Gluten-free bread pudding

Specifically Irish bread pudding. It was the simplest recipe I could find.

8 slices of bread
8 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
4 cups milk
1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 370 degrees.

2. Break the bread into bite size portions. Place them into a 9x9x2 inch pan

3. Beat the eggs and sugar together. Add zest and milk and pour over the bread.

4. Dot with the butter and bake until mix is set, about 30 minutes.

5. Add toppings to taste.

I used about half a cup of honey instead of sugar and goat's milk instead of regular milk. The goat's milk might explain the slight bitterness I'm tasting. Also, it doesn't quite look like the bread pudding I had in Ireland. That might have something to do with gluten-free bread being so much denser than regular bread. Not as much of the egg and milk mix can be absorbed into the bread. Still, with a little lemon juice it tastes quite good. I may use actual sugar next time, though. The honey didn't mix with the other ingredients quite as thoroughly as I'd like to hope. May also explain the odd taste when I tried it plain.

Now if I could just do something about the pale yellow color.

Pancakes can be gluten free!

No, really!

These turned out a little peculiar tasting, as I recall, but that was probably because I ran out of the sort of flour called for and had to substitute something kinda close.

1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon baking powder (be sure to get a kind that specifies that it's gluten free, I go the extra mile and get one that's aluminum free, too)
1 cup flour (rice, corn or chickpea)
extra butter for frying (you can use oil or Crisco if you prefer)

In a food processor, whirl all liquids. Slowly add baking powder and flour. Yeah, it seems weird to use a food processor, but the resulting batter is really light and poofy and saves on a lot of arm strain.

Heat pan until butter sizzles.

Pour batter until about 2 inches in diameter. When bubbles go to top turn and cook until golden brown.

I'm betting you could probably add some berries or other fruits to this if you like. I haven't tried that yet, though.

Rhubarb Crisp and the Lost Art of Simplicity

Trying to find a simple, gluten-free rhubarb crisp recipe is really what inspired me to start this blog. It is ridiculously hard. Not that there aren't recipes out there, but they're either way too complicated to be practical, swimming in sugar, or involve some of the strangest ingredients. (Why, in the name of sanity, would someone put Cayenne pepper in a dessert?) As for cookbooks, mine seemed to be unaware of rhubarb's existence.

Of course, I might be spoiled. When I was a kid, well before I found out about Celiac's disease, Mom made the best rhubarb crisp bar none.

So that gave me an idea. Adapt Mom's recipe to be gluten free. Which I think she got from Betty Crocker, but I'm not sure.

Rhubarb Crisp

6 cups rhubarb
1/3 cup water

Butter 9x13x2 inch pan, pour in rhubarb, sprinkle with water.

1 cup rolled oats (use one that specifies that it's from a dedicated gluten-free processing plant, or, if you can't handle oats as well as the more traditional grains, you can try rolled rice)
1/2 cup all purpose gluten-free flour (I use Bob's Red Mill, but I should think any all purpose mix should do)
1/2 cup rice bran
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoon cinnamon

Use a sprinkle of guar or xanthan gum to help hold it together. Not really sure how much, as I'll detail later.

Mix and sprinkle over rhubarb.

Cook at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

It doesn't get much simpler than that, right?

Well, a little experimentation might be in order to get the right texture. When I tried this the result was a much smoother, gooier crust than I remember Mom's crisp having. I might have used too much guar gum. Or maybe the all purpose flour wasn't coarse enough. The original recipe did specify whole wheat flour. But it tasted good, which is the main thing. For something like this, texture is really up to personal preferences. Next time I try this I may add a little millet flour or leave out the guar gum. Maybe mix some coarse oatmeal in with the rolled oats.

What's really great about simple recipes like this is that there's a lot more room for experimenting. At least there is for people like me who still burn things fairly regularly. (I'm getting better, mostly.)