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Dear List Mates,

Here are a couple of Q&As that you might find interesting:

Q: "I am a home baker and rarely buy ready-made gf baked goods.  I'm
curious because I have never tried Expandex and I'm wondering if you
have given up on it.  If you think it is worth the cost, I might
splurge but would be grateful for your opinion."

A: Exapandex .... It started my quest for good tasting GF bread, and I
have been very pleased with the result. Recently, I have been testing
sweet rice flour from my local Asian grocer. It is much less expensive
and much easier to find than Expandex. The jury is still out. I've
been getting good results with the one or two things baked with this
instead of Expandex, but I haven't gone back to try all of the recipes
that I created with Expandex.

So, if you are feeling experimental in baking bread, try substituting
1 - 2 tablespoons per cup of sweet rice flour for the flour you
normally use. See if that gives you the elasticity that you want. The
danger of using too much is that you get a rubbery product. The Beer
Batter Pizza recipe is springy and chewy with about 2 tablespoons per
cup. More and the result will be rubber bands. I'd say the balance is
about right or the top-end of right.
But this recipe is without milk, eggs and more oil. What will recipes
be like with more of these?

I'd say don't spend for Expandex at this point. When I bought Expandex
initially it was much, much less expensive. I think the price is now
out of sight. Corn Products is charging the wholesaler about $1.00 per
pound, and they have a deal with UPS for low cost shipping.

Q: "I have called all around to my usual GF stores and no one has
sweet rice flour. So our local Korean market has "sweet rice powder".
Do you think that is similar?"

A: Sweet rice powder is what you want.  But there is nothing sweet
about it.  It is not sugar-sweet.  Is it glutinous and sticky, so it
is perfect for a pizza dough/focaccia.  We do a lot of our shopping at
the local Asian stores.  We use Koda Farms, mochiko sweet rice flour
blue star brand.  You can also get it at whole foods, but that is
ridiculously expensive there.
Do check out your Asian stores.  A lot of their cuisine is rice based.
 But as always, read the labels.  For instance, we have found rice
papers that are all rice, or half rice half tapioca, or half rice half
wheat.  You just have to check.  If there's no English on the wrapper,
don't buy it.

Vic & Hallie-Sunnyvale, CA

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