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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Gluten-Free Baking

On the Baker's Hotline at King Arthur Flour, we receive a great deal of questions regarding the relatively new KAF gluten-free mixes and products. Last week I was able to duck into the test kitchen for a few hours to play with the gluten-free mixes to become more familiar with how they function.

The playground.

First on the agenda, was the gluten-free cookie mix. Since I knew the cookie mix would yield terrific chocolate chip cookies, I decided to push the mix a step further. Naturally, I went the Monster cookie route. I stirred PB, oats, M&Ms and chocolate chips into the mix. They actually turned out quite well. For a first test-bake anyway.


Next in line was the gluten-free brownie mix. Again, since I knew the mix would create fantastic regular brownies, I attempted to transform the batter into cookies. Specifically, chocolate crackle cookies.

This modification still needs some work. I think I got a bit carried adding the the Multi-Purpose Gluten-Free flour to thicken the batter so the cookies were slightly crumbly and overly dry.

The last item I had time for was the Gluten-Free bread mix. This was the mix I was most excited for. Relatively, I think I've eaten a decent amount of gluten-free bread products in my day and most of them were pretty awful. This bread, however, tremendously exceeded my expectations. This loaf of bread was easy to assemble, a breeze to bake and crazy good. The texture and crumb was more similar to a normal loaf of bread than all other gluten-free products I've put in my mouth. I would make a sandwich with this bread.



My time in the kitchen was most appreciated. I now feel as though I can form coherent thoughts or suggestions to customers calling in with questions. I still have a massive amount to learn though...

2 comments:

  1. Amazing looking stuff. You really need a monster cookie formula on the website. I can't believe KAF doesn't have one.

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  2. i enjoyed your cookies! as one of the few GF's at KAF, i love it when i can get a treat from the test kitchen! those made my day...

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