Adopt a GF Blogger - Jeanne from Art of Gluten Free Baking

My second time participating in Adopt A Gluten Free Blogger. Last month, I chose Jeanine from The Baking Beauties. This month, I chose Jeanne from Art of Gluten Free Baking. It appears that for next month, I will need to find someone with a similar name. I seem to have really good luck with their recipes.

When I chose Jeanne, her blog was called Four Chickens and she has recently picked up the coop and moved it on over to http://www.artofglutenfreebaking.com/  . Gluten free baking truly is an art and Jeanne has embraced that.

A few weeks ago, I bought some french bread pans online. All I wanted was bread. So my first "attempt" was just a mix, not really a true effort but I just wanted to get a feel for the pans. I had mixes in my pantry that I had bought long ago and wanted to use up.  It was heavy, dense and sweet with a cake-like texture. I couldn't even make croutons out of them.Mixes...not for me.

Then I found a "new" flour mix online that someone else was promoting. It was heavy on the starches and I am not a fan of that type of squishy tapioca starchy texture but I thought I would try. I made one loaf in my french bread pan and then other in a round pan.  2 different recipes. Both immediately went into the garbage after 1 taste. I was not having much luck lately.

When I originally chose Jeanne, I was planning on making her french bread. I don't know if I will get that done by the time this needs to be submitted though.

Last week, I wanted some rolls. I found Jeanne's Dinner Rolls and decided to try them since I was making a nice Sunday dinner. There's a local bakery that makes some very similar buns to the ones she made in the muffin tin. I was more inspired by the ones she made that were just on the cookie sheet for a few reasons.

#1 I used to work at a bakery where we prepared baked goods from a frozen products company. I would take thawed french bread and cut it into 8 pieces and roll each one in cheddar cheese. Then I would place one in the center and surround that bun with the rest of the pieces. Once it had risen and had baked, it was called a cheese daisy and you could pull off piece by piece.

#2 There is a restaurant here which serves garlic-pan bread which is out of this world. They bake the rolls in similar daisy style with only 5 rolls. Then they take a parchment lined cast-iron skillet, ladle a scoop of garlic butter sauce in, place the joined rolls on top and then ladle on more garlic butter sauce. Back in the 90's, when I learned how to make this sauce, I gained 10lbs and had to quit making these buns with frozen bread dough rolls.

I made two round "loaves" of buns and decided to top them with some coarse sea salt and fresh rosemary that I had just finished drying. When I first tasted these, I knew the search for a soft bun was over. These were absolutely fantastic. Next time, I will make my scoops a little smaller so they don't get quite as large.

So thick my spatula stands on its own

Ice cream scoops are fabulous for gf batter bread

My hot pepper/rosemary drying device

Coarse sea salt with freshly dried rosemary

Brushed with butter

The second day, I did my garlic butter sauce. Delicious. I need to go to the gym ASAP!

I also made her Chocolate Sheet Cake with Chocolate Pecan Icing.
Let me first say that I'm a dumper. I dump. I constantly mess up recipes because I don't follow the instructions. I just start putting things in a bowl later realizing, the sugar was supposed to hang out with the yeast and water for a bit. So I attempt to scoop out a little sugar to help the yeast grow. That sort of thing.They work out every single time though which is why I never learn.

I also don't have a hand mixer or a stand mixer. I want a KitchenAid stand mixer and I have the money put aside for it but where to buy it and what colour to buy are the obstacles right now. So I mix by hand.

I creamed the butter for many minutes. Then the sugar for many minutes. When it came to the cocoa/flour mixture and the buttermilk, I needed to add them alternatively and mix small parts of them. I tweeted about my arm being sore but it was fine. Mix, mix, mix. I even got to try out my new Fat Daddio's 9 X 13 pan.

Butter and Sugar

Yum

After adding the hot water

My new pan

Okay, time for a break. I'm at work writing this. And by break, I mean, I want a bite of this cake before I continue.



Ahhh, that was fantastic. Sorry for the interruption. My first time making a cooked icing and it was so nice to be able to just pour it over the hot cake and be done with it! Here's the thing. I said I was a dumper. I forgot to follow the recipe for the icing. Hey, I can't change completely in one day. I was supposed to melt the butter and whisk in the cocoa, then whisk in the icing sugar. UH OH!

So the recipe called for 1 lb of icing sugar...

Handy dandy old school scale to the rescue

Dump...Oh.. I wasn't supposed to that.

It's not quite as a beautiful as it is supposed to be but that's okay. It's utterly delicious.Whatever you do, DO NOT cover it and let it sit on your counter anywhere near the vicinity of a fork. A bite here, a bite there, you'll just keep coming back and sneaking bites out of it.


I want to make all of her recipes. I just, for the first time right now, saw her Buttermilk biscuits photo. I smell biscuits in my future. And the french bread/baguette! And she's supposed to be working on a crusty roll recipe as well.

You can see more GF blogger adoptions at Book of Yum  and check out more of Jeanne's recipes! Enjoy!!! As for me, I'll be at the gym, working off the butter!



xo

Kathleen

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