Bread

Gluten Free Dairy Free Butter Dip Biscuits

Published on by Kait Nolan

About a month ago, I came across this recipe for Butter Dip Biscuits posted on Facebook. It’s one of those video recipes that leaves you with an unattractive rope of drool hanging from your mouth. What? Only me? :wipes chin: Really good biscuits are something I’ve been in search of for the past six years since we turned into a gluten free household. Our local coffee shop at one point contracted with the gourmet restaurant next door to get these fabulous egg and cheese biscuit sandwiches on Saturday mornings (which was why I used to get myself up at the same hour on Saturday as I did the rest of the week because if you didn’t get there early, you didn’t get a biscuit). Those went by the wayside when the coffeeshop had its own kitchen built, and I was in mourning. But as soon as I saw this video, I was put in mind of the biscuits I loved so much. I immediately set out to replicate the recipe with gluten and dairy free ingredients. The first batch was an epic fail.  But by then I really had a yen, so I started over.  And y’all, the second batch almost made me weep with joy.  At long last, I was able to replicate my beloved biscuit sandwich (albeit with my dairy free cheese).  I had a real Moment.  So here I am to share with you my gluten free dairy free butter dip biscuits.

Ingredients:
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) Earth Balance or other dairy free spread
  • 1/2 cup cassava flour
  • 1/2 cup sweet rice flour
  • 1/2 cup white rice flour
  • 1 cup brown rice flour
  • 1 1/2 tbsp. turbinado sugar
  • 2 tbsp. baking powder
  • 2 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 3/4 cup unsweetened dairy free milk + 2 tsp apple cider vinegar to sour
 Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
  2. In an 8×8 glass baking dish, put the Earth Balance in the oven to melt.
  3. Meanwhile, add the apple cider vinegar to your dairy free milk (I used unsweetened almond milk).  Give it a stir and set it aside to sour.
  4. In a medium bowl, mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, xathan gum and salt.
  5. Add the soured milk and stir.   You should have something like a thick batter.
  6. Add the batter to your baking dish and spread out with a spatula or the back of a knife or your fingers.  Whatever floats your boat.  The Earth Balance will splash up over the top and that’s totally fine.  Encouraged, even.
  7. Score your biscuit dough with a sharp knife wherever you want to divide them.
  8. Pop them in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, turning once during baking.

Gluten Free Dairy Free Irish Soda Bread

Published on by Kait Nolan
I’ve always loved Irish soda bread.  It’s dense, filling, and simple.  You can eat it with butter or dip it in soup (as my husband prefers).  Some people think it’s supposed to be sweet and have raisins in it or carraway seeds.  Real soda bread is just flour, buttermilk, salt, and baking soda.  This recipe is adapted from the cookbook of Irish favorites I toted back from Ireland.
Ingredients:

  • 2 cups non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond milk) soured with 1 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (you can use 2 tsps of either of them, I just find the blend to give the best buttermilk flavor for non-dairy purposes)
  • 4 cups Jeanne’s Gluten Free all purpose Mix
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp xanthan gum
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Add the vinegar and lemon juice to the milk and give it a stir before setting it aside to sour.
  3. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum together.
  4. Add the soured milk, working quickly to stir together a soft dough.
  5. Form it into a ball about the thickness of your fist and place into a greased dutch oven (I use my Le Creuset enameled cast iron).
  6. Cut a shallow x across the top.
  7. Cover and bake near the top of the oven for 30-45 minutes.
  8. When properly baked, the loaf should sound hollow when thumped from the bottom.

 

Gluten Free Dairy Free Irish Soda Bread
 
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I've always loved Irish soda bread.  It's dense, filling, and simple.  You can eat it with butter or dip it in soup (as my husband prefers).  Some people think it's supposed to be sweet and have raisins in it or carraway seeds.  Real soda bread is just flour, buttermilk, salt, and baking soda.  This recipe is adapted from the cookbook of Irish favorites I toted back from Ireland.
Author:
Recipe type: Bread
Cuisine: Gluten and Dairy Free
Ingredients
  • 2 cups non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond milk) soured with 1 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (you can use 2 tsps of either of them, I just find the blend to give the best buttermilk flavor for non-dairy purposes)
  • 4 cups
  • Jeanne's Gluten Free all purpose Mix
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp xanthan gum
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Add the vinegar and lemon juice to the milk and give it a stir before setting it aside to sour.
  3. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum together.
  4. Add the soured milk, working quickly to stir together a soft dough.
  5. Form it into a ball about the thickness of your fist and place into a greased dutch oven (I use my Le Creuset enameled cast iron).
  6. Cut a shallow x across the top.
  7. Cover and bake near the top of the oven for 30-45 minutes.
  8. When properly baked, the loaf should sound hollow when thumped from the bottom.

Mix It Up Monday: Gluten Free Sandwich Bread

Published on by Kait Nolan

When you go gluten free, of course the biggest thing you crave are all the things you aren’t supposed to have.  That includes good sandwich bread.  We’ve tried a handful of recipes with varying degrees of success.  Most were okay for regular sandwiches, but were epic epic fail for grilled cheeses (which, IMO, constitute their own food group as a go to meal).  So I’ve been on a bit of a crusade.  And this weekend, at long long last, after an endless and arduous (okay, not really) two year search, I had the good sense to try the sandwich bread from The Art of Gluten Free Baking.  Jeanne is fabulous and so is this bread.  See this?  THIS is a perfect, roasty toasty, ooey gooey grilled cheese.  Yes, I know, it looks like a waffle.  Because I make my grilled cheeses on the waffle iron (it’s how my granddaddy did it for me as a kid).  You should try it some time.  Faster and no flipping required.

ALL HAIL JEANNE!

NOM!

 

The only change that I made was to use water for the milk and add the requisite amount of powdered milk to the recipe.  Oh, and I added an extra 5 minutes bake time because the first time I made this, the middle was still a little doughy.  That’s it.  FABULOUS.  Highly recommended.

Gluten Free Friday: Corn Based Biscuits

Published on by Kait Nolan

Were a southern family, so we LOVE our biscuits.  I’ve tried a few other gluten free biscuit recipes that were tasty but…well, frankly, they were a pain in the butt to make.  Grating butter?  I’m a klutz.  I’d just as soon not have extra protein from my knuckles in the recipe from that process.  So when I came across this recipe in You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten Free (pg. 95), I got EXCITED.  They’re so EASY.  And they really taste like proper biscuits!  I made up some turkey sausage patties to eat with these and oh, we were HAPPY.  Makes 6 biscuits at 196 calories and 8 grams of fat.

Ingredients:

  • 4 tbs butter
  • 1 1/3  cups  corn starch
  • 1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 tbs baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup skim milk
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 and grease your baking sheet.

2. In a medium bowl, blend everything but the milk and vinegar.  Mix well.

3. Add the milk and vinegar.  Mix well.

4. The dough is going to be really lose and not at all what you’d think of as dough, but be careful with it, turning it out onto your baking sheet.

5. With wet hands, pat out the dough on the baking sheet to 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick (I’d go for thicker).

6. Cut into 6 biscuits and gently separate with your knife.  They won’t be perfectly round pretty biscuits, but the flavor is excellent.

7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the biscuits begin to brown.

Printable version.

 

Gluten Free Friday: Corn Based Biscuits
 
Save Print
Were a southern family, so we LOVE our biscuits.  I’ve tried a few other gluten free biscuit recipes that were tasty but…well, frankly, they were a pain in the butt to make.  Grating butter?  I’m a klutz.  I’d just as soon not have extra protein from my knuckles in the recipe from that process.  So when I came across this recipe in You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten Free (pg. 95), I got EXCITED.  They’re so EASY.  And they really taste like proper biscuits!  I made up some turkey sausage patties to eat with these and oh, we were HAPPY.  Makes 6 biscuits at 196 calories and 8 grams of fat.
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast
Cuisine: Gluten free
Ingredients
  • 4 tbs butter
  • 1⅓  cups  corn starch
  • 1¼ tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 tbs baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¾ cup skim milk
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 and grease your baking sheet.
  2. In a medium bowl, blend everything but the milk and vinegar.  Mix well.
  3. Add the milk and vinegar.  Mix well.
  4. The dough is going to be really lose and not at all what you'd think of as dough, but be careful with it, turning it out onto your baking sheet.
  5. With wet hands, pat out the dough on the baking sheet to ½ to ¾ inches thick (I'd go for thicker).
  6. Cut into 6 biscuits and gently separate with your knife.  They won't be perfectly round pretty biscuits, but the flavor is excellent.
  7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the biscuits begin to brown.
  8. Printable version

Gluten Free Friday: Corn Based French Baguettes

Published on by Kait Nolan

This is another recipe from the fabulous You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten Free.  I made a small modification, swapping in skim milk for the apple juice called for in the original recipe.  The end result was a crispy, tasty baguette that’s great still warm from the oven with butter or toasted up and used for a sandwich.  Warning: This bread MUST be eaten warm.  We found it very bitter at room temp.  I have no idea why warming it changes that, but it does, so go with me on this.  Makes 6 servings 142 calories and 2.3 grams of fat.

Ingredients:

  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • 1 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 3/4 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 tbs apple cider vinegar

 

Directions:

 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Lightly grease your French bread pan.

3. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until they’re really frothy, with big and little bubbles.

4. In a second bowl, mix all the dry ingredients and whisk until well combined.

5. To the egg whites, add the oil, apple cider vinegar, and milk. Mix well.

6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until thickened.

7. Take a large ziplock bag and drape it open over a large liquid measuring cup.

8. Scrape the dough into the bag and squeeze down to one corner.

9. Snip a corner off the bottom edge of the bag, no more than 1 1/2 inches.

10. Pipe large, thick strips into the prepared pan.

11. Moisten the whole top of the dough with very moist fingers and smooth with your fingertips.

12. Pop into the oven.

13. 10 minutes into baking, spritz with water to help crisp the crust.

14. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the bread is golden brown.

 

 

Gluten Free Friday: Corn Based French Baguettes
 
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This is another recipe from the fabulous You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free.  I made a small modification, swapping in skim milk for the apple juice called for in the original recipe.  The end result was a crispy, tasty baguette that's great still warm from the oven with butter or toasted up and used for a sandwich.  Warning: This bread MUST be eaten warm.  We found it very bitter at room temp.  I have no idea why warming it changes that, but it does, so go with me on this.  Makes 6 servings 142 calories and 2.3 grams of fat.
Author:
Recipe type: Bread
Cuisine: Gluten free
Ingredients
  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • ½ cup skim milk
  • 1¼ cup cornstarch
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1¾ tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Lightly grease your French bread pan.
  3. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until they're really frothy, with big and little bubbles.
  4. In a second bowl, mix all the dry ingredients and whisk until well combined.
  5. To the egg whites, add the oil, apple cider vinegar, and milk. Mix well.
  6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until thickened.
  7. Take a large ziplock bag and drape it open over a large liquid measuring cup.
  8. Scrape the dough into the bag and squeeze down to one corner.
  9. Snip a corner off the bottom edge of the bag, no more than 1½ inches.
  10. Pipe large, thick strips into the prepared pan.
  11. Moisten the whole top of the dough with very moist fingers and smooth with your fingertips.
  12. Pop into the oven.
  13. minutes into baking, spritz with water to help crisp the crust.
  14. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the bread is golden brown.

Gluten Free Friday: Corn-Based Flatbread

Published on by Kait Nolan

This recipe comes from the fabulous You Won’t Believe It’s Gluten Free.  I have consistently been super impressed by the bread recipes I’ve tried from this book.  Unlike most of the gluten free breads I’ve tried, these don’t tear super easily and truly hold up like real bread.  We used these for gyros and they never split once folded.  A real winner!  This makes 4 flatbreads at 269 calories and 7.29g of fat.

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1.5 tbs sugar
  • 3 egg whites
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 1.25 cups cornstarch
  • 1 tbs baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1.25 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 tbs apple cider vinegar

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a really big baking sheet (or two–you want room for 4 flatbreads at about an 8 inch diameter).

2. Combine the oil and sugar in your mixer.

3. Add the egg whites and beat until really frothy.

4. Add all the remaining ingredients. Mix well.

5. The dough is gonna start off seeming pretty thin, but keep beating it until thickened.

6. Using a half cup measuring cup sprayed with cooking spray (so the dough won’t stick), drop 1/2 cupfuls onto the prepared baking sheet.

7. Wet your hands and press the dough really thin (you’re aiming for 1/8th inch thickness).  You’re gonna feel like that’s SUPER thin, but believe me, it puffs up.  If you want a super puffy flatbread, don’t go quite that thin.

8. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.

 

 

 

Gluten Free Friday: Corn-Based Flatbread
 
Save Print
This recipe comes from the fabulous You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free .  I have consistently been super impressed by the bread recipes I've tried from this book.  Unlike most of the gluten free breads I've tried, these don't tear super easily and truly hold up like real bread.  We used these for gyros and they never split once folded.  A real winner!  This makes 4 flatbreads at 269 calories and 7.29g of fat.
Author:
Recipe type: Bread
Cuisine: Gluten free
Ingredients
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1.5 tbs sugar
  • 3 egg whites
  • ½ cup plain yogurt
  • 1.25 cups cornstarch
  • 1 tbs baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • 1.25 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a really big baking sheet (or two--you want room for 4 flatbreads at about an 8 inch diameter).
  2. Combine the oil and sugar in your mixer.
  3. Add the egg whites and beat until really frothy.
  4. Add all the remaining ingredients. Mix well.
  5. The dough is gonna start off seeming pretty thin, but keep beating it until thickened.
  6. Using a half cup measuring cup sprayed with cooking spray (so the dough won't stick), drop ½ cupfuls onto the prepared baking sheet.
  7. Wet your hands and press the dough really thin (you're aiming for ⅛th inch thickness).  You're gonna feel like that's SUPER thin, but believe me, it puffs up.  If you want a super puffy flatbread, don't go quite that thin.
  8. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Gluten Free Friday: Pizza Dough II and Focacia

Published on by Kait Nolan

Ever since we started this gluten free journey, I’ve been tweaking recipes I find online and finally got into working out my own recipes.  My original GF pizza dough isn’t bad at all, but it wasn’t what WE like in our pizza, so I’ve been tweaking it, and I think I’ve finally settled on one that tastes as close to my regular wheat pizza dough as possible.  And as it happens, it makes MARVELOUS focacia, so this week it’s a twofer.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup brown rice flour
  • 1/4 cup soy flour
  • 1/2 cup tapioca starch
  • 1/2 cup masa flour
  • 1 cup corn starch
  • 1/4 cup ground flax
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon yeast
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1 tablespoon xanthan gum
  • 1 1/4 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup olive oil

Directions:

  1. Fix the paddle attachment to your mixer.
  2. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water and allow to proof.
  3. Meanwhile, add your eggs, olive oil, honey, and vinegar to your mixer bowl and mix.
  4. In another bowl, mix the flours, starches, flax, salt, and xanthan gum.  Set aside.
  5. Add the proofed yeast and honey to the mixer and mix until kind of frothy.
  6. Add the dry mix and mix for 3-4 minutes.
  7. Scrape into a large plastic container and cover (but don’t seal).
  8. Allow to rise at room temperature for 2 hours.
  9. You can use the dough immediately or put into the fridge for later.
  10. If you refrigerate the dough, let it rest for 30-60 minutes at room temp before baking.

For pizza:

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Dust the surface of the dough with rice flour and cut off a soft-ball size piece of dough.
  3. Dust the piece with more rice flour and form it into a ball.  You won’t be stretching this since there’s no gluten.  You’ll just press it into shape with your hands.  You’ll be using lots of rice flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the work surface, but try not to work any big lumps of flour into the dough.
  4. Flatten the ball with your hands and a rolling pin, straight on a wooden pizza peel, aiming to produce a THIN crust (this is one of the keys to good GF crust)–around 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick.  Remember, lots of rice flour to keep the dough from sticking.  You may wanna use a metal dough scraper to help get the dough up when it sticks.
  5. Before you add the toppings, be SURE that the dough is still movable before you top it.  If it’s not, sprinkle more rice flour under the dough.
  6. Top as you wish.
  7. Slide the pizza directly onto the stone (you might have to shake back and forth carefully to dislodge it).
  8. Bake 10-12 minutes, turning halfway if one side is browning faster than the other.  It might need up to 5 more minutes, but ours was done in 10.
  9. Let the pizza cool slightly on a rack before serving so the cheese will set.

For focacia:

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Spray a 9×9 baking pan with cooking spray.
  3. Dust the dough with rice flour and take a soft ball size ball.
  4. Press it into the baking pan until flattened and even.
  5. Paint the top with olive oil.
  6. Sprinkle with a pinch of dried oregano, rosemary, basil, and kosher salt.
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

Printable version.

Gluten Free Friday: Hot Dog Buns

Published on by Kait Nolan

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Jeanne’s fabulous hamburger buns, which have been a life-saver since we went gluten free.  The next logical step in that chain was to find a way to make hot dog buns.  Well Jeanne was kind enough to point me to the New England bun pan from King Arthur Flour.  I wound up finding one on Amazon for a bit cheaper and it came in last week.  I used the exact same recipe as for the burger buns, but double quantities to fill the pan.  I baked it the same amount of time, then turned it out on a cooling rack.  Once it was cool, I sliced them into individual buns (you slice along the grooves that bake in from the pan), then I popped the individual ones back into the oven at about 250 degrees for 10-15 minutes, to sort of crust up the sides.  Then it’s back to the cooling racks.  After that it’s important to CAREFULLY slide down the middle but not all the way through, using a really good bread knife.  As you can see, they look a little funky, and they are a bit on the small side for bratwurst (which are what you see here), but hubby declared they taste fantastic and they are a suitable sausage/hot dog receptical (ok that sounds really wrong somehow). And they freeze really well, which is good because who uses 10 hot dog buns at once unless you’re feeding a LOT of people.

Pardon the blurry photo.

 

 

 

Gluten Free Friday: Hamburger Buns

Published on by Kait Nolan

I cannot possibly express the depth of my love for Jeanne of the Art of Gluten Free Baking.  You just don’t even know.   Apart from being just generally awesome and helpful (you can find her on Twitter as @fourchickens), she has THE BEST RECIPE for gluten free burger buns that we’ve tried (and we’ve tried a lot).  They were one of my early gluten free finds and for a while they were hubby’s day to day sandwich rolls.  We’ve since found a different sandwich loaf bread recipe we like, but these are still absolutely marvelous buns.  They LOOK LIKE BUNS (as you can see) and they smell like proper bread.

Now I’m not going to reproduce her recipe in full here, as it is totally HER recipe and you can find it here, but I will talk about some of the things that I tried that helped me master the recipe.

  1. Something I read somewhere…I think maybe in Gluten Free Cooking for Dummies, is that it helps stuff rise if everything is room temperature or warm.    So when I pull out the eggs (or in my case egg whites, as I usually just use those since I have a carton), I put them in a cup of hot water while I’m mixing up all the other ingredients (with the egg whites I put them in a small measuring cup, then nest that in a larger cup with hot water).
  2. I bought one of those muffin top pans to use a my bun pan, but the buns still wound up flat.  So I created bun rings out of aluminum foil (literally folding the lengths over and over until they were about an inch high, then folding the edges together to make a ring the size of the bun pan hole.  Be sure to spray the pan and inside of the rings thoroughly with cooking spray.  Mostly I’ve found that I don’t have a lot of seepage under the edge of the rings and the buns will rise up nicely into proper bun shapes.
  3. I wound up buying an oven thermometer as my initial several batches of these were coming out flat.  It’s beneficial to know exactly what temperature your oven REALLY cooks at because gluten free baking is a lot less forgiving than traditional baking.
  4. Depending on your altitude, humidity, and assorted other factors, your buns may be risen in a lot less time than Jeanne estimates.  Mine are typically ready in 20-25 minutes (rather than 45).  But as she does, I usually just sit them on the top of the stove while the oven preheats.
  5. It will behoove you to have an actual good bread knife, as these buns are still delicate and will absolutely tear up if you try to cut them with anything else.
  6. Sometimes the end result is a wee bit gummy on the inside.  I usually just split them and then toast them before serving with whatever burgers we’re having that meal.
  7. They freeze marvelously well.  Be sure to thaw completely before slicing.

Greek Yogurt Beer Bread

Published on by Kait Nolan

I am a huge fan of beer bread.  It’s fast, moist, delicious, and usually hits the spot to go with some kind of soup when I’m not wanting cornbread.  It is versatile, the flavor varying a lot depending on what kind of beer you use.  But this, THIS is my absolute favorite.  Pabst Blue Ribbon is a great beer for cooking.  Fantastic flavor, mild, yeasty, oh and CHEAP.  The addition of Greek yogurt was last minute but inspired.  The end result was rich, moist, DENSE and DELICIOUS.  Makes 12 servings at 148 calories and less than half a gram of fat.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 12 oz. Pabst Blue Ribbon
  • 6 oz. plain Greek yogurt

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix all your dry ingredients.
  3. Add the wet ingredients and mix well until there are no lumps.
  4. Spray your loaf pan with cooking spray.
  5. Pour/dump the dough in the pan.
  6. Bake for 50-60 minutes.
  7. Cool briefly on a wire rack until you can, you know, touch it.  If you can last that long.

Printable version.

Also makes great muffins (1 dozen).  Bake for 30 minutes.