More Gluten-free & Corn-free tricks and tips

Here are two quick recipes to help you with cooking without wheat and corn. I rely heavily on both of these recipes.

The first is my tweaked-for-no-corn version of Bette Hagman's fabulous Four Flour Bean Mix. Add 3/4 tsp. of guar gum (or xanthan gum, if you don't have issues with corn) to each cup of this flour mix, and you'll be able to use this in most recipes calling for wheat flour. I've had great success using this flour mix to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, lemon bars that are (cue hallelujah chorus) simply divine, and tasty quick biscuits to go with soup. Check this blog in the near future for these, and more, yummy recipes.


Four Flour Bean Mix, makes 9 cups

• 2 cups garbanzo flour (you can also use the more expensive garfava flour) - available from Barry Farm and from Bob's Red Mill
• 1 cup sorghum flour - also available from Barry Farm and from Bob's Red Mill
• 4-1/2 cups tapioca starch - I buy this at our local Asian grocery, also available from Barry Farm and Bob's Red Mill
• 1-1/2 cups potato starch - Another item I buy at our Asian grocery, also available from Barry Farm and Bob's Red Mill
• 7 teaspoons guar gum - as a slacker mom, I add in the guar gum when I make up the flour mix, so I don't have to remember to add it when I'm working with a recipe. Barry Farm and Bob's Red Mill both carry guar gum.

Combine all ingredients, mixing well. I use a clean and dry 1-gallon pitcher (with the lid on!!!) to blend my flour mix - I hold the lid on with one hand, and shake, rattle, and roll that pitcher until everything looks seriously mixed up. Store flour mix in a 1 gallon zip-seal bag in the cupboard.

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The second recipe is for no-corn-starch baking powder, an essential ingredient in the bread recipe I posted yesterday, as well as many others, including the aforementioned tasty quick biscuits. I found this recipe in The Allergy Self-Help Cookbook, written by Marjorie Hurt Jones, R.N.

No Corn Starch Baking Powder
The original version of this recipe makes 2 tablespoons - not nearly enough to have on hand for making up bread mixes, lots and lots of biscuits, and a few batches of cookies - so I tweaked it to make lots. Also - the original recipe calls for arrowroot flour - which is expensive compared to tapioca starch, so I just use tapioca starch instead, with pleasing results.

• 1/4 cup cream of tartar (I get mine from Cash & Carry, our local restaurant supply store - Barry Farm carries it as well.)
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch
• 1/8 cup baking soda

A couple of caveats for this recipe:

• ALWAYS use fresh baking soda
• sift your ingredients well - two times through the sifter should be adequate
• store the finished baking powder in an airtight jar in the cupboard (I use a recycled jam jar & lid)

Wanna make more baking powder? The ratio is 2 parts cream of tartar, 2 parts tapioca starch, and 1 part baking soda.

• 1/2 cup cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup baking soda

Gluten-free Bread

A completed (and half-eaten) loaf of our bread.

2.3.11 EDIT: As you can see, I took pics and added them to this post.

First off, I apologize for the lack of accompanying picture with today's post. I have pics of this bread, honest...they're on the recently deceased hard drive, and I can't get at them just yet. If I can recover them, I'll add the pics to the post.

Acknowledgments: I found the original recipe for this bread in Bette Hagman's excellent book, The Gluten-free Gourmet Bakes Bread. I am sad to report that Bette passed away in 2007. Bette, you were THE guiding light for me during my early days of learning how to feed my family without wheat. Thank you so very much!

This bag contains all the dry ingredients (except yeast) needed to make 2 loaves of bread.

Here's how I handle bread-making at Casa de Hansen:
1. I use stoneware loaf pans to bake my bread in. They make a WORLD of difference in my kitchen when it comes to wheat-free cooking. I purchased my stoneware loaf pans through The Pampered Chef. I expect other brands of stoneware loaf pans will perform similarly, but as I have no experience with anything other than TPC pans, I can't say for sure.
2. I make two loaves of bread at a time for our family of four (two adults, 2 always-hungry kids).
3. I pre-measure the dry ingredients ahead of time (except the yeast!) and store them in the cupboard in gallon-size zip-seal bags. One bag will hold enough dry ingredients for two loaves. I usually do up 7 or 8 2-loaf bags at a time. With my pre-measured ingredients, it takes me about 5 minutes to mix up a loaf of bread. Then, all I need to do is let it rise and bake it. Easy peasy!

If I'm in the process of whipping up bread mixes, and run out of an ingredient,
I tape a little reminder to the bag.

As you can see, I typed up the list of dry ingredients (except yeast, which
needs to be stored in the fridge), along with their measurements. This way,
if I run out of something, I just highlight that ingredient
and tape the list to the bag. Easy peasy!

4. I wouldn't trade my kick-butt KitchenAid stand mixer for ANYTHING. You need serious horsepower when it comes to mixing up gluten-free doughs and batters, and this mixer can handle the job.
5. My little man doesn't do breadcrust (even though it's really good), so we cut the crust off, and pop it into a freezer bag along with the heel ends of the loaf. The bits and pieces of crust will grind up into breadcrumbs (for other recipes) using a food processor or a blender, or you can make a spiffy delicious bread pudding too! I'll post Bette's recipe for this another time, OK?
6. Baking with gluten-free flours is a bit different than baking with wheat - most noticeably, the consistency of the batters/doughs. This particular recipe is gooey sticky - more like a really thick cake batter than the typical bread dough we are all familiar with.

So here's the deal. My current-favorite bread recipe is the New French Bread on page 74 of The Gluten-free Gourmet Bakes Bread...and it calls for French Bread/Pizza Mix, which is on page 190 of the same book. I've tweaked the recipe so I have all of the required ingredients on one page, and so I can make up my 2-loaf bags...but...I use a small kitchen scale to measure many of the ingredients, since it goes faster for me. Annnnd, since I use a scale for the ingredients required in larger quantities, I don't have measuring cup measurements for you.

Ready? Here goes:

Bette's New French Bread, tweaked by Chris
dry ingredients:

• 15.8 oz. white rice flour (I find this, tapioca starch, and potato starch at our local Asian grocery stores)
• 12.6 oz. tapioca starch/flour
• 21 grams guar gum (we use guar gum because xanthan gum is made with corn, and we can't use corn)
• 16.4 grams unflavored gelatin
• 2 oz. sugar
• 3.2 oz. almond meal or coconut flour
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking powder (I make my own baking powder too, because almost all commercial brands contain corn starch - I'll post the recipe for that soon, OK?)

• 2 tbsp. yeast (if you're making up bread mixes ahead of time, don't include this - just add it to your dry ingredients right before you make your loaf)

wet ingredients:

• 6 large eggs (I omitted the egg replacer originally called for in Hagman's recipe, and just added another 2 eggs)
• 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar (this helps make a better loaf)
• 6 tbsp. vegetable oil or melted butter/margarine
• 2 cups warm water (warm enough to activate yeast, but not too hot because it'll kill the yeast)(also - you may need to play with the water amount to suit your own cooking style. I found that adding the amount of water listed in the original recipe made it too soupy.)

Grease loaf pans.

Add yeast to dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

With heavy-duty mixer on low speed, mix together eggs, vinegar, oil or butter, and warm water.

Add dry ingredients and scrape sides down. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes.

Divide bread batter evenly between both loaf pans, and jiggle pans to settle batter. Cover lightly with waxed paper, and set aside in a warm place to rise for an hour.

Bake in pre-heated 375 degree F oven for about 40 minutes. Turn bread out onto rack to cool. Option: brush exterior of loaf with butter or margarine. If you want to slice your bread before it's fully cool, butter the sides of a serrated knife and cut very gently, without pressing down too much if possible. The butter keeps the hot bread from sticking to the cool metal of the knife.

Once cool, bread may be stored in a plastic bag.

Tweaking Alton's Recipe for Marshmallows

Homemade Marshmallows, Hansen style

With both Archer & Jerry allergic to corn, storebought marshmallows have been on the no-can-do list for ages...no matter how many times we re-check the ingredients list on the packages, corn syrup is still on that darned list!

I've gotten pretty good at re-creating tasty bites while avoiding the multiple food allergens in this house, so I decided to take matters into my own hands last year, and found Alton Brown's recipe for Homemade Marshmallows here.

I printed it out, and went to work on the substitutions. First, I substituted brown rice syrup for the light corn syrup, then I used tapioca starch instead of cornstarch. Standard confectioner's sugar is made with corn starch, so I made my own powdered sugar by blending it in my blender. And while I was at it, I tripled the amount of vanilla extract Alton called for. The results? Delicious - and well worth the effort. The taste of a freshly made marshmallow is divine - not at all like the ones you get at the store.

Wanna give it a shot yourself? Here's how I did it:

Ingredients:
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided in half
12 ounces granulated sugar (I used evaporated cane juice, which is less processed than white sugar)
1 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioner's/powdered sugar (try making your own - put about 1/2 cup of sugar/evaporated cane juice in your blender and blend until it's powdery. voila!)
1/4 cup tapioca starch (our local Asian grocery stores carry this)
non-stick cooking spray

Directions:
Place whisk attachment on stand mixer. Place gelatin into bowl of stand mixer with 1/2 cup of the water.

Combine remaining 1/2 cup of water, granulated sugar, brown rice syrup, and salt in a small saucepan. Place over medium-high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3-4 minutes. Uncover pan, clip candy thermometer onto side of pan and continue to cook until mixture reaches 240 degrees F, about 7-8 minutes. Once mixture reaches 240 degrees, immediately remove from heat.

With mixer on low speed, slowly pour sugar syrup down the side of the bown into the gelatin mixture. Once you've added all of the syrup, increase mixer speed to high. Continue whipping mixture until it becomes very thick and is lukewarm, about 12-15 minutes. Add vanilla during last minute of whipping. While mixture is whipping, prepare pan as follows:

For miniature marshmallows:
Combine powdered sugar and tapioca starch in a small bowl. Lightly spray bottom and sides of a half-sheet pan/jelly roll pan with the nonstick spray. Add sugar/tapioca starch mixture and move around to coat bottom and sides of pan. Return extra sugar/tapioca starch mixture to small bowl and reserve for later use.

When the whipped mixture is ready, pour it into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading the mixture evenly. Dust the top of the whipped mixture with enough of the powdered sugar/tapioca starch mixture to lightly cover, saving the rest of the powdered sugar/tapioca starch mixture for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1/2-inch squares using a pizza wheel. Lightly toss cut marshmallows with remaining powdered sugar/tapioca starch mixture. These will keep covered, at room temperature, for about a week. <--they NEVER last that long at our house!

Art Charm Challenge No. 1: Mixed Media Paper

Art Charm Challenges are little bitty charm projects that anyone can do at any time. I'm putting these challenges together for our Art Charms Yahoo Group, in which my lovely co-author Peg Krzyzewski is running a book study of our book, Making Mixed Media Art Charms & Jewelry. The idea is to have Challenges running each month which correlate with whatever chapter Peg is covering that month in the book study.

Chris' first sheet of completed Mixed Media Paper

I'm posting the Challenges here on my blog, so everyone can join in the fun!

Challenges are for folks who don't want to commit to a swap, but still want to try a technique and make a charm or two, and maybe post pictures of their results if they like.

How to do a Challenge?
First, get most, if not all, of your supplies together ahead of time, and place them in a sturdy low-walled cardboard box like the Chicken of the Sea ones you get at Costco. That way, you’re ready to do a little bit on your Challenge whenever you get a free moment.

Too, it’ll be really helpful to find a large flat rectangle of cardboard (like Priority Mail large flat rate box size), and cover it with waxed paper (taped on the back), to give you a portable glue-friendly flat work space.

And now, without further ado, I will introduce Challenge No. 1: Mixed Media Paper.

 

Chris' Challenge box, filled with supplies for this challenge

For the box:
• a piece or two of cardstock (color doesn’t matter)
• a few paints, markers, gel pens, colored pencils, chalks, crayons (you might want to decide on a colorway before you gather your supplies)
• stamps & inks (if you have them), texture tools (combs, old credit cards, chopsticks, whatEVER!)
• bits & scraps of colorful paper for collage
• any sort of embellishment that will add detail – ephemera, fun fibers, confetti, glitter glue, stickers,
• white glue mixed with water, 50/50
• a couple of large pieces of waxed paper for you to work on.

The Confession:
I didn’t use even half of the supplies I had in my Challenge box – I started out thinking I’d do pink/purple/blue with an Asian theme, then I decided to ditch all the pink stuff and I just worked with the purple and blue.

The Challenge:
First, lay your large pieces of waxed paper down on your flat rectangle of cardboard and tape them to the back of the cardboard. (yes, OVER the waxed paper you taped onto it earlier – this makes cleanup a snap when you’re done!) BTW, you don’t really HAVE to tape the second layer of waxed paper down – especially if you think you might have time to do more than one piece – just crease the edges of the waxed paper over the sheet of cardboard, so it stays put while you work – then when you’re finished embellishing a sheet of cardstock, just lift off the whole thing – loose sheet of waxed paper under embellished cardstock - and set it aside to dry.

Chris' second completed (but not yet dry) sheet of Mixed Media Paper

Next, place a piece of cardstock on your waxed rectangle, and throw as much color, decoration, and detail onto it as you can manage.

It doesn’t really matter in what order you add things – just as long as you’re happy with it! And, since you’ll be doing this in little steps, waiting for layers to dry won’t be such a pain.

• Try adding a little bit of paint and smooshing it around the cardstock with a texture tool.
• Add scribbles of chalk or marker, or stamped images in ink.
• Use diluted glue to paste down scraps of paper, and/or embellishments.

You might want to seal the whole thing with the diluted glue when you’re done. Let it dry and show us the results!

• Before I did my mixed media paper, I decorated some tissue paper with an Asian lady collage stamp using dye inks, then I scribbled on it with metallic pastels and painted over that with metallic watercolors – once this was dry, I tore it into pieces and added it to my mixed media paper.

Mixed Media tissue paper

• I also took a page out of a Japanese book, and used Asian calligraphy stamps on it in metallic pigment inks and painted over that with metallic watercolors – when this was dry, I used the uber cool paper punches to punch out flowers – they’re purple/blue, and really cool looking with all of the different colors and sizes of Asian calligraphy on them. I’m using them as embellishments on the charms.

Mixed Media Asian text paper

Uber-coolio Asian-flower-themed paper punches I used on the Mixed Media Asian text paper - found here.

• I didn’t even bother to mix the glue with water – just kind of mooshed it around with my paintbrush (which was wet from doing the metallic watercolors)
• I mixed the acrylic craft paint with Mod Podge, because I’m going for detail and depth – didn’t want the paint to completely cover what was underneath – squirted a few drops each of purple and blue craft acrylic paint out onto the waxed paper and the dropped a small amount of Mod Podge nearby – used my brush to smoosh the colors and Mod Podge around and apply it to my mixed media paper, which gave me some really neat color variations.
• I started my mixed media papers with stamping – I covered each sheet of cardstock with the Asian calligraphy stamp in one color, then turned the page 90 degrees and overstamped that with a different ink color. Then I added paints, scraps of tissue paper and washi paper, snippets of fun fibers, sequins (thoroughly glued down), and scribbled over that with the pastels and painted over that with the paints – sprinkled some glitter in there too, somewhere.

Inventory of what was in Chris’ Challenge box, clockwise from top left:
NOTE: items I actually used are indicated with an asterisk *
* cardstock
* tissue paper
alcohol inks on glossy photo paper
*handmade paper by Peg Krzyzewski.
*scraps of washi paper from Art ‘n’ Soul.
*pages from Japanese book
*my favorite paintbrush
*acrylic paints – craft, Golden, Lumieres
*Mod Podge gloss
*Ranger Stickles (didn’t use these on the MMP, but will be embellishing punched flowers with this)
*glitter
*sequins
tiny blue mosaic/rocks pieces (Peg gave these to me, so I don’t know the name or source)
*Twinkling H2O’s – metallic watercolors
black plastic cup for mixing Mod Podge & water
*pigment, chalk, & dye inkpads
Dreamweaver metallic FX from Art ‘n’ Soul.
*scraps of fun fibers
*Asian-themed stamps
*Caran D’ache metallic pastels
*Cretacolor Aquastic metallic water-soluble oil pastels
Copic Markers
Micron pens by Sakura
Glaze pens by Sakura
Pearl line gel pen by MonAmi
*Kikyou & Sakura (M) punches by CarlaCraft from here.

Love Drop...what a wonderful project! Please join me!

The Love Drop project is all about coming up with creative and fun ways to make a difference for someone. Jill is the first Love Drop recipient of 2011 - here's a link to the video of her story:

Here's what you can do to make our first Love Drop special for Jill and her family:

• Join the team - Become a member by paying whatever you want. Even $1.00.
• Join our blogger network - Blog about our Love Drops once a month! It's easy, it's rewarding, and it REALLY helps spread the word (which in turn helps the families!). Love Drop will give you all the content you need.
• Give a gift or provide a service - Gift cards, household goods, football cards/jerseys for the boys, web design services, pampering gifts for Jill, etc. (email all ideas/questions to team (at) lovedrop.us, and we'll make it happen)
  
  January 13th, 2011 Love Drop update - Bridge Communities helped find Jill & her kids a townhouse and they just moved in! For those asking what kind of goods Jill and her family still needs, the list has now been updated. Here’s a few of the things we’re now working on (if you’d like to  help, shoot us an email: team (at) lovedrop.us):
  For Jill & the home: Sheets (queen), towels, dresser. Any gift cards to places like Bed Bath & Beyond would be killer.
  For the boys: Dressers, sheets (twin), Spring/Summer clothes, anything sports related (posters, jerseys, etc)
  For her daughter: Dresser, sheets (full), Spring/Summer clothes, photo albums, anything to do with painting or drawing (paints, brushes, canvases, an easel?)
  

What Love Drop is

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Love Drop is a micro-giving network of people who unite as a community to help one person or family a month. By subscribing to the team for as low as $1, they make it easy for their members to change lives in a fun and tangible way. Each month Love Drop delivers a unique combination of unexpected financial gifts, personal encouragement and the support of local and online communities.

Every month the Love Drop community comes together to raise as much support and awareness as we possibly can. It starts on the website - LoveDrop.us, gets spread across our entire network of blogs, continues through the forums where all our members are brainstorming, and finally lands on the front steps of our recipients. Literally.

At the end of every month, Nate and J$ show up in the town the people live in to deliver this pile of goodness. The money, the gifts, the services, everything! It's all on film, and it all ends with an amazing outpouring of love. And then it starts all over again the next month. Help them, and their flagship partner, Kona Grill, make this drop in Chicago amazing!