The Humble Kitchen

Roasted bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, spinach and slow roasted tomatoes on gluten-free french bread

You might not believe this, but my 5-year old said that this sandwich was “SO GOOD!” He even wanted the leftovers the next day. I was a little stunned myself.  I honestly thought this eat-most-things attitude would wear off, but it hasn’t. Despite their willingness now, I am still emotionally ready for the day they will only eat pizza.

This sandwich was made with Carol Fenster’s French Bread recipe and some fresh, green bell peppers from my Uncle’s garden. The peppers were wonderfully sweet, not having that weird, acidic edge I find in some supermarket peppers (what is that from? Is it because they are old?). I roasted them for a few minutes on each side and then combined them with some slow-roasted tomatoes and thinly sliced onions from the Berkeley Farmer’s Market. I threw in some mushrooms and spinach at the very end for additional texture and color. Seasoned with only salt and pepper, it made for a lovely weeknight dinner.

~Sarah

I had every intention of posting my sourdough trials, but the reality is that it took up too much time and was a little depressing. However, I did get it going again and I am feeling pretty good about the results despite the last few loaves being almost devoid of flavor.

Today’s loaf turned out a little better on all fronts as I think the starter is really coming into it’s own. This loaf does not contain oil or eggs which is great for my mom and anyone else who is looking for a lower calorie gluten free loaf or can’t have eggs.

I had to mix this by hand as my trusty stand mixer is doing something weird. It is getting this gray, ugly streak all over anything slightly acidic. I can see the bottom of the bowl is worn-  I suspect it’s out of alignment, but I have not investigated how one gets their huge stand mixer re-aligned. It’s probably referred to as “buy a new one.”

1c white bean flour

3/4 c millet flour

1/4 c millet groats

1c tapioca starch

1 1/2 t salt (iodized please for bread, you don’t want to end up with thyroid problems)

2 1/2 t xanthan gum

1 T sugar

1c of starter

About 2c of water

I just mixed everything together by hand and let it rise for about 45 minutes in the bowl. (It was, after all, 4:30 in the morning so I had a little time to kill). Then I put it in the parchment lined 9×5 loaf pan, sprayed it with a bit of oil and let it rise some more, probably about 40 minutes.

Into a 375 degree oven it went. 10 minutes uncovered, 20 covered, 10 more uncovered seemed to work out well for my oven. Do what time feels right to you though. If you’ve ever undercooked your gluten free loaf, you learn quickly never to do that again. This one turned out well though. The crust is wonderful! ~Sarah

Well maybe this bun’s not for you.

The problem with this bun and pretty much every other bun I have ever made (and I’ve probably made at least 15 versions) is that it that the texture is unlike any gluten filled bun. They are just a stand-in so we can try to feel like we are eating a real burger or whatever we happen to be eating that requires a bun.

These happen to be Carol Fenster’s version from her book, 1000 Gluten Free Recipes. Carol Fenster managed to do something similar to those items we can purchase in the store- she made them dry, not gummy and with more flavor. The problem for me lies in something I’ve mentioned before, I do not prefer this dry, almost foam-like texture. I can eat them, but it needs to be moment they come out of the oven and then I still just feel like they are too dry. My Mom loves them though and Ms. Fenster is a saint for those people who long for the dryness usually lacking in gluten free bread. The other great thing about Ms. Fenster’s recipes is that they are generally easy and almost always turn out, like the buns above.

There’s a lot to be said for being able to produce something that looks great.

~Sarah

I didn’t realize that the death of my sourdough starter had such an effect on me. I have been crushed honestly. Unable to make ANY bread. Unable to take pictures for the blog despite having made tortilla soup, brownies, beef stew, cheesecake squares and all sorts of other dishes.

Although I had a few days off in a row, I simply could not muster the will to start again. But last night, somehow, I was able to do it. I enlisted the help of the three year old and just did it. Who knows if it will work since it is only day one, but at least I have started. I feel better already. Aren’t humans peculiar? I mean really, letting a food product get me down. Sheesh.

This wild seed starter is made from one cup freshly ground quinoa and 3/4c water. The idea comes from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The original text uses rye flour, but of course I can’t use nor do I own rye flour so I picked quinoa since  I had that enormous bag from Costco. Just mix the flour and water together with a plastic or wooden spoon and keep it lightly covered in a plastic or glass container.

As usual, the little one had a blast grinding it up in the coffee grinder (not used for coffee) and pouring the water in to the cup. Here it will sit for 24 hours.

Day 2

It doesn’t look any different than Day 1 so there’s no picture. Same idea though, mix 1c of rice flour and 1/2c of water into the starter from Day One. Let it sit out for another 24 hours. It might rise a little, or it may do nothing as mine did.

Day 3

Day 3 is a little different, you have to throw out or give away one-half of the starter. Then add one cup of flour and 1/2 c of water. Stir and let it sit for another 24 hours. (yes there is a lot of sitting and waiting). My Day 3 isn’t over yet, so I’ll take a picture later. Last time my Day 3 is where something started to happen! Here’s hoping…

Well days 4, 5 , 6 and seven never got posted because this starter is hassling me. I think I finally have it going, but I’m just not sure it smells quite right. I am going to try and refresh today to see if it will work. Otherwise I may need to start over.

It was a sad day yesterday.

I made the determination that my starter officially died. It smelled of fingernail polish remover and was no longer fluffy. I dumped it out and cleaned the container. My son said the whole house “smells awful.”

I will start again and post the process this time for anyone interested. If you’d like to try it too, be sure to pick up some quinoa flour (or grain and grind your own). That’s how I was so successful last time… I used a “wild seed” starter.

The bread I have made without it is totally acceptable, but the starter adds something special in terms of flavor and texture that really makes gluten free bread spectacular.

The simple wins out again, but will need to be reborn.

~Sarah

I must say that this was one of the weirdest loaves of bread I have ever made.

I used organic quinoa grain I bought at Costco. Quinoa is a pretty cool grain. It is one of the oldest grains and a complete protein all on its own. It also has the full line up of essential fatty acids, not to mention fiber and iron. You can make quinoa salad or make it like rice and have it as a side dish. If you haven’t had a chance to try it, you should give it a go. It does have a different flavor, but you’ll probably like it.

Anyway back to this weird bread… it all started with my starter. I replenished it two days ago after it had been in the refrigerator for a little over a week. Everything seemed fine with it, I mean it rose up, looked spongy etc., but once in the bread it appeared to have no rising power whatsoever. I made the dough and about an hour and a half later nothing happened, literally, nothing happened. I fear it has died.

Instead of dumping it out, I decided to re-mix it with 2t of regular yeast and a little extra water. Twenty minutes later, what I had was a loaf of bread exploding out of the pan. Of course it had some additional oven spring, so what I ended up with was a loaf of bread that stands quite tall. (I had a huge avocado sitting on the counter so I stood it up next to it).

The crust on this bread really is lovely.

Even though it was a weird loaf at the beginning it turned out to be quite wonderful. It has a very soft texture (even toasted) and a delicate flavor that oddly enough, is not overly quinoa as I thought might happen.

The kids ate about three pieces each for lunch and I had at least that many. I will definitely make this again. This is crowned 5th generation sourdough because it has yeast and egg.

Zee recipe:

1/2c of dry quinoa grain

3c of flour (I used 1c of quinoa flour, 1c of sorghum and 1c of potato starch)

1c of starter (damn you!)

1t of salt

2T whole cane sugar (you can use regular sugar it’s just what I had at the front of the shelf)

3t xanthan gum

2t yeast

2c of water

1/4c of egg white (about one large I think)

Mix all the ingredients together and let it proof in a 9×5 loaf pan prepped with spray oil and dusted with cornmeal. Drizzle a fair amount of olive oil over the top of the bread. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Let the bread rise until almost to the top of the pan and then bake, covered with foil for 10 minutes. Remove foil and let it bake another 35 minutes or so. Immediately remove from pan and cool on a rack.

~Sarah

P.S. Happy New Year!

Since I’ve been traveling a bit for the holidays I had to put the wild starter in the refrigerator. This means that it’ll be a day or two before I get it going again. So because I needed a loaf of bread for this week’s lunches, I had to use regular yeast. I also decided to enrich it a bit to see what effect, if any, it had on the taste and texture of the bread. My enricher of choice was whey. It’s cheap and works well in my pizza dough. I have noticed over the years that many books use non-instant powdered milk, but the stuff is so damn expensive, I had to use something else.

Here’s today’s recipe:

1 1/2 c of potato starch                                     1 egg

1 c of millet                                                          about 2 cups of warm water

1 c buckwheat

1/2  c millet groats

1/3 c whey

1 /2 salt

3 t. xanthan gum

2 T dark brown sugar

1 1/2 T yeast

In keeping with my simple bread ideal, I combined the dry ingredients and then added the beaten egg and water to the mix. I mixed it up by hand for a few minutes and let it rest for about 10 minutes while I prepped the pan with parchment and spray oil. I formed the loaf in the prepared pan and let it rise (it’s amazing how much faster standard yeast rises than wild yeast btw). Here’s it rising:

I’ll return when I can slice it and eat it. At least it looks promising…

Okay, so I have returned.  A few observations:

1) It appears as though the whey made the bread have a very tiny crumb

2) It doesn’t seem to taste any better, so why add it?

3) The bread feels drier, like it’s going to go stale faster.

Now I don’t know if any of these observations are due to they whey. It just seems that way.  But since I am trying to have a simple bread, I am going to leave it out next time.  I also think that I prefer the slight stickiness of non-enriched bread, because it feels softer and doesn’t go stale as fast.

It also may very well be that I have grown to actually like the different grains required in gluten-free baking and appreciate their flavor as opposed to being angry at them for not tasting like wheat. Then again, I don’t even remember what wheat tasted like or it tasting like much at all.

GF baking is yet another situation where we should be grateful for the abundant food we can eat, instead of complaining about what we cannot eat. This, like so many other things in life, is easier said than done.

~Sarah

This is amaranth bread. It is the third-generation sourdough (the one with the egg white added). I am quite happy with how it turned out. It looks like “normal” bread and has a reasonably soft texture due to all the tapioca flour.

For those of you who don’t know what amaranth is it is a super-tiny seed that comes from an ancient, beautiful magenta-pink colored flower that is actually a weed (I think). It is high in protein and can grow damn near anywhere, hence it’s weed-like qualities. It is a little like hemp in that it contains essential amino acids that human bodies need. It is a valuable crop indeed!

This bread uses the entire seed, not the flour most people may have seen. While I use amaranth flour in lots of other things, I chose to use the seed here. Here’s what I came up with to put in this simple bread:

1/2c of whole amaranth

1c millet flour

2 1/2c tapioca flour

1t each of guar and xanthan gums

1 1/2t salt

1 C of starter

1 egg white, lightly beaten and

about 2 cups of water

I throw all this is a bowl and mix it up for a few minutes. I let it rise, covered, in the bowl on the counter for about 30 minutes and then plop it in the 9×5 loaf pan that has been spray oiled and dusted with cornmeal. Then it sits to rise until it is almost at the top of the pan. After that, it’s off the oven set at 375 degrees. It bakes, for 10 minutes uncovered and then about 30 or so covered with foil. Then it must cool completely on a rack before I can eat it.

I don’t know if I have just grown accustomed to gf bread or if this really is good bread. As much as I tried to get my mother to buy Wonder when I was younger, I never ate any of the super-soft loaf breads. Then as I grew older, I always ate the whole grain ones that were firmer from bakeries like Alvarado St.. It may just be that I don’t long for soft, squishy bread because I don’t have a memory to which I could compare the texture. Who knows.

What I do know is that gf bread keeps me from being sick and I think this bread tastes lovely. Why would I expect anything less from such a beautiful flower.

~Sarah

Crocodile bread?

I saw this picture and said, “Oooo, what a neat picture.” To which my son replied, “It looks like a crocodile.”

This is my fourth attempt at a GF bread without eggs, store-bought yeast, milk or other flavor additives. Straight flour mix, wild starter, salt, water and xanthan/guar gums.

Both loaves look fabulous, but I think the flavor is a bit too sour. Here’s a picture of my firmish starter (I think it sorta looks like tofu):

I may add a tablespoon of sugar the next time around. My son thinks the loaves are going to taste “hecka good” despite not yet trying the bread (he licked the top). My neighbor who is a retired chef said it was “very good, but still has that cake-like quality that all gluten free bread seems to have.” He then ate some more. Apparently, the flavor is not affected by this cake-like texture.

I made one fake rye and one plain. Despite being a tad too sour, they are darn tasty if you ask me.

I have been contemplating and tinkering with how to make a vegan or GF/CF bread for years. I was also looking for something simpler. I mean, look in any gluten free bread baking book and you’ll find myriad ingredients ranging from chia seed gel stuff to Knox gelatin to recipes using six different flours. Don’t get me wrong, I own those books and I’ve made those recipes. In fact, my pizza recipe is awesome, but it has a lot of ingredients.

The problem with these recipes is that they usually require shopping at multiple stores, shelf space, more dirty dishes etc etc. And as if eating gluten free didn’t already make you sometimes feel like a freak, when you are standing there making bread with twenty ingredients, that feeling only gets worse.

My first three attempts at a simpler bread had one egg white in them. I must admit that I think the egg white makes a huge difference in not only appearance, but texture. This bread is good, damn good in fact, but the egg may come back in future loaves. Of course it can be left out if one chooses.

It will be interesting to see where this journey takes me.

~Sarah