Why people with food-intolerances need enormous houses and some coeliacs might eat gluten

I have been looking at all my stuff trying to think how to fit into a small flat rather than a rambling farmhouse with outbuildings.  OK, so I have kept stuff from every hobby I have ever tried, and between us we have kit for sailing, windsurfing, surfing, skiing (downhill and nordic) Heelies, jewellery, electronics, welding, wine-making, pottery, embroidery on a grand scale, oil and acrylic painting (easels for three people) and so on.

But, a big problem is thinking about kitchen storage.  If an ordinary person wants a bag of flour they buy a bag of flour.  If I need more flour I have to buy at least three ingredients, at least two of which have to come from an Internet supplier.  So, OK, I need to buy three bags of flour to make one bag of flour.  Big deal.

But then, look at the costs.  A bag of tapioca or urid might cost only a few pounds ( still 7-10 times the price of ordinary flour).  Postage on one bag of flour costs much more than the flour itself.  Occasionally I have bought flour, eg chestnut, where I just paid much more for the delivery than the flour, but usually I buy enough stuff to make the unit cost of the postage seem reasonable or to hit the free delivery band.

There is also the time lag associated with Internet shopping. Most people manage a near-next day delivery now, but sometimes I have had to wait for weeks for an out of stock staple.  So more flour earlier is better from this perspective too.

So, for the flour to make a single cake I might end up with twelve bags of tapioca, six cartons of Eat Natural muesli, some blue corn tortilla and a few other bits and pieces in one box, and six bags of urid lentils, some curry paste and some cooking tongs in another box.

In one fell swoop I have gone from needing a product that for most people is available for 60p in any grocery store and takes up one small space on a shelf to twenty items which cost £70 and take up half a cubic meter of cupboard space - or on top of the washing machine and on the stairs.....

Then there is the finished food.  I bake enough bagels at a time to last about a week.  They take up a whole shelf in the freezer.  Other people can just go to a shop and buy a single cupcake or a sandwich or a loaf of bread.  Of course, if I was prepared to eat really bad food or hunt out the few reasonable specialist suppliers (Internet, postage, storage...) this wouldn't be such an issue.

If I didn't make reasonable pizza, pasties, cookies, cakes etc it would be harder for TT to keep the house safe for me too.  I bluntly said if he couldn't avoid smearing gluten all around the house I'd have to have a separate house (now that's another twist on the theme of needing more space) so it is a big deal.

Steering clear of those tiny deadly proteins means adopting an obsessive lifestyle and, for me, an obsessive interest in the structural attributes and function of myriad of other materials.  It is easy to see why, for those who don't have excruciating and immediately noticeable effects from eating gluten, that they give up abstaining, trading social integration and convenience for the threat of future malaise.



I could just eat potatoes I suppose.  Where would be the fun in that?

Very Lazy gluten-free bread

I set out to make bagels yesterday.  I took my 500g urid lentil flour, added a teaspoon of yeast and one of agave syrup, and whisked it into 900ml warm water. I use filtered water as there is a lot of chlorine in our water and it is not good for the yeast.

I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and left it on a windowsill while I got on with other tasks.  To put it simply, I forgot all about it.  When I next looked the dough was pushing against the wrap and about to escape.  OK, so it a very liquid dough, not like bread dough, and it probably wouldn't have been able to crawl off and live a life of its own, but it did mean I needed to get on with the next stage.

I didn't feel like starting the next stages of bagelling - 900g tapioca flour and two eggs beaten in, shaping 125g rings, leaving to rise, boiling for two minutes, draining, baking...OK, these stages can be separated and I could have just mixed in the flour and put the bowl in the fridge to finish the job the next day. So, I stirred in 100g yellow cornmeal for colour and crunch, added tapioca until the dough was stiffish - you can see it holds its shape a bit, and put it into a greased and lined tin.

I try to remember to put paper in the bottom of bread tins when I make a loaf.  The dough definitely sticks a lot more than wheat loaves, and it is annoying gouging 'non-stick' pans when trying to lever bread out.

I dolloped the dough into the tin and sprinkled a little water on top. I would normally have been neater....

I put it into a warm oven (about 40C) to rise, with a bowl of hot water on the floor of the oven to keep the air moist.  A little while later I realised the dough was up to the top of the tin and it looked hazardous to move it.  Normally at this stage I would take the loaf out and pre-heat the oven to 170C before putting the bread back in.  This time I just left it where it was and turned the oven on, setting the timer for 35 minutes.  After 35 minutes I turned the heat down to 100C and left it another 15 minutes.  I then turned the heat off and left the loaf in the oven for another ten minutes before taking it out.  I have found my gluten-free bread tends to be sticky in the middle and thought this long slow cooling process might help.

I used a long, high-sided tin called a Pullman tin.  It comes with a lid so that you can make completely square bread for sandwiches if you are using wheat.   It is the only bread tin I found available that gives a slice that is big enough to fit properly in a toaster and gives a good sized sandwich.  I got it from http://bakerybits.co.uk.  A tip, don't use the lid or you will struggle for ages to get the tin open!

I did consider ordering custom-made tins from Alan Silverwood, who will make tins at quite a reasonable price to suit your needs.  (alan-silverwood.co.uk - really charming friendly people). However, when I found this tin I decided to use this for the moment.  You can also use the Silverwood adjustable tin to make small square loaves if you want.  Normal tins designed for wheat flour just give such a sad shaped loaf as you need the tin to be as tall as you want the finished loaf to be.

The loaf is the best gluten-free loaf I have made.  It has a nice squeeziness when compressed as a whole, it cuts easily, doesn't granulate in the mouth, and toasts to a crunchiness that is very satisfying.

Having been developed as a solution to a burst of baking idleness I will now use this process for future loaves.

Finally – the gluten-free mincepies

So, I made the candied peel.  I made the mincemeat.  I have now made the mince pies and delivered them to Revill’s farm shop and Number8 Community Art’s Centre.  I have a great big jar, the kind sweets were sold in, full of mincemeat which should only get better as it matures.

Pastry Ingredients

200g butter

(400g flour) 

150 urid lentil flour

125 fine polenta

125 tapioca flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

approx 100ml water

1/2 tsp sugar

Method

Whisk or sieve the flours together.  Cut butter into little lumps and stir into flour so that they are all coated. 

Either rub in by hand until they resemble breadcrumbs (I must think of a gluten-intolerant descriptor for this stage, suggestions welcome) or blitz in a food processor.  Don’t keep going until it gets claggy, just pulse until all butter lumps are tiny.

Stir in a little sugar to help the pastry brown and give a slight sweetness.  I tried the mince pies with sweet pastry and didn’t like it as much, but a teaspoon of sugar wont really be noticeable.

Stir in the egg.  I use a flat silicon scraper to avoid over working the mixture and to keep the noise down in my metal bowl, but just use whatever tool feels right to you.  Try to mix without squashing too much.

You should find that your dough doesn’t easily form big patties yet.  Add cold water and stir until you find that a handful of dough squidges into a lump of dough that stays together easily and doesn’t split along the edges if you roll it flat.  The amount of water you need will depend on the flours you use, the humidity of the day and the size of the eggs.

As I was making a big batch of pies for a customer I ran a test just to be sure I hadn’t made any dreadful errors.  I have been know to make cake without the sugar – it is usually the sugar I forget, but it has been butter, one of the flours…so now I try to test the dough or taste the batter before I get to the point where I can't fix things.  It also means you get (hopefully) a treat to eat before you carry on with the work, and is made and eaten before the pastry has had its twenty minutes in the fridge.

Wrap in cling film and putting in the fridge to chill a bit.  If your butter gets to warm it is harder to roll out the pastry neatly.

I rolled out the pastry using tapioca flour to dust my work surface and rolling pin.  You can also roll between two sheets of Clingfilm/plastic wrap or parchment paper.  I rolled this straight onto the board to show how the pastry does work easily and isn’t really any more trouble than a plain wheat pastry to handle.

I rolled the pastry so thin that you could easily see the pattern of my tablecloth through it.  I could still handle it but it was a bit fragile. This is too thin for these tarts, which need to be able to cope with handling in a store.  

I used a 78mm cutter to go in the little foil trays.  I placed each round on the tray and gently squeezed the pastry in place – ok, so it does take a bit more care than I recollect wheat pastry to need, but it isn’t too hard.  

If you get a tear just take a little piece of dough and press it into the gap.  I have done a little video of this but it is my first attempt and the sound pick-up was poor – I posted it a couple of days ago just to get me started.

repairing a hole in the pastry

When you have cut out your circles, cut out any smaller pieces you want for toppings.  

Take the remaining pastry and lightly shape it before rolling out again.  You can do this three  or four times with the pastry still being acceptable.  

Place a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat in each tart.  I put little pastry stars on top as I like to be able to see the mince and I like the slight caramelising that takes place when the mincemeat gets direct heat.

I cooked these little tarts at 170degreesC for 8-12 minutes depending on where they were in my irregular old oven. Cool and sprinkle if desired with icing sugar or caster sugar.

holding together!

Enjoy.  I don’t know how well they will keep yet but the mincemeat frangipane tart I made last year stayed good for weeks.  I’ve kept some to test over the next month. I will post results.

I made a bigger tart with all the bits of pastry that had already been rolled out and re-squidged three times.  I just compressed it into the tart tin rather than rolling it out again.  It still tasted good and wasn’t tough, but the pastry was definitely a little less crisp and light.

I tried mince tarts made with Bob’s Red Mill flour but I didn’t like the slight chickpea flavour, though my Tolerant Taster said he didn't notice it.  The pastry was also more difficult to manage so I made it thicker, and it was more stodgy.

Beef Burger on gluten-free bagel

I spent a couple of years in Camden, London, where there was a very good burger restaurant about half a minute's walk away from my flat.  I don't eat beef often - usually only when I feel I need extra iron, but when I did I liked a burger on ciabatta with lots of extras.

The other day I took one of my gluten-free bagels, made from urid lentil and tapioca flours, toasted it lightly, and layered it with a home-made organic beef burger, some of my own chilli jam, the last of my own home-grown onions caramelised in olive oil, and a handful of rocket.  Very delicious.

The hole in the bagel just made the burger easier to bite, and didn't seem to allow the contents to cascade all over my lap, as I thought it might.