GF Oatmeal Cookies and Internet Lingo

So today I was reading online and stumbled across a website for Internet Slang and was shocked to see how far chatting online has come! When I went into my first chatroom 15 years ago I was overwhelmed by things like "LOL" and "BRB" and "TYVM". It all really threw me for a loop, but to find a while website devoted to the translation of over 8000 Intenet slang words. However, I have to say thanks to this newly evolved language, I now have a term for my latest GF experiment -- EPIC FAIL!!
LoL. There had to be one sooner or later. I made a potato bread. I HATED it. It was doughy, gummy, gritty and everything I do NOT want in a bread, but that's alright, I only made a small batch of buns, so I didn't waste a lot of ingredients and I'll just let them dry out, grind them up and put them in the freezer for breadcrumbs. (See, a use for everything!!) So, having thrown out that recipe I decided to go with something I knew would be a success. Cookies. There is nothing quite like a good cookie recipe that you can switch up as you choose. So I went with a nice chewy Oatmeal Cookie. That way I can switch up what I put in it for flavor and I don't feel like I"m giving my kids something that's totally unhealthy.

GF Oatmeal Cookie

3/4 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Lg. Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla
3/4 Cup Sorghum Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
3 Cups Rolled Oats
1 Cup [insert favorite ingredient here]
Fleur de Sel*

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Beat butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla, mix well. In a seperate bowl mix together all dry ingredients. Add to wet ingredients one cup at a time. Mix well. Add final ingredient -- craisins, raisins, nuts, dried fruit, diced apple, etc. Whatever appeals to you.

Using a 1/8 C measure (or an ice cream scoop) to set cookies on a cookie sheet lined with either parchment or a Silimat**, wet your hand and lightly flatten each cookie to about 1/4". Sprinkle each cookie lightly with Fleur de Sel. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes.

*Sprinkling a little Fleur de Sel on a cookie adds a level of sophistocation to every bite. The sweetness of the cookie, offset by the salty crunch of the Fleur de Sel is a wonderful marriage of flavor. It makes a cookie, while still acceptable for children, just a little more grown up.

**When I got married I finally got my first Silimat and I LOVE it. I don't know where i got it or what brand it really is.. I just know I have a silicone mat for my cookie sheets and I love the convenience. I love that I can throw it in the dishwasher and it's always ready to go. If you don't have a Silicone mat then parchment will work just as well.

Enjoy!!

Gluten Free Sandwich Bread

Well, I've taken a bit of a blog break, but I am back and I have SO many new GF recipes to share! I have been SO enjoying this whole adventure. I feel fantastic. I started eating Gluten-Free on March 15th, and I have to say I am sold! I really do feel so much better after over a month and I know I've said that SO much over the last few blog posts, but I think I'm still trying to convince myself that its real! Anyway, I will discontinue the repetition and move on to the more interesting topics.

My sister's Mother-in-law gave me an early birthday gift, and I have to say I was THRILLED! She took me to a Gluten-Free cooking class. I have never been to a cooking class before, but I've always wanted to go and it definitely did not disappoint. We learned five recipes and all of them were TO DIE FOR! I took the recipes home and experimented with the ingredients because there is nothing so fun, to me, as experimenting in my kitchen. So I came up with my own Gluten-Free flour blend. Through reading multiple blogs and researching endlessly on the Internet I have found that a good all-purpose flour usually combines a "half-and-half" mixture of lighter flours such as Tapioca Starch, Potato Starch, Corn Starch, etc. and heavier flours such as Brown Rice Flour, White Rice Flour, Sorghum Flour, etc. So with that in mind, I decided to make an all-purpose flour to have on hand.

GF All-Purpose Flour Blend

1 Cup Sorghum Flour
1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1 1/2 Cups Tapioca Starch
1/2 Cup Potato Starch

So, now armed with my very own custom flour blend I decided to try the Sandwich Bread.

Sandwich Bread

2 tsp Yeast
1/4 Cup warm water plus 3/4 Cup warm water
1/4 Cup soft butter
3 Cups All-purpose Flour
3 Tbsp Brown Sugar
3/4 tsp Salt
1 1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
3 Lg Eggs (Room Temperature)

In a small bowl mix 1/4 Cup warm water and yeast gently.  Measure dry ingredients into bowl of stand mixer with paddle attachment.  Mix on low until fully combined.  Add dissolved yeast and milk and mix on medium speed.  Add softened butter and beat until combined.  Add eggs one at a time beating thoroughly after each egg.  Scrape bowl and beat on high for 3 minutes.  Remove from mixer, cover and allow to rise for 1 hour.

Grease a 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan well.  Deflate dough by stirring gently with a spoon.  Scrape into prepared pan and level top.  Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until its just crowning the top of the pan, 45 - 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, place your rack in the center position and preheat your oven to 350 F.  When the bread has risen, bake until golden brown, about 39-42 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on a rack.  Once cooled, slice and enjoy.  Freeze (sliced) as soon as possible to maintain freshness.

Ta DA!

I was SHOCKED when my bread rose like this.  I had already had SO many disappointments with little bricks that dared to call themselves bread, so this was a light and pleasant surprise.

I love how beautifully golden brown it was when I took it out of the oven.  It smelled like the bread my mom used to bake when I was little, and there wasn't even a hint of that nasty "Gluten-Free Flavor" that can often go with store bought GF items.

Look at all those lovely air pockets!  THAT is what a loaf of bread SHOULD look like, GF or NOT!  The flavour was fantastic, and the texture was nice and chewy and moist.  I loved everything about this recipe and will make it my stand-by.  Yes, the rising time feels quite extensive, but I do it in the evening once the kids are in bed and I don't have a lot I have to get done.  Once it's rising, it doesn't require any babysitting.  I sliced this for my husband and gave him some with some butter and he thought it was fantastic.  The kids ate it all week, I practically got NONE of it!  And I'm the one GF!  .. ah well, if I can cut some gluten out of their diets, it is worth it.

I hope you'll try the recipe, it really is fantastic!  I'll be back, I have SO much to blog about... Chocolate Chip cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies, Perogies.... The Gluten-Free experiment is still going strong!!

GF Tortillas

Well, I have been spending a lot of time in my kitchen lately, which means my son and I have had a lot of quality momma/son time. He LOVES helping me in the kitchen, I can't even make myself a piece of toast (gluten free of course) without him dragging a chair up to the counter to help me. He is SO disappointed if I do something in there without his help, even if its just dishes! He is getting SO good at helping me. With that in mind I wanted to make something that would be tasty, as well as fun for him to help me with... I was browsing supper ideas and trying to get some inspiration when someone on the radio started talking about tacos. Well in our house we LOVE ethnic food; Chinese, Thai, Indian, Greek, Fijian, Filipino... there has yet to be a time when I have made something along those lines and someone in the family didn't love it. I have made some more "traditional" dishes and been met with some muttering and groaning, but whip out the exotic spices and my family just laps it up! Gluten-Free cooking is SO much easier when I'm not trying to emulate something more traditional with alternatives too... So I got the idea that I would make Tortillas.. my son would LOVE rolling out the dough with me, and we would have some nice warm Mexican flavors, it's a win/win!





So, here's what I tried:





Ingredients
2 c. Gluten-free all purpose flour (I used 1 Cup of Sorghum, 1/2 Cup Potato Starch and 1/2 Cup Tapioca Starch)


2 tsp. Xanthan gum (or Guar gum)


1 tsp. Gluten-free baking powder


2 tsp. Brown sugar


1 tsp. Salt


1 c. Warm water



Directions:



1) Mix all dry ingredients in your mixer (or if you're doing this by hand, just in a mixing bowl).





2) Add water, and mix until the dough is smooth and plyable. It will be a little sticky.





3) Seperate the dough into pieces and cover what you're not working with. Have your little helper roll the dough into balls, or if you're not lucky enough to have a little helper, do it yourself.





4) Sprinkle your countertop with GF flour and have your little helper roll out flat (or, once again, do it yourself). Careful not to go too too thick, it might tear, but don't go too thick either, you want it to be rollable.

5) Cook the rounds on a hot fry pan, it only takes about a minute or two per side, just till you see it start to bubble and will go slightly golden.





6) Place cooked tortillas on a plate, I like to lightly butter and then cover with a cloth to keep warm.





7) Serve to your grateful family, or devour them yourself, and enjoy with your favorite filling!!

Pizza Reloaded

Well, after nearly 3 full weeks on my GF Adventure, I have had some ups and downs. I feel fantastic, I have more energy than I have had in years, but I really thought that I had lucked out and missed the worst of this here Gluten-Free Detox... well, was I ever mistaken!! Just this last week I woke up, in a cold-sweat as usual, with a pounding headache, nausea like I had the flu and just feeling all over yuck. I did some research and learned that its all part of this detoxing routine, so I drank a lot of water and that seemed to help some. Then the following morning I had the same thing, along with a pounding headache. It was NOT a good day, to be sure. I have seriously increased my water intake and that seems to be making an improvement, although I have come down with a cold this week, so I am not my usual bouncy self. However I have still managed to keep up on my GF cooking and baking, so that's saying something.

Now, with the Gluten-Free Pizza crust recipe I posted a little while ago, Garren and I have been craving pizza. However, I try not to cook things which require a lot of dairy when my son is around, since he can't have it. I prefer us to all eat the same things when we're all together, so nobody feels left out. It can be rather challenging to bake a dairy-free pizza that tastes good and isn't dry. So I decided to experiment with toppings. It was SO good that I decided to share what I came up with. (I wish I'd taken a picture, but I didn't ... I will next time!!)


Prepare your crust as outlined in my other post. Then prepare your favorite pizza sauce. I just used some tomato sauce (actually I was out of tomato sauce so I mixed some tomato paste with water until it was the consistency of tomato sauce) and then mixed in some Italian Seasoning (1 or 2 tsp) and garlic powder, salt and pepper until it smelled appealing, it really is a personal thing. Then I chopped up one medium onion, dividing about 1/4 of it and mincing it finely and setting it aside. Then I sliced up some red bell pepper, leaving some in large slices and some I diced. I also drained some pineapple and set it in a bowl. Then I took one large chicken breast and chopped it up into small pieces, about the size of a nickel. I heated a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, quickly sauted the diced onion (making sure to leave the minced onion out of the frying pan) and then added the chicken. I seasoned my chicken with garlic, pepper, salt, Italian Seasoning (Basil, Oregano, Thyme) and cooked it through. Then at the end I added a dollop of Jamaica Mistake Salad Dressing and heated it until it had reduced a little and permeated the chicken.

Now that all my toppings were prepared I spread the sauce on my pre-baked crust, I gave it a generous helping because I didn't want a dry pizza, and the lack of cheese can sometimes seem dry because it is missing a substantial amount of oil. Then I sprinkled my minced onion evenly over the sauce, topped it with pineapple, then I added my chicken, making sure to get every last drop of the liquid from the pan (once again, we don't want dry pizza). Finally I topped the pizza with the sliced and diced red pepper. I only used this order because it was aesthetically pleasing. Do whatever order / toppings you like, but I highly recommend making sure you have a few things to increase the moisture and really amp up the flavor, otherwise you will seriously miss the cheese. However, this pizza was AMAZING. I didn't miss the cheese at all, I actually preferred it without because I didn't feel sick after. Garren said he still wanted cheese, so I made another one later that night with the same toppings and added cheese, I didn't like it as much, but Garren is a cheese addict. Lol. The longer I go without gluten, the more I notice my dairy intollerance and I am definitely leaning towards cutting it out of my diet entirely as well. I don't like feeling crappy after eating and if I can do things which make me feel fantastic all the time, why wouldn't I? I will list the ingredients at the bottom of the post, but as you can see, this is more of a "little of this, little of that" kinda deal, but thought I would share my creation for you just to give you all a little inspiration!

Pizza Crust

Tomato Sauce
Garlic
Italian Seasoning (Basil, Oregano, Thyme)

Chicken, diced
Onion, minced and diced
Red Bell Pepper
Pineapple
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Italian Seasoning (Basil, Oregano, Thyme)
Jamaica Mistake Salad Dressing