Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Coming Soon/ To do List
I've been having a frustrating time of it the past few tries at tortillas(hello too thick hockey pucks, that crumble and are gritty when reheated) They fell apart in the toaster when I thought they were so thick and hard it would work, had to shake it out upside down to get all their bits out.
And then the expensive bread mix this morning that had me crying over it, telling me to "knead and shape into buns with hands" when it was just too sticky. Even adding a ton of rice flour (that I didn't want to do knowing it would just ruin it anyway) wouldn't help it to not be an annoying glue. But that was all I had to work with, so I tried then finally poured it into a loaf pan to bake.
Originally I had WANTED a loaf of bread, but since all the recipes I could find using that brand were all for flat breads, pizzas, and crackers and not actually bread.. all of which sounded awesome, just not what I was needing it for. I decided to try following the box's directions exactly for my initial experience with it. This means it's the first time I've used eggs in years. 
It came out and had risen some, just wouldn't brown at all, I told it that it wasn't pretty enough for a picture. So I left it on the counter cooling while cooking beans hoping for some toast to put them on. After having my back to it ten minutes I turn around and it had collapsed on it self. I've never seen something fall quite like that.
When I could stop laughing and crying I told it that it would probably have made great pita bread. As I tried cutting a slice of it, I found the center was wet and gummy... it made me worry about the eggs and I tried baking it again, twice as long but it didn't do anything, barely darkened and middle stayed iffy. I guess it's just from the rice dough and not eggs.
Mostly just able to nibble the edges and may cut them off to salvage skipping the middle. No good slice of toast. No sammiches. Boo.
I really don't have the energy for all this.
So I'm just going to make this little note to self about the different things I want to post here, recipes I need to get down and learn never to forget.
My first week trying to make stuff without wheat flour was unexpected, unplanned, hilarious, and miracously kinda sucessful when I improvised after all of the recipes I tried flopped. The downfall is that I didn't write down exactly what method and measurements I came up with for the good attempts and apparently don't remember it, now I really need to recreate them and save it for future.
Argh.
1) Rice Tortillas - My first try was from an allergy book I have, it wanted you to make it in a blender(and I unfortunately don't have one) and "whiz it between POURING each batch" which sent my warning alarm signals into overdrive, but I decided to give it a go just in case. By the sounds of that, I could tell they would be too thin and more pancakes than tortillas if they came out. They were like really bland delicate(white and shiney, looked like fried eggs minus yolk, lol) crepes that didn't stay together to be flipped. Total flop.
That batch I added some corn masa to and made sure to use fresh that night. They weren't foldable at all. So then I came up with my own idea, after reading indian recipes awhile and seeing one that heated the flour and water in a pan, then shaped into flatbread as soon as it was cool enough to handle. I wasn't using the same ingredients or anything, I just thought the idea sounded like it could be useful. So I experimented, and came up with tortillas that even browned up in spots. They kept a soft texture, and I put them in a sandwhich baggy on top of my round tupperware full of hummous and dipping veggies. It worked well, and at the time I didn't yet realize how lucky that was!
2) French Toast Donut Sticks - One night with a sweet tooth hunger I decided to mix the few flours I had together for some sorta cake... but taste testing the batter I could tell the chickpea flour was too overpowering for that to work, and decided to try cooking it like pancakes, seeing if it could be turned into savory wraps somehow.
Then tasting the first one made me think of french toast, so I adjusted it accordingly with that in mind and they came out like a cross between those dunkin donut sticks and french toast. I'm wondering if they'll work for waffles to handle easier... They were really yummy and wonderful, being able to grab and go would make them even more amazing. The thought of much more experimenting being needed on these, testing to get them to work in different ways makes me drool a little here.
3) Sandwhich Bread - I have GOT to find a way to make some again, ACK!
4) Peach Cobbler - I almost nearly forgot this, I improvised and made one that came out quite lovely, it was much approved of and would be divine with coconut ice cream next time.
I need to remind myself that there HAVE been hits and not just misses like this.
Eventually I'll get to posting those recipes, hopefully soon.
And even sooner than that, I'll post a few more food pics I still have, and I took some of my new little dishes today for bento supplies too. Then of course I needa finish setting this site up, and get links put on ut, but Ima probably be lazy about that for now. Too much to do.
This top picture isn't something I made, it just happened to be too cute, it was a grilled portabella "burger" that my sister had for lunch one day. ;)

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