Book of Yum

It has been quite a few months since I had the courage to participate in my Adopt-a-gluten-free-Blogger event. I have always been quite devoted to the idea of following my fellow bloggers’ recipes as written the first time around, and my limited ingredient options during the past few months made this difficult to say the least. However, being top eight-allergen free and rice shy at the moment, it occurred to me that the one blogger who might have options for me was our own Allergic goddess, Karina. I’ve always been inordinately fond of rice and rice blends in baking. And, barring that, I like to use bean flour blends. What to do when both are (temporarily) off the menu? Find someone who relishes the challenges of dairy and egg-free baking like Karina, and luxuriates in the stretchy, wholesome goodness of sorghum and millet, or course! Before I began this whole experiment, I had to make sure Baby Yum could tolerate a few fundamental ingredients, largely Hemp Milk, Ener-g Foods Egg Replacer, Sorghum, and baking powder. Happily, all ingredients seemed to work well with her delicate tummy. Because I’m doing potato starch and corn “light” at the moment, I did substitute arrowroot starch for the potato starch in Karina’s recipes, and alternated between coconut milk and hemp milk.

One of the first recipes I tried was Karina’s Vegan Gluten-free Irish Soda Bread recipe. I have never been that appreciative of Irish Soda bread (sorry Bette Hagman), but the Millet-sorghum base in this recipe intrigued me, as well as the inclusion of caraway seed. I never met a caraway seed bread recipe I didn’t like… and this recipe was no exception. I used coconut milk instead of the alternative, and arrowroot starch instead of potato starch. I shaped it, baked it, let it cool (as much as I could bear to wait) and sliced it. Heaven! One of the best quick breads I’ve ever had. It is sweet, yet savory, and each bite is crunchy when toasted yet melts in your mouth at the same time. This will go into my regular rotation!

I also tried Karina’s Vegan Gluten-free English Muffin Recipe. I’m a big fan of any round, yeasty bread product, whether it be Crumpets, English Muffins or buns, and I had high hopes for this recipe. Bette Hagman has spectacular recipes for gluten-free crumpets that I’ve enjoyed for years, and I was hoping Karina could help me make one using sorghum flour as the tasty base. Happily, this recipe did not disappoint in the slightest, even with the substitution of arrowroot starch for the starch flour. The dough was elastic and light, and I knew before I even poured them into the molds that this recipe was going to be a winner. I did make one error when I took them out of the oven- greedily sawing one out of the mold and trying to cut it in half and drizzle it with olive oil right away. Perhaps due to the arrowroot starch, they are delicate and if you rush these beauties by threatening them with a knife right away they may deflate and you may miss out on the optimal light-hole riddled english muffin experience. I found out that if you let them cool entirely and THEN delicately remove them, you can gently saw them in half with no damage to the structure of the muffin. Or if you just can’t wait (understandable, when you smell these lovelies in the oven), you can gently rip them apart (in half, horizontally) without entirely destroying them. These english muffins made me realize I’ve been giving sorghum a bum rap all these years. Just because there are some bad recipes using sorghum doesn’t mean the grain is bad… and these wonderful, faintly nutty, whole-grain flavored muffins are proof. I forced myself to freeze half of the first batch, but happily made another batch the next time sorghum day rolled around. And I’m sorry to say, none of those made it to the freezer. They made an excellent base for a sunbutter and jelly sandwich when I went out for a bachelorette party… and were just as good when i gobbled them with some no-soy margarine and dill. Karina should get a medal for these English Muffins. They are that good. *I also found that if you are greedy like me, you can squeeze 8 muffins out of the recipe. Just be slightly stingy when pouring the batter into your molds.

I also tried one of Karina’s quinoa-based recipes for what she calls a Vegan Breakfast Brownie. I love eating dessert for breakfast, but it is usually a guilty pleasure I don’t share with others. Who, me, eat half a gluten-free apple pie for breakfast? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Honest. But our decadent gluten-free goddess has no such compunctions, brazenly throwing out recipes for brownies that you are SUPPOSED to eat at breakfast time. My heroine. Who could feel guilty about a high protein treat stuffed with quinoa, anyway? I’m sure all that healthy goodness cancels out the chocolate chips, although not in flavor! These breakfast brownies are worthy of the name, and they travel gloriously well. You can also individually wrap them and freeze them. Brilliant! *I take them out of the plastic wrap and either defrost by leaving them out at room temperature or microwave on half-power. Perfect with a steaming Americano!

Of all the recipes I tried from Karina’s site, the only one that didn’t quite work for me was her Vegan gluten-free Herbed Flatbread Recipe. Perhaps the temperature of my liquids was off… but it just didn’t rise and look as lovely as her images. However, since I actually have a vegan gluten-free pizza crust recipe that works for me, I wasn’t too worried about it, especially since every other recipe was a keeper.

The one thing this little experiment taught me is that Karina’s title of “gluten-free goddess” is well deserved. All of us with gluten-intolerance and multiple intolerances can find yummy recipes, inspiration, and a bit of magic over at the Gluten-free Goddess’s Blogspot. What’s your favorite Gluten-free Goddess recipe? Share in the comments!

Recipe Recap:
Gluten-free English Muffins
Gluten-free Irish Soda Bread
Gluten-free Quinoa Breakfast Brownies
Gluten-free Herbed Flatbread

This isn’t the first time I adopted Karina! I also adopted her in 2008 and made her tasty gluten-free Mac-n-Uncheese Recipe.

Welcome to the January Edition of Adopt a Gluten-free Blogger!

Here’s a reminder of how the event works:

Participation is simple.

1) Pick a gluten-free blogger whose recipes you admire and adopt them by commenting on this post with your name, blog name and their name and blog name.

*Blogger’s recipes must all be gluten-free or have a way to sort and read ONLY gluten-free recipes
*Please pick a different blogger every time you participate

2) Pick one (or two!) of your gluten-free blogger’s recipes to try.

3) Make the recipe, photograph it and write a post in your blog introducing the blogger and their recipe. Link back to this event announcement in your post.

*Follow the recipe as written, as closely as possible. And, please don’t print their recipe on your post- just provide your reader a link to their original recipe.

4) Email me at adoptaglutenfreeblogger[at]gmail[dot]com with your photo of the recipe, the URL of your post, name of the recipe and the URL of the original blogger’s recipe post.

*Note: This is a new email set up just for this event. Hopefully this will make it easier to keep track of entries. If you have general questions, please don’t email me at this address but post them here so everyone can read the question (and answer). Companies are NOT welcome to email me at this address, unless a representative is planning to adopt a blogger and write about it. ;)

5) Post YOUR POST’s URL in a comment to this post, and if possible please try to visit two other blogger’s posts that are posted here (and comment!).

*The goal is to make this event more interactive and fun!

Deadlines:
Sign up BEFORE January 25 (loose deadline; late sign-ups are ok)
Post your Review and Email me by February 3 (firm deadline, no foolin’)

If you don’t have a blog, you are still welcome to adopt a gluten-free blogger. Sign up to adopt a blogger, write a review of one of their recipes, including your name (or pen name), the recipe URL and recipe title. Then take a photo of the completed recipe (if you can) and EMAIL ME the review and photo. I’ll create a special page just for our non-blogging participants and post it for you.

I’ll start the ball rolling by adopting Karina the Gluten Free Goddess!

Adoption Sign-Up Sheet:
1) Karina the Gluten Free Goddess (adopted by me)
2) Stephanie O’Dea the 365 Crockpot (adopted by Amy at Our Peep Show *edited)
3)Carrie at Ginger Lemon Girl (adopted by Rebecca of GFCF)
4) Kate of Gluten free Gobsmacked (adopted by Heather of Celiac Family)
5) Karen of MuffinFixation (adopted by Fire Eyes Roth)
6) Karina the Gluten Free Goddess adopted a 2nd time! (adopted by Manda of Asparagus Thin)
7) Jeanine of Baking Beauties (adopted by Karen of MuffinFixation)
8) GF Betty (adopted by Terina of Gluten-free Reality)
9) Amy of Simply gluten and sugar free (adopted by Cheryl of GF Goodness)
10) Heather from Life, Gluten-Free (adopted by Maggie from She Let them Eat Cake)
11) Lauren at Celiac Teen (Adopted by Thomas of GFCF Experience)
12) You Pick (what the heck, even though the deadline is past, you go for it!)

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
If you sign up and cannot complete this event by February 3 for any reason, please email me immediately at adoptaglutenfreeblogger[at]gmail[dot]com and let me know. Please ONLY use this email account for Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger relevant emails.

Can’t find a blogger to adopt or looking to meet some new gluten-free friends?
Visit my Gluten-Free Blogroll

Example of an Adoption Post