Almond & Millet Yeast Raised Doughnuts (B&P27)

I'm drooling.

I want doughnuts.

They were sooooo good...

Delicious cake style doughnuts with a sheer fondant glaze with a variety of toppings are on the menu for today.

As a family, we did what we call a "Mo-down" like the "Throwdown's with Bobby Flay." This is where I, as Mom, bake off against a favorite food item.  My doughnut "Mo-Down" was between me and Thomas' Donuts on Front Beach Road in Panama City Beach, Florida.  Our kids chose my contenders from favorite or one-time favorite food items.

The kids and I haven't had many doughntus since we've had to go gluten free. I've only made gluten free idoughnuts once and those were the ones I made last year for Tartelette's Blog Event. So, it's been awhile and they were more than ready for me to crank up the grease and get cooking. This recipe makes doughnuts which are like old fashioned or cake styles, rather than the beautifully puffy ones called "glazed" by places such as Dunkin' Donuts or Krispy Kreme.

We headed out to Thomas' and picked up a variety of doughnuts. When we got home, we broke out the wheat and gluten free doughnuts and set up the plates for the judges.  My husband was the tie breaker vote, while the kids and my parents were the judges. Our voting system is simple, something along the lines of what was used in the Coliseum...thumbs up or thumbs down. As a contender, you get a swirl of hope and doom as you watch them eat. It's nothing like facing a lion or gladiator, but you do sit on pins and needles while you wait for their verdict. The result? The kids - two thumbs down, because they weren't like the puffy doughnuts. My parents - two thumbs up, because they loved the flavor and they like cake style doughnuts. The tie breaker - a thumbs up, because he like the flavor and the crunchiness of the gluten free doughnuts.

So, I held my own against a beautiful and classic wheat cake doughnut. Pheew!

Now I just need to figure out how to make a puffy glazed doughnut.


Recipe

Total Protein Content:
Original Content: 34.70 g
GF Content: 34.79 g

Equipment Needed: Doughnut Cutter, Deep-Fat/Candy Thermometer, Stock Pot or Deep-Fat Fryer, Cookie Sheets, Cake Rack, Bowls.

Doughnut Dough

30 g brown rice flour (2.7 g)
25 g sweet rice flour (1.5 g)
25 g arrowroot flour (.075 g)
48 g almond meal (9.6 g)
36 g millet flour (5.52 g)
18 g white bean flour (3.87 g)
6 g chia seed meal (1.26 g)
_______________________replaces the bread flour

30 g brown rice flour (2.7 g)
20 g sweet rice flour (1.2 g)
24 g arrowroot starch (0.07 g)
20 g almond meal (4 g)
20 g millet flour (2.3 g)
_______________________replaces the pastry flour

22 g instant dry yeast
8 g agar agar powder
50 g sugar
19 g non-fat dry milk
6 g baking powder
5 g sea salt
pinch nutmeg, ground
4 ml agave syrup
160 ml water
49 g egg
58 g emulsified shortening
Oil for frying
Toppings for Doughnuts: sprinkles, confectioner's sugar, vanilla sugar, fondant glaze

Fondant Glaze

1 g gelatin
15 ml water
28 g corn syrup
2 g glycerin
225 g confectioner's sugar

1.  In a large bowl, place all the dry ingredients and blend well. In a medium sized bowl, pour all the liquid ingredients and stir together. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until a soft ball forms.

2. On a sheet of parchment paper with arrowroot starch sprinkled on it.  Place the dough in the center of the parchment paper and pat it out until it is 1/2 inch/1 cm thick. Dust the surface of the dough with arrowroot starch and dip the cutter into the arrowroot starch. Then cut out the doughnuts, using a spatula to pick them up. Place on a cookie sheet covered with a piece of parchment paper sprinkled with arrowroot. Continue until all the dough has been formed into doughnuts.  Place in a warm location to rise for about 1 1/2 hours.

4. Fondant: Place the water in a pot and warm. Pour the gelatin in the water and melt. Remove from the heat and then add the corn syrup and glycerin. Place the confectioner's sugar into a bowl and slowly pour the gelatin mixture into the sugar. Stir until the sugar is thoroughly blended with the gelatin mixture. It should the consistency of a glaze. Set aside for glazing the doughnuts after cooking.

5. Heat the oil to 350 degrees F/177 degrees C. Line a cookie pan with paper towels. Place a few doughnuts at a time into the oil and cook for 2 minutes. Turn the doughnuts over and cook for another minute or until it has a golden color.  Lift the doughnuts out of the oil with a spider or slotted spatula, allow the oil to drain off before placing on the paper towels. While cooking the doughnuts, keep an eye on the temperature of the oil. 

6. Roll the warm doughnuts in the confectioner's or vanilla sugar or dip in warm fondant glaze. If you want sprinkle the fondant glazed doughnuts with sprinkles. Place the fondant dipped doughnuts on a paper towel lined cookie sheet with a cake rack, so the excess glaze can drip off. Garnish the just glazed doughnuts with sprinkles, coconut or decorating sugar.

Other Baking & Pastry Project Posts

Index of the Baking & Pastry Project

Baking & Pastry Project #26 - Pita

Baking & Pastry Project #25 - Naan

Baking & Pastry Project Week 13 - Flatbreads

Baking & Pastry Project #24 - Lavosh

Baking & Pastry Project #23 - Pizza
Baking & Pastry Project Week 12 - Pizza & Crackers
Baking & Pastry Project #22 - Soft Pretzels
Baking & Pastry Project #21 - Crescia al Formaggio
Baking & Pastry Project Week 11 - Parmesan & Pretzels

 

Want More?

You can also follow me on Twitter, where I'm glutenagogo.

Millet & Sunflower Naan (B&P25)

Baking & Pastry Project #25 - Millet & Sunflower Naan

The drums are here! A beautiful glossy black with the look of an old Ludwig set, they are so classy my son speechless. They arrived by UPS a mere thirty minutes before his music teacher arrived. When Jared arrived we broke open the boxes, then spent the next hour setting things up and tuned.

My brother is an awesome guy. He put new heads and mutes on the drums, sent new tuning keys and a pack of drum sticks. He told my son, "Have fun and shred some wood!"

We're going to rearrange the living room to create a music area with the drums, piano and guitar. Then it's time to pick up some drum mutes or lightening rods so that after sundown he can still practice.

It's not just that we want to be a good neighbors, it's trying to head off trouble before it starts. One of our neighbor's has an irritation meter that is set far below average. Once she gets started, then she's off and running for years on end. It makes you want to put up some alien defense shields, so she doesn't have the opportunity to say, "Take me to your leader!"

I served the naan along with assorted meats and cheeses for dinner. Delightfully buttery and creamy from the sunflower meal, the naan went beautifully with a smear of ricotta and a marinated olive. It got high marks from my family for eat alone deliciousness.

Recipe

Protein Content:
Original Amount: 23.283 g
GF Amount: 22.085 g

5 g brown rice flour (.35 g)
25 g sweet rice flour (2.125 g)
25 g arrowroot starch (0.075 g)
59 g millet  flour (6.785 g)
85 g sunflower seed meal (12.75 g)
23 g instant dry yeast
14 g sugar
4 g sea salt
4 g agar agar powder
6 g chia seed meal
90 ml water
10 ml agave syrup
29 g clarified butter

29 g plain yogurt
29 g eggs
Topping: clarified butter and seeds of your choice

1. Place the dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir together.  Then pour all the liquid ingredients into a medium sized bowl and blend thoroughly. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until a nice ball forms.

2. On a sheet of parchment paper sprinkled with arrowroot starch, divide the dough into 5 or 6 balls of equal size. Starting with the first ball, press out onto the parchment paper into a tear drop shape. Continue with the second ball and so on until all the dough is shaped. Place the parchment paper onto a cookie sheet and relocate to a warm location. Allow the dough to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

3. Place a baking stone into the oven and preheat to 425 degrees Fahrenheit/218 degrees Celsius. Brush the naan with clarified butter and sprinkle with your choice of seeds. Place the parchment paper onto the baking stone.  Cook for 10 minutes or until puffed.  Cool completely before serving.


Other Posts in the Baking & Pastry Project

Index of Baking & Pastry Project Posts

Baking & Pastry Project #24 - Lavosh
Baking & Pastry Project #23 - Pizza
Baking & Pastry Project Week 12 - Pizza & Crackers
Baking & Pastry Project #22 - Soft Pretzels
Baking & Pastry Project #21 - Crescia al Formaggio
Baking & Pastry Project Week 11 - Parmesan & Pretzels
Baking & Pastry Project #20 - Craquelin

Baking & Pastry Project #19 - Brioche
Baking & Pastry Project Week 10 - Brioches

Baking & Pastry Project Week 13 - Flat Breads

Bread & Pastry Project Week 13 - Flat Breads

One of my favorite tweaks on gluten free baking is to use two sometimes three different types of binders. A binder is what holds your gluten free baked good together, such as xanthan or guar gum, flax seed meal, gelatin, pectin, agar agar or chia seed meal. There are other gums that are not as readily available and tend to cost a bit more, for example gum arabic, kuraya or tragacanth gum.

The idea is that each gum works in a particular way. Therefore, if you have more than one you will have the holding power of both types of gums. Look in your freezer case for your ice cream container. In the list of ingredients you will find things like xanthan gum and methylcellulose or xanthan and guar gum. Ice cream tends to travel a long way from the factory to the eater's house. In that journey the ice cream will be subjected to a variety of temperatures. The gums help the ice cream maintain it's fluffy texture and mouth feel. Otherwise, you would end up with a container of ice cream that has partially melted and refrozen while in transit.

A couple of other things to think about while your thinking about binders: taste and quantity. Each gum, meal or powder has it's own flavor. In small amounts it might not be that noticeable, but when used in larger quantities it can change the flavor of your baked good. For a bread like pita, you will need a lot of binding strength so that the bread holds together when you open the pocket and place your filling inside. If you use any one binder in sufficient quantity to hold it together, you maybe adding a competing flavor to your bread. This is the perfect bread for using more than one binder. Try out my choice of chia seed meal and agar agar powder or xanthan gum and pectin, perhaps another combination.

I hope you enjoy this week's breads. The naan has a warm and nutty flavor from sunflower seed meal and the pita bread is rich and earthy from ivory teff flour.

Schedule

Thursday, 10/1 - Naan

Saturday, 10/3 - Pita

Shopping List

Brown Rice Flour (Fine or Superfine Grind)
Sweet Rice Flour (also called glutinous rice flour)
Arrowroot Starch
Almond Meal
High Protein Flours, such as: Soybean, White Bean, Black Bean
Whole Grain Flour, such as: Buckwheat, Millet, Sorghum, Quinoa, Teff
Instant Dry Yeast
Binding Agents, such as: Xanthan or Guar Gum, Chia Seed Meal, Agar Agar Powder

Plain Yogurt
Clarified Butter
Sunflower Seed Meal

Resources

Flours & Binding Agents: Authentic Foods, Barry Farm, Bob's Red Mill
Instant Dry Yeast: Barry Farm
Agave Syrup: Wild Organics, Native Seeds

Equipment

Baking Stone


What's Going On?


I was a very lucky woman and received a copy of the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book along with their culinary dvd's from my family for my birthday and our anniversary. After watching all the DVDs, I decided to work my way through the CIA's Baking and Pastry book - of course making it gluten free. There were so many skills that I wanted to develop and work on. I hope you will be interested in sharing my journey with me.

Want More?

You can also follow me on Twitter, where I'm glutenagogo.

Other Baking & Pastry Project Posts

Baking & Pastry Project #24 - Lavosh

Baking & Pastry Project #23 - Pizza
Baking & Pastry Project Week 12 -
Baking & Pastry Project #22 - Soft Pretzels
Baking & Pastry Project #21 - Crescia al Formaggio
Baking & Pastry Project Week 11 - Parmesan & Pretzels
Baking & Pastry Project #20 - Craquelin

Baking & Pastry Project #19 - Brioche
Baking & Pastry Project Week 10 - Brioches


Index of Baking & Pastry Project Posts

Sesame Teff Lavosh (B&P#24)

Baking & Pastry Project #24 - Lavosh

I discovered a new way to upset a 13 year old guy... Take him into a dance store while a group of 14 to 15 year old girls get fitted for pointe shoes. To increase his torment, make sure it is a store that recently received all their new fall stock. Not the place to be if you don't like pink and frilly things.

The action was a little over the top with teenage girls flitting here and there looking for a spot at the barre. Legs flying up in different ballet positions, so they could check out the fit of the shoes. You had to be careful where you walked so you didn't get hit by flying feet or run into a racks filled with leotards, sweaters and leg warmers while dodging the dancing bodies.

It took almost an hour later, but finally we were able to walk out with a couple of lined leotards and a new pair of ballet slippers. I was last out of the door and when I caught up with my kids, my son was grousing under his breath and my daughter agreeing with him. When she saw me and said, "Mom, there was too much pink in there. It was going crazy!"

I did make it up to them this week. Their pottery class in wheel throwing started at the art school. Two hours of getting dirty, slinging clay and creating something with your hands. After two hours they bounced out of the classroom filled with stories and covered in drying clay. My taller than me son, put his arm around me and said, "Thanks for signing me up. This was great! It was so cool when I lost control of my pot and it slung off the wheel and hit the wall! Then I exploded my best pot when I put too much water on it." He bounced away from me throwing out his arms and cried, "That's how I got like this!" All I could think of was the line from the movie Madagascar, where the chimpanzees and other animals are in Grand Central Station surrounded by police and animal control. "If you have poo fling it now." Nothing like playing in the mud to put a smile on your face.

With that smile in mind, my family thoroughly enjoyed this sheet of lavosh. My daughter created a plate of antipasto and placed a few chunks of lavosh on it. My son ate it with some German Bauernschnicken (a nice cured German ham) that we were trying out. My husband and I broke out the Uniekaas cheese, olives and a glass of red wine to enjoy our lavosh.  There was even enough left over for the kids to enjoy as a late snack.

Recipe

Yield: 1 sheet lavosh

Protein Content:
Original Amount: 21.34 g
GF Amount: 20.81 g

15 g sweet rice flour (0.9 g)
15 g arrowroot starch (.045 g)
18 g millet flour (2.07 g)
28 g white bean flour (6.02 g)
6 g chia seed meal (1.26 g)
__________________________replacement for bread flour
10 g sesame seed flour (2.55 g)
10 g sweet rice flour (2.06 g)
16 g arrowroot starch (0.048 g)
__________________________ replacement for durum flour
10 g brown rice flour (1.4 g)
10 g sweet rice flour (0.73 g)
10 g arrowroot starch (0.03 g)
__________________________replacement for cake flour
20 g ivory teff flour (1.1 g)
10 g Montina flour (0.7 g)
__________________________replacement for wheat flour
11 g instant dry yeast
9 g sea salt
4 g agar agar powder
25 - 30 ml agave syrup
80 ml whole milk, room temperature
55 ml water
6 g molasses
6 g honey
olive oil
seeds of your choice or coarse salt

1. Put the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir together. In medium bowl pour in the liquid ingredients and mix together. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and thoroughly blend.

2. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and sprinkle sweet rice flour or arrowroot starch on the paper. Place the lavosh dough in the center of the parchment paper and sprinkle with sweet rice or arrowroot starch. Dipping your fingers into the flour pat the dough out with your fingers until it is 1/16 in/1.5 mm thick or you can sprinkle the dough with starch and then place a sheet of parchment paper on top. Roll out the dough until it is 1/16 in/1.15 mm thick and rectangular in shape.

3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F/204 degrees C. Allow the lavosh dough to rest 15 to 20 minutes before spreading the top with olive oil and sprinkling with seeds or coarse salt. Bake for 7 to 14 minutes, depending on how thin you were able to get your dough.  Cool completely on a rack before serving.