My New Favorite GF Pizza Recipe

The pepperoni-only portion of this pizza has soy-free rice cheese on it. Apparently my son does not like the rice cheese baked so I would recommend leaving it off and just putting sauce and other toppings.

I have been very unimpressed with most GF pizza recipes I have tried. Last night I searched for a new one and found one that I really liked. It actually would have made a fabulous dessert pizza (with cinnamon and glaze...mmmm!) as well. (If you want this one less sweet then leave out the sugar and use the original recommendation of millet and rice flour instead of oat and sorghum like I used).

I adapted this recipe from GlutenFreeMommy.

2 Tablespoons almond meal
2 eggs (I used 1 egg and 1 egg's worth of egg replacer because I ran out of eggs)
2 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon Honey

1/4 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup oat flour (I actually used 1/2 c oat and 1/2 cub Bob's all purpose flour, just to get rid of the extra Bob's I had)
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup tapioca flour
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon sugar for proofing yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 c warm water

1/2 cup warm water

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix liquid ingredients together and set aside until room temperature. Do not mix it in with dry ingredients cold.
3. Combine all the dry ingredients and sift together in a bowl.
4. In a separate small bowl, place your yeast and the teaspoon of sugar. Mix with about 1/4 cup of the heated water, stir, and let it sit for a few minutes. Once you know the yeast is active, proceed with the recipe. At this point, you want to double check and make sure all your ingredients have come to room temperature.
5. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix.
6. Add the yeast mixture.
7. You want the dough to look like stiff cake batter. The dough should hold the swirls of the mixer, but it should be shiny and not dull. Add the rest of the water slowly until the right consistency is achieved.
8. Grease pan or grease parchment paper and place on a pan. With a cake scraper, slowly spread the pizza dough batter in a 12-13 inch circle. You want the batter to be evenly distributed. Cover your hands in olive oil and shape the edges like you want them. If you find your hands getting too sticky get a little more olive oil on your hands. You don’t want your dough to be too wet, so be careful.
9. You can either let the dough rise and then cook it, or bake the crust as is. I baked mine at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.
10. Then add toppings and place back in the oven until toppings are heated and/or melted

Gluten-Free Bread Experiments

For a long time I had given up on the bread idea altogether. I couldn't find anything that tasted good enough to make me want to spend the money on it. I couldn't really use any of it for sandwiches because it wouldn't stay together, and never tasted very good after the first day it was opened/made. But I have been CRAVING bread lately (probably because I am pregnant now :) ). A friend of mine told me she found a recipe that made delicious, chewy bread that stays together. I was skeptical but desperate so I tried it.

She was RIGHT! I smelled good, tasted good for multiple days, and stayed together!

I will credit the author of the book the recipe came from just as soon as I can find out. I'm hoping to buy a copy and try some other recipes from it as well.

Stir together:
¾ C brown rice flour (I used GF oat flour, my friend uses a mix of rice and oat).
2/3 C potato starch
2/3 C tapioca flour
2 tsp potato flour
2 ½ xanthan gum
2 tsp egg replacer
1 tsp salt
2 tsp (1 pck) unflavored gelatin
1/3 C almond meal (or grind up some almonds)
1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp yeast
Put yeast on top of powder mixture

Stir together in separate bowl:
1 ¼ C warm water
1 tsp vinegar
1 ½ tsp olive oil

Pour on top of yeast and let it sit for three minutes.
Mix everything together on low speed.

Add two egg whites
Mix until combined and beat on high speed for five minutes.

Grease a loaf pan
Spoon into pan and let rise for 20 min. (texture is really sticky, thick)
Smooth it out with wet fingers or greased spatula
As bread is rising, preheat oven to 400 degrees
Bake for about an hour, covering with aluminum foil after first 10 minutes.*

*I didn't have very good success with the foil thing. Next time I am going to cook it uncovered and put foil on for the last 10 minutes. If you don't do it right the crust is way too hard and the middle is doughy. (Still tastes good though).

King Arthur's Bread Mix--Product Review





This tasted pretty good, but it was not as "normal" as the bread recipe above. It almost has the texture of angel food cake, but it stays together better than most GF bread mixes. It also stayed soft after several days. I know mine doesn't look very professional, but that's because I wasn't very careful about smoothing it out in the pan. It made decent toast. It still probably wouldn't work very well for sandwitches because it is still pretty dense and falls apart under pressure. I didn't try doing it though so I could be wrong.

Superb Sweet and Sour Chicken: gluten-free

Sweet 'n' Sour chicken from the Chinese restaurants is one of the things I missed the most after going gluten-free. I've spent a lot of time, with the help of my wonderful husband, trying to perfect this recipe. I admit it is not a replica of what's in the restaurants, but in my opinion it tastes much better--and I know it's good for me!

Breading

3/4 c rice flour

3/4 c potato flour

1/4 c paprika

2 tbsp garlic salt

1 tsp white pepper

2 tbsp dried oregano

Shake ingredients together in a plastic bag until well mixed. Pour about 1/3 of the mix on a clean plate and leave the rest in the bag.

Egg Mixture--Standard

3 eggs

1/3 c milk

Egg Mixture--Dairy Free

3 eggs

1/3 c water

Egg/Dairy-free Version

4 tbsp milled flax seed

4tbsp water (or according to directions with your seed for replacement of 4 eggs)

water*

Add water until it has the consistency of slightly watered down eggs. The flax doesn't work quite as well as real eggs but I've had pretty good success with it.

Chicken Cots

2 chicken breasts or the equivalent of meat

breading mix

egg/flax mixture

1/2 inch oil heated in a wok or pan*

Clean plate lined with clean paper towels.

Rinse chicken and cut into bite size pieces and pat dry. I usually put the pieces on a plate lined with paper towels as I cut so excess water gets absorbed quickly. Once pieces have excess water removed, put them in the bag of breading mix. Seal the bag tight and shake it vigorously until all the chicken pieces are coated. Dip chicken pieces in egg/flax mixture and set on plate with flour mixture. (You can dump the rest of the mixture from the bag onto the plate. Make sure cots are completely covered with flour mixture and drop into heated oil. Cook until breading is golden brown and the meat on top starts to turn white. Flip the pieces over and repeat until chicken is cooked all the way through. (Make sure the oil does not get too hot or you will get burnt breading with raw chicken in the middle. Always cut a piece or two in half to make sure they are cooked all the way through). Place cooked cots on the paper towel-lined plate.

*oil is ready for cooking when you toss a pinch of flour in the pan and the oil sizzles vigorously.

Sweet 'N' Sour Sauce

1/2 c white vinegar

1/3 c white sugar

1/3 c brown sugar

1 20 oz can pineapple chunks with juice

1/3 c ketchup

1 tsp ginger

2 tbsp corn starch

2 tbsp cold water

1 large bell pepper

1 garlic clove

1 onion

Chop onion and pepper into bite size pieces and sauté in leftover oil from chicken with pressed garlic clove. Cook until tender. Meanwhile. Put ketchup and ginger in sauce pan and slowly stir in vinegar. Heat with sugar and pineapple until it gently boils. Mix corn starch and water in a cup and when sauce is hot, slowly pour into sauce pan. Boil for 2 minutes and remove from heat. Add peppers and onions. Serve with rice and chicken cots.

DON'T FORGET TO COOK RICE TO GO WITH YOUR MEAL! I prefer Jasmine rice.

Almond Milk Recipe

A friend of mine gave me this recipe saying it was far better than any store bought milk you can buy. He was absolutely right! I adapted the recipe to have more calories for my calorie-deprived son.

Original:

1 cup unsalted, uncooked almonds

6-8 dates

6 cups water

Instructions:

Blend almonds and 3 cups water. Add remaining ingredients. Then add three more cups water. Strain through cheesecloth.

And it's that simple! One small problem is that most blenders can't handle these proportions. I usually cut the recipe in half and do it twice to get the requisite amount of almondmilk.

My adaptation:

1 cup unsalted, uncooked almonds

6-8 dates

5 cups water

1/4 c sugar

Next time I think I will add 1/2 tsp vanilla and perhaps a tough of oil to increase the calories.

Instructions:

Blend almonds and 1 cups water. Add dates and 1/2 cup water. Blend. Add dates, sugar, and vanilla and add liquid a little at a time. Strain through a fine strainer or cheesecloth. The milk is very foamy so I actually poured it into one of those gravy separators first:

That helped keep the foam from blocking the strainer completely.

Product Review: Lindsay's Lipsmakin' Sugar Cookies

These cookies were surprisingly good! They don't look that great in the picture but that's because I let my son paint some with food coloring and frost the others.

There are a few things you need to do though, to make them work:

• The first batch I followed the instructions on the box and the cookies were nearly impossible to roll out and then when I cooked them they "melted". After that I kneaded a little bit of extra flour into the dough (I used gluten-free oat flour) they worked perfectly.
• Roll the dough out directly onto the pan and peel away the extra dough because it is incredibly difficult to transfer the cookies.
• Take the cookies off the pan before they have cooled off completely or they will break into pieces when you move them.

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

Here is my new favorite gluten-free crust recipe: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2007/03/gluten-free-beer-bliss.html. The recipe does have yeast, however.

I apologize that you have to scroll through a section about beer before getting to it. I do not advocate the drinking of beer, or of any alcohol for that matter.

And for a soy-free pizza sauce, here is my recipe:

1 can tomato sauce

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp salt

Gluten Free Oats--My Newfound Love

Do you see those divine-looking chocolate chip cookies above? Well they taste divine too. And they are totally gluten/soy/milk free (I admit I splurged and used eggs on this one instead of egg replacer--my kids are getting so they tolerate a little egg better).

Do you want to know my secret? I suppose the title give is away, but the secret is a bag of gluten-free oats and a grain grinder. I grind up my oats and keep the flour in a container that holds about 8 cups. (You don't want to grind too much at once because the nutrients deplete over too much time after the oats are ground). Oat flour makes wonderful Snickerdoodles too!

Gluten/Soy/Milk Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c white sugar

1 c brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 1/3 c palm oil shortening

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp guar gum (or xanthan gum)

2 c gluten free oat flour

1 c your favorite flour blend*

dairy-free chocolate chips

*I used Grandpa's Kitchen Baking Flour Blend with a shot of Bob's Gluten Free baking mix. You can also use the typical baking flour ration of 2 parts rice flour, 2/3 parts potato starch, 1/3 part tapioca starch

Baking directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 2. blend together sugar, vanilla, eggs, and shortening 3. add salt baking soda, guar gum 4. add flour by degrees. (dough should be firm and should not stick to your fingers if you touch it 5. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet 6. Bake for 8 minutes or until slightly brown around the edges

Snickerdoodles

1 1/2 c white sugar

1/2 c soy-free margarine

1/2 c palm oil shortening

2 eggs

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 3/4 c flour

Cinnamon/Sugar Ratio:

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Baking directions: 1. Preheat oven to 400 2. blend sugar, margarine, shortening, and eggs. 3. add dry ingredients by degrees. 4. roll dough in cinnamon/sugar blend and place on cookie sheets. 4. Bake for 8-10 minutes.