Gluten Free Bread

I have not yet converted to weights….
Important to note, when measuring this flour, scoop GF flour into measuring cup and level off with a small metal spatula or other straight edged utensil. DO NOT SCOOP THE GF FLOUR INTO THE CUP.gluten free bread, rice flour, potato starch flour, tapioca flour, gluten free

This bread is wonderful toasted!

3 cups FL Flour Mix*
1/4 cup Monkfruit Sweetener**
3 1/2 teaspoons Xanthan Gum
2/3 cup Dry Milk Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt

2 teaspoons Monkfruit Sweetener**
1/2 cup Warm Water (110F)
1 1/2 Tablespoons Yeast

1/4 cup Butter
1 1/4 cups Water

1 teaspoon Vinegar
3 Eggs

Combine flour, sweetener, xanthan gum, milk powder, and salt in bowl of heavy duty mixer using paddle attachment.

Dissolved the 2 teaspoons of sweetener in the 1/2 cup of lukewarm water and mix in the yeast. Set aside while you combine the butter and 1.25 cups of water in small saucepan and heat until butter melts, just; it’s okay if a few small clumps of butter remain.

Crack eggs into a small bowl and whisk; set aside.
Turn mixer on to lowest setting to blend dry ingredients and slowly add butter/water mixture along with the vinegar. Blend, then add eggs. This mixture should feel slightly warm.

Pour the yeast mixture into the ingredients in the bowl and beat at highest speed for 2 minutes.

Place mixing covered ( I use a @Norwex cover)  mixing bowl in a warm place;  cover with a clean tea towel, and let the dough rise for about 1 – 1 1/2 hours or until doubled.
(In civi I put in the oven with the light on; out in the bush I put it into my propane oven where the pilot light keeps it toasty warm)

Return bowl with dough to mixer and beat on high for 3 minutes.

Spoon the dough into a 9″X5″ loaf pan lined with parchment paper; lightly spray lined pan with veg oil spray.
~ I always make  two additional small “loaves” in my mini cheesecake pans; lightly sprayed with veg oil.

Let rise until the dough is slightly above the top of the loaf pan. Bake in preheated 400F oven for 10 minutes. Lightly place sheet of foil over bread(s) and bake small loaves an additional 15 minutes – remove from oven. Rotate the large loaf pan and recover with foil and bake anther 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool, in pan(s) for at least 15 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container in a cool place but not the fridge – fridge dries it out! I store mine in the Cold Room.

Gluten Free BreadThis GF Bread freezes well.
For added convenience, slice bread once cooled, and freeze.

Notes
*GF Flour Mix
11 oz White or Brown Rice Flour
7   oz Potato Starch Flour
3 oz Tapioca Starch
Whisk together well; store in an airtight container in a cool place

**Monkfruit Sweetener
I use Monkfruit Sweetener because you don’t get that nasty after taste often associated with artificial sweeteners.

I sub in Coconut Palm Sugar if I am out of Monkfruit Sweetener

Original recipe calls for granulated sugar

Original Authour’s note on pans:
“Spoon the dough into 3 small (2 1/2″x5”) greased loaf pans or 1 large one. Use muffin tins and bake any remainder as small rolls. Or make all rolls (approx 18)

 

Gluten Free Blend

As luck would have it, or not, my husband decided to try the KETO diet. More importantly, his desire to break up with SUGAR! He is 1 month into the journey and doing well. He does still crave sweets so I make him stuff with Monkfruit sweetener and Truvia Brown Sugar.

Right, this is about the gluten. I have tried numerous grocery store Cup 4 Cup Blends but all of them left me wanting something better!
Eons ago, in a second hand store, I found “The Gluten Free Gourment; Living Well Without Wheat” (1990) by Bette Hagman published by Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Actually, I think I found the book in 2011 when hubs wanted to try Atkins…
Anyway, as I have experimented with Gluten Free Breaking I have met with a lot of disappointment until I once again stumbled across aforementioned book in my cookbook stash and finally decided to give the authour’s GF Blend a try.

Without further ado, I give you her wonderful Blend! I do wish it had been written with weights rather than volume but it is what it is.

Gluten Free Flour Blend

11 oz Rice Flour
7 oz Potato Starch Flour
3 oz Tapioca Flour

Weigh out and whisk together.

Store in an airtight container.

(I keep all my gf ingredients in the cold room.)

 

 

 

Hybrid Sourdough Bread

sourdough bread
Sourdough Bread

We have been out here, in the middle of no where for … A G E S … Okay,  maybe not as long as it feels but well, let’s see, we are coming into our fourth Winter out here. And we can, quite definitively say, Winter is our FAVE season out here! Spring is a mucky mess, Summer is a buggy mess with always the threat of forest fires lurking in the background;  we have also learned that Fall can be mucky and windy and grey and dreary and….well, you get the picture! By the way, even though Winter is our FAVE, it can tend to drag on and on and on and on and on….Luke usually goes stir crazy by the end of it all; I tend to do a lil better but that is only because I just get up and leave!  Think Luke regrets purchasing a second vehicle….

Ummmm, I digress. Where was I going with that? Oh! I know! So our first Winter out here I started making Sourdough Bread! It is the quintessential Bush Craft, is it not? Our Brittany Blue has survived a forest fire, being evacuated, has traveled to the Fraser Valley, traveled to Kamloops, survived the hot and the cold; when I leave the Earthship for any amount of time, I take Brittany Blue with me because she can be quite demanding. I mean one time when I left I allowed Luke to babysit her and I am pleased to say that he DID manage to keep her alive; he took his babysitting duties very seriously!

Mine and Brittany Blue’s last trip out to civi the oven was not working at my temporary home with Michael and Hayley so I kinda, sorta didn’t make any Sourdough Bread! What!? Which means that when I went to make bread today I mighta had a bit of trouble remembering the recipe. Oooops.  I did my best to pull it all together but this ol’ brain of mine doesn’t remember stuff quite as well as it used to….

I will write up what I did today and make changes where changes need to be made as I dig into the deep dark recesses of my brain trying to recall the recipe. Or you know, go dig through my treasure trove of recipes…

Sourdough Bread

1 cup Starter
2 1/2 cups Warm Water
1 – 2 teaspoons Instant Yeast *
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Tablespoon Salt
5 – 7 cups Flour

Combine starter, warm water and yeast in a large mixing bowl; set aside in a warm, draft free place to allow yeast to bloom.
Meanwhile lightly spray two 9×5 loaf pans with vegetable oil spray and sprinkle with a bit of cornmeal; set aside.
After allowing yeast to bloom for about 10 minutes, measure 2 cups of flour into yeast mixture; sprinkle sugar and salt on top of the flour then stir in.
Continue stirring for about 2 minutes before gradually adding in remaining flour. You may have to use your hands to fully incorporate the last cup of flour.
Turn out onto floured surface and knead for about 7-10 minutes, forming a smooth dough.
Allow dough to rise in a lightly greased bowl; cover with a clean tea towel and let proof for about 90 minutes until dough has doubled in size.
Punch down dough, turn out onto lightly floured surface and gently divide dough in half.
Shape each half of dough into oval loaves and place in prepared loaf pans; cover with tea towel and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
About 45 minutes after the dough starts proofing, turn oven on to 425F.
Uncover loaves, make a slash in each, using a very sharp knife.
Bake the bread in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until lovely and golden.
Remove from oven and immediately remove from pans to cool completely on a wire rack.

 

Super Simple Dog Biscuits

peanutbutter dog biscuits
Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits

I have been making the same dog biscuits for quite some time now; hmmm, I think, since Bear was a pup! And he will be …oh, my…9 in January!! Bad enough when the human children grow up but now the dogs had to get in on the act too! Geez! Well at least I can get a new puppy but I am far too old to have a new baby!

Anyway, I am tired of rolling out those dog biscuits that I normally make so today I thought I would try something different! I was able to use my lil wee Pampered Chef scoop to make lil biscuits: rolled each portion then stamped it with a lightly floured fork. Heaps easier, way less messier and, after a taste test from Bear and Samwise Gamgee , very well received!

Peanut Butter Drop Cookies

1 cup Natural Peanut Butter
1 1/2 cups warm Water
2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup Rolled Oats

Preheat oven to 350F.
Line 3 – 4 baking trays with parchment paper.

In a small mixing bowl whisk together rolled oats and whole wheat flour; set aside.

Cream peanut butter until smooth.
Add water, a little at a time, creaming well after each addition until all the water is incorporated.
Stir in dry mixture until thoroughly combined.
Scoop out and roll each portion of dough to make a ping-pong sized ball.
Flatten each biscuit with a floured fork.

Bake in 350F oven for about 30 – 40 minutes, rotating baking trays half way through baking.

Remove from oven and let rest on baking trays for about 10 minutes.
Transfer to wire cooling rack to cool completely before placing in airtight container.

peanutbutter dog biscuits
Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits
Bear and Sam LOVE them!

Yield: 5 dozen Dog Treats

Caesar Salad Dressing

So last week I wanted to make Caesar Salad which I have not done in absolutely eons! Why haven’t I been making this on a regular basis? Shaking head….dunno but I tell you what; I will make it more often!

Now then, we have had to change up my husband’s diet a lil bit so we are going to delete the croutons and add one or two parmesan crisps…he loves those! And ixnay on the bacon. You can’t even call it a Caesar Salad, can you? But that dressing! I love it! I found this recipe years ago in my Canadian Living Light & Healthy cookbook; when I went to make the dressing last week I had to search for my cookbook! Zoiks! Better get that recipe on the internet! Yup, there are a gazillion and half Caesar Salad Dressing recipes out there but this is the one I know and love. When I was going to cooking school I had to make Caesar Salad Dressing but you know, that recipe had anchovies in it and I don’t eat lil fishies.

Caesar Salad Dressing

A lovely piquant dressing that clings to the lettuce leaves

2 Tablespoons (25 ml)  White Wine Vinegar
1 Tablespoon (15 ml) Dijon Mustard ( I use grainy)
1 large clove Garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon (15 ml)  Lemon Juice
1/4 cup ( 50 ml) grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup (50 ml) Mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon (15 ml) Water
1 Tablespoon  (15 ml) Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper, to taste

In a deep, small bowl whisk together vinegar, mustard, garlic, lemon juice.
Whisk in parmesan cheese and mayo.
Gradually whisk in water then oil.
Season with S&P

Tear clean DRY romaine lettuce leaves into a large mixing bowl.
Pour dressing over lettuce and toss to coat all lettuce with the dressing.
Garnish with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan Cheese and one or two Parmesan Crisps.

Delish!

Welcome to my Kitchen where the most important ingredient is Love.