Creamy Country Gluten Free Corn Bread

Good cornbread recipes are hard to come by.  So my hubby modified a popular one, and it is mighty tasty.

3/4 cup milk

1/4

cup butter or margarine, melted

2 eggs

1 & 1/4

cups yellow cornmeal

3/4 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup starch flour mix (equal parts corn starch, potato starch, tapioca starch, arrowroot)

1/2

cup sugar (we use Splenda)

1  can creamed corn

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2

teaspoon salt

Directions

• Heat oven to 400ºF. Grease bottom and side of round pan, 9x1 1/2 inches, or square pan, 8x8x2 inches.
• Beat corn, butter and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Mix in milk, Pour batter into pan.
•  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Review of Pizza Hut Gluten Free Pizza

So we were excited when Pizza Hut came out with their Gluten Free Pizza, and we figured we'd give it a try.  The crust was burnt on the edges and really hard, the sauce wasn't that flavorful and it was expensive, especially adding the toppings.  We'll stick with the $6.00 Udi's Frozen Pizza's from walmart. It's much better

 

Review of Udi's Pizza

Pizza is something we have missed as well, until we found Udi's frozen pizza.  We like the three cheese and the pepperoni ones, the Margherita one leaves something to be desired.  We buy mainly the three cheese one, the pepperoni one if we have to, but we add more toppings to them.  They are really good and better than Domino's or Pizza Hut's 'gluten free' pizzas.  We get them at Walmart, but have seen them at several other local stores.  We love our pizza and have them several times a week now.  For only about $6.00 per pizza the price isn't too bad.  

Review of Udi's Gluten Free Hamburger Bun

We have tried several 'hamburger' buns along the gluten free journey and Udi's is the only one that we have liked.  It doesn't fall apart, it is good as far as texture and taste goes.  The only thing I would change is the price, $6 for 4 buns is a bit steep, but it is worth it.  Our main problem is the store we get them from doesn't check the dates on the package so we have to be careful as I didn't check the date and we got one home and some were moldy.  2 thumbs up for these.

Review of Aqua Star Breaded Fish

Sorry for the lack of updates, we will try to post more often.  So a few things we have missed since going gluten free is Breaded shrimp and breaded fish sandwiches.  I was at Walmart in their frozen gluten free section the other day and saw some new items so we figured we would give them a try.  We tried both the shrimp and the Alaskan Cod, and OMG talk about honest to goodness yummy!  It was the closest thing to real breaded shrimp/cod we have had since going gluten free 5 years ago.  It is definitely something we will be having again on both the shrimp and the cod.  The price wasn't too bad for being Gluten free though.

My advice for your GF pancakes

 Your pancakes coming out flatter than a pancake?
 Did they look good before you flipped them?
 Gluten free pancakes cannot be treated like normal pancakes, you can put all the baking powder in that you want and if you treat them like normal pancakes they will still come out like crepes.
 Imagine if you will, you are cooking normal pancakes, they start to rise, you see bubbles start to form, the edges start to set, you flip, you hear the sizzle and then the pancakes rise more, puff up and then set.
 Ah the joys of gluten, without the gluten the batter can only raise x amount then it gives up the ghost entirely, so after the flip above it stays flat and doesn't rise again, or if it does it is minimal.
 Well here is the simple fix, break the rules, put a lid on it for one, yes -gasp- I said a lid, second cook it a little lower and do not flip until the entire pancake has set, then flip and then leave the lid off after the flip to keep the crispiness on the top. (or leave it on to soften it)
 That is the trick, that's it, that's all there is to it, but if your mother saw you do that she would yell out you that you cooked it wrong, but it's not wrong, it is how you cook GF.
 You can also use a waffle iron, when it raises and hits the top of the iron the heat sets it and it stays risen, lol I have put in too much baking powder before so it raised to much (trying to get around the raising thing above) and I came out with hollow brown waffle shaped shells.
 Enjoy and be gluten free and eat your pancakes too.

 BTW, in my testing you will find that for GF stuff like pancakes, cakes, quick breads, it is pretty much all the same, the eggs, the water, salt, flour, oil/butter are pretty much all the same the variation is the sugar/sweetener, and the water, more water more light fluffy cake like, less water more quick bread style.

Basic GF white flour mixture

 First off I am still working on this recipe to determine which starch is better for what, whey and milk or just one or the other etc. but right now it is really good and works for bread and quick breads.
 Not the best for you but neither is bleached white wheat flour so.... ;-)

30 g Tapioca starch
38 g Potato starch
24 g Corn starch or Arrowroot (I haven't decided which I like best.)
42 g Sweet Dairy Whey powder *
24 g Milk powder *
180 g White Rice flour **
180 g Brown Rice flour **

 Put everything in a bag or large container with a lid and shake it baby.... or use a flour sifter if you want to sit there for hours. When I buy white and brown rice flour I just mix the two packages together so the amounts up above is what I use cut in half.
 This makes roughly three cups of flour as I am keeping it small to use in testing but that's the joy of using weight measure, just times the #s by whatever, not hard to grow it.
 If you do not have a kitchen scale I recommend you get one if you want to make the same product again and again instead of a dry one one day and pudding the next.
 Don't put any gums or ground psyllium husks in it, cakes, muffins, pancakes, quick breads do not need them or gluten, that is why all the above normal wheat recipes say to mix just until brought together, you do not want to trigger the gluten so leave it out and just put them in when you make normal bread.
 The ratio I am trying to stick with is two parts flours to one part starch, that seems to be the best ration I have found, right now I am working out the effects that the different starches bring to the baked goods. My wife laughs at me when I tell her that I want to turn the spare room into a test kitchen, I have some ideas on some gadgets to test tenderness, how rubbery, moisture etc. but she just thinks I am cracking a joke, I am very meticulous about things and will spend loads of time just deciding if 1 tsp makes a difference or not.
* Still deciding if one or the other makes a better product but I tend to put in both.
** if you don't use both milk and whey then use 160 g of each rice flour.