Even though I do enjoy baking, I am like any ordinary mom with hectic, busy days and sometimes I need to get a meal or a dessert ready in a hurry. So, in the 9+ months we’ve been gluten free I have tried my fair share of mixes….and it hasn’t been pretty.

First of all I must ask, who are the kitchen staff, taste-tester, recipe contributors etc that actually tastes these products and states “hey, this is so good we should package it and sell it?”

Seriously, someone tasted this stuff and thought it was delicious. I think not. Overall, gluten free mixes are disgusting, bland, and just plain weird.

Truthfully, I think people in business suits sit in a board room and say, “how can we make a killing in the gluten free market.” And proceed to simply put together anything edible that might sound appealing to consumers.

So, like all other picky gluten free bakers I must find a solution to this dilemma. Thankfully for me I picked up Gluten Free Baking Classics and read how the author suggest you make up your own mixes with the dry ingredients. BRILLIANT!!!!!

I have been trying to list my recipes with the dry ingredients separate from the wet ingredients so making up mixes will be easier; however, you can also do this to many of your favorite recipes.

I find it easiest to store the dry ingredients in a resealable plastic bag with the recipe name and date marked on it.

A couple things to keep in mind. Yeast should always be added with the wet ingredients. And recipes that require creaming butter/shortening with the sugar are typically not suited to breaking down into mixes, for this reason, I choose not to make cookie mixes.

Here are some of my favorite recipes to make mixes out of: Hamburger Buns, Banana Muffins, Banana Bread, Pizza Crust, Sandwich Bread, Cornbread, Pancakes, Chocolate Cake, Pumpkin Cake, and Hummingbird Cake.

I think spending a little bit of time in advance really helps my gluten free kitchen run smoother during my busy weeks. I hope making up mixes at home saves you time and money too! Happy gluten free baking.

Gluten Free Basics, Kitchen Essentials making gluten free mixes at home

Let’s face it, lasagna is really good, but a lot of work. No wonder the no-boil noodles are so popular.

Well, to my knowledge there aren’t any no-boil gluten free noodles. And if they exist, they certainly aren’t in any stores I shop at.

I buy the Tinkyada brand pasta, and overall I think they are the best gluten-free noodles. However, the lasagna noodles are very fragile once cooked and aren’t exactly easy to handle. This is a bit frustrating, so I figured there must be a better way.

I know some people claim you don’t have to pre-cook lasagna noodles, but I have never liked the texture of this method.

However, I found a solution.

If you soak the gluten free lasagna noodles in really hot tap water for about 20-30 minutes there is no need to pre-boil them. I use a 9×13 baking dish for this and when I was done soaking I just poured the water off. You have slightly softened, but easy to handle lasagna noodles, ready to be layered.

This will save you the pre-boil step and the hassle of dealing with very fragile cooked noodles. A couple of my noodles did stick together while soaking, but seriously, this was much less hassle than dealing with fully cooked gluten free lasagna noodles.

Once soaked and drained you can just proceed with layering the lasagna as usual.  I like to cover the lasagna with foil for at least the first half of the baking time and then remove the foil so the top can brown nicely. The noodles turn out perfectly cooked this way and the top doesn’t get too done.

I hope you find soaking lasagna noodles a helpful tip and I hope it saves you some time and energy in the kitchen.

I posted a great chicken lasagna recipe if you are looking for ideas.

Happy gluten free cooking!

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I know rice milk is readily available at the grocery store now, but have you read the list of ingredients? Oil, natural flavoring and salt? Ummmm……no thanks, I think I’ll just take rice milk.

If you are lactose intolerant, vegan, or just trying to consume less animal products rice milk can be a great alternative to cow’s milk.

Personally I like drinking soy milk, but I don’t like the aftertaste it leaves in baked goods. I know lots of people prefer almond milk, but it is really expensive and we have a tree nut allergy at our house so it isn’t even an option.

None of my gluten free cookbooks, nor the vegetarian cookbook I had checked out from the library, had a recipe for rice milk. I searched some vegetarian forums, read some blog posts and then called my mom, who used to make rice milk for my lactose intolerant sister when we were kids.

I tried a few things and came up with a method that works for me. My husband got slightly irritated through this process asking “why don’t you just buy some rice milk already, you’ve made four batches trying to get it right.” Of course I just ignored him.

Almost all the recipes I found direct you to take cooked rice and blend with water until you get the consistency you desire. However, cooking the rice in too much water and then blending and straining the mixture produced a much creamier and flavorful rice milk in my opinion.

I don’t have one of those super powerful, super expensive blenders, but if you do, you might be able to skip the cheesecloth altogether. I found it really messy to use my blender, so I opted to use an immersion blender and that worked so much better.

If you are going to drink this or use on cereals or oatmeal I would flavor it with vanilla, maple syrup or maybe some cinnamon. However, if you are just going to cook with it, you can leave the flavoring out.

Making your own rice milk is relatively easy, extremely inexpensive, and a great alternative to cow’s milk (of course homemade won’t be fortified). What are you waiting for? Give it a try, you can even cook it in your slow cooker.

The amount of rice milk you get will depend on how smooth you are able to blend it and the consistency you desire.

The cooked and blended rice mixture straining.

The final product has a thick, cream-like consistency.

Rice Milk

Depending on the consistency you desire, you can add more or less water. But this is a good recipe to start with. The sweeteners and flavorings are optional, but are a nice addition if using for cereal or oatmeal.

• 1/2 cup brown rice (you can use white rice but it won’t take as long to cook & of course isn’t as healthy)
• 8 cups water
• 1 Tb honey, agave, brown sugar, maple syrup etc, optional
• 1 tsp vanilla, optional
• dash cinnamon, optional

Stove top method:

1. In a large pot or dutch oven, combine rice, water and additional ingredients if using. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and cover with a lid. Cook until rice is a bit overdone, about one hour.
2. Allow to cool slightly and blend in a blender or use an immersion blender (I prefer the immersion blender. However, I did have to lift my pan a bit on one side to get the liquid deep enough to blend well). Based on my experience, I wouldn’t suggest using a food processor, it didn’t work and I had a big mess to clean up
3. Line a strainer with cheesecloth and place over a large bowl. Pour the rice/water mixture over cheesecloth and allow to strain. Discard solids and what you have in bowl is rice milk.
4. The rice milk will keep in the refrigerator about one week, but does not freeze well.

Slow cooker method:

1. Place rice, water and additional ingredients if using in your slow cooker and cook until rice is slightly overdone. Cooking times will vary depending on your slow cooker; I cook it 4 hours on the high setting.
2. Allow to cool slightly and blend in a blender or use an immersion blender (I prefer the immersion blender). Based on my experience, I wouldn’t suggest using a food processor, it didn’t work and I had a big mess to clean up
3. Line a strainer with cheesecloth and place over a large bowl. Pour the rice/water mixture over cheesecloth and allow to strain. Discard solids and what you have in bowl is rice milk.
4. The rice milk will keep in the refrigerator about one week, but does not freeze well.

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Yesterday, I took a Gluten Free Baking class with Carol Fenster at Bob’s Red Mill. They have a nice setup for cooking classes and the staff is super friendly and helpful.

We got to watch Carol cook, ask questions, sample the food, and take home the recipes and a sample product; and all participants got a discount at the retail store that day.

I am sure the quality of classes might vary, but it seems to me that the people at Bob’s know how to run a cooking class smoothly and on time, so if you get an opportunity to take a class there, I say go for it.

The cooking class at Bob's. I am the blonde in a blue sweater.

I found Carol to be very friendly and knowledgeable. The class was a demonstration only, which I am sure they do to maximize the amount people who can attend; but I really would have liked some hands on in the kitchen.

Carol demonstrated five recipes, four of which used a Bob’s Red Mill  mix. They weren’t really my style of baking, as I am not much of a mix person. However, it will be nice to have a few quick recipes in case I need them.

I found Carol’s baking tips to be very valuable, here are some of my favorites from the class.

Tips I Gleaned From Carol Fenster

• Use shortening to grease pans. Cooking spray has a tendency to prevent the dough or batter from going up sides correctly.
• Bake gluten free breads slow and low. She really emphasized that regular, gluten breads and pizzas are cooked high and hot, but gluten free yeast breads need the opposite treatment.
• Use an instant read thermometer to check the internal temperature of bread; it should be 205 when it is ready to remove from oven.
• Use the lighter color metal baking sheets and pans as opposed to the very dark metal or glass pans.
• Try baking gluten free breads in the baguette or French Bread pans; she really likes the texture it produces.
• Use those spring loaded scoops, she seemed to use these for all those sticky gluten free doughs.
• Unless otherwise noted, always bake with ingredients at room temperature. I am guilty of not doing this, I get so impatient.
• Bake pizza crust 10 minutes, then cool and freeze. It can be topped and finished baking later; this will be a real time saver.
• When using baking mixes, make sure to really mix a lot to incorporate the ingredients.

Gluten Free Basics Cooking class wtih Carol Fenster

Although I have had some gluten free baking successes, I am not baking up a storm. As much as I like sweets, I am making a conscious effort to limit our baked goods; this is easier on our waists and wallet. However, when I do choose to bake, I want ingredients that will really perform, so I have decided to post about my favorite ingredients.

Authentic Foods is a company that specializes is wheat free and gluten free products, specifically baking mixes and flours. According to their website, it was founded by a man who has a degree in biochemistry and has also been a successful restaurant owner.

I first heard of Authentic Foods’ flour products in Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annalise Roberts (cookbook review here). She highly recommends both their superfine brown rice flour and superfine sweet rice flour. I looked them up (they have a very informative website with product information, recipes and even a blog) but decided they were too expensive and went about making a few of the recipes in her book.

I was extremely disappointed with my results. So, a few months later I decided to track down her suggested flours. I had to go to the company website and locate a store in my area that carried it.

The results: Yes folks, the Authentic Foods Brown Rice Flour Superfine does work better in baked goods than ordinary brown rice flour. My baked goods were not crumbly, dry, nor did they have that “rice” taste. The recipes in Roberts’ cookbook now turned out fabulous.

At around $12 for a 3 pound bag, this isn’t cheap flour, but it is very, very good flour for you gluten free baking needs. I feel like baking with brown rice flour is a healthy choice and it is worth the extra money to get amazing gluten free desserts.

I think spending the extra money, even if you have to pay the outrageous shipping costs, is really money well spent. Baking gluten free can be very frustrating and finding ingredients that really work is essential. I highly recommend that you get a some superfine flours from Authentic Foods, I think the results will amaze you.

Has anyone else used Authentic Foods Superfine Flours? Or is there another must-have product for gluten free baking?

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I had a cheap rice cooker once and I was never quite satisfied with it. It ended up in the garbage and for years I made rice on the stove top.

Well, we went gluten free and I had to rethink this. First of all, we eat a LOT more rice now. We also eat almost exclusively brown rice, which takes a long time to cook, so someone has to be in the kitchen for way longer than reasonable, watching the rice. And perhaps the most important reason, I want really good tasting rice, rice with nice texture, cooked to perfection, and if the rest of the meal isn’t quite ready, it needs to stay warm.

Well, apparently what I needed all these years was a fancy, programmable rice cooker; one that had setting for both brown and white rice and had a warming feature. I had no idea rice cookers had come so far.

When I saw a programmable rice cooker Aroma ARC-1000 Professional Rice Cooker/Food Steamer at Costco for around $30 I threw it in my cart and I have been thankful ever since.

I really think any family could use a nice rice cooker, but it truly is essential for a gluten free family.You can cook a large batch of rice with very little effort and keep it warm until needed. You’ll have leftovers for breakfast, lunch or dinner the next day, which is so convenient.

The texture and taste are far superior to anything I ever produced with my cheap rice cooker or on the stove top. Just read the directions, the little measuring cup that comes with it is not equivalent to our 1 cup measuring cup, so be sure to keep it. I also cook quinoa on the white rice setting and it turns out perfect every time.

Having a programmable, reliable rice cooker may not solve all our gluten free cooking woes, but it does make living and cooking gluten free a lot easier. A programmable rice cooker is definitely a gluten free kitchen essential. Does anyone else have a kitchen item they find essential since eating gluten free?

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The corn tortilla. It seems like a lot of people hate them. I think part of the problem with corn tortillas is that they don’t taste that great once they have been cooled, wrapped, and set on a store shelf for some undisclosed time. Basically, I think the ones we buy at the grocery store are stale.

If you have ever had authentic Mexican food, consisting of fresh, warm tortillas, now those are a different story. Those corn tortillas are actually quite good. And who knew, they are actually quite easy to make.

I found a heavy duty plastic tortilla press at the grocery store for $5.99, so I threw it in my cart and the next day we were making corn tortillas. They are so easy, so quick, and oh so much better than the store bought variety, and they fold without breaking!

I must warn you against buying a plastic tortilla press though. Mine broke the second time I made a batch of tortillas. I am now looking for a nice quality cast iron press like this one Imusa Victoria Cast Iron Tortilla Press, 6.5 Inch. I have several other cast iron pieces and once well-seasoned they are virtually indestructible.

There may be better recipes out there, but I just followed the directions on the Maseca Corn Flour, 4.4 lbs. bag. I found Maseca at my regular grocery store, along with the Mexican food. It costs about  $7 a bag, about twice the price of the other major brand, but I was much happier with the results. You simply add water and salt. I used my cast iron griddle, so there was no need to add fat or oil to the pan. Meseca corn flour has no cholesterol, no sodium, and is high in fiber and low in fat. I don’t work for these people, really. I just love this stuff.

So, if you have ever thought about making homemade corn tortillas, I say get a tortilla press and a bag of Maseca and give it a try. It is a small investment with delicious results. And if you have children or grandchildren, they are going to love helping.

Had I known tortillas were so easy, I would have started making them years ago. Homemade corn tortillas are definitely worth making.

You form a ball of dough and place on plastic lined tortilla press (I simply cut open a resealable plastic bag).

You press down.

Ta Da……you have a perfectly shaped tortilla.

You carefully transfer the tortilla to a hot pan (I used a cast iron griddle) and cook for about 50 seconds each side.

The freshly cooked tortilla.

Yummy refried bean and cheese quesadillas. The kids loved them.

Homemade Corn Tortillas ( makes 8 )

• 1 cup Maseca corn flour
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/8 tsp salt

1. Combine ingredients and knead to form a soft dough (I actually used a fork, but hands would work here). If dough is dry, add water, 1 tsp at time.
2. Form dough into 8 equal balls.
3. Flatten in plastic-lined tortilla press. I used a heavy resealable plastic bag, cut; plastic wrap or wax paper could also be used.
4. Transfer pressed dough to a hot griddle or pan, on medium heat; if it should break during transfer, just reform ball and press again. This happened to me a few times before I got the hang of handling the dough.
5. Cook tortillas about 50 seconds per side. Cover with a soft cloth to keep tortillas soft and warm. Serve.

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Let’s talk flours. There are so many gluten free flour mixes out there. And every one claims to be the best. I have tried quite a few of the recipes found on the internet and in popular cookbooks and I have been less than impressed with most.

This one is the best I have tried, although probably not the healthiest out there. I love that the ratios are simple, this makes it so easy to double and triple the recipe. This is the closest I have found to a gluten free flour replacement and can be substituted, with some caution, for all-purpose flour in your favorite recipes. I really encourage you to find one, favorite gluten free flour mix to be able to keep on hand at all times. It will make the task of cooking and baking gluten free so much easier. If you have a different flour mix you like better let me know, I am always looking for suggestions.

Gluten Free Flour Blend

• 1 cup white rice flour
• 1 cup potato starch
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup corn flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 4 tsp xantham gum

Pour all ingredients into a large bowl with lid or plastic resealable bag and shake until mixed. This can also be stirred, but the flours are very light and will most likely make a mess of you and your kitchen.
source: Nearly Normal cookbook by Jules Shepard

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