More Rhubarb

I've been having more fun with rhubarb. I have it so I have to use it. As I just got a new gluten free baking book, I leafed through that to find a recipe for rhubarb bread. Not finding it. No matter, I am the adaptation queen. Find a recipe that looks like it could take rhubarb, add more sugar and ta da!! That is exactly what I did and I have to say the results were good. A moist bread with a tang to it from the rhubarb and slightly sweet. My sugar addict man has eaten half the loaf by adding sugar concoctions to his. One looked like maple syrup. Another looked like brown sugar. He did whipping cream, sugar and a bit of vanilla this evening. I'm good as is -- I may be just sweet enough.

The new book that I used was the Culinary Institute of America - Gluten Free baking. As I mentioned in a previous blog they have 5 different gluten free mixes. I don't feel as though I can post the exact ratios of the flours, but I will say what flours are used.

Rhubarb, by the way, is a good source of potassium and vitamin C. It does contain a high amount of Calcium, but the absorption is poor as rhubarb is high in tannins that bind the calcium. Rhubarb is very low in calories, but that is usually negated by the amount of sugar needed to make it less puckery.

So here goes my rhubarb bread recipe adapted from a strawberry bread recipe. It was very easy to make and did I mention yummy. Another plus is it does not scream "gluten free" weird stuff. The bread came up nice and high, not like a brick and the texture is good. Not as crumbly as a wheat flour bread, but not grainy like some gluten free products can be.

Rhubarb Bread

1 1/2 cups diced fresh rhubarb

1/2 cup flour blend #2 (rice flour, brown rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch)

1 cup plus 2 tbsp flour blend #4 (white rice flour, tapioca starch and soy flour)

pinch of salt

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp canola oil

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp buttermilk - can use skim milk plus 1 tsp vinegar or dried buttermilk plus water - the buttermilk plus the baking soda make the batter more bubbly making the bread lighter and come up higher.

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 eggs (yes 6)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. combine flours, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar thoroughly.

3. In a separate bowl ,combine oil, buttermilk, vanilla and eggs thoroughly.

4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and blend completely until smooth. I will be like a cake batter.

5. Fold in rhubarb.

6. Pour into oiled loaf pan, bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from the center of the loaf.

Rhubarb Crunch

My family also has a universal love for rhubarb. I am thinking that this is a New England thing, because when I mention rhubarb to people from other parts of the county they have no idea what I am talking about. When I was a kid we used to eat the stalks dipped in sugar, puckery but good.
Mu rhubarb plant gets bigger every year. This year the thing is huge. Some of the stalks are a good 2 inches in diameter and the leaves could hide a 3 month old baby.
I was able to harvest enough to make a rhubarb crunch and a rhubarb bread, with enough to freeze and more awaiting harvest. Last year I harvested enough to make a few batches of crisp during the winter. I was also able to make several batches of strawberry rhubarb freezer jam.
The following recipe is another one that I have made for years. I adapted the original by cutting down the sugar, using whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose and increasing the oats. this increased the fiber content and decreased the total sugar. The original was too sweet for my taste.
I adapted it again to make it gluten free. It's yummy warm with vanilla low fat icecream or whipped cream. Sometime I add chopped walnuts to the topping.

Rhubarb Crunch

3/4 cup brown rice flour or gluten free flour mix
1 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup tranfat free mararine, melted
1 tsp cinnamon
4 cups diced rhubarb (or just fill the pan)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a glass bowl, melt the margarine. Add flour, oats, brown sugar and cinnamon - toss with a fork until well mixed and crumbly. Lay 1/2 of bottom of 9 inch square dish or 11 x 7 inch pan.

Cover with diced rhubarb.

In a small sauce pan mix water, sugar and corn starch (I like to put the corn starch through a small mess collander to free it from lumps) Cook over medium high heat until thick and clear, it will start to bubble. Takes about 10 minutes.

Pour sugar mixture over the rhubarb. Top with remaining crumb mixture. Bake 350 for 50-60 minutes, until bubbly and rhubarb is softened. Serve warm.

Pesto -- Universal Love

The people in my family have an almost universal love of pesto. Every year I plant numerous basil plants - know to us as, pesto precursors. I just got them in this weekend. Happily, the plants were rather leggy. I was able to cut them down enough to make one batch of pesto. The first batch of many more to come, if the season co-operates. Last year was a bad basil year, having little sun and too much wet.
I really did not expect to be making pesto so soon and was lucky to have all of the ingredients. I usually have them on hand, but you never know -- Parmesean cheese, olive oil, garlic and walnuts. I use walnuts instead of the traditional pine nuts, we just like it better. My kitchen was full of the wonder scent of the basi leaves, which intestified as I started adding more ingredients and mixing them in the food processor. My hands smelled simply delicious, down to the green under my fingernails.

This recipe is adapted form one of my first cook books, Jane Brodies, Good Food Book, 1985 edition. I am guessing it is out of print by now. Pesto freezes well. I use a small cookie dough scoop to make pesto balls, lay the balls on a cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap and freeze overnight. The balls then go into quart size freezer bags with as much air as possible sucked out. This way I can grab out the number of balls I need and put the rest back in the freezer.

Pesto

3 cloves garlic, chopped, about 1 tbsp
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups firmly packed basil leaves
1/4 cup walnuts (can use pine nuts )
1/2 cup grated parmesean- use good parmesan not the shelf stable stuff (can use veggie parmesan
if wanting vegan sauce)

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until desired consistency. Scrape down sides of bowl occasionally to get the consistency even.

I like to serve this over pasta with chopped sundried tomatoes.

Gluten free mix times 5

Good morning and Happy day after Mother's Day. It's been a while, the cooking muse left me for a while. It was the night that I made pizza. I did some roasted veggies - summer squash, mushroom, red pepper, onion and eggplant- and several cheeses- mozzarella, parmesan and gorgonzola. Very delicious in my world. All I heard was complaints about putting summer squash on the pizza. My desire to take time cook for the undeserving plummeted. Should my blog also suffer?? It has.
To renew the enthusiasm I have purchased a gluten free baking book compiled by the Culinary Institute of America. I am thinking, these people know what they are doing, every recipe should work like magic. The approach is to fine tune the recipes by using 5 different gluten free mixes. Each mix has a different protein content, the protein being either in the flours used or by adding either dry egg powder or whey. Soy flour is higher in protein than rice flour. The recipes often use several different mixes. I made a pie crust yesterday that used 3 different flour mixes. Is this approach better? It remain to be seen.
To reach the goal of having 5 different gluten free mixes I needed to assemble the ingredients, and find enough containers for them. The ingredient list is: white rice flour, brown rice flour, tapioca flour, potato flour, guar gum, soy flour, egg albumen, whey. Some of this I had at already, some I could get at the grocery store and some I needed to get at the health food store. The whey I needed to get at the healthfood store as the grocery only had the flavored kind.
I started with a sweet bread that used only flour mix #5 ( soy flour, rice flour, tapioca and whey). This was a yeast bread and also needed guar gum. It came out with avery good taste, but very heavy. This was eaten well!!
Yesterday I did a pie crust. This used 3 of the flour blends. It came out with a good taste, but not flakey at all. My husband, who does not care for crust anyway, gave the crust part to the dog. I put in all the water called for, but am thinking that I should have held back on it as the dough was a bit wet. This may have caused the crust to be a denser texture. I may try again and compare it to a simpler dough. The rest of the pie was great - chocolate cream pie with real whipped cream!!
I wish that more recipes would indicated what the charactaristics of the dough or batter should be. Gluten free baking is so unlike regular baking that the textures are different. So with the pie crust I got to a consistency that was much like regular pie dough, but I had not added all the water - should I stop and go for it, risking a dry crust or should I put in more water risking a dense crust. It's a gamble. I lost this time, but I don't often given up.
I will keep trying.