Two New Favs

Before I get started with my new favs I want to say Thank You to those of you who nominated me for a kitchn.com blogger award.  I was way down on the list of nominated blogs but it means so much to me that y’all thought enough of the blog to nominate it at all. 🙂 This all happened while I was still pretty sick so I didn’t even realize it for about a week and then noticed I was getting a lot of traffic from there.  Thank you so much to those of you who stopped by because you saw the blog on the list…I hope you’ll stay for a while.  🙂

I think I can finally say I’m well. 🙂  One thing I can say for certain…I made it through this latest health h3ll without so much as a drop of gluten (and believe me…I wanted some Cream of Wheat so bad)  I have to think that if I can make it through that…I can make it through anything. 🙂

Ok now on to the food…

I’ve found a love for two new things.

This dough…recipe at the end of the post.

First I used it to make a ciabatta roll.  I got distracted and it way over proofed but I decided to bake it anyway.

I’m so glad I did.

Next I used it for a pizza and a stromboli.

This was not only the best gluten-free pizza I’ve made so far…it was also the best homemade pizza I’ve made period.  I used my pizza stone.  The dough had the very best chew.  The crust was perfectly crisp.

I didn’t try it but those who ate the stromboli agreed that it was super delicious too.

New love number two…this Heartland gluten-free Lasagna.  The Walmart here in rural route even carries it.  It was $2.88 (very reasonable compared to other brands) and was really good.  I will definitely be trying some of their other shapes of pasta.  Unfortunately the lasagna is all my Walmart carries but I will check out others when I’m in a larger town.  The family loved this too and they don’t even have to eat gluten-free.  Seriously once made into lasagna I don’t think anyone could tell the difference.  I didn’t taste the pasta alone but with everything on it…it tasted exactly like regular lasagna.

I made traditional layers and some rolled.  Both handled the sauce just like a regular noodle.  For the rolled I just soaked the noodles in super hot water (not boiling) until soft enough to roll.

The above ciabatta made into garlic toast sticks.  One of the best meals I’ve had in the last 6 weeks. 🙂

 

 

Buttermilk Dough

 This dough is so good.  The buttermilk powder gives it a kind of mellow sourdough vibe without all the work.  I’m thinking the buttermilk is also what gives it it’s amazing chew.  I can’t rave about this dough enough. 🙂  I’m linking to one of Nicole’s posts where she includes the bread flour recipe.  I use her ‘make it simple’ recipe for the flour portion of the bread blend.  The page I’m linking is her recipe for English Muffin bread from the bread book…which is amazing too. 🙂  

So on to my buttermilk dough…

350 g Bread Flour

4 tbsp Buttermilk Powder
1 1/4 cup Water
1 1/2 tsp Yeast
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Sugar

Mix well.    I just use my dough whisk.  No kneading.  Just mix really well.

Cover and put in the icebox at least overnight.  I use mine by day 4.

Take out of icebox and shape.  It definitely holds together on it’s own but it’s wet / sticky.

For the ciabatta…shape let rise and then bake.  I’m going to try a baguette next.

For pizza…roll directly on a piece of parchment and then just move the parchment to your pan or in my case stone to bake.

Try not to use a lot of flour when shaping / rolling.  Use as little as possible to keep it from drying out.