Tag Archives: Gluten-free

Searching for the Perfect Gluten-free White Butter Cake + Notes on Preparing Cake Pans

Posted on by Laurie

Part I.

As an innkeeper, I am aware of just how many people have food sensitivities or allergies and also of how difficult it can be for them to find foods that they can eat when they travel. This is especially the case when it comes to special events, such as  wedding receptions, where the food choices are limited.

I am working on perfecting my gluten-free white butter cake recipe which could be used for wedding cakes or baby showers. My goal, of course, is for my gluten-free cakes to be 100% as delicious as my regular wheat flour cakes. I would say that I am about 90% there with this particular cake. The flavor and crumb (cake texture) are good, but it does not quite have that melt-in-your mouth quality of my other cakes. I think that I just need to increase the butter a little on my next attempt. The two key issues to solve with gluten-free baking are (1) using the right wheat flour substitute for your recipe and (2) figuring out the right flour-fat ratio. In many recipes such as cookie recipes, a one-to-one substitution of rice flour for all-purpose flour works fine. Substitutions for specialty flours, such as cake flour, are a different story.

Normally I use cake flour for baking white butter cakes. Cake flour has a low protein content – 7.5% as compared to 10% for all-purpose flour- and weighs 3.5 oz. per sifted cup. While rice flour has an even lower protein content – 5% – it is not milled nearly as finely as cake flour. To lighten the texture of cakes made with rice flour, the flour needs to be blended with starches which are very fine in consistency. These starches also act as thickeners helping to compensate for the reduced protein content. The gluten-free cake flour blend that I made for this recipe is significantly lower in protein than cake flour – 2.5%, and is heavier weighing 4.5 oz. per double-sifted cup; but it works pretty well.

Laurie’s Gluten-free Cake Flour Blend:

Whisk together, and then sift together twice, the following ingredients.

1 c. white rice flour

1/2 c. tapioca starch

1/2 c. potato starch

1 T. Cake Enhancer (from King Arthur flour)

I used 9 oz. (by weight) of gluten-free cake flour blend as a substitute for 7 oz. cake flour in my regular white butter cake recipe. As I mentioned above, the flavor and crumb were good, but the cake didn’t have the melt in your mouth quality that really makes for a wonderful butter cake. Next time, I think that I shall increase the butter slightly. The other option would be to decrease the flour, but since the dry-wet ratio of the batter seemed right, I am going to try the increased butter option first – my theory being that the recipe needs increased fat to compensate for the increased weight of the flour.

If you have been experimenting with your own gluten-free cake recipes, I’d love to hear from you!

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Part II.

Proper preparation makes removing any cake from the pan easier.

(1) Place your baking pans on parchment paper and trace the outside with a pencil. Cutting just inside the pencil lines, cut paper to fit inside pans.

(2) Cut strips of parchment paper long enough to wrap around the sides of your pans, making the strips just taller than your cake pans.

(3) Butter the inside of the cake pans and one side of each of the pieces of parchment paper. Place paper, buttered side up/out in pans.

(4) Sprinkle with sifted flour or gluten-free flour. Tap pans to distribute the flour. Shake out any extra flour. (If you prefer to use baking spray, skip buttering the paper. But don’t use baking spray for gluten-free baking.) Fill with batter and bake.

(5)  After baking, allow cakes to cool then remove parchment paper from sides of pans, invert cakes, remove paper from bottoms of cakes, then re-invert.

Your cakes should turn out the pans perfectly each time.

CakePanPrep

CakeBatterInPans

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Roasted Pheasant, A Christmas Present

Posted on by Laurie

When you are running low on ideas for what to get someone for a present, it can be nice to prepare a special meal for that person. For an early Christmas present, I decided to cook Roasted Pheasants as a lunch for my husband and my mother. This was the first time that I had ever cooked game birds and so I am not going to pretend to be an expert on their preparation. I had to do a little searching for information on temperature and times. I mostly followed the recipe from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.*

I started out with wild Scottish pheasants and  brushed them with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled them with sea salt and fresh-ground black, green, and pink peppercorns. I then added slices of lemons and leeks to the pan, drizzled them lightly with olive oil and topped the pheasants with a bit of fresh rosemary from my snow-covered garden.

PheasantBeforeCooking

RosemaryInSnow2

While the birds were roasting, I prepared a leek and broccolini risotto. The flavors of lemon, leek and rosemary blended quite well with that of the wild pheasants. After lunch, Bill and Mom were too full for dessert, but we sat around anyway and had an interesting conversation.

PheasantRoastedSharing good food is a great way to bring people together, particularly when one puts the thought and effort into making a special meal.

Happy Holidays!

Sweet Shepherd’s Noodles

Posted on by Laurie

I’ll just say this up front – some of you are going to think that this is a strange dish. It’s either like the pasta version of rice pudding or the dessert version of macaroni and cheese. The only category that it squarely fits into is that of comfort food.

I came across the original recipe many years ago in an old edition of Better Homes & Gardens Italian Cook Book. According to the book, Sweet Shepherd’s Noodles is a dish from “a mountainous sheep-grazing region in southern Italy.” Since the sweet creamy flavor reminded me of a rice pudding, I added dried fruits, walnuts and nutmeg to the original recipe and doubled the amount of cinnamon in it.  I love this embellished version of the dish for lunch on a grey winter’s day. A hot main dish and dessert all in one! Do you make anything similar?

SweetShepherdsNoodlesSweet Shepherd’s Noodles

(serves 2)

4 oz. pasta (any shape, gluten-free ok)

1/2 c. ricotta cheese

1/3 c. milk

2 T. granulated white sugar

1/4 t. ground cinnamon

1 1/2 T. dried cherries

1 1/2  T. yellow raisins

1 1/2 T. finely chopped walnuts

fresh nutmeg, optional

(1) Place pasta in a pot of boiling water to cook.

(2) When the pasta is almost done cooking, place ricotta cheese, milk, sugar and cinnamon in a medium-size pot. Cook over medium-low heat for about 3 minutes, stirring until there are no large lumps in the mixture.

(3) When pasta is cooked to desired tenderness, drain thoroughly and then stir into cheese mixture. Stir in walnuts and fruits. Serve immediately. If desired, grate a little fresh nutmeg over pasta. Enjoy!

Indian Pudding

Posted on by Laurie

Indian Pudding is a traditional New England dessert which can be traced back to the 18th century. I developed a  fondness for it when I lived in the Boston area. For some reason, though, it is relatively unknown outside of New England.

Here is a brief history of the dish …

When British settlers moved to this country they brought their Hasty Pudding recipes with them. I’ve never had Hasty Pudding, but apparently it is a dish made from wheat cooked in water or milk until it develops the consistency of a porridge. Wheat was in short supply in New England, so the settlers adapted to the new world by substituting corn meal – which they called Indian flour. Being along a trade route with plentiful molasses and spices, they embellished the dish with these flavorful additions as well as with dried fruits and sometimes nuts … and thankfully, the new dessert, Indian Pudding, caught on.

IndianPudding

Indian Pudding Ingredients

Butter or vegetable shortening to grease the cooking dish

4 c. milk (soy or almond milk can be substituted for vegan)

1 c. coarse cornmeal or polenta

4 T. melted butter (coconut oil can be substituted for vegan)

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/3 c. unsulfured molasses

1/2 t. salt

1 t. ground ginger

1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1/2 t. ground nutmeg

2/3 c. dried fruits (such as raisins, yellow raisins, cranberries, cherries)

3 large eggs (3/4 c. packed pumpkin can be substituted for vegan)

Cooking Methods

(1) Prepare cook surface  Preheat an oven to 325 degrees F. and grease a 2-quart baking dish; or grease and then preheat a crockpot on low or high heat. (A crockpot works well for holiday cooking when oven space is at a premium.)

(2) Cook the cornmeal  Bring the milk (or substitute) to a low boil then whisk in cornmeal. Reduce heat to low, and continue to cook, whisking frequently until the mixture thickens and the cornmeal is softened (about 15 to 20 minutes).

(3) Add remaining ingredients  Whisk together the remaining ingredients.  Once the cornmeal mixture has thickened and the cornmeal has softened, set it aside to cool slightly and then whisk in the mixture of remaining ingredients. If you are not using eggs, then you can skip the brief cooling period.

(4) Finish cooking  Pour the pudding mixture into greased baking dish or crockpot. Bake in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes; or cook in the crockpot for 2 hours on high heat or 4 to 5 on low heat . The finished “pudding” will be quite thick.

(5) Serve  Serve hot with ice cream or whipped cream and serve leftovers cold with ice cream, whipped cream or just milk.

Caramelized Grapefruit

Posted on by Laurie

Caramelized Grapefruit

An elegant yet easy to make fruit dish for holiday brunches …

1/2 c. light brown sugar

1 t. ground cinnamon

2 lg. red grapefruit

4 large grapes or maraschino cherries

Preheat oven broiler. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside. Cut grapefruits in half crosswise. Use a grapefruit knife to section the grapefruits and to remove centers. Sprinkle brown sugar onto each grapefruit half. Place grapefruits 6 inches under broiler and cook for about 5 minutes or until brown sugar is melted. (Watch grapefruit carefully during this time.) Remove from broiler. Place in dessert bowls or on dessert plates. Put a grape or cherry in the center of each grapefruit half. Serve immediately.

Note: If you do not have a broiler, you can use a chef’s torch to melt sugar. If you do not have a chef’s torch, let the sugar soak into the grapefruit for about 10 minutes before serving. The sugar will not caramelize, but the flavor will still be pleasing.

2LC: Mushrooms

Posted on by Laurie

After a short hiatus, Two Little Chefettes have returned with their monthly cooking challenge. The ingredient for November is mushrooms. Thank you Ridha and Bebe!

I tend to have rather strong opinions about mushrooms. I think that most people cook them on too low a heat, for too long a time, with too much fat and without enough seasoning – the result being a rubbery, unappealing ingredient. I always cook mushrooms on a high heat, with just a little fat, with plenty of salt and pepper, and almost always with some sherry. That is how the Portobellos are prepared for this recipe. They are then stirred into the soup at the last minute. The result is a silky soup with slightly caramelized mushrooms.

Creamy Portobello Mushroom Soup

4 T. unsalted butter, divided

2 T. potato starch

2 c. flavorful vegetable broth (mine is a golden-orange because it has lots of carrots and some tomatoes)

2 c. whole milk*

1/2 c. chopped yellow onion

4 c. very thinly sliced fresh Portobello mushrooms

splash of dry pale sherry

salt and fresh ground pepper

1/4 t. ground paprika

1. Melt 2 T. of the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Whisk in the potato starch. Once the mixture is completely smooth, slowly whisk in the vegetable stock. Continue cooking, whisking occasionally, until perfectly smooth and slightly thickened. Whisk in the milk; and again, continue cooking, whisking occasionally, until perfectly smooth and slightly thickened.

2. Using about 1/2 T. of the remaining butter, saute onions in another pan until starting to turn translucent and lightly golden, but still slightly crisp. Stir into the soup base. The soup base will continue to thicken and will need to be whisked every few minutes.

3. Melt the remaining butter in the pan from the onions, stir in the mushrooms, and saute until almost cooked. Add the sherry and then salt and pepper the mushrooms. The sherry should be absorbed fairly quickly at which time the mushrooms should be done cooking. Stir mushrooms into soup base.

4. Stir in paprika and then adjust seasonings. Serve right away. Enjoy!

* Once time when I made this soup, I substituted soy milk. I thought that the soup turned out too sweet. So I would recommend sticking to regular milk.

Improvised Tomato Pumpkin Soup

Posted on by Laurie

After making Bumpkins  yesterday, I found myself with leftover pumpkin that I wanted to use for dinner in some way. Being a great believer in the art of culinary improvisation, I decided to make something using only ingredients that I already had in the house; and besides, it was 7 pm before I started cooking dinner, I was still waiting for one room to check in, and there was no way that I was going to the grocery store. So here is what I came up with along with some suggested variations. The point of this post isn’t “Oh, this is the best soup ever … you’ve got to try it.”  (It is really good, though; otherwise, I wouldn’t have posted the recipe!) Rather, the point of this post is an exhortation to be creative. Go ahead, have fun and improvise … you might come up with something you like!

Improvised Tomato Pumpkin Soup

4 oz. dry quinoa pasta shells

1/4 c. diced red bell pepper, sautéed in olive oil

3 c. chopped tomatoes (I used Pomi brand from Italy)

1 1/4 c. packed pumpkin

2 c. vegetable stock

1 c. frozen corn

1 T. Italian Seasonings

1/2 t. hot red pepper flakes

dry white wine

fresh grated Romano cheese.

1. Put the pasta on to cook.  Meanwhile, saute peppers.

2. While the pasta is cooking and the peppers are sauteing, add the following to a 4-qt. stockpan: tomatoes, pumpkin, vegetable stock, corn, Italian Seasonings and red pepper flakes.  Cook over medium heat. Add peppers when they are crisp-tender.

3. When pasta is done cooking, drain and then stir into soup. Add white wine to taste, about 2 T. Cook for 5 more minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

4. Serve topped with grated cheese. (Some crusty French bread would go really well with this soup.)

Suggested Variations

- substitute beans for corn (or use in addition to corn)

- substitute yellow onions for red peppers

- use another pasta, or use rice

- top with cheddar cheese

- use red wine instead of white

- add fresh herbs

- add croutons when serving

Have fun! Enjoy! I’d love to hear your ideas …

Special of the Day: Spinach Omelette with Leeks

Posted on by Laurie

Everyday we offer a set breakfast menu plus a daily special. Today’s special was Spinach Omelette with Leeks.

The omelettes were filled with organic baby spinach, sautéed leeks, and shredded Monterey Jack and mild Cheddar cheeses. They were seasoned with a homemade herb salt made with herbs from our garden. The fresh leeks were sautéed in extra virgin olive oil with a splash of  Sauvignon Blanc and seasoned with the herb salt. They were finished with a twist of fresh ground green, black and pink peppercorns.

At the end of the meal, there were clean plates all around. Just what I like to see!

Italian Seasonings

Posted on by Laurie

After yesterday’s harvesting and drying of herbs, this morning I found myself thinking about to what uses I wanted to put them. Most of them I will just store plain, but  I will probably make some seasoned salts and after breakfast I did make a batch of Italian Seasonings. (Recipe below.)  The golden oregano, thyme, rosemary and chenzo pepper were from my garden. Except for a few leaves here and there – not enough to merit drying – my basil is already gone for the season.

There are quite a few variations in recipes for Italian Seasonings. Some have majoram, parsley and/or savory. Many don’t have the hot pepper. Here is the recipe that I use.

Ingredients:

4 T. dried basil

4 T. dried oregano

1 T.  granulated garlic

1 1/2 t. dehydrated minced onion

1 1/2 t. dried thyme

1 1/2 t. dried rosemary

1/2 t. dried hot red pepper

Pulse ingredients in a small food processor until desired consistency.

As you can imagine, after producing a batch of Italian Seasonings, I had to make something Italian with it! And luckily for me, I had some fresh vegetables in the house that I needed to use. So for lunch we had polenta with romano cheese and a thick, tasty tomato-pepper sauce. Now I need a nap! Ciao!

Pumpkin Butter – ‘Tis the Season

Posted on by Laurie

The hot weather has finally broken. It is rainy and in the 50′s here today. To make the house feel warm and cozy, I decided to make some aromatic Pumpkin Butter which I can serve for breakfast tomorrow. Oh, yum. This both smells so good while it is cooking and tastes delicious!In a heavy-bottomed pan, combine the following ingredients:

3 1/2 c. pumpkin puree

1 c. honey

2 T. lemon juice

1 T. ground Vietnamese cinnamon

1/4 t. ground cloves

1/4 t. ground mace

Stirring occasionally, cook over very low heat for about 45 minutes or until very thick and smooth. Store in the refrigerator, in glass jars,  for up to 2 weeks. Makes 1 quart.

Pumpkin butter can be served on breads, on top of yogurt, or used to fill tarts.