Gluten Free Cooking School » Recipes for Bread & Baked Goods

Gluten Free Sausage Balls

Mary Frances — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:19:58 +0000

One of my absolute favorite recipes to make with my grandmother was Sausage Balls. I loved to grate the cheese with her Mouli grater, and then mix, and mix, and mix the dough to get all of the flour worked it. A few sausage ball sculpture appeared along the way too.

I finally got around to de-glutening this recipe a few weeks ago and made them for my family for the first time. The gluten free sausage balls were a hit with everyone. If you’ve never had sausage balls (I’m not sure how widespread this recipe is outside of the Deep South), you must try them. Heaven in your mouth!

Gluten Free Sausage Ball Recipe

9 oz. (2 c.) Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

16 oz. ground sausage

10 oz. Cracker Barrel Sharp or Extra Sharp Cheddar

Instructions:

1. Let the cheese come to room temperature and then grate it using a Mouli grater, or the small holes on a handheld grater.

2. Mix the grated cheese and the sausage together with your hands until it is very well combined.

3. Mix the flour and baking powder together, and then gradually work all of the flour into the sausage and cheese mixture. Use your hands again.

4. Form the dough into small balls – approximately golf ball size. Place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees (pre-heated oven) for 25 minutes.

Notes:

If you don’t have a grater with small holes, you can use a larger holed grater. It will just take you longer to work the sausage and cheese into a homogenous mixture.
If you opt for a less expensive cheese, do go for the Extra Sharp. My grandmother always insisted on Cracker Barrel cheddar for Sausage Balls and Cheese Straws so I’ve kept up the tradition here.
I weigh my flours on a digital scale instead of using measuring cups. If you do the same, use 9 oz. of the specified flour. If you prefer measuring cups, then you’ll use 2 c. of the flour.
If you’ve never made sausage balls before, you’ll probably think that you’ll never get all of the flour worked in. Keep working at it. It takes a lot of hand power. I have a feeling my Grandmother only made these when the kids were around so that she could spare her arthritic hands.
The sausage balls are the best when you cook them long enough to so that the tops start to brown. (The ones in the picture above were from my first batch and they could have used another 5 minutes in the oven). You want there to be a slight crunch to the outside to that there are two distinct textures when you bite it. A crunch on the outside and then soft on the inside.
Always cut a few in half to make sure that they are completely cooked through.
I tested this recipe in our RV’s oven. I have no idea how closely it’s heating to the correct temperature. There was an unfortunate accident with my oven thermometer involving a certain curious 2 yr old. Thankfully, only the oven thermometer suffered harm. So, following the baking instructions, but do keep an eye on things and use the tips in the cooking notes to verify that the baking process is complete.

Hot, Steamy, Wonderful Gluten Free Yeast Rolls

Mary Frances — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:20:56 +0000

Learning to make really good gluten free yeast rolls was a huge challenge for me. I wanted yeast rolls that made you sing when you took you first bit. I wanted them to be hot and light and fluffy. And, I even wanted them to reheat well the next day.

That’s asking a lot from a gluten free yeast roll!

But finally, after numerous iterations of this recipe, I figured it out. The secret is adding just a bit of potato starch. These yeast rolls will make you very, very happy. And very very full. Ration them out carefully, or you might just find a two year old sitting in the pots and pans cabinet having a little feast. I’m not going to name names, but you’ve been warned =)

Mary’s Yeast Rolls (1 ½ dozen rolls)

2 c. brown rice flour
1 ¼ c.cornstarch or tapioca starch
1/4 c. potato starch
1 Tbsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
3 large eggs, beaten
¼ cup butter, melted
1/8 cup sugar (2 Tbsp)
1 ¼ cup milk (non-dairy works fine)
1 Tbsp. active dry yeast

Heat the milk in a saucepan until it is scalded (heated to 180 degrees F). Let the milk cool to 110 degrees F and add the sugar and yeast and stir gently until combined. Set the milk mixture aside until the yeast has proofed.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the brown rice flour, starches, xanthan gum and salt. Add the milk/yeast mixture and the beaten eggs to the flour and beat for 3 -4 minutes. Cover the dough and allow it to rise until doubled in size.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead it gently a few times. Separate the dough into 18 even pieces. Roll each piece of dough between your floured hands until it forms a ball. Then lightly coat the roll with flour and set aside on your baking pan.

Repeat for each piece of dough. Cover the rolls with a lightly floured towel and let them rise for thirty minutes. Brush melted butter over the tops of the rolls and bake at 425 degrees F for 20 – 25 minutes, or until the top of the rolls are golden brown and crispy.

Would your Thanksgiving be less overwhelming if you knew the gluten free recipes that you’re planning would turn out wonderfully? Would you like to actually see what these rolls are supposed to look like as you make them? Would you like to have someone to go to when you have questions? If so, then my Gluten Free Thanksgiving Made Easy Kit may be just what you need.

Orange Halloween Cupcakes for Your Gluten Free Dairy Free Trick-or-Treaters

Mary Frances — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:08:19 +0000

Gluten free baking mixes have their place, and for me the perfect use of a box of Betty Crocker’s GF Cake Mix is a surprise batch of cupcakes for the kiddos. Last week I whipped up a batch and made a few alterations to the recipe on the back of the box, so that we could have some gluten free, casein free, and very orange Halloween cupcakes.

Here’s how to do it for yourself:

Start with: 1 box Betty Crocker GF Yellow Cake Mix

Follow the box instructions except for the following -

Substitute: coconut oil for the butter

Add: 4 g red food coloring & 6 g yellow food coloring

Bake according to the directions on the box.

If you aren’t using a scale, then just measure the food coloring by drops and keep a 4:6 ratio of red to yellow.

I’ll also grudgingly admit that these cupcakes would be perfect for Tennessee, Auburn and Florida fans.

Here’s a comment from Sara, a nutritionist and one of my newsletter readers, about food colorings:

I wanted to let you know that there are all natural alternatives to artificial food colors – go to www.naturalcandystore.com. Many autistic and ADHD kids have gut dysbiosis and should avoid artificial colors. I think the same is true for everyone – we try to avoid them, and I would never willingly buy food colors and add them to homebaked goods!

I hope your trick-or-treaters enjoy these cupcakes as much as my kiddos did =)

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Gluten Free, Corn Free Flour Mix

Mary Frances — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:07:31 +0000

I still love my gluten free AP flour mix that I’ve been using for years, but I’ve started using a new corn free flour mix to test some of my recipes. For those of you out there who are corn free, know you are loved and thought of in this gluten free kitchen!

If you want to use this gluten free, corn free flour mix in any of the recipes that are formulated for my gluten free all purpose flour mix, just reduce the amount of liquids in the recipes. The almond flour in this mix doesn’t soak up liquids like masa harina does. The best way to reduce the liquids is to add 1/2 the liquids at once, and then gradually add in the remainder of the liquid until the dough/batter reaches the right consistency. Note – if you’re proofing yeast in your liquid, think ahead so that all of the yeast gets into the dough.

Photo by FotoosVanRobin

Mary’s Gluten Free & Corn Free Flour Mix

3 parts brown rice flour
3 parts tapioca starch
2 parts sorghum flour (or soy, or garfava)
1 part almond flour

The Gluten Free Casein Free Diet – Butter Substitutions

Mary Frances — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:48:49 +0000

Butter, butter, butter. So good for you, and so enjoyable as long as you don’t look at the calorie count and you’re not allergic to it. If you bake a lot, you already know that it’s possible to go through an incredible amount of butter every so quickly. Knowing how to substitute for butter in any given recipe is essential if you want to keep baking on a gluten free, casein free diet.

Photo by pinprick Let’s start off with a few words about butter. Butter is fat. Butter’s primary role in most baking recipe is to be the “fat”. Since butter is a dairy product it also adds some water to the recipe – butter is about 80% fat and 20% water. Butter also adds flavor to the recipes, and it’s dairy proteins can help with browning. Yet, despite all of that, butter’s most important role is that it’s fat.

So, if you need to replace butter in a recipe, you can replace it with one of a number of other fats. The particular fat that you choose will depend on two things.

1) You can’t be allergic to the fat.
2) Pick the right fat for the recipe.

Here is a quick list of fats that might work as a dairy substitute for you. I would keep all of these that you’re not allergic to on hand at all times.

Non-Dairy Butter Substitutes for Baking

shortening (often contains soy) - Shortening has a lingering bad reputation for saturated fats, but it’s a great butter substitute, especially for biscuits and pie crusts. In fact, shortening in biscuits is phenomenal; the crust shatters in your mouth and gives one little perfect moment of baking joy.
vegetable oils (often contains soy and corn) - Vegetable oils work if the fat in the recipe doesn’t have to be solid. Oil does a great job of covering up flour particles and can really reduce the grainy mouth feel you sometimes get with gluten free flours.
coconut oil (tree nut) – Coconut oil is solid above 76 degrees F, so if your house is cool then this can work a as a butter (or shortening) substitute. Get the temp above 76 degrees and you can use it as a liquid oil.
Earth Balance (often contains soy)- Earth Balance is one of my favorite options! Earth Balance makes vegan buttery spreads AND buttery sticks. Most of their products contain soy, but one of the spreads is soy free too, and suitable for baking.
animal lard – I’ll be honest, I haven’t used lard, but it is a fat and it used to be widely used. Using lard in cooking/baking is on my to-do list. From what I’ve read you shouldn’t use the stuff that can be stored for months at room temparature. Instead, look for lard in the refrigerated section or make it yourself.

As always, check and make sure any product that you buy is gluten free, even if that means calling the manufacturer and asking about their manufacturing practices.

How to Choose a Non-Dairy Butter Substitutes

If you wanted, you could get really scientific about which butter substitute would work best in a given recipes. You could start checking melting points, water content, and burning points. But we’re not going to do that today.

Most of the time you will be perfectly fine if you follow this rule:

Rule: Substitute solid fats for solid butter; substitute liquid fats for melted butter.

So, if the recipe calls for solid butter, you could use shortening, lard, Earth Balance or solid coconut oil. If the recipe, calls for melted butter then you can use vegetable oil, or you can melt the shortening, lard, Earth Balance or coconut oil.

Even this is not a hard and fast rule. If you’re making biscuits and only have vegetable oil, go ahead and use it. It’s won’t be the same as if you had used a solid fat, but it won’t be bad. Sometimes things won’t work out. The melting point of the fat can be extremely important in some recipes, and you might actually have to experiment with different fat substitutes to find one that works. But that’s not going to happen all that often.

In most situations, just use the fat that you have on hand and don’t worry all that much about it. This is just one recipe out of the thousands (millions maybe?) that you’ll cook, and it’s really not worth worrying over all that much. The recipe will probably turn out just fine and you can spend your worrying energy on something else =)

Cranberry Orange Quickbread by the Ratio – How a New Recipe is Created

Mary Frances — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:26:28 +0000

In my last post I mentioned that I was going to experiment with gluten free ratios and start weighing out my recipes. To hold myself accountable (because we all see how well I’ve done with posting my bread experiments) I decided to join the Gluten Free Ratio Rally that Shauna Ahern of Gluten Free Girl started last month. The Rally experiment for this month was quickbread. The challenge was to make a gluten free quickbread using the ratio specified in Michael Ruhlman’s book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.

Silvana of Silvana’s Kitchen and author of Cooking for Isaiah is hosting the Gluten Free Ratio Rally Roundup, so go by her site to see the full list (and links) of everyone who participated.

Recipe Creation

The ratio for quickbread is 2 parts flour, 2 parts liquid, 1 part egg, and 1 part butter. Since I was late getting signed up for this month’s challenge I didn’t have the benefit of reading about the other bloggers’ experiments and using the community spreadsheet to work on my recipe calculations. I just started with the formula, said a prayer**, and then started working out the recipe amounts. Here’s a step-by-step analysis of how I came up with the final recipe.

First I considered the flour. This is where normal baking ratios get tricky for those of us who are doing gluten free baking. For the ratio (and the recipe) to work then your flour mix needs to act like the wheat flour does. And how the wheat flour acts differs depending on the type of recipe. For example, if you’re making bread then you want the gluten in the wheat flour to develop and create the structure for the loaf of bread. However, if you’re making quickbread or muffins, then you do not want the gluten to activate because that will make the bread/muffin tough.

The flour mix that I usually use has not fared well in my sandwich bread ratio experiments thus far. It seems to be much more absorbent than wheat flour in bread recipes, requiring far more liquids than is called for in the bread ratio. However, I’ve also used that flour recipes to successfully convert other baked goods recipes on a 1:1 basis. I only had one shot at getting this recipe right due to the Rally deadline, so rather than play with new flours I decided to use Mary’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix without any added xanthan gum. I did substitute coconut flour for the masa harina because I like to use coconut flour in sweet baked goods. Coconut flour and masa harina are both very absorbent, so doing a 1:1 substitution is fine.

With that decided I looked through my pantry, freezer, and refrigerator for some inspiration for the flavor of the quickbread. Two bags of whole cranberries have been hanging out in my freezer since November. Everytime I see them I think, “I should use those for something.” and then I close the door and go about whatever I was doing and the cranberries continue to sit. Enough with that. The time had come to make a cranberry flavored quick bread.

Most baked recipes use dried cranberries, rather than whole uncooked cranberries. I knew the flavor would be tart, but I was okay with that since I planned on topping the bread with a cream cheese icing. I also knew that cranberries contain pectin (pectin is what makes jam (n.) jam (v.), and that the pectin would keep the bread from being crumbly. The pectin was my insurance policy against a crumbly mess, since I had planned on not using any gums, or ground flax seeds for this recipe.

Deciding on Amounts

Finally I needed to decide how much of each ingredient should be in the recipe. I looked at a few quickbread recipes online and they all had around 2 c. of flour. I know that my flour mix weighs 4.5 oz. when I measure it out, so I started with 9.0 oz of flour. (Since my flour mix is a 9 part ratio, this also meant that I could pour the flours directly into the bowl, measuring them by weight, and not have to make up a batch of flour mix).

The quickbread ratio is 2 parts flour, 2 parts liquid, 1 part egg, and 1 part butter. Since I had chosen 9 oz of flour, I also needed 9 oz. of liquids, 4.5 oz of egg and 4.5 oz of butter. For the liquids I went with the juice of one orange, which ended up being 3 oz and 6 oz. of water.

Large eggs are supposed to weigh 2 oz. (and so one would usually start figuring out amounts by deciding how many whole eggs you want in your recipe), but all of the eggs that I have weighed have been less than that. I cracked 3 eggs into a bowl set on my digital scale and them removed one yolk and some whites until the weight was down to 4.5 oz. I ended up using the leftover egg for another recipe later that day.

A stick of butter weighs about 4.0 oz, so I used one stick of butter and 0.5 oz. of canola oil.

Now that I had decided on the main components of the recipe, I filled in the amounts of salt and baking powder from the standard recipe in Ruhlman’s book. I added a bit of vanilla and orange extract and baking soda because it seemed like the right thing to do. The amount of sugar for the recipe is not addressed by the ratio as you are supposed to alter it based on how sweet you want the bread to be and the tartness of your other ingredients. I knew that I’d need a good bit of sugar to balance the tartness of the cranberries, but I wasn’t sure how much. I checked the back of the bag of cranberries and used the amount (1 c.) recommended for cranberry relish. With that my recipe was complete, and it was time to bake it and see what happened.

As you can see from the pictures, the bread turned out really well. It was tart as expected, but I thought that was a perfect excuse to pile on more icing. The natural pectin in the cranberries did a great job of holding the bread together – very moist and dense which is how I like quickbread. John, who is not a huge fan of cranberries, ate a whole slice without stopping to even put it on a plate.

Recipes are rarely done after one attempt, and this recipe is not “finished”. Next time I’ll reduce the amount of cranberries and increase the sugar. The bread itself did not taste sweet and I think that there should be at least a hint of sweetness. I’ll also increase the amount of orange extract in the bread and icing, and top the icing with a few sprinkles of orange zest. This is going to make a very nice holiday bread after a few more tweaks.

**For many years I questioned the usefulness of prayer. I never doubted that my prayers were heard, but I never felt like I received any answers. The problem turned out to be that I wasn’t listening and looking for answers. Over the past few years I’ve realized that God often answers my prayers by giving me an idea that I wouldn’t have otherwise had.

For example, before I started this bread I asked God to help me write a good recipe because I knew that I’d only have time to bake one loaf this weekend. Then at key points while I was writing the recipe I mentally stopped to listen. When I was feeling uneasy about the flour mix, I remembered the cranberries and how they release pectin when you boil them. When I felt uneasy about whether the amount of liquids needed to be adjusted after I boiled the cranberries, I remembered that I could just weigh the liquid and make sure that it was the right amount. These may seem like obvious steps to take, but I promise you that before I stopped to mentally listen for a thought from God I was completely frustrated and unsure. Then He gave me an insight and I was able to go on confidently.

God answers my prayers like this all the time. Sometimes the answer is a thought. Sometimes it’s a Bible verse that I am able to understand in a new say. And the more that we live by faith and depend on God (not our own efforts) for our daily bread, the more we’re able to see him answering prayer through physical means.**

Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Quickbread

3 oz. brown rice flour
3 oz. corn starch
2 oz. sorghum flour
1 oz. coconut flour

1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
4.0 oz. unsalted butter

3 oz. orange juice
6 oz. water
7.5 oz. sugar
12.0 oz. whole cranberries

4.5 oz. egg
0.5 oz. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. orange extract

Instructions:

Step One: Measure the water, orange juice, sugar and cranberries into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir until sugar is dissolved and then reduce heat to bring the mixture down to a simmer. Simmer until the berries began to pop – 10 to 12 minutes. Set the berry mixture aside to start cooling.

Step Two: Measure the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix thoroughly with a fork. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter lumps are the size of peas.

Step Three: Measure out 4.5 oz of egg. A large egg is supposed to weight about 2 oz. I used 3 eggs and then removed a yolk and some whites to bring the weight down to 4.5 oz. Whisk the eggs until no whites are obvious. Add the oil (approximately 1 Tbsp) and extracts and mix again.

Step Four: Pour the cranberry mixture (still pretty warm) into the flour mixture. While whisking the eggs add a small amount (2 – 3 Tbsp) of the batter to the eggs to temper them. Repeat this twice and then add the eggs into the batter. Stir thoroughly.

Step Five: Grease a loaf pan. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake the bread at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes. The bread should have slightly browned around the edges and the loaf top will be spring back when touched.

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Gluten Free Bread Experiments: Free Form

Mary Frances — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 14:36:30 +0000

Loaf #7: Gluten Free, Soy Free, Corn Free Trial #4:
So, the best laid plans all fail when you realize that it’s 2:30 and that you need to be out of the house, with bread in hand, by 5:00. I had planned to make a double loaf of bread today and bake one in the bread machine and the other in the oven after a 2 hour rise on top of the stove. That did not happen.

When I started to measure out the flour I discovered that I only had 20 oz. of the flour mix made up. Two full loaves would require 25 oz. I’m not really sure why, but rather than just making one 12.5 oz. loaf, I decided to make one 20 oz. loaf and just back in the water measurements based on the ratio of flour:water that I had been using.

After a little math on the back of a scrap of paper, I determined that I needed 15 oz. of water for 20 oz. of flour or a 4:3 flour to water ratio. This is still a little off from the 5:3 ratio that wheat bread uses (see yesterday’s newsletter on more about that). In Ratio, Ruhlman says that the amount of yeast and salt in a recipe can be variable, so I didn’t bother to measure those out with measuring spoons. (I has in a hurry!!) I still wanted a pretty quick rise so I estimated about 1.5 Tbsp yeast, 1 tsp. sugar and 1.5 tsp. salt. I did measure the xanthan gum and used a heaping tablespoon.

By this time, I wasn’t following any recipe strictly and I still needed to make a decision about how many eggs to add and how much oil and vinegar to use. Ruhlman does not address whether water portion of the bread ratio (5 flour: 3 water + yeast and salt) needs to be adjusted if you add eggs and oil, so I wasn’t sure what do to. I ended up just sticking with the 3 eggs and 1 tsp of vinegar that is in my usual recipe and leaving the oil out.

The dough was a little on the dry side (for gluten free dough) when I mixed it all up, so I added 1/8 c. water (1 oz) and that got the dough to just the consistency that I was looking for. Since I wasn’t sure if my loaf pan would hold this much dough, I put it all into my largest bowl, which I had greased first, and left it out to rise for 1.5 hours. This first picture is the dough before it has started to rise.

The dough rose magnificently. I didn’t get a picture, but it easily doubled. Maybe more than that. I had this bright idea that I’d separate the dough into 4 pieces and make little round mini-loaves.

That was a disaster!

I ended up with hands covered in sticky dough that would not come together into anything. The children also chose this time to squash one another’s fingers in the cabinet, explore electrical outlets and try to climb up my body.

Thankfully, my sweet husband rescued them and me, and fixed up a baking sheet with a nice thick layer of GF cornmeal. I scraped all of the dough back into the greased bowl, formed something of a round shape with a wet spoon and then dumped it onto the baking sheet.

Into the oven at 400 with a prayer that something edible will result and some time later this is what came out of the oven.

We headed out to the car immediately after I took these pictures, but I managed to snitch a couple of bites with Lucy while we were driving. The crust was so crunchy! And the interior was so soft! It was the perfect loaf of bread to just tear a hunk off of and dip in olive oil. Which is what I expect that we will be doing today =)

Gluten Free Bread Experiments: Sunken In and a Little Flat

Mary Frances — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:35:23 +0000

Loaf #5 – Gluten Free, Corn Free, Soy Free
Perfecting gluten free baking ofter requires several trials. The first two pictures are trial #3 of my new gluten free, soy free, corn free sandwich bread recipe. I think that it’s probably 2 or 3 more trials away from being ready to share with you. So far, the flavor and texture of the bread are great. I’d like to get a bit more rise on it though.

In this loaf I tried a few new techniques that are supposed to help the dough rise. The first is autolysis, a process in which you mix the flour and water and let it sit for 30 minutes before you add the remainder of the ingredients. I also added steam to my oven before baking and baked the loaf on top of a baking stone to provide more contant heat. Disappointingly, I didn’t notice a big change from earlier versions.

Trial #2 of this bread was made into gluten free hoagie rolls and they turned out really well.

Next up for this bread is a turn through the bread machine, which I haven’t tried yet. My bread machine loaves usually rise higher than my conventional oven loaves. Is there some magic to the bread machine? No. The bread machine pan is just not as long as my oven loaf pan, and the sides go up higher. As a result, the dough is forced up as it rises and you get a taller loaf.

I’m also going to experiment with different rising times. Perhaps this bread needs to rise for 2 or 3 hours, rather than the 1 hour that I’ve been doing. We’ll see =)

Loaf #6: Gluten Free, Corn Free, Soy Free, Egg Free

Now, these last two pictures are trial 2 of the egg free version. I’m using ground flaxseed to replace the eggs in this recipe. So far this bread has great flavor, but the insides are gummy. I made one change to the recipe for this 2nd trial and the bread is less gummy, so I’ll completely eliminate the suspected culprit the next time that I make this bread.

As you can see, this loaf completely caved in. It rose beautifully to the top of the pan, and then crashed when I put it into the oven. I guessed that this would happen when I was mixing the dough because the dough was wetter than the doughs that have turned out well in the past. When the dough is too wet it rises too fast and doesn’t have the structure that it needs to stay high when it’s put into the oven. The next version of this recipe will definitely have less liquids!

Hopefully, I’ll get around to loaves #7 and #8 today. The kids are headed to my parents for a few days for Spring Break and I want to send some bread with them.

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Gluten Free Bread Experiments – A Loaf of Gluten Free Bread Every Day

Mary Frances — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:26:29 +0000

Let me give you a brief sketch of what life is like right now. John and I both work at home. He works on his internet marketing business in the morning. I work on Gluten Free Cooking School in the afternoon. Except for the days that we switch.

Whoever is not working is taking care of the kids. Lucy (10 mo), Grant (23 months), David (4 yrs) are all at home all the time now too. None of their nap schedules completely overlap. And none of them are at quite the right age to play happily together for more than 5 minutes. It’s sometimes crazy. To say the least.

Last week I wrote out a huge schedule to follow when I’m in charge of the kids. I think that it is the secret to maintaining my sanity. And right smack dab in the middle of it is 20 minutes that are allotted for bread baking.

Bread baking is one of my favorite parts of the morning. The kids are generally ready to have a snack in the kitchen and watch Mom bake. David and Grant both like to help. David, who is almost 5, has been helping me bake since he was 18 months and is an old hand at whisking eggs and mixing the dough. For me, it’s time to spend on something that I’m interested in.

So far, we’ve made 4 loaves of bread. I’m currently working on refining two different versions of Finally, Really Good Sandwich Bread (“FRGSB”). One will be gluten free, corn free. The other gluten free, corn free, and egg free. Many, many of you have asked for these variations and I’ve finally figure out how to work the necessary experimentation into my schedule. After that, I’ll move on to other variations. I know that I want to do a sourdough recipe and a yeast free recipe. I’d also like to experiment with some more strongly flavored loaves. What sort of bread recipes would you like to see? Email me at maryfrances [at] glutenfreecookingschool [dot] com and put Bread Recipe Request in the subject line.

I’m tentatively planning to start taking pictures and blogging about each day’s loaf. We’ll see how long I manage to stick with that. But so far, I’ve been reminded of a few interesting things.

1. Changing one flour in a recipe can dramatically change the required amounts of other liquids. I’ve always been aware that different flour are more or less able to absorb liquids, but this is the first time that I’ve actually measured that effect. The bread I’ve baked with my new gluten free, corn free flour mix only needs 2/3 of the amount of water as FRGSB.

2. Rising temperature is important. My first batch of gluten free, corn free bread did not rise very much at all. The culprit was that I put it in the oven to rise (because it was too cool in our house) and the oven was too hot. The top of the bread made a crust before the interior of the bread had time to fully rise.

3. Measurements matter. I’m also much more of a cook than a baker. I like to create recipes on the fly and rarely measure anything when I’m cooking. Baking has to be more exact if you want consistent results. John gave me a digital kitchen scale for Christmas and I’ve had a lot of fun scooping out my flour in measuring cups like I normally would and then measuring the flour by weight. You’d be amazed at how much difference it make whether you scoop the flour and then shake off the excess, scoop the flour and then scrape the excess against the bag, or spoon the flour into the cup and then level with a straight edge. I’ve also been intrigued by seeing how 1 cup of brown rice flour is a different weight than 1 c. of corn starch.

Gluten Free Cheese Straws – My Grandmother’s Secret Recipe

Mary Frances — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:31:24 +0000

Cheese, salty, and crunchy with just a hint of pepper. It is even possible to adequately describe a cheese straw? I’m not sure how wide-spread this snack is. In the Deep South, it’s a given that there will be cheese straws at any baby shower, bridal tea, or wedding reception. I’ve never seen a gluten free version, but I recently converted my grandmother’s recipe to use gluten free flours, and I’m glad to say that they tasted just like I remembered.

Grandmother Somerville made the most amazing cheese straws. They were, hands down, the best that I’ve ever eaten. And, they were one of my very, very favorite foods to cook with her. I loved everything about it. Grating the cheese. Mixing in the flour. And her hands holding mine as she helped me guide the cookie press down the baking sheet, making long thin lines of cheese straws.

And when we were done, there was always just a little dough left over that the cookie press couldn’t squeeze out. Grandmother would give it to my brother and I and we would roll it out into long cheese straw snakes that inched around the edges of the baking sheet.

Until last week I had not had my Grandmother’s cheese straws since my mom, and maid of honor and I baked them for my wedding reception. Grandmother was no longer able to help us, but the fact that we were making her recipe for my wedding means that, in my memories at least, she was still very much a part of my wedding day. As she would have wanted to be.

Whew! That got my crying! Here’s the recipe before I turn into a watering pot.

Grandmother’s Gluten Free Cheese Straws

16 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 c. GF All Purpose Flour Mix (or GF Soy Free All Purpose Mix)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. paprika
1/8 tsp. red pepper
1/2 c. butter, melted

Grate cheese and leave at room temperature overnight. Melt butter and allow it to cool to room temperature. Mix the flour and other dry ingredients together. Then add the butter and flour to the cheese. Mix together by well – you’ll need to use your hands. Use a cookie press to shape the dough into strips on a flat cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until firm, but not brown. Remove the straws from the cookie sheet once they’ve cooled a bit and break them into two or three inch pieces. Store the cheese straws in plastic zip-top bags.

A few thoughts: You have to watch these like a hawk! If they brown, then they taste burnt. These generally take more than 5 minutes to cook, but less than 10. However, given the variations in oven temperature, just keep your eye on them until you figure out how many minutes it takes your oven to cook them.

My grandmother used a small star-shaped tip on her cookie press, so that the cheese straws were long and crinkly. My cookie press doesn’t have a small star, so I used the ribbon tip. I thought that it was a little harder to get a continuous strip with the tip, but I may just be out of practice.

Oh, and if you can find it, use Cracker Barrel’s Sharp Cheddar Cheese. It’s the secret ingredient.

You’re going to be stuffed after you start snacking on these. But next time you get hungry, try one of my other gluten free snacks.

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