Author Archives for Jacqueline Raposo

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About Jacqueline Raposo

I'm an interviewer, food writer, and podcast producer. Chronically ill + feisty.

Pinisi Cafe & Bakery, NYC – Gluten-Free Bakery Review Part Two

Gluten-free Red Velvet Cupcakes at Panisi Bakery

Why, oh why, is there no gluten-free red velvet cupcake to be had in this city?  I mean, one I can buy.  I mean, one that actually tastes like red velvet, with that delicious undercurrent of cocoa and bright red sheen?

Back to that in a moment.

A while back I toured a lovely group of people around NYC’s East Village and Lower East Side, stuffing our faces with gluten-free and (sometimes) vegan sweets from bakeries that have popped up to offer us glutinos the joy of a freshly baked pastry.  I’ll soon be reviving this tour and writing a solo article about our “best of” treats at the varying establishments, but am too excited not to share my findings.  This is part two, the second after my review of TuLu’s Bakery only a few blocks away.

The group consisted of 7 palates of a wide variety.  I was the only solely gluten-and-dairy-free eater, which meant both that I had to trust my cohorts’ opinions when faced with dairy-full foods I couldn’t partake in, and that we had some interesting differences in opinion as to our preferences.  Sometimes I’d be the only one who liked a certain pastry – my tastebuds have changed to appreciate certain flavors in a different way.  My two sisters (Maggie and Jess) and cousin Amanda are generally allergy-free, but have had some experience with my allergy-restricted food habits and experiments, so they were able to give solid opinions as to what tasted “normal” and what was lacking to their unrestricted palates.  My dear friend Erin brought her sister Allison, who is a chef/caterer in CT.  Both brought incredible insights and expert opinions to the mix.  Finally, Jessica’s friend Ken offered a big, hungry man’s opinion.

Pinisi Cafe & Bakery

  • 128 East 4th Street, btwn 1st and 2nd Ave.
  • Phone: 212-614-9079
  • PinisiBakeryNYC.com
  • Hours: 7am-11pm daily
  • Average pastry $3
  • Family feel
  • Baking done on premise
  • Catering

Pinisi Bakery is my favorite amongst the gluten-free bakeries that polka-dot the East Village.  Shamefully this is not due to the fact that their pastries are the best, though their rosemary brownie was quite exceptional.  And until this crawl I had never been there, so it’s not for a sentimental attachment to an old neighborhood favorite.

My love for Pinisi comes from what they are, and what they don’t attempt to be.

Tucked away on 4th street between 1st and 2nd avenues, with a busily-painted window and flanked by two grey, non-descript other buildings, this isn’t a pastel-pink, cupcake-laden joint like TuLu’s or Babycakes.  This is the grandmother, the abuela or avo or however you say grandmother in Italian, of bakeries.

The walls are painted a melancholy yellow, the brown wooden counter just fits your coffee or pastry in a manner that suggests it’s somewhat unimpressed that you’re there.  The back of the room is dark and mysterious, just like the basement rec-rooms of my tios in Long Island, where espresso machines and bottle of cognac don’t get enough sleep.

But, my friends, the pastry case.  The PASTRY case.   You can tell these people know how to bake, or as my friends put it:

  • Maggie: I like the feel of this place.
  • Erin: Yeah, it’s got an old-world feeling to it. It’s not trying to be chic or modern. This is very like ‘we’re an awesome bakery’.
  • Maggie: ‘Yay, come in!’

Pinisi is not strictly gluten-free.  In fact, they only have a few GF offerings and a recent post-crawl drop-in (after my cupcake decorating class as Butterlane) left me with only one option – the flourless chocolate cake.  My heart was set on that rosemary brownie, so I left treat-less.  But that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy looking.

European classics like rich creamy cheesecakes and Italian cookies sit alongside cupcakes and fruit tarts.  Each one looks like something a really talented relative would make with a recipe passed down through generations of migrating cultures.

I am in love with Pinisi because this is what I want my future to hold: a hodgepodge of classics that those of us with food sensitivities can enjoy alongside the rest of them.  A friendly staff who insists upon knowing your name and insists upon you calling them by theirs.  A place that sticks around long after trends have come and gone.

What my group did sample that day were the three gluten-free options: the epic rosemary brownie, the cocoa-less but stunning red-velvet cupcake, and the classic flourless chocolate cake.

Rosemary Brownie $3

  • Made with rice flour
  • Ridiculously dense
  • Very rich

This was the clear winner in our group, the intense mix of both sweet and savory, and compared with our vegan brownie experience at TuLu’s Allison was happy to note that “this one is definitely a brownie”.  The amount of rosemary we seemed to notice actually was determined more by the palate of the foodie than the brownie itself; those of us used to processed foods and sweets were a little less wowed by the rosemary factor than those who pick up every stupid subtlety in their food (um, me).  We all enjoyed the flaky top crust, especially in contrast with the creaminess of the brownie that was rich and dense.  It did have that grainy aftertaste, in thanks to the abundance of rice flour no doubt, but it didn’t bother anyone and actually contributed instead to the enjoyment of the classic texture.

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcake $3

  • Red beet flour which is what gives it its color
  • Tofu based frosting

We were all pretty wowed with the vibrant color of this cupcake, which we were informed was achieved with beat flour instead of food coloring.  So our hats off to the baker for that.  And we were blown away by the fluffy, creamy tofu-based frosting that got as close as possible to mimicking marshmallow.  The cake didn’t crumble the way some had at TuLu’s, so we were impressed as we cut into this little red baby.

But, sadly, that’s where our excitement ended.

Now, red velvet is a hard puppy to make to begin with.  A level of balance with cocoa has to be achieved in a cake that’s not too dense, and doesn’t taste sweet like a classic chocolate.  So there is recognition of the difficulty in this.  But the cupcake failed to impress, leaving no cocoa impression whatsoever and being far too dense.

I wouldn’t stop you from ordering a dozen simply for the frosting , though.

Oh, and this unfulfilled desire for the perfect gluten-free red velvet cupcake resulted in my making The Little Red Velvet Riding Hood Cupcake, which is the best cake recipe I’ve ever made and a killer version of this classic.  It satisfied all the unrequited cocoa love we’d be missing from the crawl!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Flourless Chocolate Cake: $5

Hmm, there is not too much to report on this classic.  Really, we said very little on it.  We all agreed it was rather delicious, obviously densely packed with chocolate and some pretty little shavings on top, and easy to make gluten-free since the point is it’s flourless. But no one in our group seemed particularly wowed, and as I couldn’t try it because of the dairy-factor I don’t even have my two-cents to throw into the pot.

Conclusions:

  • Love the ambiance
  • Would buy GF cookies here by the pound during the holidays for friends
  • Rosemary brownie was the clear winner
  • Recommend buying the tofu frosting by the gallon
  • Buy a whole flourless chocolate cake to spruce up and share.  Ooh, strawberries!

Gluten-free Easter Portuguese Masa

Gluten-Free Portuguese Masa Sovada

This morning I did a happy dance.  Of course I was in the kitchen.I successfully made 4 delicious loaves of gluten and milk free masa, “the bread of my people”!

With a joyful smile my boyfriend joked that I have now become a woman, which in any other circumstance would have sent me into a feminist tirade.  But it is a strange right of passage I am happy to embrace.  My mother, tias, and grandmother all have their recipes for masa, and now I have mine.

Masa is a Portuguese sweet bread made in my family every year around Easter.  For the holiday we wrap the risen dough around painted, hard-boiled eggs and eat them Easter morning.  Scented with lemon, anisette and (in my grandmother’s recipe!) whiskey, it’s eggy and sweet. Recipes all vary in their density; the kind you purchase in stores is usually very light and fluffy.  But my mother’s was always a bit denser, so that’s the kind I grew up appreciating and wanting to replicate.  And because gluten-free breads are generally denser anyway, this was also a matter of necessity.

I’m in possession of three recipes:  my Avo’s (grandmother), my Tia Albertina’s (great-aunt) and my Tia Vidalia’s (aunt).  I’ve made the recipe with my mother, but never attempted to make this bread both gluten and milk free.  And it came out deliciously!

Next week I’ll be trying a slightly different process and doubling the yeast to see if I can achieve a slightly lighter version of the bread, but I am extremely happy with this recipe and recommend it as a gluten-free replacement to this traditional holiday favorite.

Moist, sweet and eggy gluten-free Portuguese masa

Lots of Notes: I researched a decent blend of flours to estimate a bread flour – because of the proportions I was using, I made 8 cups of flour but only needed five.   I used almond milk but also regular butter, which doesn’t seem to affect my stomach in smaller doses due to the lack of milk protein that’s found in other forms.  If you need it completely dairy free substitute with butter flavored Earth Balance, not shortening.

This recipe is not completely gluten-free because of the whiskey.  Omit if you’re going completely GF.

Also, most recipes call for a lot of kneading because kneading helps to develop the gluten.  So with this just knead until smooth so that your loaves come out a bit prettier than my test loaves did!

Oh, one last thing!  I like to follow my grandmother’s lead and leave these overnight in a warm place.  So I turned my oven on just to 150° and as soon as it was warm turned it off.  I then wrapped my breads in tea towels, then the entire cutting board in a bath towel and put it in the oven overnight.  They rose perfectly and we ready for baking by breakfast!

One last thing, actually!  I didn’t put the eggs in this, but will next week when I make it for Easter.  Literally just prepare your hard-boiled eggs, make sure they’re dry and hide one in each loaf of bread right before baking!

Gluten-Free Masa Sovada

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cup sorghum flour
  • 2 cups brown rice flour
  • 1 cup quinoa flour
  • 1 cup white rice flour
  • 2 cups arrowroot starch
  • 1/2 cup millet flour
  • 8 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 package yeast
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 3/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
  • 8 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 Tbsp whiskey (omit if extremely gluten-free, this has gluten in it)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract
  • 1/2 tsp lemon extract
  • zest of 1 lemon

Directions

  • Blend flours, starch and xanthan gum in a large bowl, whisking or sifting thoroughly to incorporate.
  • In a small saucepan melt butter and slowly whisk in milk.  Turn off the heat but make sure this is slightly warm before adding to batter.
  • Dissolve yeast with about 1/4 cup warm water and set aside
  • In a standing mixer with the bread hook attachment, beat eggs and sugar until creamy.
  • Add salt, lemon zest, whiskey, extracts, 5 cups of flour blend and the milk/butter mixture.
  • Mix on low / medium to incorporate, then add yeast. Mix on low until all is incorporated, then bring speed up to medium and mix about 10 minutes or until air bubbles form around the sides.
  • Remove to an oiled bowl.  Cover in clean dishcloths and then a large bath towel or blanket, and remove to a warm place.  Let sit for two hours or so.  Note: Gluten-free breads don’t ‘double in size’ like most breads.  But it should be fluffier after this time.
  • Flour a wooden cutting board or line and flour a non-wooden board.  Shape the dough into four small loaves (or two larger ones if you prefer).  Wrap in towels and let sit overnight.
  • In the morning, remove to thick baking sheets and preheat oven to 300°.
  • Bake for 38 minutes or until only slightly springy on top.
  • Eat AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE THEY’RE SO YUMMY!
  • Store remains in plastic wrap and eat within three days.

Chicken Coconut Soup

Chicken Coconut Soup

It’s warm in NYC today, but the boyfriend and I are a bit under the weather.  So we need a soup that’s light but also complex in flavor and filling to our Day-4-cold bodies, and I need something that’s extremely easy to make.  Enter Chicken Coconut Soup.  The boyfriend doesn’t eat much meat (sniff), so he often requests chicken when asked what I should make for dinner.  Conveniently I had some boneless thighs in the fridge and a can of coconut milk and coconut cream as well as a bunch of leftover lemons.  A container of mushrooms, some green onions and some fresh basil – voila!  This is an extremely affordable soup that – when served over rice – can comfortably feed four hungry bellies.  Weakened condition optional.

Since I have a bit of baking to do and know my energy waxes and wanes on its own schedule when I’m sick, I’m preparing the soup early, then I’ll let it sit in the fridge and the flavors meld.  Tonight I’ll cook up some jasmine rice, bring the soup up to temp and we’ll be good to go.

I decided to poach the chicken as my new best friend Jacques Pépin learned from his buddy Danny Kaye (who I love, sigh).  I also added oyster mushrooms to this recipe out of inspiration from Jacques.  If you want to learn tricks of the trade, read chef memoirs.  And they’re just so much fun!

Ingredients:

  • About 1 – 1 1/2 pound chicken.  I used boneless thighs to give the soup a bit more fat and flavor, but breasts work as well.
  • 2 whole lemons
  • 1 can of coconut milk
  • 3/4 can coconut cream (NOT cream of coconut).  If you can’t find this, just use 3 cans of coconut milk in lieu of as much water.
  • 1 bunch of green onions, tough greens removed, chopped.
  • 1 tsp black peppercorns
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • About 3 oz mushrooms (optional).  I used oyster mushrooms, but any delicate mushroom will do.

Directions:

  • Spread chicken in a (preferably cast-iron) soup or stock pot.  Add coconut milk and enough water to cover chicken by 1/2 inch.  If you’re not using coconut cream as well, use 2 more cans coconut milk and add water to top.
  • Add salt, peppercorns and 1/2 of the chopped green onions.
  • Turn on heat and start to bring liquid up to a boil.
  • While the pot heats up, juice one lemon and add to the broth.  Take the other lemon and slice into 1/2 inch rounds, then dice.  Add to soup in entirety.
  • When the liquid is at a strong boil, remove from heat, cover and let sit for 15 minutes.  This should poach the chicken to a perfect level.
  • After fifteen minutes, remove chicken and check to see that it’s done.  If not, return to pot.  If so, remove all chicken and allow to cool.
  • Meanwhile, whisk in enough coconut cream to thicken the broth a bit and enhance the flavor.  I added about 1/4 cup at a time, and my perfect level was 3/4 of the can.
  • Add almost the rest of the green onions.
  • Chop 3/4 of the mushrooms and add.
  • Reserve remaining green onions, mushrooms and lemon rind.
  • When the chicken is lukewarm, shred it with your hands along the “grain” of the meat (much easier than cutting, promise) and return to pot.  Bring back up to a simmer and serve immediately or cover and put in fridge until ready to eat.
  • Garnish with remaining green onions, mushrooms and lemon rind.

Serving suggestion: try it over some rice noodles or jasmine rice.  Adding a bit of crushed red pepper would also be delightful.

Oyster Mushrooms!

My new love - Oyster Mushrooms

I fully blame (thank) Jacques Pépin for my new intrigue (obsession) with mushroom. I’m about to finish up his memoir, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen.  I won’t begin to go into all the things I love about Pépin and highly recommend the book.

But throughout it’s meaty pages he often talks about foraging for mushrooms, first with his father throughout France as his family relocated to open restaurants, and then when he bought a house with his wife near chef friends in upstate NY.  While there are many culinary explorations I’m dying to try (owning chickens!!!), I’ll leave the foraging for experts – though I’ll jump on tagging along any chance I get.

I grew up not eating mushrooms; I have an arthritic condition as a result of years of Lyme Disease, so anything that’s moldy has been off the table since I was young (aged cheeses, peanuts, potato and carrot skins etc.).  But recently I’ve been nagged by this absence, and have slowly been tossing mushrooms into food with wild, happy abandon.

So today in Fairway I noticed these gorgeous little gems at about $3.80 for 3.3 ounces and, oops, they fell into my basket!  It wasn’t until I got home that I fell completely in love.

The mushrooms on their "shell"

The little things came on their stem, very much like a shell, and were so delicate and dainty that I almost dared not to touch them!  But then, of course, I did, to pop one raw into my mouth.

They are so delightful!  Delicate, subtle.  The texture is gentle – they’re not at all chewy or rough, but rather silky and smooth.  Their taste has an almost floral hint, though many have written that they taste like the sea mollusk of which they’re named.

Pretty much all the sites I looked at said to sauté them with butter before adding them to soup, but I didn’t want any butter in the Chicken Coconut Soup recipe I was building, so I simply chopped them up and threw them in (saving a few to top the soup with raw).  They absorbed the flavors of the soup perfectly and didn’t lose their tiny shapes.

Oh, happy day!  Thanks, Jacques!

The little darlings!

Curious George’s Banana Nut Bread (gluten-free)

Gluten-free Curious George Banana Bread

So, what if you started giving cool names to baked goods, like Hansel and Gretel Grown-Up Gingerbread or Little Red Velvet Riding Hood Cupcakes?  Maybe you could get a kid into the kitchen?  Enjoy a book with dessert?  I don’t know, I’m just throwing things out there.

This recipe is based on my mother’s Banana Bread recipe, which was one of my favorite things growing up and is still made by my mother and older sister regularly.  I’ve made it dozens of times, but never gluten-free!  So upon a trip home I grabbed (stole) some browning bananas and figured I’d whip up a loaf for my first rehearsal tomorrow.

It ended up being the perfect break in my day as the rain fell outside my windows, making the NYC gray that much more like silver.  The bread came out less dense than my mother’s version, almost spongy and less crumbly.  But boy is it delicious!  Moist and slightly crunchy on top, with nuts sprinkled throughout and a chewy mouth feel.  Next time I’m going to try a different flour blend to see if I can get it a bit denser – maybe some quinoa flour –  but this is one tasty sweet bread!

Yum

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar of choice (I used Sucanat – dried raw can juice)
  • 1 1/2 cup very browned bananas, mushed up
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups gluten-free flour (I used my cake blend)
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup ground walnuts (optional)

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease a loaf pan and set aside.
  • Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.
  • Cream the shortening, butter and sugar together.
  • Add the banana, lemon and eggs and beat to incorporate.
  • Slowly add flour mixture and beat to incorporate.
  • If using nuts, toss them loosely on a cookie sheet and toast for about 4 minutes, checking every minute, until slightly brown.  Toss them into batter and stir in.
  • Pour batter into prepared pan and press down with a spatula to flatten.
  • Bake for 75 – 90 minutes or until the top is brown and the bread gives a little to the touch.

Recipe Swap – Caramel Apple Pie Pops coming soon!

This month's recipe swap

Happy Monday!

I know Monday’s are mostly unhappy, but I’m very excited that this week brings me lots of baking and a new gig – I’m starting rehearsals for Enchanted April this week!  Since my schedule the next two months will be a little bit more sporadic and since I’ve got lots of baking to do for several events, I spent much of the weekend mentally and goggley planning what my baking strategy will be.

This week I’m whipping up a double batch of scones to send to Seattle and wrap up my contribution to the Online Bake Sale For Japan.  Next weekend I’ll have a few dozen gluten-free cookies cut into the shape of crosses and fondanted and painted for a benefit I’m performing in of Jesus Christ Superstar for Smith Street Stage. And then there’s Palm Sunday and Easter baking/cooking to participate in with my family and a possible dinner party on the 30th.

Very fun and exciting stuff.

But this week I’m most excited to get to try out a new recipe for a recipe swap.  I’ve just joined a group of cooks, bakers and bloggers at Burwell General Store.  Each month the group gets an old, friendly recipe and is required to change at least three recipes and blog them on the same day.  This month’s is for Caramel Apples, and in pondering the many ways you could creatively change it, I stumbled upon a new baking fad that I might have to combine into my inventive treat…

Picture from “The kitchn”

The cake pop.

Several friends of mine are very into these little, festive, sugary treats that can be found at Starbucks and sugar-full bakeries.  I’m not a fan of the idea – make a cake, throw it with frosting into a blender, shape it into balls and then dunk it more sugary shells.  But I have to admit they are adorable looking and a great base recipe to play on.

So, in keeping with the original idea of a candy apple on a stick, I’m going to bake an apple pie, most likely one along the lines of my Bourbon Molasses Apple Pie with Candied Bacon, who’s flavors already resemble a candy apple.  Then I’ll play.

Recipe coming in a few days… I’m excited by this.

Fluffy Vegan Frosting


“I’m the most delicious gluten-and-dairy-free Red Velvet cupcake you’ll ever eat.  And now that I’m topped with light and fluffy vegan frosting, that’s so spreadable and pipeable, you’ll never wanna stop making me.  Kisses.”

– Cupake

I swear the cupcake insisted that I write that – I was completely at its mercy.  Maybe because I ate several of his fellows before changing frosting tips to see if I could pipe letters, which I did with ease.

The cake in this cupcake is truly divine – both moist but light, full of cocoa flavor but not too chocolatey.  Several friends who have no gluten or dairy problems could not tell that they are both, one even suggesting I match it up with a gluten-full cake and blind taste test some people for the fun of it.

Please try it, and tell me what you think.  I dubbed it Little Red Velvet Riding Hood Cupcake.  But if you just wanna call it Mmmmm, that’s okay too.  Recently I’ve been calling it “Oh my Dog!”, while it’s still in my mouth.

Now, the only reason I’m reposing this cupcake is because of the frosting issue.  The first I tried was lovely – a sweet vegan “cream cheese” frosting – but it came out more like a glaze, and no amount of whipping or refrigerating gave it a stiff enough consistency for me to pipe or even pile high.

So I tried a Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero and BOY-OH was I happy!  Insanely easy and amazingly fluffy, the frosting stayed stiff enough to pipe with several different tips long after I had colored it and bagged it.  Because it’s made with vegan butter and shortening – which are obviously both vegetable-oil based – it whipped easily at any temperature and functioned well.

And the taste!  Like a classic butter-cream it tastes primarily like sugar and vanilla.  But unlike butter-cream it didn’t taste overpoweringly so.  The shortening gave it enough body so that the sugar content was slightly lower.  Don’t get me wrong – this is very sweet.  As someone who struggles with hypoglycemia, I did a decent job at staying away (after one cupcake of course!)  But it’s not going to overwhelm your taste buds nor distract from the cupcake you put it on.  And because of the light and fluffy consistency, it particularly matched the classy cake underneath it and would do as well with a rich chocolate – ooh, or banana!

Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting

The recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.  Click on the title above for their recipe.

This frosting is fluffy and easy to work with

This frosting is fluffy and easy to work with

Having fun with frosting

The Little Red Velvet Riding Hood Cupcakes – Gluten and Dairy free!

Little Red Velvet Riding Hood Cupcakes

These cupcakes are amazing. I just wanted to start with that.  You can’t tell that they’re gluten AND dairy free.  My roommate’s eyes lit up when she took her first bite, and after her third she proclaimed it her favorite of my creations.  Even I am wowed by how good this cupcake is.  I can  confidently say this is the best gluten-free red velvet cupcake recipe.  AND the best dairy-free red velvet cupcake recipe.  There.  I said it.  But I should know.  I’ve eaten about 12 of these little guys.  Including two this morning, before breakfast.

Three things contributed as inspiration for the best gluten-free red velvet cupcake I have ever eaten.

Brainstorming first came when I online-met Kelli of Ingested Read.  I love her new blog, and her recipes are created for a specific book she’s pouring over.  I’m a big fan of this idea, and this blog.  So she opened up her site for guest-posts with Intercaketuality.  Brilliant.  I’m sending her a big high five across the pond.

I knew I wanted to make some sort of red-velvet cake.  In my gluten-free food crawl with a few friends I learned that the three bakeries in the city that boast gluten-free offerings disappointed our taste buds in the red-velvet department.  Either too dry or too moist, none contained that classic cocoa flavor.

A few months ago my cousin Daniella played Little Red Riding Hood in her high school production of Into the Woods and, as I predicted, was stellar, stealing the show.  In this musical version Little Red has a slight obsession with baked goods, eating all the bread and sweets she is supposed to take through the woods to granny.  Daniella herself is very allergic to dairy, so over the years we’ve commiserated at the dessert table as treats were passed around.

So when thinking about a new cake I wanted to work on, these three elements blended perfectly into The Little Red Velvet Riding Hood Cupcake!

But a few challenges arose when making this both gluten and dairy free.

First, how to replicate cake flour?  According to my interweb research, cake flour is distinctive because (a) it is very finely milled, (b) it contains a low amount of protein which develops gluten and (c) it has a higher amount of starch as a result.  So, how to make a gluten-free version of cake flour, which obviously lacks gluten to begin with?

Several sites including Gluten-Free Bay, WikiHow and Gluten Free Naturally Blog use the same ingredients in the same proportions.

  • 3 cups brown rice flour
  • 1 cup potato starch
  • 1/2 cup tapioca flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

I don’t really use potato starch, as it’s a nightshade and not good for people with arthritis and digestive issues, so instead I used arrowroot and crossed my fingers.  I also used 2 cups of brown rice flour and 1 of white rice flour, and sifted twice.  This worked wonderfully in the cake.  I’ll have it on hand from now on.

I then had to replace buttermilk with a non-dairy ingredient.  Normally I’d just use almond or soy milk, but as the consistency of buttermilk is a bit thicker and tangy, I had to improvise.  So I used tofutti sour cream and diluted it with unsweetened almond milk, then threw in a tablespoon of white vinegar.  It worked!

I can honestly say that this recipe is better than the two bakery ones we tried.  The cakes are that perfect combination of being both moist and crumbly – they’re not dry at all, so they won’t fall under the pressure of a fork.  The cocoa is definitely present, but in no way do they taste like chocolate.   And I cut back the sugar aspect by a half a cup and substituted with 1/8 a cup of light agave syrup.  I’m not at all a fan of using either of these things, but for experimentation purposes I had to go with it.

Vegan "cream cheese" frosting

For a frosting I whipped up a tofutti / Earth Balance spread from Mama Sophia’s Soul Kitchen.  It’s a very tasty recipe, tangy and sweet without being overpowering nor tasting like soy.  But as you can see in this picture, it’s more like a pretty, thick glaze.  It has a gorgeous sheen, but even when refrigerated overnight it was far too loose for piping.  So I glazed the minis with these and then found an incredibly light and fluffy vegan frosting that I whopped on the big guys.

Fluffy Vegan Frosting

The Little Red Velvet Riding Hood Cupcake

Notes: Make sure you have all your ingredients are room temperature or slightly warm.  Make sure your oven is properly heated.  Don’t over-mix the dough when you’re stirring in the last batch of dry ingredients.

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups gluten-free cake flour
  • 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/8 cup light agave syrup
  • 1 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • 3/4 tsp. red gel/paste food coloring
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 rounded tablespoons Tofutti “sour cream” – at room temp
  • almond or soy milk (directions below)
  • 1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp distilled white vinegar, separated
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350º
  • Line 24 cupcake molds (I did an even 12 cupcakes and 24 minis)
  • Add Tofutti cream cheese to a liquid measuring cup and fill to just shy of one cup with almond or soy milk.  Whisk thoroughly with a fork until smooth.  Heat in microwave until warm but not hot.
  • Add 1 Tbsp white vinegar and stir in.
  • In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa and salt thoroughly.
  • In the bowl of a standing mixer, mix sugar, agave and oil thoroughly on medium speed until thoroughly combined.
  • Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions.
  • Add vanilla and coloring and mix in.
  • Turn speed down to low.  Add the flour in three additions, alternating with 1/2 of the “buttermilk”.  Make sure to mix thoroughly between additions.
  • Mix baking soda and remaining 2 tsps vinegar until foamy.  Add and beat for 10 seconds or until incorporated.
  • Bake for 14 minutes (small) or 22 minutes (large), rotating pan halfway through.
  • Cool in pan for at least 5 minutes before removing to cool on a rack, or cool completely in pans.
  • Definitely cool completely before frosting.

These can be kept in a refrigerator for 3 days in an airtight container.  Bring them down to room temperature before serving.

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Cupcake decorating class, frosting skills and a birthday!

The product of two hours of playing with frosting

Last weekend my little sister and I took a cupcake decorating class at Butterlane Cupcakes in NYC.  I’d been wanting to take a frosting class for a while – anyone who knows me can attest my skills are (were!) quite lacking, and while I’ve been making cut-out cookies and piping them for years, I never really learned what to do with all the little tips I’ve collected from several pastry sets.  Maggie’s birthday was the perfect excuse for us to play together on a Sunday and, as I’d expected, we had an awesome time.

Shortly after this picture was taken blue frosting did, indeed, somehow make it into my ear.

Now, in no way can I rate Butterlane’s cupcakes because they don’t offer a gluten-free option (evidently they did at one point but they didn’t sell well enough) and they use cream cheese to thicken their frosting.  While I was disappointed at not getting the sugar high I was hoping for (which would have been a horrible idea in retrospect), I understand and respect the decision to use cream cheese, which gives the frosting body and cuts back on the amount of powdered sugar needed.

Also (shh), I’m not as into the cupcake craze as most of NYC foodies seem to be.  Maybe it’s because I can’t eat most of them anyway.  Or maybe it’s because I’m obsessed with those pesky macarons.

But I got down with this frosting class.  The two hours were spent learning how to most easily fill and seal a pastry bag, and the correct pressure and “strokeage” (I’m sure someone’s used that word before but I am claiming it) for each tip and its appropriate shape.  Swirly letters, puffy flowers and trees and even a somewhat likeness of Betsey, the cow that graces a large wall of the classroom, made their way onto my workspace.

Betsey the cow

Towards the end of the class we learned the basics of making roses – which took a little practicing but were actually much easier than I had expected, especially once the frosting was at the perfect, somewhat hard texture needed for molding them most intricately.

By the time we got our cupcakes our untrained hands were cramping and I was ravenously hungry, so my creativity was tanking a bit and Maggie definitely showed me up in the final-product department.

Maggie with her stellar creations

A few days later, two very fun things happened.  First, I got a new DSLR camera.  My boyfriend is a filmmaker and Maggie’s a photographer, so I’ve stolen their cameras on numerous occasions to document my kitchen-time, always knowing that my photos need to step it up if they’re going to compete in this visual-food world.  But as most of my serious baking happens in my own, horribly lit kitchen, many hours have been lost as I stand on step-ladders next to my window, willing the light to bounce enough for me to get a decent shot.  Anyone who’s lived in NYC for a long enough period of time can tell you that there are too many kinds of indoor light, and mine is the somewhat reflected, gray wash kind.

So in a miraculous turn of events, I now own a camera that both the boyfriend and Maggie say are better than theirs, through no magic of my own.  I just lucked upon an incredibly affordable used Nikon body that can mount the boyfriend’s extremely expensive lenses that he no longer uses.  Which means I can’t break up with him for a very long, long time.

Now I can take this picture in seconds!

I am very excited.

So frosting skills and camera came together on Saturday, as I rushed to Connecticut from the city to celebrate my mother’s birthday with my siblings and grandparents over delicious food and an exciting basketball game (yay UConn!).  And while I still have much to learn about both using this crazy camera (I’m just old enough that all the photography classes I took in high school and college focused on composition and developing those rolls of film) and frosting cakes, I was one happy, dusty baker.

Happy Birthday to my mom!

Sandra Lee and the cost of Gluten-Free

Last night as I drifted off to sleep I read an article in this week’s New York Magazine about Sandra Lee, the Queen of the semi-homemade world and the current first lady of my fair state of New York.

The article was appropriately informative and mildly speculative:  Lee had a hard upbringing that inspired her to constantly create and stretch every dime, resulting in an empire of Martha-Stewart-esque possibilities for those with less time and money.  But is she too hard-wired for some of her hard-working employees?  Is she honestly full of happy-face generosity or is there some darkness lurking in there?

Honestly, I’m not particularly interested in the argument.  Not that there was much of one.  I think the article was intended more to garner some respect than to question, well, anything.  Of course the woman’s going to be a little type A if she’s going to get done as much as she has.

The article actually worked rather easily on me.  Like many foodies Lee does not cater to – including the likes of Anthony Bourdain and other chefs who I adore – I personally hate most of what she creates on her shows.  Buying a storemade p0und cake and sprucing it up by soaking it in liquor or juice and then adding some fresh fruit does nothing to attract my taste buds.  While I like my home to be comfortable, I have no personal interest in window dressings or stylish upholstery, at whatever cost.  And – here’s where it gets personal – because of my health and diet I can’t simply purchase, spruce up and present a semi-homemade meal.

Now my opinions are grounded in my personal history – I’ve struggled with Lyme Disease from a young age and have had to do without gluten, dairy, sugar and several other foods long before allergy diets and vegetables were “trendy”.  Recently I had two bouts of accidental dairy ingestion because I try to keep such requests subtle, and I paid the price for both of them.  So I respectfully don’t put myself in the strictly local/seasonal/organic group of people that the author of the article implies are “the kind of people who wouldn’t think of carrying their organic Chioggia beets home from the Greenmarket in anything but a reusable hemp tote“.   Not that I don’t love those people.  Or farmer’s markets or hemp, for that matter.

While Bisquick and Velveeta  never have and most likely never will have their place in my home, at least, as Mario Batali said, “she gets people out of fast-food chains, and that’s a good thing. At least she gets them in the kitchen, even if they are using frozen berries.”  And I’m a firm believer that the more time people spend preparing their food, the more they’ll want good food.  Real food.

So why did the article give me something to chew on that’s still present with me this morning?

It’s obviously hard to be a healthy individual in this country, with packaged food and corn-laden products being easier to procure than fresh vegetables with – god forbid! – nutrients and flavor.  Non-organics have about  6 times less nutrients than organics, but heftier price tags.  I’ve eaten many a bland strawberry or apple or asparagus stalk.   Why would someone choose one over a frozen french fry or hamburger slider?  Lee is currently experimenting with a little 70% homemade and 30% prepared as desired by some of her fans.  And she’s a huge fan of Michelle Obama’s getting kids into gardens and in more active lifestyles.  So hopefully a bit more health will get into the recipe she prepares for hoards of, primarily, mothers all over the country who want to present something special to their loved ones but have neither the time nor means to do so as much as they’d like.

But for those of us with food restrictions – celiac, IBS, countless chronic illnesses and allergies – the idea of using something both packaged and relatively cheap is a prize that isn’t even dangled in front of us.  My small loaf of gluten-free bread costs sometimes three times or more than a normal loaf of supermarket wheat bread.  Twice as much as a loaf from an excellent bakery.  Packaged food in my world means gluten-free crackers, canned Atlantic salmon (I can’t even eat tuna), and occasionally a dairy-free dark chocolate.  There is no cheap goat cheese to compare with American made cheddar.  Or an almond or goat’s milk that is as affordable as cow’s.  I can’t even get a natural cereal in a grocery store because sugar (or at least agave) are used to sweeten everything that needs a shelf life.

Yep, it’s not a cheap world for those dealt a weird food hand.

I’m sitting here pricing out medical insurance for my father and I.  He’s getting up there in age and I’m a woman in my childbearing years.  My basic coverage automatically costs almost twice of what a man in my age range does.  And the coverage we’ll most likely get and that is most affordable is only for in-network doctors.  Most alternative medicine practitioners in my world are in their whole own network that’s far from any my HMO will cover.

So today I’m musing on money and food and the body.  I choose to be an artist, a writer, a budding bakery owner.  Those jobs don’t come with health insurance or company lunches or even salaries that comfortably let me get those things on my own.  But this was my choice, and I live a relatively happy and peaceful life in this world where money is an object but not an obsession.  Sometimes I have to take more from those loved ones around me than I’d like, always with the intention to pay it back as best I can through my contributions to my family and society.

Yet I did not choose to get Lyme Disease, nor the continuous cycle of sickness and restriction that have run their courses between bouts of health and productivity.

Right now I spend a lot of time playing with food, trying combinations of things and learning how to make what people like so that someday I can pay my bills from these creations.  And if that means taking more time to make food – good, healthy, delicious, medicinal food – even more affordable for myself and the generation that has grown up with these issues on the brain, then that’s not such a bad way to spend my time.

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