I promised to get busy developing some yeast recipes for the sourdough starter that I introduced a few months ago and thought English muffins would be a good first challenge. I’ve had a fair taste-test run with a variety of gluten-free English muffins; mostly the kind you buy frozen in the grocery store.

Deal-breaker #1: One muffin costs about the same amount as the ingredients to make them at home. Make your own batch!

Deal-breaker #2: Most all of them were shaped like English muffins, but when broken into, were no different than a lightened gluten-free white bread: soft and spongy with an even crumb, no nooks or crannies.

I may as well have taken a biscuit cutter to a loaf of bread and saved the money.

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It was easy to divi up the Christmas cookies in my family when I was younger. My brother gorged himself on the chocolate chip, while my dad snuck the snickerdoodles and butter cookies (the ones my mom would curse as she struggled to get the dough out of the press in anything more comprehensible than a blob) to his room.

I was a little less impulsive than dad, but would still anxiously await the day when mom would make her ginger molasses cookies- a recipe from an old bed and breakfast they had stumbled upon on one year while in Maine. They were bendy-chewy and stuck to your teeth just right.

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Oh the woes of gluten free bread.

It’s boring. Tasteless. The dough is unmanageable and not versatile.

I beg to differ.

When my family began making the gluten-free transition years ago, it was so hard to part with the comfort of good bread. It actually seemed easier to just avoid it altogether rather than risking failure in making it, or spending $6-$7 for a loaf at the grocery store.

We have since then, despite a small amount of whining in the process, successfully landed in a happy homemade loaf-loving life.

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When summer fades gracefully into autumn rhythms and we start pulling out the long-sleeved wool, packing lunchboxes, and harvesting our gardens, there’s a quiet reverence that transports me to my childhood.

I always enjoyed the first weeks of school, seeing the crisp frost on the ground as I walked down my long driveway to catch the bus, and picking that first ripe apple from the tree at our neighboring orchard.

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Here is a long-awaited story of creation: my quest to build a gluten-free sourdough starter.

It began in my kitchen at home after I had discovered a gluten-free English muffin recipe and was intrigued by the thought of using sourdough starter.

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If you haven’t had the chance to sink your teeth into a soft, chewy Almond Cloud cookie yet, then we’re about to give you two more ethereal gluten-free incentives to get you on the bandwagon.

Our fans, gluten free or not, have held this cookie in high regards and rarely are there any left in our bakery case at the end of the day.

I wanted to make a simple substitution of the various nut pastes we sell to create other versions of the Almond Cloud, but I should have known better. Nothing is ever THAT simple. read the rest of this entry »

Move over hot fudge and butterscotch, we’re breaking the rules and giving you a run for your money. Sprinkles and whipped cream need not apply.

You must dare to try this unlikely combination of sweet and savory: a delicate drizzle of dark, tangy balsamic reduction with sweet, ripe, local strawberries mellowed by the cool, creamy, rich constant of vanilla ice cream and just the right jump from a few cracks of black pepper.

My instructor in culinary school called this concoction Heaven and Hell, and if I remember correctly, my classmates and I were all a little hesitant to try it.

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When I cooked store-bought gluten-free pasta for the first time, it was an unfortunate situation.

I boiled the water, tossed in the spaghetti, briefly stirred it, then walked away. When I returned to drain it, I had missed the timer by a minute or so, and my brown rice noodles had turned into a mass of pasta pudding.

If you’re eating gluten free, you’ve probably had it before: the sticky, pasty mess that’s the result of many cooked brown rice pastas out on the market. The mush in the pot. The inability to tell where the noodles begin and the sauce ends. Even a good glass of wine can’t redeem this disaster.

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For every summer issue of The Baking Sheet, I try to put together a meal that sings of summer. Usually it’s something with unusual or tropical flavors and spices. Typically, it’s a meal that’s best eaten outdoors on the deck or at a picnic table, with company.

This summer our regular feature, “When Company’s Coming,” sports the following menu: read the rest of this entry »

One of the greatest challenges of gluten-free baking is tackling yeast recipes. Those restricted from gluten want warm, chewy English muffins, sweet, soft cinnamon rolls, and a good crusty artisan-style bread; however the consensus is that these are the most difficult novelties to achieve, especially if you want them to be anything close to their wheat-version counterparts.

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