Baking With Glee!

It just so happens that we are a gluten-fee half vegetarian household filled with people who really enjoy cooking, so a good portion of this blog will be recounting our culinary adventures.  That brings the list of blog themes to: gluten-free, vegetarian meals; crocheting; plucky rat terriers; why the Midwest is wonderful; and adventures in very small-scale gardening.  Hmmm...I think I'll need to throw some literature in here as well. 

Now, here at home, we refer to everything gluten-free as "glee", which makes it sound both mysterious and joyful.  For example, wouldn't you rather ask, "Is that cereal glee?" or "Do we have any glee cookies?"?  It sounds very exotic and appetizing.  It's also made us realize just how arbitrary the traditional concept of "flour" is.  With a bit of personalization and quirkiness, nearly any grain and even some nuts can be "floured".  Rice flour, corn meal, coconut flour, almond flour- all of these are so tasty! 

The only quirky adaptations that we've encountered is the need to occasionally add some xanthan gum  (which I do believe is the most expensive white powder you can legally buy!) to the mix, and some storage requirements.  I once made the mistake of putting some glee corn muffins into a ziplock bag the evening after I made them, and I woke up to an icky, mushy, soured glob.  I also made the mistake once of tightly covering glee cupcakes with plastic wrap, and ended up yanking the tops off of them all the next day!  All of this has made me realize that instead of blocking out the air from these glee baked goods, it is useful to let them sit the first day/evening in the open, and then just loosely cover them with a bit of plastic.  This has seemed to work pretty well so far!

Just this past weekend, I discovered a great blog devoted to glee baking: The Art of Gluten-Free Baking, and I tried out their Victoria Sponge Cake recipe.......IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!  It has now been unanimously declared the best cake recipe ever, and will be making many repeat appearances.  I can't wait to make cupcakes with it!

Here are some pictures of the yumminess. Bon appétit!









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