Gluten free baking, a journey into new territory by Chris Rawstern

Gluten free foods take their place in the world these days. We are all more aware of gluten, celiac, coeliac (celiac) disease and what this means for so many people. While I am not celiac, I often cook and bake for functions, locally. Last year I was asked to give some parties for a princess party, put on by the Dacotah Prairie Museum. Accompanied by a Queen, where little girls from tots to teens are invited, to learn about the lives of real princesses. They were taught that the flap properly, and curtsey.

Little girls hear the word Princess and go dreamy eyes. The program was sold out. I made lots of candy, but found out at one of the little princesses and her Queen was gluten intolerant and was unable to take advantage of many of the small treats. This was an intolerable situation. I decided I needed to learn about this disease, be aware of what was involved and offer alternatives that would be good and exciting.

In the past year, I've been trying out different gluten-free flour blends, and making lots of goodies, mostly from my usual recipe, converted by simply substituting gluten-free flour and adding xanthan gum. They have mainly been a whopping success. In my honest opinion, as someone who has been baking for 42 years, some cookies, View fruit or nuts breads more moist and tender than when using wheat flour, a happy discovery, no doubt. The Queen mentioned above works at the museum, so I took an afternoon to talk to this young woman and find out more about what was involved. I had baked one of my favorite coffeecake recipe, gluten-free and took it for her and the Museum staff to try out. Everyone loved it, moist and tender and full of flavor. The young woman was happy with my experiment, as was I.

Another big help on the road was to find Shauna Ahern's Gluten free Girl home page. I have studied her site extensively and taught me all kinds of things there. I mixed up her gluten-free flour blend to experiment with, and try one of her bread recipes; another success. I took some of the bread to the woman at the Museum to sample, as well as a piece I slathered with homemade pesto and cheese and fried. She exclaimed, this is the best bread I've tasted since going gluten free.

This coffeecake recipe I got from my best friend to 54 years and is a fantastic recipe, no matter which meal you choose. This is the original recipe, gluten-free, I replaced a gluten-free flour blend consists of 6 cups brown rice flour, 2 cups potato starch and 1 cup tapioca starch. I used this mixture measure for measure in this recipe and 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum, add the sifted dry ingredients. Be sure to check the labels of the ingredients hidden wheat when you make this gluten-free.

Bundt Coffeecake

1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts; walnuts or Pecans are good
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until light. Add the eggs, sour cream and vanilla and mix well. Sift together flour, soda, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well. Grease a 10-inch tube or bundt pan.

Mix in chopped nuts, 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle with 1/2 of this topping in greased pan. Put in half the batter-this requires plopping small spoonfuls of the batter into the Pan as the batter is very thick. Then gently flatten to fill in any gaps. It helps to press his forehead on the countertop. Pour on the rest of the topping and again PLoP spoons in the pan until all batter is used.

Bake for 1 hour or until a knife inserted in the Center comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Sprinkle icing sugar over the cake if desired. Serves 12-16.

Gluten-free options: Replace the flour with your preferred gluten-free flour mixture and add in 1 teaspoon xanthan gum. Mix and bake as directed. Sometimes baking is a little longer than normal, but because the texture and moisture is so wonderful, I can wait a few minutes.
Try this recipe, anyway, and you won't be sorry.

Thank you for taking the time to read my article. I hope it was informative and helped you along your own culinary journey. You'll find many more recipes and useful tips on my website. I'm on Facebook on a harmony of flavors and share a recipe or tip each day to the fans who have enjoyed my site. I hope to see you there soon.