Hey guys! As some of you may know, I am an avid baker/chef. Baking is one of the biggest ways I de-stress, plus it usually ensures that there is at least one thing I can eat, wherever I am! I thought I'd share my go-to method i've developed over the years.
For the most part I rarely follow gluten free recipes. I find they often come out, how should I put this, lacking taste, and usually have strange ingredients that can add up to a small fortune. I usually stick with the recipes my family has been using for years, or I google other peoples family recipes! The way I manage this is by converting it to gluten free myself. The method i've developed works best with baked goods such as cookies, cakes, brownies, and dessert breads (banana, pumpkin). I've also used it for muffins, but I haven't got the consistency perfect yet, so dive into that at your own risk!
I mainly use white rice flour, I find this has the smoothest consistency and is the easiest to come by; I purchase mine from the Asian Market in Cherry Hill. If I'm doing something really light and fluffy, such as cake, I will do 3 parts white rice flour to 1 part tapioca flour. This also helps your flour last a little longer. If I'm only using the white rice flour i'll do the exact same amount as if I were using regular white flour. Now, this flour is extra fine, and very light, so if you're using a mixer I suggest blending in a very small amount, little by little. The trick to getting the consistency right is by adding in Xantham Gum. Xantham Gum acts as the binder, which in a normal recipe would be gluten, this keeps your food from being crumbly as most gluten free foods usually are. For cakes, brownies, and breads I would add about 1/2-1 teaspoon of Xantham Gum. For cookies, I would use no more than 1/2 a teaspoon because they take on a strange consistency if you add too much. Now, the only thing with using Xantham Gum is it is very important you blend all of your dry ingredients first, including the Xantham Gum. If you try and add them separately, the Xantham Gum tends to bind to itself and form hard lumps in your pastry (Gross!). As I said before, this is just the method I use, there are plenty of methods out there, and you'll find your own little tricks as you experiment!
I hope this has helped some of you out, and as always if you have any questions feel free to ask! I'll help as best as I can.
Happy Friday!
-Maureen
No comments:
Post a Comment