Baking Gluten Free Goodies with Celia Wakefield

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It's another delicious pair of recipes from our own Celia Wakefield. She's experimented with cooking for the vegan crowd; today, please enjoy these delicious gluten free baked goods, perfect for everyone avoiding wheat (and having tasted them both, perfect for the rest of us as well!

 

 

 

Yay, it’s my JRW Saturday (because tomorrow is supposed to be Mothers Day OFF). I am  sending my most heartfelt best wishes to all the moms/ mums/grands who keep the world in line and running smoothly - HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Julia, who has the largest heart evah, has invited not only me to join the fun but also my daughter, Olivia, not to be confused with the Maine Millennial and Youngest (my almost granddaughter). We are an intermingled family. To set our stage; Metropolitan Opera HD Saturday and the opera in question, Der Rosenkavalier, a Strauss marathon. Due to my leg hobble (much improved) I had decided to rest up and sent Victor and Julia off for an opera date. My day of R&R was enhanced by Olivia who had come to visit and check that we were behaving as she wished her parents so to do and that’s when the next Julia JRW Sunday bake came up.

I had never heard of celiac disease before we moved to Maine twenty three years ago. But within a few months I had met two families who were struggling to find baked food without gluten that was edible. A lot of spelt flour was in use but that too has traces of gluten. Then about ten years ago Olivia was tested and found she had celiac too. At least I knew what that was and what was involved. Things were improving in the market for the gluten intolerant. 

 

 

 

At first my pantry was stocked with several different flours to mix and match dependent on the GF recipe. I have always been a fan of arrowroot for thickening so leaving flour out of gravy and sauces was not a problem. Though I do think that potato flour works better. In the meantime the mills and large baking companies were working on delicious recipes using the ‘new’ flour which they were selling. 

 

Olivia having made some shifts with her work schedule now had a little time to get back into her kitchen and practice gluten free baking. Our scene was set, here we were on a cold March Saturday, and Olivia was baking for me. In fact for us because Julia was joining us for dinner post opera while the ‘boys’ spent the afternoon with Olivia and me [Ed note: Kingsley and Rocky, my Shih Tzus] getting very spoilt with lots of carrot treats. 

 

Olivia baked her famous GF biscuits for dinner. I say famous because the first time she baked them for us the family was here and as she brought the two dozen or so biscuits from the oven, she remarked that we would need to be quick or G’son #1, might vanish them. And she was right. Victor and I hardly got a bite each! And for dessert she baked these delicious chocolate chip cookies from the website: Gluten-free on a Shoestring.

However Olivia does have a hack for the recipe so I am using her quantities for success here. However I have also added the original recipe website where you can follow the Directions as well as reading Nicole’s comments on GF baking and she has a lot of experience:

Olivia suggests these recipe modifications:

• 3 eggs (versus two)

• 1/2 tsp of baking soda 

• 2 tablespoons of milk 

• 2 tablespoons of vanilla (versus one)

 

Once placed on parchment lined cookie sheets, chill dough in the freezer for 5-10 minutes and then bake (freezing keeps the GF dough from spreading when they cook). 

Here is the Gluten free on a Shoestring recipe:

• Preheat oven 350 degrees

• 2 ¼ cups (315 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend 

• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum optional, check the  flour blend

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar

• ¾ cup (164 g) packed light brown sugar

• 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter at cool room temperature

• 2 eggs at room temperature, beaten

• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips plus more as desired, up to 16 ounces total

These cookies are very drop in guest as well as portion control friendly. Bake the amount needed and freeze the rest of the dough in cookie shape. Olivia found  cooking the whole batch was a bit too much, since G’son #2, who keeps to a strict eating plan as he is into sports, would complain that if the cookies were there he would eat them. Olivia started only baking what was needed for a meal. But the added benefit was that when a friend unexpectedly dropped by with her two grade schoolers, Olivia could pull out the frozen cookies and encourage the kids to play baker which was a great success.The dough bakes up quickly (particularly in a countertop oven)

 

 

 

 

I made Olivia’s GF biscuit recipe, from Gluten free on a Shoestring, using King Arthur GF flour with xanthan gum in the mix. Having read Nicole’s baking recommendations a couple of times I wanted to be extra careful as there is nothing worse than a flat biscuit. I was very pleased with the result. So here are my hacks:

Nicole stresses chilling ingredients which work better when baking GF. I planned ahead and put my bowl, measured flour etc in the fridge for an advanced cool down. I also used a scale for accuracy rather than the American cup measure system. I grated a frozen stick of butter and returned it into the fridge too. I preheated the oven before I began the mixing part. I washed my hands in cold water to cool them and did do some of the mixing by hand as I found the butter was clumping. I also had to add more buttermilk as the dough wasn’t coming together as needed. I found the dough stayed cold to my touch so formed the biscuits by hand as I didn’t have an ice cream scoop large enough. Working quickly helped keep the dough cool and then straight into the oven worked. My biscuits baked in 15 minutes.

 

 

Olivia’s Gluten Free biscuit recipe from Gluten free on a shoestring:

• 1 ¾ cups (245 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend (I used Better Batter)

• ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum omit if your blend already contains it

• ¼ cup (36 g) cornstarch (or try potato starch or arrowroot)

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• ¼ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

• 2 teaspoons (8 g) granulated sugar

• 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter cut into a 1/4-inch dice or grated and chilled

• 1 cup (8 fluid ounces) buttermilk chilled

• 1 tablespoon (14 g) unsalted butter melted

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Ingredient mix technique is on the website and in the videos. 

 

 

Care for a Biscuit? by Marty Wingate

 Jenn McKinlay: Anyone who knows me knows my answer to the title question. YES, PLEASE! I love a good British biscuit, but here is the fabulous Marty Wingate to tell us more as we celebrate the release of her latest First Edition Library Mystery -- The Librarian Always Rings Twice.

BUY NOW

Marty Wingate: The topic is biscuits. Not American biscuits—those savory scone-like delights—but British biscuits, which are cookies in the States. My books are set in Britain, and so biscuits are ubiquitous, and without realizing I was doing so, I’ve developed a sort of code of biscuits in my mysteries. This made perfect sense to me especially as I learned that a recent poll found that Brits eat an average of 11 biscuits a week. That was before the pandemic. During the past two years, biscuits sales have soared—as well they should. 

 

My biscuit code does not tell the reader who the murderer is by the way he or she dunks his or her digestive. Instead, it is a way of telegraphing just how Hayley Burke—protagonist in my First Edition Library series, including the most recent: The Librarian Always Rings Twice—interacts with those around her. It’s by the choosing, the giving or withholding, and the willingness to partake with others that we see how Hayley deals with the events and people around her.

 

I’m sure we can all agree that biscuits in general are a necessity of life, but which biscuit? In another British poll, this one taken in 2020, the top twenty biscuits were revealed, and coming in at number 1 (no surprise here) is the chocolate digestive with the plain (non-chocolate) digestive at number 11. A biscuit named “digestive” can sound odd to an American. It did to me when I first encountered it eons ago while visiting family friends who lived near Epping Forest. “What is this yummy cheesecake crust made from?” I asked. It was similar to the graham cracker, but much better. Digestives, I was told. I filed the word away and carried out my own research at a later date.

 

Coming in at number 13 in the survey is the rich tea biscuit. Rich tea and Marie biscuits are all one to me—they both have about as much taste as a piece of thin cardboard. I know there will be howls of complaints at my assessment, but there you are. I have passed on my prejudice to Hayley.

 

When faced with the most unpleasant of circumstances, she chooses to take a stand with biscuits. In The Librarian Always Rings Twice, Charles Henry Dill, nephew of the late Lady Georgiana Fowling whose library Hayley curates, is forced upon her as an assistant, and she manages him and her frustration with biscuits. Charles Henry is a lout of the first order, and so when she offers tea—there’s always tea—she accompanies it with a plate of Maries. Charles Henry asks for custard creams, but is told there are none. Hayley then retreats to her office with her own tea and the coveted custard creams. Later, with another character, she accepts the offered jammie dodgers. This biscuit, a children’s favorite, has a shortbread-like base with a spot of red jam. What can we detect from Hayley’s behavior? I’ll let the reader decide.

 

Amid the stalwarts of the top twenty—hobnobs, ginger nuts, bourbons, and custard creams (coming in a number 6), there are a few dodgy entries: Jaffa cakes (cake-ish with a blob of orange not-quite-marmalade in the middle and half-covered with chocolate) are at number 4. Even after a 1991 VAT (tax) tribunal established a Jaffa cake as cake, not biscuit—this is how serious the subject is—it’s still thrown into the biscuit ring. Also, many people voted for the “Maryland cookie,” which apparently is Burton’s (a British baker) version of … American cookies. What? Also, why are Oreos even allowed on this list, which should be limited to the best (aka British) biscuits?

 

I was happy to see malted milk biscuits make the list at number 17. They are quite plain, but one of my favorites, and, unlike Maries, have actual flavor. But the last shout-out must be for shortbread at number 2. Shortbread in any shape is delicious and should always be on hand. Hayley doesn’t go in for the fancier fan-shaped wedges, but sticks with the shortbread fingers—sturdy and buttery with a good snap. You’ll always find a packet of shortbread fingers in the kitchen at the First Edition Library. And in Hayley’s desk. And probably in her flat, too.  

 

Brits Top Twenty Biscuits

 

1. Chocolate digestive

2. Shortbread

3. Chocolate finger

4. Jaffa Cake

5. Chocolate hobnob

6. Custard cream

7. Jammie dodger

8. Maryland cookie

9. Bourbon

10. Crunch cream

11. Plain digestive

12. Viennese whirl

13. Rich tea

14. Ginger nut

15. Hobnob

16. Oreo

17. Malted Milk

18. Nice 

19. Figroll

20. Garibaldi

 

So, what about you, Reds and Readers, what are your favorite British biscuits? 

When a mysterious stranger turns up making claims that threaten Lady Fowling’s legacy, Hayley Burke must dig deep into her late-benefactor’s history to uncover the truth and catch a conniving killer in this new mystery from USA Today bestselling author Marty Wingate.

It has been nearly a year since I took up my position as curator of Lady Georgiana Fowling’s collection of Golden Age of Mystery writers’ first editions at her library in Middlebank House. I have learned that I need to take the good with the bad. The good: I have finally convinced Mrs. Woolgar to open up the collection to the public one day a week so that they too can share in Lady Fowling’s passion. The bad: although he would not be my first, or even tenth, choice, at the insistence of the board Charles Henry Dill, Lady Fowling’s unscrupulous nephew, is now my personal assistant.

On one of our first days open to the public, Mr. John Aubrey shows up at Middlebank House and insists that Lady Georgiana Fowling is his grandmother. Mrs. Woolgar is scandalized by his claims, and Charles Henry, who feels he has been cheated out of his rightful inheritance as Lady Fowling’s heir, is furious. I do not know that I believe Mr. Aubrey, yet he has knowledge of Lady Fowling’s life and writings that few possess. To further complicate matters, an associate of Mr. Aubrey’s intends to help us uncover the truth of John’s story. But before he can do that, he is murdered and the police have reason to suspect Charles Henry.

As much as I would like to lock up Charles Henry and throw away the key, I cannot believe he is a killer. And I also know there is something dead wrong about Mr. Aubrey’s tales regarding his “grandmother” Lady Fowling. I will need to make sense of her past in order to suss out the true villain of this story.

 

 

The Pies Will Come Out, Tomorrow...

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Okay, that title is so silly. But are we all crazed? With travel or plans or cooking?  Or not?

I have to write my 1000 words today, and do laundry, and somehow find three pies to take to our pals' house tomorrow for Thanksgiving.

I'm missing my dear family, spread far and wide. And missing my mom. And almost inspired to make black cherry Jell-o mold with black cherries, a staple at our Thanksgiving dinners since the sixties. 

My mom and stepfather were married on Thanksgiving, and coming home for that anniversary/holiday was always a command performance. Now, although no one lives there anymore, I am counting blessings like mad. What a tender time of year. 

I know we're all busy--so quickly, what are you all up to today?

HALLIE EPHRON: Today we're traveling to Brooklyn to be with the people I love most in this world, counting my blessings all the way. Tomorrow we cook!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Well, we had plans to travel for Thanksgiving to Lake Forest, IL. (You may remember the Sailor is stationed at Great Lakes, just a little way up the road.) We were finally going to do the big city Thanksgiving getaway - see the huge parade, stay in the wonderful Deer Path Inn and eat out instead of cooking.

Then the Sailor pulled duty on Thanksgiving Day. Plus, he found out today and Friday are also regular duty days, which means the only times we'd be able to see him would be a few hours in the evening. Ugh. Since he's coming home for two weeks around Christmas (yay!) we decided to can the plan. And instead - sssh! Don't tell anyone! - we're playing hooky for Thanksgiving.

We're going to watch the Macy's Parade in our pajamas in our not-cleaned-for-guests house, then watch the Westminster Dog show, then eat some of Ross's wonderful lamb stew, which we all like a lot more than turkey, and then we're going out to see Disney's Moana! We'll even have the best part of the day, since a neighbor is making us a pie. It feels VERY wicked and indulgent, and it's just one break in our usual round of hosting/guesting/traveling to DC for family, but we're all looking forward to it like crazy.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Julia, yes, the Westminster Dog Show!!! And the Macy's Parade! I will be watching those, and then we are going to my aunt's for early-afternoon dinner, and then stopping by to visit with my hub's family--although I, at least-will not manage to eat TWO Thanksgiving dinners. I'm only making my traditional Cranberry-Orange-Jalepeno relish, so easy peasy Thanksgiving for me and I'm really looking forward to it.

Julia, traditionally, we've gone to hub's family on Christmas Eve, then to mine (aunt, cousins, cousins' kids, and now cousin's son's baby!) on Christmas Day. Then a couple of years ago we got snowed in on Christmas Day and it was fabulous!!! I decided that was my new tradition.  I do miss seeing my relatives, but so lovely to stay home with just us and kids and our friend Gigi (and now grandbaby Wren!!!) Bliss.

LUCY BURDETTE: We will be very very low key too, as we're gathering with all the fam for Christmas. We were invited to have dinner with some neighbors, and my contribution will be leek, pepper, butter butter butter biscuits. (Last year I had a Meniere's dizzy episode after Thanksgiving so I'll be very cautious. Probably no gravy, sad to say.)

Here's the recipe for the biscuits, which is from the fabulous CT bakery, Four and 20 Blackbirds:

http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/2016/11/leek-pepper-biscuits-recipe-for.html

HANK: Okay, you all. Tell me about the parade. I do not understand the parade.  Why is it fun to watch?

Reds and readers…do you watch the parade? And we know you’re crazed, but just check in! What are you doing today?  (And as our dear Ramona often asks--how much butter is in your house right now?)  

And then—good luck! Happy Thanksgiving, all!  (And just so you know: tomorrow, turkey tips. Friday, a quiz. Saturday, a fabulous author. And Sunday—a call to arms.)