Thursday, January 20, 2011

more bread makes me a happy girl










I had another baking spurt this morning. It didn't just come on out of nowhere as I need to plan ahead to a point when I'm growing my starters and such, but I didn't plan on doing so much at the same time. I had a tough day yesterday so I decided to bake to feel better. I'm keeping the calm going by working on it some more today.



I made sponge starter to try a new starter out (so far I've made gluten-free starter sans yeast that grows on the countertop as well as old dough that is added to new dough for a more complex flavor) and it grew a ton, both on the counter and in the fridge. It's nice that some bread-in-the-making will wait for me (a bit) until I'm ready to use them.
I took out my old dough from the freezer to defrost yesterday and started making Amy's Crusty Italian Loaf, which is a dough that uses the sponge. I made it and let it rise for an hour, then kept in the fridge overnight to develop. I had leftover sponge that I put in the fridge to keep longer (and it just kept growing, even in the cold!) so I decided to go crazy and start preparing it all today.
The Crusty Italian bread turned out fantastic! I made them into rings and baguettes instead of a loaf...can share the wealth better that way. I'm bringing one to Pak Sapta at the Indonesian Consulate to thank him for keeping my ipod safe in his office overnight (I had gamelan practice last night and accidently left it), will give one to my boss, one each to Audrey and Joanne, the massage therapists at the office, and will be bringing one to Liz later tonight because she asked.






I prepared Amy's Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread with Oats and Pecans as well as altered her recipe for Cinnamon Raisin Bread by subbing the black raisins for 2/3 golden 1/3 chopped apricots as well as tossing in nutmeg along with the cinnamon...now they're all sitting dutifully in the fridge until I can bake them off tonight.

Update: I baked them and they turned out very pretty.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Gluten-free Love


Oh, dear! It's been far too long since I've last posted on here. Baking has pulled me back. Sorry, Mary, for slacking on this blog...I really need to make it more of a habit.

Without going into detail about why, Dr. Farah, the chiropractor that shares an office with my acupuncturist, Barry, has been really helpful and recommended I try cutting out wheat from my diet. This is no easy task, but I took on the idea quickly and am running with it to see if it helps with my issues. Along with cutting out wheat comes the idea of gluten-free cooking, so I'm trying that on for size. For those of you that are unfamiliar but have heard about gluten-free this and that, check out the wikipedia page www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten-free

I started becoming curious about cooking and baking without gluten when I landed a job years ago at Rice restaurant: the owner, David, was interested in me coming up with a breakfast menu full of baked items (some rice-related) and he wanted to try to cater to those that couldn't eat gluten or dairy, so I experiemented and came up with a scone and a crepe to offer. My friend, Nathania, who attributes some allergic reactions she gets to dairy and gluten, loaned me a cookbook and I liked it so much that I bought it for myself: The Gluten-Free Gourmet revised edition by Bette Hagman. I like it because it simply breaks down a list of options and substitutes, lists hidden gluten (like in some instant coffees and envelope glues (!)), and has a ton of recipes from yeast breads to desserts to meals.
I dug into the dessert section when it came time for Nathania's birthday- I was determined to make her a tasty cake with frosting...I think I wound up searching online for something that worked out pretty well. I found this resource at the time: http://www.theppk.com/ (The Post Punk Kitchen) where they have info on vegan baking.
Since I'm not that great with keeping up on blogs (for shame since I have one) and have a ton of other interests I didn't keep experimenting that much unless something came up like a birthday or gift for someone that I wanted to bake for. Now that I am faced with some health issues of my own that I'm trying to tackle naturally and the fact that I've been baking non-stop anyway to hone my skills for that perfect job to come along, this comes as a perfect time to experiment once again and try out a bunch of gluten-free/ wheat-free/ dairy-free recipes. Since I'm going to be saying gluten-free a lot let's just abbreviate it to g.f., cool?

Since I haven't had a full-time job since June (ack!) I've had time on my hands to bake (I've been working as a receptionist part-time in another chiropractor's office), so my mission is to practice practice practice! I started out wanting to make it my mission to bake yeast breads (the usual gluten-filled kind) so now I'm trying both, being very careful not to let any wheat, etc. touch the utensils, bowls, etc. that I use for the g.f. stuff. Besides the g.f. cookbook, I'm also using Amy's Bread by Amy Scherber and Toy Kim Dupree as well as this Chinese cooking resource: http://www.chinesefood.about.com/

I've made it a job in itself (or at least that's how I rationalize it in my head so that I don't stress out too much) and this is what I've baked so far, along with it's outcome: Wed. 12/22- Chinese Sticky Cake- tastes just like the ones from Chinatown!, Thurs. 12/23- Chinese Sponge Cake- light and fluffy, and g.f. Chinese Sponge- not as light but very moist with a slight bean flavor but very good!/ Mon. 12/27- Tradional Baguettes- pretty good! I need to perfect the look of them, and more g.f. sponge cake/ Tues. 12/28- g.f. Oat Bread- too dense/ g.f. grainy sourdough- not bad, a bit too 'sour' tasting and still too dense, and Cinnamon Raisin Bread- excellent! but I need to wrap the dough tighter as the raisins kept falling out when I sliced it/ Wed. 12/29- g.f. sourdough bread- pretty good! but doesn't taste like sourdough bread at all/ Tues. 1/4- g.f. Grainy Sourdough- not bad, a bit too sour tasting, still a little too dense/ today, Fri. 1/7- g.f. English Muffins- good, easy, and just like the real thing...here's the recipe:

Gluten-free English Muffins
1 c. rice flour (next time I'm getting brown rice flour)
1 c. tapoica starch/ flour (same thing)
1/3 c. dried milk or non-dairy sub.
1 tsp+1/2 tsp+1/4 tsp (sorry, I halved the orginal recipe) xanthan gum (so necessary to buy for g.f. baking)
1/2 tsp salt.........a) put all in mixing bowl and blend

1 tbsp. yeast granules
1/2 c. lukewarm water (75-77 degrees)
1/2 tbsp sugar...........b) mix and sit for a few mins.

1 1/2 tbsp shortening (I use organic all-vegetable or else solid coconut oil)
1/4 c. hot water...........c)blend these, then add it to the dry mix and blend

2 egg whites.........d) add to mixture and blend

e) go back to yeast mix, add to mixture and beat on high for 4 mins.- it will be a sticky dough. Spoon onto rice-floured waxed paper, flatten a bit and sprinkle more rice flour, then top with another sheet of waxed paper- roll out 1/2 in. thick, cut out circles (I used the lid of a jar as I don't own english muffin tins) and bake in a pre-heated 350 deg. oven for 20 mins. on a greased cookie sheet. The recipe says to flip them over and bake for another 20 but that's only if you have tins. Mine turned out a bit puffy on top so they look more like biscuits and when you fork-split them they're nice and airy!
I'm so glad as George and I always have english muffins on hand and the last pack we bought isn't getting eaten up like usual!

I will continue to add to my baking list and post recipes up here....

~Jess