Flops

Gluten Free Ratio Rally – Popovers

February 1, 2012
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These were supposed to be gluten free chocolate popovers.  Popovers are like muffins but rise more and have more air inside, hence they “pop over” the tin they are baked in.  As you can see, I didn’t quite get all the kinks worked out by the deadline for this month’s ratio rally This month, Mrs. R [...]

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Grateful for love and strawberries.

April 13, 2011
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Strawberries aren’t in season en Suisse.  I’d gather they won’t be for at least a month yet.  But when these little red darlings started showing up in le marché, I could hardly resist.  I’ve been going through strawberry withdrawl ever since…. oh wait I couldn’t resist during Valentine’s either when I made my husband sabayon [...]

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GF Substitutions Part XII: How to Handle your Flops

September 26, 2010
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This week is all about dealing with that one thing in gluten free cooking / baking that no matter what variety you try, you always have issues with, and how to keep moving towards progress and keep your spirits up. I am sure there is something that just never seems to work out exactly they way you want it to, no matter how many kinds you try or how many times you make it. For me, that thing is cookies. It seems no matter what type of cookie I try to make, there are always issues. Too thin and spreading, hard as a rock, or just plain old morphing into something almost unrecognizable at all. When I try to make cookies, there is always that sense of trepidation and intimidation that comes over me. Yet I haven’t given up on cookies completely, and keep trying! I think knowing how to deal with flops is an important issue – flops don’t necessarily mean you’re a bad cook! I think they can be a bit more frequent during gluten free cooking/baking because oftentimes when we are in the kitchen making gluten free deliciousness, recipes can be a bit experimental – especially if you are trying to make your own recipe or adapt a glutenicious one for the first time.

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Daring Cooks go Canning! Gingered Plum Butter

September 14, 2010
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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!

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Gluten Free Substitutions Part VIII: The Flours

August 30, 2010
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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.

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Smoked Salmon Pâté

June 13, 2010

I don’t usually write about my failures in the kitchen – after all, who wants to try a recipe that didn’t work?  However, at the risk of sounding cliché, I’m learning the slow lesson that life is not always about the end result, but about the process that one went through to get there. Our [...]

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