Book of Yum

When the DH and I were first dating, he stole my heart by making me a gluten-free banana bread and bringing it to me on a cutting board with a beautiful red rose. Over the years he hasn’t baked for me terribly frequently, but when he does I’m always impressed with the results (and his effort). The other day we had some very ripe bananas that were apparently calling his name, because he sneaked off to the kitchen and whipped up a batch of banana bread. He used my special vanilla sugar and added extra spices for an extra-special banana bread. It seems simple, but the vanilla sugar resulted in an especially creamy and deliciously enticing banana bread. One secret of gluten-free baking that isn’t often mentioned is that a fruit or vegetable bread like banana bread or zucchini bread are very easily converted to be gluten free. In a simple quick bread based in fruit or vegetables, unlike yeast breads, I find that you don’t really need a special flour blend or to add xanthan or guar gum. They also are often extra tasty as muffins or mini muffins. Do you have a favorite gluten-free quick bread recipe? Tell me about it in the comments!

A week or two ago I was organizing my pantry and I realized I still had a lot of Pamela’s baking mixes tucked away, and their “best by” date was January 2008. Oops. Some time ago I’d ordered a big case from Amazon after discovering they make very nice Saturday morning waffles and pancakes with very little fuss and muss. I ordered from Amazon because, well, I’m just too cheap to pay the crazy price on the shelf, and I like free shipping on grocery purchases very much, thank you! However, DH and I had not been gobbling up waffles at the rate I thought we might- and I hadn’t gotten around to playing with the mix much, except for one sad and failed experiment with agave syrup in an apple muffin recipe. The discovery of my rapidly aging mixes spurred me into action, and I started playing around with some recipes on Pamela’s web site. On a day when I had a late start for classes that then go quite late, I decided I needed to take a snack, so I threw together a recipe for muffins. BytheBay’s recipe for banana medallion pancakes were floating around in my head and so, without looking at her recipe to check for how she made them, I adapted Pamela’s muffin recipe and threw some banana “medallions” on top as a nod to my favorite former-bay GF chef. They turned out well, and were just the thing halfway through a three hour class on Contributions to the Field of Buddhist Studies. They’re not fancy, but sometimes it’s the fast, get-you-out-the-door-and-fed in the morning recipes that sustain us gluten-free women on a daily basis.

All this experimentation with Pamela’s Mix has resulted in some exciting finds. The incredibly easy recipe for drop biscuits on Pamela’s web site (1 cup Mix, 1/4 cup organic trans-fat free shortening and 1/3 cup +1 tablespoon milk, combine, plop in oven and bake) was a big hit in our house, and I highly recommend it. Just a teaser- I’m working on a modified, healthier version that I’ll be posting one of these days, so stay posted. So why not spend some quality time with your favorite gluten-free baking mix and see if you can’t break out of the “pancake and waffle” rut? I’m sure glad I did…

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