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Gluten Free Rye Bread: YES!

Oh the quest for tasty gluten free bread continues. Missing rye bread has been one of the tougher things to deal with as I loved it back in my pre-celiac diagnosis days.  FYI: Rye flour has gluten in it and no other flour will give you the actual taste of rye.  Caraway seeds in the bread do help but to get rye flavor? I found but one solution: rye flavor powder.  Yeap; such a thing exists. Sold only by one company as far as I can tell; Authentic Foods.  You get a small shaker the size of a bottle of spices for about $6 but the kicker is the $8.99 shipping charge. rye flavor

  I hemmed and hawed for a long time (read two plus years) but finally chose to pay it.  I did get a bag of gf lemon cake mix which did not increase the shipping charge and was reasonably priced plus hard to find at a grocery store.  Still this was pricey; just under $21 for those two items plus shipping. I asked myself, will this rye bread be worth this cost for just a small bottle of flavoring?

The recipe I used came from Annalise Roberts’ Gluten-Free Baking Classics, Second Edition.  I made it just according to the recipe which uses her bread flour mix.  It is composed of several flours including brown rice flour, tapioca flour and potato starch as well as millet.  I already had some in my freezer. Bing bing bing, the recipe is very straightforward, nothing tricky.  I let it rise in my 8.5 x 4 inch metal bread pan and baked it.  Not much rise in the oven but it didn’t fall either!  rye bread and cassoulet 022

The flavor and texture were outstanding. I used half the caraway seeds as it seemed like a lot.  Next time I plan on the full amount just to see how it tastes.  This bread gave me back my rye.  Now, I did see a few comments on the Authentic Food’s related selling website: http://www.glutenfree-supermarket.com/p-48-rye-flavor-all-natural-ingredients.aspx.  People quarreling whether this could possibly be gluten free.  I used it, I found it not to make me ill and therefore I feel it is less than 20 ppm of gluten.  It is labeled gluten free and for my purposes it seems to be just that. Nuff said by me on that issue. I know folks who will argue on this topic for hours but I am comfortable with the safety of this product and will buy it gain when I run out.

I suggest that if you are missing rye bread this recipe is exactly what the doctor ordered! I was and now I have back my rye bread.  So can you.  Just fork over your cash and get that powder! I suspect you could put it in any basic gf bread recipe and if you want the bread seeded; add them too.  The recipe book is widely available; Amazon, Ebay, book stores; only $4 on Ebay!  gluten free baking classics I use many, many of these recipes and this is definitely a keeper cookbook you will turn to over and over again.  It’s the source for my flaky pie crust, cookie crusts, muffins, cookies, quick breads, wickedly great brownies and very tasty Irish soda bread.  It is fairly inexpensive. If you are going to bake gluten free it is a must own cookbook.  The muffins and brownies are very easy and always turn out great. I can’t recommend it enough.

Time for some gluten free rye toast…had some the other day with my breakfast eggs. Yumm!

Micro Greens Are In My Salad!

Microgreens…what the heck is that?  Well…it is just basically sprouts grown in dirt.  Today for my lunch salad I used some baby kale and the first of my micro greens which I started a couple weeks ago.  As well as some burpless cucumber and cauliflower.  I poured some homemade vinaigrette over it.  It was awesome!

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This post is a revised version of one I posted a few years ago. Being as it is mid winter and thus too cold to plant my peas I am very glad for my microgreen crop which is growing in a small pot. A few years ago I grew them in a tin can that once held bamboo shoots! Just poke a few holes in the bottom and you have the perfect shallow container to grow them.

I got my seed mix from superseeds.com a/k/a Pinetree Seeds of Maine, a family business which has been around since 1979.  I have found it to be a great place for inexpensive, good quality seeds and plants.  I get most of my seeds there. They happen to have a book on sale there about microgreens; see picture in this post.

Anyhow, last winter I bought a packet of these microgreens from Pinetree. I chose the kitchen sink variety; a mixture of many greens and veggies.  I planted them 1/3-1/2 inch deep in seed starter medium.  Watered them well, and waited. In just 7-8 days the first shoots appeared.  I made one for my neighbor Grace who’s house is warmer than mine and hers sprouted in only 4-5 days! I was thrilled with the more than 95% germination rate.  That meant that my pot was packed solidly with tiny shoots.  Maybe a tad too tightly……. I put them in the kitchen window sill.  Watered them almost daily and turned them around every other day. Some grew extra fast; pea shoots that were nearly 2 inches taller than the rest of the plants.

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Grace’s plants grow much faster in her warm kitchen and were soon ready to snip but I had a bit of a time getting her to see that they were for eating now! Grace, a retired florist is elderly and must not have heard my initial directions fully as she thought they were for planting out in the garden.  Eventually she took my advice and snipped off the pea shoots which were like 6 inches tall and enjoyed them in salads. 

In less than three weeks I was getting out my kitchen scissors and snipping off a section of my shoots to toss on a just made salad. This boosted the nutritional value of my salad considerably.  Not to mention the interesting flavor of all those tangy sprouts!

Sprinkled on my salad they added lots of phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals.  They are a great flavor booster for your side or main salad.

Phytonutrients are what you say?  Well, one definition, courtesy of Wiki links is this:

The term is generally used to refer to those chemicals that may have biological significance, for example antioxidants, but are not established as essential nutrients.[1] Scientists estimate[citation needed] that there may be as many as 10,000 different phytochemicals having the potential to affect diseases such as cancer, stroke or metabolic syndrome.   From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytonutrients.  FYI: Wiki Links uses phytochemicals as a synonym of phytonutrients.

According to medterms.com: Currently, the terms “phytonutrient” and “phytochemical” are being used interchangeably to describe those plant compounds which are thought to have health-protecting qualities.

Anyhow, definitions aside, microgreens are chock full of those healthy phytonutrients as well as crunch and flavor.  A small handful would be perfect in a spring salad or on top of a burger.

So, if you are not much of a gardener but want fresh salad stuff that is cheaper, fresher and healthier for your body than you can buy just about anywhere, get some packets of microgreens and start planting!

If you don’t have any pots lying around most any container with drainage will do.  I used a shallow empty tin can from oriental veggies. Last winter I used a half and half container scrubbed clean and laid on its side with the uppermost side cut off and a few holes punched in the bottom.  I filled it with potting soil.  Do avoid soil mixtures with Miracle Grow in them.  In a few short weeks you will be able to cut and enjoy your own super sprouted greens. Go forth and sprout!

Angela Drake's avatarMy World Without Wheat

microgreensMicrogreens…what the heck is that?  Well…it is just basically sprouts grown in dirt.  Today for my lunch salad I used some baby kale and the first of my micro greens which I started a couple weeks ago.  As well as some burpless cucumber and cauliflower.  I poured some homemade olive oil vinaigrette over it.  It was awesome!

kale and micro greens 024

This post is a revised version of one I posted last May. Being as it is still too cold to even plant my peas I am very glad for my microgreen crop which is growing in a tin can that once held bamboo shoots! Just poke a few holes in the bottom and you have the perfect shallow container to grow them.

I got my seed mix from superseeds.com a/k/a Pinetree Seeds of Maine, a family business which has been around since 1979.  I have found it to be a great place for…

View original post 589 more words

Cherry Frangipane Tart – Cherrylishous!

Cherries are a Drake family favorite.  I have one sister who seems to live on sweet cherries all summer long.  I love them myself; a bowl of sweet and tangy cherries for dessert is the best! Once I made a whole dinner with cherries of one form or another in every recipe. Rave reviews from everyone.

Pies should be made with sour not sweet cherries.  Not sure why, cause you gotta add sugar anyway but it is the way of the cherry.  I love sour cherry pie…but, I never ate cherry pie as a kid because I couldn’t trust my mom to pick out any worms she saw in the home grown cherries she used for pies.  So I cheated myself out of many slices of delicious cherry pie.  This past summer I picked a lot of sour cherries and pitted them all.  One pie for now and the rest measured and frozen.  No worms, I promise!

At Christmas I made this yummy frangipane tart (almond tart) full of cherries for my family.  Yes, I used some of my frozen ones. Somehow I forgot to share it here on my blog.  Since it is the week we celebrate President’s Day [think George Washington and that cherry tree] it seemed appropriate to pass it on to you all.  Besides it is my “Year of the Pie” and tarts count! I totally want to make it again soon. Hmmnn, think there is one more bag of cherries in my freezer… christmas baking 2015 015

The recipe comes from my new bestie gf baking book; Gluten-Free Baking Classics The Heirloom Collection by Annalise Roberts. I didn’t change it at all.  Perfection with cherries. I am telling you, this cookbook is worth buying just for the pie section!

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Cherry Frangipane Tart

Crust:

1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)

2 tbsp sweet rice flour

1 Tbps. granulated sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

1 lg egg

2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Spray 9 inch metal tart pan (with removable bottom) with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour.  I actually used a ten inch ceramic tart pan; worked fine too. Use the tart pan you have.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer.  Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal.  Add egg and juice.  Mix until it comes together into big chunks.  Shape into a ball with your hands. Put it on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust ball some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes while you make the filling.

Roll out pie crust between the two sheets of wax paper; try to get the thickness even, no thick middle! My sister Karen gave me a pie bag last year and I love it for an even thin crust.  You can get one on line from King Arthur Flours.  Peel off one side of paper and place in pie pan, centered.  Remove other slice of wax paper.  Crimp edges all around.  Bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees, cool before filing. Crust can’t be hot or the almond and butter filling will melt when you spread it over the crust!

Filling:

½ c unsalted butter

½ cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup almond meal

1 tbsp. brown rice flour mix

1 tbsp. Amaretto

1 tsp. almond extract

½ tsp. salt

3 cups pitted sour cherries

Beat butter and sugar in bowl of large mixer until pale and fluffy. Add egg and other ingredients except cherries; beat it all together with a mixer at low speed until well blended.

Put tart together:

Fill cooled crust with frangipane mixture spread over bottom of the baked tart crust.  Then spread the pitted cherries evenly over the top. I put them on, one at a time to make sure they looked the best I could do.  No “just dump them” for this tart…

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 40-50 minutes, until tart is puffed and light brown across the whole surface.  Take out of the oven and cool at least 1 hour before removing the side ring.   Serve warm or close to room temperature. christmas baking 2015 015

Note: if you use frozen cherries; measure and weigh frozen. Let them defrost, pat off excess moisture and spread them over the filling.

Brown Rice Flour Mix (same as King Arthur GF Flour Mix)
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

15 Bean Storm Soup

Another stormy day!  It’s time for another hearty one pot meal.  This one is my multi-bean soup with Italian sausage.  I started with a 1.3 lb bag of 4 bean mix and added two kinds of lentil and a bit of a few others.  The thing is, if you have celiac most 16 or 15 bean mixtures for soups contain barley which we are hugely allergic to.  I found a four bean mix out at Echo Hill country store (Berks County) and added some French lentils; maybe ¼ a cup and some red lentils; another ¼ cup plus a ¼ cup of dried garbanzo beans and a sprinkling of dried limas.  You can use what ever blend you like but I like a good mix for a rich thick stew.  (NOTE: this most recent version used a 15 bean blend I found at Giant grocery store that was marked gf.  I did not use the seasoning packet that came with it.)

My soup has Italian sausage but you can leave that out if you want a vegetarian version. I personally love sausage in a bean stew. Gives you lots of meaty flavor and a healthy dose of protein. I am guessing you could use other things like smoky ham chunks or maybe a ham hock? In this latest version I used smoked bratwurst instead of Italian sausage,  good but I really love it with Italian Sausage.

I enjoyed a hot bowl of this pottage with a slice of toasted multigrain gf bread.  It made a full meal without anything else being necessary.   A fresh crunchy salad would go well if you want to round your dining experience out with some greens!

Ten or Fifteen Bean Soup with Sausage

Soak 1 pound 4 oz (typical bag size) of dried mixed beans in filtered water to cover.  Soak it for an hour or try the overnight treatment.  If you use separate types of beans, follow these directions as lentils don’t need a soak.  I set the lentils aside and added them after the soaking as they don’t need the same treatment the other beans need.  Either bring to a boil and let stand an hour or just let stand in the cold water overnight.  I did the quick version.  Be sure to drain them well and rinse before returning the swollen legumes to the rinsed pot.  Cover with fresh filtered water and add a bay leaf.  Cook 1 hour, pour in more water as needed and stir so it doesn’t stick or burn.  Then, add the lentils and cook another hour until the beans are nearly tender.  It is hard to say when beans get done, depends on a number of factors, taste often to check for tenderness. And stir that pot! As they approach that almost done spot start the rest of the dish, get everything chopped up and ready to toss in when the beans have reached the two hour mark.

Chop into dice:

3 sizable carrots

1 large onion

Mince: 2 big garlic cloves

Add the veggies to the pot, stir and cook 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add water if needed.  I like the soup thick but it can’t be solid so add water.

As that cooks, start the sausage.  Sauté one lb Italian sausage: brown in a Teflon pan with a touch of olive oil until top and bottom are browned and sausage is mostly done. Let cool a bit and slice into rounds or chunks, set aside.  In my latest version I used fully cooked smoked bratwurst and so I skipped this step; just cut it into rounds and added it in the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Add the following to the soup:

½ a 14 ounce can of spicy diced tomatoes

½ tsp. dried oregano

Sprinkle dried basil

¼ tsp smoked paprika

1 beef bullion cube

½ bunch of kale leaves cut into big shreds; I cut off the bigger stems as they can be tough.

1-2 tsp sea salt

Some fresh ground black pepper

Cook ten minutes, add more water if it gets too thick. Stir occasionally.  Taste and add more spice if you think the soup needs more. Add the sliced sausage or bratwurst and cook five – ten minutes more.  A total cooking time could be from 2.5-3 hours, depending on your beans.  If they have been sitting in the pantry for many months they take longer to cook to a tender texture.

Taste and add more salt/pepper as you see necessary.  Let stand 5-10 minutes before ladling out.  Now that is comfort food that is good for you too!

Originally posted February 2015

 

 

GF Product Review Roundup

 

Finally I got to try the much vaunted Canyon Bakehouse  7 Grain bread.  It looked kinda small when I pulled the loaf from the Wegman’s freezer case.  No matter, it is the taste that matters I thought as I yanked out a bag of Against the Grain sesame bagels.  There were already a few new crackers in my pantry that are being tested…and eaten. Comments below.Canyon bakehouse 7 G bread

Later that day I made a slice of the bread, toasted and half butter and half with homemade lemon marmalade.  It was small but tasty.  Maybe the best store bread I have had but not earth shatteringly good.  I was somehow expecting to feel just that OMG taste after reading reviews and comments on it. But, I wasn’t blown away.  I have made gf multigrain bread that tasted as good if not better.  So I now feel okay about my own baking; it doesn’t have to be a huge slice to be successful.  Nor is the flavor of my own bread lacking in comparison. I just prefer homemade.  No preservatives. And I get the pleasure of mixing up my dough and of smelling it bake.  Not saying this was bad bread, not at all.  Just that my homemade is comparable and I am not missing a lot by making my own.

againstthe grain bagelsSecond item; the bagel.  I had bought Utz gf bagels long ago and was not impressed, they were like an old stiff sponge and had minimal flavor.  This bagel; it is more open and has more flavor.  Very light in weight and lots of holes; sort of like airy French bread as a bagel.  I made homemade bagels last year and they were better in the chew department especially when really fresh.  Still, it was hugely appealing to have a toasted bagel with no effort.

skinny quinoa sticks

Third item; A huge bag of Skinny Quinoa Sticks given to me a while ago by a friend.  They are sweet onion flavor and made with ancient grains per the label.  Only 140 calories per serving and incredibly crunchy and rather addictive. Can’t eat just one, or ten.  Yumm!  I think she got them at Sam’s Club or Costco.  Big bag, still eating. Not stale and not tired of them.

hummus crackersFourth item: Hummus crackers by Mediterranean Snacks, roasted garlic flavor. Thin, crisp and mild.  Made with garbanzo beans and pretty edible if not outstanding.  I believe they were from Aldi’s. Their bland flavor will not compete with your dip or cheese.  They are somewhat delicate; break easily if used to dip; say in hummus. Great with guacamole

breton crackers

Fourth item: Breton gf crackers.  I tested the black bean and found it tasty, very delicate meaning it kept breaking in half just getting a cracker out of the box but somehow I kept wanting yet one more.  I have another box not opened yet but a friend says it is a super great cracker, can’t wait to crack that box…

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In conclusion, I liked all of the above but really loved the Skinny Quinoa sticks and I did enjoy both the convenience and the flavor of the bagels and breads.  I use these crackers with cheese, guac, hummus and all on their own. All worthwhile to purchase.  Still, I just made scratch “rye” bread this afternoon and am blown away by the flavor and crust.  Homemade is best in my book!