Don't be Afraid to Try...

Gluten free baking works best when you don’t have any preconceived notions as to what dishes should look and taste like. Pretend you have a blank slate before you, this mind set leaves you open to experiment freely and have fun doing it. My kitchen freezer is filled with both good and failed samples. My liberating moment came when I recently tried to copy a lemon GF torte I bought at a bakery which sells each tiny piece for $5 a piece. After reading the ingredient list, I set to work finding something similar. After eleven, yes 11 tries, I came up with something similar. That is the texture, weight, appearance and of course, taste is close to the original. Unfortunately, that something similar was loaded and I mean loaded with sugar! I now find the product so revolting I can’t get myself to buy what was once my favorite treat.

I decided to turn my thinking around. If I had no notion of what a lemon torte tasted like could I make something that was just plain good on it’s on. Say, you were the first person in existence who had an oven, ingredients and you just wanted to make something good. Without the constraints of keeping to the formula, this new found freedom allowed me to develop more creative and better cakes than the original. I was no longer confined to just cornstarch or rice flour but could now open up to use amaranth, teff, buckwheat, fava flours. The sugar alternatives like maple, coconut, tapioca, brown rice were now part of an exciting repertoire of tastes.

All that said, there is no need to reinvent the proverbial baking wheel. Follow a good recipe, pay attention how your different flours behave when baked, how your different sugars affect the mouth feel and structure, how your baked goods will be leavened to hold height. Try substituting one ingredient at a time – take pictures and notes of your results. Most of all have fun, don’t think of the substitution as being a bad thing but a chance to possibly make an already good dish great. In the next few months, we can discover new ingredients together and you can suggest anything you’ve tried. All us collectively, can try different things in our search, sharing and learning as we go. We have at our disposal more varieties than a regular baker so go out bravely and have a great time discovering!!

Asian Rice Tea Cakes (Philippines)

Traditionally eaten during afternoon tea or “merienda”, this traditional Filipino cake called “Bibingka Galapong” is extremely easy to make. This cake is very similar to the “Bebinca”, a pudding like dessert from Goa, India which is made with wheat flour, sugar, clarified butter (or ghee) and coconut milk although the Philippine version is gluten free. Bibingka is typically baked in a round pan lined with a banana leaf, sprinkled with cheese and pieces of salted cured duck egg topped with grated coconut and sugar prior to serving. The egg is known as a “red egg” since the shell is painted red to distinguish it from plain duck eggs. The contrast of the slightly salty egg with the creaminess of the cheese on a sweet rice cake gives it a unique flavor. The red eggs and the banana leaves are readily available in Asian market,

I have made the recipe healthier substituting the white rice flour with brown rice flour and the sugar with agave syrup for results that will fool even the most seasoned baker to crave this healthier alternative.

Healthy “Bibingka”

½ cup agave syrup
2 Tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
1 cup brown rice flour
2 eggs
1 cup coconut milk
Grated coconut
Salted duck egg (optional)
A soft cheese like brie (optional) or vegan cream cheese
Banana leaves (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a round 9 inch pan. You may line to pan with banana leaves as shown in the photo. If you do this, you will not need to butter the pan.
Mix agave and eggs in a bowl.
Add baking powder, flour, and salt.
Mix in coconut milk.
Pour into pan.
At this point you may sprinkle the red eggs and cheese on top should you choose though not critical. Bake 15-18 minutes till toothpick in center comes out clean. Generously place grated coconut on top to taste.

Agave Nectar – A Natural Low Glycemic Alternative

In the last several years I’ve used agave primarily for most of my dessert recipes because of its low glycemic value. The glycemic index is a measurement for how a food impacts blood sugar levels. Foods with a glycemic index of under 55 typically are low glycemic foods. As an example, an apple has a glycemic index of 54 while 2 tablespoons of agave is 30. Foods with a higher glycemic index typically will have carbohydrates that the body converts quickly into sugar causing the sugar spike we are all familiar with. However, agave DOES have calories and carbohydrates. Caloric count is 16 calories per teaspoon, the same as table sugar.

The chemical composition of agave differs significantly from other sweeteners. Where table sugar is primarily sucrose, agave can contain up to 90% fructose, 10 % sucrose depending on where you source your agave. Agave grows in dry regions, notably Southern Mexico and resembles the aloe vera plant. There are several varieties available – light, amber and dark depending on the amount of heat used in syrup production. The variety to use will depending on how you want the final product to look – honey colored to a toasty brown shade.

Agave is typically 40% sweeter than sugar so for recipes you can use less. I have found that in substituting table sugar in baking, a 30% reduction is sufficiently sweet. So 1 cup of sugar will mean about 2/3 cup agave. Since agave adds moisture to your recipe, you may also have to cut your liquids in the recipe by ¼ or 25%. Because it browns quickly, reduce your oven temperature by 25 degrees and increase your baking time slightly.

Some recipes will not lend itself well to agave substitutions as it may change the moisture content significantly enough to cause an unstable product. Meringues or meringue based products are particularly difficult as the agave tends to weep more than sugar. In these cases, you can do a hybrid mix of half sugar and half agave. You may need several tries to get your recipe as close to the original but you will find the substitution will work beautifully for a variety of recipes.