From the Lass's Kitchen: GF, Egg-Free Scones!

Well, I thought that I would keep with the theme of sweet bread today. Sweet breads, by the way, are only called sweet breads if they use any sugar, which does not make them inherently sweet. found that out the hard way. BLECH (different story, sorry).

Today, we shall reach back into history and think of the Lass's first few years of having celiac disease. After the little, gritty bricks that I made with the brown rice flour and not understanding the conversions in bulk and taste (let me tell you, 1 1/2C of white, granulated sugar is NOT the same as 1 1/2C of white, powdered sugar, and is NOT the same as 1 1/2C of brown sugar), after going through the GF gauntlet, I began to feel comfortable with making my own recipes. And so, the story of the scones begins. I got a wee book from Ireland, with recipes for all things Irish.

But they were all glutenous.

Eh, I was young and willing, so I tried.

I learned that extra baking powder and baking soda have limits. BLECH
I learned that fresh berries have lots of fluid and make your dough extra sticky, which you compensate for by adding more flour and xanthan gum. BLECH BLECH
I learned that I'm still fascinated with how my Grandma can drink buttermilk. BLECH
I learned that, if you're using GF flour, you don't have preservatives. EWWWWWHHHH

And so, all of my pain and suffering have led to a great recipe, well, more than one. And it's actually easy! But before I give you the recipe, you need to know what a scone is. Scones originate from Scotland, actually, where there is a little town named...yes, Scone! Well, there used to be a town there, now I think it's just an Abbey. It was a long time ago (Medieval, really). It's traditionally a "quick bread", which means that it doesn't have any eggs! It's eaten mostly at High Tea (2-4pm in the afternoon), with Devonshire clotted cream (guess where that's from!) and jam. There are all types of scones, but mostly they are broken into two categories: sweet scones and savory scones. The recipe I have for you today is for sweet scones.



Irish Lass' Gluten Free Sweet Scones

2C glutinous rice flour
1/4C tapioca starch or potato starch
3 tsp Xanthan Gum
2 1/2tsp powdered buttermilk**
2 1/2tsp cream of tartar
4Tbsp Butter, melted
2/3C Orange blossom honey (any kind will do, but the orange is the BEST here!)
3/4C Milk
2Tbsp orange or lemon peel, grated (Penzey's has a great dried lemon peel....)
1C dried cranberries (if you get sweeten cranberries, decrease the honey to 1/2C)

DO NOT USE AN ELECTRIC MIXER FOR THIS RECIPE

1. Preheat oven to 375*F with a pan of water on the bottom rack, and grease two cookie sheets. If you're using baking stones, don't grease these. If you're using Silpat, good IDEA!
2. Mix together all the dry ingredients.
3. Add the butter and honey and mix well. Sometimes, it's easiest to mix the honey in when it has been warmed up a bit. It still should be stiff, though!
4. Add the Milk. At this point, you have a dough. It should be thick and pasty. If it's so sticky that it's all over your hands, add 1/4C rice flour until it's firm enough to handle.
5. Add the citrus peel and dried cranberries and mix well.
6. Pinch off 1/2C of dough and make into a ball. Place on the cookie sheet and press down with the bottom of a drinking glass until it is 1/2" thick. If it's too much taller, it won't bake completely, too thin, and it's burning.
7. Continue until your cookie sheets (or stones) have scones that are 2" apart. Roll the rest of the dough while this batch is baking.
8. Bake on the top rack of your oven (water's on the bottom) for about 8 minutes, or until the edges are browning.
9. Remove and cool on wire racks. If you like your scones a little mushier, then immediately wrap them in foil when they come out of the oven (before cooling). This traps the steam against the baked good. I, personally, like mine dried out and more willing to be cut.
10. Once cool, refrigerate these. No preservatives, remember?


**Powdered Buttermilk can be found in the baking aisle at your local grocery. If you drink buttermilk and don't want to use the powdered stuff, substitute 1/2C buttermilk and 1/4C milk for the milk above.

Oh, clotted cream? I have found it in the cheese section of the grocery- not the deli section, the cheese section. It's a little round, glass tub. If you want some that's cheaper, stay tuned for tomorrow!

Enjoy your GF goodies!
The Irish Lass

Something from Sierra Leone: EASY GF, Egg-less Banana Bread!

It's still freezing here in Minnesota. I don't mean cold, I mean FREEZING. Veterans of the Minnesota winters are wondering when the cold will end. But that's global warming for you (BTW, if you think global warming just makes things wrong, it doesn't. It creates drastically altered weather patterns. Thank Bush)

Ok, ok, no more soap box for today.

just walk somewhere today, ok?

Except for you in Minnesota and Wisconsin- you have a reprieve until May: park as close to the doors as you possibly can.

As I sit up here freezing, I think enviously about the people we call "snow birds" here. These people have vasts amount of liquid income (or savings) and they fly to some place warm during these cold winters. Like Arizona. Like Florida. Like Sierra Leone (you were wondering how I'd bring that around to a coastal country in Africa, weren't you). Sierra Leone (Lee-oh-n) IS a small, coastal country on the western edge of Africa (Africa is a continent....remember that). They speak French in Sierra Leone and are EXTREMELY educated. I had a class once with a girl from Sierra Leone; I'm an A++ student and I found we were competing pretty hard for the top grade. One day, my parents went to the Science Museum of Minnesota (eh, Exploratorium's better) and got a handout of a Rice-Based Banana Bread. I asked her. It's actually a trial, if you will, for brides-to-be to bake for their mother in-laws. This shows that they know how to bake, but also that they know how to make bread without "flour" or eggs. It's a rite. Which is cool, if you think about how all of us GFers are constantly undergoing this...like brides-to-be...

Or maybe it's just weird. Anyhoo, here's the recipe:

Sierra Leone's Rice Banana Bread

1 3/4C glutinous rice flour
2 1/2tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
2/3C white, granulated sugar
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp nutmeg
1/4C oil
1/2C luke-warm water
1 1/2C very ripe bananas, homogenized (that means totally mashed up, no chunks)

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. (rice flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg)
2. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, oil, water, and bananas together.
3. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients- do not just pour it all in at one. You can't have any lumps.
4. When completely mixed, the batter will be very stiff. Pour this into a 9", well-greased bread pan.
5. Bake at 350*F for about 50minutes, or until a toothpick inserted down to the middle comes out clean.

Hints:
Sugar dissolves so, it's not considered a dry ingredient. Eh- go figure.

Preheat your oven. Make sure that your bread is centered in the oven.

When opening and closing the oven, ease the door back into place. Don't shove it or let it bang.


Enjoy the GF goodies!
The Irish Lass