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A Gluten Free Bake-Off

What happens when an avid baker gets diagnosed with Celiac disease and can no longer create delectable baked goods that boast the perfect flake or texture or rise? She goes in search of a replacement; and when said baker finds them lacking, she creates her own gluten-free baking mix.
I’m not speaking about myself, but rather Patricia Chuey, a dietitian/author I met on my Almond Orchard Experience. Although I’m not on a restrictive diet, Chuey’s tale of woe intrigued me. Many of my friends and family are on restrictive diets, and it can make entertaining a challenge, especially around the holidays.
Gluten-free flours are often made from rice, tapioca or potatoes and frequently lack the fiber and nutrients of traditional wheat flour. Chuey’s Gluten-Free Multipurpose Baking Mix is made from beans and sorghum for a hearty dose of fiber, protein and antioxidants. (To order, contact her here.)
All good information, but nutrition aside, I just want my gluten-free baked goods to end up delicate, not dense like hockey pucks. A bake-off was in order.

The Cookie Challenge

I started my experiment with the granddaddy of all cookies, the chocolate chip. I used the recipe straight off the bag of Nestlé’s and divided my batter into separate bowls. It appeared and tasted the same (salmonella be damned everyone eats raw cookie dough don’t they?), and into the oven they went.
The gluten-free cookies spread a little more, but they took the same amount of baking time and tasted perfectly chewy like the originals. My yield, however, was just a little short on the cookies made with the gluten-free baking mix.

The gluten-free cookies on top spread a little more but tasted just as good.

The gluten-free cookies on top spread a little more but tasted just as good.

Seasonal Muffins

Next up, my pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins. If you have not yet tried this flavor combo you are totally missing out.
Chuey’s gluten-free baking mix is super soft and appears to be highly sifted. I wondered if the lightness affected my yield; this time I purposely did not spoon the flour into the measuring cup, but instead dipped the cup into the bag to ensure a solid measure.
The batter came together the same as usual, but it felt a little gooey and more elastic. They browned quickly, so I shaved off a minute of baking time.
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The result? Perfect: golden brown with high crowns. The little cakes were moist and the crumb perfect.

Upping The Bar With Biscuits

After the booming success of the muffins, I got a little adventurous.
Biscuits can be tough on a good day and this “never tried” recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits would be a challenge.
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They didn’t raise quite as much as I had hoped, which totally may have been the fault of the sweet potato, but they still had a soft, flaky texture and didn’t go to waste with the addition of some honey-butter.

Yeast Baking: The Final Frontier

I haven’t had much success with gluten-free yeast dough in the past, so I chose to use one of Chuey’s own recipes. Again the dough came together as expected, just a little stickier than normal.
Her recipe made a thinner crust than I am use to, but it had the usual rise and was more chewy than soft.
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I doled out all of these baked goods to my neighbors, and not one of them guessed that I used a different type of flour and didn’t detect any unusual beany flavor. I pronounced my bake off as a success. Chuey’s Gluten-Free Baking Blend passed the taste test with flying colors. Let the holiday baking begin!
What is your biggest gluten-free baking challenge? —Karen

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