A question was asked about preparedness and I have wanted to address some issues from a gluten and dairy free perspective.
This is not a post discussing if you should or shouldn’t prep. This is not a post on whether a Christian should or shouldn’t prep. If you want my take on these, I highly recommend you read this post by my friend Enola Gay: Preparedness Appologetics. She and her family are further along in their preparedness than my family, but one can only start when their eyes have been opened. And you can only do what you can.
No one will ever be completely prepared for every and any eventuality. I do believe that I can prepare to be ready for some of the more likely scenarios. But I did say that this post is not really about all those issues.
All of the places you go to get recommendations on how much and of what to have on hand rarely deal with food restrictions. Much of what is “recommended” to have on hand is not something I can even eat! The beginning of our preparing was before I discovered my problem with gluten. And only recently has my ‘problem’ with dairy become even more of a problem. I seem to be ‘troubled’ most Monday afternoons and have finally narrowed it down to… the hidden, dairy-laden food at church! So storing a bunch of dairy would not help me survive some kind of disaster.
Trying to buy up all the packages of gluten free crackers or buying them by the case (or cases) takes up far too much valuable space. I don’t know about you, but I have a limited amount of space for storage and need to maximize the space I do have… getting the most bang for my buck, as the saying goes.
I’m not saying do not buy any prepackaged items. What I am saying is don’t make them the bulk of your food storage.
My goal it to store the basic ‘from scratch’ foods we need to eat a healthy, well balanced diet. For baking I store a variety of rices, whole buckwheat, whole sorghum, whole millet, certified GF steel cut & rolled oats, quinoa in whole and flaked versions and pearl & granular tapioca. These I will use whole and ground up for baking.
I also store a variety of seeds and nuts. These I repackage into small vacuum sealed bags, then in a 5-gallon bucket. Chia seeds are my favorite preparedness food stuff. The nutritional content is wonderful and they can be used in a variety of ways!
For cooking I have stored a variety of beans, dehydrated lots of fruits & vegetables, have purchased some canned items in cases and have powdered coconut milk in 5 pound bags, powdered stevia in 1 pound bags, bulk spices in large containers, evaporated cane juice and sucanat in 5-gallon buckets.
So where will I get my calcium? Chia seeds! Magnesium? Hemp seeds (no it’s not THAT hemp). I don’t like the taste of flax and the chia and hemp have a better nutritional profile and are better keepers.
What should you store? What grains do you tolerate well? What grains are you already baking with… you do bake some of your own gluten free cakes, breads, and such don’t you? Some??? That is one reason I joined the Ratio Rally. I made me get up off my… baking behind and start baking my own gluten free breads, cakes, muffins, scones, pies, biscuits, crepes, popovers and brownies! I have learned so much, especially how freeing it is to bake my ratio. I don’t need any recipes… I can make them fit the ingredients I have on hand! Now THAT is truly being prepared.
Store what you use and use what you store.
That is one reason I am so very fond of my ‘new’ (but from a very old & favorite cookbook) Rice Flour Muffin Recipe & Rice Flour Muffin Variations! It is very simple, uses ingredients that I always have on hand and is versatile! Flavor variations will make ‘survival food’ so much more pleasurable!
What kinds of things do you think are important in being prepared for TEOTWAWKI or even just a current job loss?
If you jump over there you can check out all the other bread offerings for this month’s rally. I will also have all the links at the bottom of this post.
When I started eating gluten-free, I first bought most of my gluten-free baked goods at the store. One taste of one particular gluten-free bread and I decided I would rather NOT eat bread than that… stuff. Ugh.
Muffins and brownies were successful pretty much right off the bat. I didn’t buy many of the gluten-free mixes as they are far too expensive!
Then I discovered Rudi’s bread at Costco. Yes, my Costco carried it as a test… but it didn’t last. Not enough folks buying it to warrant Costco freezer space. Sigh.
After some months something changed. I don’t know if Rudi’s changed their formula or if it was a change to my taste buds but all the Rudi’s breads now had an off fish-y taste. ARHG!
I dabbled a bit with making homemade bread, but was meeting with limited success.
In comes Udi’s bread. So far they taste fine, but… it is the ingredients I object to. The corn is not listed as non-GMO, they use organic canola oil but it is not good for you, there is corn syrup in the mold inhibitor, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then there is the $5 price tag for a miniscule loaf of bread. The loaf isn’t even a whole pound in weight!
They did have an interesting ‘new’ bread though. Millet Chia Bread, and it boasts a much nicer nutrient profile than the very starchy ‘white’ breads.
Still can’t get past the non-GMO corn thing though.
So I decided that a Millet Chia Bread would be an excellent thing to recreate for the Ratio Rally! I have had a hankering for some bread with texture, tooth, fiber even.
My first loaf I used too much flax-seed meal. I guess I really shouldn’t have made a Flax Chia Bread. Ick. Bread texture was fantastic though not “toothy”, the taste (other than too much flax-seed which I am not fond of) was really good. It had a beautiful rise & “real bread” holes too! This bread was moist and stayed that way for at least a week left out on the counter.
Yes, you did read that correctly… left out on the counter!
This bread also toasted very nicely too!!
Yes that is a real pat of butter melting on that slice of toasted gluten/dairy free bread. Due to some healing (which will be another post) I am having much less “digestive problems” when I eat dairy! I promise I will get to that post soon. Subscribe to my feed so you won’t miss it.
My next loaf I tried using a bit less of the guar gum and… WOW! Great taste, great rise, better nutrient profile, great toast-ability, easy!
Then there is the Pumpernickel variety that just came out of the oven. I have had a request from the Patriarch for some Pumpernickel bread. Since today is our 25th Wedding Anniversary I thought this would be an excellent bread for today’s Ratio Rally.
Sourdough and Pumpernickel breads are really the only ones I still miss. This rally didn’t offer enough the time to play with a sourdough like I want to try, but I think I have hit on Pumpernickel almost-heaven! Not with the “tooth” I would like but the taste is terrific! Even the non-gluten free Patriarch said the taste was great.
My ratio? Um…
Ruhlman’s bread ratio is 5 parts flour 3 parts water plus yeast and salt. I think my ratio is close to that with the addition of eggs.
Millet Chia Bread
recipes developed by Aunt Mae of Honey From Flinty Rocks, all rights reserved
makes one 1 – 1/2 pound loaf
Weigh out in the bowl of a stand mixer:
1 ounce quinoa flakes
1 ounce Montina supplement (purchase & nutritional info at end of post)
½ ounce inulin (I buy mine at Walgreens)
1 ounce milled chia seeds (I bought mine from Azure Standard)
1 ounce whole millet
4 ½ ounces brown rice flour
3 ounces sweet rice flour
½ – 1 tsp guar gum
In heat safe measuring cup, weigh out:
4 ounce filtered water, heat to 100 degrees.
Add:
1 TBSP evaporated cane juice
1 TBSP yeast.
Mix well and allow to proof until foamy. About 5 – 10 minutes.
While that is proofing, mix liquids together:
5 ounces filtered water or milk
2 – 3 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil (use more oil if not using milk)
2 tsp raw apple cider vinegar
2 – 4 TBSP honey
2 large eggs
Pour the liquids and the proofed yeast mix into the mixing bowl.
Mix completely on low. Beat on high for 3 minutes.
Clean off beaters and remove.
Cover bowl with a clean tea towel and let sit for 45 minutes.
Reinstall beaters and beat on high for 3 minutes.
Pour & scrape batter into a greased 4 ½ x 8 ½ glass bread pan.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cover with tea towel, set in draft free place and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes.
Cover with foil to prevent over-browning and bake for an additional 35 – 45 minutes. It should be firm to the touch when pressed… you’ll “see” what I mean when you take it out of the oven and it… ‘isn’t firm’.
Insert a thermometer into the bread, it should read 200 degrees.
Let cool in pan for 15 minutes.
Remove from pan and allow to cool on cooling racks completely before slicing.
Store in a plastic bag on the counter. Will last at least a week. On. The. Counter!
Pumpernickel Bread Variation
makes one 2 pound loaf
In the flour mix add:
2 TBSP unsweetened cocoa
zest of one large navel organic orange (1 TBSP?)
2 tsp caraway seed
1 tsp minced dried onion
½ tsp dill weed
In the liquid mixture, replace the honey with molasses.
When you grease your bread pan, “flour” the pan with organic corn meal and sprinkle the top of the batter with corn meal before baking.
What is “Montina” Pure Baking Supplement you ask?? It is a baking supplement that adds fiber and protein. In a “serving size” (3.5 ounces.2/3 cup) contain 24g insoluble fiber and 17g protein with NO fishy taste! In a search to help Montana farmers and find an alternative to wheat and barley they rediscovered the Native American Indian ricegrass plant. I’m loving this stuff! I did not use a whole serving size in one loaf of bread, so my bread’s fiber & protein profile will not be as high, but will be higher than a standard rice flour bread. Inulin is a fiber supplement.
In the course of learning to bake good gluten & dairy free bread I have learned a few things.
1) Gluten free bread will never be “big”. The size bread pan I have stated above is just about the largest one you can use with success. You can go longer, but not wider.
2) When a recipe is developed and the bread is baked using a specific pan, you will NOT get the same results if you use a pan made of different construction or size. If you have steel, ceramic, cast iron or aluminum pans you will have to experiment with baking times. But that still does not guarantee the same results…
3) Beating on high seems to ‘change’ the batter. It becomes ribbon-y or rope-y, for lack of a better descriptive. I tried to capture “it” in photos. It seems to me that it develops “cohesion” of some kind. Like gluten would develop if we were using gluten.
4) There really isn’t an “all purpose” gluten free bread. If you want a sandwich bread, that will be quite different from a toast-able bread. Gluten free sandwich bread, when toasted, is… well… quite d-r-y [cough]. Toast-able bread doesn’t make good sandwiches as it is moist-ish. So… these recipes are for toast-able bread! 😉
Blessings, ~Aunt Mae (aka ~Mrs. R)
Other gluten & dairy free posts that may be of interest to you:
Fudgy Coconut Flour Brownies with Raspberry Chipotle Sauce
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
5 ounces coconut flour (1 cup) {I buy mine through Azure by the case)
3 – 4 ounces cocoa (2/3 cups)
8 ounces grapeseed oil (1 cup)
8 ounces eggs (4 large)
8 ounces water (1 cup)
8 ounces agave syrup (1 cup)
8 ounces evaporated cane juice (1 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 TBSP vanilla
Spread batter in a 9×9 inch pan. Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting. These get fudgier as they sit! I left some uncovered on the counter for over a week and they were still moist, fudgy and delicious!
This recipe is on the dark chocolate, UN-sweetened side. If you like a sweeter brownie, add more sugar to taste!
Raspberry Chipotle Sauce (Costco sells this right now… it’s seasonal though!) If you have missed out on this season’s Costco sauce you can always add a little ground chipotle to some seedless raspberry jam… YUM!
The other way we indulged with these brownies was with a scoop of raspberry sorbet on top and with a glass of red wine. A perfect match!
Brownies…. Who doesn’t love those chocolaty squares of goodness?!!
Of course there is the age-old quandary… cake-y or fudgy?
We here like the fudgy style, which is what I have tried to recreate with a bit of a twist towards healthier ingredients.
A ratio is a specific ratio if ingredients and sometimes a particular mixing method to bring about gluten-free baking success. The Rally is a group of gluten-free bloggers who create recipes using ratios around a specific baked-good theme each month. The bonus with ratios is those funny gums are not needed!
This month’s brownie bonanza is being hosted by Mary Fran at FrannyCakes, check out her site for links to all the other lovely offerings!
My ratio wound up being 1.3 beans | 1 egg | 1 oil | 1 cocoa | 2 sugar with 1 part being equal to 8 ounces.
One thing I discovered in baking my first batch… you can only go so far in reduced sugar for a fudgy brownie. Reduced sugar makes a cake-y brownie. And , um… if you don’t add enough sugar… they taste like… cocoa. Not the best of flavors all by itself!
You can only go so far in making a brownie “healthy”. Which is why I wanted to use beans for my base, adding fiber & protein to my treats!
Black Bean S’More Brownies
Yield: 16 – 2″ x 2″ brownies
9 – 10 oz black beans, cooked & cooled (or 1 can of black beans,rinsed & drained)
8 oz eggs (4 large)
8 oz grape-seed oil (1 cup)
8 oz cocoa (1 cup)
16 oz evaporated cane juice (2 cups)
1 TBSP vanilla
1 tsp salt if using home cooked beans, NONE if using canned
S’More Topping:
4 cups mini marshmallows
1/3 cup dairy-free mini chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life brand)
7 gluten-free graham-style crackers, broken into small pieces (I use Kinnikinnick S’Moreables)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8×8-inch square baking pan.
Weigh eggs, oil, and beans right in blender container. Blend until smooth. Pour into a bowl and weigh out cocoa, evaporated cane juice, vanilla and salt if using. Stir until completely combined.
Bake in preheated oven until the top is dry and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 – 40 minutes. Test with cake tester. A few fudgy crumbs should stick to tester.
Sprinkle mini marshmallows over top of baked brownies then the chips & graham-style cracker pieces. Put under broiler for 2 -3 minutes until marshmallows are golden brown. WATCH CAREFULLY so the marshmallows & graham crackers do not burn!!
Let cool completely before cutting into 2-inch pieces. Using a wet knife blade and cleaning the blade between each cut makes this easier.
This recipe was created to be on the not-too-sweet side on order to balance the ultra sweet s’more toppings. If you intend to make these plain, reduce the cocoa to 4 ounces and proceed with rest of the recipe.
Crepes. Yes, this month’s ratio rally is all about crepes. I have cooked crepes for decades. Not once I had to eat sans gluten though. I was looking forward to making these again!!
It is so easy to cook up a batch. They are extremely versatile! You can fill them with anything… well except a liquid!! 😉
This month’s ratio rally hostess with the most-est is T.R. at No One Likes Crumbly Cookies. Please check out her page for all the links to all the great crepe recipes for this month!
In case you are new to the ratio rally – we are a group of gluten free bloggers who create gastronomic delights using a ratio for a particular food item. This month it is crepes. Cooking & baking by ratio is using a specific ratio of ingredients in order to produce consistent yummy results in the kitchen.
Who doesn’t like consistency in the kitchen??!!!Yummy consistency makes it that much more special!
Most of us grew up cooking and baking with measuring our ingredients with cups and spoons. This works well with gluten-full items. But the weights of various gluten-FREE flours is vastly different from each other AND from wheat flour. I know I have had my share of gluten-free disasters in the kitchen! Using specific ratios and weighing out ingredients make gluten free cooking & baking so much easier!
The bonus to weighing and ratios – consistently edible gluten free food coming from MY kitchen! This can be your success as well. Trust me on this one. Another bonus to all this is being able to substitute flours and expect to have generally the same results, though not in taste of course.
I wanted to make a dinner crepe and a dessert crepe for this rally. And I did!
Rhulman’s crepe ratio is 1 liquid : 1 egg : 1/2 flour and my ratio is very close to that with a slight decrease in the liquid to about 3/4. This is basically a very thin pancake batter with no leavening agent.
coconut oil for greasing the skillet, use sparingly
Weigh out all the flours into a stand mixer bowl. Zero out the scale and weigh out the eggs. Zero out the scale again and weigh out the almond milk (or any other non-dairy milk of choice).
Mix together with the paddle until there are no lumps. Let batter sit a minimum of 30 minutes and up to overnight. The flours need to hydrate for better cooking results.
I used an 8-inch cast iron skillet to cook my crepes. It worked beautifully! Preheat your skillet on a low to medium-low heat. Make sure the pan is completely heated before you start cooking the crepes.
Add a small amount of coconut oil to your heated skillet. Just a thin coating on the bottom and up the sides. Too much and your crepe will be greasy and heavy.
The technique for cooking crepes is in the wrist action. Immediately after adding 1/4 – 1/3 cup of batter into your pan you need to rotate the pan so that you coat the bottom of the pan completely with a thin layer of batter. The operative word is THIN layer of batter! 🙂 I made a double batch and only had to re-grease my pan twice. I think I got a total of 24 – 26 crepes… sorry I forgot to count them and they are now… gone.
Set the pan back onto the burner for a minute or two. The edge of the crepe will pull away from the pan, indicating it is ready to be turned. I coax a thin spatula under the edge of the crepe and then flip it. Set back on burner for another minute and transfer onto a plate. Repeat with all the batter. You can see my plate of crepes at the top of this recipe. Your crepes should be slightly browned (freckled) but not crisp. These need to remain flexible to roll around something yummy!
OPTIONS:
for dinner crepes you can add chives, or spices to compliment your filling. for dessert crepes add to the batter: 2 – 4 Tablespoons sugar depending on your taste and 1 teaspoon vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice or a combination equal to 1 teaspoon.
For our dinner I made Spinach Crepes.
Spinach Crepes
8 (8-inch ) crepes
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup Earth balance soy-free buttery spread
2 Tablespoons organic lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup thick cream sauce (I make mine with 2 TBSP Earth Balance, 4 TBSP rice flour, 1 cup dairy free milk, 1 teaspoon chicken bullion)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large saucepan, cook onion in Earth Balance until transparent; stir in lemon juice, salt, pepper, cream sauce and eggs. Cook and stir about 5 minutes. Stir in spinach; heat thoroughly. Place about 1/2 cup spinach mixture on each crepe; roll up and place seam side down in 13 x 9 baking dish. Bake 10 – 15 minutes or until hot.
Serves 4.
Dessert crepes are laughably easy but look so elegant on the plate! I used warm applesauce in the crepe and sprinkled them with powdered sugar. You can do the same thing using jelly, jam or preserves. You could also use a pie filling, pudding, or mousse! You can use a chocolate or fruit sauce instead of the powdered sugar. For breakfast we will have warmed crepes with huckleberry jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar. These would also be great to serve with tea at tea time!!
You can store the leftover crepes in the refrigerator and reheat briefly in the oven, toaster oven (don’t crisp them!) or a skillet on the stove. These also freeze well. Place wax paper between each crepe, thaw or reheat in oven or in a skillet.
Yeah!!! Sing with me boys and girls… oh boy de hee, oh girl de dee, we are baking for you an’ me!
What is a ratio in baking? It is keeping the ingredients to specific proportions. Why weigh your ingredients? To keep that ratio balance! Gluten free flours are vastly differing weights size for size. By keeping to a specified ratio for a particular baking item AND weighing out your flours and other ingredients you can count on consistently successful results! So what’s NOT to like about that?!! But a rally…?? It is a group of gluten free bloggers who will all work on developing a gluten free ratio recipe based on the chosen baked-good-of-the-month. This month is… Popovers.
Did you ever wonder how a blog or blogger got to be the host for some kind of rally or contest among a group? Well let me tell you a secret… shhh… all a blogger has to do is unthinkingly um with fear and trepidation do what the Patriarch says the Navy taught him to NEVER do… volunteer yourself!
Yet I volunteered to host… [g-u-l-p] AND of all the silly things for something I have never baked in my life. Popovers.
Then I discover that I will be out of town for an entire week near the end of the trial baking month!! With tons of pre-trip preparations that NEED attending to before I can think about baking a popover.
Can you say panic boys and girls?
So what is a popover and how do you serve it or what do you serve it with anyway?? So I went to find out.
First I learned that the best pan for baking popovers is… cast iron. I ♥ my cast iron pans! The best cast iron popover pan is from Griswold. So I purchased one on eBay. Isn’t it pretty?!!
In case you need to know how to properly season a cast iron purchase you can read the science behind all that here. I do NOT endorse any other content on her blog. But this cast iron seasoning science is spot on! My purchase was already nicely seasoned, but I am so glad I have this information!!
Since I was out of town for a week and trip preparations took much longer than they should have, I was not able to even bake my first popover until… 4 days ago.
My first batch was a complete flop. The popovers didn’t even peek over the edge of the pan! They did rise… but they did NOT have that tall, rounded, dome top. I believe it is because I used my whole grain mix for part of the flours. Despite adding additional starchy flours the whole grains kept them from rising much. Add to the non-risen pop’unders’, I tried making spiced ones and didn’t get enough spice on my first go around.
My second attempt was last night and I met with terrific success! I relied upon my trusty 1963 Joy of Cooking cookbook for the method, using Gisslen’s ratio with more eggs.
Gisslen’s Ratio used more eggs – 2 : 1.25 : 1/liquid : egg : flour
My ratio – 2 : 1.5 – 2 : 1 / liquid : egg : flour
Had I baked them for about 5 additional minutes they would have had a bit crispier outside and not deflated, but they tasted great! The Patriarch said they were a bit egg-y, so next time I would use 3 eggs instead of 4. But I have 8 dozen eggs in the fridge!! He also said that they would be great with a scrambled egg mixture served inside of them. Maybe in the morning??!!
POPOVERS – Gluten & Dairy Free
makes 12
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place your cast iron (or other) pan in the oven while it heats up. You want your pan or pans to be HOT when you pour in the batter.
8 ounces coconut milk beverage
Eggs & Coconut Milk Beverage
4 eggs, at room temp (I place mine in a bowl and fill it with hot water). My eggs are free-range, cage-free, organic and those yolks are such a deep golden yellow! And the color of the shell is determined by the variety of chicken. There is no nutritional difference between a brown or white egg.
Warming the Eggs
1 ounce Earth Balance, soy free buttery spread
2.5 ounces rice flour, superfine (I get mine at the Asian store)
1 ounce tapioca flour
1/2 ounce organic non-GMO corn starch
1 tablespoon evaporated cane juice (or sugar)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Weigh your non-dairy beverage of choice and pour into Vitamix blender. Add warmed eggs and Earth Balance. Turn Vitamix on Variable 1, then turn to 3 for 30 – 40 seconds until completely blended.
Weigh out rice & tapioca flours, corn starch, evaporated cane juice and salt in a bowl. Whisk or stir to combine, add to blender. Select variable 1, then turn to 3 for another 30 – 40 seconds. Stop Vitamix and use a rubber scraper to scrape down any flours stuck to the side of the blender container. Resume blending at variable 3 for 30 – 40 more seconds until well combined and there are no longer any lumps.
Take your popover pans from the heated oven. Make sure to close the oven door as quickly and safely as possible so you don’t release too much of that heat taking out the pans. Oil pans with grape-seed oil, olive oil, coconut oil or other oil that will take high heat. I CAREFULLY used grape-seed oil on a paper towel. BEWARE!! Those pans are very hot!!
Carefully pour the batter into the popover pans about 1/2 – 2/3rds full. The batter should be the consistency of cream. Return the pans with batter back into your oven, trying to keep the oven door open as little as possible.
Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Then reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for another 20 – 25 minutes. Do NOT open the oven door during baking!! You will NEED the heat to produce the steam to get those babies to “pop over” your pan! Err on the side of a little more baking time instead of opening the oven door to ‘check for done-ness’.
Along with the steam needed to make them rise, your popovers will need a crispy shell in order to hold themselves up and not fall. I will also let you know that the cast iron pan worked GREAT! One tiny bit of help and each popover slipped right on out of that pan! Not so with the ramekins shown above, despite pre-heating and greasing.
I served mine with butter (or non-dairy buttery spread for me) and jam at dinner along with my homemade soup. The guys loved them!Another benefit to baking by ratio and weighing out all your ingredients… you can EASILY half or double the recipe! In my first popover baking attempt I discovered that the recipe made more batter than I had popover pan space. I could easily have baked 12 if I had 2 popover pans.
Blessings, ~Mrs. R (aka Aunt Mae)
Here are the links for other Ratio Rally Popovers!
Can you believe it is time for yet another ratio rally??!!??
Baking by ratio is simply keeping your ingredients to a specified ratio thus ensuring consistent results when following the recipe. How many times have your tried a recipe that sounds & looks terrific only to find your own end-result to be much less than desirable?? I have – – – far too many times than I would like to admit. Especially once I started baking gluten free… it is a whole new baking world! Ratios are your answer to consistent success! And who has money to throw botched recipes away? Some botchings are just NOT redeemable… 😦
This month’s ratio rally features biscuits and is hosted by Gretchen at www.kumquatblog.com/2012/01/gluten-free-ratio-rally-sweet.html. I discovered something new about Gretchen this month… her dear husband serves in the US Military! Gretchen, please extend our gratitude to your husband for his service to our country!!! And as a retired-military wife I know full well YOUR OWN sacrifice for our country. Thank you so much for your service as well!
This brief interlude was made possible by the sacrifice of the men and women of the finest military in the world – The United States Armed Forces. God bless you and protect you!
Now on to the recipes…
Biscuits… I have always loved those baked beauties. When we lived in Florida I used to get cinnamon raisin biscuits at Hardee’s. Then there are the cheese biscuits at Red Lobster, the standard biscuits served everywhere in the south, biscuit topping for cobblers, and my favorite… sausage biscuits! Yes, you could ruin it with an egg… but I like mine straight. 🙂 I never had a problem making really good biscuits… until I had to eat gluten free. Sigh. I miss tall, flaky, tender biscuits… split open and topped with butter and jam…
Rhulman’s ratio is another 3-2-1, just like a pie crust. In fact biscuits are really a pie crust with leavening agents. They are mixed together the same way and need the same handling.
I have baked numerous batches of biscuits this past month with varying degrees of success. My first batch turned out well but spread too much and looked like… well cookies with cracked tops. Hm. Another batch tasted rice-y and were doughy/gummy after baking… flour ratio bomb to be sure! A previous batch looked great but crumbled apart when I tried slicing them to make Sausage Biscuits out of them. Sigh. Is this really THAT hard…? Prior to this rally I did fine with biscuits, even the gluten free ones… well as long as I made them drop style. One day I hope to find the secret to cut out biscuits that will rise up tall! I know they will never be as tall as a gluten biscuit… but can I have a little height… please?
OK, back to the drawing board!
Biscuits lessons learned… I have discovered that:
* too high a percentage of starchy flours will result in a gummy biscuit.
* if you use rice flour (whole grain) AND sweet rice flour (starch) as the major portion of the biscuit mix it will result in a rice flavored biscuit. 😦
* if you use too much shortening your biscuits will spread too much. (just like cookies)
* not enough starchy flours will result in a v-e-r-y crumbly biscuit.
* if I wanted to use my “whole grain flour mix” I needed to add some more starchy flour to balance out the whole grain for a biscuit you can slice AND won’t fall apart while trying to eat it.
So I fell back to my standard drop style biscuit… with a little twist. 🙂
I started out by using a whole grain blend we all have really liked the flavor of.
Aunt Mae’s Whole Grain GF Flour Blend
thanks to the gluten free girl for the blending guidelines
132 grams millet flour
206 grams certified gf oat flour
462 grams brown rice flour
105 grams quinoa flour
60 grams garbanzo bean flour
35 grams brown teff flour
388 grams tapioca flour
214 grams sweet rice flour
Measure each flour out into a large airtight container. Place lid on, make sure it is secure and shake to mix well. For those of you who live near enough to a Costco business center, they have some very large (6 qt I think, they are the ones with the red lids), square plastic containers that are perfect for mixing a large quantity of a gluten free flour blend into… and storing it there if you like.
This is my second batch of this basic blend. We have loved it in pancakes, waffles, biscuits, and I plan to use it in much more!
But after a month of rolled & cut biscuit results that were not what I was looking for… what should I make for the ratio rally??? Hm, I do have some turkey leftover from our New Year’s Eve dinner. Hey!! I know!! I can make a Turkey Pot Pie with an Herb Biscuit Topping!!
And I did.
Everyone loved it. Phew. 😀
The basis for the pot pie recipe was this one from Silvana Nardone.
I like to think of this as… are you ready for this?
Gobbler Cobbler. 🙂
Turkey Pot Pie with Herb Biscuit Topping
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Have 1 – 2 quart baking dish ready.
FOR FILLING:
2 – 4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted in large skillet over medium to medium low heat. Make sure you get the pan hot BEFORE you add the oil, let the oil melt and heat BEFORE you add the vegetables. (Why a hot pan? See Here!)
1/2 of 1 large carrot, washed and shredded (or diced)
4 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon summer savory
1 – 2 cups leftover, cooked green beans
2 cups cubed, cooked turkey
2 cups leftover turkey gravy
FOR HERB BISCUIT TOPPING:
Place stand mixer bowl onto scale. Weigh all ingredients right into bowl!
4 ounces butter, earth balance, or shortening
8 ounces Aunt Mae’s Whole Grain GF Flour Blend
3 1/2 ounces tapioca flour
1/2 ounce non-GMO corn starch
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces (by weight) milk, coconut milk beverage, or other non-dairy milk.
DIRECTIONS:
Saute onion, celery, carrot and mushrooms in coconut oil.
While vegetables are cooking prepare the herb biscuit topping.
Weigh out the fat into your stand mixer bowl. Zero out the scale and weight out the flours. Add in baking powder and salt. Using the stand mixer paddle, ‘cut in’ the shortening until it resembles small peas. They do not need to be uniform in size.
Next, pour in part of the liquid and start mixing. You want the dough to form a ball around the paddle. You may need more or less liquid depending on you humidity and flour mixture. I seem to have consistently needed a little less than the full 8 ounces.
Take about 1/3 of the dough and place into a separate bowl. Add 1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning or to taste to the 1/3 portion and mix in well. Set aside.
When onion is translucent sprinkle with summer savory and stir to incorporate throughout dish. Add green beans, turkey gravy and diced turkey. Stir to combine. Heat completely. If dry, add some water to make a thick bubbling gravy. Transfer to baking dish.
Drop the herb biscuit dough by medium scoops or tablespoons onto the top of the hot turkey & vegetable filling. Put into hot oven and bake at 425 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes.
With the remaining biscuit dough, scoop out onto a freezer safe plate. I use a large scoop. Place plate of dough balls into freezer and freeze until hard. Place frozen biscuit dough balls into a plastic bag or airtight container. Bake frozen biscuits in a 450 degree pre-heated oven for 25 – 30 minutes. You can bake as few or as many as you need.
Serve immediately. Serves 4.
The moment I knew we were featuring biscuits on the Ratio Rally I KNEW I needed to find a version of this song to post here for y’all to enjoy!! If you want to SEE this performed by the Sons of the Pioneers you will have to get the Roy Rodgers DVD “King of the Cowboys”.
Here is a listing of all the other participants in this month’s rally and the links to their biscuit creations!
Ya know what? I love poetry. Oh, I think I may have told you that before… one time or another. 🙂 And w-a-y back in this blog I told you about my favorite cookbook, my 1963 hardback copy of ‘Joy of Cooking’. Did you know there is poetry in there? Yup. My version has poetry! That is not why it is my favorite cookbook, but it is the icing in top!!
The poem in the cookbook is about biscuits. No really it is! Honest! This poem was my also first introduction to the Reformed faith. I loved this poem so much I went searching for the whole book. What an absolute treasure!! Oh, you want the poem and title of the book? Are you sure? OK.
Bandanna Ballads by (Maria) Howard Weeden
Beaten Biscuit
Of course I’ll gladly give de rule
I meks beat biscuit by,
Dough I ain’t sure say you will mek
Dat break de same as I.
‘Case cookin’s like religion is–
Some’s ‘lected, an’some ain’t
An’ rules don’t no more mek a cook
Den sermons mek a Saint.
Well, ’bout de ‘grediances required
I needn’t mention dem,
Of couse you knows of flour and things,
How much to put, an’ when;
But soon as you is got dat dough
Mixed up all smoove an’ neat,
Den’s whenyour genius gwine to show,
To get dem biscuit beat!
Two hundred licks is what I gives
For home-folks never fewer,
An’ if I’m ‘spectin’ company in,
I gives five hundred sure!
Here we are again with another Ratio Rally offering.
This month is being hosted by Lisa of Gluten Free Canteen and is one of my favorites… pie! Go there to see all the other great gluten-free pie offerings this month! UPDATE: I have links at the bottom of this post too!
Baking by ratio… is really keeping a more exact proportion of ingredients in a recipe so that it always turns out. Measuring ingredients can give a widely varying weight ‘cup for cup’ and in gluten free baking too much isn’t a good thing! Once you try weighing your ingredients you will find it so much easier. Really!!
Pie dough has to be the easiest ratio ever… as simple as 3 – 2 – 1! 3 parts flours to 2 parts fats to 1 part water. The amount of water can change based on the fat used. If using butter, it is partially water, so a little less water will be needed. I am pretty sure there is water content in the Earth Balance Soy-Free Buttery spread I used, which accounted for a little less than the full 1 part of water needed in my recipe.
My mom always used lard to make her pie crusts. Once I started making pie for my own family I used lard initially. It does make for a very flaky crust but I dislike the lard taste. I eliminated ALL hydrogenated oils from my kitchen years ago and switched to using palm shortening instead of the hydrogenated cottonseed oil called Crisco… eeewwww.
Did I say that I really like pie? I think that the crust is one of my favorite parts of the pie. I would take the extra bits of dough, roll them out, sprinkle them with cinnamon & sugar and bake until just starting to turn golden brown… crust cookies… YUM!!
Once I needed to eat gluten free it was pie and pie crust that I missed the most. I have tried those boxed, gluten free pie crusts, but they left an odd aftertaste in the mouth, were crumbly more than flaky, rolling them out was disastrous… and try to make my pinched crust edge?? Forget it! The crust just broke. Though repairing tears and holes was super simple.
Until today. Today I came to closest to gluten free pie crust perfection as I have ever come, or tasted… anywhere!
Now that I have made my own pie crust without any of those funny gums…and my crust did not have that ‘odd’ taste… I am wondering if it is those gums that leave that odd taste behind…
Of course that near perfect gluten free pie crust needs a show stopping filling doesn’t it? And why, oh why would a woman who lives in the Pacific Northwest – better known as “Apple Country”… make a “MOCK” Apple Pie pray tell???
Why to use up those giant, baseball-bat-sized zucchini of course! lol We can only make so much zucchini bread and zucchini chocolate cake in one season. Let’s try something new for a change – – – – – let’s make pie!!
1/8 – 1/4 grated nutmeg (I buy the whole nuts and grate as needed)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon organic cornstarch
tiny splash of vanilla extract (use the real stuff!)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place zucchini, sucanat, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, cornstarch, and vanilla into a mixing bowl. Stir until well mixed and zucchini slices are coated with the sucanat & cinnamon mixture.
Pour into prepared pie shell. Top with second shell and seal. Pierce top shell to make vents for steam to escape. Cover fluted edge of crust with foil or a pie crust shield. Place pie in pre-heated oven and bake for 10 – 15 minutes. Turn heat down to 350 degrees and continue baking for 30 – 40 minutes until zucchini is tender. Let rest out of oven for 15 minutes before slicing.
Slice. Eat. Enjoy!Why claim only ‘near’ perfection…? The fluted edge didn’t hold it’s shaped as well as I would have liked in the heat of the oven. I will have to try using a little less shortening next time to test out that… otherwise this one’s a keeper!!
Pie Dough
Take your mixing bowl and set it on your scale. Turn on the scale. Weigh out ingredients. This is the EASIEST way to measure outshortening ESPECIALLY!! No muss, no fuss, no mess, easy peasy! Try it, you’ll love it!!
5 ounces sweet rice flour
2 ounces sorghum flour
3 ounces tapioca flour
1 ounce organic corn starch (make sure this is NON-GMO!!)
1 ounce millet flour
4 ounces Earth Balance soy-free buttery spread
4 ounces palm shortening
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
Weigh out all the ingredients into mixing bowl and cut the fats into the flour mix. I used my kitchen aid stand mixer for this. Cut in the fats until it resembles coarse crumbs.
Mix 1 beaten egg with 1 teaspoon vanilla and add to mixing bowl. Add 1 – 2 ounces of cold water, 1 teaspoon at a time until the dough forms a ball. Place the dough into a plastic bag and pop into the freezer for 15 minutes or the fridge for 30 minutes.
Divide dough into two equal pieces. Roll one out between sheets of plastic wrap using a rolling pin to the diameter of your pie plate plus 2 inches. Keep the second piece of dough in the freezer or refrigerator. Once the dough is the proper diameter, remove the top piece of plastic wrap and lift the rolled out dough using plastic wrap to lift and place into pie plate, remove the other piece of plastic wrap. Use the same pieces of plastic wrap to roll out top crust. Place sliced zucchini mix into crust lined pie plate. Place crust on top of pie plate, using plastic wrap to lift rolled out dough. Make fluted edge to seal top and bottom crusts. Cut decorative vent holes.
Makes enough for one 9-inch double-crust pie or two single-crust pies.
The guys really liked this pie. The Patriarch said the crust was wonderful, and he isn’t overly fond of gluten-free items normally. He even had seconds. Arrow gave this pie the thumbs up.
The best part… Neither one of them could tell that this was not made with apples! 🙂
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie… that’s amoreeeeee!
I love really, really like pizza. As a young adult I used to go to a pizza place in Minnesota called “My Pi Pizza”. No matter when you arrived there was a l-o-n-g waiting line. But most people didn’t even think of getting out of that line and miss eating some of the best deep dish pizza anywhere. This was a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza and the original pizza place is still open in Chicago. Hmm… to taste that heaven once again… YUM! Alas that can never be, and I have been on a quest to find a decent gluten-free crust.
On our Friday Family Nights I try to make something easy, and often it is pizza. But the Patriarch doesn’t like the gluten-free Udi’s crusts. I do, though they are expensive and have no whole grains, just all starches.
This month’s ratio rally is Pizza and is being hosted by Karen at Cooking Gluten Free. This is also where you can get the links for all the other great recipes for this month’s rally!
I first tried to use Michael Rhulman’s pizza dough ratio exactly as written but substituting gluten-free flours (1/4 starches and 3/4 whole grains). Alas, it was ultra-dense, doughy, and just plain… inedible. The Patriarch ate it anyway. I scraped off the toppings and threw away the doughy pizza ‘bottom’. I hesitate to call it a “crust” and thereby give all true pizza crusts a bad name. 😦
Still our “ratio rally group” had not posted a ratio. Sigh. And I was expecting company for the last week and a half of this ratio… knowing I would have NO more time to experiment.
A couple of other ratios were posted and I chose one of them to make pizza one more time. This ratio was a 10 parts flour: 1 part olive oil: 4 parts water ratio. It is good. Not exactly what I was looking for, but edible none the less.
Pizza Dough – Gluten & Dairy Free
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Get out 2 pizza stones or two baking sheets covered with parchment paper.
240 – 260 grams water, divided
2 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 – 15 ounce can tomato sauce
2 tsp no-salt pizza sauce seasoning (I get mine from Azure Standard)
I used a 1/3 starch – 1/3 rice – 1/3 whole grain combination for my entire 600 grams of flours.
35 grams tapioca flour
150 grams potato starch
15 grams sweet rice flour
200 grams brown rice flour
50 grams each almond meal, sorghum, quinoa and millet flours
1/2 tsp salt
50 grams grapeseed oil
Pizza toppings of your choice.
While oven is heating, heat 1/2 cup of the water to 110 degrees. Add yeast and sugar, stir to combine. Set aside to proof for 10 – 15 minutes.
Mix the no-salt pizza seasoning into the can of tomato sauce and set aside.
Measure all the flours and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk to combine. Add the weighed grapseed oil, the proofed yeast water and using the paddle start the mixer on low. Add more water until the dough looks like a thick cake batter. You may use more or less than the total amount depending on the humidity of your home, the temperature, and the kinds of flours you use. Mix on medium speed for 3 – 5 minutes.
Spread out half the dough into a circle about 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick. Use the thinner amount if letting the dough rise and the thicker if baking immediately. You can see the difference in the photos at the very bottom of this post.
Place one stone into the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes. Remove the partially baked crust and put second pizza stone into the oven. While the second crust is baking, top the first one with some of the seasoned tomato sauce and toppings of your choice.
On each of the pizzas I made 1/2 pepperoni and black olives and the 1/2 pineapple and black olives. I used Applegate Farms natural pepperoni, sliced black olives, drained and dried, fresh pineapple cut very small drained and dried. For the guys I used regular mozzarella cheese. On mine I use the Daiya brand dairy free mozzarella style shreds.
When the second crust is done par-baking, return the first crust with toppings to the oven with the heat turned up to 475 degrees F. Bake an additional 15 – 18 minutes until toppings are heated through and the cheese is browned. While this is baking, top the second crust with desired toppings. Bake the second crust once the first one is removed from the oven. Cut and eat!
We like our pizzas topped with crushed red pepper flakes.
The raised crust has more of a cake like crumb, but is firm enough to actually eat a slice by hand. The un-raised crust is denser. Both were tasty.
Doughnuts are not a great love in my life. I like them well enough. Prior to being gluten free I did eat them and enjoyed them. One of our cold-weather, Sunday-morning treats was to stop at the doughnut shop in town on the way home. Arrow adored doughnuts with pink sprinkles. We’d buy our 6 doughnuts and head home for fresh coffee, tea or hot cocoa and doughnuts. We even went to Krispy Kreme when they first opened here some years ago.
Once I was gluten free I didn’t do any of those things anymore. And I didn’t miss them either. Oh, I have purchased those gluten free boxed doughnuts in the freezer case of my grocery store. In one gluten free cookbook I have, there are gluten free baked doughnuts. Arrow asked me to buy the pan and make him some doughnuts. I bought the pan and it sat in the box for months, then the cupboard for many more months.
Until this month… This month’s ratio rally is doughnuts or fritters and is being hosted by Meg at Gluten Free Boulangerie where all the other doughnut offerings can be found.
But me make doughnuts or fritters at home? I hate to deep-fry. It isn’t that I don’t like to eat fried foods, for I do. It isn’t that it makes to much of a mess, for it truly doesn’t. It’s dealing with the oil afterward that I struggle with. You can’t add it back into the bottle and THAT would be messy if you could. Any container has to be easily store-able and UN-spill-able. And um…, well…, um…, you have to remember you have that stuff in order to use it again. Sigh. Am I the only one to find this a pain??
What should I make? What a conundrum!! Hm, lets try fritters first… so I chose a fritter ratio from Rhulman’s Ratio book. But I didn’t want sweet… let’s go with savory! My first fritter attempt was Fried Cauliflower and Onion Rings. Gotta have your vegetables right? Sorghum flour with rice, potato and coconut flour for good measure. I added some Cajun spices and dipped cauliflower heads and onion rings into it.
I heated coconut oil in my stainless steel wok, clipped a thermometer to the side and turned on the heat. The thermometer kept sliding over sideways when I carefully added the coated cauliflower pieces and even fell into the hot oil at one point. That is until I clipped it next to the handle. But then the clip broke… grrrrr…. So I cautiously used my hand held thermometer to check oil temps after that… and I didn’t burn myself either! YEAH!!
These tasted alright but the consistency of the batter was too thick for the onion rings. And The Patriarch said it tasted “like heavy whole wheat flour”. What a funny “taste” with a gluten FREE flour! 😉 The consistency of the fritter batter was far too thick for onion rings. I am sure that taste and consistency was from too high a proportion of sorghum and the added coconut flour. So back to the drawing board!!
My next attempt was to make doughnuts with my doughnut pan. But that was not a ratio, so doesn’t qualify for this rally. Plus it was out of a GF cookbook and not my own creation. The doughnut pan package directions said to use a banana bread recipe. I made Spice Doughnuts dusted with Spiced Sugar. These were proclaimed very tasty by the guys, but the consistency was too soft for a doughnut. There would be NO way to dunk these in a cup of hot cocoa or coffee. These were muffins in a doughnut shape. NOT what I was looking for. I am thinking a pound cake batter would give a better doughnut end product, but I AM still trying to reduce the girth here…
The third attempt was to try some fried doughnuts. The ratio that others said they got the best results with was 4 flour: 1 egg: 1 liquid: 1/4 – 1/2 fat. So I tried that. I mean, in the midst of a weight reduction program one can not be experimenting with lots of different doughnut ratios can one?? 🙂
Mrs. R’s Jelly Doughnuts – Gluten and Dairy Free
1 ounce brown rice flour
1 ounce sorghum flour
2 ounces millet flour
4 ounces potato flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 ounce coconut ghee (this is a blend of coconut oil & ghee I found at Azure) USE half this amount, see note at end of post.
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp real vanilla extract
I got out my trusty scale, placed my mixing bowl on it and turned it on. I then weighed out all the ingredients right into the bowl! I love baking by ratios!! Mix everything together very well. Place dough into a plastic bag and pop it into the freezer for 2 hours to firm it all up very well. It does not freeze solid, but firms up more than just refrigerating would do.
Start your oil heating in your pan of choice. It should be wide enough to accommodate 2 – 3 doughnuts. I used my stainless steel wok I purchased from Costco. Oil should be brought to between 400 and 425 degrees and the dough should be fried at a 375 temperature. Make sure to use an oil with a high smoke point. I used coconut oil. Using one with a low smoke point heats the oil too high, causing it to break down into unhealthy trans-fat components.
While the oil is heating, roll out the firmed-in-the-freezer dough between two pieces of waxed paper to a 1/2-inch thickness. Cut into circles using a large diameter glass. Place cut dough onto a plate and keep in the refrigerator till ready to fry.
When oil reaches temerature, place 2 – 3 doughnuts carefully into hot oil. Cook for 2 – 3 minutes on each side. Remove and place on a paper-towel lined plate to drain and cool. Cook remaining doughnuts.
Cut a slit into each doughnut, and fill with1 – 2 TBSP of jelly. Using a small bag with a pastry tip would be easier than the ziplock sandwich bag with the corner cut off that I used. I did work… and a knife helped push the rest of the jelly into the doughnut. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Eat & enjoy!
These were proclaimed tasty by the guys. I found them to be harder with a hard crust than I wanted, but we’re back to that girth reduction dilemma business again. But this would have been corrected had I used the proper amount of fat in my recipe! A rich dough, fried makes for a harder end product, one that absorbs too much of the oil and the possibility of it not being done inside.
The Patriarch said he would like to have these again, but in cold weather. Hopefully that will be a month or more away… but this is the Pacific Northwest. 🙂 And with less fat in the dough they should be a better doughnut!!
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“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Deuteronomy 6:4 - 7
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Honey From Flinty Rocks 