Kitchen witch

[untonuggan]

Currently working on experiments in gluten free bread baking, because I'm in love with/super good friends with enough people with gluten intolerance that I want to be able to provide nommy gluten free things. Plus I really appreciate it when people meet my access needs, there's something about being so fundamentally seen and heard and yes. So when I can do that for other people it's a gift to them, but also like I'm sort of paying that feeling forward. I am heady with success because the other night I modified a recipe that killingrose was kind enough to share with me, and it even worked *really well* on the first. time. Which. Yay.

Working on test batch number two, in which I am also making additional changes (mostly based on "ingredients I have on hand" and also "apparently I'm incapable of following exact directions in recipes AND knitting patterns"). I kind of prefer the method of "understand the fundamental principles enough that you know what to play with, and be okay with the possibility that you might not understand as much as you think and will have learned something but have to dump it in the trash whoops."

Also because once I stop following direct instructions and just start following my gut with what I think the bread/yarn/whatever needs next, I am more likely to get into flow. And flow is wonderful for a number of reasons, chief among them being I don't notice how much pain I'm in.

Anyway, this WAS just going to be a post about bread science and how the primary issue with making tasty gluten free bread is that gluten is the protein structure that makes bread stretchy and delicious. So I noticed the recipe I'm using is basically "a bunch of ways to use binding agents etc to make the bread not just fall apart once it gets out of the oven" but also you have to compensate for "it's not going to look *exactly* like bread dough because it's very very sticky".

While I was kneading the dough I in the mixer, trying to gauge when was "enough" mixing (and also enough flour, because it varies depending on humidity etc") I started to have feels. Good feels, but feels. Fair warning: apparently menopause brings ALL the feels.

I'm seeing a specialist for Ehlers Danlos Syndrome in October (FINALLY OMG) and the underlying issue with EDS is that your body doesn't manufacture collagen the same way everyone else does. Collagen is referred to as your body's "glue", so it causes systemic issues in various unexpected ways.

Anyway, basically I started looking at the gluten free bread I was trying to create and thinking "it me!" because, y'know, structural instability. I started feeling like the extra binding agents were similar to all the braces and other accessibility device I use to accommodate for my atypical collagen.

There are times when cooking is science. There are times when it is poetry (because omg I'm sure there is a poem in here, waiting). There are times when cooking is kitchen witchery.

Standing has been really hard lately, so I'm really glad to grab the moments when I have a little more cope and do some cooking. But I'll probably be looking at more "adaptive cooking methods" which will be interesting, because I'm pretty sure I usually compensate for arm/wrist issues by standing and using my whole body weight. So. Fun times.

This post is dedicated to jjhunter, who was supposed to be getting something about the alchemy of creating lentils but got this instead. Whoops?

[Note: suggestions for gluten free recipes and also cooking accommodations to try/think about are welcome on this post]

Comments

[green_knight]

Oooh, could you share that recipe? My partner occasionally has times when gluten-free seems to be indicated, and commercial bread is just ugh. (Cereal, we found a wonderful one, biscuits, can eat year round, bread... not so much.)

[untonuggan]

I'm working on experiments with various recipes and will have to check in with the person who shared it with me, but I will definitely share some form of nommy gf bread recipe.

[killing_rose]

The original recipe (we did eventually do the notes at the very bottom--I do actually prefer it with the buckwheat) is below. Obv do not know how Liz is experimentng with it. I will mention that if you have an Aldi's anywhere near you, they have hands down the most-like-gluten commercial bread I have ever eaten, and you don't even have to freeze or toast it. (My specific chronic illnesses mean that if I even think of baking the below bread anymore I get a long lecture and banished from the kitchen.) King Arthur flour has a bread mix, I think, and that one handled well. I have a waffle recipe I can toss you if you want (four ingredients, it's useful as all hells).

[Nota bene: we did, eventually end up killing a handmixer with this recipe. So if you don't have a stand mixer, hopefully Liz came up with a solution because we sure as hell never have.]

This recipe needs:

1 and 1/8ths cup of quinoa flour
1 cup cornstarch
1 cup + 1 Tbsp tapioca flour or starch
3 Tablespoons of brown sugar
3 and 1/2 teaspoons of guar gum (or xanthan if you'd rather)
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt
3 large eggs
1 and 1/8ths cup warm (105 to 115 degrees F) water
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
2 and 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast

two bowls, a mixer (preferably a mixer with a whisk attachment), and a loaf pan [My 8.5" x 4.5" held it, but it would have been much happier in a 9"x5".].

Before you start: Make sure all of the dry ingredients and the eggs are at room temperature. Give this dough every possible chance to raise. Also, if it's cool in the home, pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees F before starting the recipe. Shut it off as soon as it's hot in order to use the inside of the oven to help the yeast raise. Also, go ahead and spray the heck out of the inside of a loaf pan, all the way up the sides, while preparing things.

In a large bowl, combine the quinoa flour, the cornstarch, the tapioca flour/starch, the brown sugar, guar gum, and salt.

In another, smaller bowl, combine the eggs, water, and oil, then beat for two minutes. [I had fun with the whisk attachment for my mixer with this part.] Don't skimp on the time, getting the eggs to be as frothy as they can be is definitely the point here.

Once the eggs+water+oil are as frothy as they can get, add the yeast to the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the dry.

Beat this for two to three minutes. [This is going to get interesting if you have a hand mixer. This dough is incredibly sticky, and I frequently had to pause to force the dough back down off the beaters.]

[This is going to sound crazy, but I highly recommend coating your hands in olive oil before starting trying to handle this dough. Like I said, it's incredibly sticky.] Scoop the dough into an already-greased loaf pan -- however works best.

Once the dough has made it into the pan, take a well-oiled spatula and smooth the top of the loaf so that it's at least mostly uniform across the top, [unlike conventional wheat doughs, it won't drag itself together into a pretty rounded top without some help] and slide it into a warm oven -- or at the very least, a warm place in the house -- for 40 to 60 minutes [we went with 40, then pulled it out so that the oven could finish heating].

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F, then slide the bread in and bake for 40 minutes.

Pull it out, turn it out onto a plate or wire rack, wait 10 minutes and devour -- oh, wait, you might not want the bread immediately, huh?


Notes for next time: try 1/8 cup buckwheat flour in place of that last 1/8 cup quinoa flour, see what that does to the taste.

Maybe try a little less guar gum, think that was part of the reason it was so damned sticky.

[the_rck]

My friend, Valerie, has a GF cooking blog. She's also vegetarian, so all of her recipes are (and many are vegan). She's very aware of allergies/intolerances/sensitivities because each of her kids has a different set. My main caveat is that things she considers low effort really aren't low effort for people with pain and/or fatigue issues.

If you come up with cooking accommodations, I'd be very interested to hear about them. I'm running into the problem that everything I can come up with that's easy for me prepare is on the list of things I shouldn't have, so I'm looking for ways to make the things I can have become possible for me to prepare.

[sonia]

The body analogy sounds so powerful! As well as the science/poetry/community aspects. Happy baking!

I wanted to share this gluten-free teff flour muffin recipe which has several different flours, so it's a little fiddly that way, but it has been endlessly adaptable and always successful for me.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/245420/gluten-free-teff-muffins/

Changes I've made:
- Paper muffin cups in a larger round pan, because I don't have muffin tins. Bake time 20 min because I don't fill them as full. Makes 14 muffins this way.
- 1/2 tsp baking soda with dry ingredients & 1 tsp cream of tartar with wet ingredients instead of baking powder.
- Olive oil for the oil.
- Tapioca flour instead of arrowroot flour.
- Added 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- And 3/4 cup walnuts
- And halved the sugar
- Made with rosemary & walnuts & much less sugar & no cinnamon.

All came out yummy.

[killing_rose]

Have I pointed you at my waffle recipe?

[jelazakazone]

OMG that metaphor with gluten is so perfect for people with Ehlers-Danlos!

<3

[alatefeline]

<3

This post is very relevant to my interests as I have gluten intolerance and also some mysterious joint-muscle-systemic-thing that might or might not be EDS-ish. Thank you.

[jjhunter]

^loves your delicious meta and cooking*