Some basic tools - Against the Grain: Extraordinary Gluten-Free Recipes Made from Real, All-Natural Ingredients (2015)

Against the Grain: Extraordinary Gluten-Free Recipes Made from Real, All-Natural Ingredients (2015)

part II: some basic tools

I grew up in simpler times. In our country home, there was no Internet and just a few TV channels, and summers were spent outdoors exploring. Our favorite pastime was building tree forts in the woods: Our dad gave us access to all the lumber we needed, a handsaw, and a hammer and nails. The challenge was to design and build a tree fort the old-fashioned way, to meet our expectations of a structure befitting Tarzan. It was a lesson that I have carried with me my entire life: You can build some pretty amazing structures with very little to work with, but it becomes a lot easier if you have the right tools to do the job.

For a professional baker, I have a pretty minimalist kitchen—no stand mixer, no bread machine, and I think cast-iron skillets are the best. But I have learned that some tools may make gluten-free baking a whole lot easier.

small appliances

For my style of gluten-free baking, my most indispensable gadget is my food processor. I inherited my first one from my late dad, who ironically was a gadget freak. Yes, it is a bit more complicated to clean than a bowl, but it makes dough creation much faster. Now I can whip up a pie crust to the perfect consistency and have it rolled out in less than 15 minutes every time I bake. Besides that, I also use a very basic hand mixer for batters, plus a tortilla machine. The latter certainly isn’t a necessity—you can make do with a cast-iron skillet and a little improvisation—but my tortilla recipe tends to be batter-like, and homemade wraps are an all-time favorite in our household.

baking aids

I’m not sure I even knew there was such a thing as parchment paper until I began baking gluten-free. Because I work with sometimes hard-to-handle, challenging-to-roll, and sticky dough that adheres to pans like Velcro, parchment paper may be the one thing I could not do without. Plastic wrap makes pie crusts a snap because it is so flexible: I always direct you to roll out pie crusts and pastry dough between two pieces of plastic wrap. And what a great invention sealable storage bags are, for both extruding batter-like dough and decorating with icing. Just fill the bag, snip off a bottom corner to the diameter you desire, and you have an instant, disposable pastry bag.

bread pans

We all know that gluten adds structure, but in gluten-free baking, pans are a big component.

LOAF PANS: The first time I tried to bake my own gluten-free sandwich bread, I used a 5 × 9-inch glass loaf pan. The bread tasted okay, but it was a perfect 5 × 9-inch brick, and I couldn’t get over the skinny, rectangular slices. Gluten-free bread needs a pan with high walls, like a climbing rose needs a trellis, to train the loaf up, not out. Bread loaf pans can be incredibly expensive, or fairly inexpensive. What works best is a 4½ × 8-inch steel or aluminum blend pan with corrugated or dimpled sides. This pan makes a perfect loaf of approximately 1.5 pounds. (If you add up the ingredients in grams in the sandwich bread recipes, you will find they total approximately 1.5 pounds or 700 +/− grams.) The sides of these pans make for better air circulation, which means better browning and more even baking. The textured walls also allow the finished loaf to release quite easily from the pan.

Norpro Dimpled Nonstick Bread Pans, which are inexpensive, work as well as any other. They are 3 inches deep (great for rising dough), measure 4½ inches across, and come in 8-, 10-, and 12-inch lengths. The smallest size makes a perfect 1½-pound loaf. It may seem attractive to bake longer sandwich loaves like the ones found in the grocery store. However, only two additional inches in pan length means a 25% increase in dough amount. To figure out how much dough to fill a pan, you need to calculate the cubic volume (height × length × width) of the pan and adjust the size of the recipe according to the following table.

PAN SIZE (IN.)

CUBIC VOLUME (IN.)

RECIPE INCREASE

4½×8×3

108

0%

4½×10×3

135

25%

4½×12×3

162

50%

For example, if you want to bake a 12-inch loaf in one of these pans, you need to increase the weight of the ingredients in the recipe by 50% (just multiply the gram amounts by 1.5). It is possible to scale up the recipe by volume (cup, tablespoon, and teaspoon) amounts by adding one-half more of every ingredient, but it is a bit less precise.

PERFORATED FRENCH BREAD PAN: The secret to making good gluten-free baguettes is a perforated baguette pan that allows air to circulate around the entire baguette and allows moisture to escape. It will produce a loaf that is crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. I’m not sure why perforated baguette pans for home bakers have such wide channels—typically they are 3 inches across and are not ideal for gluten-free baguettes. Gluten-free dough contains significantly more liquid, and because it spreads you end up with baguettes that look like an Italian loaf or, worse, a Yule log. I have had pretty good success by taking a 2-channel pan, pushing the sides together some to round the bottom, and bending the side walls toward the center, to create a channel more like 2½ inches wide. And since gluten-free dough is more hydrated, you must line the baguette pan with parchment paper to avoid dough seepage into the perforations. But air still circulates and browns the baguette evenly.

The natural sugars in sweet potatoes feed the yeast in this Sweet Potato Bread and produce an exceptionally moist bread with a good rise. This is a recipe you’ll want to scale up to a 10-inch or 12-inch loaf.

other pans and tools

I’m not sure whether a kitchen scale qualifies as a small appliance or a tool, but along with parchment paper, it is probably the most important addition to my gluten-free kitchen. I tend to use teaspoons and tablespoons for volumetric measures and sometimes cup measures for liquids, but I weigh all the rest of my ingredients. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve thrown out inconsistent, overly wet, or overly dry baked goods, all due to imprecisely measured ingredients. It wasn’t until I started using a scale that I started getting predictable results from recipes. Given the high cost of most gluten-free flours and mixes, I honestly believe the payback in buying a scale is a no-brainer.

For muffins, cakes, bars, and other sweet and savory dishes, you can use just about any of the pans you may already own. You only have to grease and line the pans with parchment paper to ensure easy release. My very favorite pans include removable-bottom tart pans (both large and individual ones) and springform pans. Shallow tart pans allow you to arrange your fillings artfully and create a freestanding golden-brown shell. With a freestanding tart, the slices come out clean and stunning, which is significant for more fragile gluten-free pastries.

Other pans used in the following recipes include:

✵ Baking sheets (also known as cookie sheets)

✵ Bundt pan

✵ 9 × 13-inch glass baking dish

✵ 8 × 8-inch glass baking dish

✵ Deep-dish pie plate

✵ Individual brioche molds

There are a few kitchen tools that make mixing, spread, rolling, and transferring gluten-free dough easier. We joke at the factory that butter knives are our “all-purpose tools” for spreading, smoothing, and shaping breads. In my home kitchen, the “all-purpose tool” has to be a dinner fork (although I use butter knives a lot, too). I use forks all the time—for tasks like whisking hot and cold ingredients, beating eggs, hand-creaming butter and icings, dipping chocolate, and making docking holes in crackers. Of course, you can buy all sizes and shapes of whisks and pastry blenders, but a regular kitchen fork will do. Some other tools you may need or want include:

✵ Dough scraper (also known as a bench scraper or dough divider)

✵ Pastry brush

✵ Pastry or pizza cutter

✵ Rolling pin

✵ English muffin rings

✵ Cast-iron skillet

✵ Ingredient bins

✵ Biscuit and/or cookie cutters

✵ Flexible silicone or nylon spatula

✵ Flexible metal spatula

✵ Candy thermometer