My Buns Look Good Don't You Think?

It's grilling season and that means burgers! In our house that means turkey burgers, but whatever they're made of, grilled burgers demand buns. And I have a gluten-free recipe for them that is quite good!

I adapted this recipe from Bette Hagman's The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread. Bette Hagman, as you may know, was one of the first people to write recipes for gluten-free food that actually tasted good. And I (and all gluten-free people) owe a great debt to the work she did and included in her cookbooks.

I mainly made changes to the amounts of things. And I deleted some ingredients I didn't find helpful. I think my flour recipe works better than her's does--it has more body and is a better texture. I consider this to be version 1 of my bun recipe. I will refine it and post more later.

Gluten-Free Hamburger Buns

Note: this recipe uses my gluten-free flour mix:

Jeanne's Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix (mix together and store in fridge):
1 1/4 C. brown rice flour
1 1/4 C. white rice flour
1 C. tapioca flour
1 C. sweet rice flour (also known as Mochiko)
2 scant tsp. xanthan gum

(you can also use the gluten-free flour mixture of your choice--just be sure it has xanthan gum in it. Or, you can add 1/4 tsp. xanthan gum per cup of gluten-free flour. If you use bean flour, it will add a bean taste to the buns)

Special equipment needed:
-Hamburger bun pan (I got mine at King Arthur Flour) or English muffin baking rings.
-For some reason, I can't find the bun pan on the web at the moment. You can either order the English muffin rings or make your own bun ring by placing rings of folded up aluminum foil on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Each ring should be 4" across and 1 1/2" deep. Make 6.

-heavy duty mixer (a hand mixer will do in a pinch)

Gluten-Free Hamburger Buns
makes 6 buns

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C Jeanne's Gluten-Free Flour Mix
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp agar-agar (or unflavored gelatin)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBL sugar
1 TBL active dry yeast (I use Red Star)
1 C warm water
1 tsp vinegar
1 egg
2 TBL vegetable oil

-Place your bun rings on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and grease with vegetable oil and dust with tapioca flour or grease and flour your bun pan
-in a medium bowl whisk together flour mix, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt
-in a small bowl, dissolve sugar and agar-agar (or gelatin) in warm water. Then dissove yeast into this mixture. Set aside to proof (foam up)
-in a bowl of a mixer, briefly beat together vinegar, eggs, and vegetable oil
-add foamy yeast mixture, mix briefly
-add flour mixture--beat for 4 mins (until smooth)

-Spoon the batter into the prepared rings
-let rise in a warm place for 45 mins (until about double in bulk). I usually let it rise on top of the stove while it's preheating


-While the buns are rising, preheat the oven to 375 degrees

-When buns are double in bulk. . .

. . .Bake for 20 minutes--until tops are golden brown

-Carefully remove from oven and let cool for 10 mins. before removing from rings/pan. Cool on wire rack.

They will be light and fluffy--just like "regular" buns. I also found these to smell heavenly--just like a bun should!

Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Doughnuts!

June 5th was National Doughnut Day. Apparently, it's celebrated the first Friday in June. So many people were talking about, tweeting about, and eating doughnuts, that I got a huge craving for them. Of course, because I'm gluten-free, that means I had to make my own. And I did. And they were yum.

I have two gluten-free recipes in my repertoire--these are both for "cake" doughnuts--not the yeasted risen doughnuts. The Pumpkin Doughnut recipe is adapted from one that I found in our old school's recipe book, The Cooperative Kitchen. The Cake Doughnut recipe is adapted from one of my favorite gluten-free cookbooks: Cooking Gluten Free, by Karen Robertson. Robertson is a Seattle author who is gluten free and she "gets" the fact that gluten-free things need to taste good, not just be gluten-free.

Note: both recipes use my gluten-free flour mix:

Jeanne's Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix (mix together and store in fridge):
1 1/4 C. brown rice flour
1 1/4 C. white rice flour
1 C. tapioca flour
1 C. sweet rice flour (also known as Mochiko)
2 scant tsp. xanthan gum

(you can also use the gluten-free flour mixture of your choice--just be sure it has xanthan gum in it. Or, you can add 1/4 tsp. xanthan gum per cup of gluten-free flour. If you use bean flour, it will add a bean taste to the doughnuts)

Special equipment needed:

-biscuit cutters--2 different sizes. I use 2 1/2 & 1 1/4" ones
-deep pan you can fry oil in
-candy thermometer you can use in oil


Gluten-Free Cake Doughnuts
adapted from Cooking Gluten-Free by Karen Robertson

Ingredients:
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 C milk
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 TBL butter, melted
1 3/4-2 C gluten-free flour mix (depends on humidity--I use 1 3/4 C consistently)
Vegetable oil for frying (I use Rice Bran oil)
Confectioners sugar, granulated sugar, or cinnamon mixed w/sugar for dusting

-Mix together egg, milk, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and butter in a medium bowl
-add flour (you may need incorporate it with your hands at end of mixing).
-cover and refrigerate for about an hour (to firm up dough)

-prepare to roll out the doughnuts. I use a Silpat mat to roll out the dough. You can also dust your cutting board with flour and cut out there. (I would use tapioca flour for this--it won't add graininess to the dough). You may need to use a little flour for the biscuit cutters so they don't stick to the dough.

-roll out the dough to 1/2" thickness (be sure it's not too thin)
-cut out doughnuts with bigger biscuit cutter and doughnut holes with smaller biscuit cutter. Or you can just use the smaller one and cut out a bunch of doughnut holes (because they are fun and easy to eat!).



-While you are cutting out the doughnuts, have the pan of oil on medium-high heat. I use a small saucepan and I do several batches. This is so I don't have to use a ton of oil. You need to have the oil deep enough that the doughnuts can cook be completely submerged and have oil all the way around them. Oil should be around 360 degrees

-Once doughnuts are cut out, test the oil. Drop a bit of extra dough into the oil to see if it fries. If it starts frying immediately, then the oil is ready.

-Carefully drop doughnuts and holes into oil. They should drop into the oil and start frying



-After a couple of minutes, they will rise to the surface


Turn them in the oil to make sure they are being cooked evenly. Cook until they are golden brown

-when they are golden brown, carefully take doughnuts out of oil and drain on a plate covered w/paper towels. The doughnuts won't have absorbed that much oil



-repeat the frying procedure until all the dough is used

-we like them as-is, but you can dust them with powdered sugar or granulated sugar, if you want. You can add a little cinnamon to the granulated sugar if you want cinnamon doughnuts.

Yum!
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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Doughnuts
adapted from The Cooperative Kitchen, by the University Cooperative School

Ingredients
2 eggs, beaten
1 C sugar
2 TBL oil
1/2 C buttermilk
1 C pumpkin puree
4 C gluten-free flour mix
2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger

-Mix together dry ingredients in a medium bowl
-Beat eggs and sugar together in a large bowl until fluffy
-mix together oil, buttermilk, and pumpkin puree, add to egg mixture
-add dry ingredients to egg mixture
-cover and put in refrigerator for 1 hour (or until dough is firm)

Follow frying and draining instructions for Cake Doughnuts. Again, we like them plain, but these are extra yummy dusted with cinnamon sugar.

Enjoy!
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June in the Garden

If you go into the garden today, you're sure of a big surprise:



If you go into the garden today, you'd better go in disguise



For every rose there ever there was



Will gather there for certain because:



June is the time the garden looks so gorgeous.


(sung to the tune of Teddy Bear's Picnic)