Cheese Crackers

One of the more frustrating aspects of living gluten free is the shocking number of snack foods that contain gluten. Even if they are not a wheat based snack, a large number of these snacks contain maltodextrin, a malt based preservative, or they have been processed in facilities using wheat. And sometimes, when you are socializing with friends, or when you just need something quick before you run out the door, you get tired of plain old salted potato chips.

Every person i know who has tried these crackers has become instantly addicted, and so they make a great gift. Once your friends are hooked, they will think you the most generous person on earth for baking them a batch of their new favorite crackers. The corn starch base makes for a melt in your mouth texture, while the crackers themselves are very cheesy, crispy, and with just enough salt. And they are quite simple to make! (Apologies to my dairy free friends. This is one I don't think we'll be converting. I might be able to make my saltine recipe dairy free, however.)

What you will need:

• 4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup corn starch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons milk

Topping:

• Salt, dried herbs, or spices, as desired.

-Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

-Combine all the ingredients, except the milk, in a medium-size bowl. Mix until the mixture resembles a fine crumb. Add the milk and beat well. (Use your hands if you're having trouble getting all the dry ingredients incorporated into the dough).

-On a lightly greased surface (or just the baking sheet), pat or roll the dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 3/4 inch squares or another small shape that you like. You can also cut the dough into larger round or square cracker shapes, if desired (just extend baking time).

-Prick the tops of the crackers with a fork and sprinkle lightly with your desired topping.

-Bake on the prepared baking sheet until golden brown and crisp, approximately 10 minutes. The crackers will be light and crispy, although barely browning at the edges. The bottom of the crackers will have a bit more color.

My mouth waters just looking at these guys.

Notes: It's important to shred the cheese as opposed to grating it. Grated cheese is too thick to be thoroughly mixed with the other ingredients. Simply use on of the sides of your cheese grater with the small holes.

This recipe says you can use cookie cutters and the like to shape your crackers however you want. I didn't have a large amount of success with that, as I found the dough too greasy and sticky. However, if you experiment with adding a little more dry ingredients and handling the dough correctly, it may be possible. My method is to pat the dough out directly onto the baking sheet and then use a knife to cut a grid pattern into the dough. The edges look rough and ragged, but this lessens with baking. Once they are done, I use the old knife lines like a perforated edge and cut the crackers apart with my spatula.

Also, to retain freshness, these crackers should be stored in air tight containers. If they start seeming a little soft, you can re-crisp them by putting them in a hot oven for a few minutes.

(This recipe was the corn-based version of the Cheese Crackers recipe from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free." Rice flour, out flour, and potato starch based versions of this recipe also exist.)

Fudgy Brownies

When I first tried one of the brownie recipes in my beloved gluten free cook book, I thought, "great! Just basic ingredients, easy preparation, no sweat!" Then when I pulled them out of the oven, they were thin, a little too chewy, and not terribly exciting taste-wise. I longed for the Chocolate fudge brownies that you had to eat over several sittings because they were so rich. Then, when a friend of mine gave me some sugar-free baking chocolate I though, "Hey! Maybe if I add real chocolate instead of cocoa powder to this recipe, the brownies will turn out richer!" So I took one of the recipes and replaced ounce for ounce cocoa powder with baking chocolate. The result was mixed. Once cooled, refrigerated, and reheated slightly, they were delicious. But there was an inch thick edge that had over-cooked and was much too chewy, and right out of the oven, the entire dish was fragile and fell apart in my hand.

Watching the thick batter bubble and bake in the oven reminded me very much of a time I tried to add milk to my scrambled eggs, added too much, and the result was a strange, over-fried mess, with more milk than egg to fry. I decided the problem was a dry/liquid ingredient ratio problem. Some fat was being added with the baking chocolate, and some flour like substance removed. I therefore decreased the amount of butter in the recipe and increased the amount of flour.

The result is a very tasty, rich brownie. The bottom is fudgy, slightly cakey and slightly moist. The top is crunchy and resembles the cracked top of a traditional gluten filled brownie. Delicious! I was foolish enough to leave them unattended at my friends' house and I doubt there will be any left by the time I come back! Also, this recipe preserved the simplicity and speed of the original version. You'll spend more time waiting for the brownies to bake them than mixing the ingredients!

Here was the fairly successful resulting recipe:

What you will need:

• 7 tablespoons butter
• 4 oz baking chocolate (unsweetened)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch square (or circular) baking pan.

-Melt butter and chocolate together in the microwave or slowly over stove top. Stir regularly to encourage the chocolate to melt.

-In a medium- sized bowl, combine chocolate/butter mix and remaining ingredients and mix well. The batter will be almost dough-like.

-Press into the prepared pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle tests cleanly and the top appears dry. Let cool before devouring.

That's it!

Notes: I considered adding a little milk or other liquid to this recipe to make the mixture a little more batter like. It is a little disconcerting to press the mixture into the pan rather than pouring it. However, the resulting brownies were so tasty that I don't think the recipe really needs it. Also, keeping milk out of the recipe and using margarine instead of butter would make this recipe dairy free!

(Pictures to Come)
Update: Apparently no photos on this one, at least not until I make this recipe again, as my friends ate all the brownies before I could take pictures of them. Speaks highly of their quality though!

(This recipe was of my own invention, adjusted from the Corn-based Brownie recipe from "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free" by Roben Ryberg. Oat flour, Potato starch, and rice flour based versions of this recipe also existed, but mine is better :-p)

English Muffins

I have been sitting, working with the pictures I took of these beauties for the last ten minutes and the pictures are so incredibly appetizing, I feel like I can smell them just by looking at them! These english muffins are, without fail, gorgeous. That golden brown color, the springy texture. It's irresistible. And all you need to make them are the basic ingredients, a little extra flour and water, a baking sheet, and an oven.

I also love this recipe because one of the difficulties of living gluten free is that it's really hard to have food on the go. I find it extremely difficult to find food for pack lunches, something that doesn't require a microwave to heat up. This is perfect. As of now I have one of these goodies in a plastic bag, a jar of peanut butter, and a butter knife in my book bag.

What you will need:

• 3 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/3 cup apple juice
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/3 cup, plus 2 tablespoons rice flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

-Place the egg whites in a medium-size bowl. Beat until very frothy, with big and little bubbles. Add the remaining ingredients except the 2 tablespoons of rice flour. Mix well until the batter thickens. (Caution, the corn starch WILL clump once left to set on the eggs and oil. Mix the corn starch in early if you are using a fork and don't want to wrestle with many frustrating clumps).

-Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the remaining rice flour on the prepared baking sheet.

- Drop the dough by 1/3 cupfuls onto the sheet. Gently shape the dough with wet fingertips into a flat disk approximately 1/2 inch thick and 3 inches in diameter. Easier said than done I know. Here's my process: Drop the dough on the sheet. Keep a cup of water nearby and dip your fingers in often. The dough should be slippery to touch. Flatten the cup of dough into a roughly circular shape. Mend any large gaps with your fingers. Then, smooth the edges with your pointer fingers and thumb. Flatten the disc again, evenly, and add a small depression in the center of each muffin to avoid a dome shape when baked. Sprinkle the tops with the remaining tablespoon of rice flour.

- Bake for approximately 15 minutes, until just golden brown. Test with a toothpick if you are uncertain of doneness. Let cool well before splitting each muffin in half.

Yum!

Notes: In a slightly hotter oven, I have seen these muffins finish in less than 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them just in case. They are very easy to identify as done. This recipe makes 5 muffins, so keep your cupfuls of dough relatively small. They will rise while baking.

Also, I believe this recipe could use some improvement. I have two ideas of where that improvement might lie: Firstly, I consistently use a fork instead of an electric mixer. When maximizing the number of bubbles in a recipe is important, a fork is not the best tool to use, and I tend to spend a lot of time just working out the lumps. My muffins often come out a bit dense, and I have a feeling the lack of a mixer has to do with this. Secondly, this may be a recipe where you'll want to use real apple juice, rather than juice from concentrate. I think it might produce more bubbles.

And lastly, I typically freeze these muffins over night and toast them in the oven before eating. Toasting for a short time helps renew their texture.

(This recipe was the Corn and rice-based version of English Muffins from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free!" Thanks to her for developing the recipe. A Potato and sorghum flour based version of this recipe also exists. )

Ingredients for Gluten-Free Baking

Sometimes when we look at a recipe for just regular home made bread and compare it to a recipe for gluten free bread, we might think, wow, baking gluten free is so much more complicated. But to my mind, adding three or four ingredients that you're going to be using again anyways does not signify complication. It's simply a repetition of the process you are already engaging in: 1. locate ingredient. 2. measure. 3. Add to mix.

Ironically, because I have done almost zero baking that's not gluten free, I look at a "all purpose flour" recipe and go.... that really makes something that tastes good? How? Also, keep in mind that when it comes to making bread and other dough recipes, when baking GF, You don't have to let it rise. Gluten, with some help from yeast, is part of what makes bread rise in the first place. The majority of the bread recipes I have are often more of a thick batter in their raw form and are baked in a bread pan to form the traditional bread shape. I have encountered some store-bought mixes for pizza crusts and so forth that instruct to allow the dough to rise but, I really didn't see any difference after an hour.

So the ingredients that go into GF foods are often a little different, because different science rules need to be taken into account. However, the majority of these ingredients are extremely easy to find, and quite affordable. In my last post I mentioned two ingredients that are crucial to gluten-free baking and a little explanation of their use and where you can find them. I thought I'd make a proper list of the kind of things you'll be seeing, and things to keep in mind if you experiment for yourself.

Corn starch: This is a really fantastic flour (yes that's right, flour!) to use, especially for foods that you want to have a very fine grain, such as crackers. Corn starch is also used in confectioner's sugar, which is what goes into frosting, and something about its texture is just addictive! A corn stach based cake frosted with confectioner's sugar frosting is DELICIOUS because the textures just meld. Occasionally in the more challenging baked goods, I use corn starch accompanied by rice flour, just to help bulk it out a little, as corn starch is extremely light and powdery. You can buy mass amounts of it in stores with bulk sections. Careful! It gets everywhere.

Note that when using corn starch, if you don't have an electronic mixer (I certainly don't), corn starch does tend to clump when added to oil, eggs, or milk. Don't despair when these cement like chunks appear, because they do break apart. It just takes a little elbow grease. Similarly, don't worry if there are little white balls of corn starch that just won't break apart in your cookie dough or other batter. After baking, they'll disappear.

Other flours- I listed rice flour in yesterday's post, and my recipes will be based primarily using those two flours. However, I have recipes using several other flours and there are many options out there. Potato starch is apparently quite effective in a lot of recipes. It's a little harder to find but I believe that Market of Choice carries it. Oat flour is also very commonly used, especially in commerically produced gluten free foods. However, if you are like me and you are sensitive to oats that have been processed with wheat, check the lable. Some oat flour has been processed with wheat, and depending on your tolerance, you'll want to buy it accordingly. I have also heard of people using Tapioca flour to great success, chickpea flour, and other variations of rice flour.

Butter- This is quite a staple in both GF cooking and regular baking. Though it's not necessary in breads, it's essential for tight grain goods such as cookies, cakes, pies, and crackers. I have never payed much attention to whether i'm using sweet cream, unsalted, or salted, so use what you have on hand.

Milk- This ingredient is used surprisingly sparingly, unless a batter is being used rather than a dough. I find that milk is especially useful for use in store bought mixes, that can turn out rather dry otherwise. Small amounts of milk or other dairy are often used to react with baking soda or powder, to produce air bubbles. As a side note, some friends have requested to try experimenting with soy milk for those who can't handle dairy. I have used rice milk occasionally but I don't know the full extent of the food science changes this causes, or the pros or cons of using soymilk in it's stead. I plan to do some experiments with non-dairy alternatives in the future.

Yogurt- Surpisingly, yogurt is incredibly useful in GF cooking. It is especially helpful in creating doughs that taste delicious and creamy AND hold together, which is often the real test when creating more challenging goodies. When I have a dough-like food that just has a little too much grain to its taste, I add some yogurt, and it goes away like magic!

Cream cheese- Combined with butter, this is also extremely effective for creating a base for doughs, especially dessert pastries, because the creamy thickness just holds together better after being combined with dry ingredients. It's a must if you are interested in exploring the advanced baked goods like pies and danishes.

Eggs- Always a staple in normal baking, these are still quite common in GF cooking, however there are often less of them used. Furthermore, what is even more common is egg whites. From what i've read on the subject, a whole egg will often bring in that earthy, you-can-tell-it's-gluten-free taste, which I try to avoid, whereas egg whites, when beat until frothy, are a great source of air bubbles, and make for a lighter taste in the finished product.

Baking soda- You can buy a box of it, put it in your refridgerator, and it will last you months and months. Baking soda reacts with acidic ingredients such as dairy, citrus or apply juice, and vinegar, to create air bubbles. When used with baking powder, the after taste that is sometimes associated with baking soda is eliminated.

Baking powder- also extremely easy to find, one bag will last you ages, though it goes a little faster than baking soda. Approximately twice as much baking powder is used as baking soda. It too reacts with acidic ingredients.

Salt- a small amount of this in each goodie helps it from being too bland or too sweet.

Sugar- a small amount of white sugar appears in most bread-like goods, so even when you're not making a dessert, you'll need it.

Brown sugar- this sugar is used in most of my cookie recipes and it helps to give a slightly darker flavor and color to desserts.

Vanilla- I think this ingredient is one of my favorites. It somehow transforms and okay tasting ball of cookie dough to something delicious. And it smells so wonderful! Imitation vanilla flavoring is just find. No need to get really expensive.

Apple cider vinegar- This was a new one for me when I first started baking. It was only 2 or 3 dollars for a big bottle that lasted me months. The vinegar acts as the acid to react with the baking powder and baking soda, AND because it's apple cider vinegar, it contains yeast, so you get that yeasty taste without having to try to get your gluten free dough to rise. You may think, do I really need a yeasty taste? I didn't think it was that important, until I drew up a recipe for gluten free challah bread (coming soon..). My previous batch had been rather bland, but when I added more sugar, vanilla, and included apple cider vinegar, the improve in taste was astounding!

Apple juice- Yes, you will actually be putting apple juice in your bread recipes! Like I said before, apples have yeast in them, and apples alone are also acidic. So apple juice is often used in place of milk in bread recipes as the liquid, because milk is simply not as effective or tasty for bread. I buy the $0.69 cans of frozen apple juice at the grocery store and make a batch whenever I need it, and it works quite well.

Other ingredients to consider having around for GF cooking: Balsamic vingar, garlic salt, wheat free soysauce, cinnamon, confectioner's sugar, semi sweet chocolate chips, cocoa powder, various kinds of nuts and fruits.

If I have all these ingredients stocked, I consider myself a very happy person, as it means I can make just about anything in the world!