And The Award Goes To….

These would have to be towards the top of my “favorite gluten-free things” list of all that I tried this year. They are also all egg free, soy free and a bunch of other things free if you are keeping track.

 …..and in no particular order…. the trophy goes to……

• bagels
• macaroons
• chocolate donuts
• gf oreos
• cheese buns
• bento
• sticky buns

Wonder Dough

It’s a wonder I didn’t think of this before. (ha) The recipe that was called “pretzels” has turned out to be much-much more than that. I turned it into sticky buns and pizza and biscuits and, let me think… oh yeah.. breadsticks.

We dipped the breadsticks in marinara sauce and declared them delicious. We were a captive audience, since we were stuck at home in the snow and couldn’t go anywhere anyway. So I think we would have probably eaten the couch if we had to,…. but I think this recipe can do even more than breadsticks and sticky buns. I will keep you posted.

Wonder dough

• 1 packet of RED STAR yeast (it’s gluten free)
• 2/3 cup warm water
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 C Brown rice flour
• 1/2 C potato starch — or 1/4 C golden flax meal and 1/4 C tapioca starch
• 1 T coconut milk powder — or sweet rice flour –or extra brown rice flour
• 1/2  tsp salt
• 2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp unflavored gelatin powder
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 tsp rice vinegar

Mix the yeast, sugar and water. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Add a little bit of extra starch to be able to handle the dough easily. (It’s pretty sticky) 

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-Breadsticks/Pretzels- shape them either forming them by hand, (rolling them like playdough snakes), or by squeezing them out of a pastry bag. I used a ziplock bag with the corner cut off. A piece of parchment paper rolled into a cone would have worked even better. The ones we did by hand were more “rustic”, so we smoothed out the dough slightly with water dipped fingers. The ones we shaped with the ziplock bag looked just like the one from the store.

-You can brush them with rice milk and sprinkle on coarse salt for “pretzels”

- Add seasonings to the dough before shaping it into breadsticks: onion powder, garlic powder, oregano leaves, basil…. or ?

-Sticky buns- I added a teaspoon of vanilla and a Tablespoon of sugar to the dough when mixing it up. Pat the dough into a rectangle shape on a cutting board. Spread a small amount of olive oil or palm shortening on top and sprinkle brown sugar all over it. Cinnamon or spices optional. Add golden raisins. Roll up the rectangle and slice it into buns. Bake in a greased pan.

- Jam rolls – spread jam on the rectangle of dough and roll and slice like cinnamon rolls.

- pizza crust – shape the crust. Let it rise for ten minutes. Bake it for 8-10 minutes. Top with whatever you like and bake again until the toppings are hot- probably another 10 minutes at least.

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Preheat the oven to 400. Let the shaped dough rise ten minutes on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake 10-15 minutes or until the outside of the dough is beginning to show a little golden brown color. The breadsticks will be sort of crusty/crunchy on the outside and bread soft in the middle. I baked the sticky buns for 20 minutes.

Here we see the sticky buns rising for ten minutes in a “before” picture. Here they are all golden brown and bubbling with syrupy brown sugar and really delicious. The raisins were a great addition. Frosting would be good too. Your mileage may vary.

Next time I will try this with cooked apples. Maybe make apple tarts. mmmmm… or pizza tarts.. mmmmm

Or!!! wait!!, what about wrapping hotdogs or little smokie sausages with the dough.. .. and then baking them….oh, snap. My appetizer dilema is solved.

Sticky buns. Oh yes.

Sticky buns, cinnamon buns, whatever you want to call them. These were very delicious. But then, I am the sort of celiac that wants the “regular” food, so I may be easy to impress. Your mileage may vary.

Not that I don’t adore lettuce salads, I do like them, often, just not in the dead freezing cold of winter when all I want is a dratted cinnamon sticky bun. With raisins. Please. Thank you very much. There is no store on the planet with gluten-free, warm out of the oven, cinnamon sticky buns. I checked.

So, anyway, I was making dough for flax bread this morning and decided to experiment with the idea of rolls. It works. It’s good. And I am so totally doing it again. They are gluten-free, dairy/casein free, soy free, and corn free.

Directions (sort of, from what I remember)

• Mix up a batch of flax bread. (see older post about that, or find your own bread dough to experiment with)  
• Add in 1 T sugar to every cup of dough that you have.
• Let rise for 30 minutes. Knead dough with enough potato starch to make it soft and still workable.
• Roll out into a long rectangle- approximately 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick.
• Spread palm oil shortening on the dough (this replaces the butter in the original roll, so by all means use butter if you can- but the palm oil shortening works fine).
• Mix 1/3 C brown sugar with 1/3 C white sugar (I used a very fine granulated sugar, but I think that powdered sugar will be what I try next time)  and add some ground cinnamon to your taste in a bowl. I just waved the cinnamon box over the sugar and it was too much. You may want more like a teaspoon of it.
• Spread sugar mixture over the shortening and add golden raisins on top of that.
• Gently roll the whole thing up and slice into 1 1/2- 2 inch slices.
• Place them just slightly apart in a greased pan.
• Let the pan of rolls rest for 15 minutes and then,
• Bake for 20-30-minutes, or until the sugar melts and is syrupy.
• Eat. Enjoy. Repeat.

Sadly there is no picture because we ate the entire pan of them straight out of the oven and they are GONE. They were very yummy. I think that this will be part of Christmas morning breakfast.