September 14, 2010
Before coming to Europe, I thought that a plum was a plum was a plum. Boy was I wrong. Thanks to the wonderful varieties of produce available, I’ve learned that there are different types of strawberries, peaches, and beautiful plums. Plums can be as black as charcoal, reddish, purple, or even green and yellow. Round like little ping pong balls, or oblong like a football (an American football, that is). Not only do all these varieties look different, but they have their own unique tastes and flavors too. Each week this summer we decided to pick up a fruit that neither of us have had before, and buy some to see what we think. So far the results have been quite tasty, and by tasting so many different types of produce we certainly never get tired of any one fruit!
August 30, 2010
Welcome to the next installment of of the gluten free substitutions series here on Jenn Cuisine! We’re currently in the process of investigating various GF baking ingredients, and why they may or may not be useful. Last week I did a post about starches and why they can be important in baking, and previously I had discussed various binding agents to use. So this week we are pressing on to the flours!
Truth be told, at the moment I’m not feeling so awesome about my abilities to discuss gluten free flours with you . I had a bit of a baking flop this weekend. I mean a real flop. I attempted puff pastry. Maybe I was being too ambitious? I don’t think so, after all there is more than one very successful looking gluten free puff pastry recipe out on the web, namely by Jeanne of Four Chickens and Helene of Tartelette. My last gluten free puff pastry attempt unfortunately didn’t puff. Yesterday, neither did this attempt. After talking to the Twitterverse I don’t think it was all from my flour combo, instead I am thinking it is also my lack of decent puff pastry skills. But I did use some less starchy flours, and maybe that also contributed to its downfall.
