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admin: prompt

Favorite and unfavorite spices

I love the condiments topic and I've been meaning to start this conversation all month. Here it is almost the end of January, so you get two posts at once.

What are your favorite and least favorite spices? Do you know why you dis/like them?

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Kale chips with nutritional yeast

I got a hankering for nutritional yeast, saw some that was labeled gluten-free at Trader Joe's, and went hunting for a recipe. This one for 30-Minute Cheesy Kale Chips at the Minimalist Baker looked good.

I did an even more minimalist version (below) that turned out fine, and I bet the original version is yummy if you can tolerate the full list of ingredients. I will admit to being impatient and tired and having some turnips I also wanted to bake, so I crowded the veggies on a baking sheet without patting them dry first, and my "chips" did not turn out crisp, for the most part. They still tasted good!

Got any other recipes you like with nutritional yeast as a condiment?

Ingredients

1 bunch kale leaves, approx 10 oz
2 Tbsp (1/8 cup) olive oil
4 Tbsp (1/4 cup) nutritional yeast (plus extra as a topping)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper

Oven at 300 degrees F.

( Recipe )

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Request: Soy-free frozen French fries?

Does anyone know of a frozen French fry available in the US that's GF and soy-free? Even my usual trick of looking at the "natural" or "organic" brands has failed me as they all inevitably use a blend of vegetable oils and may include soy.

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Prompt: Condiments

Happy 2024, folks! Our prompt for January is condiments. Think dips, dressings, syrups, sauces, jams, and jellies. Sweet or savory.

To fill this prompt, you can:

Slide into the comments of this post and share a link to a recipe, product, or resource and why you like it.
Write up a favorite recipe and post it to the comm.
Post a review of a related product or cookbook to the comm.
Try someone's recipe and reply to their post (or comment) with any changes you made and how it turned out.

Monthly prompts are only for inspiration and not a requirement. You can post whatever you like to the comm whenever you like as long as it meets the community guidelines.

Here's what's going on in the comments:

Red Boat Fish Sauce from sonia
a salad dressing for fruits from harmonic_tabby
Chilli oil from mific

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Product Review: Nature's Bakery Fig Bars

Nature's Bakery Fig Bar: Raspberry: I mostly gave these a try because they had ingredients I could eat. I was pleasantly surprised by how soft and tender the cookie part is, though I can't say it has a flavor beyond being pleasantly whole grain. The filling is sweet and crunchy with fig seeds, and I could really taste the raspberries. Could I taste the figs? Maybe, in that they were toning the raspberry flavor down in an earthy kind of way.

This is called a bar, but really it's a Fig Newtonesque cookie, two per package, with six packages in a box. I found them at Target in the granola/protein/snack bar aisle, but they're too sweet for me to be anything but a dessert. They're also marked "low sodium" (70 mg for two cookies), but they always make me very thirsty, so idk.

In addition to Raspberry, they come in Blueberry and Pomegranate. If you're in the market for a GF Fig Newton analogue, you might give these a try. Though for whatever reason they don't have one that's just fig.

Certified GF, vegan, kosher, non-GMO. Made in a dedicated peanut and tree nut free facility.

Current Ingredients: Brown Rice Flour, Brown Rice Syrup, Fig Paste, Raspberry Jam (Naturally Milled Sugar, Cane Sugar, Glycerin, Rice Starch, Raspberries, Apple Powder, Natural Flavor, Pectin, Citric Acid, Locust Bean Gum), Canola Oil, Cane Sugar, Gluten Free Five Grain Flour (Amaranth, Quinoa, Millet, Sorghum, Teff), Date Paste, Whole Grain Oats, Glycerin, Flaxseed, Leavening (Monocalcium Phosphate, Baking Soda), Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Natural Flavor, Citric Acid.

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Roasted chicken and cauliflower (or root vegetables)

This recipe has endless variations (see notes at the end), and here's one version that has been turning out well. The nigella seed (an Ethiopian spice) and fish sauce (recommended by a Vietnamese friend) are optional if you don't have those around already.

Preheat oven to 400F, rack in middle of oven

Ingredients
1 package deboned chicken thighs, around 1-1.5 lbs.
1 medium cauliflower
2 large carrots
olive oil (amounts approximate, maybe 2 Tbsp)
Fish sauce

Spices:
Wild nigella seed (Tikur Azmud)
Ground ginger (or fresh dried if you have it)
Ground coriander
Ground mustard
White pepper
Salt

( Chop, season, roast )

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Improvised teff pancakes (and recipe links)

I used to make simple buckwheat pancakes occasionally, just equal amounts buckwheat flour and water, some baking powder and spices and salt. But I haven't been able to find reliably gluten-free buckwheat flour for a while. I decided I wanted pancakes and I have teff flour, so I looked around for a teff pancake recipe. (No, not injera, that's a whole different project that was unsuccessful a while back.)

I found this recipe: Fluffy 20 Minute Teff Flour Pancakes by Janet Harlow, which was way too complex for my taste. So I read this one: 5 Ingredient Teff Pancakes at Zest for Baking by Christine, which has some oddities - 1 Tablespoon of vanilla??, no salt?? - but I decided to use it as a basis to improvise.

Christine's recipe requires teff flour, baking powder, coconut oil, almond milk, and vanilla extract. I don't have any kind of milk, nor coconut oil. I do have mixed sunflower/coconut oil and an egg. So I did the following.

( improvised recipe )

They were tasty with maple syrup on top, and met the craving I was having. Your results are absolutely not guaranteed - you might want to follow one of the linked recipes instead. Let me know if you try making teff pancakes of any kind!

PS: Now that I'm putting this post together, this recipe also looks interesting: Easy Teff Pancakes at Maskal Teff by Leslie Cerier.

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admin: prompt

Prompt: FREE SPACE

It's December and ANYTHING GOES* here at gluten_free!

Have a gluten-free question, comment, request, suggestion, update, victory, confusion, failure, or announcement? Have an article or resource to share? Just want to do a quick product recommendation? Just want to post a gluten-free link and flee the scene?

Pop into the comments and do your thing. Content can be about GF stuff or the comm itself. Feel free to chat amongst yourselves!

Or, if you had something you intended to share for one of our past prompts, but it just didn't happen, now's your chance!

*Some restrictions apply. Just follow the community guidelines and make sure your comments don't contain unsolicited medical advice or personal details about your health and you're good.

Here's what's going on in the comments:

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admin: mod post

Happy Holidays to us!

Thank you to the anonymous benefactor who bought

gluten_free paid time!

One of the great things about being a paid community is being able to search the comm's entries and comments. So if you're on the hunt for recipes (or user substitutions) with, say, buckwheat, you can use the search box on our front page—or the content search page if you're on mobile—type in your query, tick the little box to include comments, hit search, and, in this example, get 42 hits for buckwheat.

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content: resource

Chocosphere: mail order gluten-free chocolate

A friend highly recommends Chocosphere, chocosphere.com, online purveyor of fine and ethical chocolate, with a 'Maker Labels as "Gluten-Free"' checkbox as one of their product filters. You can also filter for soy-free, dairy-free, etc. They're just south of Portland, OR and also offer local pickup.

My friend says, "Joanne and Jerry Kryszek, the absolute gems who own it are retiring so the business may be going away. I don’t know of another one like it. They have curated literally 100's of brands over the decades I’ve been a customer. Their chocolate selection, service and impeccable shipping will be sorely missed."

Get your Guittard chocolate, etc. while you can!

ETA: Last I heard, a family member of the current owners will be taking over the business, so it will stick around.

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Gluten-free dairy-free potato croquettes

This is a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. You can mix in herbs or some chopped-up meat or veg, add cheese if you eat dairy or have a preferred non-dairy brand that melts well, or just have them as-is.

I used glutinous rice flour, but any 1:1 baking flour or starch would probably work; this isn't one of those places where you can swap in almond meal, though. If you don't have breadcrumbs, you can skip them, but the patties will be more delicate and won't get as crunchy.

I haven't tried this with mashed sweet potatoes, but it would probably work fine, though you might want to adjust the seasoning profile.

Ingredients

2 cups cold leftover mashed potatoes
Add-ins of your choice
1 large egg + 1 large egg
1 packet + 1 packet Manischewitz gluten-free matzo ball mix, or 2.5 oz + 2.5 oz of your preferred GF panko/breadcrumbs/matzo meal
Seasonings to taste
2 tsp GF flour or starch, plus a little extra for your hands and workspace
Canola or peanut oil for frying

( Directions )

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Resource: Gluten-Free Cookie Troubleshooting Guide

Flat, sticky, limp, burnt, wobbly, dry, gritty cookies? Fearless Dining has you covered with Gluten Free Cookie Baking Disasters and How to Fix Them, offering multiple causes for each problem and detailed advice on how to fix it. For when you just can't give up on a recipe.

I found this site because I recently made some really abysmally flat chocolate chip cookies, like suuuuuper flat, and angrily went looking for answers. In my case, the answer was: GF flour mixes all perform differently (I knew this and thus normally avoid recipes that call for a generic "GF flour mix"), and flour mixes with a higher starch content spread more (not sure I knew this), and those with milk powder really spread (whoops).

Since it was too late to adjust the dough by adding a bit more flour I solved my problem by baking off the rest of my cookies in silicon muffin cups, which created a delicious deep dish choc chip cookie type situation. Not a fix suggested by this website, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

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Recipe: Pumpkin Bread from Snixy Kitchen

This pumpkin bread from Snixy Kitchen bakes up into a lovely brown loaf with warm spices and a tender, moist crumb.

I got serious and bought a metal 9 x 5 inch loaf pan for this one, since glass conducts heat differently and can dry out the crust of a quick bread, which did seem to be the case for the last pumpkin bread I made. I used Libby's canned pumpkin again and followed the recipe exactly—except I used apple cider in place of the milk component, and I again left out the cinnamon for reasons—and I was very happy with the results. In the metal pan, the outside of the loaf turned a deep brown (next time I might give it an aluminum foil tent near the end of the cooking time), but didn't get tough. I cooked it 65 minutes, let it cool on a rack for 20 minutes, and then removed it from the pan to cool completely.

Compared to the Pumpkin Bread with Maple Glaze from The Bojon Gourmet that I brought you last month (and baked in a glass pan, which might have contributed to some of the textural differences):

both are gum-free, nut-free, soy-free, and dairy-free
both use oat flour, sweet rice flour, and tapioca starch, then teff flour (Snixy) or millet flour (Bojon)
both offer some substitutions, including for the oat flour, but both rely on the sweet rice flour and eggs
slightly different spice mixes, Snixy has cloves instead of allspice, and no turmeric
a slice of the Snixy is softer than the Bojon, which is more dense and easier to pick up
Snixy did not bake up as impressively tall
Snixy makes a darker, browner loaf, while Bojon is lighter and oranger

Both are easy to make, bake up well, store nicely in the fridge (and freezer!), are undetectably gluten free, and have good flavor and texture, but I think the Snixy might be my new favorite due to its almost squishy softness and gingerbread vibes. The Snixy recipe doesn't have an accompanying glaze, so I made one with powdered sugar, orange juice, and a splash of vanilla. Next time I might do something more like Bojon's maple glaze (with maybe less maple syrup), which, since it has (vegan) butter in it, is thicker, sets better, and has a more appealing look when poured over the loaf.

Anyway, I'm thrilled that after years of going without pumpkin bread I now have two really great recipes for it. AMAAPB (Ask Me Anything About Pumpkin Bread).

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admin: prompt

Prompt: Holidays

This prompt is for any holiday, celebration, or observance—for any time of year—if there's food you associate with it, now's the perfect time to share.

To fill this prompt, you can:

Slide into the comments of this post and share a link to a recipe, product, or resource and why you like it.
Write up a favorite recipe and post it to the comm.
Post a review of a related product or cookbook to the comm.
Try someone's recipe and reply to their post (or comment) with any changes you made and how it turned out.

Monthly prompts are only for inspiration and not a requirement. You can post anything you like to the comm whenever you like as long as it meets the community guidelines.

Here's what's going on in the comments:

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Product Review: Nestlé Toll House Allergen Free Semi-Sweet Morsels

Nestlé Toll House Allergen Free Semi-Sweet Morsels: I wasn't expecting much from these. Straight out of the bag, the cold chips are brittle and leave a bit of a greasy mouthfeel behind, but, undeterred, and having spent almost seven dollars on them, I threw them into some chocolate chip cookies and they were surprisingly good! Nice chocolate flavor, no grease or wax detected in the mouth, and a pleasingly smooth texture once they've been warmed up that remains even after they cool. I'll buy them again since my favorite chocolate chips (from Guittard) are harder to find in stores. I found these in the regular baking aisle of my Kroger rather than in the "natural" section where I do most of my GF shopping.

These come in a 10 oz bag rather than the standard 12 oz. So heads up if you're used to just opening a bag and dumping it in without measuring. They also come in dark chocolate in an even smaller—9 oz—bag! I'll try those next in these S'mores cookies from Minimalist Baker, which definitely need a darker chocolate to balance the sweetness of the marshmallow.

Organic. Labeled gluten free, but not certified GF. Free from peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, milk, wheat, soy, fish, and shellfish.

Current Ingredients: organic cane sugar, organic chocolate, organic cocoa butter.

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Turkey Meatballs

makes 12–15 balls, 3–5 servings
prep 30 - cook 40

2 large eggs
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 c grated parmesan
1/2 c minced fresh parsley
1 c GF rolled oats
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs tamari
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
1.5 Tbs ground basil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground mustard

( roll these babies )

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Resource: Halloween Recipes

It's spooky season! Which means I've collected a bunch of spooky recipes...mostly from Texanerin. All descriptions come straight from the recipes, as I've made none of these, just liked the looks of them.

Black Ice Cream: This black ice cream is an easy, egg-free recipe that's free of food coloring and super simple – you just blend everything in a blender! It tastes like an Oreo wafer, thanks to black cocoa, and can be made traditionally with heavy cream and sugar, but it can also be made vegan, keto and paleo.

Spiderweb Brownies: These spiderweb brownies are super fudgy when refrigerated, gooey at room temperature, and topped off with chocolate ganache and white chocolate spiderwebs. Includes several well-tested gluten-free options. They're also easy to make dairy-free, if desired.

Jack Skellington Cake: This Jack Skellington cake has an ultra-moist chocolate cake base with vanilla cream cheese and black cocoa cream cheese frosting. The stripes are surprisingly easy for someone with no decorating skills, as is the Jack Skellington face. Has a tested gluten free option.

Mummy Cookies: These mummy cookies get their black color and Oreo flavor from black cocoa and not food coloring! They're naturally eggless but have a fantastic texture. With two gluten-free options.

Edible Googly Eyes: Homemade vegan eyeballs for decorating cookies, cupcakes and more!

Halloween Popcorn Mix: This SPOOKY mix of popcorn and candy is perfect for your next Halloween gathering!

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Adventures with rice cookers: Rice, beans and sausage

I decided to get adventurous and try using my rice cooker like a slow cooker or instant pot. It turned out well! This is a red beans and rice recipe adapted to whatever I had at hand.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 2 hr | 4 servings

( Read more... )

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Recipe: Oven-Baked Steelhead Trout

This is less a recipe than a cooking method for oven-baked fish, although I am including a recipe as well. I believe the oven times and temperatures come from (but probably aren't unique to) my former neighbors.

Ingredients:

1 lb to 1 1/2 lb steelhead trout or salmon fillet

1 to 2 Tbsp mayonnaise, depending on the size of the fillet
tsp lemon juice
2 tsp squeeze-bottle garlic, or 2-3 cloves chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 to 1 tsp smoked paprika

( Oven-Baked Steelhead Trout )

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Recipe: Pumpkin Bread with Maple Glaze from The Bojon Gourmet

This Pumpkin Bread with Maple Glaze from The Bojon Gourmet bakes up properly tall like a regular quick bread, which was shocking enough, but it also has a lovely moist crumb and slices well. It's also dairy-free, nut-free, and gum-free!

I followed the instructions exactly...except I didn't sift the dry ingredients because in my experience when you sift oat flour it just clumps up again on the other side. Instead I mixed the dry ingredients together in one bowl and the wet in another and then mixed them together and it was fine. But if you follow the instructions, this only take one bowl.

I used Libby's canned pumpkin. Word on the street is that different brands have different liquid contents, and organic canned pumpkin puree can sometimes be more liquidy than conventional and might throw off a recipe developed for a thicker puree. It sounds like Taylor-Tobin used an organic, but thick, puree, and the Libby's worked well here. I used a glass 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and cooked the bread for a full hour. It rose to lofty heights, browned a bit, and developed some rustic cracks along the top.

Contrary to the instructions, which I followed remember, the loaf needs to cool more than an hour before it's ready to glaze. Mine was still warm at that point and the glaze started to melt. Next time I'll give it more like three hours to cool completely. If you don't have that kind of time, or want a loaf that's less sweet, it's perfectly tasty without the glaze. I also left out the turmeric because while that golden color is seductive, I didn't want to risk being able to taste it, but I'm sensitive to flavors. Others might not notice it. I also, for reasons, had to leave out the cinnamon, and I imagine this is even better with it, but it's still very good without.

In short, this is an easy recipe that doesn't take a lot of time or special skills to put together and has great results. I highly recommend it.