Baking, Fails, and New Products

Ordering at Chinese Restaurants when you're Gluten-Free

Pro Tip: Order the dish you desire without soy sauce or any sauce at all (steamed, you're even safer.)
Do a little research, figure out how the dish is made. Understanding how certain dishes are prepared helps you understand possible sources of gluten-containing products. Finally, if you don't care about cooking, heaven help you if you're gluten-free.

Or Maybe Not

The continual availability of new gluten-free products hasn't ceased to amaze me. People with actual Coeliac disease make up less than 1% of the US population, yet the GF foods market is valued at >$10.5 billion (in 2013). Since I pinpointed my gluten sensitivity in May 2011, I went from barely being able to find sorghum flour at ShopRite to being able to buy GF (and vegan) bread at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods (duh), Sprouts, and Safeway.



This week, I had the InBar again (I had one a few weeks ago since they were in the last chance pile at Sprouts--don't judge.) The Chocolate Butter Crunch tastes a lot like a Nestle Crunch bar, no joke. At 173 calories and 11 grams of protein, they're on the substantial side for protein bars, which I like.



On Friday, I had the Daiya Supreme Pizza and today's brunch was the Bold Organics Gluten-Free Dairy Free Vegan Cheese Pizza. Let's be honest here, vegan frozen pizza is junk food. The Daiya pizza has 6 grams of protein per serving (1/4 pizza, which is tiny), and the Bold is even worse at 3 grams of protein per serving (1/3 pizza, more realistic). I am known to eat an entire vegan pizza in one sitting because they are not very stick-to-your-ribs. The fat and sodium counts are just disgusting. Make your own!

[caption id="attachment_4112" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Daiya Supreme on the left and Bold Cheeze on the right[/caption]

This Week in Baking

This week has not been a good week in VGF cookery. Babycakes NYC waffles failed TWICE, despite following the recipe to the letter. TC said to cook them on lower heat or add more liquid. Neither modification helped. And they've worked perfectly before! The new-ish waffle iron couldn't be the cause.



Ah well, it hasn't been the easiest week. I saw this quote today in The Artist's Way which sums it up nicely:

Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness. The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.

--Willa Cather

TC kept bugging me all week to make Danishes, to figure out how to make VGF Danishes. Gluten-Free on a Shoestring had the answers. I've admired Nicole's blog for a few years, but I haven't made anything from it until this weekend.



Laminated pastry dough is a bitch. While I don't usually use GF baking blends, for a dough that needed to be handled a lot, I turned to a blend. Sprouts didn't have the Namaste perfect flour blend. Instead, I used this newer Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour, which I hadn't tried before. Not having chickpea flour was the deciding factor in favour of this mix.



Earth Balance substituted for butter wonderfully. There was a sickening amount of fat in this recipe.

The "butter" packet:



I made a filling from vegan cream cheeze, agave, tapioca starch, and strawberry jam.



I'm not the neatest baker, in case you couldn't tell. I don't like fussing over food.



Process notwithstanding, the Danish log turned out properly flaky and buttery, and once the filling set up, it makes a fabulous breakfast dessert.

All wrapped up and ready to go to the neighbours.

Parting shots:

I broke my one "fancy" glass when I was washing dishes. It was a very dark purple glass. Since I got this one at a thrift store, I guess I'll get the next one at a thrifty.

 

Agave spill! Good thing it didn't get into the bar stash.