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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Homemade Gluten Free English Muffins

Anyone that has ever tried a gluten free biscuit knows that they just "ain't the same" as a "real" biscuit.   Even though I have always made my biscuits from scratch when Bisquick came out with a gluten free biscuit mix I decided to give it a try.  Well, if you're not thinking of them as an old fashioned biscuit they really aren't bad, but who can afford to buy the stuff?  Like most gluten free, pre-packaged items it's expensive.  I decided that I needed an alternative for my sweet son that absolutely loves bread.  Giving up "good" homemade bread has been the hardest part of being gluten free for him. 

Fortunately, over the last couple of years I have played around in the kitchen enough that we have come up with some pretty good breads that he is pleased with.  Yesterday was another example.  I've always liked to have breakfast foods cooked and in the freezer simply because I'm not a morning person and cooking breakfast is just "not my thing".   In addition to fruit and cereal, the rest of my family has a choice of muffins, pancakes, and breakfast sandwiches.  Caleb, due to being gluten free, has been stuck pretty much with fruit, muffins and pancakes because we had not found a good biscuit or English muffin substitute.   Yesterday I decided it was time to experiment again and I came up with a very good English muffin and it seems to work quite well as a breakfast sandwich, even after being frozen.   I found the recipe on http://www.iamglutenfree.blogspot.com/ and adapted it a little bit.  I am very pleased with the result.  Instead of using the flour blend she has listed I used one that I keep  on hand.  It uses basically the same ingredients, but mine doesn't have potato starch and sometimes it has brown rice and sometimes it doesn't depending on what I have on hand when I mix it up.  It worked great though and the muffins were delicious.   My cooking time was a little bit longer as well.  *I don't have muffin tin rings so I used foil to make little pans to bake them in. 

Gluten Free English Muffins

1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 brown rice flour
1/4 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup potato starch
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 tsp. salt
1 scant tsp. quick rise yeast
1 tsp. cooking oil
3/4 cup + 1 tbsp. warm water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray muffin tin rings with nonstick spray and dust with rice flour.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of mixer.  Add oil and water and mix until just blended, scraping down the sides to make sure you incorporate all of the dough.  Then beat on high for another two minutes.  Spoon dough into tin rings.  Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Be prepared:  they will not be browned on the top, but they will be browned on the bottom. 

IMPORTANT:  Let cool before splitting and eating (delicious toasted or untoasted).


*When Caleb first had to go gluten free I learned to make hamburger buns for him.  Since I didn't have any pans the right size my Dad made me a wooden mold the same diameter and depth of a hamburger bun.  I take foil and fold it over the round mold and up the sides to make individual pans.  Spray them with cooking spray and they work great!

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