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November Activities
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summarized by Tom Sullivan
November was a busy month for TCCSSG. We had an opportunity to learn
about both how to bake at home as well as how to eat out and travel.
While the gluten-free (GF) diet can be considered a challenge in this
wheat based United States, Michelle Fuller and Bob Levy showed that it
can definitely be tasty, interesting and strictly self-limiting.
At the regular General Meeting on Monday, November 13, Michelle Fuller
provided a demonstration of baking that included cinnamon rolls,
focaccia, and a chocolate chiffon cake with marshmallow icing as well
as an ongoing Q & A. Michelle, who was a baking demonstrator for
Kitchen Glamour for 13 years, does gluten-free (GF) baking now as a
once a month business. She can be reached by phone at (248) 652-7839
or by e-mail at [log in to unmask], but PLEASE, no new orders until
after the holidays!
As simple as it sounds, Michelle said that the absolutely FIRST thing
to do anytime you are baking is to READ THE ENTIRE RECIPE. She gave
several reasons: Do you have all the ingredients and utensils
available to use? Are the ingredients given in the order of use?
(not necessarily true in all recipes) Do I have to do something before
it says so in the steps? (Preheat an oven? Warm something to room
temperature? Premix ingredients?)
Specific to the separate baked items, Michelle said that the cinnamon
bun dough is probably the best GF dough she has ever found for
handling and results. It comes the closest to wheat-based dough.
When making focaccia add all liquids together and then add the flour.
Don't try to add more liquid to the dough after adding the flour; the
extra liquid won't be absorbed.
For any cake batter with egg whites, the eggs should be at room
temperature and they must not touch any fat or they will not whip up.
Also, do not let any fat touch the batter after mixing or the cake
will not rise. In the case of her chocolate chiffon cake (which
becomes a white chiffon cake simply by leaving out the chocolate from
the ingredients list), be sure and put parchment paper on the bottom
of the pan or you will not get the cake out of the pan after baking.
The sides of the pan are kept clean and the batter attaches to the
sides for rising and then pulls away from the sides when cooling.
One of the best reasons for using a marshmallow icing, rather than say
a butter cream, is that marshmallow will hide any flaws or gaps.
Butter cream on the other hand will fight the cook all the way.
The major commercial product Michelle uses is a cooking spray called
Vegelene which is available at Gordon Food Service stores. Her rice
flour of choice is Rhee's which is available at Oriental stores. And
she uses Ghirardelli cocoa rather than Hershey's which is more acidic
and gives a redder, flatter final product.
Here are some other tips from Michelle:
* Michelle gets better results using active dry yeast, rather than
instant active dry yeast.
* Margarine may be a better choice than butter when baking, as baked
goods made with butter tend to dry out faster.
* Unlike wheat-based dough, gluten-free dough can't be over-kneaded.
* Cocoa powder can be used as a thickener.
* When making a cake, make sure the oven is already preheated so
that as soon as the batter is in the pan, it can go directly into
the oven.
Then on Saturday, November 18, 2000 we had Bob Levy (who along with
his wife Ruth, are Bob & Ruth's Gluten-free Dining & Travel Club)
conduct one of their Workshops on how to eat out and travel GF. Their
company mission is to improve the lifestyle of celiacs by making going
out to eat and traveling easier and the workshop is a very important
method of doing so. They can be reached by phone at 410-486-0292 or
by e-mail at [log in to unmask]
Bob is very upbeat and optimistic about the ability of celiacs to eat
out and travel and get what they want and need in a way to make the
whole experience pleasant for everyone. As celiacs there are only
four things on this planet we CANNOT eat: wheat, rye, barley and oats
(and any other grains botanically derived therefrom). However, every
other food known to mankind is OK as far as being a celiac is
concerned. So if you are going to have to have a disease, celiac
disease is one of the better ones to have--because all you have to do
is control your diet. He noted that the United States is
predominately a "wheat culture" and that we should explore the foods
of other cultures that are not.
Interestingly enough, Bob indicated that he never uses a restaurant
card and always refers to his diet as a "medically required diet" and
NOT a "diet of choice". This seems to get a better reception for him
with food personnel.
One of the questions that Bob asked all the workshop participants was:
"Do you know definitively what you GF diet is?" If not do what it
takes to make that determination. Because if you don't know what you
can eat and/or how it can be prepared, how do you expect to explain it
to someone else? And if you can't explain it to someone else, how do
you expect them to know what to fix for you? And if no one knows how
to fix something for you, just how good do you think your eating out
experience is going to be? It all comes back to ourselves and our
need to first learn/know and THEN teach/train/educate others.
One of the humorous anecdotes that came up concerned GF breads and how
quickly they dry out, particularly if they are frozen. Bob has found
an unorthodox, but highly effective, remedy. Remove the bread from
the freezer. Quickly pass both sides of the bread under running
water. Shake the excess water from the bread. Warm the bread in the
toaster. And--Voila!--a fluffy, softer product.
And of course, what would an eating out seminar be without a food
break? Besides the attendees various plates of cakes, cookies, fruits
and dips, Pastariso's provided a beautiful pasta salad for everyone to
taste as well as displaying their wares for purchase at very good
prices. In addition, Pastariso's also donated a box of pasta for each
participant to take home. This is another example of the support and
generosity of our GF supplier community.
The recipes that Michelle Fuller created and demonstrated are listed
in the next section.
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