Gluten-free foods are their in the world these days. We all become more aware of gluten, gluten intolerance, Celiac (or coeliac) disease and what it means for so many people. While I am not gluten intolerant, I often cooking and baking for functions, locally. Last year, I was asked to give a little treat for a princess party can put on at the Dacotah Prairie Museum. Accompanied by a "Queen", were little girls from tots to teenagers invited, to learn about the lives of real Princesses. They were taught how to detect properly, and curtsey.
Little girls hear the word "Princess" and go dreamy-eyed. The program was sold out. I made lots of little treats, but found out one of the small Princesses and her queen was gluten intolerant and could not drink of many of the little treats. This was an intolerable mode! I decided I need to learn more about this disease, be aware of what was involved, and to provide alternatives that would be tasty and exciting.
In the past year, I have try different gluten-free flour mixes and makes lots of goodies, mainly from my own normal recipes will be converted by simply replacing the gluten free flour and add the xanthan gum. In large, they have been an entire success. In my honest opinion, as a person in the 42 years baking some of the cakes, turn the fruit or nuts bread more moist and tender than when made with wheat flour; a very happy discovery, no doubt. "The Queen" mentioned above, works at the Museum, so I took an afternoon to talk to this young woman and Learn more about what was involved. Also had one of my favorite baked coffeecake recipes, gluten-free, and took it for her and museum employees to try. They all loved it; moist and tender and full of flavor. The young woman was satisfied with my experiment, as was I.
Another great help along the way was to find Arwel Ahern's "Gluten-free Girl" website. I have studied her site detail and learned all kinds of things there. I mixed up her gluten-free flour mix to experiment with and test one of her bread recipes; yet another success. I took some of the bread for the woman at the Museum to sample, as well as a slice of slathered with homemade pesto and cheese and broiled. She exclaimed: "This is the best bread I have tasted since going gluten-free!"
This coffeecake recipe was given to me by my best friend of 54 years, and is a fantastic recipe, no matter which meal you choose. This is the original recipe; for gluten-free, gluten-free flour blend, I replaced that consists of 6 cups brown rice flour, 2 cups potato starch and 1 cup Tapioca starch. I used this mixture measure for measure in this recipe, and add the sifted dry ingredients 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum. You should check the labels of the ingredients for hidden wheat when you make this Gluten-free!
Bundle Coffeecake
1 cup unsalted butter
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup of sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon baking powder soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped nuts; walnuts or Pecans are good
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until light. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla and Mix well. SIFT together flour, Soda, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well. Grease a 10-inch tube or bundt pan.
Mix together the chopped nuts, 2 teaspoons sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle ½ of the topping to the greased pan. Put in half-raising agents-requires this "plopping" small spoonfuls of raising agents in the pan, as raising agents is very thick. Then carefully smooth to fill in any holes. Tapping the pan on the counter help. Pour on the rest of the "topping" and again add spoonfuls of pan till all the raising agents used.
Bake for 1 hour or until a knife inserted in the Center comes out clean. Allow to cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Powdered sugar shake over cake, if desired. Serves 12 to 16.
GLUTEN FREE option: replace the flour with your favorite gluten free flour mixture and add in 1 teaspoon xanthan gum. Mix and bake as directed. (Sometimes the baking is a little longer than normal, but because of the texture and moistness is so fantastic, I can wait a few more minutes!)
Try this recipe, either way, and you will not be sorry!
My name is Chris Rawstern and I have been on a journey, cooking and baking for 42 years. Many people have asked what "A harmony of flavors" means. Have you ever had a meal, where the Visual presentation was fantastic, the smell was incredible, the taste was so remarkable that you ate slowly, savoring each bite who wants experience would never end? So you have seen a truly balanced meal can be like. My passion is to teach people how to create a "variants harmony" with their cooking, and help pass along my love and joy of food, both simple and exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my trip in ethnic and national kitchens, trying new things. I would love to hear from you, to help me to continue my quest to explore the different culinary experiences and hopefully you will start on a journey of your own. Visit my website http://www.aharmonyofflavors.com/Let me know and I will send you a copy of my monthly news letter full of recipes for latest tips.
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