I'm a Throwback

No, I'm not talking catch and release fishing...or dating. Dating in Seattle is a lot like catch and release fishing - dating the ones your girlfriends "threw back" or accidentally going out with a guy you've gone out with before and had long since forgotten. But you really don't want to get me started on that.

I'm talking eras. I think I'm a throwback to another era, and I've often thought I was born a few decades too late. I love all things retro. I drool over women's fashions and accessories from the 40's, 50's and 60's. In college, Patty (my BFF at the time) and I would search Goodwill and St. Vincent DePaul secondhand stores for these treasures and we readily found them. If it was good enough for the Go-Go's, it was good enough for us. That should give you a hint of how very long ago I was in college. This was before dressing vintage was the trend and I was also, uh um, more petite in college. Weren't we all? And I wasn't in love with food back then the way I am now. Well, everything is a trade-off and besides these days it's harder to find clothes of those eras easily and on the cheap and if you do, they are really teeny tiny! I think the normal-sized girls wore the hell out of their clothes in the 40's, 50's and 60's.

Old Mason jars of buttons and marbles make me happy. My classic Schwinn makes me happy. There are times this very independent, single, city girl wishes she could transport herself back in time to a small town when life was much simpler and everyone knew their neighbors (and liked them). Throw in a big flower and veggie garden, a hubby, a few kids, a few of animals and an old, creaky, sunny, farmhouse with a big porch and I'm in heaven...canning, baking, crafting, chasing kidlets all day.

Ok, back to reality. I can still transport myself in time once in a while, as I did on a recent lazy, Sunday morning. I whipped up a batch of cornbread muffins. As I mentioned in my previous post, music that fits the mood normally accompanies my baking adventures. That morning a collection of torch songs from Ella, Patsy, Judy, Lena and their gal pals seemed most fitting.

So, I hope you'll transport yourself back to a simpler place and time with an old school favorite, updated to be gluten-free, of course. For full classic effect, be sure to eat these muffins hot out of the oven with butter and a drizzle of honey.

Cornbread Muffins
1 cup buttermilk

1 egg
1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1 cup medium grind cornmeal

1 cup brown rice flower

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon gluten-free baking soda

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3 tablespoons raw cane sugar
1 and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another. Mix each set of ingredients until well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in two batches, mixing well to incorporate after each addition.

Spoon mixture into muffin pans. I use silicone muffin pans, so I don't use non-stick spray or muffin papers. One or the other is likely necessary for conventional pans or your muffins will stick. I love all my silicone bakeware and highly recommend it for avid bakers. Bake 19 minutes or until golden. Oddly, this recipe only makes 10-11 muffins. What is that, the baker's anti-dozen? Oh well.

Afterthoughts: I've read that corn is the most genetically modified crop in the U.S. (followed by soy and rice), so I always try to buy organic corn products. The bulk section in health food stores is a good place to find this. This is also the best place to find xanthan gum, which is essential for gluten-free baking. Xanthan gum is made by fermenting corn sugar with a microbial. It's used extensively in the food industry to make products thicker and it's a common ingredient in gluten-free recipes because it binds ingredients together. It is expensive and most recipes call for small amounts, so I always buy a small amount as needed from the bulk section.

I've made these muffins with and without the cinnamon and enjoyed them both times. The first batch, without the cinnamon, was paired with a friend's pot of homemade turkey chili for a party. Next time, I think I'll try the recipe with the cinnamon again, fresh blueberries folded into the batter and a topping of melted butter and sprinkling of chopped pecans. I like this recipe because you can play around with it, adding green chilies and cheddar for savory muffins or any other exotic mix-ins you come up with. The buttermilk makes the muffins really moist and light, even up against medium grind cornmeal and brown rice flour.

Orange You Glad I'm Your Main Squeeze?

So today is Valentine's Day and this year I don't have anyone to share such corny, lovey-dovey puns with. So, once again, I bonded with my sexy, red Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and created these Orange Coconut Macaroons Kissed with Dark Chocolate.

Ok, I wasn't completely alone. Lyle Lovett, She and Him, and Missy Higgins provided just the right recipe of irony, melancholy, longing and retro-flavored optimism for such an occasion. I'm convinced that everything I cook or bake tastes better if made while listening to music I love. And, by the way, Lyle Lovett is my boyfriend. He just doesn't know it yet.

Orange Coconut Macaroons Kissed with Dark Chocolate

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

10 tablespoons cane sugar

2 pinches of kosher salt

The zest of one large orange

The juice of half a large orange

1 egg, beaten

3 cups of medium flaked coconut (Not the sugar coated yuckiness you find in baking isle but unadulterated, plain, flaked coconut)

About 2 to 2.5 ounces of good quality dark chocolate (I love Trader Joe's Organic 73% cocoa dark chocolate bar and about half the bar should suffice. God knows I don't believe in wasting chocolate.)

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Zest the orange and set aside. Do this first, because if you forget and juice the orange first, it's very tricky to zest a mushy orange. With a stand or hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the salt, egg, orange juice, orange zest and coconut. Mix until well incorporated. Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. All cookies seem to bake more evenly and hold their shape better when the dough is chilled.

Once chilled, cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and form mounds about the diameter of silver dollars. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until firm and the tops are golden brown and crispy. Let the cookies cool a bit before removing them from the parchment paper with a small spatula. If they don't hold together well, they're still malleable enough as you remove them from the paper to smoosh them back together. (Yes, "smoosh" is a technical term.)

Once the cookies have cooled, melt the chocolate. I prefer to create a double boiler with a glass Pyrex bowl with a lip that fits snugly in a small sauce pan filled with water or a small sauce pan and a slightly larger sauce pan filled with water. I know a lot of people like to melt chocolate in a microwave, but I always burned it when I used that method and it never melted evenly. Did you know that microwaving food changes its molecular structure? I got rid of my microwave last summer and haven't missed it once.

Transfer the macaroons to a piece of wax or parchment paper and arrange them so they're clustered in a circle and touching on all sides. This will insure that when you drizzle the chocolate on them the chocolate lands on the cookies, not on the wax paper spaces between the cookies. Using a wire whisk, flick (another technical term) the melted chocolate on the cookies. Transfer the cookies to the fridge to firm up and allow the chocolate to harden. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Who needs a sweetie when you have cookies like this? Oh, I hope Lyle didn't hear that. Yields 24 cookies, just the right amount for a party for one on Valentine's Day. ;0)

Afterthoughts: You'll likely have a some chocolate left in the pan. Again, wasting chocolate is sacrilegious, so whisk in some milk, heavy cream, a little sugar and a liqueur or choice and you'll have a decadent hot chocolate to enjoy with your cookies.

It's All About the Bread, Baby!

As most people do when they’re told they can no longer eat gluten, I found my way to the very small gluten-free section of my grocery store and I began my first gluten-free grocery shopping adventure. Okay, that makes it sound a lot more fun than it really is. Stay tuned for g.f. shopping tips, but for today, let’s start with bread. On that fine day three years ago, I reluctantly plunked down $6 for a loaf of gluten-free, brown rice bread. This was painful. My favorite crusty loaf of rosemary bread from a local bakery wasn’t even that spendy, but I didn’t feel I had a choice if I ever wanted to eat a sandwich again. One I arrive home and attempted to consume a slice, I realized I had just purchased a $6 door stop. Ok, I’ll toast it, I thought. It’s half way to hard already, so I bet my turkey sandwich with mayo, havarti, roasted red peppers, lettuce and alfalfa sprouts will be wonderful on warm, toasted bread. I then discovered that store-bought, gluten-free bread doesn’t toast. It’s some sort of freak of nature that I still don’t understand. Three attempts with the same slice on the highest setting produced burnt edges and a center that never toasted.

Enter Bette Hagman, the authority on baking your own gluten-free bread. I checked Bette’s The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread: More Than 200 Wheat-Free Recipes out of the library. I tried two of her basic dough recipes for bread machines and fell in love with one of them. I’ve since modified it slightly and the recipe follows. I should go back and try others from the book, but I’m so thrilled with this recipe that tastes amazing and turns out perfectly every time, that I’m adhering to the old adage of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” in this situation.

Now, with that comment comes a disclaimer. I gave my tried and true recipe to a fellow gluten-free friend, telling her that no one would ever guess that this is gluten-free bread. It is nothing like the bricks of brown rice breads at the grocery stores. I swear if you put one of my loaves in a taste test with any other bread machine bread, no one would know which one was gluten-free. Well, she followed the recipe exactly and ended up with her very own doorstop. She said it was a good thing that her husband of many years didn’t happen to get on her last nerve that day, because she would have had a deadly weapon at the ready. I chalk it up to differences in bread machines, so proceed at your own risk.

My machine is an older model Breadman Ultimate TR2200C. Breadman currently makes a few models with gluten-free settings but they cost more than $100. Considering that bread machines were the holiday gift of choice by many misguided husbands in the 1980’s, I bet you could find the model I own at Goodwill for less than $20. Hey, as much as I love starch and love kitchen appliances and gadgets, I do not want them as a gift from a man. Go bling or go home is my motto.

Anyway, good luck with the recipe. Let me know how it turns out for you and it you came up with any tasty variations. I’d also be curious to know if this works with an egg substitute for those who can’t tolerate eggs.

Gluten-Free Bread Recipe
This recipe starts with a base flour mix. If you’re new to g.f. baking, you may be wondering where to find these funky flours. If you live in the Seattle area, Manna Mills is g.f. mecca! Alternately, try health food stores in your area or mail order. Bob’s Red Mill sells these as well, and many mainstream grocers are starting to stock this brand, but buying bulk from a health food store is often much cheaper, even for the organic versions. I buy most of my dried goods bulk now. It’s so much cheaper (especially for dry yeast and xanthan gum) and reduces my carbon footprint with reduced packaging.

Base flour mix for g.f. bread in a bread machine:
3 cups brown rice flour

3 cups tapioca flour
3 cups corn starch
3 tablespoons potato flour (this is different than potato starch)

Basic bread recipe:
In a bowl combine and mix well:
2 cups base flour mix
1 and ½ teaspoons xanthan gum (a necessary binding ingredient when gluten is absent, available at health food stores)
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons raw sugar cane or white sugar
¼ cup powdered milk or unflavored soy protein
2 and ½ teaspoons dry yeast

In a separate bowl combine and mix well:
2 eggs
3 tablespoons butter or Earth Balance Non-Dairy Spread
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup warm water (about 100 degrees)

Generously butter your bread pan for a nice, crispy crust. I usually spray the mixing paddle liberally with non-stick cooking, in hopes that it will stay in the pan when I remove the bread and not stay buried in the loaf. Layer the contents of the two bowls, starting with the wet mixture and alternating until all contents are in the pan. I start with the wet ingredients, so the machine’s motor doesn’t have to work quite as hard when it begins mixing the ingredients. I set my machine for a two pound, white-bread loaf with a medium crust - complete baking and rising time is three hours and ten minutes. This is likely where a lot of the experimentation is needed for different machines. Find the closest setting to this and give it a try.

Once the machine hits the first kneading cycle, I scrape the contents of the corners of the pan into the mix with a spatula, as my machine doesn’t seem to mix completely on it’s own and I add a little more warm water - just enough to help combine the last of the dry ingredients. Then go busy yourself with other things for three hours, while enjoying the wonderful aroma in your house! Happy baking - I’ve got my fingers crossed for ya!

Variations: Once I added cinnamon and walnuts to the dry ingredients but the bread ended up with an odd, metallic taste. I think it might have been a reaction between the cinnamon and the Teflon coating of the pan. I’ve also made it with blanched, fresh rosemary added to the dry ingredients. I like to blanch the rosemary, so it’s not so tough. With that version, I brushed the top with melted butter in the final ten minutes of baking and sprinkled the top with coarse salt. I was trying to recreate my favorite rosemary bread from a local bakery, and while it wasn’t as “crusty”, it was still very good!

My two favorite variations have been a tasty browned butter and seed bread and a cheddar-jalapeno version. For the seed bread, simply add about three tablespoons each of poppy seeds and sesame seeds into the mix of dry ingredients, along with a generous handful of raw sunflower seeds. Also, I brown the three tablespoons of butter, melting it in the oven or on the stove until it just turns slightly brown, which adds a wonderful, nutty flavor. For the cheddar-jalapeno version, add one finely chopped jalapeno pepper to the wet ingredients. Keep the seeds in the pepper if you want more heat, or scrape them out if you want less. Then as the machine kicks in for the second mixing, right before the second rise about an hour or so into the baking cycle, mix in about a cup of grated, sharp cheddar cheese. About twenty minutes before the entire baking cycle is complete, sprinkle the top of the loaf with a little more grated, sharp cheddar. Both of these variations rock, if I do say so myself!