Quick is Good

Hello Gentle Reader.

After weeks without blogging, I realize I've come to an impasse - and a solution. The former is a direct result of the rapid and thrilling growth of my business, Luce's Gluten-Free Artisan Bread. Working 6 - 7 days a week, I rarely have time to sit at the computer and write. However, as part of my communication with customers, I do send out weekly e-newsletters. Thus my solution: A slightly altered version of the e-newsletter, delayed a week or two and then posted here.

(Interested in first-read-rights? Sign up for my newsletter by clicking HERE and scrolling to the bottom of the home page. BTW the newsletter will have special offers that won't be repeated here.)
           
 Enjoy the post!

 Biscuit Love - Love Biscuits

I’ve always loved biscuits. One of the challenges of Celiac Disease is having to walk away from big trays of them whenever Leslie and I visit the Ohio restaurant chain, Bob Evans. Luckily, I’ve learned to make them from one of my flour blends - Classic Sourdough.

Biscuits can be made in an almost endless variety of ways: coarse-crumb or flaky, sweet, savory, laced with corn meal, shortened with butter or coconut or bacon fat or lard. I like them sweet for strawberry shortcake; full of mushrooms and corn flour for hors d'ouvres;  sour and puffy for sandwiches.

In addition to being very tasty, biscuits have the advantage of being quick and easy to make. If we have drop-in guests or I forget to bake bread for a day, no problem. Dessert can be ready in under an hour as long as the guests like shortcake. And biscuits are as good as bread for many a meal.

There's one more thing: They can be made in small quantities. That's great if your household, like mine, consists of just two people with small appetites.

The recipe below will yield about nine, 1-1/4" diameter sweet biscuits, perfect for dessert for four (with one left over for the cook to eat while waiting for the strawberries to thaw) and easily doubled. Of course you can make them larger. King Arthur Flour makes a honeycomb biscuit cutter that will help, if larger and easier is your goal. I've provided notes for making them savory, in case dessert is not on your agenda. Before you start, I'd suggest purchasing my Classic Sourdough bread mix in the Just Flour configuration and an order of Just Support Sheets. Also note that you will need some extra ingredients.


Enjoy!

Sweet Biscuits
Yield: 9 small biscuits

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (75 grams/ 2.6 Oz.) Luce's Gluten-Free Artisan Bread Classic Sourdough flour mix
1 TBLS (12 grams/0.4 Oz.) Cornstarch
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
2 TBLS (25 grams/0.9 Oz.) unsalted butter, very cold
1/3 cup + 1 tsp (75 grams/2.6 Oz.) buttermilk
White rice flour, sorghum flour or corn meal for dusting

Other equipment:
Medium bowl. Stirring spoon. Shortening "cutter" or wire whisk. Cookie sheet (disposable is fine). 1 1/4" cylindrical cookie cutter.

Procedure:
Preheat the oven to 425 F. Place a cookie sheet on the middle rack.
Dust a countertop or (better) chilled work surface with the dusting flour.
In the medium bowl, mix flour, cornstarch, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Stir to blend well. Chop the butter into little chunks - each about the size of a Lima bean - and scatter these in the flour. Using the whisk or cutter, cut the shortening into the flour until the mix is very coarse, like fine gravel.
Add buttermilk to the flour and stir until the dough just comes together. Turn out onto dusted work surface. Sprinkle dusting flour on dough and pat dough into a layer about 1" thick. Dip the cookie cutter into rice flour and use it to cut cylinders of dough, arranging these on a sheet of parchment (support sheet) with at least 1" of space around each cylinder. Gently pat leftover dough together and cut additional cylinders. The last piece of dough may be formed into a simple ball.
Bake for 15 minutes or until biscuits are flecked with golden brown.
Cool on a rack, but serve while slightly warm.

Options:
Eliminate sugar to create a savory biscuit.
Eliminate soda and sugar to create a sourdough biscuit.
Double sugar for sweeter biscuits.
Substitute cornstarch with cornmeal for a crunchier, heartier treat.
Use coconut oil, bacon drippings or lard instead of butter.
Drip some truffle oil onto the butter before cutting it in.
Use Vegan shortening instead of butter.
Chill the flour before beginning and handle dough like puff pastry dough to produce flakier biscuits. 




























 


"Pig Ears" - sourdough biscuits with braunschweiger and mustard.


Haitian - sweet biscuits with home-made Confiture de Chadéque



Midwestern - with honey

Getting There

Finally, I’ve arrived!

Future Home of Luce's Gluten-Free Artisan Bread

I know this photo isn’t much to look at, but it depicts the actual, real home of Luce’s Gluten-Free Artisan Bread. Once the plumbing goes in and equipment installed, this site will be recognizable as a clean, safe environment for producing what I do best: ready-to-mix and virtually instant artisan bread dry blends. 

This is a very exciting time for me. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from retirement, it’s that I need a lot of physical activity. The amount of desk-sitting I’ve done over the past year - calling bakeries, writing contracts and emails, finding and communicating with suppliers - and waiting, waiting, waiting for people to get back to me - has not set well. I’m ready to get my hands dusted with flour. Work up a sweat. Mix and package and sell my remarkable blends.

As work on my facility progresses I’ll post more photos, as well as a narrative of the “action,” which in this case means coping with bureaucracy. Lots of it. 

(A note to my friends in New Jersey: this isn’t a retail sales operation, so you can’t drop by and pick up a package of Bread-In-A-Bag. Sorry!)

And something for all of you, gentle readers: first notice that my virtual store is open will go to people who’ve signed up for my newsletter. This is an easy thing to do - just click HERE, wait for the page to open, scroll to the bottom and enter your email in the noted place. My newsletter is quarterly, ad-free, and contains recipes and special offers as well as opportunities to purchase my newest products, which I hope to roll out regularly.

OK - so much for self-promotion. Let’s talk about food! 

Black trumpet mushrooms - arriving in NJ in July

I’m writing this at lunchtime with hunger stalking my insides, a sensation that’s enhanced by the aroma of cooking mushrooms. A saucepan of chicken mushrooms (Laetiporus sulphureus) in milk is simmering on the stove. Later, I’ll strain off the orange colored, mushroom flavored broth to make a wild mushroom custard, which I’ll serve with braised bone marrow. The mushrooms themselves will have to be tossed into the garbage - this batch is too tough to chew. I knew when I found them they were stale. Chicken mushrooms that are beyond fresh have the texture of cardboard, but their rich, excellent flavor is undamaged. I’m simply transporting it into a fat vehicle (whole milk) for later use. 

Shredded bread 

But my intent wasn’t to write about mushroom custard. Instead I want to share my recipe for veggie-burgers. 

As most of us with celiac disease have discovered, restaurant or store-bought vegetarian “hamburgers” are unsafe. Luckily, making one’s own is not hard. Cooked beans, a bit of onion, an egg, GF oatmeal if you can tolerate it, GF bread crumbs if you can’t, and whatever seasoning floats your boat, is all it takes. You can be sloppy, measuring ingredients by eye or intuition, and still end up with good tasting results. The “burgers” cook up splendidly in a skillet or electric griddle like the George Foreman Grill, but shine as well when seared over charcoal.

My recipe includes bread crumbs sautéd in a blend of butter and black trumpet mushrooms (Craterellus fallax). If you can’t find black trumpets or don’t like them, a substitution is listed.

Ingredients for Veggie-burgers

Black Trumpet Veggie-Burgers

Ingredients:

4 TBLS black trumpet butter (recipe below).

1 cup coarsely-chopped bread crumbs (GF or other).

1/2 cup oatmeal (GF or other).

2/3 cup cooked white beans, drained. Liquid reserved.

2 TBLS coarsely chopped red onion.

1 egg 

Spices to taste: garlic flakes, paprika, salt, cumin, parsley, black pepper.

Black trumpet butter: 

Sauté 2 quarts of fresh, cleaned, chopped black trumpet (Cantherelles fallax) mushrooms in 1 stick of unsalted butter. When mushrooms are done (about 8 minutes), remove from heat and allow to cool.  Soften another 3 sticks of butter to room temperature. Put mushrooms and their cooking fat, plus the three sticks of soft butter, in a food processor and process to a smooth, dark paste. Divide into small units, reserving 4 tablespoons and freezing the remainder. 

Notes: 

If you are unable to find or don’t like black trumpet mushrooms, substitute the bread crumbs and trumpet butter (step 1) as follows: Sauté 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms in butter, increase amount of oatmeal to 3/4 cup and increase beans to 1 cup.

If you cannot tolerate GF oats, substitute with quinoa flakes.

Method: 

1) Melt the black trumpet butter in a skillet over medium flame. Gently sauté the bread crumbs until they are slightly crisp and saturated with the mushroom mixture. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

2) Place the oatmeal, beans, onion and about 2 tablespoons of the bean liquid in a food processor. Pulse 4 - 5 times to blend. You do not want to make a purée, only a coarse chop. Add the egg, bread crumbs and spices and pulse a few more times. Scoop up mixture in your hand. If it holds together in a ball when shaped and squeezed if is wet enough. If not, add a tablespoon or two of bean water and pulse a few times.

3) Allow the mixture to rest 10 minutes. Add a bit more liquid if necessary. Shape into patties, and fry in an oiled skillet, in a home griddle, or on an outdoor grill. Thorough cooking is essential - about 5 minutes per side, or twice as long as the average hamburger. 

4) Serve on a bun with condiments of your choice. 

(A bun recipe will be part of my summer newsetter. Sign up HERE)

Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 days or frozen in a sturdy plastic bag.