Category: gluten free

On Writing, Friendship, And The Perfect Pumpkin Doughnut

We probably could have used some doughnuts. #RoughNight


“The urge to write has to be stronger and more compelling than the belief that no one wants to hear your stories.”

I woke up this morning after a wretched night of sleep with this thought fully formed in my head. It was such a revelation to me, so astonishing in its truth, simplicity, and application to my current stage of life that I felt compelled to write it down and share it, thus proving the message itself.

Developing recipes, learning everything as I go (including some very basic cooking skills), finding new culinary projects: that has never been hard.

The hard part, as with everything I have written about life and grief and death and yoga and parenting, is the overwhelming doubt that anyone gives a rat’s ass about what I have to say.

I will pause here to assure my three loyal readers that I am not looking for encouragement or a pat on the back. 

The point is that the act of creation – of food, of words, of art – has to be so terrifyingly urgent as to make incomprehensibly unimportant the doubt of reaching an audience who cares. 

Creation doesn’t care about click-throughs, page views, and bounce rate.

(that has the rhythm of a poem to me)

What cares about those things is doubt, fear, and the thought that someone has done it first, better, and simply MORE than I have now or will ever be able to.

Creation doesn’t care because succeeding at the perfect pastry creme (ongoing) or developing a perfect gluten-free pasta (starting this week) is its own reward.

I continue to struggle daily with the feeling that my writing is not good enough and doesn’t matter, and I continue to try and do it anyway. I am learning, and this is always good.

And frustrating and infuriating and slow. 

But still.

Creation is its own reward. That, and a spicy pumpkin doughnut. Made especially for my oldest friend in the world, Kerry.

Yes, I know. Two doughnut recipes in a week. 

But Saturday we went thrift store shopping, and after tasting my apple cider doughnut, Kerry requested a pumpkin doughnut. Today is National Pumpkin Pie Day, a made-up holiday if there ever was one, but certainly better than celebrating the impending doom of 1.5 million indigenous people on this day in 1492 (or thereabouts). Other sources say it’s National Pumpkin Day or National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day, so split the difference and make these.

Kerry has been with me for my most joyful and tragic moments. Also some of my most drunken and ridiculous, which were sometimes connected to the most joyful moments. From in-school suspension together in middle school for a “food fight” consisting of throwing one piece of corn to midnight rides to being one of the first to arrive when my husband died in 2013 and the only friend to drop everything at the death of my father, Kerry has been in it with me from nearly as long as I can remember, not only listening to my stories but also creating a few right along with me. 

Seems like a doughnut is a small thing to ask for, yes?

This doughnut is for Kerry, the person who, no matter how ridiculous they are, not only always wants to hear all my stories but also wants All. The. Details.

Share this with a friend who is like this, then tell me all about them in the comments below.

Spicy Pumpkin Doughnuts

Ingredients

Doughnuts:
2 eggs
1 stick butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vinegar 
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (NOT pie filling)
3 tsp. vanilla extract (you could also do a maple extract here)
1 3/4 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
1/4 cup oat flour OR almond meal
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum (optional if your blend already has it. I use it anyway) 
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 T ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt 
1 tsp ginger 
1/2 tsp. ground clove 
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves

Topping:
1 stick melted butter
1/2 cup sugar 
1 T cinnamon 1/2 tsp each ground ginger, clove, nutmeg, and allspice


Method:

Preheat oven to 400 and grease two doughnut pans (either full size or mini).

Before you begin, combine the milk and the vinegar to make a buttermilk, of sorts. I chose this method over purchasing buttermilk because most people don’t have buttermilk handy. If you do, feel free to substitute 1/2 cup of buttermilk. If not, add the vinegar to the milk and let sit for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the following dry ingredients: flours, baking soda and powder, salt, and spices.

In a medium bowl or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs and beat, then add vanilla, milk mixture, and pumpkin puree. Beat until combined, then add the flour and continuing mixing until it is smooth (just a minute or two).

If you have a pastry bag, use that to pipe the batter into the waiting doughnut tins. If not, scoop the batter into a Ziploc baggie, snip off a corner, and use that to pipe the batter into the tins. Fill about halfway up.

Bake for eight to ten minutes. Doughnuts are ready when they spring back from a light touch.

Turn out onto a wire rack. As soon as they are just cool enough to handle, dip each doughnut into melted butter and then roll in spicy sugar mixture. 

These may keep, but I have no experience with them lasting past noon on the day they are made, so let me know if they do.

Recipe notes:

  • Doughnuts are just as delicious without the sugar topping, and you can also just use it for the top if you want to keep sugar in check.
  • Initially I planned on frosting these with a cream cheese frosting instead of the sugar did not. That’s the next iteration.



Peace One Day: Gluten Free Olive-Rosemary Bread

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

Peace Day is on September 21st, and it is in the spirit of peace, love and forgiveness that I started this recipe for olive-rosemary bread.

I don’t want to compare wars and violence and the eventual ceasefire and peace with the process of developing a gluten-free bread recipe, but this process did feel very involved, and there were lots of failures. I have never thrown out as much food as I did while developing this recipe.

If I still had chickens, they would have been thrilled.

And while the flavor has been delicious in every iteration of the bread and each rustic loaf looked gorgeous, they all had a wet, gummy interior. They rose well, browned well, produced a beautiful crust, and were utterly disappointing in texture.

It took some doing, but I think this is it. Chewy crust, well-balanced flavor, and a texture that mirrors a hearty, gluten-filled bread. This bread has taught me the power of egg whites and almond meal to bump up the protein in a flour.

It has made me re-think my relationship with the all-purpose flour blend as the be-all, end-all for baking. Don’t get me wrong: this blend rules for pancakes, cookies, biscuits, scones, and waffles. It makes a great cupcake. But as I continue to explore gluten-free baking, I know that there is more to it than cup-for-cup substitutes.

This bread will rise, but it will not reach the great heights of a standard bread. In the end, this does not matter. This recipe makes two, one-pound loaves: one for you, and one for a friend.

Namaste.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups almond meal
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water (80 to 100 degrees)
3 egg whites
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
coarse sea salt for garnish

Method:

1. In a small bowl, combine yeast, sugar, and half of the water (approximately. This is just to activate the yeast). Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine flour, almond meal, salt, and xanthan gum. Mix briefly to combine.
3. Add water, proofed yeast mixture, egg whites, and olive oil. Mix until the ingredients come together, about a minute. 
4. Add olives and rosemary and stir to combine. Do this step by hand; the olives should not be crushed.
5. Turn mixture into a clean bowl, loosely cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for two hours in a warm, dry place. 
6. After two hours, divide the bread in half and shape into boules on baking sheets lined with parchment paper . Let sit for another 40 minutes. 
7. Near the end of the resting period, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a very sharp knife, cut lines in the top of each loaf and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
8. Place a pan filled with hot water on the lower rack of your oven, then slide the bread in above the water
9. Bake for approximately 65 minutes. Bread should reach an internal temperature of 180 degrees
10. Cool completely before cutting. This bread should be eaten within a of couple days.

Recipe notes:

  • Another brand of gluten-free all-purpose flour can be used, but the results may be very different.
  • This toasts beautifully and is especially delicious with homemade ricotta and freshly-cracked black pepper and/or some arugula.

 

Unicorn Alert: Delicious Gluten Free Pizza

The Unicorn

EDITED: Edited again. The secret here is to not roll the crust too thin. 

It’s possible. I swear. I know, because I have eaten eleventy million crappy gluten-free pizza crusts in service of this goal: finding a good gluten-free crust. An easy crust that doesn’t involve twelve different kinds of flour and still ends up tasting like a cracker.

A crust that has some chewiness to it, like real pizza, and tastes like yeast, not cheddar cheese or cardboard.

A crust that is more than just a conveyance for toppings. In fact, my favorites for this pizza are fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, a chiffonade of basil, sprinkle of salt, cracked black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. It’s a perfect late-summer pizza.

I developed this recipe for everyone who misses pizza THE MOST out of everything they had to give up when gluten went away. I have forced it upon a reluctant teenager and her friends and asked (nicely) two other people to make this recipe also so I know it works.

It’s not just “good for gluten-free.”

It’s delicious, period.

Gluten Free Pizza

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup warm water (between 80 and 100⁰), divided
2 T. yeast
3 T. sugar
4 T. powdered milk
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 T. olive oil
Method:
Preheat the oven to 450⁰. Combine half of the water and the yeast in a bowl. Let stand until it wakes up and start to get foamy. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to help it along.
In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Make a well in the center and add the foamy yeast, the rest of the water, and the olive oil. Stir with a spatula to combine. Don’t overwork the dough.
 
Mix just until it comes together. No kneading!
 When the dough has come together, divide in half and place each half on a greased cookie sheet (unless you are making one big pizza. Make sure your pan is big enough to get the crust thin). For easy, non-sticky, and efficacious spreading, place plastic wrap over the dough and use your fingers to shape the dough until it is very thin (about ¼”). Keep a little lip to contain your toppings. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Let crust sit for 10 minutes. I call this “allowing the dough to collect its thoughts.”
Place crusts in the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and cracks begin to form on the bottom. Remove from the oven.
 
Note slightly darker spots. This is what happens when the crust is not even. #ItHappens
Add your toppings. Finish the pizza with a sprinkle of salt and freshly ground black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. 
 
I like fresh basil. Sue me.
Turn on the broiler and put your pizza about five inches away. Watch carefully. You are only looking for brown, bubbly cheese. Your crust is already cooked. This takes between three and five minutes. 
 
Serve it howeverthehell you like to serve your pizza. I like it on a plate balanced on my chest, followed by soft serve ice cream as the second course. 
 
Mangia.
 
Recipe notes:
  • Be strange and add cheese onto the crust first. It keeps the crust from getting soggy under the sauce. I add a layer of cheese, then sauce, then cheese. 
  • If your edges are burning, cover them with foil.
  • Bake multiple crusts and wrap well to freeze. To bake, preheat the oven to 375⁰.  You don’t need to defrost the pizza crust. Top pizzas however you choose, then bake on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes until cheese is brown and bubbly.
  • You can sub in regular AP flour or purchase other gluten-free AP flour blends. Do not use AP flour blends that use garbanzo flour. The taste of those is quite bean-y, and the texture of the pizza will change.
  • To make this recipe vegan, simply eliminate the powdered milk and add a touch less water. The crust will be slightly less chewy but it will still be delicious.

In The Beginning…There Was Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour, And It Was Good

bread

Seems fitting to start this blog with the one recipe that started the revolution.

Well. That’s maybe  a bit extreme.

But.

I have been gluten free off and on since 2004. I am one of those people who doesn’t have celiac but just feels better without gluten in my life. For someone who loves bread, cake, and pizza as much as I do, this is tragic.

Finding this recipe and tweaking it for ease and affordability has salved that wound somewhat.

This is the basic recipe for a gluten free flour mix that you can sub in cup-for-cup when a recipe calls for AP flour. It is based on this recipe but changed for ease of creation (no measuring). It makes delicious cakes, crackers, cookies, waffles, and pancakes

Here’s the recipe:

1 24-oz. bag Bob’s Red Mill brown rice flour

1 24-oz. bag Bob’s Red Mill white rice flour

1 16-oz box of mochiko (sweet rice flour; available only at Asian grocery stores or online. We subbed potato starch in our first batch because we couldn’t find an Asian grocery in Marietta, GA)

1 15-oz bag of tapioca flour (also at Asian grocery stores, but sometimes in regular stores)

2 tsp. xanthan gum

Directions: Dump everything in a big bowl, stir together thoroughly. Stir again when using.

A word about xanthan gum. Some gluten free people are still sensitive to gums, and they can actually be eliminated from this recipe. I choose to keep it in there because A) it seems it make the flour perform a wee bit better, and B) it’s not an issue for me. Xanthan gum is a bit pricey, but I got it on sale for 25% of the regular price, so it was a no-brainer. It does expire, but opinions on how long that takes are mixed. Store in the ‘fridge in an airtight container, or keep it in the same container in the cabinet.

As noted above, this gluten free flour has worked well in all recipes that call for all-purpose flour, but I am still working on pizza crust and bread. I realize the loaf pictured above is a bit of a tease, but that’s my goal. Just difficult to persist in that endeavor when it’s 98 degrees outside. If you use this flour in a recipe that calls for a specific gluten free flour mix, check their ingredients to see if they are similar. Some commercial gluten free flour mixes us garbanzo bean flour, which imparts a distinct bean-y taste. No thank you.

Give this a try and let me know how it goes!

(image source)