Gluten-free Baking with Tiffany

Jalapeno Hot Sauce

2009-08-07T20:54:00.001-07:00

Green Jalapeno Hot Sauce

1. A bag of jalapenos: washed and dried.

2. Some people wear gloves for the seeding/slicing of the jalapenos. I don't wear gloves, but I like sticking my fingers in my mouth & it burns! However, I once stuck my finger in my eye and I felt true pain. Don't be like me, wear gloves and seed the jalapenos.

3. To seed the jalapenos: gently take a knife and slice open the the jalapeno. Then take a spoon and scoop the seeds out and throw them away. Some seeds will be left behind, because it is hard to get rid of them all, and this is fine, since you wanna a bit of spiciness.

4. I don't seed mine. My entire kitchen steams up something terrible, it actually hurts your eyes when I cook my jalapeno sauce. I cover the sauce and simmer for hours, with the kitchen window open.

5. I add the diced the jalapenos, seeds and throw them into a frying pan with olive oil, 1/2 cut up onion and 1/8 cup of slice garlic.

8. I cut up 2 green peppers and throw them into the mix and then let them simmer for two hours. Finite!

As a last step, you can add the sauce to the food processor to liquefy it for a side sauce. You can then pour it into nicely boiled jar and have a hot sauce that should last for 2 weeks in your refrigerator.

I like to keep my sauce chunky. I add 1 dollop to a taco and it burns my mouth for five minutes. My nose runs, and I breath deep. I like eating food that takes me to the edge. Ian hates this, so I use the jalapeno sauce as a seasoning for the enchilada sauce he loves, and I use it to season my refried beans.

A bottle of watered down green chili or green jalapeno sauce will you cost about $2.50. A bag of jalapenos cost me 1 dollar, plus the onions, green peppers, garlic and olive oil. But I have two jars, one frozen, and the 2nd will last me a month. Homemade, HOT and hell-fun.

Enjoy!

Purple Cabbage & Carrot gluten-free muffins

2009-07-29T23:05:00.000-07:00

What fun! I had a leftover cabbage & carrot salad that I didn't know what do with...so I decided to make muffins! The salad only had some yogurt in it, it was slightly sweet, not savory, so it worked quite well! It's like a carrot or zucchini muffin with red & white cabbage.

Interesting, the purple cabbage will turn blue from the baking soda when it bakes in the oven. So the muffins have tiny blue specks in them, it's so...weird that I love it.

Purple Cabbage & Carrot gluten-free muffins

1 1/2 cups shredded red cabbage, white cabbage & carrots
1 cup buckwheat
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/8 cup sorghum
1/8 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
2 Tablespoon flax
1/4 cup water
1 cup to 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon honey/syrup/agave
dash of baking soda
dash of baking powder
dash of cream of tartar
dash of salt
dash of nutmeg
dash of cinnamon
dash of allspice
1 tsp xantham gum
1 egg

1. Mix flax and water in 1st bowl, and let congeal for two minutes.
2. Add egg, sugar, honey and mix.
3. Mix flours, leaveners, spices, xantham gum and mix in a 2nd bowl.
4. Add 2nd bowl to 1st bowl.
5. Shred cabbage/carrot mix in food processor, not quite pureed--but small!
6. Add cabbage/carrot mix to muffins. Mix. Batter is thick.
7. Taste batter. Would you like it sweeter? Add more sugar.
8. Bake 12 full muffins, very full, it rises high!
9. Bake at 350, until done.

Gluten-free Pizza

2009-07-26T20:19:00.001-07:00

I finally tried Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free Pizza Crust Mix. It worked out pretty well, following the recipe on the bag. I used spaghetti sauce, feta cheese, light salami and sliced tomato for the toppings.

This is the first time I've made a pizza crust that I can actually eat. The dough expanded, not too much, but enough. The crust was actually chewy and it browned! I would definitely buy this again, it is worth it. It makes enough dough for 2 16 inch pizzas.

I have big plans now--I will purchase this again, but I will also try to make it from scratch with my own flours: Sorghum, millet, tapioca and potato starch to save some money.

Next time, I am going to use a gluten-free sourdough starter (left out overnight in a warm place) to see if creates a more interesting flavor to the dough.

Notes and/or Tips

I used a tart pan for the pizza crust.

I used 1 egg instead of 2 eggs.

I added 1 tsp of sugar to the yeast/water mixture when proofing.

I added 2 Tablespoons of Flax to 3 Tablespoons water and let it gel, and then added that to the yeast/water mixture.

I added a 1/4 cup of mashed potato to the dry ingredients. (This is a secret ingredient for an all-purpose white flour dough recipe.)

I put a bowl of water in the bottom of my oven to help create moisture so that the crust would bake nicely. The water actually boiled in the bowl, creating steam.

Voila!

Lazy Breakfast

2009-07-25T02:13:00.000-07:00

A Lazy Breakfast

Strawberries.
Clean'em.
Slice'em.
Pour cream over them.
Enjoy.

It almost reads like a poem. A bad free verse poem. But a poem.

Frozen Plum Yogurt

2009-07-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

This is a frozen plum yogurt recipe made from real yogurt and plum puree. Simple, if you have plums on hand. I had a bag of plums that were quietly decaying in my refrigerator, so I saved them before it was too late.

PLUM PUREE

16 plums, boiled until the skins split.
Refrigerate the boiled plums until chilled.
Remove the pits and stems.
Puree plums in the food processor.

This will leave you with about 4 cups of plum puree. If you boil it, the skins will soften a bit, and melt when processed. You get the most nutrients with the skins left on; some recipes through the skins away. Not sure if you lose nutrients by boiling the plums, I will check up on that.

FROZEN PLUM YOGURT

2 cups plum mash
2 cups full fat yogurt
1/2 cup sugar or honey or agave nectar
* berries

Mix in a bowl, and then add to the ice-cream maker. Follow ice-cream maker instruction, and voila!

*We added fresh blueberries and frozen raspberries to the mix, at the last 2 minutes.

The recipe is a basic one, I would tinker with it a bit, it needs a dash of rum or a plum brandy to make it taste SUPER AWESOME. It tastes good, but it's not stunning...because I added a 1/2 cup sugar instead of 1 cup of sugar.

It tastes slightly tangy, but my husband prefers it tangy. I like it sweet, but not too sweet. Most frozen yogurt places are too sweet for my taste buds, so next time I make it, I will try 3/4 cups of sugar. It really depends on the sweetness of the plums.

Nana's Lemon Cookies, everything free

2009-07-21T17:50:00.001-07:00

Nana's Lemon Cookies are free of EVERYTHING. Gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and most importantly beet-free. In case, you were worrying and/or wondering if you were eating too many beets.

Not sure what the anti-beet reference is too, perhaps it is a Raw Foodist thing that I have yet to discover. IF someone knows, please tweet me! I can't live without beet knowledge...and who knows how many evil beets I have consumed in cookies or cakes or sweet breads?

They're not bad, $3.79 for 5 individually wrapped cookies. They look alright, square...it's a good start.

Let's take a bite!

Not bad. But not great. Boring. They are boring. Slightly sweetened by apple and grape juice...nice, I like that, but I can hardly taste the lemon. Secondly, they used rice flour and the problem with rice flour is that it can taste GRITTY, without butter or honey to hold the cookie together.

Would I buy this again? No, not for myself. Would I feed it to a child or an elderly person? YES! It's dull, but it's a healthy cookie. Healthy...and it's a COOKIE!

My husband told me that his parents fed him yogurt and told him that it was ice-cream. They had him fooled. But at some point, he went to a birthday party and was served REAL ice-cream; he couldn't believe it...the taste of the sweet, frozen delicacy compared to tangy yogurt.

After the party, he went after his parents with a Clint Eastwood vengeance...yogurt is NOT ICE-CREAM! You guys are LIARS!!!!

Gluten-free Bagels!

2009-07-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

Glutino makes awesome gluten-free bagels. I paid 6 dollars for 5 bagels. Expensive, but I only eat half a bagel at a time (200 calories/half) so I figure that it's 6 dollars for 10 sandwiches, which is pretty good!

My only problem with the Glutino bagels is that they do not come pre-sliced. Not cool, Glutino, not cool.

And what is the with the "sans gluten" advertising on the bag? Isn't that FRENCH? Is Glutino, French? No, I think they are located in America. So why can't they write...WITHOUT instead of SANS ? Who do they think are? Gwyneth Paltrow?

Pretentious, Glutino, very, very pretentious. That's two strikes, guys. TWO STRIKES!

Wheat-free is not Gluten-free.

2009-07-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

Wheat-free Oreos????? Look closer.

Wheatfree, eh? But are they GLUTEN-FREE? LOOK CLOSER!

NO! They contain BARLEY FLOUR! Barley flour contains gluten, and it will make you SICK if you are allergic to gluten. I bought these damn cookies and ate five of them before I realized my mistake when my lips puffed up and I had an asthma attack. Not cool!

Shame on me! But I direct this to Joanne Woodward out there: Barley flour? May I suggest a big switchero to buckwheat flour, chickpea flour, brown rice flour, tapioca flour, millet flour or sorghum flour instead of the evil BARLEY FLOUR, so that the anti-gluten freaks out there, like me, could enjoy your sweet and wonderful cookies?

Thank, you. By the way, I loved you as the doctor in Sybil. But if truth be told, you blew monkey chunks in The Three Faces of Eve and Orpheus Descending. But lets blame the latter on a depressed Marlon Brando, and call it a day.

Gluten Free Red Velvet Cake for 4th of July

2009-07-05T01:44:00.000-07:00

What could be better than a Bloody, Southern Red Velvet Cake to mark the 4th of July?

I found a gluten-free Southern Red Velvet recipe posted by GF blogger, Mary Francis at www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/gluten-free-red-velvet-cake/ Thank you, Mary!!!!

I have printed my interpretation of her recipe, including the changes that I was forced to make out of necessity--lacking brown rice flour, buttermilk and an extra egg. The cakes didn't rise as high as I thought they would. Maybe that's because the cake is extremely dense. I tried to cut the cakes in half, but they kinda fell apart, being so rich. If you want a 4 layer cake, it would be best to double the recipe. Ever since I saw a 4 layer cake on a Bobby Flay food special, I have been dying to make one.

I will also try to get rid of the egg, substituting the (2 Tbls flax seed + 1 Tbls water + 1 Tbls soy flour) for 2 eggs. This works well for most gluten-free chocolate cakes, but I tried it once with with a yellow cake recipe, and it was a COMPLETE DIASTER! I am much more careful now...I limit the recipe to one egg to see if the recipe can handle it, before I get rid of it completely. The good news is, I think this recipe can handle being egg-free.

Mary's recipe is excellent, a true find for a gluten-free baker. I hope my tinkering helps those of us who are allegic to eggs as well as gluten.

4th of July Red Velvet Cake
1 3/4 c. canola oil
1 c. sugar
2 Tbls flax seed
1 Tbls water
1 egg

1/2 c. white rice flour
3/4 c. sorghum flour
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/2 c. corn starch
1 Tbls soy flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup milk
1 Tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla
1 oz. red food coloring, McCormick’s
1 Tbsp. cocoa

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 box confectioner’s sugar
2 boxes of cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 milk, or too desired consistency

1. Mix all of the dry flours together.
2. Beat egg, sugar and oil together.
3. Add vinegar to milk for buttermilk.
4. Add 2 Tbls flax seed to 1 Tbls water. Let it congeal, takes 2 minutes. After it congeals, add it to the wet ingredients of egg, sugar and oil.
5. Add the 1/2 flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir.
6. Add 1/2 cup of milk-vinegar to the wet ingredients. Stir.
7. Add the rest of the flour, and the rest of the milk. Stir.
8. Add 1 Tbls cocoa, 1 oz of red food coloring, and 1 Tbls vanilla.
9. Stir. The mixture is VERY RED and QUITE THICK!
10. Pour in 2, 8-inch cake pans, at 350 for about 30 minutes.
The sweet pea staring at the cake is Scarlett, Stephanie's daughter, who turned 4 on the 3rd of July!!!!!

Trader Joe's Gluten-free Pancakes

2009-02-05T13:55:00.000-08:00

Trader Joe's Gluten-free Pancakes
Gluten-free breakfasts can be a lot of work. But Trader Joe's has a new gluten-free pancake mix that I really love. I made blueberries pancakes for my husband last week and wanted to share the experience.

Trader Joe's Gluten-free Pancakes
1/2 package
1 cup soy milk (or to desired consistency)
1/4 cup Ricotta cheese
1 Tbls yogurt whole-style
1 package Trader Joe Wild Blueberries
1 egg
2 Tbls ground flax seed 1. Add ingredients according to list and mix by hand. Note: Only add 1/2 cup of the frozen blueberries to the pancake mix.
2. Heat skillet--I only had olive oil in the house, so I used a mixture of olive oil and butter.

3. I poured 1/2 cup per pancake. When I cook pancakes I put a lid on top of the pancake to steam the top of the pancake--so that I can be sure the pancake is cooked through. I wait to see the little holes pop a bit before I turn it over.
4. Heat to boiling 1 package of frozen wild blueberries from Trader Joe's with 1/2 cup water, 1 squeeze of lemon, and 2 tablespoons of Agave Nectar for sweetness.

5. When pancakes were done, I poured the blueberry syrup over the pancakes with a drizzle of real Maple Syrup and voila!

As side note, I actually didn't use maple syrup on my pancakes. I pour a tiny bit of agave nectar and it tasted great without the added sugar.
Enjoy!

Gluten-free Brownies

2009-02-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

I used my favorite brownie recipe and updated it for gluten-free brownies. Warning: these brownies are seriously fudgey.
The base recipe was from the box of Baker's Chocolate and it is called "One Bowl Brownies".

Gluten-free One Bowl Brownies
4 squares Bakers unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 stick butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbls flax seed flour (or crushed flax seeds)
6 Tbls water
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp rum (optional)
1/3 cup chick pea flour
1/3 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup Teff flour
1/3 cup walnuts (optional)

1. Melt chocolate and butter slowly over the burner. Slowly!!! It's pretty easy to burn chocolate if you melt it too fast. There is nothing to be done with burnt chocolate other than throwing it away. I made this mistake twice before I learned to be patient. 2. Add sugar, eggs, flax seed and mix.

3. Add flour, rum and vanilla.

4. Add walnuts. Mix. Bake for 30 minutes or so at 350.

5. Insert knife. Be sure to take brownie out slightly before they are completely done. The brownies continue to cook in the pan for a few minutes, and the chocolate aromas tend to evaporate in the heat.
If you would like a cake-like brownie, the recipe says to add an extra 1/2 cup flour plus a 1/2 cup milk.

Even if I could eat gluten, I would still add the flour mixture of teff, chick-pea and brown rice. Teff and chick-pea flour is loaded with protein and the flax seed flour adds omega-3 fatty acids to the otherwise sugar and fat smack-down.

Newbie Puff Pastry (NOT GLUTEN-FREE!)

2008-12-13T16:58:00.001-08:00

So, I wanted to make homemade apple turnovers for Ian's birthday. I bought butter and pastry flour and hit the kitchen. I had no idea how to make puff pastry but I've always wanted to learn how to make it, so believe it or not I went to You tube and found a video of several chefs making it from scratch. I watched the videos over and over and finally attempted my newbie version.

Here is the video that I used for my instruction. It's so fabulous! Thank you chefmichaelolson.com!

Here is the basic recipe that I used:

2 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter
1/2 cup cold tap water
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups pastry flour

Butter. I rolled out 2 sticks of butter flat on a piece of wax sheet paper and then froze it. I made two of these and stored them in the freezer. Dice the leftover 1/2 stick of butter.
I mixed the basic dry ingredients in the food processor with the dough wheel in and then added the diced 1/2 stick butter. Pulsing gently with a 3-5 five second blasts. Then I added the 1/2 cup cold water a drizzle at a time while pulsing gently. If you over mix it the dough will be tough, believe me I have made that mistake with pie dough and the result is dismal.

I rolled the dough into a ball and cut the ball as you see in the picture. Then I rolled the dough with a lightly floured wooden roller from the middle of the dough-outward. That is what the cutting the cross into the dough is for--you roll outward in four directions-North, South, East and West.
I unwrapped my frozen block of butter and place it onto the rolled out dough. I left my butter thaw at bit, if it is too frozen it will break the dough, and you want the butter cold but not hard as ice.

I folded the dough over the butter and then rolled it out. I repeated this four times in four different directions to create layers of cold butter between layers of dough. Once the butter was folded in, I rolled the dough into a ball and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator.

The next morning I made apple turnovers with the dough. This is how they turned out!

Not perfect, but not bad for a newbie pastry maker. Enjoy!

Top Chef Blogs

2008-12-11T01:19:00.001-08:00

Learn Top Chef Tips from Top Chefs on Bravo.

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Brownie Mix

2008-12-10T16:12:00.000-08:00

I bought a gluten free brownie mix at Trader Joe's this week after class on Saturday and made these for decorating the Christmas tree.

I followed the instructions--except I melted three squares of unsweetened chocolate and added walnuts to the mix. Also, we didn't have any eggs, so I made them WITHOUT EGGS which kind of ruins the idea of a taste test.

At any rate, the brownies were fudgey and delicious, perhaps a bit spongy because the batter needed an egg for consistency.

Everyone ate the brownies and ignored the German spice cookies, so it was a success despite the missing egg.

I can't wait to buy these again and make them with the blasted egg. But those of us who are allergic to egg, should be HAPPY TO KNOW that you make a decent egg--free, wheat-free brownie with this mix.

Generally, I make wheat-free brownies without a mix, I add a mixture of brown rice flour, soy flour, and chick-pea flour and it works wonderfully. I'll be posting that soon.

Apple Pie from Crisco

2008-11-30T22:40:00.000-08:00

Below follows a recipe I cribbed from www.crisco.com. I have been using this apple pie recipe since I was sixteen, it always works, although I change a few thing here and there.

For instance, I don't really measure the nutmug, I just dump some in, and I try to double the cinnamon. I also add a 1/8 of ground ginger and squeeze lemon juice over the mixture. I also dot the pie with butter before I add the crust.

Ironically, I was out of Crisco, which is why I used old fashioned LARD, which I alway seem to have at hand. Weird.

CRUST
3 cups AP flour
7 TBLS organic butter
2 TBLS Lard not Crisco!
1/4 cup ice water
1 tsp Kosher Salt

FILLING
9 cups peeled, sliced apples
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons All Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon butter or margarine

BAKE 40 minutes or until apples are tender and filling in center is bubbly. Cover edge with foil, if necessary, to prevent overbrowning. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Ancient Roman Sweet Cheese Bread

2007-06-23T21:55:00.001-07:00

I found this ancient Roman recipe on the PBS website. NOVA says that it came from a Cato the elder.

Modern Roman Libum Recipe--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 cup plain, all purpose flour
8 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
bay leaves
1/2 cup clear honey

Sift the flour into a bowl. Beat the cheese until it's soft and stir it into the flour along with the egg. Form a soft dough and divide into 4. Mold each one into a bun and place them on a greased baking tray with a fresh bay leaf underneath. Heat the oven to 425° F. Cover the cakes with your brick* and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden-brown. Warm the honey and place the warm cakes in it so that they absorb it. Allow to stand 30 minutes before serving.

*The Romans often covered their food while it was cooking with a domed earthenware cover called a testo. You can use an overturned, shallow clay pot, a metal bowl, or casserole dish as a brick.