Grecian Pizza

I have been lacking in both time and inspiration with posting recipes lately. Of course I have been cooking as the folks at my house have this nasty habit of getting hungry every 4 or 5 hours (some every 1/2 hour). But, cooking with the intention of posting about it later is very different from must cooking. For one, I have to actually measure ingredients so I can write the recipe down! The there is remembering to take some pictures (if the recipe actually turned out!). Well, I got it together today and I am going to share one of the recipes on our summer menu: Grecian Pizza. It is gluten free, of course - but also dairy free. I think the crust could be made without eggs if you use the flax egg replacer.

This recipe makes one large baking sheet of pizza (mine is 12x17 with sides) which should serve 4-6 people, depending how hungry they are. ;)


Crust:

1 cup rice flour
2/3 cup tapioca starch
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp guar gum
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1 cup water
1 egg
3 Tbsp olive or vegetable oil



Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Sift dry ingredients together.
Add milk, eggs and oil - mix well to combine.
Grease baking sheet and spread batter evenly over the sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and set aside to cool while you slice topping ingredients.



Pizza Topping:

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 8oz package fresh mushrooms, sliced thin
2 cloves of garlic, minced
4 cups fresh spinach, washed and torn
1 cup sliced black olives (my favorite are the smokey tasting sun dried olives)
2 tsp dried oregano
1 small tin pizza sauce (or make your own)
1 red pepper, sliced thin
1/4 large pineapple, sliced thin (can used canned, but fresh is SO good)
1 lb sliced ham or other gluten/dairy free meat
any other topping of choice - onions, green pepper, etc

In a large frying pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and mushrooms and saute until tender. Stir in the oregano to the mushrooms and scrape warm mushrooms over the torn spinach. Toss to mix.

Spread cooled crust with sauce and layer ham evenly over the sauce.


Next, evenly spread red pepper, olives and pineapple.


Top with spinach mixture - this will help hold the other ingredients together.


Place baking sheet in 375 degree oven and bake pizza for 30-45 minutes.

Cut into squares and serve. Enjoy!

Blender Pancakes - Again

I know I have posted this recipe before, but here is an updated version with pictures:
This recipe starts with whole grains that are soaked for at least 12 hours (or up to 5 days). It is really one of my favorite recipes. I have given up eating almost all baked goods - except for Sunday dessert and these pancakes! With the soaked grains, they are very easily digested and full of goodness. I prefer when the grain soaks at least 3 days as I like the sourdough taste. I dry leftover pancakes to make canapes. I place them on the oven wrack on the lowest setting (I think my oven goes down to 150 degrees) and leave until crispy and dry. They are delicious dipped in garlicky olive oil and eaten with salmon and lemon. :)
You may want to thin your batter more then I have, depending on how thin you like your cakes.


1 cup whole brown rice
1/2 cup buckwheat groats
1/2 cup millet
3 cups pure water
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Combine the grains (you can go ahead and substitute any other gluten free whole grain for the buckwheat or millet) in a 2 qt container (I use a 2qt canning jar). Mix lightly and cover loosely (I use a coffee filter over the top of the jar with a rubber band to secure it). Let sit in a warm place overnight or up to 5 days - it has been my experience that any longer and it tastes too sour. If you are not going to use it after this time, just pop it into the fridge for a few days.

3 eggs
1/4 cup oil
2 Tbsp honey
Combine with the soaked grains and liquid in the blender (depending on your blender, you may need to do this in two batches). Puree until smooth.

1 cup tapioca or potato starch
1 tsp guar gum
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Sift dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Pour the puree mixture over the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Spoon onto a hot, greased griddle. Flip when bubbles form and the cakes are golden brown. Delicious with blueberries.

Egg Free Apple Sauce Muffins

These muffins were adapted from the recipe on Daily Pleasures. I was hesitant to try a recipe without eggs as I have felt that gluten free baking really needs eggs to turn out well. These muffins were a very pleasant surprise - they turned out moist, soft and surprisingly light. On the second day, they were a little bit dry, but a few seconds in the microwave restored them to a fresh state. I was so pleased to post a recipe that my "egg-free" friends can use.
1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup potato starch
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup oil
2/3 cup honey or sugar
1 1/2 cup thick apple sauce
1/2 cup water

METHOD: Just as a note, if your apple sauce is runny, you will not need to add as much water. Combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Add all wet ingredients and mix well. Spoon into greased muffin tins or paper muffin cups. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon if desired. Bake at 385 F for 20 min. This makes 12 muffins. These smell wonderful while baking. Raisins would be a lovely addition.

Waffles

My family enjoys when I make a special brunch on Sundays. Waffles are the kid's favorite choice. These turn out light and crisp and are nice to store in the freezer to heat in the toaster as needed. (Yes, this is my husband's breakfast - I interrupted him to take a picture of his meal) :)

GLUTEN FREE WAFFLES

2 cups rice flour

1 cup tapioca starch

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

4 eggs

3 cups water

1/2 cup oil or melted butter

METHOD:
Sift dry ingredients together. Whisk eggs, water and oil or butter together and then stir it into the dry ingredients to make a smooth batter.

Pour 1/2 cup of batter into a hot waffle iron and cook until the waffle stops steaming and is lightly brown and crisp.

Serve hot or keep warm in the oven until ready to serve. If you are freezing them, let them cool on racks. Freeze on cookie sheets and when hard, place in bags.

Cinnamon Buns

I tried this recipe from the I Am Gluten Free blog site. She also included a link to another site that had great pictures showing a step by step method to make these cinnamon buns.

I made the buns for our Sunday brunch and I followed the recipe exactly. We found them much too sweet (this could be helped by cutting back on the filling) and rather "pasty". My Hubby can not tolerated baked goods that are doughy or pasty or dry or crumbly or.... you get the idea. These buns were "OK" in his opinion but he gave no rave reviews. He really likes the bought Kinnikinnick cinnamon buns. They are soft and slightly chewy with just the right amount of sweetness.

I have included this recipe because it was very easy to follow, had great pictures and the product was tasty. Will I make it again?? "No." But not because does not have value but because it just does not suit our family's tastes.

It did give me a place to start from and I will be experimenting to find a cinnamon bun recipe my family loves. I think I will go back to a secret cinnamon bun recipe I was once given (wheat of course) and borrow some ideas for my gluten free ones. I'll keep you posted... :)

Betty's Corn Bread or Muffins

My first efforts at gluten free corn bread were very dry and crumbly. Consequently I was delighted when a friend passed on her recipe which turned out beautifully moist and tasty. I have altered the recipe slightly, but it is very close to Betty's original.

CORN BREAD

2/3 cups butter or margarine (I use light olive oil)

1/2 cup sugar or honey

4 eggs

1 2/3 cups milk or milks substitute (I use coconut milk)

1 1/2 cups rice flour

1 cup tapioca starch (or a mix of tapioca and potato starch)

1 cup corn meal

2 tsp guar gum (I use 1 tsp xanthan gum)

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

METHOD:

-Cream butter (or substitute) with sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat in eggs and milk.

-Sift dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

-Add the four mixture to the creamed mixture and mix till smooth.

-Pour into a greased 9"x13" pan or 16 greased or papered muffin cups.

-Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

We use corn bread as a side with stews and soups as well as well as for breakfast.

Quick Rice Wraps

Wraps cooling for our lunch.

These wraps are so basic and easy. If I am out of bread, I make these for the family at lunch with a hot or cold filling. I avoid yeast bread myself so I often make up a small batch at breakfast or lunch. One of my favorite fillings is stir fried veggies with a little mayo. We have even used these to wrap a hot dog with. It works pretty nifty.

1 cup rice flour (brown or white - corn flour is also good)

1 cup tapioca starch

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 egg

2 cups water (I start with 1 1/2 and add the last 1/2 cup if I need it - batter will be quite runny)

Method:

-Put a heavy, round fry pan on med-high heat.

-Combine ingredients and whisk until smooth.

-When a drop of water "dances" around on the pan, it is hot enough. Pour about1/3 cup of batter onto the pan and immediately turn the pan to spread it out to a 6" round (as you would do for crepes).

-Let cook until the top looks dry and the very edges curl up a little. Flip and cook until slightly brown.

-If your pan is hot enough, these do not stick and cook very fast. Sometimes I grease the pan lightly for the first one, but usually it doesn't need it. For faster cooking, I get two or three pans going at once.

-If you add 1-2 Tbsps of ground flax seed to the batter, it is very tasty and adds extra fiber.

Gluten Free Banana Bread

This was reprinted from my other blog, "At The Rose Cottage" - it was posted last May.

We did some applied math today.... at least Millie did. The result was multiplication.

You see, we were able to get 20lbs of ripe bananas for $1. Thus we were going to bake banana bread to put in the freezer. We started with a recipe for 1 loaf. We multiplied it to make 6 loaves. Then we realized that our mixer bowl would not hold that much batter, so Millie was going to divide the recipe to make two batches of 3 loaves.... we didn't write it out, she was just doing it in her head.

All went well, she mixed the two batches, started putting them in pans.... when she realized that she had put the whole salt amount in both half batches! OOPS!

We tasted the batter and it did taste salty. Solution: add a two loaf batch to each 3 loaf batch (our mixer would JUST hold that much). Bake one batch while we eat supper and the second while we clean up. Fine. All is well that ends well (minus a few tears).

It is an ill wind that blows no good.... three good things came. First, Millie realized she had missed the baking powder in both batches and was able to fix that :)

Secondly, we got LOTS of banana bread in the freezer.

Thirdly, I promised her that I would type out the recipe on the blog and then print it for us. Thus we will have a much neater recipe to work from... so our multiplying will not get out of hand again!



GLUTEN FREE BANANA BREAD

This makes just 1 loaf - multiply with caution :)

1/3 cup cooking oil or butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1 1/2 cups rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca starch

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chopped walnuts or other nut/seed - optional

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips - optional

METHOD:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

-Cream the oil or butter and sugar together.

-Add the eggs & mashed bananas and mix well.

-Add all dry ingredients at one time. Mix until smooth.

-Scrape batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Let sit for about 5 minutes before removing form the pan and place on a cooling rack until cool.

-If I am freezing this, I wait until the next day and then slice the loaf and then wrap for the freezer. Multiply and enjoy!

Hamberger "Bun" Solution

Anyone who has is forced to eat gluten free, has also been forced to be creative. One area that we have had to be creative in is sandwiches. In particular: hamburgers.

Now my husband really misses having a good old hamburger... you know, light bun, grilled paddy, pickles, lettuce, tomato, mushroom, onion, relish, mustard, ketchup... the works.

We have tried baking different kinds of buns, but none have really turned out how he likes them: light. We just have to face the fact that GF breads are denser and heavier than wheat breads. So we came up with another solution...

"The Pancake Burger"

OK, don't turn me off, I am serious! My husband says this tastes almost like a McDonald's burger - and that the pancakes are about as thick as a McDonald's hamburger bun, anyways. :)

So, now when we have a BBQ, we make up a batch of these little pancakes that just fit the hamburger paddies perfectly. They are tidy and easy to hold onto and make us feel like we are eating a real hamburger again.

By the way, this recipe makes fine breakfast pancakes, too. Since I avoid yeast, I keep some of these in the freezer to toast for lunch to eat with my chicken salad or whatever. They really are a solution for a lot of problems at our house! :)

BASIC PANCAKES

1 cups brown rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca starch

2 Tbsp glutenous rice flour* or instant mashed potato flakes*, optional

pinch of xanthan gum (less than 1/8 tsp)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp oil

2 eggs

1 cup water or milk

METHOD:

-Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.

- Add the oil, eggs and water all together and whisk until smooth.

-Pour onto a hot, greased griddle in small rounds. Turn when the edges appear dry and they are browned.

*The glutenous rice flour does NOT have gluten in it... it is just ground from a sticky rice. I get it in the oriental section in my grocery store.

*Make sure that the mashed potato flakes are gluten free.

The purpose of the glutenous rice flour or the potato flakes is it makes the pancakes more moist and gives them a nicer texture.

Blender Pancakes

For this recipe, you do not need any ground flour! You first soak the whole grains to soften them, and then puree them in the blender. If you savvy the taste of sourdough pancakes, soak the grains for about 3 days. It will start to bubble and smell like sour starter.

1 cup whole brown rice

1/2 cup buckwheat groats

1/2 cup whole millet

2 1/2 cups pure water (no chlorine)

2 tbsp. lemon juice

3 eggs

1/4 cup oil

2 tbsp honey or sugar

1 cup tapioca starch

1/8 tsp xanthan gum

2 tbsp baking powder

METHOD: In a large jar or bowl, combine the grains, water and lemon juice. Cover with a towel and let soak overnight or up to 5 days (tastes quite sour).

Pour soaked grains and liquid into the blender. Puree until smooth. If you have a large blender (like a Vita-Mix) you can do the next step in the blender. If not, pour the puree into a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Whisk until smooth.

Drop batter onto hot, greased fry pan (cast iron works the best because of the even heating). These pancakes will cook at a slightly lower temperature, for slightly longer time than regular pancakes.

Fresh or frozen berries are a wonderful addition to these pancakes. My personal favorite is making these pancakes without berries but serving them with whipped cream and a thickened berry sauce. I make it from fresh or frozen berries and I can sweeten with natural cane sugar or real maple syrup for a much healthier (and tastier) topping than commercial syrups.

Light and Fluffy Gluten Free Biscuits

This recipe was sent to me by my friend, Carol. She asked me if I had a good biscuit recipe. I had to reply that I did not - mine efforts have turned out biscuits that were a cross between lead and glue.

Within a few days, she e-mailed me this recipe that she had found. I tried it and they are the nicest Gluten Free biscuits that I have ever made. OK, maybe that is not saying much, but they really did turn out nice! They were rather ugly, but they were not crumbly, they were moist and light, AND they tasted good!

The original recipe was very easy to follow, I just had to make a few changes to go with the ingredients that I had on hand. This is my altered recipe:

LIGHT & FLUFFY GLUTEN FREE BISCUITS

(Yield: 16 large biscuits)

1 1/2 c. brown rice flour

2 c. corn starch (yes, it is OK to use this much starch!)

1/2 c. millet or buckwheat flour

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 cup of lard (or butter if you can have it), cubed

2 cups water

1 Tbsp. cider vinegar

1 egg, beaten

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large mixing bowl thoroughly combine the flours, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and xanthan gum.

3. Cut the lard or butter into the dry ingredients until it is crumbly.

4. Add the water, vinegar and beaten egg to the flour and stir until the dry and liquid ingredients are combined.

5. Using a large spoon, drop the dough onto a greased pan to make 16 biscuits (or make 24 smaller ones). Cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

This recipe was lots for our family of 9.

Enjoy!