The weather is supposed to be beautiful here in the northeast this weekend. I’ve invited a few friends for “cocktails on the veranda” tonight and others for a casual barbecue at the end of the day Sunday. But I’m keeping the mornings to myself so I can quietly sit on the patio and look out at my garden while I drink coffee and read the paper. It’s one of the nicest, most peaceful times of year in my yard; the only movement comes from the many birds and squirrels that live here along with my family. And even the chickadee that moved into the Mets birdhouse under our gazebo is quiet and knows not to interrupt my solitude in the early morning.    

But a girl can get hungry sitting out there in the yard.

And so I thought I might make something a little special to go along with the weekend. I thought I’d make the kind of something that you’re lovingly served when you stay at a bed and breakfast. In fact though, it’s been a long time since I’ve stayed at any bed and breakfast; I avoided them completely after I had to stop eating gluten. Their lavish breakfasts are typically loaded with gluten filled delicacies I can no longer eat. But I’ve been noticing that more and more of them are graciously accommodating those of us on a gluten-free diet. And the lovely Anne Barfield and her husband Joe were among the first. So I will say right here and now that the first bed & breakfast I plan to stay in as a gluten-restricted guest will be their Chicken Paradise Bed & Breakfast in San Antonio, Texas. (Anne Barfield- I noticed those morning Glory Muffins, the peach tart and the fancy cake on your website, and all I can say is – I’m comin’ down for a visit.)

But back to my something special for the weekend. I took my Lemon Poppy Seed Tea Loaves (from Gluten-Free Baking Classics)  out of the oven a little while ago and they are looking really good. (Anne, you might want to add them to your repertoire.) Sous chef boy just came in and is sniffing around. I’m going to have to hide two of them in the refrigerator (in the vegetable draw where he never looks), because I want to make sure there is some left for me.

So if you can’t make it down to San Antonia this weekend to stay at Chicken Paradise, you can treat yourself to a real bed and breakfast kind of morning with these very delicious lemon poppy seed tea loves.

Lemon Poppy Seed Tea Loaves
These are the kind of delicate little lemon breads you’re served with your morning meal at old-fashioned bed and breakfasts. Light and bursting with lemon flavor and crunchy poppy seeds, they are one of life’s pleasures. Bake up a batch to serve for a Sunday brunch or afternoon tea. In their new gluten-free form, they stay fresh for days in the refrigerator and freeze so well that you’ll be able to enjoy them several weeks later.

Makes four 5 x 3-inch loaves.

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Position rack in center of oven. Grease four 5 x 3-inch loaf pans with cooking spray.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt, poppy seeds, and lemon rind in medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
3. Combine sugar, oil, eggs, and lemon extract in large bowl of electric mixer. Beat for 1 minute at medium-high speed. Add flour mixture and milk and mix until just blended.
4. Fill loaf pans with batter. Sprinkle tops with granulated sugar. Bake 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
5. Cool breads for 10 minutes on a rack and then remove from pans. Cool another 30 to 45 minutes before serving. Cut using a serrated knife with a sawing motion. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Store breads covered tightly with plastic wrap in refrigerator for up to five days. Breads can be covered with plastic wrap and then with foil and stored in freezer for up to six weeks. Best when eaten within four days of baking. Rewarm briefly in microwave.

*Find my Brown Rice Flour Mix in the Guide to Flour Mix section of this blog.

Those who call it a fad simply don’t understand what’s going on. This isn’t a chain reaction of people enthusiastically conforming to some fleeting behavioral change. It’s more of a trend based on the mounting realization that wheat is causing more damage to our human bodies than was previously understood.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the growing awareness of celiac and non-celiac gluten-intolerance might be actually only be the beginning of a seismic shift away from eating wheat. It was only six years ago that even the most experienced and knowledgeable medical professionals (Peter Green, M.D. included), refused to recommend a gluten-free diet to suffering patients who failed to test positive for celiac on an endocospy. But celiac support groups and many of us who closely interacted with those in the community and their families saw something much different. Mothers who came to my classes might point to “only” one child with celiac, but as we discussed common symptoms, they would, with a budding comprehension, admit to a variety of other symptoms in the family: grandma had died of stomach cancer, aunt has thyroid disease and arthritis, sister has Crohn’s disease, brother has headaches and allergies, older sister has “fuzzy” brain, a cousin has autism. Perhaps those of us diagnosed with celiac are actually the lucky ones because it forced us to stop eating something that is really a danger to all of our bodies – wheat.

Several years ago, I began to research the rise of tobacco consumption, cigarette smoking and lung cancer because I thought it might provide a useful frame of reference for the huge increase in consumption of wheat and the rise of gluten-intolerance. I tracked the rise of cigarette smoking and lung cancer and then, I tracked the eventual realization of the harm it was doing (through published medical studies) and the subsequent push to curtail tobacco use (which the tobacco industry is still trying to fight). I won’t go into every detail here, but suffice it to say that it took more than fifty years for the nudging understanding of the unhealthy effects of cigarette smoke to take hold and grow into smoking bans and warning labels. Interestingly, even the United States military has gone from giving cigarettes to soldiers in their war-time rations during the 1900′s, to considering a tobacco-free military now. (1)  

A very brief time line of the push to curtail smoking:

1930:  Statistical correlation between cancer and smoking, Cologne, Germany
1938:  Dr. Raymond Pearl (Johns Hopkins University) reports smokers do not live as long as non-smokers
1944:  American Cancer Society warns of possible ill effects of smoking
1950: Journal of American Medical Association publishes Morton Levin’s study definitively linking smoking to lung cancer
1952:  Reader’s Digest publishes “Cancer by the Carton” detailing dangers of smoking
1964:  Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health reports causal relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer
1965:  Congress passes Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act requiring surgeon general’s warning on all cigarette packaging
1971:  All broadcast advertising of cigarettes banned
1990:  Smoking banned on all interstate buses and domestic airline flights lasting six hours or less
1994:  First of 22 state lawsuits filed against tobacco companies to recoup millions of dollars from to pay for smokers’ medical bills
1995:  FDA begins to regulate tobacco advertising and sales
2002: CDC estimates smoking health and productivity costs reach $150 billion a year
2006:  Surgeon General releases The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. Report says secondhand smoke in any form at any level is harmful to health.
2010:  Surgeon General releases 30th Surgeon General’s report on tobacco entitled, How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease.
2011:  FDA reveals new graphic warning labels set to appear on cigarette packs starting in 2012

How soon will it be before we start to see warning labels on packages of Poppin’ Fresh Dough and Oreos? 

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING:
Eating Wheat Can Cause Serious Risks to Your Health

I think it is only a matter of time, and a matter of how much money the lobbyists throw at Congress to keep the warnings at bay. In the mean time, I intend to keep watch.

(1) Report Urges Timeline for Tobacco-free Military, Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service, Washington, July 10, 2009, http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=55085

I thought it would be nice to make a little gluten-free babka for Easter this year. Some years I make the Hot Cross Buns from Gluten-Free Baking Classics, and in others, I make the European Yeast Coffee Cake recipe from the next page of the same book. But this year, I turned all the way to the bread chapter. Babka it is. And it’s not just any babka. The recipe goes way back to when I was growing up: each year my family would receive a much-coveted Ukrainian Easter bread from the kitchen of John and Mary Fizer. The Fizers baked the dough in coffee cans because they made so many breads at the same time. But the unique shape was only part of what we looked forward to. The sweetened, egg-enriched bread came studded with rum-infused golden raisins. My family served it for breakfast and brunch over the holiday and savored each morsel.

I decided to make my babka on very a busy day- one in which I was already testing several recipes, baking for an evening speech I was giving to a celiac support group, and getting my house ready for the holiday weekend when I will be hosting my entire family for a huge extravaganza in which we celebrate all the birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays in one day because we live so far apart. At the same time, I was contemplating the fact that I needed to get out and work in my garden because spring sprang up way earlier than normal here in the northeast: my rock walls need repairing, my beds need mulching, my hosta need separating, and I need to deal elegantly and forcefully with some mutant plant that started out innocently but proceeded to take over large areas of my garden (it looks like Gill Over the Ground. I will post a picture below and beg for help identifying it). In other words, I had a lot on my mind.

So back to the babka. I ran out of my shiny metal 8 x 4-inch loaf pans because I was testing other bread recipes.  I ended up using my slightly darker non-stick pan (yes, I know, a big no-no in my book) and forgot to turn down the heat by 25ºF. I did make sure that I floured the pan really well to cover up the non-stick coating as much as possible. But then after the first 10 minutes of baking, I opened the oven to put some foil over the top of the bread and failed to crimp the edges well. Twenty minutes later I looked in and found the foil completely opened up on the back-side of the oven. The result was a somewhat uneven, over-browned loaf. Delicious, but not picture perfect.

Gluten-free Easter Babka- back side from hot spot in oven

Gluten-free Easter babka - front side not in hot spot and under foil

And while we’re on the topic of baking bread and things that can go wrong……

When you make bread, did you ever notice that one side of your loaf “opens up” a bit and rises more than the other? This can also happen when baking hamburger and hot dog  buns.  The side where the bread seems to “open up” and rise more is the hot spot in your oven. My hot spot is in the back, so I typically try to position the whole pan as far into that area as possible so it will rise evenly. When the foil opened up on my babka, it seemed to exacerbate the problem of my hot spot. One side of my loaf is perfect, and the other side looks, well, uneven.

Gluten-free Easter Babka - uneven top because foil opened up

Gluten-free Easter Babka - with a slightly too dark crust

My Gluten-free Easter Babka  is a little darker, a little lopsided, and not as pretty as normal, but it was delicious this morning, none the less. I warmed up a slice in the toaster and served it with a touch of Sarahbeth’s® Strawberry Peach Preserves. It was a perfect way to start the holiday weekend a little early.

BABKA (UKRAINIAN STYLE)

Allow the bread to rise slowly. Don’t put it in a place that is too warm; the ideal temperature is about 80ºF. A fast rise will contribute to an unstable bread that is likely to fall. The xanthan gum needs time to “set” in gluten-free breads. Also, try not to let the bread rise above the pan before you bake it, because this will contribute to instability.

Makes one 1 lb. loaf.

3/4 cup golden raisins
1 teaspoon rum
2 large eggs and 2 egg yolks (room temperature is best)
2 cups Bread Flour Mix A*
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 packet (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast granules (not quick-rise)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (or dairy substitute)
2/3 cup milk, heated to 110°F* (or dairy substitute)

1. Lightly grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray and dust with rice flour.
2. Mix raisins and rum in a small bowl and set aside. Put eggs and egg yolks in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl of electric mixer. Quickly add eggs, egg yolks, warm milk, and butter to the bowl; mix until just blended. Scrape bowl and beaters, and then beat at high speed for 3 minutes. Add raisin and rum mixture and mix well. Spoon dough into prepared pan; cover with a light cloth and let rise in a warm place for about 50-80 minutes (until dough is about 1 inch from below top of pan).
4. Place rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 400ºF while bread is rising (do not use a convection oven because it will brown the bread too quickly).
5. Bake bread for about 10 minutes; remove from oven, cover bread with aluminum foil, return to oven, and bake another 40-45 minutes. Bread should have a heavy but hollow sound when tapped on the sides and bottom. Your instant-read thermometer should register about 205ºF. Remove bread from oven and turn onto a rack to cool. Wrap bread well in plastic wrap and then foil. Store in refrigerator for up to three days or freezer for up to three weeks.

Cook’s Note: Dry ingredients can be mixed ahead and stored in plastic containers for future use. Do not add yeast until just ready to bake babka.

* Find my Bread Flour Mix in the Guide to Flour Mix section of this blog.

OK plant lovers- what is this beautiful plant that is taking over my flower beds?

Can you tell me the name of this plant? Is it Gill over the Ground?

Admit it. You’ve been wondering whether Thomas Keller’s new Cup4Cup gluten-free flour is worth the $19.95 (for three pounds) price tag. So was I.

Thomas Keller, the extraordinary culinary talent and restaurateur embraced “gluten-free” in a serious way. First his restaurants, The French Laundry in California and Per Se in New York City, started to serve delicious, imaginative gluten-free bread and pastry to gluten-intolerant diners. And then late last summer, he put his stamp of approval on a gluten-free flour blend developed by one his chefs, Lena Kwak. I read with fascination when wheat eater Florence Fabricant wrote kindly about it in the New York Times saying, “It works very well, though the cake textures were more delicate than usual and I found that the pie crust was best rolled somewhat thicker for ease of handling”. I read Kelly Courson’s (Celiac Chicks) glowing account of the gluten-free tea that Keller held at Per Se last November to launch his flour venture. I sat tight and let Keller and his team work out any of the kinks. But finally, curiosity got the best of me and I could wait no longer, especially since I’d been receiving questions about it from people who use my cookbooks. So this weekend I drove to my local William Sonoma and paid for my very own bag of Keller’s very expensive gluten-free flour.

Testing Methodology

I have tested every all-purpose gluten-free flour blend on the market and all the rice flours available in the New York metro area. I use the exact same recipe whenever I test new flour – I make my vanilla cupcakes from Gluten-Free Baking Classics. It’s simple, basic and it doesn’t have a lot of ingredients. Any problems show up right away because there is nothing to hide behind.

I actually go out of my way to illustrate my flour testing mythology in my basic baking classes.  I pass out samples of two vanilla cupcakes made with my brown rice flour mix, but  each is made with a different brown rice flour: the first with Authentic Foods (my first choice rice flour) and the second with Bob’s Red Mill (my second choice rice flour). The cupcake made with the Bob’s Red Mill has a slightly tighter texture and is slightly smaller than the Authentic Foods one. It doesn’t rise as well, contracts more after baking and is very slightly gritty (but far less gritty than cupcakes made with other brands).

I also pass around two paper cups filled with plain brown rice flour for the class to feel: one has Authentic Foods (it is powdery like wheat flour) and the other has Bob’s (which has a slightly gritty feel). I often pass around two cups with those same two brown rice flours mixed up into my flour mix to show the class that potato and tapioca starch doesn’t actually cover up the grit, if it’s there.

The Test!

I employed my standard vanilla cupcake testing methodology to test Cup4Cup gluten-free flour. The blend contains cornstarch, white rice flour, brown rice flour, milk powder, tapioca flour potato starch, and xanthan gum. The package says it can be used to replace wheat in equal amounts in “most recipes”. It also said there were tips for use on the website, but I didn’t’ find any. However, since the package said the flour was “especially fantastic” in things like quick breads and muffins, I figured I’d be safe with cake. I dug out the original wheat version of my cupcake recipe (which I’d used for more than a decade before being diagnosed with celiac) and got started. The only difference between the recipes is that the wheat version uses 1 1/8 teaspoon baking powder instead of the 1 1/2 teaspoons used in the gluten-free version (and my GF version has xanthan as an added ingredient).

First I made gluten-free vanilla cupcakes with my brown rice flour mix (which uses Authentic Floods brown rice flour). Actually, I used Authentic Foods GF Classic Blend ($11.50 for a three pound bag) which is my brown rice flour mix already made up (I do not get paid by Authentic Foods; I just think they have great flour). Although I have a double oven, I waited to use the same one to bake the Cup4Cup cupcakes in order to be consistent.

I opened the Cup4Cup bag and felt the flour. I thought it had a bit of a gritty feel so I did a side by side with the Authentic Foods GF Classic Blend to be sure. There was, indeed a difference in grit. Next, I compared it to some of my brown flour mix made with Bob’s Red Mill brown rice flour (I use it for pizza crust). It felt similar. Ok, so Cup4Cup has a tiny bit of grit.

Next, I mixed it up in the cupcake batter and saw a huge difference. The batter was glue-like and gooey and didn’t flow into the cupcake cups like the Authentic Foods batter. I actually had to push it out of the spoon to get it into the cup. I realized that it must have a relatively huge amount of xanthan gum in it, at least compared to what I would use for a cake or muffin or sweet bread. And as all of you who use my recipes know, I do not believe in one-size fits all gluten-free flour blends that include xanthan gum; I have found that the amount needs to be calibrated based on what you are trying to make and the other ingredients in the recipe.

The baking proved interesting. As I periodically peered thought the glass in my oven door, I thought at first that the cupcakes would never rise. But then they suddenly started moving and rose spectacularly, as high as the Authentic Foods cupcakes. When they were finished baking (interesting, they took exactly the same amount of time), they were a bit pale. As they cooled, they shrunk just as spectacularly as they rose. The large amount of xanthan gum in the blend pulled those cupcakes in and made them smaller than the Authentic Foods version. Ok, so the Cup4Cup cupcakes were slightly paler and slightly smaller. But the truth is in the tasting.

Cup4Cup on left and Authentic Foods GF Classic Blend slight foreground on right

Blind taste tasters stood by waiting for bites of the cooled, unfrosted cupcakes (thank you friends and family!). My first question is can you tell the difference between the two? Everyone could tell the difference between the two cupcakes. My second question is what do you taste and feel in your mouth? The Cup4Cup cupcake was called “rubbery” and “gummy” in texture and “grit” was detected. The Authentic Foods was said to be “like a real one”, “tender”, and no grit was felt on the tongue. The vanilla shined though in both. There was no after taste in either. 

Cup4Cup on the left and Authentic Foods GF Classic Blend on the right

I would really like to see Thomas Keller and his team make this flour blend better. On the Cup4Cup package it says, “Gluten-free Flour But You’d Never Know It”.  I guess that might be true for some people, especially those who had been using another gluten-free mix that was grittier and had just as much xanthan gum as the Cup4Cup. But the wheat eaters in my group certainly could tell. Bad wheat cupcakes tend to be either dry and flavorless, or have an off-taste from artificial flavors, but they rarely tend toward “rubbery”. In addition, the often well-intentioned addition of potato flour and/or sweet rice flour in other gluten-free blends can contribute to a smaller, tighter texture, and sometimes, to a gummier baked good, so perhaps gluten-free bakers who use blends with those flours might not notice the less-than-perfect texture of the Cup4Cup cupcakes. But for me, $19.95 is a lot to pay for a flour that doesn’t do as good a job as the (less expensive) Authentic Foods flour I use now. I’m happily staying with what I have.

P.S. If Keller and his team ever do improve it, I will go buy more and test it again.