Febe's Foods

Are you thinking about making an apple pie for Thanksgiving?  While gluten free dough is different in consistency than regular gluten dough, it doesn't have to be more difficult to work with.  Like anything else, once you know how to do it, it's easy.  As a result of my new gluten free cracker business, I have spent the last 3 years learning how to roll out gluten free dough.  I never had rolled out regular dough before, so I didn't have to learn to undo any habits.  But I did have to start from scratch.  Here are a few techniques that I have learned:

1. Wrap ball of gf dough in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes before attempting to roll it out.

2. Put a large piece of plastic wrap on your counter.

3. Sprinkle the plastic with gf flour.

4. Place gf dough ball on plastic wrap, and flatten it out with your hand.

5. Place another piece of plastic wrap on top of dough.

6. Roll evenly in all directions to desired thickness. Dough should roll with ease between the two pieces of plastic wrap. 

7. If dough is too fragile to maneuver into a pie dish, slide it onto a cookie sheet and stick in the freezer for another 15 minutes, or until it is firm enough to maneuver into the pie dish.

Posted by margie at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1646) | TrackBacks (0)

Every fall, my family goes apple picking.  We have a great time, but then we go home with tons of apples that I don't know what to do with. This year, I found a gf apple muffin recipe.  Even my picky "I don't like anything gf" husband liked them!  It's easy, kind of healthy, and most of all yummy.

Every time I want to make anything gf and don't have the slightest idea as to how to do it, I always consult Carol Fenster's Gluten-Free 101 cookbook.  While I rarely follow a recipe exactly, I find her recipes give me a running start.  Pretty much every gf cookbook uses its own flour blend.  She uses sorghum flour, potato or corn starch, tapioca flour, and corn, almond, bean or cehstnut flour.

Personally, i usually use a combination of brown rice flour,  tapioca flour and potato starch.  This time, I also added some almond flour as well.  When you're baking gf, a combination of 3 or more flours usually turns out the best results.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:  2 1/3 c flour blend (1 c brown rice flour, 1/2 c tapioca flour, 1/2 c potato starch, 1/3 c almond flour); 2/3 c sugar; 1 tbl baking powder; 1 tsp gf vanilla; 1/2 tsp cinnamon; 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum; 1 tsp salt; 1 c milk; 1/4 c canola oil; 2 large eggs; 1 c diced apples, 1/4 c chopped walnuts (optional).

Preheat oven to 375.  Put paper or foil liners in muffin tins.

Whisk together dry ingredients in large bowl.  In separate bowl, whisk wet ingredients until smooth.

Make well in dry ingredients and add wet ingredients.  Combine until evenly mixed.

Fill baking tins with batter 2/3 high.  If using, sprinkle walnuts on top of each muffin.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until muffin tops are lightly browned. 

Posted by margie at 03:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3290) | TrackBacks (0)