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. 

 

 

Julia's Gratitude Journal

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Gratitude! It's everywhere! It was the cover theme on last month's Oprah magazine, and I listened to an jour-long show on NPR about how being grateful for the little things that give you pleasure has a measurable effect on lifting depression and calming anxiety.

Not the we're depressed or anxious! Ha ha! No! Not even about the manuscript for the next book STILL not being done! Hang on for a second while I shotgun a King-sized bag of M&Ms.

 Gratitude is also referred to as mindfulness, but gratitude doesn't sound so New Age-y. If mindfulness is your yoga instructor setting up an essential oil diffuser, Gratitude is your grandmother starching the linen napkins and reminding you to count your blessings. We did such a great job a couple month ago, let's all pitch in and think about what's lighting our candles (metaphorically speaking) as we walk into the darkest time of the year.

I'm going to put homemade chocolate chip cookies at the top of my list. I made a double batch the other day, and while I gave away about a third of them to the Smithie and her boyfriend Ishmael, I kept the rest of them for myself. All to myself! (Picture me laughing maniacally and rubbing my hands together.) They've last over a week so far - a major change from the days when the house was full and the cookies would vanish within 24 hours.

I'm also super grateful for Hallmark Christmas movies. You can fight me on this, artsy movie lovers. For me, there is nothing better after a long, busy day than stretching out beside the woodstove and watching a hard-charging corporate executive relocate to a small town, become a gingerbread-house baker, and fall in love with the boy next door who turns out to be a prince. It's like consuming McDonald's fries and a chocolate milkshake - you know it's not good for you, but it hits every pleasure center in your brain.


I got some delightful news a couple days ago that makes me very grateful: the Sailor is getting two weeks' leave and will be home over Christmas! I haven't sen him since his little sister's graduation in May. I may even let him have some of my chocolate chip cookies.

This definitely counts as a small thing that give me great pleasure: nail polish. Think about it - what else can you buy for around eight to ten bucks that lasts for months and lifts your spirits every time you put it on? Okay, a box of condoms, but what else besides that?

I've been mindful of polite drivers lately, as the summer construction season which tore up approximately 85% of the streets in Portland continues into the winter. It's nerve-frying to be stuck in stop-and-go lanes with weird merges and people trying to pull in and out to get to stores and offices. It's made even worse with snow and slush on the streets. which is why kindly drivers who wait their turn, gesture for you to go ahead, and signal their intentions well in advance make me smile. My friends in Massachusetts, I'm sorry you'll never know this kind of happiness.

In the "grateful for the absence of" category, I'm thankful for the continued good health of my kitty Neko. There's no reason for her not to be healthy - she eats moderate amounts of a balanced diet,
stays strictly indoors and is in the prime of life at eight-going-on-nine. It just that for several years the other pets were constantly going to the vets for skin allergies, hawk attacks (not even kidding) getting hit by a pickup and, of course, doggy cancer. I'm pretty sure my bills alone paid the salary and benefits of one full-time vet assistant. Now dear Louie has gone to the Great Dog Park in the sky, and Juno and her allergies are living with the Smithie. One yearly visit for feline leukemia shots is a pretty sweet deal.

Speaking of health, I'm deeply grateful for the ACA. I've just been reviewing my application for 2019, and I'm getting a BIGGER subsidy to help pay for good-quality health care for me and Youngest. Just for kicks and giggles I went on the insurance company's website and priced the same policy off the Marketplace. Oy vey. If it weren't for the ACA, my health insurance would probably be a bottle of vitamin C and some Band-Aids. Thanks, Obama!

So, I couldn't afford the non-marketplace insurance, but I did spring for some really nice sheets, and I'm so grateful when I snuggle down in them with my disease-free cat at my side. Higher thread count and better cotton is totally worth it, guys.

I'm grateful that the Smithie has done so well as a columnist for the Portland Press Herald that she and I will be doing our first mother daughter appearance together next Tuesday, December 11! It's a twice yearly program put on by the newspaper called "Maine Voices." It continues to amuse us to no end that people will be paying good money to hear us talk to each other. Hopefully, it won't sound like the third act of The Glass Menagerie.

Finally, as the holiday season gets into its full swing, I'm always grateful for Mariah Carey singing "All I Want for Christmas is You." Most modern Christmas songs drive me screaming up the chimney after I've heard them for the 100th time. (I actually heard the beginning of "Do They Know It's Christmas At All" yesterday and broke land speed records racing across the living room to change the station.) Not Mariah's classic. I could listen to her warm up her pipes every day for the next ten years, and it still makes me want to dance across the floor, waving my hands in the air and admiring my nail polish.