Gluten Free Cooking

I know I know, I said I wouldn't be around much, but what can I say, I just can't stay away! Still haven't caught up in NaNo, but DH is reading DD a bedtime story, so I have a spare few minutes.

We found out that DH was gluten intolerant about 6 or 7 years ago, after seeing the doctor because he was tired all the time. Finding out he couldn't eat gluten, which is in wheat, barley, rye and oats (although oats is disputed, mainly the problems there are caused by cross contamination) was quite a shock, as at the time most of our food was based on convenience foods. Once we got hold of a booklet from the Coeliac society showing what contained gluten and what didn't, and started reading the labels, we found out that wheat was in just about everything! At the time, there were very few gluten free foods available, and most of what was was pretty horrible. So we had to learn to make our own. We had quite a few adventures with trying to make our own gluten free spaghetti (thankfully there is now a decent commercial brand!), and eventually pretty much gave up on gluten free bread. I scored a couple of gluten free cookbooks from a very nice lady on a forum, who had been sent them by mistake from Amazons, which helped immensely, although since they were American, many of the ingredients were hard to find here in Australia.

It was a very stressful time, meaning we had to change our whole way of eating, and several times (when DD was first born being a notable one) we gave up all together for a time, but overall I think the advantages we've had have far outweighed the disadvantages. It was, in some ways, one of the starting points for our simple living journey. We learned about reading labels carefully, we learnt how to cook many things from scratch, and I'm sure we began eating healthier. Our household is about 80% gluten free these days. Almost all of my baking is gluten free, the only exceptions are bread that DD and I eat, and porridge (with wheat germ) that I have for breakfast each morning. DD also eats dry weet-bix for breakfast most days.

Thankfully there are far more products for gluten free diets these days. We buy a very nice gluten free pasta, and rice crumbs taste almost identical to breadcrumbs, if 3 times the price! We still make most of our foods from scratch, including biscuits and cakes, and in most cases these are pretty similar to their gluten containing counterparts. In fact, I find that I prefer the gluten free varieties. I taste regular cupcakes, and they just taste wrong to me! Our taste buds have actually changed to suit our new diet. The old adage of you like what you eat rather than eating what you like rings pretty true.

We are on a campaign to have some snack foods on hand for DH to take for work so that he can avoid the temptation of chocolate and soft-drink. We've finally found a gluten free bread DH likes, although I think that's mainly because it's been so long since he's tasted wheat bread he can't remember what it tastes like, but it's best eaten toasted, which DH can't do at work since all the toasters have had wheat bread in them. So recently I tried this cheese and bacon roll variation, which is a big hit. We made a dozen today for DH to take to work next week, only somehow there are only 6 left! Even I enjoy them.

Gluten free bread is actually easier to make than normal bread, as it only needs to rise once, and there is no kneeding. Following the hints on the packet, I set the bread to rise over a sink full of hot water, which works beautifully.

We use the Laucke bread mix, which is mixed by hand really easily. So to make these I just followed the directions on the packet to mix up the dough (which is more like a runny cake mix, and can easily be mixed with a normal electric mixer). I then spooned half of the mix into a greased muffin tin, put some bacon (still frozen) and cheese in, spooned the other half on top, then added more bacon and cheese. Yummy! I'm going to try some cinnamon fruit rolls next, as soon as I buy some cinnamon.

Biccies!

As I was surfing around in Blogland today (as if I don't have anything else to do!), I came across this recipe for chocolate chip biccies over at The Tin House, and just had to try them out. Since we're gluten free in this house, I removed the weet-bix and oats, and added half a cup of crushed macadamia nuts, and half a cup of coconut instead.

They were a big hit, and are almost all gone already (just eating one as I type). I made half of them bite sized, yum, and DH did the other half slightly larger. I think I like the bite sized ones best. There was a little too much mixture to fit on my two trays, so I've frozen some of it, and will cook it up later and see how it goes.

They were just the snack, along with a drink of cold, filtered rainwater, for DH, who was working hard mowing the jungle up there in the orchard.

Baking Bread

I used to buy all my bread. Ever since I became pregnant, and heard all about the side effects of many of the preservatives used, I was very careful to buy preservative free bread, but I still bought it. I don't eat that much, so I'd buy two loaves at a time, and freeze what I didn't eat immediately. It would last me about 2-3 weeks before I'd have to buy more. DH is gluten intolerant, so he can't eat it, and we haven't had much success in finding an edible gluten free bread yet.

Then we moved. There are no Brumbies or Bakers Delight bakeries here (those are the two that I know make preservative free bread). The only one is in the large shopping centre, that I try to avoid. This made buying bread a huge hassle, and I was continually running out.

Then one day at the markets, I saw a bread machine. $25, and I got it for $20, so I took it home to make some bread. I know breadmakers are the cheating way of making bread, and I would love to make bread by hand, but with a 3yo, the amount of time needed just isn't an option for me right now. Maybe when she is a little older, and able to follow directions, instead of tipping stuff into the bowl the moment my back is turned.

So far, I've made about half a dozen loaves, so I'm by no means an expert. I suspect I have a lot to learn. I'm just using a bread mix that I found in the supermarket, Lanuke wholemeal, and so far, nearly all of my loaves have been edible. They are a big heavy/moist, but heavenly hot from the breadmaker with butter and strawberry jam!

So, I thought I'd post a bit of a 'how to get started with breadmakers' thing, just for anyone who is thinking about giving it a go, but is unsure.

This is my breadmaker. It didn't come with a manual, so I had a look around online, and managed to find one that is from a more recent evolution of the same model. It has some differences, but I'm working on the fact that the basic procedures are the same.

Firstly, you need to choose a bread mix or recipe. I'm no help here, since I bought the only one that the supermarket had. I plan to try out more mixes, and hopefully eventually go for my own recipe, but this is a start.

Firstly, I like to get everything I'll need together. I put my flour and yeast into jars, since I had an attack of moths recently, but make sure I keep the packet for the measurements. If I happen to forget, my DD has written down what we need in her little notebook: water, flour, yeast. She likes to tick them off as we add them.

I also have a good variety of measuring cups/instruments. Apparently you have to be very exact with your measurement in breadmakers. The recipe I use calls for 415ml of water, so I used the graded measuring cup for that. My breadmaker instructions say to add the water first, then the flour, then the yeast in a well in the middle of the flour. That is so that the yeast doesn't begin to activate if you set it on the delay start function. The flour requires 3 1/2 cups, so I use both the 1 cup measure, and the half cup measure (whereas with making a cake, I'd just half fill the 1 cup).

That's all there is to it. Then it goes into the breadmaker, and you press a few buttons, and off it goes.

I like to check on it as it's rising, but be careful not to bump it, or it will sink. At about this stage, the fresh bread smell starts to permeate the house.

3 hours after the initial start, it beeps to tell me it's done. The insert comes out, and the bread sits in it for another 5 minutes.

Then I tip it out onto a rack, theoretically to cool.

But really, so that I can cut slices and slather them in butter and jam, and eat them while they're still hot. DD asks the whole time it's cooking if it's ready yet.

Does it get any better than this?

Valentines Day

We don't make much of a big deal about Valentines Day in our house. If we have the time and energy (sadly lacking since having a child!), one of us will get a card or flowers for the other, but more often it's just a nice meal at home together, and sometimes a DVD after DD has gone to bed. This year, we had sweet and sour chicken on rice, one of our favourite meals. DD had chicken nuggets and chips. All home made of course. For the sweet and sour, I'm afraid we buy bottled sauce, Kan-Tong. They're the only bottles we get anymore, and as you'll see later, they all get used. We like to breadcrumb the chicken, fry it up, pull out the 'nuggets', then add the sauce. For chips, we steam the potato for about 10-15 minutes, then put them on trays in the oven, sprayed with some olive oil, and cook until crisp. Not quite as good as fried, but passable, and a lot quicker and healthier.

For desert, I made apple crumble! I had some apples that had been sitting in the cupboard since last market day, and a couple of them were starting to go bad, so I figured I'd better get it done before they lot was wasted. There were about 4 bad ones, but plenty that were still good. I grabbed the extra apples out of the fridge too, and all up probably had about 20 or so apples. Now you would think they would take hours to peel and cut wouldn't you? But I have this REALLY COOL apple peeler, peels, cores and slices all in one. I don't happen to have any good pics of this, so check out this video of how it works. (I'm sorry, I don't have sound, so I hope there is nothing offensive said, but I don't think so.) My sister liked it so much she went out and bought one on her way home the day I showed it to her.

Lots of apple peel later, I had a full saucepan of apples. I think maybe a little too full, as it boiled over while cooking. It reduced a little as it cooked though. I added 2 cups of sugar to the apples, but probably could have done with less. This is a decent sized saucepan too, about 20 inches or so!

Once the apple was cooked, I ladled it hot into recycled glass jars (those Kan-Tong ones I was talking about earlier!), and put the lids on while it was still hot. I sit them on the wooden cutting board while filling them, and haven't had one crack yet. I used one of those grippy rubber mat things, the ones that you can use to get bottle lids off, to hold the hot glass jar while tightening the lids. As the apple cooled, it shrinks, creating a vacuum seal. You know you've got a good seal when the 'pop tops' of these bottles pop down. I'm keeping it all in the fridge to be certain though, and don't expect it to last above a month or two. Out of my saucepan of apples, I got 3 (500ml) jars of apple, and enough for tonight's apple crumble.

I don't bother with a pastry base, it's a huge hassle, and isn't that easy gluten free anyway. I just pop the stewed apple straight into the pie dish (this one is Pyrex), and then make up the crumble. I use a recipe in "Day to Day Cookery", which was my home economics textbook in high school! Yes, more than 10 years on, I still have it, and use it often. That and the old W. M. U. (Presbyterian Women's Missionary Union) Cookery book are my standby. That, and all my mum's old recipes that I have copies of.

Crumble for Apple Crumble recipe:

1 cup plain flour

3 tablespoons of sugar (more if you have a family of sweet tooth's)

3 tablespoons of coconut

3 tablespoons of butter

Mix butter through flour with fingertips until breadcrumb consistency

Add sugar and coconut and mix together.

Sprinkle on top of apples, and cook in a medium oven until lightly browned.

Here it is ready to go in the oven. We didn't have any coconut, so I just left it out, and it turned out fine.

Served with some still warm home made custard, and it didn't last long!

Biscuit Baking

All day long DD was on at me, "I want to cook something mummy, I want to cook something." I guess inspired by our chocolate chip muffin making yesterday. She didn't have any great ideas on what she wanted to cook today though, so I finally suggested biscuits.

I use this recipe from Intuitive Parenting, which makes up a HUGE bulk lot. It's quick and easy to make, and a good consistency for my biscuit pusher. This is a very old style pusher, given to me by my grandmother. You put the little shapes bit at one end, and use the handle on the other to push the biscuit mixture through. We have a lot of shapes, and love to try a new one every time. I'll try to take some pics of it and add them to this post later, once it's been washed up!

*Edit: Here's the pic of the biscuit pusher.

Today, we used a round shape with a hole in the middle, 3rd from the left in the top row, and DD had the brilliant idea of putting a tiny chocolate chip into each hole.

For the second tray, I used strawberry jam instead of the chocolate chips.

The rest of the mixture gets frozen for making biscuits at a later date. This is then an easy activity, with no mixing required, just put the mixture onto the bench until it defrosts, then push it out onto the trays. Last time I just froze it in freezer bags, but this time I wrapped it first. I used the paper from the butter for some lots, then greaseproof paper for the rest. If this works, I'll save my butter papers for it in future. The plan with this is that it will be easy to just slide it into the pusher, rather than having to laboriously spoon it in.

And here is the finished product. The chocolate chip ones worked out really well, but unfortunately the jam in the others soaked into the biscuits. They'll still taste yummy. Once they cooled, I stuck them together in pairs with icing. Yum! Unfortunately they didn't last long enough for me to get a picture of them with the icing in!