So... it's been over a year gluten-free. The second Thanksgiving dealing with this.
Last year was not so good. Stuffing in the turkey (which my husband assured me his mother never did) and dealing with everyone not fully understanding just how serious to take this (no, you can't flop the pan de queso I brought into the same basket as the rest of the rolls, since now I can't eat those), etc.
I'm glad to say this year was much better. Once I asked and explained to my mother in law that I couldn't eat turkey when the bird was stuffed, she was more than happy to make a separate turkey breast, sans stuffing, so I could easily eat. And it's also very nice that she had become a label-reader when she's making a prepared dinner - she said she was thinking of calling me to see how she could do the gravy gluten-free until she looked at the chicken stock that she used for her turkey stock again, and saw that had wheat in it (happens a lot with stocks, which is why I am a firm Kitchen Basics gal).
Last year, I had no sweet stuff at the end of my meal for Thanksgiving. Thankfully, not this year.
While I have done an okay pie crust using a 30/70 ratio of mixed non-wheat flours, it was just okay. I wanted to be able to do my good old tart crust, the way I used to.
Enter... Cup4Cup flour.
Yes, it is pricey. Yes, it it worth every cent.
I had already used it to make some wonderful fried chicken....
(um... yeah... the breading kinda fell off that piece, and we had already greedily gobbled up the rest of the chicken by the time I got around to thinking about pictures)
Also used the recipe off the Cup4Cup website to make some apple spice muffins for the husband's birthday (and used cream cheese rather than the goat cheese... we're not goat cheese people).
For Thanksgiving... I got ambitious.
The usual pecan pie...
And a totally new recipe for something I've never even tried with wheat flour... Baked Apple Dumplings.
The dough was a little too wet, honestly, and getting the dough formed around the dumplings was not the easiest thing in the world, but since it's not a gluten-developing flour, I was able to go "oh well" and peel the dough off the apple half, flop it back on my board, add a little more flour, and work it into a circle again and give another go. Worked out fine in the end.
It was like cooking with wheat flour again. Just as easy... no special tricks or anything needed.
One fantastic thing about Cup4Cup is that it's not gritty. Rice flour usually is gritty, and while you may not notice it as much in baked cakes and muffins, it shows in things like breading and pie crust. Even working with it while making the fried chicken, it felt like "regular" flour.
Out of the single bag of flour, I got the whole fried chicken, the muffins, the pecan pie crust, and what pretty much equals two batches of pie/biscuit dough for the dumplings. Not a bad haul. And considering the amount of other things that have ended up going right into the trash with other gluten-free flours.... I'm a convert.
I went to buy a back-up bag before Thanksgiving just in case, and while checking out the sales person told me her family has been gluten-free for years and she absolutely loves this flour (she said she bought eight bags - yikes! - when it first came out). She said the recipe for plain old Toll House cookies is AWESOME with this flour, by far the best one she's used - she said she likes the flour in the Toll House recipe more than the Cup4Cup cookie mix. I still have to try that.
In fact, I have a lot of recipes I want to try.
I can make cookies this Christmas. And they won't all end up in the trash. I like the thought of that.
Mix the flour and the salt. Using a food processor or a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles course meal or tiny peas. Whisk the egg yolks with the 2 tablespoons of water and add to the flour mixture. Mix or pulse until the pastry is smooth and holds together in a ball. Slowly add more water if needed. Wrap in foil or plastic and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.springform pan, do not remove the sides until you are ready to serve the tart.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line the pie pan with the pastry dough. Combine the eggs, sugar, salt, corn syrup, butter an vanilla in a bowl and blend well. Stir in the pecans. Pour into the lined pan. NOTE: You may have some extra leftover syrup filling – the Nuttle way is to pack more nuts into the pan so it's not like a layer of nuts on top of the layer of gooey filling.
Bake for 10 minutes the reduce the heat to 350 and bake for another 35 minutes. Serve with whipped cream.
Last year was not so good. Stuffing in the turkey (which my husband assured me his mother never did) and dealing with everyone not fully understanding just how serious to take this (no, you can't flop the pan de queso I brought into the same basket as the rest of the rolls, since now I can't eat those), etc.
I'm glad to say this year was much better. Once I asked and explained to my mother in law that I couldn't eat turkey when the bird was stuffed, she was more than happy to make a separate turkey breast, sans stuffing, so I could easily eat. And it's also very nice that she had become a label-reader when she's making a prepared dinner - she said she was thinking of calling me to see how she could do the gravy gluten-free until she looked at the chicken stock that she used for her turkey stock again, and saw that had wheat in it (happens a lot with stocks, which is why I am a firm Kitchen Basics gal).
Last year, I had no sweet stuff at the end of my meal for Thanksgiving. Thankfully, not this year.
While I have done an okay pie crust using a 30/70 ratio of mixed non-wheat flours, it was just okay. I wanted to be able to do my good old tart crust, the way I used to.
Enter... Cup4Cup flour.
Yes, it is pricey. Yes, it it worth every cent.
I had already used it to make some wonderful fried chicken....
(um... yeah... the breading kinda fell off that piece, and we had already greedily gobbled up the rest of the chicken by the time I got around to thinking about pictures)
Also used the recipe off the Cup4Cup website to make some apple spice muffins for the husband's birthday (and used cream cheese rather than the goat cheese... we're not goat cheese people).
For Thanksgiving... I got ambitious.
The usual pecan pie...
And a totally new recipe for something I've never even tried with wheat flour... Baked Apple Dumplings.
The dough was a little too wet, honestly, and getting the dough formed around the dumplings was not the easiest thing in the world, but since it's not a gluten-developing flour, I was able to go "oh well" and peel the dough off the apple half, flop it back on my board, add a little more flour, and work it into a circle again and give another go. Worked out fine in the end.
It was like cooking with wheat flour again. Just as easy... no special tricks or anything needed.
One fantastic thing about Cup4Cup is that it's not gritty. Rice flour usually is gritty, and while you may not notice it as much in baked cakes and muffins, it shows in things like breading and pie crust. Even working with it while making the fried chicken, it felt like "regular" flour.
Out of the single bag of flour, I got the whole fried chicken, the muffins, the pecan pie crust, and what pretty much equals two batches of pie/biscuit dough for the dumplings. Not a bad haul. And considering the amount of other things that have ended up going right into the trash with other gluten-free flours.... I'm a convert.
I went to buy a back-up bag before Thanksgiving just in case, and while checking out the sales person told me her family has been gluten-free for years and she absolutely loves this flour (she said she bought eight bags - yikes! - when it first came out). She said the recipe for plain old Toll House cookies is AWESOME with this flour, by far the best one she's used - she said she likes the flour in the Toll House recipe more than the Cup4Cup cookie mix. I still have to try that.
In fact, I have a lot of recipes I want to try.
I can make cookies this Christmas. And they won't all end up in the trash. I like the thought of that.
Nuttle Family Pecan Pie
Tart Pastry:
| Larger Pan (ceramic pie dish, etc.) | 9-inch pan (disposable pie plate, tart pan., etc.) |
| 1 ½ cups flour (210 grams) | 1 cups flour (140 grams) |
| ¼ teaspoon salt | ¼ teaspoon salt |
| 9 T cold butter, cut into small pieces | 6 T cold butter, cut into small pieces |
| 2 egg yolks | 1 egg yolks |
| 2-3 T water | 2 T water |
Mix the flour and the salt. Using a food processor or a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles course meal or tiny peas. Whisk the egg yolks with the 2 tablespoons of water and add to the flour mixture. Mix or pulse until the pastry is smooth and holds together in a ball. Slowly add more water if needed. Wrap in foil or plastic and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.springform pan, do not remove the sides until you are ready to serve the tart.
Pie/Filling:
| Tart Pastry dough | 1 cup dark corn syrup |
| 3 eggs, lightly beaten | 2 t butter, melted |
| ¾ cup sugar | 1 t vanilla |
| 1/8 t salt | 1 ½ cups pecans, lightly chopped |
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line the pie pan with the pastry dough. Combine the eggs, sugar, salt, corn syrup, butter an vanilla in a bowl and blend well. Stir in the pecans. Pour into the lined pan. NOTE: You may have some extra leftover syrup filling – the Nuttle way is to pack more nuts into the pan so it's not like a layer of nuts on top of the layer of gooey filling.
Bake for 10 minutes the reduce the heat to 350 and bake for another 35 minutes. Serve with whipped cream.
1 comment:
Happy Thanksgiving.
And thank you for sharing the Nuttle Family Pecan Pie recipe.
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