Bread. For Real.

I may be seeing things, so I'm posting these pictures for documentation. Is that a quarter of a beautiful, gluten free, rustic Italian loaf? Notice the score mark? Did I just bite through a crust so crisp that's also chewy like a glutenous loaf of bread? Look at the developing interior! A little dense, yes, but...this is by far the best loaf I have created yet. It was was baked as a risen, shaped, and scored loaf of dough on a sheet pan, not as a batter in a loaf pan.

I'm really getting excited on my bread quest now. Gelatin...appears to be the missing link to what I am looking for. D'oh! I'm headed out tomorrow to start stocking fresh yeast, xanthan gum, gelatin, and perhaps some fine white rice flour to add to my brown rice flour and ever growing starch collection. I figure over the next 2 to 3 weeks, I will buy one or two of the finest quality ingredients I possibly can and keep them stored in my minimally stocked almost Spring freezer.

I'm amazed by the quantity of ingredients out there that I can work with. I have brown rice flour on hand at all times but haven't even yet touched bean flours (except in Bob's), nut flours, teff, amaranth, or millet flours yet! I am really excited to have unknown foods in my life. I hope that other people feel like this when thinking and living gluten free. It's an end to life as you know it but in the most positive way...you get to be living proof that food is medicine. I think that is a wonderful thing...even if the pharmaceutical companies don't want to hear it, people need to hear that.

My goal is to produce a worthy gluten free loaf, very similar to what I produced tonight, while using a mix of packaged ingredients, olive oil, and the overnight cold rise method. I'm praying for a stand mixer to fall out of the sky. I think it would make a big difference using that, not the wood spoon-hand method I am using now... though I can count it as physical therapy.

After I do get a stand mixer, I'm going to mix my way up to honoring my standard of gluten free bread...Udi's of Denver, CO, which is baked at high altitude, so it's going to be a serious shift/challenge/lesson at 2200 feet. Whoo-Hoo!

I may never get to train professionally, but sometimes hunger and a true passion can be the greatest teachers.

For The Love Of Pizza, part 3

A quick note from the front lines of experimental Pizza Night. I've come up with a promising flour blend, using what I had on hand. I poured a bag of GF Pantry's Favorite Sandwich Bread mix into a bowl, then scooped out one cup, and replaced that one cup with Bob's Red Mill Pizza Crust mix. I then followed the directions for the Bob's, not the GFP with one change; I proofed the yeast in warm water and agave nectar. It's rising now, and actually looks like I may be on to something that will require kneading. How exciting!

So, that was from last night. What was the result? The best tasting crust yet w/ a crunch and texture like an east coast Greek pizza place. It did not want to be kneaded; just wet with water, par baked, and topped. It was a little bready and thick but retained that foldable chew I am seeking. Next experiment will be using the GFP French Bread and Pizza Crust mix in same way...with a cup or so traded for the Bob's. After that, it's on to mixing my own. The fear of mixing is subsiding, that's for sure.

There is another beautiful dough ball in the 'fridge. I do believe I will be able to shape it into French or Italian Bread. Looking forward to trying anyway.

Pan de yucca y papas

I'm admittedly a true, tye dyed in the wool DeadHead. Imagine my surprise when I fell in love with The Dead Kennedy's a few years ago...at the age of 35. I realized Jello Biafra was a genius and listened to the lyrics under the music. Hey! I want social justice and change! Hey! I'm fed up with politics too! I don't know but I think most of their music... are really well written screams that I'd lend my voice to.

Funnier still would be my also 'I'm way closer to 40 than 14' new found love of South Park. Trey Parker and Matt Stone do more than produce a choppy looking vulgar cartoon. They provide an outlet for millions of Americans to laugh at ourselves; our politics and wars, our commercialism, capitalism, fears, homelessness, imagination, hair lice, death, poop, addictions (watch the Internet/Grapes of Wrath episode), and the general innate goodness in most of us. 


With this being said, we are a catch phrase household. We can keep a joke running for years. Since we are still working off the Ike Sees Dead People/Billy Mays/Little Miss Michael Jackson South Park episode...I absolutely HAD to buy the birthday boy a Big City Slider Station, one of the last products pitched by Billy Mays. Do I use non stick cookware? NO. Do we need a tiny burger maker in any way shape or form? NO. I HAD to spend the $9.99 and purchase it...and the guy laughed his butt off when he opened it!

If this was not a gluten free household, it would have been purchased with a package of dinner rolls for the burgers. The guy was ready...must make burgers. I decided it was time to try my own mixing, and went for a simple recipe to break the ice. Tam, meet tapioca starch, tapioca starch meet Tam. Let's play! For the slider buns, I used 100% tapioca starch. For the hot dog bun/small sub rolls, I used a combination of potato and tapioca. Pan de yucca y papas? Is that what I did? Well, it made a difference. So did using 1 cup of grated Parmesan in the second batch...so that's the recipe I'm sharing. And yes, the slider's were as yummy as they look in the photo.

In a large bowl, mix:

1 1/4 cups of Tapioca starch/flour

1/2 cup of potato starch

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Add:

1 cup of grated Parmesan or Romano

1 cup of grated cheddar or what have you

Mix into the dry ingredients. It's good to get your hands in there and rub some of the cheese into the starches, sort of like making biscuits.

Add:

Milk; enough to make a dry dough; 3-6 tablespoons, more as needed.

2 eggs, added one at a time.

If mix is too thin, add more potato starch.

Mix together well, until a dough ball forms.

Dump dough out to a tapioca dusted board and start kneading. I must say it was a pleasure to knead...it's been awhile. Knead until a smooth disk is formed. Break the disk into balls and form into ovals.

To make the hot dog sized bums, form the dough balls into the logs. You should get about 10-12 rolls.

Place your ovals or logs on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake about 12- 15 minutes...just until barely browning begins.

This is called pan, which means bread...it's more like cheese held together with starch, and that is what it tasted like until I added the potato starch to batch number 2. That starch gave it the resulting roll a very spongy bread like taste and texture.

I am learning so much every time I bake. We need to just loose the fear and preexisting expectations of our baking skills, or lack of, and just DO IT. While I did have some professional baking training, it was for a cafe, and I can make scones, tea breads, muffins, torts, and tarts that reflect that. I did not ever train in bread. Bread baking requires time, patience, humility, and perseverance. These are learned behaviors for most of us. I am brought to tears each time I create an edible loaf of bread, or notice I corrected another loaf's problem with intuitive or learned repetitive changes. I was a professional cook and caterer. In the restaurant business, it is well known that most cooks can't bake. My newest goal in life is to teach this old 'Line Dog', new tricks. I will become an exception to the cooks can't bake clause. I will make bread with all the respect it deserves...and eat it too.

For The Love Of Pizza, part 2

Wednesday, I tried Gluten Free Pantry's French Bread and Pizza Mix.

The directions are not very clear for pizza, so I just went with what felt right. The batter was very dry, and very crumbly. It barely rose in my warm kitchen, and like Bob's, it was an unruly glob that needed more water to be spread in the pan. It did not tell you to par bake but I did... for 6 minutes...it could have gone 10+ I think.

The resulting crust had a very mild taste, and a chewy yet a bit too hard bite to it. I was planning on a longer refrigerated rise...but time plays with life sometimes, so an hour on the counter was all I could offer it. It was a beautiful looking thing though, held the toppings, and the leftovers the next day were still tasty.

The second glob of dough that rose in the fridge overnight became French bread sticks dipped in cinnamon sugar. They came out lovely, with a real French bread chew to the crust. The dough was much more flexible, hydrated, and easy to roll into sticks. I baked them at 400 degrees for a good 15 or so minutes.

I have learned two things with this last batch of the 'Za. Overnight rise is the only way to really go. The development of the bread/crust...can not be compared to a quick rise on the counter.

And the second...the next one is going to be a rice based crust mix w/ 1/4 of the mix substituted for a bean based mix. All rice is sort of blah, and all bean is sort of gross yet finer textured. A mix of the two, with the bean flour ratio kept small, might just do it for me. We shall see next week...

More adventures in bread land, or, Ohh, Flat Bread

Well. Haven't wasted this rainy week...that's for sure. Got all my seeds ready to go in next week. In mere weeks I shall eat baby beet greens, and rainbow chard fresh from my yard. My goal garden wise this year is to garden whatever part of the yard I haven't yet. I mean the front too...dirt is dirt. WHY waste water on a lawn or ornamental plants? Beautiful Rainbow chard is just as pretty in a container by the front door as it is in a garden bed. Very exciting.

Money has been a stressor again, so my plan of buying some flours and gums from the Co-Op is on hold until we get a hold on our budget. A good friend has passed on some information about a wonderful gluten free baker she knows. I plan on reaching him this weekend and asking if I can interview him. He bakes at 3000 ft, I bake at 2200...we should have some similar experiences. I'm really thinking that part of the light texture of Udi's Bread comes from it being baked at a high altitude. Can you tell I've been studying?

Yesterday was bread day. I just didn't want to make yet another loaf of my GF Pantry bread, but, that was what I had to work with. WHO says it has to be baked as a loaf though? I lightly oiled a cookie sheet, mixed the bread by package directions, then I wet my hands and used them to spread the sticky glob on the pan. Just like the pizza dough...it took the water and spread like clay plaster. I baked it for about 20-25 minutes, and out came a lovely Focaccia looking bread!

While it was still hot I cut the loaf in half, then one half in strips. I took the strips and dipped them in melted butter and rolled them in cinnamon-sugar. YUM!

The other half of the rectangle is being used for bread. I made a lovely (and the first in months) Panini sandwich for lunch today and the bread was a different animal than it's loaf counterpart. It's still chewy, and almost flaky...not crumbly. I'm inspired. ONWARD!!

The Bread Reality

I just have not yet found a GF bread to make me really happy yet besides Udi's Bread. I love it's texture, and it reminds me of the Italian bread of my central MA youth. It doen't taste gluten free. It just tastes ike bread. Unfortunately, it costs $6.00 a loaf. The frugal east coaster in me is fighting with my voluptuous Leo moon nature of taste and textures. I just can't do it since the guy has started eating GF at home by his own volition. An Udi's loaf would last me a week or more...with the guy eating it too, we're looking at $12.00 a week on bread alone. Can't do it Captain. I ordered a case of Gluten Free Pantry's Favorite Sandwich Bread. I love it for the first day then it becomes to me; a heavy, sweet, prone to crumble mass. I have the perfect ratio of water to milk and oil, not butter down with that for maximum enjoyment, and the guy still eats it crumbles and all... but I still have more bread crumbs in my freezer than I'll admit here.

Since I enjoyed Bob's Red Mill Pizza Crust Mix, I baked a loaf of their Wonderful White Bread last night. GACK. I am so disheartened by the experience that I'm contemplating looking into possibly buying a deep freezer and Udi's Bread in bulk after all. First. I must say...I did not like the 'beany' aftertaste of the pizza crust. But topped with tasty sauce, it was amazing. I was very excited to try the bread hoping the beany taste would be toned down somehow. When a gorgeous loaf came out an hour after an easy mix and rise, I was beyond myself. It was slightly misshapen but beautiful. I let it cool then sliced a sample. The bread had that glutenous flexibility, and a golden brown crust. Looking at the developed bubbles in the bread....I thought I was looking at a sourdough from San Francisco.

Then I brought it to my nose for a sniff. It smelled, bad. For science sake, I spread some unsalted butter and some Celtic sea salt on it and took a bite anyway. If I had just not made it myself...no one could tell me by texture alone that this bread was GF. It chewed like a rustic Italian, or a good 'farmer's' loaf...but the off flavor overpowered it for me. I was near tears. Honestly. Why can't there be a chewy, easy to make bread that tastes as real as Udi's but has the heart and texture of a rustic bread? 

I think this bread experiment has lead me to where I wasn't sure if I should go yet; it's time to start making my own mixes. I need to play with ratios, different flours, gums...and create my perfect loaf. I may add some bean flour to it, but it sure won't be the first ingredient. Many people love the bread and the bean taste...I'm just not one of them.

For The Love of Pizza

While I am adapting pretty darn well to this whole 'gluten free life' thing, there are a few soft spots. PIZZA... being a pretty frequent player in my pre GF menu rotations is one, and I miss it. Now I don't know where you grew up but I grew up in New England. You might think lobsters...I think Greek style or Italian style. There is either a Dunkin' Doughnuts, a CVS, or a pizza place on every corner within a hundred mile radius. Sometimes it's a pizza place on one half of the building and a DD on the other. Honestly.

I have found 2 pizza places here in desert land that I will even consider eating. One has the best sauce, one has the best crust. I have not been as pizza happy since I've been here because of this but it's still a quick fix meal or a phone call away. Or...it was. There is a pizza place here that serves gluten free pizza. It's pretty pricey and if the hubby and I are going to spend $50.00 on dinner...there should be sushi or prime aged meat involved.

I have tried 2 other mixes, and 3 frozen gluten free pizza crusts. The only one worth eating in my opinion in the freezer department is, Amy's Rice Crust Cheese Pizza. I like it's mild flavor but I can not for the life of me call it a pizza. Where's the chew? Where's the fold-ability? The other mixes? Grainy, crunchy crust, "off tastes", and general grossness abound. Bland cracker style pizza? No. Sigh. I'm still not quite ready to waste money mixing my own GF mixes yet, so I set off on a Internet search for the best pizza crust. Hours of research concluded that a thin, yet chewy, NY style pizza...that was also gluten free, was pretty hard to come by. Hummm....Amazon? Top Seller list. Reviews. Found OTHER people were looking for a GF East Coast style pizza too. Top Seller? Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Whole Grain Pizza Crust Mix.

Bob's? Really? Found in grocery stores all over the country Bob's? Yep. I went out and picked up a package today. It cost $4.99 and makes 2 large 14-16 inch pizzas per package. I could also see making 6-8 single serve pizzas and freezing them for later use, or as a pizza party servings. Simple directions, and a quick rise later there I was with a glob of sticky dough that did not want to spread on to the pizza pan. I wet my hands and figured out quick that the extra water allowed me to smooth and shape the dough like clay or plaster. I knew it was going to be par baked, so I liberally applied the water and just went for it.

Par baking went well. I then topped it with a quick homemade super garlic pizza sauce, a 4 cheese Italian blend, black olives, mushrooms, some pepperoni, and more fresh garlic. I checked at at 10 minutes and it looked promising. I let it bake another 3 minutes until the cheese was starting to brown. I slipped it on to an upside down pizza pan and let it cool for a few minutes before slicing. I picked it up and the first thing I noticed was I could FOLD the slice (see pic above). There was ZERO crumbling. Then the first bite...and the CHEW...was there. It reminded my guy of a cross between a pizza chain in MA called Papa Gino's and one called, Golden Pizza.

The cons? Yes. There was ONE. The lip of un-topped crust that forms the pizza was kind of beany and gross tasting. The beany taste comes from bean flour in the mix. Since it's probably responsible for that chew, I'll deal with it. The dog enjoyed it tonight but the next time I make it I'm adding garlic and Italian seasoning to the dry mix. My guy didn't notice it but my pallet is amplified times 100. I can taste the difference between brands of salt, bottled water, oils, butter, etc.

I'm also thinking of making a CT style rectangular pizza. With it's square cuts, it naturally has minimal crust. The main crust of tonight's pizza, topped with all of the goodness... was PERFECT. I have an inflated dough ball in the 'fridge, waiting for Buffalo Chicken Pizza tomorrow night. Reviews say you can keep a stored dough ball for 3-5 days. Pretty neat.

I ordered a case from Amazon tonight. I subscribed to a regular shipping schedule and saved more than 1/2 the retail cost plus free shipping whenever I buy it, just like the bread mix and multi-purpose baking mix I buy.

There will be pizza...