Ok, this came up this weekend since I spent a bit of time organizing my spice cupboard. I have always loved to cook, but after being diagnosed with Celiac cooking has taken on a new "need". I love eating foods outside the standard fare - I love Asian, Indian, Thai etc. All of these come with their inherent issues if I wanted to eat them out at a restaurant. They all have standard ingredients that do or can contain gluten, so if I want them without worry I have to make them. This leads to the need for an extensive spice selection.
Do your pocket book and your mouth a favor, buy spices in bulk. Even our local "one stop shopping" store, Fred Meyer, has a bulk spice section now. It is in the natural foods section and the selection isn't as extensive as other stores, but it has all the standard fare. For more unusual spices I have had to go to local health food stores or co-ops, which isn't an issue since I shop there at least semi-frequently for other items.
This allows you to buy only the amount you will need. Don't do what our mothers did and keep the same bottle of parsley flakes for years on end. I remember spice bottles that my mother moved from house to house each time we moved, that stuff was YEARS old. I try to never keep spices longer then 6 months, ideally 3 months. They just loose so much flavor after a few months. Buying in bulk allows you to just buy a Tablespoon full if that is all you need for a recipe and don't see yourself using it again anytime soon.
It is also WAY cheaper. You can buy enough spices to refill a standard spice jar, often for less then a dollar, unless it is a less common or expensive spice. This is compared to $4-5.00 for a bottle of spice.
Of course this has also led to my spice jar "collection". I have found some great antique spice jars.
That is my two cents for today.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Homemade Hot Dog Bun Pans
Ok, I have not really gotten this blog ball rolling, but in my defense I moved and tackled a couple other issues. I am ready to get started. The next post will be about my new garden, yeah. This is however another post about Gluten free baking.
I big issue with gluten free eating is the bread and buns in the store are, in my opinion, inedible. Easy enough, make your own. This was easily solved for hamburger buns, several places sell English muffin rings that work great for hamburger buns. Hot dog buns however are a different subject. They sell pans for this but they are expensive. I don't eat enough hot dog buns to justify the cost. So I went to the 99 cent store and managed to fold some tin pans for this purpose.
The above photo would be the first bend. Just find how wide you want the bun cavity to be and pull the edges out while making a fold in the tin. Then repeat on the other side.
The above photo shows both sides with the first folds that create the cavity size, now to make the middle "wall".
I just push the middle up, the photo above shows what this stage looks like from the bottom of the pan, the photo below shows what this looks like from the top of the pan.
Now just clean up the folds
At the stage on the photo above you need to deal with the "ends" of the pan., to make them stand back up, the photo below show the fold I use to accomplish this, sorry the photo is a bit blurry.
And below are the finished pans.
When and if you do this, the first pan you fold will proably look awful, but they will probably still work, unless you mange to poke a hole in it. I can say I pretty much tortured these pans a couple times and never had one blow out. They are very forgiving.
Here is everything ready to go in the oven, 8 hamburger buns and 4 hot dog buns. For this time around I used the Crumpets recipe from Bette's Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread book. I have to say they turned out very yummy, I like the recipe, but I think for "buns" I like my previous use of a regular bread recipe better. I how ever am looking forward to my crumpets being used as biscuits and gravy for breakfast, they are really nice compared to my previous attempts at gluten free biscuits.
Here is my Saturday morning of baking. Two loaves of Millet bread (going to be used for stuffing mix in a couple weeks). I really liked this recipe, my crust came out a bit dark so I am anxious to try it again. The flavor and texture were great. It passed the gluten eater test. He hasn't liked anything with bean flour, which I am also not yet a "fan" of. The Millet bread recipe was also from Bette's Bakes Bread book. Really a keeper. One loaf I made per the recipe, then the other I used a variation she listed which added almond meal to the mix, it was a nice touch, these are going to make great stuffing.
The total yield for my morning of baking - [8] Hamburger bun, [4] Hot dog buns, [1] foccacia loaf (front right, from Carol Fenster's book), [5] Pita Bread rounds (also from Bette's Bakes bread book) and [10] Dinner rolls (Carol Fenster's recipe). Admittedly [1] hamburger bun and [1] Hot dog bun didn't make it to the freezer, they turned out to be runts and had to be cut from the herd, they were tasty though.
I big issue with gluten free eating is the bread and buns in the store are, in my opinion, inedible. Easy enough, make your own. This was easily solved for hamburger buns, several places sell English muffin rings that work great for hamburger buns. Hot dog buns however are a different subject. They sell pans for this but they are expensive. I don't eat enough hot dog buns to justify the cost. So I went to the 99 cent store and managed to fold some tin pans for this purpose.
The above photo would be the first bend. Just find how wide you want the bun cavity to be and pull the edges out while making a fold in the tin. Then repeat on the other side.
The above photo shows both sides with the first folds that create the cavity size, now to make the middle "wall".
I just push the middle up, the photo above shows what this stage looks like from the bottom of the pan, the photo below shows what this looks like from the top of the pan.
Now just clean up the folds
At the stage on the photo above you need to deal with the "ends" of the pan., to make them stand back up, the photo below show the fold I use to accomplish this, sorry the photo is a bit blurry.
And below are the finished pans.
When and if you do this, the first pan you fold will proably look awful, but they will probably still work, unless you mange to poke a hole in it. I can say I pretty much tortured these pans a couple times and never had one blow out. They are very forgiving.
Here is everything ready to go in the oven, 8 hamburger buns and 4 hot dog buns. For this time around I used the Crumpets recipe from Bette's Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread book. I have to say they turned out very yummy, I like the recipe, but I think for "buns" I like my previous use of a regular bread recipe better. I how ever am looking forward to my crumpets being used as biscuits and gravy for breakfast, they are really nice compared to my previous attempts at gluten free biscuits.
Here is my Saturday morning of baking. Two loaves of Millet bread (going to be used for stuffing mix in a couple weeks). I really liked this recipe, my crust came out a bit dark so I am anxious to try it again. The flavor and texture were great. It passed the gluten eater test. He hasn't liked anything with bean flour, which I am also not yet a "fan" of. The Millet bread recipe was also from Bette's Bakes Bread book. Really a keeper. One loaf I made per the recipe, then the other I used a variation she listed which added almond meal to the mix, it was a nice touch, these are going to make great stuffing.The total yield for my morning of baking - [8] Hamburger bun, [4] Hot dog buns, [1] foccacia loaf (front right, from Carol Fenster's book), [5] Pita Bread rounds (also from Bette's Bakes bread book) and [10] Dinner rolls (Carol Fenster's recipe). Admittedly [1] hamburger bun and [1] Hot dog bun didn't make it to the freezer, they turned out to be runts and had to be cut from the herd, they were tasty though.
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