Monique - does she even have a personality any longer?

stripeypants · Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:28 pm Post subject:

Awesome! I use a mix of white rice flour, brown rice flour and xantham gum for my gluten free stuff. I've been trying different starches as well, because I've been trying to make yeasty breads (Yet no matter what I do, it is still a sturdy lump when I finish.) For smaller flatter things, like biscuits and cookies, the white/brown rice and xantham gum is enough.
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mouse · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 19812 Location: under the bed

i'm trying to decide if i want to play more with gluten-free. i don't have any problem with wheat, so i have no real reason to. however, i help out with the baking for a fundraiser at the cancer center here - i seem to be the premier scone-baker. the woman who organizes it wanted to do some gluten-free stuff, but scones really don't work too well without wheat flour (or at least none of the ones i tried did). she did some gluten-free muffins that worked pretty well (although they didn't necessarily raise well - but i need to try them at home to see if that was the recipe or the baker). i recently bought a loaf of low gluten, high protein bread (with vegetables!) which is ok, but the texture is...odd. not precisely rubbery - foam-rubbery? it had a degree of spring i found off-putting in a sandwich.

what does the xantham gum do? does that help trap air, the way gluten does in wheat bread?
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stripeypants · Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 1:42 pm Post subject:

Was that bread a national brand? There are some that have the exact texture of a foam sponge. They tasted better when a friend who knew what they were doing tried toasting them, but not by much. Most GF bread tastes better toasted.

I wouldn't recommend it for health if you don't need to eat gluten free (because of the expense), but if you want to sell gluten free stuff, making gf baked goods often for yourself will help you make things that taste good instead of like crap. (Which I suspect is a lot of the problem with gf goods commercially available. I still can't get over some of the god-awful breads.)

Xantham gum behaves a bit like gluten. It binds the dough together. Before I tried using it, I found the things I made tasted alright but had a granular, gritty texture. Nothing I did fixed that. Then after adding xantham gum, I that the shorter small things I made (biscuits, cookies) were light and fluffy. Bread was also more moist and held together better - even if it was a yeasty brick.

I don't know how well it works with bean flour, because my experience with bean flours has been heavy, gritty, bean-flavored grossness, and I don't want to bother buying more of those flours to give them a shot.
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Rune · Joined: 08 Oct 2011 Posts: 1751

I should not have just googled where xanthan gum comes from.

Twenty-Fifth Night · Joined: 14 Apr 2013 Posts: 41 Location: Dreamland

This Thread - Does it even have a point any longer?
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mouse · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 19812 Location: under the bed

yes. the point is now tasty cookies.

tasty, tasty cookies. that Rune and stripeypants are inventing.

inventing cookies is an extremely significant human endeavor.
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mouse · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 19812 Location: under the bed

Rune · Joined: 08 Oct 2011 Posts: 1751

Heretical Rants · Joined: 21 Jul 2009 Posts: 5344 Location: No.

I've ignored pretty much everything that's happened in this thread that wasn't Moskau-related
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stripeypants · Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 2:26 pm Post subject:

This thread didn't have much of a point before. Now it has been upcycled. It is both easy and satisfying to upcycle a crappy thread into one on baking tips and tricks. Educational too!

Happy happy cookie thread!
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Rune · Joined: 08 Oct 2011 Posts: 1751

I just made no-bakes, inspired by this thread. It is a force for good!

MerchManDan · Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 2126 Location: Somewhere else.

Rune · Joined: 08 Oct 2011 Posts: 1751

Just the whole fact that it's a bacterial excretion.

I know, we use bacteria and fermentation all the time.

Sometimes it's better for the irrational squick-factor to remain ignorant of the details.

MerchManDan · Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 2126 Location: Somewhere else.

Ah, gotcha. Yes, when it comes to food additives, sometimes ignorance truly is bliss.
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stripeypants · Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 5:34 pm Post subject:

Ah, I experience none of this discomfort because I love yogurt and cheese and some alcohols. But I'm also keen on starting to eat bugs, and I like burned to hell food.
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