When I first found out that I needed to eliminate wheat from my diet one of my biggest fears was how would I be able to bake. For the longest time I relied only on pre-packaged gf mixes. And for a while that was fine. I was still finding my footing with the whole gluten intolerance thing and I was still able to be creative with my regular cooking. The thing about the gf mixes is that they are incredibly expensive, well at least in comparison to regular mixes. I get it, the ingredients found in the gf mixes are varied and some are on the expensive side. I never wanted to alter these in any way for fear of ruining my expensive mix and ending up with no baked product at all.
Several months ago I went on a buying binge. I bought all the different flours I had been reading about or at least the ones that seemed to be most prevalent in the recipes I have been storing. I think I ended up with six or more different flours. It ended up being quite overwhelming and I put them all in a drawer. Out of sight, out of mind. I did have some experience with Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour for some of my regular dishes that required a roux or thickening of some sort. This flour was awesome, but the only thing that wasn't so great was the packaging. All of Bob's Red Mill flours come in clear bags with directions to cut the top of the bag. Now, I'm a messy cook in general and these bags just made me have little flour leaks all over the place. This experience did not want to make me open up the other gazillion bags of flour I had bought before I had figured out the storage situation. I wanted something that would fit one bag, but wouldn't be too large. Many of the recipes call for a mixing of several flours, which can end up needing quite a bit of storage space. We have limited cabinet space so the right size container is a big deal.
I ended up using ball jars. Right now they are of slightly varying sizes, but they keep everything really fresh and I can see how much is left in the container. I haven't quite gotten them into the baking cabinet, but for now that's okay.
It was my mom's idea to cut out the labels and tape them to the jars. I'm not totally in love with that, but only because they don't all match. I think it's much easier to do gf baking when you have access to all your ingredients. I've been making a concerted effort to make my own "from scratch" recipes so that I can start to understand the way these flours interact with one and other. It's like a whole different kind of culinary education.
I absolutely love tomato soup and when I found out I had a gluten intolerance I was really upset at losing one of my favorite meals. Who would have thought that Campbell's Tomato Soup had wheat ingredients? I certainly didn't. With being in school I've been trying to use my crock pot a few times a week. My favorite cook book currently is America's Test Kitchen: Slow Cooker Revolution. The first time I made this recipe I followed as closely as possible substituting only for the gf ingredients, but I've made a couple other minor changes that I really feel enhance the original recipe. I served my soup with a nice grilled cheese and honey turkey on Udi white bread.
Tomato Soup
heavily adapted from ATK: Slow Cooker Revolution's Creamy Tomato Soup
1 medium/large onion, minced
2T butter
1T oil (such as canola or light olive oil)
4 cloves garlic, minced (Dorot is my favorite)
32oz stock (chicken or vegetable)
1T brown sugar
2T tomato paste
2T cooking sherry
3T gluten free flour (such as Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour)
4 12oz cans of petite diced tomato
1/8tsp white pepper
dash cayenne pepper
3 bay leaves
salt to taste
pepper to taste
-In a large skillet sautée onion in butter and oil until onions are soft and translucent. Season with small amounts of salt and pepper. Use small amounts of stock intermittently to keep onions from burning. Add garlic and sautée for additional 3 minutes.
-Add brown sugar, tomato paste and sherry stir well and allow to cook for 5 minutes.
-Add 2T of stock mix well and whisk in the flour making sure to completely incorporate into the onion tomato mixture, stirring constantly to cook out any flour taste.
-Slowly whisk in remainder of stock in small batches. (You want to make sure to slowly incorporate to help thin out the flour mixture looking out for any lumping. Break up lumps by continuously whisking.)
-In crock pot add diced tomatoes, seasonings and bay leaves. Add onion mixture to crock pot and mix well.
-Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours. You're looking for the breakdown of the tomatoes.
-Remove bay leaves.
-Using a blender, in small batches, blend soup.
-Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if necessary.
-Serve and enjoy!
I'm always happy to answer any questions about recipes or cooking.
