Tortillas

I have always been a big fan of Mexican, or Tex-mex food. What's not to love? Fresh ingredients, lots of veggies, spicy meat in moderation, beans, and tortillas. Yum. Tortillas. Trouble is, if you're allergic to wheat and corn, that pretty much eliminates tortillas from the diet. Sure, you can find a couple of substitutes, such as Food for Life. But with nut cross-contamination and running close to $4 for 6 tortillas, they are out of the running around here!

Wanting to make real tacos for dinner one night, (or was it fajitas? I don't remember), I was flipping through my cookbooks looking for a recipe to tweak. I found one in The Encyclopedia of Country Living. I played with it a bit and came up with the following recipe. It has served me well for at least 3 years now. I thought I'd shared it here already, but I guess not. Sorry about that!

Nothin' Tortillas

1 1/2 cup brown rice flour

3/4 cup tapioca starch

1/2 cup millet flour

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp guar gum

1 cup boiling water

Put everything in a stand mixer--I haven't been able to make this work by hand. Mix it really well. Then let it sit covered for about 5 minutes. Heat a cast iron pan or a griddle a little hotter than you would for pancakes. Do not grease it! Then using a tortilla press*, make your tortillas. Cook them about 30 seconds on each side and transfer to a platter to sit while you make the res.

When you've made them all, cover to "cure" for a little while. If you can wait.

Like many GF foods, these really don't keep well. Which could explain why the store-bought stuff is so gross. But you could try freezing some. I haven't--they never last that long! I do know that you definitely DON'T want to store them in the fridge, as they will get crumbly.

These don't roll very well-about as well as a cooled corn tortilla, but if you use them fresh, you could manage enchiladas okay.

They also fry up pretty well. Tortilla chips anyone?

*You can purchase a cheap tortilla press at any Mexican grocery, international grocery or even a store that caters to a large Hispanic population. I've even seen them in Asian groceries. Go figure. I think I paid less than $10 for mine.

If you don't want to go find one, you can use 2 pieces of plastic wrap with a blob of dough sandwiched inside. Roll out a thin tortilla and proceed as directed.

Either way, cover your tortilla press with plastic wrap and brush/spray it with some oil. This is a soft, sticky dough

Cinnamon Rolls

Looks tasty doesn't it?

I know, I know, it's been forever since I did anything with this poor blog. We switched diets around so my recipes were in such flux. My baby became a very active toddler and I had a baby. I'm just getting back to cooking in a creative sense. Hopefully I'll have some time here and there to tweak my recipes some more and share what successes I have in the kitchen. My big struggle is just with writing down amounts.

I'm trying though. Especially when my husband reminds me that if I keep all that information up in my head, no one else can access it. Which leaves me with 100% of the cooking duty. LOL

So, one of the traditional foods I used to make for Christmas was cinnamon rolls. I'd make batch to enjoy right after Thanksgiving, and then give a pan to all the neighbors close to Christmas. My husband is a HUGE fan of cinnamon rolls. What husband isn't? I've never been able to really get them to work though. Then, as I was trying to make sourdough, I stumbled upon a neat trick with millet. It gets rather pliable when you let it sit for awhile! I started wondering if I could maybe, just maybe get it to roll up.

I can!!

This recipe uses lots of dairy. And I've only made it twice. So, like all my recipes--it's a work in progress. I make no claims other than it worked for me. My plan is to try and make a dairy free version. As always, if you try this, let me know what happens.

Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls

3 Cups millet flour

2 Cups tapioca flour

1 Tbsp GF instant yeast

1/4 Cup sugar

1 Tbsp xanthan gum

1 tsp salt

4 eggs

1 stick butter-melted

3/4 milk

1 tsp vanilla

cinnamon, brown sugar and very soft butter

Mix dry ingredients and add the eggs, butter, milk and vanilla. Beat in an electric/stand mixer for about 2 minutes. Then cover and let rest for about 30 minutes, then refrigerate at least 4 hours--overnight is best. Let warm up to room temperature and soften.

Lay out a sheet of wax paper and dust liberallly with flour. Roll out 1/2 the dough to a large rectangle--about 12x18, but you want it pretty thin. Then spread with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and roll up tightly. Cut into sections approx 1-2 inches. Place in a well greased baking pan and repeat. I had 16 rolls, so enough for my 9x13 plus some extra for a small dish.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place about an hour. They won't get as fluffy as the wheat kind, but they should get close to doubled and look soft.

Bake in a 350F oven for about 30 minutes. Watch for browning. Like any cinnamon roll, you don't want them over done. I actually baked mine at 34o for 25 minutes on convect. It may have been just a teeny bit too long. So I'm guessing that 350 for 30 will be about right.

I did mix up a little powdered sugar and milk for a glaze on mine. Just for more sugar. Y'know.

Hubby said these were pretty good. He ate the small dish and I gave away the large pan. I'm curious to hear back. I'm really just excited that I got as far as something that looks like cinnamon rolls!

Flexible muffins

We make a lot of muffins around here. They are quick and easy to make, allow for nearly infinite variations, and are fun for little hands to eat. Experiment with flour combinations, sweeteners and additions. It's also fun to use different muffin tins. Just make sure to grease them well. GF flours tend to be sticky. I've had good luck with silicone pans.

Muffins

1 C rice flour, amaranth, millet, sorghum or other non-starch flour
½ C tapioca starch
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp soda
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp guar gum
1 tsp gelatin or 1 egg or equivalent
1 C milk or water
¼ melted earth balance or oil

Mix dry ingredients well. Whisk gelatin and oil into water. Pour into dry ingredients. Stir until combined. Spoon into oiled muffin tins. Bake at 375F for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Chocolate muffins- Stir in 3 Tbsp cocoa powder with dry ingredients and increase sugar to ¼ cup.

Carrot muffins- Add 1 tsp cinnamon to dry ingredients and omit sugar. Use ¼ cup brown sugar instead. Toss ½ cup grated carrot into dry ingredients after they are mixed.

Blueberry muffins- Increase sugar to 1/3 cup and toss ½ cup fresh blueberries with dry ingredients. Or if using canned, drain and add to liquid before pouring into dry ingredients. May need to be baked at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Bread

I can't use this recipe anymore for us, since we have gone to a grain rotation diet. But I worked for years to come up with this recipe. It is the best bread recipe I found that uses no eggs or dairy or legumes. And it really does taste like bread.

2 C brown rice flour
1 ½ C tapioca flour
1 C sorghum flour
½ C teff flour
¾ C flaxmeal (or use 3 large eggs, slightly beaten)
½ Tbsp guar gum
2 tsp salt
2 C warm (110F ) water
¼ C honey
2 Tbsp instant-type dry yeast (Red Starr is gluten free)

Add honey and yeast to warm water. Let
stand about 5 minutes. Mix flours, flax meal, guar gum and salt
together in mixer bowl. Pour liquid into flour mixture. Add more
water if needed to make a thick, sticky batter. Spoon into 2 small,
well oiled loaf pans. Let rise 20-30 minutes. Bake 40 minutes in a 375 degree oven or until golden brown and bread begins to pull
away from the sides of the pan. Cool in pan 5 minutes and then turn
out onto rack to cool. Allow to cool completely before slicing as GF
baked goods tend to be gummy while hot.

This recipe tastes the most like whole wheat bread to us.