Torta di Mele (Apple Cake) and A Family Farm in Tuscany (and giveaway!)

It's officially fall, and apples abound. Why don't you pull up a chair and join me with a cup of coffee or tea - or cider, perhaps? - and a slice of this authentic Italian torta di mele (apple cake), made gluten-free just for you (and me)?

We'll sink into contentment as we peruse the pages of an incredible, unique book. A cookbook that doesn't just give you recipes and a little story here and there but actually transports you to another place and another time at Fattoria Poggio Alloro - a family farm in Tuscany - season by season, month by month.

Sarah Fioroni, the chef, cooking instructor and sommelier who brings us this feast of a book for the eyes, mouth and mind, won't disappoint you with this treasure she shares. Stay tuned to the end of this post to find out how you can win a copy of "A Family Farm in Tuscany: Recipes and Stories from Fattoria Poggio Alloro"

Sarah Fioroni. Photo by Dario Fusar of Organic Gardening

I was delighted when my good friend and college roommate, Ginny from Cooking with Chopin, Living with Elmo, asked me if I'd like to participate in this world blogging book tour of "A Family Farm in Tuscany." Ginny's lovely and talented mother, Kathy Shearer of Shearer Publishing, is the publisher of this cookbook.

I knew it would be interesting from what Ginny had told me, but I must tell you I was honestly blown away by this book. I love cookbooks and own a great deal of them, but until now I haven't owned one quite like this. Not only are the pages filled with photos of the countryside ...

Photo by Oriano Stefan

... farm ...

Photo by Oriano Stefan

... restaurant, buildings, city ...

Photo by Oriano Stefan

... animals, food ...

Photo by Emiko Davies

... and more, but Sarah manages to bring the reader into her world. She fills the pages with her family's story beginning as sharecroppers on the farm to purchasing the farm and making it their life - an organic, self-sustaining farm, business, retreat and home. She shares a rich culture, history of the area and gives us a generous glimpse into life on the farm and in the restaurant every month of the year while at the same time sharing recipes she and her family prepare that month.

Sarah's father, Amico Fioroni. Photo by Maggie Shearer Smith

It's the ultimate cook-by-the-season book, using local foods. In fact, the main ingredients are nearly all produced on the farm - down to the honey and saffron. They even make their own pasta, olive oil and wine available for purchase.

Photo by Oriano Stefan

Speaking of honey, Sarah tells us a story of a children's class coming for a tour of the farm and a persistent little girl's questions about the bees. I'd love to type it all out here and let you enjoy the laugh I got, too (it reminds me of my own girls' questions), but as this post is already becoming quite long I'll have to let you enjoy the laugh with your own copy. (If you don't win it below, you can purchase it here.)

I'm not the only one in the family enjoying this book. My husband's great-grandparents came to the U.S. from Italy, so he has had several moments of relaxing through the pages with great interest himself. I've walked into the room on several occasions to find one or both of my daughters flipping through it, as well.

It's so much more than a cookbook. It's a journal. A memoir. Travel guide. Picture book. It's a lesson in history and culture of an area many of us dream of visiting one day.

And can we just talk about the food in this book for a minute? The. Food. *sigh*

Much of it is naturally gluten-free (hello, fennel salad ... be still, my heart!) but when it isn't as in this cake, or the pasta dishes, you can just switch out the flours or the type of pasta. This recipe is purely Sarah's with the exception of the gluten-free substitutes of flours and ground chia seed, which are entirely mine.

Torta di Mele (Apple Cake)
(Printable Recipe)

Makes one 8-inch cake, about 8 servings

3 eggs
1 cup (200 g) sugar
30 grams almond flour*
30 grams millet flour*
60 grams brown rice flour*
60 grams tapioca starch/flour*
1 1/4 teaspoons ground chia seed*
1/2 cup (120 ml) whole milk
2 1/2 tablespoons (40 ml) butter, melted
2 teaspoons (10 g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3 ml) vanilla
3 medium apples, about 1 3/4 pounds (800 g), peeled, cored, and cut into wedges 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick
Powdered sugar as garnish
Vanilla ice cream (optional)
(*Sarah's original non-GF recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups or 180 g unbleached all-purpose flour rather than these flours and ground chia seed)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Butter and flour an 8-inch (20 cm) springform pan, tapping the pan to remove excess flour; set aside. (Caneel's note: My springform pan is larger than this, so I used a regular 8-inch round and generously buttered it and lined the bottom with parchment paper.)

Combine the eggs and sugar in bowl of electric mixer. (Caneel's note: I used paddle attachment.) Beat at medium-high speed for 5 minutes, or until pale lemon in color and thickened. Gradually add the flour, milk, and butter, stopping to scrape down the sides of bowl after each addition. Beat at low speed until each ingredient is blended, then increase speed to medium high and beat for 3 minutes. Add the baking powder and vanilla and beat an additional 2 minutes to blend well.

Turn batter out into the prepared pan. Arrange the apple slices vertically, with the core side down, in concentric circles in the batter, beginning with the outside edge of the pan and continuing to the center. The arrangement of the apples should resemble a rose in full bloom. (Caneel's note: I'm sure I didn't do this decoration justice, at all, in my blundering attempts of this.)

Bake in preheated oven for about 50 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean and apples are lightly browned.

Remove from oven and cool for 10- minutes. Remove the sides of the springfom pan. To serve, cut the warm cake into slices, then scatter powdered sugar over each serving. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to each serving, if desired.

(Caneel's note: This cake is amazing. My entire family loved it, and we thought it was equally good warm and cooled off.)

If you can't wait until you get the book to find out more about Fattoria Poggio Alloro, you can visit their website here. I also understand the farm will also have their pastas, wine and olive oil available for purchase in the United States through this website, which will be live later this week. If you want to follow more of Sarah, you can see her book tour schedule and ask her questions on her Facebook page here.

Be sure to stop by Ginny's blog here to see what other bloggers all over the world have to say about "A Family Farm in Tuscany," and what recipe they chose to prepare from the book.

***Now for instructions on how you can win this amazing cookbook:

This giveaway is for one copy of  "A Family Farm in Tuscany: Recipes and Stories from Fattoria Poggio Alloro" and the entry period begins today, October 29, 2012 and will end on Monday, Nov. 5, 2012 at 12:00 p.m. (noon) CST. The winner will be picked through the Random Sequence Generator on Random.org.

*******THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO CINDY FOR WINNING THE BOOK! I WILL CONTACT YOU TO LET YOU KNOW. THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED!*********

You are eligible for up to seven entries in this giveaway. To enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite food season (only one comment per person will be counted this way, and this counts as one entry).

Additional entries may be earned by leaving a comment EACH TIME you do one of the following (you get an entry for each one only if you leave a comment for each):

2. "Like" Mama Me Gluten Free on Facebook (if you already "like" the blog on Facebook, that also counts as an entry) and leave a comment here telling me you've done this.

3. Follow @MamaMeGF on Twitter (if you already follow, that counts as an entry), then leave a comment here telling me you've done this.

4. Share this giveaway on Facebook with a link to this post, and leave a comment here telling me you've done this.

5. Share this giveaway on Twitter: "I want to win A Family Farm in Tuscany @MamaMeGF! http://bit.ly/UXlrRC " and then leave a comment here telling me you've done this.

6. Subscribe to Mama Me Gluten Free RSS feed, then leave a comment here telling me you've done this. (If you already subscribe, then that counts too - just leave a comment letting me know!)

7. "Like" Sarah's page on Facebook and then leave a comment here telling me you've done this. 

You must leave a comment on this post for each of things if you want an entry for each one. Only one comment per item per person will be counted. In other words, if you comment more than one time saying you "like" Mama Me on facebook, only one of those comments will be counted, etc. On the other hand, if you only leave one comment saying you did all of these things, you will only get one entry rather than seven.
********Be sure to leave a contact email if you are posting anonymously or don't have a way to contact you listed in your profile!

Good luck! 

*In the interest of full disclosure, Shearer Publishing provided a copy of this book for my review. I was not compensated in any other way, and the opinions of this book and recipe are entirely my own. In addition, the book for the giveaway is provided by Shearer Publishing.

Pecan Tollhouse Tarts

What say you ... do you choose to make your tarts with a shortbread-type crust or a pie-type crust? Me? I like both.

Even though it's more traditional to make a shortbread crust for many tarts, I went the pie-type crust route for these tarts for the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally. I just really wasn't ever completely satisfied with my incredibly crumbly (but still tasty) pie crust made for the green tomato pie in the pie crust challenge.

I think I may have a winner in this crust. It holds together nicely with a nice amount of crumb. Not too crumbly and even slightly flaky. Great texture and taste. I think I might use this one for the pie baking when the holidays come up. (Is that really beginning in the next month???)

Many thanks to Charissa of Zest Bakery for challenging us to do tarts this month for the rally. Be sure to stop by Charissa's lovely blog and check out her amazing cheddar apple tart. Hello, Fall and hello, yum! I'll be sure to be trying that one (with Colby Jack since I'm allergic to the cheddar I do so adore). When you're there, don't forget to stop by and see the other incredible tart recipes the rally participants have baked up for you this month.

Logo designed by Anile Prakash

If you aren't already familiar with the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally where a group of us experiment with ratios that give us independence in the kitchen, you can check out my rally page here, where I have links to all the rally posts.

I've been wanting to make a Tollhouse pie since we went gluten free four years ago but haven't done it yet. Just as I love chocolate chip cookies, I love Tollhouse pies - it's like eating a gooey mess of warm chocolate chip cookie dough! Making a smaller version into these "tarts" was the perfect excuse to give that pie I'd been missing a try. For the filling, I mostly used a copy I found in my mother's cookbook years ago, but made it a little different by adding some vanilla and switching the walnuts out for pecans.

Because I used a pie-type crust, I used Ruhlman's ratio for pie crust which is 3 parts flour: 2 parts fat: 1 part liquid. I've had success in the past with gluten-free pie crusts using cream cheese, so I used some cream cheese as part of the fat in this recipe. The flour blend I use in this recipe gives a sweeter, nutty taste to the crust that goes well with the chocolate. I used a stand mixer for the crust, but feel free to use a food processor or pastry cutter.

(Printable Recipe)
Projected prep time: 10 minutes for crust; 10 minutes for filling; 40-45 minutes for baking
Note: This crust makes enough for one 9-inch pie/tart or 10 tarts in a muffin tin. If you use the entire filling proportions, you'll have some left over that you can make a shallow crustless pie/tart in.

Crust:
2 ounces butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3 ounces (85 grams) oat flour
1 ounce (28 grams) sweet rice flour
1 ounce (28 grams) millet flour
1 ounce (28 grams) tapioca starch
(Edit to add 2 tsp. ground chia seed if you have it - just adds a little more stick together in there!)
1 ounce (1/8 cup) cold water
2 pinches kosher salt


Filling:
2 eggs
3/4 ounce (20 grams or 1/8 cup) potato starch
1/2 ounce (15 grams or 1/8 cup) sorghum flour
1 ounce (28 grams or 1/4 cup) millet flour
3 1/2 ounces (99 grams or 1/2 cup) organic pure cane sugar
3 3/4 ounces (106 grams or 1/2 cup) pure dark brown cane sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
8 ounces (1 cup - 2 sticks) butter, melted
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

For crust:
Blend butter and cream cheese together into flour and salt using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer (or use a food processor or a pastry cutter by hand) until crumbly, then add the water, continuing to mix just until it begins to come together, then form the dough into a ball.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

When ready to use, form into 10 balls about 1.5 inches in diameter and press into muffin tins. Set aside.

For filling:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Melt butter and set aside to cool.

In large mixing bowl, beat eggs until foamy.

Add flour, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla and beat well until blended.

Blend in butter.

Add pecans, then stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into crust-lined tins (see note above - if you have extra filling left you can make a crustless shallow pie).

Bake until set, about 40-45 minutes.

Serve warm with fresh whipped cream or ice cream for a real treat, but they taste great cold, as well. Refrigerate leftover tarts.

Enjoy!

Be sure to visit Charissa's tart recipe and check out the other rally participants this month, as well!

• Karen of Cooking Gluten Free! made Plum Tart
• Paula of Gapey's Grub made Sugar Free Pear Tart
• Heather of Discovering the Extraordinary made No-Bake Mini Pumpkin Tarts (grain free)
• Pete and Kelli of No Gluten, No Problem made Spiced Cider-Poached Cinnamon Apple Tart
• Jonathan of The Canary Files made Vegan Cardamom Cashew Cream & Fig Tartlettes
• Mary Fran of FrannyCakes made Savory Sweet Potato tart with a brown butter crust
• Morri of Meals with Morri made Savory Onion Tart with Pâte à Foncer Crust
• Jean Layton of Gluten-Free Doctor made  Nectarine Roses
• Claire Berman of This Gluten-Free Life made Summer Tomato Tarts

Gluten-Free Ratio Rally Does Tortillas and Wraps

Logo designed by Anile Prakash

So ... Fall has begun, school has started and I missed the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally's tortillas and wraps. Actually, I didn't completely miss it. I made some flour tortillas that turned out hard (as has been the problem with nearly every other time I've attempted flour tortillas gluten-free!) and decided not to share that recipe with you. They made tasty crackers, but we were going for pliable, right? I didn't want you to miss out on the other participants' recipes, though, because there are some great ones this month (yes, I'm a little late - sorry!) ... I also plan to keep at the whole flour tortilla thing. I got a tortilla press for my birthday last year and am determined to get good use out of it!

(And how have you all been, by the way? Are you as crazy busy as I am with school, sports and everything in between? I've been incredibly busy with work these days, which is a good thing, but now that it's been a few months since I started up my new business, things are slowly, slowly settling down and I'm getting my work schedule smoothed out. More recipes coming soon, I'm trying to promise without crossing my fingers!)

Now on to the tortillas and wraps. Many thanks to the lovely Brooke - a genuinely nice person - for hosting the rally this month! Check out her tortillas on the host post at http://bellwookie.blogspot.com/2012/09/ratio-rally-tortillas.html

And here is the list of the other participants, which can also be found on Brooke's post:

Jenn | Jenn Cuisine Corn Tortillas
Jonathan | The Canary Files Vegan Curried Flour Tortillas
Meg | Gluten-Free Boulangerie Lefse (Norwegian Potato Flatbread)
Pete and Kelli | No Gluten, No Problem Flour Tortillas
TR | No One Likes Crumbley Cookies Gluten Free Flour Tortillas - Quesadilla
Heather | Discovering the Extraordinary Sundried Tomato & Basil Tortillas
Charissa | Zest Bakery Paleo Grain-Free and Gluten-Free Tortillas
Karen | Cooking Gluten Free! Gluten Free Healthy Flours Tortillas

And if you are curious about the Ratio Rally and what it's all about, you can check out my rally page here where I have links to other rally posts.

Have an amazing weekend, everyone!

Angel Food Cake "Pudding" with Fresh Cherry Sauce

Okay, so I didn't really come up with a fantastic new angel food cake pudding. The title should read "FAILED" angel food cake ... but it reminded me more of a sticky toffee pudding consistency, or a yummy dense bread pudding, with the angel food cake flavor and a bit of the fluffy texture. Just a bit.

Logo designed by Anile Prakash

It's the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally again (many thanks to Caleigh of GlutenFreek for hosting us this month - see her host post where she gives links to the others here and below!). If you aren't familiar with the rally yet - or ratios (those magical numbers that give you ultimate freedom in the kitchen!) - you can check out my rally page here where I link to the first rally post written by Shauna of Gluten-Free Girl as well as provide links to all the other rally challenge posts I've written (and also include links for the three rallies I've now missed).

For this challenge, I used Ruhlman's angel food cake ratio of 3:3:1 (3 parts egg white: 3 parts sugar: 1 part flour).

Since I've missed the last two challenges due to summer travels and was home again (and away again by the time you read this!) for a little while, I thought I'd better get back into the swing of things and what better way than angel food cake, this month's challenge? Angel food cake is, after all, one of my favorite cakes. As a child, I was known to eat nearly an entire angel food cake myself on more than one occasion (and as an adult ...) - and I've made angel food cakes on more than one occasion as well.

So, the day before new travels I decided I better bake one up. And got distracted. And mixed all the sugar together with the flour. If you're going to make any mistake when making this cake, this may be the worst of all. You need some of that sugar by itself to work into those fluffy egg whites. I realized my mistake before it was too late and could have remedied the situation, but decided I not only didn't want to waste ingredients, I really didn't have the time to mess with getting more ingredients out anyway (and I'm not sure I had enough sugar left, either). I decided to take my chances and slowly add the sugar/flour mixture but sure enough, it rapidly fell as I knew it would. There was no point folding the rest of the mixture in at that point - it was already a soupy mess - so I just mixed it all in and hoped for the best.

After some of it dripped from the pan and burned in the bottom of the oven, it finally rose to the top of the pan and baked into a gorgeous angel food cake. I had high hopes ... until it had been cooling upside down (on my old pre-gluten-free-days Hornsby bottle saved on purpose to turn angel food cake pans upside down onto) and a peek showed that it had cracked into separate pieces and was shrinking away from the pan in a very odd manner.

No worries - we pulled chunks out of the pan and ate them to discover it still tasted like angel food cake. A very dense, sticky one. So I made up a sauce to dribble over chunks of it and it made a fantastic angel food cake pudding. I'll do this again the correct way in the near future and share a real angel food cake with you. In the meantime, enjoy the pudding!

Projected prep time: 20 minutes; Projected bake time: 35-40 minutes
(Printable Recipe)

Angel food cake pudding
12 ounces egg white (339 grams - this was 10 egg whites for me)
12 ounces pure refined cane sugar
2 1/2 ounces (70 grams) brown rice flour
1 ounce (28 grams) potato starch (not flour)
1/2 ounce (13 grams) tapioca starch
1/4 tsp. ground chia seed
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. pure vanilla
1/2 tsp. pure almond extract

Fresh cherry sauce
1 1/2 cups fresh cherries, halved and pitted
1/2 cup pure organic cane sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 tsp. pure almond extract

Cake pudding:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

(Note: this method of making the cake will not result in the high, fluffy angel food cake but will be the dense, sticky and slightly fluffy angel food cake pudding.)

Sift together sugar and flour.

Whisk egg whites together at medium speed for about a minute. Add salt, cream of tartar, vanilla and almond extracts then increase speed to medium-high.

Once mixture is very foamy, rising well and can hold a weak peak, begin slowly adding the sugar and flour mixture. When it's all been added, go ahead and mix it more if necessary. (You can't lose with this pudding method.)

Pour into 9-inch tube pan and bake (you may want to have a cookie sheet on the rack below your tube pan in case it drips!) for 35-40 minutes or until a nice light golden color on top and a cake tester or metal skewer comes out clean when inserted in center. The cake should have risen to the top of the pan and be deceptive in looking like a nice, fluffy cake.

Turn pan over on glass bottle and let cool about an hour. Serve in chunks warm plain or with desired sauce, such as the cherry sauce, on top.

Fresh cherry sauce:

Stir cherries, sugar and water together in small saucepan and heat over high heat until bubbling, then reduce to medium-high and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and simmer for three minutes. Add almond extract, stir and continue to simmer for two more minutes. Let cool to nearly room temperature before serving. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

Enjoy!

Many thanks, again, to Caleigh for hosting us this month! Please check out her delicious angel food cake here, and see all the other amazing cakes the rally participants baked up for you this month! (I'll have the complete list here at a later time.)

I hope you're all having an amazing summer! When things settle down, I'll be back regularly and sharing my photos of beauty as well. Have a great week!

Breadsticks and Crackers for the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally in July

Logo designed by Anile Prakash

Happy summer, everyone! I hope you're enjoying it and able to get out as much as I've been - I've traveled literally halfway across the United States (by car) and back over the last few weeks - and am preparing for travel once again. The girls and I have been busy, busy! The only thing I regret on long vacations is the fact that, usually, my husband is left behind. We sure enjoy getting home to see him!

Obviously I missed, once again, the last Gluten-Free Ratio Rally. I hope to remedy this by providing you with the links (even though they are very late!) to the yummy breadsticks and crackers the other participants baked up for you. This challenge was hosted by Rachel over at The Crispy Cook, where she made cilantro crackers.

If you aren't familiar with the ratio rally, check out my rally page where I have linked to the introduction post written by Shauna from Gluten-Free Girl as well as all the other rally challenges I've posted about.

The good news is I AM participating in the challenge for August and have already written that post and scheduled it for publication on Wednesday.

In the meantime, enjoy these other delicious recipes, as well as Rachel's above!

Gluten Free Graham Crackers - by T.R. at No One Likes Crumbley Cookies

Zippy Garlic Crackers - by Heather at Discovering the Ordinary

Seafaring Crackers - by Claire at My Gluten Free Home

Savory Spice Crackers - by Jonathan at The Canary Files 

Crisp Bread Sticks and Bread Stick Sparklers - by Angela of Angela's Kitchen

Gluten Free Cracked Pepper Crackers - by Mary Fran at Frannycakes

Gluten Free Breadsticks - by Shauna of Gluten Free Girl

Bread for the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally

Logo designed by Anile Prakash

Goodness! Has it really been so long since I've written here?? Yes, I'm afraid it has ... I've had to take a little hiatus from this site and I'm afraid this is only a short little "hello" before I'm off again for a few weeks. Since I last posted, we've had end of school activities, the flu, summer break beginning, dance recital, travel, seeing a specialist doctor halfway across the state for my health issues, travel again, braces for the oldest (an ongoing process that isn't finished with one visit!), launched a new business (yay for continuing to work doing something you love!), sorted out permits for new business etc. ... and we are traveling (for fun!) again. I'm taking a little break from packing to touch base with you real quick ...

On a food note, I took photos of a fabulous dessert made last night that I will edit and type the recipe up for you after the majority of my travels have come to an end. It was the first time I'd taken time to actually photograph food in a few weeks and it felt great.

On a new note, very good news in my health situation. The specialist I saw said that I don't have the rare, scary "chronic active" Epstein Barr that was feared. My EBV numbers remain off the charts high, but it doesn't indicate this active state of EBV. Thank God! Some other scary illnesses were ruled out with further testing and since we had already ruled out the very scary lymphoma with my surgery earlier in the year, the scary stuff seems to be (SO THANKFUL!!) not an issue for me. The bad news is he believes I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and it could be a few years before I see remission and even then it can come back.

The way I see it, though, is that CFS isn't a fatal disease and it doesn't cause organ failure like some of the other things we were concerned about. I have had to alter my very active lifestyle since all this hit in the fall, and I still get the swollen glands, sore throat, achy body and extreme fatigue (all of which can be caused by CFS) if I overdo it, but I'm learning how to manage it and the specialist felt like I already was doing many of the things I need to do in order to live with this the best I can.

So, after that little update on me, I am finally giving you links to the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally bread challenge which was hosted by Karen of Cooking Gluten-Free earlier this month (thank you, Karen!). I hated to miss out on this challenge - it was only the second one for me to miss - but once I caught the flu, there was no chance of experimenting with a ratio bread recipe with everything else going on. I'm afraid it looks like I'll be missing the July challenge as well, but I'll post the links for you when I'm able and hopefully will be back in the game for the next one.

(To see all the other previous rally challenges and what the rally is all about, check out my rally page here: http://mamameglutenfree.blogspot.com/p/gluten-free-ratio-rally.html)

In addition to Karen's amazing bread, check out the other delicious recipes the rally participants baked up for you!

Adina | Gluten Free Travelette  Seedy Sandwich Bread
Angela | Angela’s Kitchen  Our Family’s Basic Gluten Free Dairy Free Bread
~Aunt Mae (aka ~Mrs. R) | Honey From Flinty Rocks  Chia Millet BreadBrooke | B & the boy!  Buckwheat-Oat Bread
Charissa | Zest Bakery  Cherry Pecan Pot Bread, Gluten Free  
Claire | This Gluten-Free Life  German Vollkornbrot (Seeded Bread)
Erin | The Sensitive Epicure English Sandwich Bread (gluten-free & egg-free)   
Jenn | Jenn Cuisine  Gluten Free BouleJonathan | The Canary Files Gluten-Free, Vegan Mediterranean Soda BreadKaren | Cooking Gluten Free!  Gluten Free Sandwich Bread/Gluten Free Naan
Meaghan | The Wicked Good Vegan  Vegan Gluten-Free Bread
Meg | Gluten-Free Boulangerie  Ciabatta (gluten-free, egg-free/vegan)Monika | Chew on This!  amaranth skillet flatbreads, amaranth mini pita roundsMorri | Meals with Morri No Knead Sun-dried Tomato & Basil Flatbread (yeast free/grain free)Pete & Kelli | No Gluten, No Problem  Gluten-Free Challah
Rachel / The Crispy Cook  Gluten Free Chickpea Sandwich Bread
TR | No One Likes Crumbley Cookies  Gluten Free White Bread
Tara | A Baking Life  Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread & Boule

I hope you are all having a fabulous summer - see you back here soon!

Just Plain Bagels

Hello, friends. It's been a few weeks, hasn't it? I won't use this post to go into everything that has been happening in my life but if you are a regular reader, you know something must be up (other than this wretched health issue I'm battling) because things have been quiet and I haven't even been posting my photos of beauty every day, or almost every day.

I'll just leave it, for now, with telling you that first, I've been playing Mama Hen to some incredibly sweet and precious baby chicks that became part of our family the day after they hatched. 

We started with five, but my favorite (Guinevere) didn't make it, as you know if you are on my facebook page. It was a traumatic event that I won't go into in this post. The other four - Snowflake, Peekaboo, Fluffy and Daisy - are staying healthy and strong and we look forward to having fresh eggs in several months. I'll share more photos of them and information about them when I have a chance sometime.

Secondly, the photos of beauty have been missing partly because I've been so busy and partly because I accidentally formatted the compact flash card on my camera with a couple of weeks' worth of photos that I hadn't yet uploaded ... erasing every single one of them. HOWEVER, I made two cheap purchases on software and a card reader and got them ALL back yesterday! :) Again, I'll share some of those photos with you on another post - as well as tell you what I did to recover them in the event any of you ever find yourselves in a similar situation.

For now, let's get back to the reason for this post: The Gluten-Free Ratio Rally day is here again and this month we did bagels. Many thanks to Morri from Meals with Morri, our host for this month's challenge, for choosing bagels and hosting us this month! You can find her blueberry oat bagels (Yum!) and links to all the the rally participants' bagel recipes on her blog post here. I'll have a list at the bottom of this post of the other recipes with links at a later time. I'm really looking forward to trying out some of these other bagel recipes, especially considering I'm just not as happy with mine as I wanted to be!

Logo designed by Anile Prakash

If you're not familiar with the ratio rally yet, it's where a group of bloggers come up with recipes based on a ratio for a specific gluten-free challenge each month. Working with ratio and weight frees you in your kitchen more than you can imagine. For more information and previous recipes and challenges, you can visit my rally page here.

Before you get too excited about my "just plain bagels" recipe, let me tell you that I'm not completely happy with the way mine eventually turned out after trials, and I plan to keep at it and have a better recipe for you at some point. Given everything going on this month, I didn't get to play around with the bagels as much as I'd planned and nearly didn't write this post ... however I figured I'd keep it real and share my bagel-making experiences with you. This month was, after all, my very first bagel-making attempt - gluten-free or otherwise.

The final result before deadline proved to be a decent sort of bread. I wouldn't think it fair to really call it a bagel - and I realize that's coming from someone who isn't from New York or anywhere in the Northeast at all. I do, however, think I have a pretty good idea of what a true bagel is and how it should taste. I've had them and they are good. My bagels turned out to be ... rolls with a hold in the middle? ... that taste quite good sliced in half and covered with cream cheese. They were a little on the dry side but not too bad and lacked the amount of chew I was aiming for. They tasted too much of yeast, even after I cut back on the yeast.

Next time, I'll be trying Bruce Ezzell's bagel recipe on Michael Ruhlman's site. This is the first recipe I studied for bagels and had planned to go with adapting it, but then suddenly decided to try converting the Joy of Cooking bagel recipe to an easy ratio instead. As noted above, it's decent but not what a bagel should be. Mr. Ezzell's will no doubt taste more like a bagel once I get around to figuring my flours for it and giving it a few trials.

The ratio I used for the Joy of Cooking conversion is 9 parts flour: 4 parts liquid: 2 parts egg: 1 part fat. For this recipe, I've halved the ingredients of the original. I also greatly reduced the amount of yeast. They tasted more yeasty right out of the oven but some of that left after cooling.

(Printable Recipe)

4 ounces (half cup) scalded milk

1 ounce (2 tbsp.) butter

1/2 Tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. plus 1/16 tsp. active dry yeast

2 ounces egg (1 large egg), beaten

1 ounce (28 grams) tapioca starch

1 ounce (28 grams) potato starch

1 ounce (28 grams) arrowroot starch

2 ounces (56 grams) brown rice flour

2 ounces (56 grams) sorghum flour

1.5 ounces (41 grams) millet flour

.5 ounces (13 grams) teff flour

1/2 tsp. ground chia seed

Boiling water with 1 Tbsp. sugar added to it.

Egg white, for egg wash, if desired

Combine hot milk with butter, sugar and salt in large saucepan or bowl. When mixture is cooled to 115 degrees, add yeast and let sit for 5-10 minutes.

Sift flours together with ground chia seed.

Blend in egg and flour with wooden spoon and continue to beat with hand for a couple of minutes until everything is mixed well.

Cover with damp cloth and let rise in warm place for an hour and a half to two hours, until dough has doubled.

Bring water and sugar to simmer in large, deep skillet or saucepan.

Punch down dough and form into equal pieces (I did nine smaller bagels that fit nicely in the palm of my hand after all the rising, poaching and baking. You could do larger ones.) Roll into balls and slightly flatten in hands and make a small hole in the center with finger.

Let rest for 15-25 minutes or until nearly doubled. While your water is coming to a simmer/low boil, preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place each bagel into simmering to boiling water for one to one and a half minutes on each side. I'll tell you that I played around with this: I did some for 30 seconds on each side and they fell the most during baking. All of the bagels fell somewhat either during baking or during cooling, but the ones I poached the least amount of time flattened the most. The ones that went for nearly a total of three minutes seemed to do the best.

Remove from water with slotted spatula and drain a couple of seconds before placing on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If desired, brush tops with an egg white wash.

Bake 20-25 minutes (top rack if gas oven), or until done and not doughy inside. You may want to flip them over to even the browning out a little the last four to five minutes of baking.

These taste best fresh and with some cream cheese slathered on. Enjoy! 

Don't forget to check out Morri's host post of blueberry oat bagels, as well as the other amazing bagel recipes baked up for you this month! Thanks again, Morri!

And I do have one photo of beauty for you today. I just couldn't resist the beauty of the desert bird of paradise tree in our front yard against the backdrop of a gorgeous sunset. I hope you're finding beauty in your day today! (Why I'm sharing this: http://mamameglutenfree.blogspot.com/2012/02/beauty-in-eye-of-beholder.html.)