Two Recipes for Gluten-Free Flour Substitutes

Something the gluten-free diet did for me that I never expected: I suddenly became very interested in the ingredients in my food. Not necessarily in an obsessive way (though sometimes that happens to me too), but it was more that I became curious about where my food came from. I knew all-purpose flour had been made from ground wheat, but I had no idea that things like sorghum, millet, masa harina, and quinoa even existed. I'm sure I had seen the names before when I was reading a book or perusing a dictionary, but I didn't know what they were. I had no idea that they were edible. I was even more surprised to learn that those grains are staples in many other cultures.

The tricky part of gluten free baking is that wheat-based flour weighs more and has more sticking protein than gluten-free flours. Whole wheat flour is very dense and loaded with proteins. White rice flour...not so much. And so, when working with gluten-free flours, it works a lot better if you mix different flour types so that you achieve a weight that is closer to a wheat-based flour. And then, many recipes recommend that you add guar gum or xanthan gum to your flour mixture as a sticking agent (kinda like the gluten in wheat).

When I use xanthan gum, I tend to use 1/2 tsp. of xanthan gum per 1 cup of flour being used.

I don't know the real science behind what makes certain flour mixtures work. I know for many people, they discovered what worked best for them through many frustrating hours of trial and error. Honestly, I lucked out. I had no idea what I was doing and slapped together the flours I had in my cupboard. It has worked for almost everything I've used it in. The millet flour has a bit of a bitter flavor, so if you try this out and notice a bitter flavor you don't like, feel free to substitute something else for the millet. You could always just increase the brown rice flour. The recipes are laid out in "parts." I did this so you can make as much (or little) flour mixture as you need.  When I made my flour mixture today, 1 part was 1/3 cup. That yielded right around 3 cups of flour.

First, assemble all your supplies together.

***Gluten-Free Flour Susbtitute Recipe #1 - works best in baking that uses a lot of flour (more than 2 cups)

3 parts brown rice flour
1 part corn starch
2 parts tapioca starch/flour
1 part masa harina
1 part sorghum flour
1 part millet flour

Mix all the flours together. Instead of sifting, I washed out an old, plastic Folgers coffee can (with a snap-tight lid), and let it completely air dry. I put all the flours in there, snap the lid on and then shake it vigorously (while making sure I have a couple fingers holding the lid in place). If you want to do it a more traditional way, you can sift your flours together. The key is to get the flours so mixed together that it resembles one flour. For every one cup of flour you use, add 1/2 tsp. of xanthan gum to the recipe you are making.

***Gluten-Free Flour Substitute Recipe #2 - works best in recipes that use 2 cups of flour or less

1 part brown rice flour
1 part white rice flour

I worry less about sifting the flours together when I'm only using two. Just make sure you stir them well together before adding your wet ingredients. Again, 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum per 1 cup flour.

These have worked for me in many types of baked goods. I've made muffins, a King Cake for Three Kings Day, cinnamon rolls, and lots of other things. It isn't perfect, but it gets the job done. Feel free to adapt it if you find something that works for you.

Cherry-Oat Crisp

I've been on a fruit kick lately. The produce all looks amazing at my grocery store right now, and I always get excited when I can eat fruits and veggies that are in-season. Usually when I go shopping with my kids, they beg for apples, bananas and grapes. This time they begged for grapes (green and red), which we got, but the ripe, dark cherries caught my eye. We were preparing for a family picnic, and the cherries looked perfect for a finger food for our meal-on-the-go. I pitted several cherries for the picnic lunch, and they tasted fantastic! But, there were lots of cherries left and I couldn't stand to see them go to waste. The result: a delicious cherry-oat crisp that can be eaten by itself or as a topping over ice cream.

The best part of the recipe is that it doesn't use any flour at all. It has very few ingredients, and will delight gluten-intolerant people and gluten-eaters alike.

First, wash and pit your cherries. Then place them into the bottom of a greased, 8-inch square baking pan.

I wanted the taste of brown sugar, but I didn't have any at home. So, I made some. Super easy! Just mix sugar and molasses. Grandma's brand Molasses is marked gluten-free right on the jar.

Work the molasses into the sugar until it looks like this:

Mix the brown sugar you just made, cinnamon, gluten-free oats (like the rolled oats at Bob's Red Mill), and oil together. Sprinkle over the top of the cherries. Now it is ready for the oven! Bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until the juice from the cherries starts to soak into the oats. The oats will remain crunchy. That's part of what I love about this recipe!

***Cherry-Oat Crisp

2 1/2 - 3 cups pitted cherries
1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 Tbsp. gluten-free molasses (or 1/2 cup brown sugar) - it is a pretty sweet treat. Feel free to reduce amount of sugar.
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup gluten-free oats
scant 1/4 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350. Pit cherries and place in greased,  8-inch square dish. Combine molasses and sugar in a medium-size bowl until brown sugar forms. Stir cinnamon, gluten-free oats, and oil into the sugar until well combined. Sprinkle sugar and oat mixture over the cherries. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until the oats begin to soak in a little of the cherry juice. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving. Serve either over ice cream, or by itself. If you'd like a goopier ice cream topping, or if your cherries aren't very juicy, place 1/4 cup water in the baking dish with the cherries before coating with the sugar and oat mixture.

Never-Use-A-Box-Again Brownies

Please never go out and buy a brownie mix again! You don't need it! It doesn't matter your level of baking expertise, whether you are able to burn water as it boils, or even if you have a track record for screwing up the heating of a frozen dinner. You can make these! I have faith in you!

Now that you've had a little pep talk, I hope you are ready for a recipe that will revolutionize the way you make a meal. These brownies are so simple that they whip together with very little effort, and all you have to do is smell the deliciousness as they bake for 25 minutes. They are a perfect oh-shoot-I-didn't-plan-dessert-for-my-guests dessert. 5-10 minutes of active time, and you've got something in the oven for your dinner guests. My mom used to make brownies that tasted almost identical to these. She never needed to buy a box of brownie mix because this recipe uses things that most bakers have on hand. It wasn't until I recently asked for the recipe that I realized it was a recipe my Aunt B. learned when she was in 4-H.

The original recipe only calls for 1/2 cup of flour, which is the perfect amount for a one-flour, gluten-free substitution. The more flour a recipe calls for, the trickier it is to make a gluten-free substitution. When a recipe calls for 2-3 cups of flour or more, it is best to make a blend of flours to substitute. I will share my flour blend in another blog post in the not-too-distant future. Anyway, I'm digressing. I'm far too excited about this brownie recipe and it has me off-track. Back to the delicious matter at hand...

Never-Use-A-Box-Again Brownies (Adapted from Aunt B's 4-H recipe)

1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/3-1/2 cup cocoa (depending on how chocolate-y you want your brownies)
1/3 cup melted butter or margarine (or oil if you are eliminating dairy)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, unbeaten**
1 tsp. gluten-free vanilla (like McCormick brand)
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum**
1/2 cup broken nut meats (optional)

**for more cake-like brownies, use three eggs and omit xanthan gum. There is nothing "wrong" with xanthan gum, but it is a processed food, and I like to avoid it when I can.

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 8-inch square baking pan, or line it with parchment paper. Mix brown rice flour, cocoa and sugar until mixed thoroughly. Stir in melted butter (or margarine, or oil), 2 eggs (3 for more cake-like), vanilla, xanthan gum (if using), and nuts, if desired. Mix well. Pour batter into prepared baking dish and bake for about 25 minutes.

If you can (I know I don't have the will-power), wait to serve until brownies are mostly cooled. They taste better, and don't fall apart as easily.

Enjoy! And never buy a box again!

Wheat-less Wheat Thins

I was doing an internet search for homemade rice crackers, when I happened upon a recipe that looked wonderful. The picture looked delicious and I thought it would be great to have something for soups, or dips, or really anything else. I love crackers! They are truly one of the things I've missed the most since going gluten free. Here's the site I found: Easy Homemade Crackers

I whipped up the dough (I used oil instead of butter) and rolled it out on parchment paper like the recipe suggested. I topped the dough with wax paper (less sticky than another sheet of parchment), and rolled out the dough. The end result was both wonderful and a bit of a letdown. The taste was exactly like Wheat Thins! I couldn't believe it! But, I had made the crackers a little too thick and had cut them too big. So, I tried again. This time, I divided the dough in half and placed each half on its own piece of parchment. I rolled the dough with wax paper over the top. I tried to cut off uneven edges and roll them into the dough until I got a nice, even rectangle. Then I cut the dough into 1 inch by 1 inch squares. After cutting the crackers, I pierced them with a fork. I sprinkled on a little salt (recipe calls for kosher, but I didn't have any. Table salt was fine).

As the crackers baked, I noticed the ones on the edges were getting done faster. Rather than just let them burn, I removed them and put the rest back in. They taste best once the tops of the crackers have turned a deep brown color. I didn't realize how much I missed Wheat Thins until I tasted these! I will put this into my rotation of recipes that I make often.

These crackers are amazing! Now I'm busy plotting all the fun dips and spreads I can make to go with them! What is your favorite way to eat your crackers? I'd love to get some ideas going in the comments!

***Wheat-less Wheat Thins*** recipe modified from this one: Easy Homemade Crackers

3/4 sorghum flour

3/4 cup brown rice flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons oil
6 tablespoons cold water
Salt,  for sprinkling on crackers (kosher or regular)

Preheat oven to 400. Mix flours, sugar, salt and baking powder in medium-size mixing bowl. Add in oil, and stir with fork until mixture gets clumpy and oil is well mixed in. Slowly add water, one Tablespoon at a time, until a crumbly dough forms.

Cut two sheets of parchment paper - each about 12 by 15 inches. Place half of the dough on each parchment piece. Place wax paper over the dough and roll into a thin rectangle. Dough should be about as thin as you can make it without causing it to tear. Trim edges and roll dough as necessary to achieve desired shape and thickness. Repeat with other half of the dough. Remove wax paper. Cut dough into 1 inch by 1 inch squares. Pierce eat cracker with a fork (I used a child-size fork, but a relish fork would work too). Transfer parchment and dough to cookie sheets. Bake for about 15 minutes. Watch the crackers and as the edges darken, remove them so that they do not burn. The crackers are done when both the bottoms and the tops have browned.

Mystery crocheting

A few months ago, a friend of mine had a baby. I wanted to make a crochet blanket animal, so I followed a wash cloth pattern and intended to stitch the finished product on to the bottom of a stuffed animal I had already created. After I finished the wash cloth, I decided the animal was cuter without having a blanket attached to it. That left me with a purple hexagon and no idea what to do with it.

It was big enough that I didn't want to toss it. One of my least favorite things to do when crocheting is tearing out work I started. So, that didn't seem like an option either. I decided I liked the hexagon shape, so I just started building on to it. I had no idea what it was going to become. I love projects like that!

If you've been watching the news at all, you know that the midwest is experiencing an extreme heat wave. I'm talking heat indices of close to 120 degrees every day this week. Add to that the fact that my youngest child turned on the heat on our thermostat (which, of course, we didn't know she had done!), and that led to it being about 87 degrees in our bedroom. We decided that was far too hot for sleeping in. My lovely husband inflated an air mattress for the kids, and we headed to the spare room.

I sat down to crochet a little before bed. I had two purple and orange hexagons to work with. What could they become? That's when I decided I should make an enormous, hexagon-shape pillow. What family is complete without that? The finished product is 25 inches x 22 inches. And so, here it is: