Thursday, July 21, 2011

Gluten Free Biscuits? {Try New Adventures Thursday!}

The family we are living with for the month of July has gone semi gluten free for the sake of their oldest daughter. Which has added an interesting twist as we try to feed all eight of us...but it's been do-able. A good challenge for me, because I love baking and wheat and would not have taken this on of my own accord.

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For breakfast yesterday the plan was to have biscuits, so for the 1st time we broke out the gluten free flour. I used my favorite biscuit recipe, substituting regular flour 1:1 for gluten free flour. Unfortunately, I didn't have xanthan gum, which I supposedly needed according to the instructions on my bag of gluten-free flour (but it's $17 a bottle).

The result?

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Gluten free biscuit to the left, normal biscuit to the right
The gluten free biscuit was ok taste-wise, but definitely didn't get the lovely fluffy rise that my regular biscuits achieve. Was the missing xanthan gum the culprit? For those of you with practice making gluten-free baked goods...what do you think?

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Regardless, we had a lovely breakfast of biscuits and eggs. A fabulous start to the day. :)

Have you ever gone gluten-free for a short period of time? I would love to know your favorite gluten-free recipes!


It's Thursday, so link up your recent adventures below! The rules are simple: link up your blog post, link back to Alicia's Homemaking, and then leave an encouraging comment or two on someone else's post!






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6 comments:

  1. Cool! We were gluten and dairy free for a little over a year for Judah's sake. Aside from it helping his digestive issues I think it gave his system a chance to develop (he is now off the diet and doing completely fine!). Anyway, yes I learned the hard way that xanthan gum is much needed in recipes. Bob's Red Mill makes powder xanthan gum that is still expensive (but not $17) and it lasts a long time because you don't use a lot in each recipe. I bet cooking for all of you with the dietary needs is a challenge!! You seem like you're doing a great job though!!

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  2. Ok, now you have me wanting biscuits, eggs and bacon/sausage! I didn't know about the xanthan gum, but then I've never had any reason to do anything gluten free. I'll keep that in mind if I ever do.

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  3. Wow! You certainly are handling all the "surprises" gracefully! My hero!!! We've never done GF. I tried red dye free for x amount of time for Bray...but didn't make a difference. See you next weeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!!!!!!!
    XOXO!!!

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  4. I want biscuits and eggs now too!!! =p We don't have any dietary restrictions (except for no cashews for the older one), but I can't imagine the challenge of cooking for people who have a lot of food allergies. My friend is struggling because her 2yo has a lot of restrictions and there are only a few things he can eat. =( Those biscuits do look like they're missing something, but nothing gluten-free honey can fix. =p

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  5. My son is allergic to wheat so we experiment with gluten free cooking. I've stayed away from anything totally homemade because of the xantham gum issue. I like to use Pamela's Baking Mix--it's like a GF Bisquik and already includes xantham gum as well as baking soda and stuff--so we use it for making pancakes and cookies, haven't tried biscuits yet. It takes a lot of trial and error. Your first attempt wasn't too bad, looks yummy!

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  6. Have no fear of Gluten-free!! Once you get the hang of it, it really is easy. The Xanthan gum acts as a binder for the GF flours. Your GF items will be more crumbly and dense without it. However, you can also use Guar Gum which is much less expensive. You can usually find it in health food stores or on-line. You use Guar Gum in the same amounts as Xanthan gum, generally 1/2tsp per cup of GF Flour. Also, a lot of the Bob's red mill mixes contain Bean flour (yuck!) and will have an off flavor. With my all-purpose GF mix, I can use a regular Betty crocker cookbook and simply substitue the flour and xanthan/guar gum. Good luck!!

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