The Great Experiment, a Test on Flour Measuring

All my life I have been a math person. I love it! I can't spell to save my life, and grammar has never been a gift. However, put me in front of a calculus or a trigonometry equation and I am in heaven. Sick I know. So as far as cooking goes, it has always been approached from the perspective of a fun and phenomenally messy science experiment. I love how different ingredients react. This has been a blessing since I started a gluten free life. Without gluten, g-free flours just don't rise. Sad but true. So to learning to cook without gluten requires finding the right ingredient or ingredients that recreates a similar chemical reaction. My favorite is probably baking soda and vinegar, because you get a big reaction quick. Just like the volcano in you made in elementary school. FUN!! However, this does not work if you start trying to roll out cinnamon rolls, because your dough will not re-rise. This is a onetime only reaction that eventually stops. In cakes you can beat your egg whites and add them in for extra fluff, but that also won't work for cookies and bread. I love adding citrus fruits to my baked goods. You get extra vitamins and nutrients, along with your extra fluff. So these are all tricks to make your baked goods more like their gluten filled predecessors, but what about that flour…….. Hmm!

This has had the biggest mean time to failure in my kitchen. Really!?! I made 5 different cakes and each one turned out different, even when I used the exact same ingredients. The issue was not so much what was in my cake mix, as how much was in my cake mix. So I invested in one of these……

GF-Experiment

It has really taken some of the variability out of my baking. I would love to tell you that I am an amazing person and that I weighed and measured all these g-free flours myself, but I didn't. Don't worry, I did better than that, and I found an awesome blogger who did. Thanks Janice!! @ Realfoodmadeeasy! This chart is awesome, and you can print it too! Woohoo!

Another source I have found helpful is the Celiac Sprue Association Gluten-Free Flour Formulas, if you want to try and mix your own flour blend. I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions, you can always email me, or better yet leave me a comment.

Other sources:

Gluten Free Lifestyle-Solving the GF flour mix mystery.

Celiac Sprue Association- Gluten-free Flour Formulas

 

Nola’s Homemade Noodles

Yes!! I won; I finally succeeded in making homemade gluten-free noodles. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. When I first went gluten-free my fear of failure and lack of knowledge kept me from experimenting with different types of flours. My first and last homemade noodle project consisted of a premixed flour blend, which had soy flour in it. I am not a huge fan of soy flour, and my noodles came out bean flavored and gritty. To say they were not very good is a nice way to put it. They were just nasty. So I filed homemade noodles in my list of "never going to make g-free again." Everyone has a list! Admit it! Then this summer I read an awesome post by Tara Barker on her blog "A Baking Life." Her noodles looked super yummy, and she said they were so easy to make. Seriously!!! So today, only six months later but who is keeping track, I decided to make some. Believe it or not they were really easy. In fact, I think they are easier than the gluten filled version I use to make. Since there is no gluten they shaped up easier. They were a little more fragile, but I whipped them out in 20 minutes flat! Way better than the hours it took me to roll noodles out before when they had gluten. Her recipe calls for millet flour. I do not have millet flour, one because I have not found a safe nut free version yet, and two the budget won't allow for me to buy too many different types of flours at one time. I used brown rice flour, sweet super fine rice flour, tapioca flour, and corn starch for my blend. I am convinced most flour blends would work. Just don't forget your xanthan gum. This is my great grandmother's recipe g-free! Woohoo! I am so excited to share it with you, because it has been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember.

Growing up I can remember my great-grandmother (Nola), my grandma, my mom, and I would make homemade noodles.

I have vivid memories of watching them rolling noodles out on the kitchen table for every Holiday, or special occasion.

They always made them a day ahead so they could dry over night. The next morning they would stack and cut them with a super sharp knife. I was lazy and just used my pizza cutter. Works great!

I wanted my noodles for making chicken and pastry, so I didn't care if they were big and chunky. My grandmother however cut hers really short and skinny. About the width of a pencil, and the length was only about two inches.

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I absolutely loved her homemade noodles. She would tell me all kinds of stories about growing-up and riding in a covered wagon.

Her stories were so cool. Who would believe that I actually knew someone who road in a covered wagon? Crazy!! Hard to believe when we live with instant technology at our finger tips. She would talk about the great depression. She even hid money under her bed, just in case. She was such a neat person. I wish you could have met her. After my great grandmother died nobody made her noodles anymore except for me. Sad!! That is why today is a momentous day. I not only made g-free noodle, I also will be able to continue on the tradition that my family has carried on for generations.

Hopefully, now I can share this tradition with my daughter and her three brothers. Amazing!!! Thank you to all the gluten-free foodies. Now I just have to wait for the next Holiday!

Nola's Home-made Noodles (Original)

16 egg yolks using the whites of half of them

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp. salt

Flour

Mix in enough flour for dough that is stiff enough to roll out. If at first you don't succeed, try again by adding a little more flour. Divide into four parts. Roll each thin like pie crust. Dry on wax paper, or cabinet top, lightly floured so it won't stick. Dry for several hours, then turn and dry on the other side. When both sides are dry enough to stack, cut dough into four equal sections. Stack and slice.

Store noodles in large baggies in the freezer until the day needed. Cook them in chicken or turkey broth, stirring often to prevent sticking, with lid on for 30 minutes. May need to add hot water if they get too thick.

Nicki's G-free Noodles

½ cup sweet rice flour

½ cup brown rice flour

½ cup tapioca flour

½ cup corn starch

1 tablespoon xanthan gum

4 eggs using the whites of half of them

½ teaspoon salt

¼ - ½ cup cream

(I had to use ½ cup of cream to get a good texture, but I live in Texas and it is really dry!) I mixed the ingredients together until a ball formed in my mixer. Then I dusted my cutting board with tapioca flour, and rolled them out. After I rolled them out, I cut them with a pizza roller. You could use a pasta maker, but I thought this was really easy. Then I cooked them in chicken broth for 30 minutes. I added pre-cooked chicken to mine, because I like it. Feel free to make your own versions and let me know how it turns out.

Hope you like it!!

Nicki xoxo

 

Dream Cheesecake

Cheesecake! Yes, everyone has their own version given to them by their great Aunt Suzie on their mother's side twice removed. It's made in a hundred different ways, with a zillion different toppings. This great American classic is featured in every restaurant from here to Timbuktu. Honestly, I have to admit to you, I never liked the stuff. Growing up, it was probably my least favorite dessert. It ranked right up there with pumpkin pie. (Amazing how you grow into your taste buds.) I just could not get over the texture, hence the pumpkin pie. Then I meet my husband! The crazy guy loves cheesecake. Before I became g-free, he even took me to the factory of all cheesecakes!! Ooh la la! Where being a lover of dessert, I had to have something. The cheesecake was so good! Not just a little good, we are talking on a scale of 1 to 10 this was a 13.  I absolutely love, love, love, cheesecake. He ruined me



So, since I now have a love affair with cheesecake, and there are only a million different versions. I made it my mission in life to find the best cheesecake recipe ever. Not just your regular run of the mill recipe, but cheesecake so good it keeps you up at night. Lying in bed, waiting for everyone to go to sleep, so you can sneak in the fridge and steal a bite!! Super yummy cheesecake!! I'm dreaming of you!! Don't say I didn't warn you!

 

I used the Mi-del little gingerbread men, but I think it is actually better with the Kinnikinnick graham cracker crumbles.




You don't even have to grind it up. I also like the flavor better. These guys were fun anyway!




Then I mixed the graham cracker crumbs and the butter (that he didn't eat) together.




Sprayed the bottom of my pan with Pam, and then spread it as best as possible, going up the sides about a ½ inch.




Cream 1-1/2 cups of the sugar with the cream cheese; add flour and salt. I dumped in the egg yolks, nope not one at a time. Then add your sour cream and vanilla; mixing well. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until foamy. They won't get stiff. This is the step that makes a difference.  Don't leave this step out! Then mix it together gently, and pour it in the pan.

Bake it in the oven for 1 and ¼ hours at 325. I put a bowl of water under it so that it won't crack. Then turn off the oven and crack the door if you can, and let it sit for 10 minutes. I can't, with little guys running around in the kitchen. So I just let it sit in the oven for 10 minutes.Then run a knife around the edges (oops), and stick it in the fridge over night if possible. I knew I left out a step!

Walla! Yummy, Cheesecake!




Just make sure someone doesn't steal your piece. Little monster!!! Hope you like it! Nicki Dream Cheesecake Ingredients: Crust: ½ cup butter melted 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs Filling: 19 oz. cream cheese 1-1/2 cup + 3 tbsp. sugar 3 tbsp Tapioca flour ½ tsp. salt 6 eggs, separated 1 pint sour cream 1 tsp. vanilla 1 tsp. cream of tartar Directions: (Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature.) Cream 1-1/2 cups of the sugar with the cream cheese; add flour and salt. Gradually add egg yolks- one at a time- (I just dumped them) beating well after each addition. Add sour cream and vanilla; mix well. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until foamy. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and beat until stiff. Fold egg whites into cheese. Pour mixture into the prepared crust; sprinkle with the reserved crumbs (I skipped that step) I don't like crumbs on top of my cheesecake. Really!!! Bake at 325 degrees for 1-1/4 hour, until firm. Turn oven off; open door, but do not remove cake form oven for 10 minutes. Remove and let stand to cool. Refrigerate until serving. Serves 10.