Thursday, May 31, 2012

More gluten-free baking

I've left out some important gluten-free baking staples up to this point. Mostly that's because I found recipes that I like and I use them. Since I didn't make them up myself I didn't bother to post them, but it occurs to me that having everything in one place will be useful for me, if not for anyone else. Plus I have another of my recipes to post!

First up is gluten free, egg free, dairy free, and soy free bread. I found this recipe about 9 months ago and I've been really pleased with it. When fresh it is delicious for eating plain, with butter, or with olive oil. I've even brought it to departmental parties, not told anyone it was gluten free, and had it eagerly devoured with many a compliment. It does go stale rather quickly, but makes nice toast on the second day.

Next is pizza crust. I tinkered with the recipe just a little bit, because this one, from Gluten-Free Goddess, uses egg whites, which Zion and I can't tolerate. She does note that you can use egg replacer, and I've made this recipe with both Ener-g egg replacer and flax seeds and water, and in the end I've found it's better if I just increase the water and oil slightly. I've also omitted the rice vinegar, as it didn't seem to make any difference. But it really makes a delicious crust, so delicious that gluten-eating friends have said that they prefer it to wheat crust. Admittedly only a few of them, but still. We can't all have good taste AND a sense of humor, right?

And finally, one of my recipes! This one is for pancakes. I tried a number of gluten-free pancake recipes when we first went gluten-free, and none of them were particularly good. My kids ate them, because they are pancake fiends and not particularly discerning, but I felt sure I could do better. Or rather: I felt sure that I could instruct Robert on how to do better, since he does most of the pancake making these days. And I did!

Gluten-free, vegan pancakes

2 cups GF flour (I use a blend of brown rice, potato and tapioca for this)
1-3 T of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp each baking soda and salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Mix all that together.

Combine 2 cups of liquid (could be all water, all milk of any kind, or a mix. I usually do about half water and half rice milk)
3 T grapeseed oil
1 T vinegar or lemon juice

Mix that with the dry ingredients. If it seems too thick, add more water. If it's too thin you could add more flour I guess, or just call it crepes.

I like cooking the pancakes in grapeseed oil too. Nom. If I turn a burner on to medium under my huge cast iron skillet right before I start mixing ingredients it's usually ready to go when the batter is.

1 comment:

Robin Rentrope said...

I have not the patience for bread-making - I wish I did because I love bread but haven't found an excellent gf vegan one yet. I get the rice bread in the freezer section. It's very dense so not great until I pan fry it in vegan butter or oil... then it's superb! However, I will make the pancakes!! I make gf vegan pancakes of some sort nearly every Sunday so yours are next:) Can't wait.