The gift for baking has been endowed upon many. But not me.
I possess photographic evidence of the following:
- a broken “cake” that fell apart when I removed it from the pan
- a sheet pan of what started out as a dozen chocolate chip cookies, but ended up as ONE giant one
- cupcake papers with only a crusty lining of baked batter…the rest “exploded” all over the top of the baking tray
It’s never interested me to study the why’s of these results, so I simply stopped baking…until this Fall. I was tempted into buying the book “Bakes Simple” by the author, Aran Goyoaga’s, looping baguette video. In the clip, she breaks a baguette in half, and it’s gorgeous. Fine print reads “gluten free”. Wheels screeching! Record scratching! Alarms ringing! That was a full ‘YES’ for me. So I ordered a copy (Actually, I ordered one for me, two for other GF friends, and three by accident…that have now found good homes).
When I delivered the books to friends, I found out that I was the only one new to Canelle et Vamilly (Goyoaga’s blog). In it and the cookbook, she goes through some deep gluten-free science, like binders and leaveners and steps to replace what wheat, yeast and water do naturally.
The good news is she makes a strong case for buying an inexpensive baking scale for accurate measurements. The bad news is that there were about 10 different flours that I needed to get started. But no surprise….I was already knee-deep into figuring out that baguette. I was diving all the way in.
So that was my first recipe to try. And it turned out. Not beautiful, but tasty! In the 6 weeks since I got the book, I’ve made 2 cakes, 4 batches of cookies, and an oat & honey bread. All amazing, and no exploded cupcakes or other mess ups to be seen! The real surprise to me is how relaxing and fun baking has become for me. Many Friday nights, I’m elbow deep in GF flour. It’s become my way to unwind and be mindful of the transition from work time to personal time.
