Gluten-free Baking

I did the baking this morning and made Gluten-free Soda Bread as well as Gluten-free Banana Cake and a Gluten-free Moist Fruit Cake.

For the Soda Bread, instead of 250 grams each of wholemeal and plain flour, I used 250 grams each of Juvela White Mix and Juvela Fibre Mix. I left out the bran flakes and the optional pumpkin seeds and I added two teaspoons of Xanthan Gum. This gum as well as Guar Gum is used in a lot of recipes for coeliacs and information about it can be found at

http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/glutenfreecookingbasics/a/xanthanguargums.htm

If you are making this for a coeliac there are two other things you need to be aware of, one, you need to make sure that they are allowed oats, not everyone is and two that the oats you use are suitable for coeliacs, again not all of them are. I found it took longer to cook than the original receipe, but that could be my oven, which is quite old, or it could be because of the gluten-free flours used. I do not know how well the soda bread will freeze so I have wrapped three individual slices to see how they freeze.

 

While the Soda Bread was cooking I also made a Banana Cake from BBC recipe  found here http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7380/banana-cake the only change was to use Juvela flour as above and instead of all white flour I used 120 grams white and 50 grams fibre mix. I also made a Quick Extra Moist Fruit Cake from my Seriously Good Gluten-free Baking book, by Phil Vickery; the book was a Christmas present from my granddaughter.

 

I have not made any of these recipes before and only made the banana cake because some of the bananas were overripe. I shall certainly make the soda bread and the fruit cake again although instead of semi-dried cranberries I might use semi-dried blueberries.

This afternoon I plan to watch the boat race and will be hoping that Oxford sink, apologies to anyone who supports them, but I was born in Cambridgeshire and visit Cambridge frequently.

The original receipe is included below so that non-coeliacs may try it as it was intended to be made. For coeliacs, use my suggestions above or adapt it for yourself.  I would be interested to know how your Soda Bread turns out.

250g wholemeal flour

250g plain flour

50g bran flakes

100g porridge oats

500ml buttermilk
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

45g unsalted butter

A handful of pumpkin seeds - optional.

Place all dry ingredients in a large bowl and rub in the butter. Pour in the buttermilk and mix it in quickly with a palette knife. Bring the dough together lightly with your fingertips. (This results in a sticky mess but worth the effort.) Shape into a flat round loaf and place on a lightly floured baking sheet. Score a deep cross on the top - (this apparently lets the fairies out). Bake for 40-45 minutes at 200C Gas mark 6. If it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom it is done; turn out onto a cooling rack.

Today’s Weather

The weather today at 1200 GMT is dull, cold and overcast, the temperature is about 10.5 degrees Celsius; I think it will rain before too long.