Gluten Free Baking- Large White Oven Loaf

Now term has started again, I'm living in a modest sized flat in Glasgow, with a very modest sized kitchen! Living at home over the summer, the kitchen I could use was rather large:-

This is the current kitchen in my flat:-

For this reason, it has been a lot more difficult to bake recently! Also, I don't have large amounts of space to store large amounts of flour. And my oven doesn't get very hot (175 degrees if your lucky). So I decided to bake my most consistently successful loaf. It doesn't taste particularly exciting, but the texture and fact it has always worked make it a good loaf. The main ingredient is glutafin select multipurpose white mix:

I get this on prescription and use it in a lot of recipes, and as my general flour for thickening sauces etc. It's worth pointing out that this mix contains wheat starch, which is not suitable people who are intolerant/ sensitive to wheat. The wheat starch is processed to remove the gluten, so of course it's still gluten free. It's also only available on prescription, available to anyone medically diagnosed with Coeliac's disease. The recipe can be found here as can a lot of other recipes specifically designed for this flour. 

This is what the ingredients looked like:

The recipe is quite simple, first, mix up the dry ingredients:

Then, stir in the wet ingredients:

Put it into the loaf tin, this is what it looked like before around 20-25 minutes of rising:

And after rising:

I then baked it for about 35 minutes. It came out looking like this:

This is what it looked like cut, and a slice of it:

The loaf had a very nice texture, very fluffy, light and springy and had risen very well. A lot of shop bought gluten free loaves are very small, so it's nice to have something more normal bread sized to make sandwiches etc. The flavour was quite nice, but it didn't really taste of much. You could taste the olive oil, which was quite peppery and the dried milk as well, which is a bit odd. 

The best thing about this loaf is that it's easy and quick to make, and fills me up more than smaller loaves.

Rock Lobster, Glasgow Restaurant Review

We stumbled across this incredibly gluten free friendly restaurant whilst wondering around looking for a specific shoe shop, and being admittedly a little lost.

I noticed a sign which said 'gluten free fish and chips' which was quite exciting! It lead to Rock Lobster which is situated in a quiet, quirky court in the trendy Merchant City area.

We booked online so we could make use of the 5pm offer, which was 2 courses and a glass of house wine for £11.95.

For my starter I ordered the Buffalo meatballs with blushed tomato & veal bone sauce and had the Spicy beer battered fish & chips with spaghetti style coleslaw.
I'm always nervous when something says it contains beer and is gluten free, as clearly beer isn't usually gluten free. The most likely explanation is that the gluten free version is a batter without beer. I double checked with the chef, just to be sure, and he confirmed it was gluten free (although I didn't expressly ask why it said beer batter on the menu).

*STOP PRESS* Rock Lobster have just confirmed that they in fact use the Estrella gluten free lager in their beer batter for the fish. 

The starter was really tasty, but really was just meatballs. The sauce was really nice but I could have done with something to mop it up with. Perhaps some gluten free bread or a few chips or something. Here it is: 

Meatballs aren't really something it's easy to photo and make them look appealing, but trust me, they were very tasty.

The fish and chips was the star of the show, especially the chips in fact, which were covered in a very tasty peppery seasoning. Here are the fish and chips:

The batter was crisp and yellow, presumably due to turmeric being present in the spice mix. It also contained herbs, which I think were coriander, giving it a refreshing sharp citrus flavour. The fish was perfectly complimented by the delicious chips and a glass of crisp white wine. Even the coleslaw was nice, which is something I usually leave due to my carrot allergy but this was a nice cabbage only version. 

Overall, I would highly recommend Rock Lobster to everyone, particularly those avoiding gluten. I will be back to try the gluten free gnocchi! Something that really should be gluten free anyway, given that it's mainly made of potatoes, but people tend to add wheatflour. 

Surviving abroad on a gluten free diet (part 2 of 2)

This post concludes my experiences on my holiday in France and Spain in June this year. If you haven’t read the first part, you should read that first- entitled ‘surviving abroad without being glutened (part 1)’

On the sixth day of our holiday we visited Banyuls, a nearby seaside town. I had a bit of a craving for tuna steak, so we headed to ‘restaurant de la plage’ which was one of many restaurants on the sea front. The thon (tuna) steak we had was very tasty and mine came with green beans instead of rice and salad, which was a bit random. The beans were excellent though- drowning in garlicky olive oil. The tuna was plain but excellently cooked and slightly rare. In the evening we ate in and had a salad.

The next day we went into the Pyrenees and stopped in Ceret for lunch at hotel Pablo Picasso. This is the bridge in Ceret:

I had a cheese salad, which involved lettuce and chunks of four different cheeses. When I showed people my ‘gluten free passport’ I’d printed off some people tended to over react and exclude other things I could have eaten. They usually excluded the dressing from salads which made them fairly bland and disappointing. In the evening we ate at La Dorade in Cerbere, we chose the 32 euro menu because it contained the most stuff we wanted to eat, only to come to realise that the most expensive menu also had the largest portion sizes. The starter was seabass with an avocado and potato stack, which consisted of a two sizable fillets of seabass, and a large stack of avocado and potato with a buttery sauce. The starter was really delicious but hugely filling, it was at least the size you would expect a normal main course to be. The main course was scallops which were huge and there were eight of them, by this point I was getting pretty full so my Dad ate most of my main course, and most of my Mums too! For dessert there was not a lot I could eat, I’d been keen to try the crème catalane, but she said this contained a small amount of flour. In the end I got a bowl of strawberries with cream, which was very nice and not too filling.

            Before I get on to the tedious return journey and it’s meals (or lack of them), allow me to take an important digression to… ice cream. Ice cream is an important part of any summer holiday and I was not prepared to for go its pleasure on account of my gluten avoidance. At first I was weary of two things- cones and wafers. At most ice cream shops in the UK they stick a wafer into your ice cream before giving this to you and I had always assumed this was based on tradition from Italy/ France/ Spain. However, I found this not to be the case and didn’t see any ice cream shops in France or Spain with wafers. Cones are obviously to be avoided, and usually I would watch the process of scooping out the ice cream to check that there were no crumbs dropping into the tubs before committing to getting any. I basically adopted a policy of just eating it and not asking, a policy I have also adopted with hot chocolate and milkshakes and has not caused me any obvious problems so far. I would choose flavours that don’t obviously have gluten in, avoiding ones like cookie and cream flavours. I would ask for a tub and go for a scoop of chocolate and pistachio as they are my favourites. Another option is to choose the ice cream flavours furthest from the server, which will have had cones above it less often and be less likely to be contaminated. Obviously not all people avoiding gluten would want to take this risk, and would either try to ask or avoid this pleasure. Personally I think as most ice cream is gluten free and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be, the risk is worth it.

We were supposed to be leaving France on 11^th June from carcassone but that was the day the French air traffic control decided to strike. Our original flight was cancelled and we managed to book a second flight for the same day from Girona so set off in our hire car to Girona. On the way we stopped in the beautiful town of Narbonne, here is a picture of the square in the cathedral:

We had lunch at a restaurant called L’Estagnol which had been recommended in our guide book. The waiter understood my needs and I ordered a steak tartare, which is like a raw beef burger. It was really tasty and I’d been hoping to get a chance to have one before leaving France. We also stopped in the seaside town of Roses, in Spain here is the beach there:

We went to a slightly tacky and very cigar smoky tapas restaurant for dinner, the options were very limited as many things were deep fried and battered. I was only really able to eat bits of fish- sardines and anchovies, and salads. I wasn’t allowed the chips and was told I could have the chicken wings but when it came out it looked like it was battered so I didn’t trust it. The food I was actually allowed to eat was alright, but didn’t fill me up at all.

            We headed to the airport to find out second flight was cancelled. It was quite a late flight so we had to book on a flight for the next morning, from Barcelona airport. As the next flight was supposed to be early we didn’t eat breakfast in the hotel. The airport was very sparse in terms of shops and there was only one café, I had a salad with candied fruit and chicken for my breakfast, which was alright but a bit odd. The café actually sold a gluten free chocolate donut type thing which I ate later on, but it really was disgusting and I couldn’t eat it! It was very dry and hard with this slightly chocolaty, sticky, sickly filling. The flight was delayed by 3 hours but I only found the rest of the airport half an hour before we had to board! There were more restaurants including a steak restaurant, which I really wanted to go to, but there was no time left. I got a plate of meats and cheeses and had it with some left over gluten free bread that I still had. It was ok but it was quite stale and it still didn’t fill me up, I was still hungry. Once we were on the plane we were told it would be another three hours before we took off, very frustrating! 

Overall, I managed my diet fairly well abroad despite very limited knowledge of the language. In future I would have a bit more 'contingency food' around in the car just in case I get caught out and hungry. It would have been particularly useful for the journey back.

Gluten free baking- seven grain loaf

I wanted to try bread from a different recipe book to see if it was more successful, so I made the seven grain bread from ‘Gluten Free Baking’ by Michael McCamley. The basic recipe was very similar to previous ones, mix the dry ingredients:

Mix the wet ingredients:

And then add the dry to the wet. At this point the dough was very firm and stiff, whilst the recipe stated it should be soft dough. Nevertheless I allowed it to rise for about an hour in the tin:

However, after an hour the dough hadn’t risen at all, it was still at exactly the same height. I decided I needed to add more water to allow the dough the looseness required to rise. So I added more water and remixed the dough, unfortunately I forgot to measure how much extra water I ended up adding. This is what it looked like after I added more water:

The dough was slightly paler because the yellow from the egg yolks had been diluted more. This time the dough actually rose in the hour:

I baked it at 180C for about 50 minutes. This is what it looked like when it came out:

The crust had gone golden brown and hard, which was promising. The loaf was fairly difficult to slice, which implied that the crust would be nice and crunchy. Here it is cut open:

The crust was not actually that crunchy to eat, so maybe the loaf could have done with a bit more cooking. The crumb was quite dense and moist, so the loaf might have benefited from further rising time, and possibly more yeast. However, the denseness was beneficial in preventing loaf from falling apart. The taste was very good, quite nutty, complex with a hint of sweetness. The flavour of the eggs came through but was by no means overpowering the other flavours. Overall the loaf was good, but the recipe was fundamentally flawed, if I hadn’t added in my own liquid then the loaf would have been very dense. It’s important to be prepared to experiment and improvise when baking gluten free- even when following a recipe!

Gluten Free Baking- Double-baked Cheese Soufflé

Souffle is not something I’ve eaten much of, even before diagnosis, but something that I’ve always found quite intriguing. The mousse like texture of soufflé is appealing and I thought I’d give it a try. I made the double-baked cheese soufflé from the Hamlyn all colour cookbook ‘200 gluten-free recipes’. These are the ingredients I used:

The recipe involved making a rice flour based cheese sauce, into which whisked egg whites are folded. The cheese I used was a Cheshire blue and the mixture also contained chives, thyme and mustard. This was then baked for 15 minutes at 180C, here they are in the oven:

After the first bake they had gone golden, but not risen very much. They looked like this:

The soufflé then had to be left to cool completely before the second bake. Before baking again, a mixture of double cream and grated Parmesan was poured on top. Here they are just before the second baking:

This time they were cooked for 10 minutes at 220C. This is what they looked like when they came out:

They have risen a little but unfortunately soon sunk. The soufflé had a really great flavour, very cheesy and creamy complemented well by the herby flavour of the chives and the subtle hint of mustard. The texture was very pleasing; the lower layer was a dense mousse, thick and creamy. The upper layer was quite wet and cream like still, it probably needed a little longer which would have allowed it to stay up after it had risen. The Parmesan in the upper layer had melted to a stringy consistency, which made eating it even more interesting. Here is a picture of the texture inside:

You can see the mousse like texture lower down with the wet cream above and Parmesan skin on top. The soufflé was very good and surprisingly easy to make, definitely something I’d try again, maybe a sweet one next time.

Gluten Free Baking- Simple Focaccia

Recipes reproduced with permission of sasquatch books

Focaccia has always been one of my favourite breads. I really like the comforting oiliness of it, the peppery olive flavour and the loose texture with large air spaces. It is also a bread that my Mum is particularly good at making, seeing her produce dozens of them each month fills me with jealously! Since diagnosis I am yet to have gluten free Focaccia that tastes or looks like focaccia. The unique structure and flavour of focaccia seems to rely on the presence of the forbidden gluten. 

Here is a simplified version of the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp chia seeds

½ cup water

1 cup teff flour

1 cup tapioca flour

½ cup arrowroot

½ cup sorghum flour

¼ cup garbanzo bean flour

¼ cup millet flour

¼ cup flax meal

2 tablespoons herbes de provence

1 teaspoon salt

1 envelope(2 ¾ tsp) active dry yeast

1 cup room temp water

5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 large onion, halved and sliced

Here is a picture of the ingredients:

1. Soak chia seeds in half cup of water for 15 mins. Heat oven to 425F (218C). Line baking sheet.

2.  Mix dry ingredients excluding yeast in bowl

3.  In a separate bowl, mix yeast, water, 3tbsp oil and maple syrup. Wait for mixture to foam.

4.  Add dry ingredients and chia seeds into wet ingredients.

5. Mix with a  sturdy spoons and by hand until a dough is formed.

6. Turn out onto the baking sheets and shape into a large oval, press small dimples into the dough.

This is the completed dough before cooking:

7. Bake in oven for 25mins.

8. Sauté onions for 8 mins in the remaining olive oil until transparent and beginning to brown.

9.  Remove focaccia, cover with onions return and bake for an additional 25 mins.

This is the focaccia just after cooking:

The onions have gone a little black, even though it was only in for around 10 of the final 25 minutes. To my disappointment the focaccia hadn’t risen at all. The look of the bread was quite good, brown and a nice shape and the smell of the onions and herbs in the dough was really appetising. This is a slice of it cut open:

The dough was very dense because it hadn’t risen very much at all. The crust was thick and difficult to bite or cut through which made eating it a bit of a chore. The flavour was probably the best thing about the bread. It tasted herby and comforting but this was let down by the difficulty in eating it. I would also have preferred it to have the familiar greasy, oily texture but this was very dry and chewy in texture. In the end I ended up throwing quite a lot of it away. It was just too difficult to eat and got more so as it got older. I’m still on the look out for a decent gluten free focaccia!