Baking & Pastry Project Week 6 - Beer, Cheese & Cider

Baking & Pastry Project Week 6 - Beer, Cheese & Cider

Sometimes when I'm trying out a new recipe, I find it's a challenge to locate a particular piece of baking equipment called for in the directions. This can turn into a scavenger hunt, if you are looking for a small size of a particular pan rather than a large one. To help out, I've compiled a list of online retailers when you are looking for new baking equipment:

1. Sur la Table - A great resource, as they offer shopping in store, online and by catalog. They also offer cooking classes in their stores.

2. Williams-Sonoma - Another great place to shop. They have stores around the country and offer shopping by catalog and online as well.

3. Fantes - Located in Philadelphia, Fantes has a local store and offers cake decorating courses. They have a great online shop that has a great assortment of equipment for bakers as well as some things for cooks.

4. Kerekes - A Brooklyn establishment for over 50 years, Kerekes offers a wide array of equipment for bakers and cooks of all levels, focusing primarily on the professional chef.

5. Broadway Panhandler - Residing at 65 East 8th Street in Manhattan, they have a wide variety of equipment for bakers and cooks. Their best selection of equipment is for cooks.

6. The Baker's Catalogue (King Arthur's Flour) - Located in Vermont, King Arthur's offers catalog and online shopping. In Norwich, they have their flagship store and a Baking Education Center that offers classes for every level of baker.

7. Bridge Kitchenware - They are located in East Hanover, New Jersey, they offer a wide variety of equipment, glassware and dinnerware for cooks of every level. If you to to visit them, nearby is a restaurant supply store and across the street is bakery so you can refuel after hauling out your great finds.

8. J. B. Prince Company - A resource for the professional chef or a serious baker and cook, J. B. Prince is located at 36 East 31st on the 11th floor in Manhattan.

Do you have a favorite kitchen or restaurant supply store that offers online shopping? If you do, I'd love to hear about it. Leave a comment below, so we can all visit your favorite shop.


Schedule

Wednesday - Beer Bread

Friday - Belgian Apple Cider Bread


Shopping List

Brown Rice Flour (Fine or Superfine Grind)
Sweet Rice Flour (also called glutinous rice flour)
Arrowroot Starch
High Protein Flours, such as: Soybean, White Bean, Black Bean
Whole Grain Flour, such as: Buckwheat, Millet, Sorghum, Quinoa, Teff
Instant Dry Yeast
Sea Salt
Binding Agents, such as: Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum, Chia Seed Meal, Agar Agar Powder
Gluten Free Beer, such as Bard's Tale
Cottage Cheese
Apple Cider
Sour Cream


Resources

Flours & Binding Agents: Authentic Foods, Barry Farm, Bob's Red Mill
Instant Dry Yeast: Barry Farm
GF Beer: Whole Foods, natural foods market, grocery store, liquor store


Equipment

No specific or unusual equipment is needed this week.


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.

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

Beer Batter Bread Gluten-Free

I had been reading Farmgirl's post on Beer Bread and was fondly remembering eating a yeast version of Beer Bread in years past. Since I had an unopened bottle of Ramapo Valley Gluten-Free Passover Beer in the fridge, I decided to modify Farmgirl's quick version of Beer Bread a try.

The recipe that Farmgirl uses is based on the Beer Bread recipe found at Epicurious.com. I modified her whole wheat version of the bread to make it gluten free. This is what I did:

Recipe

1 cup oat flour
1 cup millet flour
1 cup sorgham flour
1 Tb granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tb baking powder
14 ounces GF beer or 12 oz beer & 2 oz water
1 1/4 kuzu powder dissolved in the 2 oz of water
Optional Egg Glaze: 1 beaten egg & 2 tsp water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 4 x 8 loaf pan with parchment paper. Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the dissolved kuzu and water to the beer. Then pour both liquids into the dry ingredients. Stir only enough to blend and lumps are okay. The batter will be thick. Pour into parchment lined pan and bake for approximately 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The bread turned out beautifully, although it had too strong of a taste for my kids. They didn't care for it even with butter. The texture was beautiful although slightly crumbly when cut. It still held together enough to take bites out of the slice I covered with cheese. The bread tasted the best with savory companions, such as Emmenthaler cheese or pepperoni. However, it was quite tasty with just butter too.

This bread is better to eat within the first couple of days. After the third day the after taste becomes stronger until it is almost as strong as the aged Emmenthaler cheese.

Ramapo Valley Brewery - A Gluten-Free Passover Beer

While shopping at Whole Foods, I came across a Gluten-free beer from Ramapo Valley Brewery. It was their Passover Honey Beer which is gluten-free and kosher. Made of water, molasses, hops, honey and Passover yeast it truly is gluten-free. So off to the taste testing!

It foamed nicely and had a good aroma. The taste was initially light and crisp, but it left an intensely sweet taste in your mouth. Ditto, said my husband. This one is too sweet for us.

If you like the lighter sweeter beers, then this one is a winner. It won a blue ribbon at the first ever gluten free beer festival this year in the UK.