The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking (5 page)
Read The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking Online
Authors: Peter Reinhart
Within each recipe, you will see cues for how the dough should look and feel. Here are examples of what we mean:
•
Thick, sticky
dough means that the consistency of the dough will resemble cooked oatmeal or porridge, and it will be sticky. A spatula or wooden spoon will stand straight up when inserted into the center of the mixture. The dough will hold its shape when dropped from a spoon, and is even moldable once transferred to a baking sheet. This description applies to many of the recipes for breads, cookies, hush puppies, and
crackers. In some instances, we will say
very thick and sticky,
which means it’s even thicker and almost, but not quite, stiff.
• In these recipes, our description of
stiff
dough is often punctuated with the words “playdough-like,” because not only will a spatula or spoon stand straight up when inserted into the center of the dough, but also the dough will hold its shape when formed into scones, biscuits, breadsticks, pretzels, piecrusts, and cookies. It won’t stick to your fingers the way a thick batter does, and peels off much like playdough does.
•
Smooth, sticky
dough (which is aerated or made fluffy in some recipes, and also pourable in some instances), such as pizza or focaccia dough, as well as some bread and cake doughs, requires a pan to help it hold its shape. These smooth doughs are often poured or spread into the pans rather than formed into freestanding shapes. When working with these doughs, use wet hands and tools (dipped into some water or rubbed with oil) to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.
•
Loose, pourable
dough, used in our recipes for pancakes and waffles, is slightly thicker than a milkshake and is the loosest of the doughs.
If any of your doughs don’t conform to these cues, adjust the liquid or flour amounts accordingly. In most cases, a different consistency means that one of the ingredients was drier than usual, or the ingredients may have been measured out incorrectly.
Because these baked goods are generally made in loaf pans, muffin tins, and other such pans, you don’t need to learn elaborate
shaping techniques, as for traditional breads. In most cases, the dough or batter is simply poured or portioned into pans and then baked. In recipes where shaping is required, here are a few pointers to help ensure success:
• When shaping dough by hand, as when rolling balls of dough for cloverleaf rolls, oiling your hands or spraying them with pan spray, or even dipping them in water, will help prevent sticking.
• Because these doughs tend to be soft and on the sticky side, when manipulating dough on a work surface, it’s best to oil the surface or spray it with oil to prevent sticking.
The temperatures indicated in these recipes are for conventional ovens. If you have a convection oven, reduce the temperature by 25°F or 14°C. If you have an older convection oven with a very strong fan, reduce the temperature by 50°F or about 28°C. Because every oven is different, these adjustments are just approximations. Once you make a few of these recipes, you’ll have a better idea of whether you need to adjust the baking temperatures and by how much.
You’ll note that we often call for
lining bakeware with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Although new baking pans usually have a protective glaze that prevents the metal from reacting with the food, over time and with use, this coating glaze wears off and the metal becomes more exposed. In some instances, the metal may react to acids in the dough, discoloring your baked goods or even imparting a metallic taste. Whenever you can line the pan with a silicone mat, this is your best bet for avoiding these problems—and also has the benefit of releasing baked goods easily. Parchment paper is also an option, but it isn’t truly nonstick until the paper heats up, so we generally recommend that you mist the parchment
paper with spray oil to ensure an easy release. However, note that some doughs are dry enough that they don’t tend to stick, so in these cases we don’t call for misting the parchment. All of that said, if you don’t have parchment paper or a silicone mat, you can definitely bake directly on the pan; you may just want to oil it more generously. We also give instructions for preparing shaped baking pans such as Bundt pans by generously greasing the pan, freezing it, then coating the interior with nut flour just before it’s used.
For baking a single sheet pan, we recommend putting it on a rack positioned in the middle of the oven.
For two or more pans, your best bet is probably to bake just one pan at a time. In this case, you’d want to use
double-acting baking powder
to ensure a good rise on items that go into the oven later. For two pans, another option is to position two racks in the center of the oven with enough space between them to accommodate the pans and allow for some air space above and below.
There are very few ovens that bake evenly, so, as is common for all baked goods, we suggest rotating pans halfway through the baking time (this includes switching racks, too, if baking in two pans) to ensure even baking, and the recipes include this instruction. However, in some instances, you may need to wait until later in the baking process to rotate. An example would be if a cake hasn’t set up in the suggested time frame. Use your best judgment. If you find that your oven bakes evenly (which is more likely with a convection oven), then there may be no need to rotate.
Cooling is always an important part of the baking process, mainly because it comes right before eating! But in all seriousness, from a technical standpoint baked goods are still baking when they first come out of the oven. One definition of baking is “the application of heat to a product in an enclosed environment (the oven) for the purpose of driving off moisture.” Once removed from the oven, they’re no longer enclosed, but the residual heat is still driving off moisture—and intensifying flavors and firming up in the process. This is especially true with these wet, dense batters. Leave the just-baked products uncovered to finish cooling, until they cool for at least as long as prompted in the instructions, or until cool to the touch. Loaf breads may be sliced and eaten after they cool as directed, but are even easier to slice after a thorough cooling in the refrigerator, as directed opposite. Wire racks are best for cooling most baked goods because they allow moisture to evaporate on all sides, including underneath.
Once your baked goods are completely cooled, store them in airtight containers or resealable freezer bags. Because they are made with nut and seed flours, they contain more oils than most traditional baked goods, so put a paper towel in the container or bag to absorb any oil that works its way to the surface. You can store your baked goods at room temperature for a day or so, but we recommend keeping them in the refrigerator or freezer for optimum flavor and freshness. Remember, the primary ingredients are nut and seed flours, and their oils are vulnerable to rancidity.
This chapter of basics has given you all of the information you need to get started. Now all you need is experience, so choose a recipe that appeals to you and give it a try. You can always refer to this chapter if you need to, but once you start making these recipes, you’ll undoubtedly find them easier than you’d ever imagined they could be—not to mention extremely delicious. Now you can fill your home with tasty, healthful, guilt-free baked goods. You can enjoy them whenever you want a treat or as an accompaniment to meals, and you can feel great about giving them to your kids, friends, and loved ones. A new era of baking awaits.
The recipes in this chapter will give you a solid foundation in baking gluten-free, sugar-free, low-carb bread. Once you’ve tried a few of the recipes as written, you can start to branch out by substituting different flours, creating as many bread variations as you can imagine. We’ll add new recipes to the website (
www.thejoyofgluten-freesugar-freebaking.com
) as we develop them, or as you share them.
Although we’ve divided the recipes into seemingly neat categories of breads and rolls, the truth is, you can use the bread doughs to make rolls and vice versa.
These breads aren’t leavened with
yeast, as the low-carb content and absence of sugar mean there’s little or no food for yeast, so it cannot grow and ferment. In that sense, these are really quick breads, leavened with baking powder, and for that reason, they should be baked as soon as the dough is made. If you miss the yeasty flavor of regular bread, feel free to add a packet of instant or active dry yeast (2¼ teaspoons) to any of these recipes. Dissolve it in 2 tablespoons of warm water; the temperature should be about 95°F (35°C). Add the mixture to the wet ingredients and proceed with mixing as described in the recipe. It’s just for flavor, not leavening, and it’s totally optional.
Here are some tips and tricks that apply to all of the breads in this chapter:
•
Because various brands of nut flour, levels of grind, and types of nuts absorb liquid differently, you may need to adjust these recipes by adding more liquid or nut flour to achieve the batter texture we describe. Keep in mind that most of these batters should be thick but pourable.
• It’s best to let the loaves cool completely before slicing them, though you can slice thick slices while still warm. If you like thinner slices, chill the cooled bread first to firm it up.
• As with all products made with nut and seed flour, store these breads in the refrigerator or freezer. If freezing, you can slice the bread and freeze the slices; that way you can take them out of the freezer as you need them without thawing the whole loaf.
• Baking with nut and seed flours results in breads that are rich in natural oils. To maintain freshness, store the bread in a plastic container or resealable bag lined with a paper towel. The paper towel will absorb any oil that seeps out of the loaf and will also help maintain the freshness of the bread longer (the paper towel controls moisture, which could otherwise ruin the loaf).
• When making rolls, you can bake them in a muffin tin to help them hold their shape and height. Or for flatter, more rustic rolls, bake them on a baking sheet. If using a muffin tin, mist the cups with spray oil; if using a baking sheet, line it with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Round rolls may take longer to bake than cloverleaf rolls—perhaps about 10 minutes longer. For best results, use the doneness cues to determine when to remove the rolls from the oven.
