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Gluten free flour blends
One of the frustrations with gluten free baking is that you suddenly have to deal with multiple different flour blends depending on what you are making. They usually involve ingredients that can be hard to come by or that are expensive. And let’s not get into how much more expensive the GF flour blends are…
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Gluten free blueberry coffee cake
Thanks to my friends at Bear Mountain Blueberry Farm I have 1.5 gallons of lovely blueberries to play with. What better way to start using them than by making a blueberry coffee cake? INGREDIENTS 1 1/2 cups gluten free flour scant 1 tsp xanthan gum (omit if your GF flour blend already has some) 1/2…
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Gluten free baking
While making scones recently with my gluten free pudding flour, I realised that I am finally getting a grasp on some of the differences between baking with wheat, and baking without wheat. Know your flour. Each gluten free flour blend is slightly different, especially if you make your own. You will need to experiment several…
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Tomato Ketchup
Home made tomato ketchup is always demoralising. You spend a whole day, and a load of not-cheap ingredients, all to make something which is almost as good as you can get in the store. Then I discovered this recipe. It actually makes sense how it all comes together, and it’s delicious. It’s not the same…
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Gluten free pudding flour
I recently discovered that I can’t eat wheat, which is a major downer when making pudding. After a lot of poking around and trying out various flour substitute recipes from various gluten free sources, I found this recipe: 700 grams cornstarch 500 grams tapioca starch 300 grams white rice flour 200 grams brown rice flour…
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Satay peanut sauce
1 cup chunky peanut butter 1/2 cup very hot water 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/3 cup lime juice 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 tablespoons sesame oil 2 tablespoons chili/garlic paste 6 cloves garlic, peeled & minced 3 scallions, chopped finely 1/4 cup chopped cilantro The most difficult ingredient to find is likely to be…
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Cinnamon rolls
Cinnamon rolls are delicious, but a little bit time consuming to make. It is well worth the effort, though, especially when you get your littles involved in making them! 1/2 cup milk (120ml) 1/2 cup water (120ml) 1 egg 3 cups all purpose flour (375g) 1 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons butter 1/3 cup sugar (65g)…
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Shortening substitute
I am trying to replace all the “weird” ingredients in my cooking with more natural ingredients. Shortening has been a particularly difficult one to substitute, as it has certain properties that no other cooking fat has. One suggestion I read was to try substituting clarified butter. In a spirit of scientific enquiry, I tried it…
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Kitchen scales
I know that most American cooks use volume measurements in their cooking, but a set of dual-unit (lbs and kg) kitchen scales allow more precision and more repeatability in your cooking. Just now, on Amazon.com, there are sets of digital scales from $7 to well over $200. Most of these scales are well rated by…
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Update to Dark Treacle
Over on this post I take you through how to make Dark Treacle. I recently managed to source some Lyons Dark Treacle at a reasonable price, so I was able to do a side-by-side taste comparison. If you’d like to make a Dark Treacle that tastes almost exactly like Lyons, there is one simple substitution.…