Reflections and resolutions

As of a few days after Christmas, it’s now ten years that I’ve been gluten-free. That’s well over a third of my life! I had fully intended to mark the occasion with not one, but two new recipes that were not only seasonable and festive, but also of the traditionally-French persuasion that has been an inspiration for my baking since the beginning. But (as life has tended to do these last weeks-months-years), life got in the way of being able to fine-tune these recipes in a timely manner (really, there are only so many failed bûches de noël one can stand to make before deciding that whatever comes out of the oven this time will be the holiday dessert, no matter how it looks!) - and so, by the time Christmas came and went (so quickly!) both of these recipes were still in something of a rough-draft stage: pretty enough to photograph, plenty good enough to eat, but not quite polished enough to post. 

Bûche de noël

Buckwheat pain d'épices

Funnily, that says a lot about how far we - the gluten-free community - have come in these ten years: back then, anything reasonably edible and presentable was cause for celebration and sharing the recipe would be a matter of course. Now, we have the luxury (perhaps even a little bit of a duty?) of being perfectionistic, because we’ve collectively proven that things made of buckwheat and beans and chestnut and millet and potato and rice and sorghum can and should be every bit as good and as real as those made from wheat and rye. And so I give you pictures for now, because while these things were good, I know they can be better. It didn’t happen in time for Christmas, but it will happen. The bar for victory is higher, and that’s a good thing. 

So, this New Year’s Day, I propose a resolution for the celiac/GF community: going forward, let’s remove phrases like “too good to be gluten-free” from our vocabulary. Clearly, if we’re saying that about something, it’s good and it is gluten-free. There was a time when that may have been surprising. Now, though, we have more than enough examples of beautiful and delicious breads, cookies, pastry, and cakes to show that this phrase has lost its relevance. Is it harder, does it take longer to fine-tune a recipe? Maybe. Is there still a lot of bad GF food out there? Yes, of course. Will baking disasters and terrible recipe attempts still happen? Oh yeah. But it’s easy for us to forget, with the larger learning curve we face with our flours, that those disasters and disappointments happen to wheat-bakers, too. And yet, still we all seem to keep being surprised when something is good even now that "too good" seems to have become more of the norm than the exception. So, GF bakers and GF eaters: this year, let’s resolve to stop perpetuating the stereotype. Here’s to a year of baking and eating and sharing things that are exactly good enough to be gluten-free, and getting even better all the time. 

Good bread. Gluten free.

Simnel torte

Simnel cake is a classic English springtime spiced cake, lighter than the fruitcakes of the winter holidays. Its formula as well as its occasion has evolved pretty significantly over the past two centuries or so - while it’s more recently become an Easter cake made from a quick batter, it was originally a yeast-leavened rich bread dough and made for an earlier spring holiday (typically Mothering Sunday). A few features have remained constant throughout those changes: the mixed fruit, the spice, the egg- and butter-enriched but not-too-sugary base, and - perhaps most distinctively - a layer of almond paste baked inside the cake and one more layer atop the cake. 

I wanted to pay homage to the many varied forms this cake has taken, yet also reinvent it further. The result - a Simnel torte, if you will - is a sort of deconstructed version, more relaxed and effortless than the classic cake, and with added elements of some other light European cakes that might be considered its distant cousins. Rather than layering with almond paste, I’ve incorporated ground almonds into the batter itself, as featured in so many classic tea cakes, sponges, and other pastries. (The apricot jam that conventionally moistens the top of the cake simply goes in the batter of my version also.) I use potato starch and a little buckwheat for the rest of the flour - both also appearing in numerous traditional European cakes. And as an acknowledgement to the original Simnel formula, I’ve returned the yeast to the cake to make it pleasantly light and bready. It’s a nice accompaniment to tea or coffee for a springtime afternoon.

Notes: Like most spiced cakes, this tastes even better when it’s rested for a day - so if you want it for Easter, I suggest making it tonight or tomorrow. 

Simnel Torte

60 g milk + 60 g water, warmed

15 g buckwheat flour

⅛ tsp yeast

100 g almond flour

60 g potato starch

¾ tsp mixed spice (or ½ tsp ginger plus a pinch each of nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon)

30 g brown sugar

35 g butter, soft

½ tsp salt

2 eggs, separated, room temperature

18 g (a good tablespoonful) apricot preserves or ginger preserves (I used a combination!)

80 g currants, raisins, or a combination

15 g candied peel (you can make your own if you like)

40 g sliced almonds, for the top

For the glaze:

30 g powdered sugar

2 tsp brandy

1 tsp rosewater

½ tsp apricot preserves

Combine the buckwheat flour, yeast, milk, and water and set aside in a warm spot for about an hour. (If the flour settles, give it an occasional stir.)

Combine the almond flour, potato starch, and spices and set aside. Lightly whisk the egg whites. Cream together the butter, sugar, salt, yolks, and preserves. Beat in about half the dry mix, then the milk mixture, the beaten whites, and finally the remaining dry mix. Fold in the dried fruit and peel. Pour the mixture into a buttered 8” tart pan or springform pan and sprinkle the slivered almonds on top. Let it rise for 45-60 minutes (depending on how warm it is in your kitchen) - meanwhile heat the oven to 350º F / 175º C. Bake the cake for about 45 minutes. When the cake is almost done, whisk together the glaze ingredients. Pour the glaze over the cake immediately after removing it from the oven. Let the cake rest for several hours before serving.

Single-flour ginger cookies from an heirloom GF recipe

I have previously mentioned the wealth of historically-GF recipes that stemmed from wheat rationing during the first World War. Though these recipes were widespread just a century ago, few of them survived the 20th century's changes to our food system and eating habits. And, like early versions of many recipes, quite a few of these formulas were not quite perfect - the rationing only lasted a couple of years, and changes in wheat production and distribution led to our GF flours falling sharply in popularity shortly after the war. (While there are vast numbers of traditionally-GF recipes that were popular for decades or centuries preceding this time, the GF formulas in vogue during rationing were primarily all-new, all-modern approaches designed to use only techniques and ratios similar to those used with wheat, so these new formulas just didn't have time to get the kinks worked out.) But! With these recipes now being in the public domain, it's easy to find potential gems worthy of attention and fine-tuning!  

The original, unspiced version with maple.

One such gem: Buckwheat Cookies. Three versions of a buckwheat cookie recipe appeared in the periodical American Cookery in 1917-1918; Maple Buckwheat Cookies, using maple syrup in place of (also rationed) sugar was given in October 1918, and Buckwheat Cookies made with plain sugar appeared two months later in December. The earliest prototypical version, using no leavening or salt, was printed in April 1917, as part of an article containing some insights on working with buckwheat flour. All three versions instruct to simply roll out and cut the dough. For this to work with the maple version, the syrup needs to be boiled until quite thick. I decided this seemed too fussy - too much guesswork about just how much boiling - so for my first trial, I made a hybrid version using mostly sugar with a little maple, following the instructions for mixing and beating the eggs. Still, rolling and cutting was not really an option with this thick sticky batter, even after chilling.

The magazine's photo of the maple recipe proves it must be possible in theory. There are, however, a number of variables at play - most notably, the fact that eggs have gotten larger in the intervening decades, and the inevitable impreciseness of volume measurements for flour. Several test batches later, I still hadn't gotten it to be worth the trouble of rolling and cutting. (You'll see some successfully cut cookies in my pictures, but it was just too fussy and messy compared to simply pressing flat balls of dough.) But in the meantime, each successive batch became tastier, so I decided to give up on the rolling part and just make round cookies. 

I will share my interpretation of the original recipes some other time, but for now - because it's Christmas - I'm sharing a delightfully spiced gingerbread spin on this cookie! Now, I have tweaked the recipe quite a bit by this point - for this version, instead of my original combination of sugar and syrup, I've used sugar and buckwheat honey to complement the buckwheat flour. Also, to combat the overly-sticky/battery nature of earlier trials, I have reduced the quantity of liquid by replacing the egg with a smaller quantity of my favorite egg substitute: bean broth, AKA the stuff from a can of chickpeas (if you've never heard of this, I have a very in-depth post in the works covering all the particulars of this ingredient and why it's way more than merely an egg sub; in the meantime, you can look up "aquafaba" as some people call it). 

I really like using an egg substitute like this because I'm not limited to the size of pre-existing eggs, making recipes both endlessly adjustable and extremely scalable! (Much nicer and simpler than ending up with those little jars containing 1/4 or 1/3 of an egg populating the fridge. ...What, surely I'm not the only one who's done this in the name of science?!) I've also simplified the mixing procedure a bit compared to the original, as with no actual egg, there is no need to develop the egg protein structure by beating. And of course, this conveniently makes the recipe all ready to go to accommodate those with egg sensitive or vegan dietary needs. Yay, cookies for all!

Makes about 20-24 small cookies - scale up or down as desired!

56 g natural palm-coconut shortening or butter, room temperature

140 g buckwheat flour (I tested with Arrowhead Mills, as it is widely available and certified GF)

74 g sugar

30 g buckwheat honey (you may also use molasses, beet syrup, or maple syrup for fully vegan)

40 g bean broth, room temperature (see note above)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

ginger and cinnamon and other spices (i.e. allspice, cardamom, cloves) or mixed spice / pumkin pie spice / etc to taste (use at least 1/2 tsp total)

optional: currants/raisins and/or candied citrus peel

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a bowl. In the bowl of a mixer or other bowl, cream together the shortening or butter and the sugar, then mix in the honey. Beat in some of the bean broth, then part of the dry mix, then the rest of each and mix until uniform. Chill the dough for a couple of hours (optional, but makes it easier to handle and improves texture). Roll the dough in small balls, press flat on a parchment-lined sheet, and if desired, decorate with currants and/or candied peel. Bake at 350ºF/175ºC until lightly browned at the edges (exact time will vary based on the size of your cookies - about 11-15 minutes).

More GF Christmas cookies and cookie tips:

The above recipe can be iced for a more festive cookie. The round one in this picture is an earlier version of this recipe made with beet syrup instead of honey; these are iced with a vegan royal icing made from the same bean broth used in the cookies! 

"Magic cookie bars" or "Seven layer bars" are conventionally made with graham cracker crumbs - you can use GF cookie crumbs, but you can also easily make a from-scratch crust, such as this one, for a simple, economical, and slightly different treat (this is how I always make them now)! A couple hints:

- You do not need to pre-bake the crust when using it for these cookies. 

- Instead of the mixture of oats and oat flour the crust recipe calls for, you may also use all oat flour in the cookie crust.

Assorted cookies from last Christmas, made with various mixes

Spritz cookie recipe from last Christmas

Cookie exchange! Part 2: The new old-fashioned way

OK, so I know it's a little last-minute, but I have some more cookies to share with you! Several of the traditionally-GF cookie recipes linked in this post make great holiday cookies and have traditionally been used as such, especially various types of amaretti cookies and other similar pastries using nut meals, such as zimmtsterne (cinnamon stars), mandelhoernchen, and kransekake. However, I’d like to focus on some of the traditional rice-flour cookies from other parts of the world. Some of these are already considered Christmas cookies - achappam, for instance, is a rice-flour-based variation on European rosette cookies, traditionally made at Christmastime. Others, though, are for different holidays or occasions, and we can build on some of these traditional rice cookie formulas to make more types of European Christmas cookies that are usually made of wheat flour!

Spritz cookies are formed by extruding the soft dough through a press to make various shapes. This means it doesn’t need to be rolled out or handled very much, which in this case is good. The texture and flavor of the wheat-flour-based recipe, from what I recall, are somewhere between that of a rich buttery shortbread and a sugar cookie. This is remarkably similar to some of the traditional Persian rice-flour shortbread cookies (naan berenji), also featured in this post. With just a few adjustments, I found a naan berenji recipe can indeed be the basis for some pretty tasty spritz cookies! As a traditionally-GF recipe, these cookies of course use no gum, nor any other binding additives (no psyllium, pectin, flax, etc).

This recipe, with some changes to the flavorings, made a stiff dough which I shaped by hand just to test it. I found the cookies quite tasty. However, they have a softly powdery mouthfeel - this is typical of some of the styles of traditional shortbread-like cookies from (what was formerly) Persia (now areas including Iran, Pakistan, etc). I personally like this texture, but it probably wouldn’t seem quite right to someone familiar with traditional spritz cookies.

First test.

Another more involved recipe, with the same changes to the flavorings, made a dough that was too soft - it melted and the shapes were lost during baking. Considering the pictures in this post, I don’t think it is supposed to be this soft. One possibility is that the author of the original recipe was using a measuring cup that actually held a little more than a cup, resulting in my dough not containing quite enough flour. The other possibility is that my syrup was not as thick and viscous as it was supposed to be - I had problems with the sugar recrystallizing, which caused it to have a sludgy consistency instead of thick and syrupy.

Second test.

These second cookies were too crisp - probably again due to the crystallized sugar, but a little more flour wouldn’t have hurt here either.

My third formula is sort of an average of the other two, and this created the best balance of flavor and texture and the dough worked perfectly in my cookie press. Egg yolks contribute a rich shortbread texture and golden color, and a little syrup helps the dough stay smooth and helps keep the cookies tender. Here is this recipe:

Merry Christmas!

Rich rice-flour spritz cookies

160 g Thai/water-milled rice flour (**see note**)

10 g potato starch (optional - you may instead simply use 10 g additional Thai rice flour)

1 tsp baking powder

70 g powdered sugar

¼ tsp salt

125 g butter

1 whole egg

2 additional egg yolks

10 g lemon juice

10 g water

10 g golden syrup (or other fairly thick syrup/honey)

½ tsp each almond extract and vanilla extract

Butter and eggs need to be at room temperature. Cream together the butter, powdered sugar, and salt until fluffy. Combine the whole egg, egg yolks, water, lemon juice, and extracts, then add this mixture to the butter mixture and beat until smooth. Stir the baking powder into the flour(s), then add this to the previous ingredients until well combined. Chill dough overnight, or at least for a few hours.

Preheat the oven to 350º F. To shape the cookies, gently form the chilled dough into a log and load it into the cookie press. Hold the press flat against a cookie sheet and squeeze out just enough dough so that the cookie will stick to the sheet, then lift the press straight up and the cookie should remain in place. (This is a little hard to explain if you’ve never made spritz cookies before - it’s not as complicated as it sounds! There are probably plenty of youtube videos etc. that can help clarify if this step doesn’t make sense!) Sprinkle cookies with plain or colored sugar or decorative sprinkles, if desired. Bake for 10 minutes.

**Note on rice flour: For this recipe you’ll need wet-milled rice flour, not stone-ground. You can get wet-milled Thai rice flour at an Asian market - I’ve seen several sources saying Erawan brand is trusted to be gluten-free. Please do not try making this with stone-ground flour (Bob’s Red Mill, etc) - it will probably not work right! Stone-ground flour is not only more coarse, it also has a higher proportion of damaged starch; both of these factors will affect the amount of water needed, the stickiness of the dough, and the texture of the final product.

Cookie exchange! Part 1: Mixes and other shortcuts

A couple of weeks ago I was on the local radio (!) talking about GF baking, including some ways of building structure using the properties of GF flours without using gums - recipes that are built from the bottom up rather than viewed as making substitutions. That's the approach I most prefer to take on a number of levels. As a result, I hardly ever use baking mixes or premade flour blends. That said, I think substitute-type methods can come in handy sometimes, and the hectic nature of the holidays can be one of those times. 

Since I've ended up with several mixes in my pantry from various events and projects, I decided to see how I could use some of them to simplify holiday baking! Between traveling, having houseguests, going to events and parties, and everything else going on in these busy few weeks, the prospect of locating and measuring multiple flours and finding good recipes/tinkering with recipes to make them work is daunting. It's a time when even the most seasoned bakers may be wary of experimenting with new recipes, and even more so if you're relatively new to GF baking and unfamiliar with the characteristics of these ingredients!

So, there are a few shortcuts that can help here. One approach is to start with a mix and strategically embellish it to make it more festive - I have a couple of examples of this below. Another option is to find a flour blend that can be directly substituted in your familiar, trusted recipes originally based on wheat flour. I'll focus more on this further on in the post.      
  

These Chocolate Crinkle Cookies start with a chocolate cookie mix from Ardenne Farm, one of the "goodies" from the GFAF event a few months ago. I was intrigued by the simplicity of this mix - all it calls for to add is butter (or non-dairy equivalent) and 3 T water. I wanted to stay true to this uncomplicated formula while still achieving the chewiness that makes crinkle cookies so good - one very simple way to make cookies more chewy is to use some kind of syrup. 3 tablespoons of water adds up to 45 grams, so I simply substituted in 10 grams of sorghum syrup for the same amount of water. The only other change is to roll the balls of raw dough in powdered sugar until thoroughly coated. They also spread and crinkled more nicely when I tried chilling a sheet of the dough balls for about 20 minutes before baking. 

To make easy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies: Cream 1 stick (113 g) of butter (or equivalent) until fluffy. Beat in 10 g syrup (sorghum syrup, molasses, or other thick syrup). Add in the mix and 35 g of water. Mix just until it forms a dough - it will look like a collection of crumbs at first, but it should come together with continued mixing. If it still doesn’t come together after a minute, sprinkle in more water a few drops at a time. Form into balls and roll each ball in powdered sugar. Leave at least a couple of inches in between them, as they will spread. Chill for about 20 minutes. Bake at 350º F 12-14 minutes. Makes about 20-22 cookies.

Verdict: Nice and chewy inside, with crispy surface and good chocolate flavor. Well-liked by (non-GF) taste testers. Very simple and quick to make. Side note: this mix is also allergy friendly (egg-free and can easily be made dairy-free).

These Peanut Butter Blossoms use another mix I received from the GFAF event, a cookie mix from Our House. There's a variation for peanut butter cookies on the back of the box, which I modified slightly to get the right flavor and dough consistency for this classic (added a little milk and vanilla, and coated in sugar). Wait, shouldn't there should be a bag of Hershey's Kisses in this picture too? Yes, there should. But when I went to take the picture after making the cookies, I discovered the leftovers had been polished off by a certain someone the previous evening, and the evidence had already been disposed of. Just pretend they're there, I guess!

To make Peanut Butter Blossoms: Beat 240 g (about a cup) of creamy peanut butter and 113 g (1 stick) of soft unsalted butter until fluffy. Beat in 2 eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla, followed by the mix. Lastly, add 1-2 tablespoons of milk to form a soft dough - the exact amount you need will depend on the consistency of your peanut butter. Chill the dough for at least a few hours or overnight. Form chilled dough into balls about 1 tablespoon each in size, and roll each ball in granulated sugar. Arrange the balls on a baking sheet, squashing each one slightly, and leave a little space between them - they won’t spread very much. Bake at 350º F for about 16 minutes. Immediately press one chocolate kiss onto each cookie while still warm. The chocolate will soften and will stay soft even as the cookies cool completely, but will then firm up again within several hours (they taste best after this has happened). Makes about 48 cookies.

Verdict: I was worried at first that these were a little gritty, which is a common issue with stone-ground GF flours. But after I saw how quickly they disappeared when I brought a tray to a gathering of (non-GF) people where there was also plenty of other (non-GF) food to snack on, I'm not too concerned about it! They are pretty tasty, and stay soft for several days.

Now, on to the Sugar Cookies, and the subject of "cup-for-cup" or "1-for-1" flour blends...

For a blend to be considered a direct substitute for all-purpose flour in a range of recipes, it should usually have three major attributes:

1. Neutral flavor
2. Neutral texture (i.e. not gritty, not noticeably gummy or pasty)
3. Absorption of water and fat similar to that of wheat flour, and consistent across a wide range of formula types and hydration ratios

This last point is probably where we run into the most problems, and in fact, I believe there is no flour blend that is truly an all-purpose direct substitute in this respect. It would be more accurate to call these blends multi-purpose - - using them in place of the same amount of wheat flour may work in a variety of batters and doughs, but sheerly because of the differences in chemistry and structure, there is no GF blend that will provide all of the properties of wheat. Some of these blends may work well in a variety of recipes for stiff doughs (cookies, etc.) but not perform so nicely when substituted in batter recipes like muffins or pancakes; for others, the opposite may be true. Some may be an approximate substitute - you can eventually get it to work in a wide range of recipes, but you'll almost always need to tweak each recipe in one way or another. And even if a mix works great in batters and doughs alike, yeast breads will always require another approach entirely. 

Because of all these complications, I haven't really focused on 1-to-1 blends in several years - I find it's actually easier and makes more sense to me overall to just completely rebuild a recipe/formula. But again, this kind of holiday baking is a case where it may be important to stay as true to your particular traditional recipe as possible, and so a 1-to-1 blend may be useful.     

I happened to have in my pantry one such blend, which was given to me by someone who had used it for a different project. A sugar cookie recipe seemed like the perfect test, because it brings the flour's flavor and texture to the forefront and also plainly shows whether the dough is easy to work with. I chose a recipe that used a fairly ordinary formula and appeared to give consistently good results for bakers using wheat flour. 

This Bob's Red Mill flour is labeled as a "1-to-1" blend. But wait - is it 1-for-1 by weight, or by cup? Or both? According to the side of the package of the BRM flour, ¼ cup weighs 37 g. That seemed a good bit heavier than AP flour. Not surprising, considering the density of sweet rice flour, which is the first ingredient in the BRM blend - but still an important question. Sure enough, the internet told me a cup of AP flour weighs about 125 g. In a recipe that calls for 3 cups of flour, substituting by weight would mean using 375 g, compared to a whopping 444 g if I went according to volume. That’s a huge difference in the consistency of the dough! Hmm…

A bit of googling indicated that most people were using it cup-for-cup, not weight. Still, I decided to start with scant measurements to be safe - you can always add more flour, but you can’t take it out! A very scant 3 cups, by my measurement, turned out to be ~400 g. If I were going to make this recipe again, I think that I would be still more conservative (perhaps 380-390 g) - the cookies turned out a little dry, with a slightly powdery/floury mouthfeel. This is not uncommon in blends combining xanthan gum and a high proportion of starches. That said, there is no grittiness nor any off-flavors, and the dough was very easy to work with after chilling overnight. So, while it might not be a true cup-for-cup substitute, I do think this flour blend could be useful in a wide variety of “regular” cookie recipes if you just remember to go easy on the amount of flour used.

Coming up soon: Part 2, in which I will show you how to make some traditional Christmas cookies from scratch, using simple ingredients, with no gum or other additives!

Coconut flour spoonbread

First of all, if the term "spoonbread" has you puzzled, let me introduce you: Spoonbread is a very old traditional American dish which is somewhat similar to corn pudding, but with a bit more substance - essentially a hybrid of cornbread and baked custard. Because of this custardy consistency, it is generally served with a spoon right out of the baking dish, which is presumably where the name comes from. The relative proportions of cornmeal, milk/cream, eggs, & butter can vary quite a bit from recipe to recipe, with some versions being almost like pudding and others with more of a soufflé texture. Some also add other ingredients such as cheese, sweet potato, or peppers. This version keeps it fairly simple, but with a twist - it's made with coconut flour and coconut milk instead of the traditional cornmeal and dairy milk! As with the conventional version, this is not a sweet dish per se; there is some subtle sweetness from the ingredients, but it's definitely savory enough to pair well with classic picnic foods like baked beans. 

That said, if you're wondering what the strawberry shortcake pictured above has to do with all this, that's one example of something you can do with leftover coconut spoonbread! So while it is not inherently sweet, it can be used for sweeter foods as well - I've included some suggestions for this at the bottom of the post. But first, let me back up a bit...

Recently I was invited to participate in a project nuts.com is putting together for the 4th of July, centered on American-themed recipes featuring coconut flour. This combination of themes intrigued me - especially the coconut flour part, as it's an ingredient I haven't used much and this seemed like a good opportunity to learn more. The learning process has been lots of fun! Coconut has some really interesting and useful properties that make it not quite like any other flour I've used.

Thus, I wanted to make something that would really feature the properties of coconut (as opposed to something that "just happens" to use coconut flour, or something that hides it under a bunch of other ingredients). Here's some of what I've learned through research and experimentation:

Coconut flour is usually made from coconut that has already been pressed for oil and/or milk - as a result, it's very absorbent and surprisingly lightweight, behaving almost more like a whole-grain flour than like a nut flour. In contrast to those other lightweight flours, however, much of its substance comes from fiber, not starch. You may see this mentioned a lot in the context of nutrition - some people select this flour on the basis of the high fiber content / low carbohydrate content / low impact on blood sugar. Personally, I tend to avoid focusing heavily on the potential health benefits of individual foods or nutrients - my approach to nutrition is a bit more...holistic, I guess? However, it's important to point out that these same traits that make coconut flour attractive nutritionally - specifically the type of fiber and the lack of starch - are also responsible for its unique baking qualities. For one thing, it won't taste pasty or gummy like some flours can in high-moisture formulas, and also doesn't stale (harden) the way many flours tend to. I am still in the process of learning the best applications for these properties, but I know these are two reasons I will definitely be using this flour more frequently! 

I do also want to bring up a different kind of health-related aspect: 
There are a lot of reasons someone might need or want to reduce or avoid certain grains, or even all grains, and this means even GF baking is frequently off-limits. Coconut flour seems to me to be more versatile than some other non-grain flours such as almond meal, and provides a slight natural sweetness without adding any other sweeteners. These qualities mean it's an especially useful ingredient for people who avoid grains or other high-starch foods, in addition to being an interesting flour in general. I'm always happy to find ingredients that not only make good food, but also make it available to more people who would otherwise be left out!

OK, so these are all good things. But what about the other theme? I was struggling to find a way to connect coconut to the 4th of July. I mean, when most people think of coconut, "America" isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind. 

...Except for one particular part of it. Back in 1959, when Hawaii became the 50th state, the event spurred a huge increase in already-popular "Hawaiian" and "tiki"-themed things - especially food. And yes, the quotation marks are there for a reason: This trend usually meant simply taking a normal sort of recipe and adding canned pineapple and/or shredded coconut (and then, for bonus points, arranging it in some kitschy way). So, I didn't manage to find much inspiration in those retro recipes.

However, I felt the larger concept - reinterpreting a traditional American food using distinctive ingredients - had potential.

Well, OK, it wasn't actually quite that simple. I went through a few different ideas and a great deal of frustration before that train of thought eventually led me to spoonbread, and learned some important things about ingredients along the way. (Which I will save for a different post because this one's already really long! The frustration with ingredients resulted from one of those earlier ideas, a very different coconut recipe which I still want to share but it needs a little polishing before I can post it. So I will share the lessons I learned along with that recipe. For now, I'll just say please check out the note about coconut milk at the bottom of the page before you start!)

Now, on to the recipe! 

Coconut Spoonbread

100 g coconut flour, divided
3 g (1/2 tsp) sea salt
320 g coconut milk, divided (**see note at bottom of post**)
40 g coconut oil
20 g arrowroot starch 
5 eggs, room temperature

1. Put 40 g of the coconut flour in a small pan and toast over low heat, stirring frequently. This brings out a biscuity, savory quality that really complements the subtle sweetness of the bread. Once it begins to lightly brown, remove from heat and combine with the other 60 g coconut flour. Mix salt into flour, & let flour cool before proceeding. 

2. Put the coconut oil into a mixer bowl and set aside. 

3. The silky texture of traditional spoonbread is due in part to recipes commonly involving partially pregelatinizing (pre-cooking) the starch in the cornmeal, either by cooking it in milk like mush or by stirring boiling liquid into it. Coconut flour, though, has none of this starch - that's
where the arrowroot comes in. The arrowroot is cooked into a sort of pudding which helps stabilize the mixture and keep the bread moist, in addition to contributing to the texture. 

To do this, put the arrowroot into a small bowl and stir in 20 g coconut milk to make a smooth paste, then heat the remaining 300 g coconut milk in a small saucepan, stirring constantly. (You can use the same pan you toasted the flour in - it's OK if there are a few crumbs of flour still in there.) When the milk is very warm, stir a couple spoonfuls of it into the arrowroot mixture, then add that mixture back into the saucepan, stirring constantly over low heat until thickened. Immediately add the milk-arrowroot mixture to the mixer bowl. 


4. Using paddle attachment, slowly increase speed so the oil does not splash out - then beat until the mixture is well combined. (I recommend doing it this way, rather than cooking the oil together with the milk, because I had trouble getting the arrowroot to incorporate smoothly with the latter method.)

Continue beating until the mixture is homogenous and sticking to the sides of the bowl, and it has cooled down enough that you can comfortably put your hand on the bottom of the bowl. Then add the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition. When all eggs have been added, beat on medium speed until it becomes noticeably light and foamy, but not too dry - about 2 minutes. Then add the coconut flour a little at a time, mixing until there are no lumps, but stirring gently so as not to deflate the mixture too much.


5. Gently pour the batter into an oiled casserole dish. Carefully spoon a little thinned coconut milk over the top and, if desired, grate a little nutmeg over it (optional, but traditional). 

Bake on center rack of oven at 375º F/190º C for 10-15 minutes (depending on how deep your baking dish is), then reset oven temperature to 350º F/175º C and continue baking another ~20 minutes, until the center is set but still soft. The bread will be puffy when you first remove it from the oven, as shown at the bottom of the post. 

It will fall a bit as it cools - that's OK.

Serve warm or cold. Leftovers should be refrigerated.  

Bonus "recipe" for shortcake: Cut cold leftover coconut spoonbread into slices. Add strawberries, peach slices, or other fresh summer fruit. Top with a big dollop of coconut cream, whipped cream, or thick yogurt. I've been eating this for breakfast! (To get coconut cream, simply refrigerate a can of full-fat coconut milk overnight - the thickest, creamiest part will rise to the top.)

**Note on coconut milk: Be sure to use a brand of coconut milk that does not have guar gum or other added stabilizers - ideally the only ingredients should be coconut & water! This is important for both the texture and flavor of the recipe. (Guess how I know.) You might have to go to an Asian grocery to find one without gum - that was the only place I could find it.
And this probably goes without saying, but definitely don't use that watery "milk substitute" stuff.

*Notes on substitutions: 
- Regardless of what kind of flour it's made of, the characteristic texture and rich flavor of spoon bread is very much influenced by eggs. I have not found a satisfactory egg substitute here - I think a different recipe would be needed for an eggless bread, as opposed to using a substitute. (That said, if you do come up with an eggless adaptation of this recipe, please let me know in the comments!)
- Because of the arrowroot in this particular recipe, this bread does contain some starch; however, it's still much lower in starch than cornmeal-based bread. I recognize that for some people, even this minimal amount of starch is a problem. If you want to try making an even lower-carbohydrate version, please let me know how it turns out!

All the opinions here are my own - I was not compensated for this post. I simply thought the project sounded fun!

For Thanksgiving: A Savory Apple Cobbler

The other day I stumbled across a recipe for savory oatmeal cookies. I thought it was a clever idea, and was particularly intrigued by the nice balance of novelty and familiarity it evokes - something that manages to feel traditional, yet at the same time is fresh and new. That same approach, I realized, could go beyond simply creating delicious food; it could also provide an elegant solution to a dilemma that becomes especially apparent as holidays approach: how to reconcile the desire to keep with tradition, and the need to change tradition that sometimes goes hand-in-hand with food sensitivities. I don't mean just swapping sweet and savory, or using alternative ingredients; I'm talking about that larger idea - something that's not quite familiar, yet somehow seems to belong, with all the appeal of the other well-loved traditions on the table. Sometimes we directly adapt the old recipes; other times, we replace them with something entirely different. And sometimes, there is something in between - a bit from both, a bit from neither - which neither replaces nor competes, but rather adds. It takes the focus off of dietary restrictions, and instead allows food to be simply food - with all of the enjoyment that entails.

This is one of those foods. With its roasted squash, apples, savory herbs, and nutty cornmeal-oat topping, this cobbler even tastes like Thanksgiving - all autumnal and cozy, homey but by no means homely. There's just a hint of sweetness to complement those flavors - it's definitely a side dish, not a dessert (though it would fit in wonderfully as an accompaniment to a cheese course, too). The recipe is designed for flexibility: almost everything can be done a day in advance, and the quantities/types of filling can be varied as needed. Best of all, the grain ingredients - just cornmeal and oats, no added starch or binders - are easy-to-find (and all "normal" ingredients, for those family members who may be skeptical of GF baked goods!).

Savory Apple Cobbler

For the crumble topping:

{Loosely adapted from Savory Oatmeal Cookies, by Sara Kate Gillingham} 

80 g GF rolled oats, divided

70 g cornmeal

30 g brown sugar

60 g EV olive oil and/or butter (I used 30 g of each)

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

3 g (1/2 tsp) salt

1 large egg (approx. 50 g)

80 g water, boiling hot

35 g hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

several fresh sage leaves, minced

sprig of fresh thyme, or a good pinch of dried

small sprig of fresh rosemary

black pepper & sea salt, to taste

1. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, salt, and about half of each of the herbs (save the rest for the cobbler part). Rub the mixture between your fingers to help release the herbs' oils. 

2. In a larger bowl, stir together the cornmeal, 40 g of the oats, baking soda, and baking powder. Pour in the water and stir well. Cover the bowl and set it aside for a few minutes.

3. Meanwhile, add the remaining 40 g oats to the first bowl. Then add the oil and/or butter (butter, if using, should be cut in as for pie crust before adding oil). Add pepper to taste.

4. Add the egg to the large bowl, stirring well, and then stir in the hazelnut pieces, followed by the other mixture. It will form a soft dough. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight. 

For the cobbler:

These measurements are approximate, and for the most part are very flexible as far as proportions and substitutions go. Don't be afraid to improvise!

1 large butternut squash, cut into smallish pieces - or about 2 pounds precut squash

3-4 apples, preferably a mix (suggested varieties include Stayman, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Braeburn, Cortland, and Gala)

1 yellow onion, sliced thin

a few handfuls cremini mushrooms (about 5 mushrooms), sliced very thin

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

a handful or two of walnut pieces

olive oil

1-2 tsp real maple syrup (not absolutely necessary, but I think it really enhances the mix of flavors)

1. Toss butternut squash pieces with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast at 400º F until moderately tender, about 45 minutes - stir occasionally to prevent burning.

2. Sautee onions in oil until just softened. Add remaining herbs, garlic, and mushrooms (and more salt & pepper, to taste). Lower heat and cook for a couple more minutes.

3. Combine the cooked squash pieces, onions, and mushrooms with the raw apple pieces, then add the walnuts and stir in maple syrup.  

4. --If you are preparing ahead of time, this is the point to pause - cover and refrigerate mixture until needed. Otherwise, continue.--

5. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Put above mixture into baking dishes (two 8x8" dishes or equivalent would do nicely - I used one 8x8 and one 11x13, but the topping was spread a bit thin). Break up the chilled dough until crumbly, and drop small spoonfuls evenly over the surface. Sprinkle a little more pepper and salt on top if desired. 

6. Cover the baking dishes with foil. Bake 30-40 minutes covered, then remove foil and bake another 20-30 minutes. After removing from the oven, loosely drape the foil over the dishes again and let it sit for just a few minutes. Serve warm.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!