Making a loaf of gluten-free bread

Jan 252010
 

I got a bread machine for Christmas. Woot! I asked for it because store bought gluten-free bread is not only expensive, it’s pretty gross tasting (at least by what I’ve tried so far). The consistency is cardboard.  I picked out the Breadman because it has a gluten-free setting. I also like that it has a little bit of a space pod feel to it. :P

What I’ve discovered though is that making bread is more like an alchemist project than cooking. And with gluten-free bread, it’s even more complex! My first two loaves came out complete fiascos. But the third, well that’s what you see here:

I probably should’ve wiped the extra flour off before I photographed it, eh? :P Anyway, It’s a cinnamon raisin bread made from bean flours and no yeast. I got the recipe from The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread.  I used the dark setting when cooking which is why you see some darker coloring spots. They look darker in the photographs than in person too.

Still, I may try medium next time and see how it goes. I went with dark this time because the loaves cooked so unevenly and left raw spots. Ick. This time though, it was cooked well all the way through. And man oh my, it tastes wonderful. I really thought I’d never get to have anything that tasted even close to real bread again. Guess I was wrong. :D

I’m SO gonna have to try to make pizza dough soon!!!

Thanksgiving at the new place

Nov 272009
 

I hope you all are having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! Yesterday I went to a friend’s house to celebrate her birthday. Today I cooked my first gluten-free Thanksgiving style meal. Yay!

I can’t remember the last time I made a turkey. My last apartment had a doll sized kitchen so no turkey would fit inside it. Luckily I had a friend who would cook me my free ShopRite turkey so it wouldn’t go to waste. My new apartment has a full sized stove. Huzzah!

For the last turkey I made though, I’m sure it was in a flour coated bag. So this would be the first turkey I’ve ever made outside a bag:

Turkey

The darker spots on the top are twigs of thyme I slid under the skin. A little bit of rosemary too.  I didn’t go by any recipe. I just winged it. I used unsalted butter to coat it and splashed some chicken broth and apple juice in the pan. I also jam-packed it with an herb stuffing:

Stuffing

The recipe I used for it came from Gluten-Free Girl, a site I live on these days. For the bread, I used both a white and a multi-grain version of the gluten-free bread. I altered the recipe at the end by not baking it since I stuffed it in the bird. Plus I needed it a little mushier for smashing so I added a little chicken broth and apple juice to soften it a bit.

While browsing Gluten-Free Girl’s site, I came across this recipe for cranberry relish that of course I had to make too:

Cranberry Relish

It’s super tart! I might have to sweeten it a tad next time I make it. :P

I also made  a chocolate cake. I used Betty Crocker’s Gluten Free Devil’s Food mix for the cake, but I changed the recipe a little. I cut more than half of the butter out and in place of water I used So Delicious drinkable coconut milk. It’s still cooling so there is no pic of it yet. I haven’t decided if I’m icing it with coconut pecan or milk chocolate frosting yet either.

So that’s that. I didn’t venture into potatoes or anything else this year. My friend sent me home with mashed sweet potatoes yesterday so I had that covered. Maybe next year.

Ruki had some turkey too. She ate a little, then hopped up in bed, and promptly passed out. Hee hee:

Ruki after some turkey

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Desserts!

Aug 062009
 

Look what I found at the grocery store tonight!! I got the yellow and chocolate cake mixes. They didn’t have the other two but had spots for them so I’ll have to check back! I so need to bake one tonight. Hmm. Not sure which yet. Oh and looks like they’ll be labeling all their ready-to-spread frostings gluten-free this Fall. Ooh, and look, recipes!

Happy find indeed! :)

………………………

Update: I made the chocolate cake and topped it with coconut pecan icing. (I substituted soy milk for the water and at least half of that butter.) Yum! It’s awesome! :)

Next up, I need to try some of the no butter directions and see how they go…

A ramble on gluten

Jul 312009
 

Until recently, I hadn’t been posting all that regularly on this blog. Life got in the way. You know how it goes with that. The thing is, I felt like hell for a long time. Since I got diagnosed with PCOS I’d been getting progressively worse. Sounds backwards doesn’t it? And that’s why I mention it. I did what my doctors told me to do. I changed my diet to stop eating white flour and watched my sugars. I switched to more natural ingredients too. Yet all my symptoms got worse and my former doctors had no freaking clue what was going on.

Turns out, gluten was the issue.

My allergy had gotten so bad it was a struggle just to get through the day. My head was foggy and I was tired all the time. And that made me frustrated and grouchy. I felt like a chronically ill zombie who couldn’t even find energy enough to track down brains. Sheesh. And this allergy being out of whack caused a dairy allergy too. Luckily the dairy allergy was temporary. I seriously would have died not getting to have cheese! Just saying.

If you have PCOS and aren’t getting better with treatment, you may want to ask your doctor about gluten. You can even cite nutritionist, Melissa Diane Smith who has said that 85% of her PCOS clients test positive for a sensitivity to gluten. When these women remove gluten from their diets they often see a marked improvement in their PCOS symptoms.

I’ve now been gluten-free for three months. I’m finally starting to feel better (YAY!!) but I’ve still got a bit to go. Still, I’ll take what I can get.

I’ve been doing a lot of research online and decided to make a directory of gluten-free resources. I’ll update as I find more good ones. Feel free to pass along any you’d like to share too. And I’ll be posting occasionally to let you know about good gluten-free foods I find, like the addictive Glutino pretzel sticks, Van’s French toast sticks that taste great topped with blackberries, and the super yummy EnviroKidz Koala crisp cereal—I promise no Koala’s were harmed in the making of said cereal :P).

That’s that.

End ramble.

Directory of gluten-free resources

Jul 312009
 

A few handy sites:

A lot of companies list gluten info on their websites:

Gluten-free brands:

Misc products:

  • Breyers yogurts all except YoCrunch appear to be gluten-free (checked 8/9/09)

For those out there dealing with a dairy allergy too  Go Dairy Free is a fantastic resource. And they have a wonderful cookbook too—I recommend the pumpkin pie smoothie :D.

Lot’s more to come. I’m still putting this post together…

If you have a site you’d like to recommend, please do so. Thanks!