Sweet Success

Following on the heels of two gluten-free baking successes, I modified yet another Bob’s Red Mill recipe, this one they credit as coming from Cooking Light Magazine.

Pineapple Carrot Bars

1/3 c. honey
1/4 c. canola oil
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. xanthan gum
2/3 c. rice flour
1/3 c. arrowroot powder
2 t. cream of tartar
1 1/2 t. baking soda
3/4 t. sea salt
1 t. cinnamon
1 c. finely shredded carrot
1/2 c. raisins (sulfite free)
3 Tbsp. rice milk
8 oz crushed pineapple in natural juice, drained

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease or spray a 9″ x 13″ pan; set aside.

Combine honey, oil, and vanilla; stir well. Combine gum, flours, cream of tartar, soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir into honey mixture; mix well. Add carrots, raisins, rice milk, and pineapple; stir well.

Spread into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or until golden. Let cool.

Makes 24 bars.

They have a soft, cake like texture and are decent enough. The Husband thought it was edible, too! I’m beginning to get a feel for this gluten free baking and may branch out into creating my own recipes soon, but now I need to bake a few regular things for an upcoming student lunch.

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.