French Bread

I've been dabbling in making french bread as of late. Today I tried round 3. The kitchenaid mixer has been my friend.

The first recipe I tried was from Living Without magazine. It was made using their high protein flour blend, which I chose to make with soy flour. We were pretty happy with the results. We made italian beef sandwiches, and they turned out well. Or I should say, good enough. The inside was a tad gummy, but that could have been because I hadn't baked it long enough. I did take the temperature and all, but I thought the inside needed to be lighter.

The second recipe I tried was from Gluten Free Girl on recipezaar. It was even better. The pics here are from that batch. I used quick-rise yeast, which the recipe calls for.

Today I tried again. I was out of fine rice flour, so I looked for another recipe. I came across the French-Italian bread recipe in Annalise Robert's book Gluten-Free Baking Classics ( dang, I really like this cookbook). It calls for millet, sorghum, tapioca flour, so I was good to go. Also, there were no eggs involved, in case you avoid them. The texture was great! I made garlic bread for dinner, so decadent. It had all the qualities I had been looking for. The recipe calls for regular-rise yeast, which I didn't have. I used quick-rise and it turned out fine. Perhaps with a longer rise, it would have been even better.



I should note that I used a double french bread pan from Sur La Table. It was very affordable, and I think it really made the difference.

Yay bread!

Crepes, dude, crepes

There's this great little place over in Bucktown called Cafe de Luca. We haven't been there in a while, definitely not since being GF. I would always get the Banana Granola Crepes, and they were delicious. I hadn't really thought about making them at home, seemed too complicated. But when I saw a recipe in Gluten-Free Living magazine, I thought I'd give it a try.

The article was about cooking with an iron skillet, but it said that a crepe pan works well with skillet & corn bread, as well as crepes. We went to Sur La Table & checked out (and ultimately bought) the recommended DeBuyer crepe pan. It was a steal at $21.95.

I will post the recipe & let Devin talk about making the crepes. I let him have the honors because I knew it would be something he would "geek out" on. I was correct.


Rice Flour Crepes

2 large eggs
pinch fine sea salt
pinch sugar
1 cup milk
1/3 cup white rice flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons melted butter, plus extra for skillet

In a blender or food processor, combine the eggs, salt, sugar, and milk. Process to blend. Add the rice flour and cornstarch, and process until smooth. Pour into a bowl and stir in the butter. The texture should be like thin cream. Stir occasionally while making the crepes, and add a little water if the batter becomes too thick.

Heat an 8 1/2 inch carbon crepe pan over medium heat, and grease lightly with butter. Using a small measuring cup, ladle about 2 tablespoons of the batter into the pan, tilting it by the handle to cover the bottom.

When it's covered in bubbles and lightly browned, 1 minute or less, turn with a plastic spatula and cook for a further 30 seconds. Remove the crepe and place on a plate with the well-browned side down. Then repeat the process until you have used all the batter. (You do not have to re-grease the pan for each one).


To fill, place the desired number of crepes browned side down on a work surface. Cover with thin slices of ham or salami and grated firm cheese, and a few salad leaves. I put vanilla yogurt, bananas & strawberries in mine. Devin used ham & cheese. Roll them up like a cigar, and lay on serving plates seam side down.

I think these will become a staple around here, for breakfast and for dinner. Devin said it was relatively easy after he screwed up the first couple. It made plenty of crepes, and the leftovers I put in a plastic bag and we used for lunch.