Last night I took an herbal cocktail/mocktail class with my friend Brittany from Eudemonia Herbs. The emphasis on seasonal libations that harness the bursting herbal energy of spring included a little cup of rose sugar for rimming the glass, and I swiped that as part of my goodie bag.
When I woke up this morning, the rain and wind called me to the kitchen. Did I combine the rose sugar from Eudemonia and the basic principles of spring Chinese medicine that my friend Martha at Full Moon Acupuncture is teaching in her seasonal Renewal to come up with a sharp, pungent, sweet, and soothing baked treat?
You bet your ass I did. And here it is.
Ginger Lime Scones With Rose Sugar
Ingredients 2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour (or regular AP flour, but don’t knead too much) ⅓ cup sugar 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon baking soda ¼ cup crystallized ginger, chopped Zest of two limes 8 tablespoons butter, very cold and cut into small cubes ½ cup sour cream or yogurt 1 egg Rose sugar for topping (see Notes)
Method: Preheat oven to 400⁰.
In a medium bowl (big enough to get your hands in), mix together flour, baking powder, salt, ginger, and lime zest. Add cubes of butter and rub flour into the butter until the mixture resembles cornmeal (this can also be done in a food processor in pulses).
In a small bowl, mix the sour cream and egg. Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients, pressing and stirring the sticky dough until it comes together.
Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead it slightly to bring it together. Shape the dough into a circle that is approximately 8” across. Cut into eight triangles and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet about one inch apart. If you want smaller scones, you can also cut the triangles in half; you can also shape the dough into a rectangle and use a circular cookie cutter. If you opt for the cookie cutter, use a metal one with a sharp edge (this allows the scones to rise).
Sprinkle each scone with rose sugar.
Bake scones for 17-20 minutes or until they are golden brown. Let cool slightly before serving.
I was about to let this blog go. Not the name, you understand – just the process of writing a blog every month.
But then…cake.
You should know that cake is the world’s perfect food, or at least in a three-way (tie) with watermelon and pizza.
I love it the best and the most and will eat it every day if I can. I believe in the power of cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Perhaps most importantly for the purposes of this missive, I enjoy baking cakes for people. I like to see their faces when they open the box, and the whites of their eyes when they take their first bite.
That last little bit is creepy, but I mean it in the nicest way possible.
Additionally, if I made all of the cake I want to make/eat, the fit of my clothing would become problematic.
So, hello, you. Let me bake a cake for you.
I have updated my “Let Me Bake For You” page to list the offerings that are available.
Since I want baking to continue to be enjoyable, I won’t accept more orders than I can make with love (seriously. I know that sounds hokey or saccharine or whatever, but I mean it). If you want a cake, stake your claim early in the month and slap your money on the barrelhead (or the Venmo or PayPal – the 21st-century barrelhead).
If you want to give a cake to a person, I suppose I could whip you up a gift certificate for that person. Get in touch.
And if you want something other than a cake, get in touch. I could maybe work something out for you.
Oh, and hey. Share this post with a friend, using the buttons. I am off the Facebook but still use Instagram.
You can also take pix of your cakes and post on Instagram with my inventive hashtag: #charmcityedibles. That would not suck.
In which I skip out on Instagram and Facebook for the month of March but still allow myself the internet.
Good morning. Indeed.
Yeah, I made gluten-free Pop-tarts today.
Two fillings – blackberry and chocolate – largely due to poor filling planning and my belief that they probably wouldn’t work so why bother making/procuring something special. #ohmeoflittlefaith
I used this recipe for gluten-free Pop-tarts, only with my gluten-free flour blend, and I frosted both flavors with a simple icing made with milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla bean paste. I also made them 3″ x 4″, because who eats a Pop-tart that is 2″ wide? #noone
I won’t say they were perfect, but they were pretty freaking delicious. Next time I will maybe chill the dough, but it’s not strictly necessary.
This blog is a public service post. I don’t normally do a straight up recipe post because there are way too many of those in the world, but this is different. This recipe for all-purpose, gluten-free flour does not really need gussying up with stories about life or meditations on how things oughta be. This post is brought to you by the utilitarian Getting Things Done Department with some help from Life Hacks University.
It has been two years since I first published my recipe for a cup-for-cup, gluten-free, all-purpose flour mix. This type of mix was a unicorn when I started. The existing gluten-free, all-purpose flour mixes I tried were okay but often used garbanzo bean flour, which imparts a distinct bean-y taste. No thank you.
Other mixes don’t use gums, which is fine for some folks. Some gluten-free people are sensitive to gums, and they cannot use them in any form. But xanthan gum is one of the things that gives gluten-free, all-purpose flour a bit of stretch that gluten would otherwise provide (which is why it works so well for baked goods).
The other issue with gluten-free, all-purpose flour blends in the store is that you must be independently wealthy to buy them. While some brands have come down in price significantly, you are still looking at $3+ a pound for most gluten-free, cup-for-cup, all-purpose flours.
So I solved all of these problems.
This recipe has a good ratio of protein to starch, which lends stability and lift, without using bean flours. The taste is neutral and thus works well for delicate pastry (like pie crust, which does better gluten-free anyway).
Although I can tell the difference when it is missing, the xanthan gum is negligible and can be eliminated from the mix, especially if you are using a recipe that calls for psyllium husk (a non-gum substitute that brings a bit of moisture to baked goods).
And finally, the price. Brown rice flour has been a bit challenging to find decently priced these days, but in general, the amounts below make a five-pound batch of flour for right around $10. I shop at the local Asian and Latino markets for flours (white rice and sweet rice in particular) and utilize the bulk section of my grocery store for the xanthan gum). Granted, that’s not the 50 cents a pound price of regular flour, but $2 a pound is pretty good, especially if you are one of the people who gluten will send to the hospital.
If you don’t feel like making this yourself, get in touch. I can make you a batch or two and send it your way or drop it off if you’re local. Otherwise, hit up Amazon for the ingredients you cannot find in your own town.
Gluten-Free, All-Purpose, Cup-For-Cup Flour
Side note: I have used slightly more or slightly less of each flour (like, 20 ounces of tapioca flour) with only a small noticeable difference, and probably only noticeable to me. Best proportions are below.
Ingredients
24-oz. brown rice flour
24-oz. white rice flour
16-oz sweet rice flour (sold under the Japanese name “mochiko” but also available as “glutinous rice flour”)
15-oz bag of tapioca flour (also at Asian grocery stores, but sometimes in regular stores)
2 tablespoons xanthan gum
Method
Seriously couldn’t be easier. Dump everything in a big bowl, stir together thoroughly. Stir again before using.
Recipe Notes
While this gluten-free, all-purpose flour mix makes amazing cookies, cakes, muffins, and pancakes and also works miracles as a breading substitute for fried things, it is not quite enough to make bread. You need more protein-filled flours. HOWEVER. That should not hold you back. This will carry you through the entire holiday baking season, and I am working on the whole bread issue. #StayTuned
I have used this flour mix in the same amounts called for in every recipe that calls for regular all-purpose flour without any issues. Seriously. This stuff is amazing.
The wild profiterole, captured in its natural habitat.
First, for you, a poem about love. Sort of. If you are not a lover of poetry, feel free to skip to the erudite synopsis – the TL:DR, if you will – below:
To His Coy Mistress
Had we but world enough and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long love’s day. Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest; An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart. For, lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate. But at my back I always hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found; Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song; then worms shall try That long-preserved virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust; The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires, Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped power. Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life: Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.
~Andrew Marvell~
Essentially, Andrew Marvell is trying to convince his mistress to get freaky, and quick, before worms begin to eat them in the grave.
What this is really about is time (well, and if we are being honest, which we should always try to be, also sex), and how little we have in comparison to how much we tell ourselves we have (time and sex, both).
This winter break I wanted lots and lots of time. I wanted to have weeks of time to do as much or as little as I wanted, with no stress of deadlines. It may seem that as a freelance writer I have all of the time in the world, but in truth my days fly by in a haze of writing and basic life management. Most days I raise myself from a shitty night’s sleep and deliver The Child to school, and then, even with the day stretching out long before me, writing, house maintenance, family maintenance, yoga teaching/class planning, and yoga studio assistant managing fill up those minutes I thought I had plenty of when I first woke.
It astonishes me how I used to do all of the things I do these days with the added pressure of running a school and managing livestock. I cannot remember how it is that I got things done.
And that’s the haze aspect. I didn’t really spend too much time thinking about or noticing things that were happening. It’s the same as if your head is on fire – you don’t note the color of the flames, you just put the fire out. So many parts of my life have rushed by in a blur that I never fully experienced.
But the only way to really dive deep is to make time to do so. There are multiple studies on how we can’t actually “multi-task,” and that entering deeply into something is the only way to truly know that thing. If you quickly Google “how to learn something” you get 622 million results. The first few pages talk about learning something new every day and then quickly devolve into ways to learn new things in five minutes, or ten. It’s all about learning/doing the thing and less about experiencing the thing.
It’s hard to jump off the Must Get Things Done Treadmill.
But jump off I must. Not for any reason other than I want to continue to try to be present for everything. Possibly not things like cleaning the cat box or doing my taxes, but maybe even those things, too.
For months now I have wanted to give real pastry a try. I have been craving cream puffs and eclairs and cheese danish with an immeasurable ferocity for months now. The only reason I am not 1,000 pounds is because I am unwilling to pay eight bucks a pastry for substandard gluten-free bullshit. I may splurge for a $4 gluten-free cupcake on occasion, but I always regret it (I make them waaaaay tastier).
But real delicate pastry takes time and attention, both of which have been hard to come by in these past months.
Not anymore.
Here are profiteroles. Pâte à choux pastry, light and puffy, filled with sweet vanilla cream and striped with chocolate.
Authentic and delicious. Gluten-free (although you can make them with regular AP flour).
They take some time. I have modified the process a bit for less hands-on time, but still. You can’t just pop these in the oven and walk away.
Profiteroles
This recipe bows in gratitude to Michael Ruhlman and Ratio, but changes are made to accommodate the peculiar properties of gluten-free flour.
Ingredients
Pastry Creme (Creme Patisserie, or Creme Pat as they say on The Great British Baking Show)
1/2 cup chocolate, chopped (I used bittersweet chips because it’s what I had)
1/4 cup heavy cream
Method
Make the pastry creme first. In a large bowl, mix together flour and egg yolks until thoroughly incorporated and smooth. Set aside.
Heat milk, sugar, and salt to a simmer in a heavy saucepan over medium heat (look for small bubbles to appear around the edges of the pan). Remove from heat and grab a whisk.
Whisking constantly, slowly drizzle the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture. WHISK CONSTANTLY. Don’t skimp, and don’t add the hot milk too fast. If you do, you will end up with sweet scrambled egg which is gross and nobody wants that.
Once the milk is completely added, pour the mixture back into the milk pan and cook over low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture begins to thicken (about five to ten minutes).
Pro-tip: use a whisk. I tried a spatula and that did not end well.
Remove from heat and add scraped vanilla bean (or extract). Place a fine mesh strainer over the bowl you will cool the pastry creme in. Pour pastry creme into the strainer to remove errant lumps (of egg or flour). Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the creme and place in the ‘fridge to cool thoroughly while you make the pâte à choux.
To make your pastry, preheat oven to 425 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment pastry. Set aside. Set up a stand mixer with a paddle attachment (or see Recipe Notes).
Heat water, butter, and salt in a high-sided saucepan over medium heat until butter is completely melted.
Add flour to water/butter mixture and stir with a wooden spoon, still over heat, until mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball. You will also notice a thin skim of pastry on the bottom of the pot.
Move pastry to the bowl of the stand mixer and let cool slightly. You want to be able to touch it, but you don’t want it cold.
Turn on stand mixer and begin to add beaten egg a little at a time. Smart people beat each egg separately and add them one at a time. You may not actually use all of the egg, which can be scary.
Don’t be scared.
Add a bit of beaten egg at a time and beat until it is incorporated. Ultimately you are looking for a dough that is somewhat stiff but still able to be piped. This is somewhere between cookie dough and a thick batter. It should not ooze at all or be sloshy. I know this to be true because that’s what my first attempts were like, and I ended up with egg-tasting pancakes. #Barf
The reason you may not use all of the eggs is because of the level of humidity in the air, the temperature of the flour/water/butter mix, alignment of the planets, the difficulty of the French: any number of reasons. It’s best to concentrate on the texture you are aiming for rather than the amount of each ingredient.
This is why people have dogs: to eat their extra eggs.
So beat your eggs as needed into the flour. When done, you can refrigerate your pastry dough for a day, or you can proceed.
Place dough into a pastry bag (see Recipe Notes) fitted with a round nozzle; I used a size 11, but you can eyeball it and go for 3/4 to 1″. Pipe 1″ rounds of dough onto parchment one inch away from each other. Each dough ball should have a little peak on top (if not, your dough is too runny. Sorry.).
Use a wet fingertip to smooth the top of each dough ball.
Place in oven at 425 for ten minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and cook for another 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and pierce sides with a toothpick to allow excess moisture to escape. Place back in turned-off oven and let them dry out for another 10 minutes.
Let cool completely.
Filling options:
Pipe cooled pastry cream with a skinny nozzle through the hole you made with the toothpick
Slice in half and use a spoon to dollop cream between both halves
For the optional drizzle, melt chocolate and cream over low heat, stirring constantly. If you are fancy as fuck, place that into a squeeze bottle and with a practiced air move it back and forth over your filled profiteroles until you achieve the chocolate coverage you desire.
If you have leftover drizzle, add some heavy cream, shake well, and pour over ice cream. Or add to milk and heat for hot chocolate.
Recipe Notes
You don’t need a stand mixer to make these, just lots of muscle. You can add your eggs and beat with a wooden spoon until you achieve the desired consistency. You can also use a food processor.
You also don’t need a pastry bag. Use a sealed freezer bag with the end snipped off and the pastry tip nestled into the snipped-off corner for the exact same result.
If you have read all the way through, finish this sentence in the comments: Had I but world enough and time, I would…”
