Gluten/Dairy free baking. Trial 1

Introduction:

Today begins another series of baking experiments: Gluten free baking

Three of my coworkers have gluten allergies and have sparked this new endeavor. The challenge with baking gluten-free is finding other methods to replace the elastic nature and texture which gluten brings to a recipe.

For my first recipe to explore this gluten-free variable I chose a quick and easy bread sticks recipe (because who doesn't love bread sticks?) Trial 1. was the control group: gluten-free flour, but no additional attempts to supplement the missing gluten molecules.

Proceedure:

Ingredients:

1.25 cups gluten-free flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

0.5 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup margarine (softened)

1/3 cup water

3 tablespoons margarine, melted

Directions:

• In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 
• Add softened margarine and water and stir to form a soft dough
• Roll out until approximately 0.5 inch thick see Fig 1.
• Cut into breadsticks. 
• Add melted margarine to 9" x 13" pan. Place breadsticks in the margarine. see Fig 2.
• Bake at 450 degrees F for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm. see Fig 3.

Figure 1. rolling out glutenless dough

Figure 2. bread sticks ready for baking

Figure 3. Finished product

Results and Observations:

The dough was very stiff, brittle, and crumbly like shortbread, but otherwise was buttery and delicious as normal. My three non-gluten coworkers enjoyed the bread sticks, so the end product was a success and trial 1 should serve well as a control group for future trials. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Beer Bread

(Jalapeno Cheddar Beer Bread pictured)

Beer Bread is always a winner.  It's simple, quick, and affordable.  It is great at parties, potlucks, and other social gatherings.  I learned to make beer bread in college from my roommate Ian, and even if Ian was not the amazing man that he is, I would still be indebted to him for this beer bread recipe.

In case you or someone you know is worried about the alcohol from the beer, the boiling point of alcohol is 173°^F well below the 350°^F the bread is baked at.  Even when compensating for the boiling point elevation due to solute concentrations, it is safe to say the ethanol (alcohol) in the dough will boil out of the bread long before it finishes baking.

Ingredients:
3 C flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 C sugar
1 can/bottle/12 oz. beer (use whatever, my experimenting with different quality, brands, and styles of beer has not yielded detectable differences in beer bread)
1/3ish C butter

Directions:
(brace yourselves for the complexities)

• Preheat oven to 350°^F
• Mix ingredients (everything except butter) in a large bowl.
• Pour dough into a greased loaf pan (a deep/wide pan is best)
• Layer thin (~1/4 inch, 1/2 cm) slices of butter on top of whole loaf.  The butter by the sides of the pan will coat the sides of the loaf.
• Bake for 45-60 mins (toothpick comes out clean)
• Cool and enjoy.

Variables:

An option to spice things up with beer bread can be the addition of cheese and/or jalapenos.

1-2 C grated cheese (cheddar was more flavorful than pepper jack)

5-6 jalapeno slices (diced)

Add to the dough, no alteration to bake time.

Pão de queijo

Pão de queijo is an amazing Brazilian cheese bread.  This recipe comes from a college friend's Brazilian grandma.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

1 Tbs salt

1 (14 oz/400g) pack tapioca starch/flour

1 egg

1 and 1/2 cup cheese

Prep Time: 20-24 minutes

Bake Time: 20-25 minutes

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°^F
• Mix milk, oil, and salt in a 3 quart saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil.  
• Pour into large bowl containing tapioca starch.  
• Mix with a spoon and allow to cool (about 5 mins).  
• Add egg and cheese and mix by hand
• Grease hands, form dough into balls (1 inch-1.5 inch), and place on greased cookie sheet.
• Bake until done (20-25 minutes with slight browning)
• Cool and enjoy!  Best enjoyed warm, but reheat in the microwave well in case you don't eat them all at once.

balled up and ready to bake

almost done baking

perfect!