Bagel Chips

Glutino.  They make breads, crackers, bake mixes, snack bars, and now, they have introduced bagel chips in original and Parmesan and garlic. They're called bagel chips, but these are basically croutons. Sure, they're also great as dippers, and paired with soup, but they're a hard, dry, seasoned bread cube- that screams crouton to me. And a taste one at that! At $5.00 a box I would not buy these all the time, but they were quite tasty.

What do you think? Have you tired these yet?

Amazing Dairy Free Rolls!

I didn't mind "giving up" bread when I first went gluten free; bread wasn't a big part of my life. Yet every now and then I love eating a delicious, meaty sandwich.  The Canyon Bakehouse buns are a great standard sandwich bun but when you want something hearty, more gourmet the Against the Grain Country Vermont Roll is your best friend.

These rolls are excellent for roast beef sandwhiches, pulled pork, and most recently I had a left over turkey sandwhich around thanksgiving. Sure they're high in calories (mainly because they're using coconut milk to keep them dairy free), but they are truly one of the best rolls I've eaten.

Against the Grain Stuffing

I made my first batch of stuffing a couple of weeks ago and used a great recipe from Against the Grain Gourmet.  I'm not really a huge fan of stuffing, but since I've been giving everything else like soup a try, why not stuffing? And I got rave reviews!

Croutons.

Croutons. When a gluten free gal bakes a loaf of bread and it doesn't turn out, I think we all know what you do- make croutons. I recently tried out the Kinnickinnick Bread and Bun Mix and was happy to see just how far the mix goes.  I've made 3 loaves of bread with one box mix, but I'm not a bread person, so yes, I made a loaf of bread just to cube it up and make croutons. The mix itself is for a very basic white bread, but I added in some herbs - parsley, garlic and onion powder, and salt- to enhance it just a little.  I add a slice of bread as I was cubing it up for croutons and it was very good- soft, moist, with a nice crust.

If you've never made croutons, or need some pointers, make sure you dry the bread out enough.  Generally you need to toast it at 220 degrees for about an hour, depending on the size of your cubes. Once the bread is slightly toasted and dry, all I do is drizzle some olive oil back and forth over the pan, shake on your favorite herbs, and stir; make sure everything is well coated. Pop your pan back in the oven and watch carefully; probably another 15 minutes.  Let them cool and store in an air tight container. And if you hadn't put two and two together yet, croutons are very similar to stuffing.

Bun-Off! Udi's vs Rudi's Hot Dog Buns

What summer would be complete without hot dogs? (Answer: a vegetarian's summer) A sequel to our hamburger bun review, we decide that hot dogs need love, too. Which company has the hottest buns in town? We'll tell you in this episode of GFree TV.

Hamburger Buns!

We like contests... and every contest has a winner and a loser. While the names of these two companies are incredibly similar, there is a clear winner in the Battle of the Buns. Find out who in this episode of GFree TV!

My Bready

The Bready is a dream come true for those who don't have the time or ambition to bake their own gluten-free bread; it's as simple as adding ingredients to a bag and pressing the Start button. But how does it TASTE? Explore the Bready with us in this episode of GFree TV.

Gluten Free Conscious Cook

Before Christmas I received a copy of Gluten Free Recipes for the Conscious Cook in my mailbox. I always welcome a new cookbook into my arsenal, especially one that takes a different stance than most. Years ago the problem with the gluten free market, and the biggest challenge for people when they first converted to a gluten free diet, seemed to be the sweets. We all want our favorite cookie or snack, and there sure are dozens of gluten free cookies available. Now the market is evolving. There's gluten free bread, and has been, but as of late companies are working on developing ones with healthier grains, high fiber options, etc. The same goes for cereals and crackers.

Leslie Cerier, the author of Gluten Free Recipes for the Conscious Cook, encourages the gluten free community to break free of what probably has become their comfort zone- rice flour, rice pasta, and introduce them to some of those alternative grains they had been seeing on the shelf, but apprehensive about trying: amaranth, teff, millet.

Since it is winter time I thought I would start out with a soup recipe: Quick Miso Soup with Nettles and Spicy Thai Noodles. Not even sure what a nettle is or don't like them? The author has variation suggestions for most recipes. Here she suggested substituting spinach for nettles, and that's exactly what I did, as I already had that in my fridge. All the other ingredients sound very clean, very healthy: vermicelli, broccoli, tofu, chives, garlic, miso, tamari.

Simple to make, did I find this recipe satisfying? The taste was nice, almost refreshing. I debated about crisping the outside of the tofu before I dropped it in the soup, as I like tofu that way, but I stuck to the recipe and just dropped it in. The longer you let the soup simmer the more the tofu absorbed the other flavors. I ate a whole bowl of the soup, which says something because I don't like soup; try as I might, I just don't find it a complete meal. I don't feel that way because it had tofu and not chicken in it, but I think because I'm just not a soup person. If I did like soup more, I would really like this, although my husband thought it could have used more salt.

Then I moved on to an area I'm more comfortable with- desserts. The cookbook using maple sugar, dates, coconut oil, and millet as some alternative ingredients from what I'm used to. The Millet Apple Raisin Cake sounded easy with only 3 ingredients: millet, apple juice, and raisin, so I gave it a whirl. It didn't really sound like cake, but I tried my best to stay open minded. This mixture was a lot better as a hot breakfast dish than a cake. I also tried the mocha rice pudding rice and it was a nice change in the dessert department, although I did add a little more sugar than the recipe called for. Overall, I like the variety this cookbook offers. It challenges me to try new things, and offers a nice assortment of dishes for every meal. The only thing I wish it had was nutritional information.

Arnel Bread Mix

A couple months ago I attended a sampling featuring Arnel's bread, and the bread was really good, so I bought a package of the bread mix to give it a go myself. I'm sure we've all experienced a baking conundrum, where we're eaten a product from a mix, that was made by someone else, and love it, but when we go to make the exact same product ourselves it doesn't turn out. Well that's what happened with Arnel's. The premade bread I tasted was good, but when I went to make it....

The bread was easy to make, and it rose well, but after I had cooked it for 10 minutes longer than it said, my bread was still not cooked through. So I turned down the temperature by 15 degrees and let it keep cooking. An hour later I decided to give up. The bread jut wouldn't cook. It was still super doughy and raw in the center. The moral of the store is sometimes baking sucks.

Sweet Monkey Bread

I love to cook and bake; I love to experiment in the kitchen, but most recipes don't have a fun little story behind them like this one does: Monkey Bread. So months ago there was a string of women who came to my work all within a two week period and were asking for monkey bread. I had never heard of such a thing before and the way they explained it it sounded like a cinnamon roll to me. I thought perhaps they had heard of some new awesome gluten free product and I went into research mode. Then a week later one of my favorite customers at my job came in and told me she was the one behind the monkey bread thing. She moved away and in honor of her I had to make monkey bread. This week I finally got around to it.

While researching monkey bread I discovered that this bread dish can be made sweet or savory, and also can go by another name- "bubble bread," and that was one of my favorite side dishes my mom made before I went gluten free, her savory bubble bread. Knowing all that I know now, from now on there will be sweet monkey bread, and savory bubble bread...this time around I made sweet monkey bread. And be cautious, this is dangerously delicious!











Ingredients

Yeast Mixture
2/3 cup warm milk (I used original Almond Breeze)
1 Tsp white sugar
1 packet yeast (this is approximately 2 tsp)

Bread Mixture
1 Tbsp white sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup garbanzo and fava flour
1 cup Tom Sawyer Flour (if not using this blend you can use 1/2 cup rice flour, 1/2 potato flour, plus 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum)

Topping:
1 stick of butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup pecans

Directions:
1. Combine milk, 1 tsp sugar and yeast. Set aside to proof.
2. In a new bowl, beat the eggs, oil, vinegar, sugar, and vanilla until completely combined.
3. Add in the rest of the bread ingredients: yeast mixture, flours, etc.
4. In two other small bowls, melt the butter in one, and combine the remaining topping ingredients in the other: brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon.
5. Grease whatever shape pan you're using.
6. Working one at a time, form dough into small balls, about an inch in diameter, then drop into the melted butter (I highly suggest using a cookie scooper or mini ice cream scooper)
7. Using a slotted spoon, remove ball from butter and drop into the bowl of cinnamon-sugar.
8. Roll each ball around in the cinnamon sugar, then again using a slotted spoon, remove from sugar bowl and place in baking pan.
9. Repeat until all dough is used up, piling the dough balls next to and on top of one another.
10. If you make your monkey bread layers, sprinkle each layer with some pecans.
11. Drizzle leftover butter and sugar over the top once you've used all the dough.
12. Let rise for about 45 minutes in a warm place.
13. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, based on what size/shape pan you're using.

Canyon Bakehouse Breads

Canyon Bakehouse Bread is the first contender since Udi's to come out with a bread that we can actually stand, let alone enjoy. We tried three of their sandwich breads and their focaccia bread and they were all delicious. Which did we like the most and the least? Watch and find out!

We had a few questions about the products that we did not have answered until after the show.

"Thank you so much for posting a video review of our products. We appreciate your honest review! We're excited that you really liked the focaccia. It is our most popular product behind the 7-grain. People seem to like the 7-grain for the excellent nutritionals....

Regarding shelf life... our products are good for about 7-10 days on the shelf. Like most baked goods, they can start to firm and dry out a bit over that time. We do recommend freezing, this will allow the breads to last over a longer period of time. They can also be refrigerated, which will keep the mold away, but will also cause it to firm and dry out more quickly.

Best Regards!

Josh & Christi Skow
Canyon Bakehouse"

Breads from Anna

Bread. It's one of the more challenging items to find a satisfying substitution for those on a gluten free diet, and what if you have multiple food allergies? Breads from Anna started with just one mix back in 2004, and now the company offers ten mixes. This company caters to those who are gluten free, dairy free, corn free, soy free, yeast free, and even rice free! So what are they made out of? Well they use more of the bean and pea flours, along with millet, and arrowroot...some of the grains that seem to be neglected and not as frequently thought of. (Rice, potato, and tapioca seem to be the most widely known as gluten free grains but there is quite a selection to choose from.)

Being free of so many allergens does however make the cost of the product increase greatly. In fact I would say this line of bread and muffin mixes is one of the most expensive ones I've come across. With that said, it's worth it. I'm a big banana bread fan, so I tried out a free sample of Bread from Anna's banana bread mix. It was very simple to mix up, and baked right up without any fuss. The loaf browned on the top without burning, and it sliced like a fresh loaf of bread; it wasn't crumbly, it wasn't hard like a brick, and it wasn't cooked on the outside but not in the middle- the 3 most common problem with baking gluten free bread.

This product gets 4 stars! And my husband, who is not gluten free, says it's "unbelievably fabulous banana bread!" My only real compliant is that the labels all seem to look really similar and so it was hard to distinguish the products on the shelf.

French Meadow Bakery Sandwich Bread

French Meadow Bakery offers a variety of gluten free breads, including a white sandwich bread and a cinnamon raisin bread. I was given both to sample as a potential product to be carried at my local health food store, and used the cinnamon raisin bread every morning for breakfast with butter and cheese or jam. I wouldn't use it for anything else except toast but it gets 2 thumbs up for that.

Now for the sandwich bread, I have been in love with Udi's white sandwich bread since I met it. How does this bread compare? Well it starts in the freezer, which pretty much means you have to toast it, so for that it gets a mark against itself. As for texture, it is not as light and fluffy of a sandwich bread as the Udi's, which means it has less holes, which is a plus, and thus makes making a grilled cheese sandwich much easier. In fact, for making grilled cheese, I prefer the French Meadow over the Udi's.

A complaint many people have about gluten free bread in general is that the slices are so small. The French Meadow bread is a slightly larger slice of bread than the Udi's, maybe by half an inch per direction, which doesn't sound like much, but it's something. And as for price, it falls at the lower end of what most gluten free bread costs, coming in at around $5.00. So overall, I still like Udi's, as it reminds me more of a "Wonder Bread," a squishy bread you'd find on the bread aisle and it gets a 4 on a scale of 1-5, but the French Meadow is good in its own way, getting a 3.75 from me on a scale of 1-5.

Glutino crackers make a great breading

With my busy schedule it only took 1.5 months to finish reading my copy of Delight Magazine, and discovered several recipes I wanted to try out. There was a recipe for chicken nuggets from Kyle Kirby that I tweaked a little and it was absolutely delicious. Who needs straight breadcrumbs when you have some Glutino crackers and a Blendtec in the house. I used a combination of plain and vegetable flavored Glutino crackers, that the blendtec turned into straight dust with a few pulses. Add in a little salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder, and you've got a great breading!

For dipping sauces we had a horseradish mayo (used my honey mustard salad dressing recipe and added in a spoonful of extra mayo and some creamed horseradish) and a spicy ketchup (ketchup and some Oli's Sweet 'n Spicy Sauce combined). Everything was delicious.

Favorite Foods Aren't Just a Memory

Back in the days when I could out to a restaurant, without a care in the world, the one thing I could never get enough of were the cheese rolls at Red Lobster. Well, a recipe came across my lap a few months ago and I have been dying to try it. Today was the lucky day. It seems that as each person tried it they made their own alterations to the recipe, however nevertheless I must give thanks to Joan, a local Sacramento CSA member, and then there are the two gluten free forum members, Fiddle-Faddle and Robyn Ryberg; Wherever you are- Thank you.

I tweaked the recipe a little to suit my needs, and these are a very close mimic of the seafood chains' cheese rolls! Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup original almond breeze: any milk will do.
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups Tom Sawyer GF Flour Blend (this has xanthan gum in it. If you use a different blend you will want to add in about 1 tsp xanthan gum).
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions
1. Blend all ingredients together in the order listed.
2. Drop golfball-size blobs onto a greased baking sheet. (You'll get about 24 small biscuits, or 8-10 large biscuits).
3. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
4. Place on cooling rack.
5. If to be consumed immediately, melt some extra butter and shake in some salt, garlic powder, and some parsley, and brush on with a pastry brush. Otherwise once cooled storage in a Ziploc. When ready to serve heat biscuits up and brush with melted butter mixture.

Pizza Sticks

So for my birthday I got Carol Fenster's 1,000 Gluten Free Recipes, and there are just so many I want to make right away, but I know all in due time. Today I tried out her recipe for pizza sticks and they are quite yummy. I confess I ate one hot to see how yummy they were fresh, and they're tasty. Try them for yourself.
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm milk (cow's, rice, soy, potato,or nut)
1/2 cup favorite GF Blend (I used Tom Sawyer blend)
1/2 cup potato starch
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp guar gum (I didn't use any)
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan or Romano cheese,or soy alternative
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning, plus additional for sprinkling
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 cup gluten-free marinara or pasta sauce (I used Oli's Products Pasta Sauce, to be introduced this summer).

Directions:
1 In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm milk.
2 Set aside for 5 minutes to foam.
3 In a medium mixer bowl, mix together all the remaining ingredients: flour blend, potato starch, sugar, xanthan gum, guar gum, salt, Parmesan cheese, onion powder, Italian seasoning, oil, and vinegar. Lastly add in the milk/ yeast mixture.
4 Mix together with an electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, or process the ingredients in a food processor until thoroughly combined. (The dough will be soft and sticky.)
5 Grease a baking sheet and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
6 Put dough in sandwich baggie, cut off the corner tip and squeeze dough out.
7 Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on how large the sticks are.

Source: 1,000 Gluten Free Recipes pg 140

Sour Cream & Chive Bread

I'm starting to experiment making more and more bread variations, but this is one of my favorite standbys.

Dry Ingredients
2 cups white rice flour (I use Tom Sawyer blend which already has xanthan gum in it)
1/2 cup tapioca starch flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup dry milk powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp yeast

Wet Ingredients
3 eggs
1/2 cup water
1 tsp cider vinegar
3 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup sour cream
2 tbsp chopped chives

Procedure:
1 Mix all dry ingredients
2 Add in all wet ingredients
3 Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes

tweaked from: Delicious Breads by LynnRae Ries