GF Fry Bread - Success!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Posted by Ashley in , , ,

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I love fry bread. My mom used to be make scones the same way. She'd pull the dough out of the bread maker, cut it into triangles, throw it in the oil and pour some honey butter over it. It was an addicting snack when I was kid.

I've spent the last week craving donuts, so I knew I needed to do something about it. So...fry bread! I found this fantastic recipe on Beyond the Wheat and although mine look a whole lot different from hers (I wasn't trying for flat bread, I wanted my scone-like snacking food), but they still taste fantastic.

Initial Reactions:

  • The dough was really hard to work with. Ridiculously gooey
  • They taste really good with honey butter

    Stuff to do differently last time:
  • Add less water. The recipe calls for 1/2 a cup and add until the right blend. I added the 1/2 cup of water and it was too much. I think next time I'll start with 1/4 and see where it goes.
  • Actually try to form proper fry bread. If I'm successful enough, I just end up using it for tacos and potentially pita substitutes!

    • GF Biscuits and Gravy - Take One

    Posted by Ashley in , , , , ,

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    I love biscuits and gravy. My 5th year of undergrad I got in the habit of riding to school with my roommate who had class 1-2 hours before I did, and I would go to the student union and get two biscuits slathered in gravy and, if I felt hungry, a hash brown with either 2% or chocolate milk. It was a filling breakfast that held me pretty well for about six or seven hours before getting like a footlong for lunch/dinner. It was my food monday-friday. Needless to say, I took the loss of biscuits and gravy very hard.

    So I tried the recipe on the back of The Cravings Place waffle and pancake mix for biscuits and tweaked this recipe I found for country gravy.

    My initial reactions:

  • The biscuits were very chewy. I realize flaky is going to be nearly impossible to manage, but that just didn't work.
  • The gravy browned up before it had thickened, which made it very difficult to keep stirred and even.

    Stuff to do differently next time:
  • Look for a new biscuits recipe. I've heard good things about the Whole Food cream biscuits (as mentioned in the recipe) so I'm going to have to hunt down my closest Whole Foods and give them a try. If not, I just need to find another biscuits recipe to give it a shot. Using the pancake and waffle mix did not get the job done.
  • Not use lean meat. I'd bought lean Jimmy Dean sausage for a pizza a couple of weeks ago, and I was still working off of that. The drippings were practically non-existent and so it made it hard to gauge when the gravy started to thicken it up; it obviously also detracted from flavor.
  • Take out some of the sausage. I made a half batch of the gravy, used half a package of sausage and wow! That was a lot of sausage. Next time I leave less sausage in. Wow.

    • GF Chocolate Chip Cookies - Take One

    Wednesday, September 30, 2009

    Posted by Ashley in , , , ,

    1 comment


    Allow me to offer some greetings to all of you! I am Ashley, and I'm not diagnosed with Celiacs, but I don't have the insurance to go to the doctor and get the tests done. What I do know is the symptoms are right and I've been feeling better since I cut gluten out of my diet, so I'm sticking to it!

    I tried the Land o' Lakes GF Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe tonight, and these some of the discoveries I made:

  • It's amazing what lacking gluten does for the overall consistency and durability of the cookie. I cooked them for the specified amount of time and at the specified temperature, but I ended up with brown outsides (partially because I insist on greasing the pan) and gooey centers that don't stick to the rest of the cookie.
  • The aftertaste of the GF all-purpose flour takes some getting used to. The dough is just not good for snacking on at all, which I suppose is a good thing considering the raw egg. The cooked aftertaste is mild, and I'm assuming after a while I won't even notice. The aftertaste reminds me most of soy, so I think next time I might look for a recipe that doesn't call for all-purpose, but uses a combo of flours.
  • Not all ovens are created equal, especially mine. I think the temp is a bit high. For the last sheet of cookies I turned it down and cooked them a little longer. They're crispy, but cooked evenly. I'm thinking 375ยบ by my oven is too much.

    --

    Stuff to try differently next time:
  • Use butter instead of shortening. I hadn't baked with shortening in a while and I was curious what it would do for the texture. Next time I'll try real butter.
  • As mentioned above, turn the temp down and cook them longer; I think my over thermometer is off.
  • find a silicone cover; I think that'll really help me to stop greasing the pan; I hate scraping the cookies off.


    If anyone has any suggestions, I'm totally open to them. If you'd had similar problems and were able to solve them easily, share with the class!