1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened (one stick)
2 eggs at room temperature
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon anise extract (unless you love licorice and then dial it up to a teaspoon)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (fresh if you can!)
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 1/2 ounces low fat soy flour
2 5/8 ounces white rice flour
2 5/8 ounces tapioca starch
confectioner's sugar for dusting
Mix dry ingredients (except confectioner's sugar) in medium bowl and set aside.
Cream butter and brown sugar. Beat in eggs and extracts. Add dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375. Spoon and roll out balls of dough a little smaller than golf balls. Place one inch apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes.
Remove cookies from cookie sheet and place on wire racks, sprinkle with confectioner's sugar while still warm.
Monday, December 26, 2011
My five favorite gluten free flour substitutions - from the Culinary Institute of America's Gluten Free Baking
I have ragged on this cookbook on my blog before - and it has some clear and obvious problems with the clarity of instructions, resources for obtaining the ingredients, and it's reliance on soy flour which is not well tolerated in large amounts by many people. But the truth is, it's my favorite gluten free cookbook and I even gave it as a gift this Christmas.
The book includes much valuable content, including instructions on how to reproduce some of the techniques professional kitchens have (the "proofing" chamber alone is worth the list price) but I think the most valuable bit it the five separate gluten free flour mixes. I have found them so useful that I have actually written up a little google document to do the weight calculations for each mix so that if you are good at choosing the appropriate mix, you can adapt basically any standard gluten recipe to be gluten free (if, like me, you have a high tolerance for soy - I've not yet tried the idea that you could essentially swap out, ounce for ounce, the soy for almond flour - I will be trying that forthwith. It hasn't happened before now because soy flour is around $1.50/lb and almond flour is $7/lb - if you don't hate garbanzo bean, you can try that, too). I use #1 for crepes, #4 for any cookie EVER (I did pfeffernusse a few weeks ago which I will be posting here in a bit), #2 or #3 for muffins or quick breads.
I'm including the link to the google doc - you'll have to go to File>Download As and then download it in your favorite spreadsheet format so you can enter in your desired amount in ounces. (If you do this and it works/doesn't work, please let me know)
The book includes much valuable content, including instructions on how to reproduce some of the techniques professional kitchens have (the "proofing" chamber alone is worth the list price) but I think the most valuable bit it the five separate gluten free flour mixes. I have found them so useful that I have actually written up a little google document to do the weight calculations for each mix so that if you are good at choosing the appropriate mix, you can adapt basically any standard gluten recipe to be gluten free (if, like me, you have a high tolerance for soy - I've not yet tried the idea that you could essentially swap out, ounce for ounce, the soy for almond flour - I will be trying that forthwith. It hasn't happened before now because soy flour is around $1.50/lb and almond flour is $7/lb - if you don't hate garbanzo bean, you can try that, too). I use #1 for crepes, #4 for any cookie EVER (I did pfeffernusse a few weeks ago which I will be posting here in a bit), #2 or #3 for muffins or quick breads.
I'm including the link to the google doc - you'll have to go to File>Download As and then download it in your favorite spreadsheet format so you can enter in your desired amount in ounces. (If you do this and it works/doesn't work, please let me know)
Easy Gluten-Free Rolls
I've posted this recipe before - this is a slightly altered recipe to make it into rolls or savory muffins, which makes them basically fool-proof and very light and fluffy. I'm recommending this recipe to people who are not full-time gluten free bakers but might want a relatively easy roll they can feed to their gluten free friends (like my dad!) I will warn you, it calls for a collection of flours which is somewhat annoying if you're not already maintaining a gluten free pantry. However, the starches are pretty standard (if you're not currently familiar with Tapioca starch, I think it's better than cornstarch in most recipes cornstarch is called for) and millet and sorghum are some of the less expensive GF flours. But the starches are more alike than different in baking. It's best to do the variety, but if you only do one or two, just increase it accordingly (i.e. replace the tapioca with an equal amount of corn starch)
Makes +/- 20 rolls
1 1/3 cup Millet Flour
2/3 cup Sorghum flour
2/3 cup corn starch
2/3 cup potato starch
2/3 cup tapioca starch
1 1/2 tsp guar gum (cheaper than xanthan)
2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons plus 2 tsps sugar
2 packets yeast (1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon plus 1 tsp olive oil
1 cup water, heated to 110 (you can still stick your finger in it without burning, but it feels "hot")
Lightly spray standard muffin tins - you'll need space for around 20, give or take.
Mix all dry ingredients in an electric mixer (including yeast). Add the oil and the water and mix until just blended. Scrape bowl and beaters and then mix at medium high speed for 3 minutes until completely smooth. The dough will be the consistency of cake batter. This is always a shock to an experience wheat-flour baker. Spoon the dough into muffin tins - fill about halfway. They will expand more than cupcakes would, so keep that in mind as you divide the dough evenly among the tins. If you want to cover them with a cloth, you'll need to suspend the cloth over the tins (I used a salt shaker placed between the tins as a little tent pole) otherwise your dough will grow into the cloth and then come up with the cloth when you pull it back, making a mess and denying you considerable volume of bread-goodness. If you've got a good active yeast and a non drafty kitchen, you may choose not to cover them at all.
Allow them to rise until they double in volume - took me about 20 minutes. While the dough is proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake until the tops are just starting to turn brown - approximately 15 minutes when I did it.
They come out light and fluffy.
As my uncle said, "Wait, these are gluten free?"
Makes +/- 20 rolls
1 1/3 cup Millet Flour
2/3 cup Sorghum flour
2/3 cup corn starch
2/3 cup potato starch
2/3 cup tapioca starch
1 1/2 tsp guar gum (cheaper than xanthan)
2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons plus 2 tsps sugar
2 packets yeast (1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon plus 1 tsp olive oil
1 cup water, heated to 110 (you can still stick your finger in it without burning, but it feels "hot")
Lightly spray standard muffin tins - you'll need space for around 20, give or take.
Mix all dry ingredients in an electric mixer (including yeast). Add the oil and the water and mix until just blended. Scrape bowl and beaters and then mix at medium high speed for 3 minutes until completely smooth. The dough will be the consistency of cake batter. This is always a shock to an experience wheat-flour baker. Spoon the dough into muffin tins - fill about halfway. They will expand more than cupcakes would, so keep that in mind as you divide the dough evenly among the tins. If you want to cover them with a cloth, you'll need to suspend the cloth over the tins (I used a salt shaker placed between the tins as a little tent pole) otherwise your dough will grow into the cloth and then come up with the cloth when you pull it back, making a mess and denying you considerable volume of bread-goodness. If you've got a good active yeast and a non drafty kitchen, you may choose not to cover them at all.
Allow them to rise until they double in volume - took me about 20 minutes. While the dough is proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake until the tops are just starting to turn brown - approximately 15 minutes when I did it.
They come out light and fluffy.
As my uncle said, "Wait, these are gluten free?"
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