Safe Baking - Chicago Tribune Article

The image of this scrumptious gluten-free cake is featured in today's Chicago Tribune article, Safe Baking. Check out the article for the recipe and other tidbits on gluten free baking.

While the article is generally well done there is one mistake. Not all baking sprays contain gluten. Contact the manufacturer to determine if the one you might like to use is gluten free.

Deerfield's Bakery - Mmmm!

For those of you unable to attend today's meeting, I hate to say it, but you missed out--big time! Deerfield's Bakery, gluten-free baker Lisa, sent us a very generous sampling of their mouthwatering gluten-free line of baked goods. For your pleasure, I've posted a few of their photos here. Check out the Deerfield's site to see the rest of their GF offerings.

Pecan Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Chocolate Dreams AKA Chocolate Brownie Cookies with Chocolate Chips

In addition to the products shown above we also sampled a Cheesecake and Triple Chocolate Brownie Bites, Triple Chips, Wally Mon, Chips'n Wally, Day Dreams, Sugar Buttons, and Cherry Chips Cookies.

Lisa Albertson, the gluten-free baker at Deerfield's is looking for feedback on their gluten-free offerings so feel free to post a comment either her or at her blog, Gluten-Free Baker.

Thanks Deerfield's!

Bread Machine Redux

On Saturday we had a brief discussion about various brands of bread machine's. I believe the Breadman, Zojirushi and another brand were mentioned, but my notes are cryptic at best!

So, if you use a bread machine, please take a couple of minutes and post which brand and model you have and whether or not you would recommend someone else buy the same. Also, it might be helpful to include which bread mix or recipe gives you the best results.

Thanks!

Want Expandex!

It seems there are another three pounds of Expandex available at $4 per pound. First come, first served!

If any of you would like your pound before the next meeting or Thanksgiving please email me, perhaps we can arrange a centrally located meet-up point.

Also, my personal Expandex runner will be making another trip to Denver in December...

Success with the Scale!

Has anyone else tried using the scale for gluten-free baking? If so, let us know in the comments section!

A note from Trina:
I don't want you to think your demonstration (on digital scales) fell on deaf ears. I, at first, did not understand the nuts and bolts of how to use a scale for measuring baking ingredients. And I could not wrap my brain around the possibility of it actually taking less time because I'm pretty quick at measuring now that I've had some practice. However, I decided to give it a go. I have a fabulous scale that I got from my sister-in-law who works for Technical Weighing Systems in Griffith, IN. They do precision scales like truck scales and scales for scientific measurement, etc. Mine is sweet and definitely has the zero out feature (is that called tare?)

Anyway - I knock out six GF muffins every two days for Bob. It's a short, sweet, simple recipe. I preheat the oven and I have everything mixed by the time the oven gets to the desired temperature. Then all I have to do is spoon it into muffin cups, and pop it in the oven. That was before today.

I timed it today. I preheated the oven. Fixed myself a cup of coffee. Just leisurely pulled out the scale and mixed my ingredients. I had the whole thing mixed, spooned into muffin cups, and ready to pop in the oven in about 8 minutes. I'd say at least half the time. The oven wasn't even preheated yet! So I had an extra 7 minutes to hop onto email and share the good news with you!

Thanks for saving me some time!

Making Mixes and Baking Easily Using a Digital Scale

This is a copy of one of the handouts that was distributed at the August meeting and it has been reposted because some participants weren't at that meeting. If someone can tell us how to copy and paste a chart, we'll gladly post the flour, baking mix and common mix recipes in grams. If you've taken the plunge and converted to weighing flour, etc. please post a comment.

Benefits to Using a Scale:
1. More accurate
2. Fewer dishes to wash
3. Don’t have to mess around with measuring cups
4. Weighing takes less time than measuring!

When Shopping for a Scale:
1. Purchase a digital scale
2. Make sure it calculates weight in metric and U.S. Units
3. The scale should have tare or zero out capabilities
4. The scale should weigh at least 5 pounds (2 kg) and as low (or lower) as 1/8 ounce (1 g)
5. The plate should be able to be removed for easy cleaning

To Determine the Weight of a Particular Ingredient:
1. Each product lists a serving size in volume and weight in the nutrition facts of a product label.
For example: Serving Size 1/4 cup (28 g)

2. To get the number of grams per cup for an item multiply it by the appropriate number. [Multiply by 4 if the serving size is 1/4 cup, by 3 if 1/3 cup, by 2 if 1/2 cup, by 16 if 1 tablespoon, etc.]
For example: 28g (1/4 cup) x 4 =112 g per cup

To Weigh More than One Ingredient in a Bowl:
1. Turn on the scale and push the button to measure in kg
2. Place the bowl on the scale and push tare (zero out)
3. Add the first ingredient and then push tare (zero out)
4. Add subsequent ingredients pushing tare (zero out) after each addition