I have been a bit remiss in
blogging. It may have something to do with the fact that we have been
going places like this:
Crater Lake, which is still very snowy in June. And cold.
Or doing things like this:
Cannon Beach! You can rent a bike and drive on the beach and it is fun! Also, this was the first time I'd been on a bike in years.
...every weekend. The Man and I
have been taking a somewhat whirl-wind tour of Things We Love or Have Always Wanted to Do in Oregon Before the Epic Wyoming Move. So of course
that means visiting the coast and as many of the national parks as we
can get to before moving day arrives.
While eating breakfast on
one of these weekend trips, The Man and I both found ourselves
lamenting that there isn't much in the way of gluten-free breakfasts
to be had at restaurants (he can eat gluten, but often feels sad for
me that I can't just order pancakes when we go out). Usually you can
have some kind of omelet or potatoes at a restaurant, but we both
were thinking how nice it would be to have a good GF biscuit recipe
that either of us could just whip up at home.
That got me thinking about
weekend breakfasts at my house growing up. My Dad would always (and
still does!) make breakfast on Sunday morning. He'd get up at what
seemed an early time to me (but I often get up at 5 for my job now, so
seven is sleeping in. I must finally be a “real” adult.) and
start making eggs and coffee. And there were almost always biscuits.
It was a pretty simple recipe, half bisquick, half whole-wheat flour,
and all of the add-ins that the bisquick box said to do. I have fond
memories of being eight or so, and learning how to shape the
biscuits. We don't cut and roll biscuits in my family of origin, you
take a wad of dough, roll it into a ball, and stick it on the cookie
sheet. They were very, very tasty. In eighth grade, I started making
baking powder biscuits from scratch so often that I had the recipe
memorized for a while.
Biscuit dough is so simple,
surely it must be easy to make gluten-free, I thought. So I took a
look in an Amish cookbook I have, and made a couple ingredient swaps
to take out dairy and gluten. The result? Tasty, fluffy biscuits that the
Man and I happily ate for lunch. They don't quite taste as whole-grain as the biscuits my Dad makes, nor as light as the white-flour ones I used
to make, but they are a happy compromise, without the gluten and
dairy.
Baking Powder Biscuits
Adapted from “From
Amish and Mennonite Kitchens,” by Phyllis Pellman Good and Rachel
Thomas Pellman
1 cup
coconut or alternate milk of choice
2 tsp
lemon juice
2 cups
gluten-free flour mix*
2 tsp
baking powder
½ tsp
xanthan gum
¼ tsp
sea salt
3 Tbs
Shortening (I used Spectrum)
Preheat
oven to 450. Combine the milk with the lemon juice, and set aside for
at least five minutes**. Meanwhile, whisk together the dry
ingredients. This helps make sure the ingredients are evenly
distributed. Add the shortening, and blend with a fork or pastry
blender until the mixture becomes fine (1/3 inch or less) crumbs. Add
the milk-lemon juice mixture about a quarter cup at a time, stirring
the dough after each addition. The dough should be slightly wet, so
that it clumps together, but not as wet as muffin batter.
Take
about 2 tablespoon of dough at a time, roll into a ball with your
hands, and press onto a cookie sheet. Flatten the ball slightly. Do
this until you have used up all of the dough. Alternatively, roll out
the dough to ½ inch and cut biscuits out.
Bake for
10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned. Makes about 10 biscuits.
Yaaaaay!
They were a little more crumbly then normal wheat biscuits, but still held up well to normal toppings like jam.
Incidentally, it has been just over one year since I got my gluten-intolerant diagnosis. I thought about doing some kind of big dramatic blog about it, but I haven't the extra time between my job and getting ready to move. I just wanted to make a note of it, and encourage any people who are newly gluten-free. The adjustment does suck a lot at the beginning, but after a year of this diet, I feel so much better, and it is pretty easy and natural to cook for myself. Hurrah for better health!
* My
current favorite flour mix is 2 parts sorghum flour : 1 part millet
flour : 1 part brown rice. I keep it in a big container. I think this
would work well with part oat, or quinoa, or oat flour, but to make
biscuits exactly like these, use 1 cup sorghum, ½ cup millet, and ½
cup brown rice flours.
**
Adding lemon juice to milk (either an alternate milk or a dairy milk)
makes a sort of cheaters buttermilk. Do this anytime you need a
non-dairy buttermilk in a recipe, or if you can have dairy, but don't
feel like running to the store just for buttermilk.
