Apples and Honey Cake - Gluten Free

Honeycake, a Rosh Hashanah staple, is a tricky recipe to perfect. Some recipes are too dense, others too sweet, others not sweet enough. All of them are prone to overbaking.

The following recipe, which combines the holiday flavors of apples and honey, has been modified from an applesauce cake recipe from The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook. This cake is a perfect balance of moisture, flavor, and texture. In my opinion, I IMPROVED over the original, but of course I'm biased.

INGREDIENTS

• 7½ ounces (1⅔ cups) gluten-free baking flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
• 3 large eggs
• ½ cup honey
• ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon ground clove
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup finely chopped apple
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 325 degrees. Grease 8-inch square cake pan, line bottom with parchment paper, and grease parchment with shortening or baking spray. Whisk flour blend, baking powder, baking soda, and xanthan gum in bowl to combine.
2. In large bowl, mix together honey, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, butter, vanilla, and apple. Mix into flour mixture with electric or hand-held mixer until batter is thoroughly combined and smooth.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
4. Let cake cool completely in pan on wire rack, about two hours. Run thin knife around edge of cake to loosen. Remove cake from pan, discarding parchment, and transfer to platter.

Note: The original recipe recommends wrapping the cake in plastic wrap and storing at room temperature for only up to a day. However, I have stored the cake in an airtight container for several days at room temperature to no ill effect.

Hamburger/Hot Dog Buns - Gluten Free

My youngest son, who is on a gluten free diet, was tired of all my GF bread recipes having too much integrity (well, actually, he complained that they were too dense and grainy, but I'm sure he meant "integrity"). He found me a recipe for hamburger buns online which created a much softer bun. After some modifications, I created my own version that was healthier and vegan-possible. Hey, if I can't have integrity, at least I can have my health.

NOTES:

• The original recipes for GF hamburger buns used white rice flour and starches, which basically make them a high-tech matrix of air and simple carbs. I use brown rice flour which has SLIGHTLY fewer simple carbs and slightly more fiber, potassium, and iron. I take what I can get.
• This recipe can be made vegan with substitutions for the eggs and milk. I recommend flaxseed and coconut milk powder, but feel free to experiment with other analogs.
• Coconut milk powder is NOT the same as coconut flour. The milk powder works well in this recipe, but it does impart a mild coconut flavor. This is only a problem if you don't like mild coconut flavor.
• The basic recipe for making flaxseed egg substitute is mixing the flaxseed with the water and letting it sit for 5 to 10 minutes before using. Some recipes recommend heating the flaxseed in the water, other recipes recommend letting the flaxseed/water sit in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. I leave the experimentation as an exercise for the student.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1½ cups brown rice flour (or white rice flour)
• ⅔ cup potato starch
• ⅓ cup tapioca starch
• ¼ cup amaranth flour
• ¼ cup milk powder or coconut milk powder
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1½ teaspoons guar gum
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 3 eggs or egg substitute (3 tablespoons whole ground flaxseed in 9 tablespoons water)
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup club soda
• Milk or milk substitute

DIRECTIONS

1. Whisk together rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, amaranth flour, milk powder, sugar, yeast, and salt in a large bowl.
2. In separate bowl, dissolve guar gum and xanthan gum in ¼ cup olive oil. Mix in eggs, apple cider vinegar, and club soda.
3. With a stand mixer or hand mixer running on medium-low speed, slowly pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl of dry ingredients. When the mixture forms a smooth batter, beat on high for 2 minutes.
4. Dip a large rubber spatula in water and scrape the bun batter onto a smooth, clean work surface, liberally sprinkled with white rice flour.
5. Roll the batter dough in the flour until it forms a large ball.
6. Use a sharp knife to divide the dough into 8 equal pieces.
7. Take one piece of dough and roll in a small amount of white rice flour to form a round ball (hamburger bun) or a 6-inch coil (hot dog bun). Do not flatten. Buns will spread out as they rise and bake.
8. Smooth the edges with your hand and place on a large baking sheet covered with parchment paper or greased with oil, or on a silicone baking sheet.
9. Repeat this shaping process with each piece of dough.
10. Brush buns lightly with some or all of the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to prevent cracking during the rising process.
11. Cover the buns with a clean tea towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft-free location for about 45 minutes, until the buns have almost doubled in size. If buns rise too long, they will deflate, so watch this time carefully.
12. While the buns are rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.
13. When buns have almost doubled in size, brush lightly with milk or milk substitute.
14. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until internal temperature registers about 205°F on an instant-read thermometer. Turn pan halfway through baking.

Desert Wind Muffins - Gluten Free

Every Pesach, we make a Sephardic charoset of raisins, dates, orange, and nuts. I tried to capture that flavor profile in these gluten free muffins that are also egg free and vegan possible. I should warn you that these muffins are very orange-forward in flavor. I personally love the tang of the orange, but many members of my family do not and find these muffins too insistent on their citrus profile. I leave it your own judgement.

Ingredients

• 11 ounces gluten-free all purpose baking blend (I recommend ATK)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon cardamom
• 3 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 6 tablespoons water
• 8 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted and cooled
• ½ cup plain whole-milk yoghurt or vegan soy milk yoghurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped dates
• ½ cup raisins
• ½ cup chopped almonds
• juice and zest of one orange

Streusel topping
• 5 tablespoons almond flour
• 2 tablepoons sugar
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoon butter/margarine

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 375°F.

Whisk together flour blend, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom in large bowl.

In a small bowl, mix together ground flaxseed and water. Microwave on high 30 seconds to 1 minute until mixture becomes thick but not dried out.

In a separate bowl, whisk together butter/margarine, yoghurt, vanilla, raisins, dates, almonds, and orange. Mix in flaxseed. Mix together wet and dry ingredients until no lumps remain, about 1 minute. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.

While muffin mix is resting, make streusel topping. Mix together dry ingredients. Cut butter into mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Spray 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or oil. Fill muffin tin evenly with batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes, rotating tin halfway through baking. Let muffins cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from muffin tin and let cool another 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 12 muffins

Pizza Crust - Gluten Free

Gluten-free pizza crusts are becoming more and more popular at pizza restaurants. My wife was excited by this trend until she discovered two disturbing facts: 1) many of the gluten-free pizzas have so much cross-contamination with flour that the secondary gluten makes her sick, and 2) most of the crusts taste like crap.

We hunted online for a good pizza crust recipe, only to find most of them too grainy, gritty, or gummy. So, after much experimentation, I repurposed my gluten-free pita bread recipe to make a serviceable pizza crust.

Here it is, my new pizza crust recipe that is neither grainy, gritty, or gummy. I admit it is not as crispy as a fancy glutinous artisanal wood fired crust, but it does the job and makes pizza time a time of rejoicing rather than a time of bitter disappointment. And that’s usually all I am going for.

Ingredients

• 3 cups GOOD gluten-free baking flour (I recommend Better Batter or America’s Test Kitchen recipe) plus extra to for rolling out pitas
• 1 tablespoon powdered psyllium fiber
• 1 teaspoons xanthan gum (if not already in flour)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 cup plain Greek yoghurt or vegan yoghurt
• 1½ cups warm 1% or 2% milk (or milk substitute), about 100 to 110 °F

Whisk together 3 cups of flour, psyllium, xanthan gum, salt, yeast, and sugar in a stand mixer bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together oil, yoghurt, and milk.

With the mixer on low speed, add the milk mixture in a slow pour and mix thoroughly until completely incorporated into the flour. If you do not have a stand mixer, the dough can be mixed by hand with a wooden spoon for about two minutes. The dough should be moist and tacky, but it should hold together.

Using vegetable oil or cooking spray, liberally grease six or seven 8-inch circular pans with a lip. Using wet hands, place ½ cup of dough in the center of each pan and spread out the dough until it completely covers the base of the pan with a thickness of about ⅛ inch. Cover each pan with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for an hour.

Preheat oven to 450°F. Poke holes in the crusts several times with a fork to let steam escape when baking. Place pans in oven for 10 minutes until crusts are parbaked. Remove from oven and let cool on cooling rack.

Pizzas can now be decorated with your favorite sauce, cheese (or cheeze), and toppings. Bake pizzas at 450°F for 10 minutes.

Makes 6 to 7 small pizzas or 3 x 12-inch pizzas.

Gluten Free Challah #1

Challah, an egg-heavy braided bread, is the centerpiece of a traditional Eastern European Jewish Shabbat meal. When our family went gluten-free, I dutifully sought out a good recipe for gluten-free challah. I failed. In fact, my first version of gluten-free challah was so dense that when we tried to use it for tashlich after Rosh Hashanah, casting pieces of the bread into the creek behind our house, the fish pointedly ignored it. It was embarrassing.

After much experimentation (and stealing and modifying other people’s ideas), I have finally created a recipe for a wonderful challah that is flavorful, pretty, and about 80% the lightness and texture of traditional challah. My family even reaches for seconds now. As do the fish.

Ingredients:

Starter

• 2 ounces (⅔ cup) oat, sorghum, or brown rice flour
• 4 ounces (½ cup) warm water (110°F)
• 1½ teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast

Dough

• 8 ounces (1¾ cups) good gluten-free all-purpose baking flour (e.g. ATK baking flour)
• 7 teaspoons powdered psyllium husk
• 1½ teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces (½ cup) warm water (110°F)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 egg, beaten with 1-2 teaspoons water

Create the starter by combining the flour (oat, sorghum, or rice), warm water, sugar, and yeast in a bowl and letting sit until bubbly and fragrant, about 30 minutes. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200°F. When oven reaches 200°F, turn it off. (Do not begin next step until oven has been turned off).

Using a stand mixer, mix all-purpose flour, psyllium, sugar, yeast, and salt together on low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Slowly add warm water, eggs, vinegar, and starter, and mix until combined, scraping down bowl as needed, about 1 minute. Increase speed to medium and beat until dough is sticky and uniform, about 5 minutes. (Dough will resemble cookie dough.)

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. Scrape dough onto a clean counter and separate dough into four pieces. With wet hands, carefully roll out each piece into a coil about 12 inches in length. Line the four pieces up next to each other, pinch one end together, braid the four pieces together, and pinch together the other end. Place the braided dough into the loaf pan and cover with a piece of plastic wrap.

Place loaf in warm oven, being sure that the plastic wrap does not touch the oven rack. Let sit for 10 minutes, remove from the oven, and let rise until loaf has risen by 50 percent, about 20 minutes. While dough is rising, preheat oven to 350°F.

Remove the plastic wrap and baste top of loaf with egg and water mixture. Bake bread for 30 minutes or until bread is just browned and the bottom sounds hollow when thumped. Let cool on cooling rack.

NOTES:

1. This challah is baked in a standard bread loaf pan instead of being a free-form braid like traditional challah. The loaf pan keeps the bread from flattening out too much, yet preserves the braid that makes it look like challah.
2. Oat flour is the best to use for the starter, but I have used sorghum and brown rice flour to good effect, particularly since members of my household also have an intolerance to oats.
3. Most gluten-free bread recipes use a table-top mixer with a paddle. I have found regular egg beaters to work just as well. However you beat it, make sure the dough is thoroughly mixed and hydrated.