, millet, rice. But these gluten-free flours need a little help in baking so I picked up some xanthan gum too. Couldn’t find the arrowroot powder. (This would be crucial later). I bought some walnuts, the only nuts she can have. What you might not realize, if you aren’t accustomed to baking gluten-free foods, is these weird, different grains and xanthan gum are actually laced with gold dust. At least, that was my understanding as I walked out with a couple of puny bags for about 1/4 of my usual weekly grocery expenses. The reason all those people who shop at Strawberry Fields and in the Natural Food section of the Round Barn IGA are thin isn’t because they ride their bikes and eat beans and soy . . . it’s because they can’t afford to eat more than they do!

I read the ingredient list of the bars she could eat and it seemed like it could be divided into ‘sweet sticky’ and ‘grain’ ingredients. So I went home and mixed together some stuff. I used maple syrup and applesauce for sweet/sticky and flavor and then added in white rice flour, amaranth (let me just interject an ‘ugh’ here — that stuff just stinks. It reminded me of the smell of corn silk that is left to sit and ferment for a couple of days.), ground flax, and some puffed millet that I was hoping I could munch with my rolling pin but I couldn’t so it went in like mini-styrofoam packaging puffs, xanthan gum, and some chopped figs.

I may not have baked it quite long enough but, nonetheless, it came out sticky and gummy. But worse, much worse, when I taste tested one (blech!) my hands swelled up. And a few minutes later when I took a sip of water, my lips and tongue felt swollen and numb. My favorite food scientist and resident allergy expert, Crystal, said, yep. Allergic reaction to either amaranth or millet, since I’ve had the others before. Ironic. Not necessarily funny.

Crystal came and inspected my failure and suggested arrowroot powder to give the funky gluten-free grains some lift, a little less xanthan gum maybe, less applesauce. I told her that I know what to do with flour, sugar, and eggs but this gluten-free stuff makes me feel like I need to start a new blog series . . . ‘Clueless in the Kitchen’. I think that’s her new nickname for me!

And, no, these photos have nothing to do with the recipe failure.

A Taste of Fall

I’m going to begin this post with a disclaimer. ** When I say a recipe is ‘allergy friendly’, I mean specifically for the intended recipient, not for any and all possible allergies. I made this for someone who can’t have cane sugar, wheat or most grains other than rice, dairy, berries, etc. But she *can* eat eggs. If you can’t eat eggs, don’t make this recipe. **

The good news is that Mr. V. found a job that he is excited about. The bad news is that it’s in Texas, which is not very close to Illinois. So we found ourselves saying ‘goodbyes’ again. Bah. Still, I wanted to make something Mrs. V. could eat at the farewell party, so I came up with pumpkin custard. You could call it ‘crustless pumpkin pie’ for those who don’t like crusts.

Non-dairy Pumpkin Custard

29 oz. can pumpkin
1 c. rice milk
1/4 c. agave syrup (it was all I had left)
1 c. honey
6 egg yolks
cinnamon
nutmeg
cloves

In a medium saucepan, heat pumpkin, rice milk, and sweetening, stirring frequently, until hot and bubbly.

Whisk egg yolks together until thick and creamy. Stir about 1/2 c. of the hot pumpkin mixture into the egg yolks.

Stir egg mixture into the pan of hot pumpkin and season to taste. Continue to cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened. Serve warm or cold.

If I would have had some on hand, I would have used maple syrup for the sweetening.

When Determination Pays Off

In the search for a birthday cake recipe that involved no wheat, no egg, and no dairy, I found a recipe for ‘rich chocolate cake’ that sounded interesting so I made it with the whole grain spelt and barley flours I had on hand. It had very good flavor but it was *crumbly*.

I decided I wanted to revisit that recipe again once I had either some Ener G egg replacer or some xanthan gum. Once I experienced the failure of the spice cake recipe, I became determined to give the chocolate cake another try.

I may not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but I do occasionally learn a lesson here and there and vowed to take preventive measures and line my pans for the making of the chocolate cake. I’m forever forgetting to do that! While I think that would have helped substantially with the spice cake, I’m not convinced it would have totally solved the problem since I had to run a knife around the edge of the pan and still had places where it tore. The chocolate cake recipe called for making it in a springform pan but, with the uncertain nature of these vegan cakes, I opted to make separate layers in two cake tins rather than try to slice one layer in half.

I was extremely pleased with the results of this cake. In fact, I would make this recipe again even if I weren’t trying to bake a cake without eggs. It is far superior to the Wacky Cake recipe and it tastes and has a mouth feel much like a good chocolate cake with plenty of eggs and sugar. I had never baked with xanthan gum before so I wasn’t sure how much to add. A quick google search showed recipes with amounts ranging from 1/2 to 1 1/2 teaspoons and, based on the texture of the first cake and my fear of the xanthan gum living up to its name and producing a gummy cake, I opted for 1/2 teaspoon. I don’t think I would add any more.

Since much of this birthday cake experience was about layers and Crystal had mentioned cherry and orange layers and I had already used cherry in the trifle, I opted for an orange flavoring in the frosting as well as a thin spreading of orange marmalade between the layers. The marmalade wasn’t very strong with the richness of the cake, but it gave a nice flavor. I briefly thought about pouring a little Cointreau on the cake to kick up the orange a notch but decided against it.

Allergy & Vegan Friendly Rich Chocolate Cake

1 3/4 c. white spelt flour (you could use regular flour if you weren’t avoiding wheat)
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. xanthan gum

1 c. plain soy milk
3/4 c. cocoa powder

1/2 c. canola oil
1 1/2 c. pure maple syrup
1 t. apple cider vinegar
2 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 9-inch springform pan or lightly grease and flour two 8-inch tins.

Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum in a large bowl; set aside.

In a saucepan, heat the soy milk over medium low heat. When it is slightly bubbling, add the cocoa powder and whisk well until it is smooth. Remove from heat.

Combine the other liquid ingredients in a bowl and whisk well. Add the cocoa mixture and combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir.

Pour batter into prepared pan(s) and bake for 25 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

For frosting, I used a vegan margarine, rice milk, confectioner’s sugar, and orange extract.