Gluten Free Pizza Review

If you had asked me two years ago to review the available gluten free pizza, I would have said there was little point. There were a few frozen varieties, none were very good, and all were extremely expensive. For the price of one of those crappy little frozen things, I would have told you to just get yourself a decent steak and grill it up. Now, thanks to everyone from big grocery store chains to national restaurant chains to mom and pop local restaurants to creative entrepreneurs, it is actually possible to compare a cadre of pizzas, most of which are actually worth buying and eating.

This review is focused on pizza available in the DC area, both frozen and at restaurants. This is not necessarily a comprehensive list of what is out there, so let me know what I've forgotten!

Bella Monica

www.bellamonica.com

I'm starting this review with frozen pizzas, and starting the frozen pizzas with the best: Bella Monica. Last Thursday, Trevor from the Bella Monica restaurant in Raleigh, NC drove all the way up to DC to have a pizza party with the Gluten Free Dinner Club (http://celiacdisease.meetup.com/112/). I'd like to thank Trevor for making the trip, for making Bella Monica a beacon for gluten free food, and most of all for giving me some free pizzas to bake at home and review!! Bella Monica started as a restaurant in Raleigh, and they are expanding their gluten free pizza production to sell at grocery stores nation wide. In the DC area, they are available at MOMs, Roots, and possibly other places I'm not remembering. They are also close to being added to Whole Foods and Wegmans, and may get into Giant. If you shop at any of those stores, PLEASE talk to the managers or fill out suggestion forms to get these in the store. Ok, the actual review...  This is the first gluten free frozen pizza I've had that really cooked right at home. The crust is crispy and delicious, and has no odd taste from weird flours. The sauce and toppings are fresh and the flavors meld together to make this taste like I remember REAL pizza. This stands on par with the best fresh pizza I've had at any restaurant, as far as crust - the topping choices are limited, but that is to be expected, if I want more I can add them to the cheese pizza myself. Really the only downside to these was a few of the mushrooms on my Mushroom and Herb pizza - a couple retained a lot of water and made the crust a little soggy in the area. But, that was only the big, thick pieces, some of which had been placed on top of each other. If that's the worst thing I can say about a gluten free pizza, you know it is damn good!! This is the only frozen pizza I've had that is really worth the money. I can't wait until the next time I go to the Triangle area to check out the restaurant!

Amy's

Amy's is definitely a friend of the celiac community, and I often have one of their frozen dinners for lunch if I need something quick. Their GF pizza is decent, and probably gets you the most food for your money. However, the crust is never quite perfect and the sauce and cheese aren't as good as Bella Monica. This is decent, but falls well below Bella Monica.

Glutino

Glutino has been doing gluten free longer than any other company on this list (I think). Their pretzels are absolutely fantastic. But, their pizza has lots of room to improve. It is decent as far as price - the little one in my pictures was $5. This Three Cheese Brown Rice Crust pizza that I did a direct comparison to Bella Monica with was better than their older kinds, but you knew you were eating a gluten free crust. The sauce was thin and tasteless and the cheese was poor quality. Not really worth buying unless that's all you can find and you REALLY need some pizza.

Whole Foods

Whole Foods sells their own frozen pizza crusts. They are thicker than any other GF crust I've ever seen and taste very good. However, they require careful topping and baking, as they tend to stay soggy in the middle. I recommend thawing and baking right on the rack, which can be a problem if you are not in a 100% GF house - I like to use cookie sheets for cross contamination safety, but that is guaranteed to make this crust soggy. This is definitely better than Glutino's or Amy's crusts. Against Bella Monica, it depends on if you like deep crust or thin and crispy - I like thin and crispy, so Bella Monica stays on top.

Now on to some real restaurants: 

Lilit Cafe:

http://www.lilitcafe.com/

Lilit Cafe is a little restaurant in Bethesda, MD. They have a fantastic gluten free menu, thanks largely to a partnership with Sweet Sin Bakery (http://www.glutenfreedesserts.com/). I haven't had their pizza in quite a while, but it was fairly good. The crust doesn't instantly let you know you're eating gluten free, which is nice. The toppings available are top notch and serve to elevate this above frozen pizza. This is also the only place I know of that has gluten free sandwiches, which I think are the real star. There are other places that have better pizza, so I get a sandwich whenever I make it up here. Lilit Cafe deserves special thanks for being the first restaurant I've ever gone to that really caters to the gluten free crowd. It is amazing to order food at a place where gf is the norm, rather than the exception. If I lived closer, I'd be here daily.

Uno's

http://www.unos.com/

Uno's has done a great job rolling out gluten free pizza over the last 6 months. Based on how they say they train their staff, I feel very safe eating it. Uno's has had a GF menu for a long time and was among the first national chains to recognize the gluten free market as attention worthy. The pizza is very good. Their crust is buttery and flaky. I prefer a crisper crust, but Uno's tastes great and holds together nicely. It definitely adds to the taste and doesn't leave you trying to guess which kind of flour is giving the odd after taste - refreshing for GF. Unfortunately, the topping selection is rather limited. Uno's is in the process of carefully certifying toppings for the GF pizzas, so that should change soon.

Pete's Apizza

http://petesapizza.com/

Pete's is a New Haven style pizzaria in NW DC, right at the Columbia heights metro stop. I love this place. Their crust is thin and crispy and tastes great. Their toppings set them above any other place in the area. It is pricey, but 100% worth every penny. I go here whenever I can. The owner is usually there and always tries to talk to you when you order gluten free, a very nice touch that makes you feel safe with how the food is handled.

Zpizza

http://www.zpizza.com/

Zpizza is my favorite gluten free pizza for one important reason: THEY DELIVER!!!. A couple months ago, I ordered delivery pizza for the first time in about 7 or 8 years. Plus, it's really good. They have thin crispy crust the way I like it and a great range of toppings. They stopped using wheat flour in all the stores and replaced it with rice flour over a month before starting to bring in GF crusts, to really make sure there wouldn't be cross contamination. No crust is made at their stores - both GF and wheat crusts are shipped in frozen. With no loose wheat flour in the store, separate prep area, tools, and oven space, cross contamination is highly unlikely.

Rustico's

http://www.rusticorestaurant.com/

I am embarrassed to say that even though I live only a few miles away, I have never eaten the pizza at Rustico's, so I can't really review it. However, they have their normal menu marked with items that can be prepared GF, and it amounts to about half the menu - not bad at all. I have heard their pizza is great, and really need to get out there. However, I have also heard of issues with cross contamination. I haven't heard that in a while though, so the issue may have been addressed. I'll try to get out to Rustico's soon and add a real review!

Here are all the pizza's I've had, ranked in order of my favorites:

Zpizza

Pete's Apizza

Bella Monica

Uno's

Lilit Cafe

Whole Foods

Amy's

Glutino

It should be noted that the only reason Zpizza beats Pete's is because they deliver. Based solely on quality, Pete's has the edge. The fact that the frozen Bella Monica pizzas beats out two real restaurants should tell you just how amazing it is! If there were more toppings, Bella Monica might be able to top Zpizza and Pete's too. 

Please add comments with your favorite places and any pizzas I left off, I'm sure there are several!

Chicken & Dumplings

I haven't had chicken and dumplings since I went gluten free almost 8 years ago. For some reason, it never occurred to me to try to make this great southern classic until I recently discovered the 123 Gluten Free Buttermilk Biscuit mix. I suddenly remembered that dumpling dough is pretty much the same as biscuit dough, so I went for it. Plus, I've recently seen people using smoked paprika on lots of cooking shows and decided to check out the trend - the smoked paprika really brought a nice depth of flavor to the dish. This turned out perfectly. If you are GF and need a comfort food, this is a great one! 

Ingredients:

• Whole Chicken, roasted and stripped of meat
• Brine
• Apple Cider
• Sage
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Smoked Paprika
• Kosher Salt
• Black Pepper
• Garlic Salt
• Celery Salt
• Juniper Berries
• Stock
• Carcass and bones from brined chicken
• Water
• Celery
• Onion
• Carrot
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Black Pepper
• Garlic
• Basil
• Oregano
• Sage
• Onion
• Celery
• Carrot
• Dumplings
• 123 Gluten Free Mix, follow box directions

Procedure:

I went all out with this one. I started by brining the chicken. To make the brine, I combined the ingredients in a large pot, simmered for about half an hour, let it cool, then covered a whole chicken with the brine and let it sit for about a day. Once brined, I broke down the chicken - see this great video for how to break down a chicken. I seasoned some chopped vegetables with smoked paprika, salt, and pepper, and lined a baking pan with them. I finely chopped some garlic with rosemary and sage, stuffed the mixture under the skin of the chicken, and put the chicken on top of the vegetables. That all went in a 425 degree oven for about 45 minutes to roast.

I ate some of the chicken for dinner, but saved most of it. The next day, I started a stock using the carcass and wings of the chicken, the roasted vegetables, and some fresh herbs. While that simmered, I stripped all of the meat from the roasted chicken and added the bones to the stock. After the stock simmered for about 3 hours, I strained it. 

The stock went back in the pot, and I added some fresh carrots and celery. While that started to simmer, I followed the directions on the 123 Gluten Free buttermilk biscuit mix box to make the dough. I rolled the dough into small balls about half an inch in diameter. The chicken meat was then added to the soup and the soup was brought to a boil. I dropped the dumplings into the boiling broth one by one, being careful to space them out so they wouldn't stick together. They would drop to the bottom then rise after about 2 minutes, as they started to cook. After I added what seemed like a good amount of dumplings, I let them cook for about 15 minutes. While they finished I made biscuits out of the leftover dough. Once the dumplings were cooked through, I turned off the heat and the soup was done!

Resulting Deliciousness:

This was the best soup I've ever made. Chicken and dumplings are a great southern comfort food that I hadn't had for about a decade. The texture of the soup was perfect and the flavor was fantastic. You could really taste the garlic and smoked paprika in the pieces of chicken. The dumplings took on the flavor of the soup nicely and turned out really well. While this turned out to be one of the best all around dishes I've ever made, I think the dumplings could be improved by adding herbs or some other seasoning to the dough and making them thin strips instead of balls. You could definitely make a simpler version with diced chicken breast and store bought stock instead of the whole brining-roasting-stock making procedure, but I think the incredible flavor was well worth it.

Buffalo Pasta and Vegetable Stir Fry

I wanted to make something quick and easy with nice, fresh ingredients. I wandered the grocery store half awake after work and a couple vegetables and some ground buffalo caught my eye. So, I cooked each in the laziest way I knew and came up with something that was quite tasty.  Here you go:

Ingredients:

• Buffalo Pasta
• Ancient Harvest quinoa and corn shell pasta
• Whole Foods 365 brand Italian Herb pasta sauce
• Lean ground buffalo
• Roasted red pepper
• Onion (1/2)
• Black pepper
• Garlic salt
• Paprika
• Garlic (~1/4 bulb)
• Stir Fry Salad
• Zucchini
• Yellow squash
• Onion (1/2)
• Baby Spinach (medium sized package)
• Pine Nuts
• Garlic (lots - ~3/4 bulb)
• Olive oil
• Black Pepper
• Sea Salt
• Balsamic Vinegar Reduction
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Bay Leaf
• Raw Can Sugar
• Honey

Procedure:

Buffalo Pasta:

I caramelized some onions in olive oil, then added the ground beef, garlic, and seasoning. Once that was well browned, I added the jar of sauce and about half a roasted red pepper. The pasta was cooked per the box instructions, which takes maybe 10 minutes after the water boils. Then the two met in a bowl and lived happily ever after. 

Stir Fry Salad:

Or vegetable stir fry, whatever you want to call it. I just caramelized some onions in olive oil, then added the squashes, pine nuts, and some seasoning. That cooked on medium heat until everything was getting soft, then I added the roasted red pepper. I turned the heat up, added a couple tablespoons of apple cider, and piled the garlic on top. I let that steam for a minute before mixing it in because I added too much and couldn't have mixed it without throwing it out of the shallow pan. After that mixed in, I added a bunch of garlic and some black pepper. After the salad went on a plate I drizzled on some of the balsamic vinegar reduction I always keep around.

Balsamic Vinegar Reduction:

I should make a post just for this. It is super easy and is great on everything - salads, sandwiches, quinoa pilaf, etc, etc. All you do is put about half a cup to a cup of balsamic vinegar in a very small sauce pot with a bay leaf or two. Heat that until it starts simmering then lower the heat. Add some raw cane or brown sugar and a little honey. Let it slowly cook for a while, simmering or not quite simmering. It is ready when it is starting to get viscous and will stick to a fork. Adding more sugar and honey makes it set up faster and require less reduction - I've let it simmer for anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour. Longer with less sugar is better, but even the quick stuff is nice. Take the bay leaf out when you're done and put it in the vessel of your choice. I use a little 4oz squeeze bottle I got at REI that's supposed to be for denatured alcohol for camp stoves. Those are also good for olive oil or anything else you want to drizzle in a controlled way. This sauce is very flavorful, a little goes a long way. I make this about once a month and always have it in the fridge. 

You can do this with soy sauce too, but I don't use a bay leaf. That makes a real nice sauce for stir fries or other asian dishes. Reductions like this also take on other flavors very well - you can squeeze citrus juice into either and get great results. Adding a few drops of sesame oil to the soy sauce one gives it a denser, stronger flavor and gives it a great smell.   

Resulting Deliciousness:

    This took maybe half an hour and ended up tasting great. It made a lot too - 4 people easily could have eaten this. I used the leftovers for lunch for several days. The spinach wasn't top notch and got a little slimy after it was in the fridge, but other than that, this was a great meal

123 Gluten Free Buttermilk Biscuit Mix

I don't usually do reviews, and I don't use mixes too often, but I think both of those are going to change a little bit. I recently got a boxed mix for buttermilk biscuits from 123 Gluten-Free. They were AWESOME.

Ingredients:

Just followed the box instructions for the buttermilk biscuits - in addition to the mix, you need buttermilk, unslated butter, and some sugar.

Procedure:

Just followed the box instructions.  But, I actually couldn't find my measuring cup, so I had to roughly estimate  the 1 1/3 cups buttermilk.  The dough turned out way too sticky to roll out, so I added a little corn starch to thicken it up, corn starched my hands, and just hand-formed the biscuits.

Resulting Deliciousness:

Even with my less than ideal methods, these turned out fantastic.  They weren't shaped perfectly, but they tasted great. They aren't quite the buttermilk biscuits I know from growing up in the south, but they are damn good for GF. They allowed me to indulge in the somewhat unhealthy southern breakfast of a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit for the first time in probably a decade.  

The mix is a little pricey at $9 at Whole Foods, but totally worth it.

Crockpot Ribs and Vegetables

Last weekend, I finished off the last of the forest fed pork I had in the freezer. I was feeling lazy, so I just threw some ribs in a crockpot with a bunch of vegetables. Turned out pretty good.

Ingredients:

• Pork ribs from the forest
• Marinade - about 20 hours
  
• Apple Cider
• Cumin
• Cloves
• Vegetables
• Celery Root
• Green, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers with red onion (I saw a pre-cut pack at the grocery store)
• Carrots
• Seasonings
• Garlic (about a bulb and a half)
• Shallots (diced from a jar)
• Apple Cider (~1/2 cup)
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper
• Red pepper
• White pepper
• Paprika
• Celery salt
• olive oil
• honey
• Sauce
• Drippings from everything above
• Apple Cider (~1/3 cup)
• Cane sugar
• Cloves
• Cumin
• Red pepper

Procedure:

The night before, I knew I'd want to cook the ribs so I threw them in a freezer bag with apple cider, cloves, and cumin to marinate.  The next evening, I took a pre-cut pack of various bell peppers and red onion, put it in the crock pot, added celery root and carrots, all the seasonings, and tossed all that in a crockpot, coating the vegetables with olive oil and seasonings. I then cut the meat into individual ribs, placed them on top of the vegetables, sprinkled on some more pepper, honey, and a little apple cider. That was cooked at about 200-250 for about an hour and a half.

After everything was done, I pulled everything out of the crockpot, leaving the drippings - mostly some pork fat, cider, and garlic, all of which had been flavored by all of the great vegetables. I added a little more cider, a little raw cane sugar, cloves, cumin, and red pepper, then reduced it for about 5-10 minutes. If reducing sounds fancy, it is not - you just simmer it until it gets thicker - the sugars get caramelized and you cook off some water. I then added the ribs back to the sauce for about 5-10 minutes, stirring most of the time to really coat them well.

Resulting Deliciousness:

These ribs were pretty good, but the vegetables stole the show - they were absolutely fantastic. I think this was because I don't have a very good crockpot, I have a multipurpose thing that's mostly good for frying. The low temperature controls aren't very good, so I basically steamed this stuff in an hour and a half instead of slow cooking it over about 4 hours, as I intended. As a result, the vegetables were nicely done, but the ribs had a very slightly chewy texture, not the perfect tenderness you want for ribs. But, they were still really good. If you have a real crockpot or a dutch oven, this would probably turn out better, texturally speaking. 

  

If you want to see some really well-done ribs, check out my Spring Break '08 Ribs.   

Roasted Pork Loin, Applesauce, and Mashed Potatoes

Last weekend I got a pork loin roast from Babes in the Wood, and cooked it on Tuesday, along with some applesauce and mashed potatoes. In case you haven't noticed, I am a huge supporter of raising animals in a sustainable way and feeding them what they want to eat naturally. This forest-fed pork is hands down the best pork that I've ever had. See my post on North Carolina Barbecue for more about that.

Ingredients:

• Pork Roast
• 1.6 lb boneless pork loin roast
• Dry Rub
• Kosher salt
• Raw cane sugar (or brown sugar)
• Cumin
• Cloves
• Garlic Salt
• Black Pepper
• Celery Salt
• Paprika
• Applesauce
• Honey Crisp Apples (peeled and roughly cut)
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Sugar
• Mashed Potatoes
• 2 lb bag of Red Potatoes
• Garlic
• 1/2 Roasted Red Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Butter
• Milk
• Rosemary
• Kosher Salt
• Black Pepper 
• Paprika
• Garlic Salt

Procedure:

• Pork:  I started the pork by defrosting it in a sealed bag in hot water (I like that or fridge defrosting more than microwave), while I mixed up the rub.  Rubs generally have about half and half salt and sugar plus whatever seasonings you want - I used cumin, and cloves because they are my favorite pork seasonings. I also only use kosher salt or sea salt for rubs - they are much more subtle and taste better than table salt, and treat the meat better. I cut the fat layer mostly off the meat to make a pocket to add the rub. I rubbed the rub into every surface of the roast.  This was placed on the bottom rack over a pan and baked at 350 for about 1.5 hours.
• Applesauce:  Homemade applesauce is really, really easy. I just cut up some apples, put them in a pan with a splash of cider and some cinnamon, cloves, and sugar. That was baked for about 30 minutes at 350, then ran through a food processor. 
• Mashed Potatoes:  I boiled red potatoes with some rosemary and seasonings. I roasted garlic in olive oil and paprika at the same time the apples and roast were baking, for about 30 minutes. The potatoes, garlic, half a roasted red pepper I had leftover, butter, milk, salt, and pepper went into a food processor (in two batches).  
  

Resulting Deliciousness:

    The pork turned out pretty well. I prepared it in a more barbecue-ey way than a roast-ey way, but that's the mood I was in. I overcooked it a bit, so it was a tad tough, but wasn't dried out. The taste was great, but the rub was just a tad strong - any pork but the flavorful forest-fed stuff would have been overwhelmed by the cumin. Next time I would either cook it less, or cook it low and slow, and would have brined it if I had time. But, still really good. 

    The mashed potatoes were really, really creamy from the butter, milk, olive oil from the roasted garlic, and the use of a food processor instead of hand-mashing. They were really good, but unfortunately had a slight fridge taste to them from the week or two old roasted red pepper I put in. I have learned that it probably isn't good to throw a roasted pepper in a bag in the fridge - next time I have some leftover, I'll add some olive oil or vinegar to help hold the flavor.

    The applesauce was also a little below my standards. Last time I did this, I roasted them for over an hour and they were awesome, almost like apple butter, but not so sweet and heavy. This time, I didn't roast it as long, so I expected a lighter flavor, which was fine. The problem was the texture - the apples had gone through at least a couple improper freeze/thaw cycles. I could tell when I bought them that they had been through that kind of abuse, I was just too excited to see honey crisp apples in January and figured they would be fine for applesauce. It might have been better if I cooked them more, but in addition to the good applesauce texture, there was a grainy texture that was a bit of a put-off. Oh well, still good if not perfect.

    So, overall it was a nice meal, but there were some little things that kept it from being great.

Sweet Rolls Round 2

Last week, my mom tried her old sweet rolls again after talking to me about all the recommendations we got from the last try. In the interest of only changing one thing to see the impact, we decided to fix the worst of our mistakes - trying to get GF dough to rise multiple times. The result was borderline perfect!

From Sweet Rolls

Ingredients:

• Sweet Dough
• 1.5 cups milk warmed to ~120
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 packets yeast
• 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 7.5 cups flour (we used Jules Shepard's All Purpose Flour from Nearly Normal)
• Filling
  
• ~ 1 stick melted Butter
  
• ~ 1 cup Sugar
  
• ~ 2 tbsp Cinnamon
  
• Glaze
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 5 tbsp white karo corn syrup

Procedure:

So, this time the recipe stayed the same, but the rising steps were taken out.  

To make the dough, start by mixing the yeast with half a cup of warm water. While that sits, mix together the warm milk, sugar, and salt. When the yeast has bubbled, add it to the warm milk mixture and stir. To that, add 2 lightly beaten eggs and half a cup of shortening. Mix about half the flour. Once that is mixed in, add the rest of the flour - you can use a little more or less, just add it until the dough feels like dough.

For the glaze, just mix together the brown sugar, butter, and karo syrup. Grease 3 or 4 8" baking pans and line the bottom of the pans with the glaze mix. If you want, you can add chopped up walnuts or pecans on the glaze (we used pecans).

Mix together the cinnamon and sugar (the ratio listed is an estimate, just use as much cinnamon as you like) and melt some butter. Then, separate out a baseball-softball sized chunk of dough and roll it out into a rectangle about 3-4 inches wide. Drizzle on some butter to lightly coat the dough, then sprinkle on a thin layer of the cinnamon and sugar mix. Roll up the dough and cut it into pieces about an inch and a half long. Place the pieces cut side up/down in the prepared pan (see below), with room between the rolls for them to rise.  Place the populated pans in a warm oven for about 45 minutes to rise.  Remove the rolls, get the oven up to temperature for baking.

Bake the rolls at 370 for 25-30 minutes. After baking, set a plate on top of the pan of rolls, then flip it over. Let it sit for a minute to let the glaze drizzle down, the remove the pan. There you are - a beautiful pan of glazed sweet rolls! They get stale quickly, so make sure to cover them soon after they cool.

Resulting Deliciousness:

This time, the rolls were almost perfect. They were still a tad on the heavy side, but barely. The taste was pretty much right on, just a little less 'doughy', or maybe yeast-y?, than I remember them being when I was a kid.  Maybe next time we will try some of the other suggestions to see if we can get just a little more rise.

Thanks again to everyone for all the comments! 

Chili

I haven't made chili in a really long time.  Last weekend, my friend James made some and inspired me to do the same.  I think it turned out quite well.

Ingredients:

• Ground beef (90/10 lean)
• Ground turkey
• Celery root
• Celery
• Onion
• Roasted red pepper
• Apple cider
• Peas (1 can)
• Corn (1 can)
• Black beans (1 can)
• Pinto beans (1 can)
• Kidney beans (1 can)
• Garbanzo beans (1 can)
• Tomato sauce (2 cans)
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Bay leaf
• Kosher salt
• Raw cane sugar
• Honey
• Black pepper
• Red pepper
• White pepper
• Chili powder
• Garlic salt
• Garlic
• Cumin
• Cloves
• Dry mustard
• Paprika

Procedure:

Chili is one of the easiest things to make.  All I did was cut up the ingredients that weren't canned, caramelized the onions and celery, browned the ground beef and turkey, put everything in a big pot, and let it simmer for about 2.5 hours.  I tasted it from time to time and seasoned it to my taste.  I went heavy on cumin because it suited my palate and my mood.  

Resulting Deliciousness:

This was fantastic chili.  One key thing that some people don't think of is the sugar.  Sugar helps balance the spices and salt and really gets all the flavors to blend together smoothly.  I didn't make this chili very spicy because I didn't feel like spicy food tonight.  Chili, and stews in general, always taste better after sitting around for a while.  I'm really looking forward to eating this for lunch for the rest of the week!

Gluten Free Sweet Rolls

This was my family's favorite desert when I was growing up, we were always bugging my mom to make them. Since I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease about seven years ago, we've tried to re-make sweet rolls a couple times, but nothing ever came close. This time, we nailed the taste. If the rolls would rise a little more and be a little softer, they would be perfect. If you have any advice on that, please let me know in the comments!

Ingredients:

• Sweet Dough
• 1.5 cups milk warmed to ~120
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 packets yeast
• 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 7.5 cups flour (we used Jules Shepard's All Purpose Flour from Nearly Normal)
• Filling
  
• ~ 1 stick melted Butter
  
• ~ 1 cup Sugar
  
• ~ 2 tbsp Cinnamon
  
• Glaze
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 5 tbsp white karo corn syrup

Procedure:

I'll tell you the original recipe, with notes about how it was different with GF flour... To make the dough, start by mixing the yeast with half a cup of warm water. While that sits, mix together the warm milk, sugar, and salt. When the yeast has bubbled, add it to the warm milk mixture and stir. To that, add 2 lightly beaten eggs and half a cup of shortening. Mix about half the flour. Once that is mixed in, add the rest of the flour - you can use a little more or less, just add it until the dough feels like dough. Knead the dough (although I don't think that is necessary for GF flours?). Place the dough in a large greased bowl, cover it with a damp towel, and let it sit in a warm place to rise until it doubles in size, about 2 hours (it did not double with GF flour, but did rise significantly). Punch the dough down, flip it over in the bowl, re-cover it, and let it rise a second time. Once risen, punch it down a final time and let it sit for 15 minutes. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar (the ratio listed is an estimate, just use as much cinnamon as you like) and melt some butter. Then, separate out a baseball-softball sized chunk of dough and roll it out into a rectangle about 3-4 inches wide. Drizzle on some butter to lightly coat the dough, then sprinkle on a thin layer of the cinnamon and sugar mix. Roll up the dough and cut it into pieces about an inch and a half long. Place the pieces cut side up/down in the prepared pan (see below), with room between the rolls for them to rise (the GF rolls didn't rise much, so we placed them closer together than you would for wheat flour rolls).

While the dough is rising, you can prepare the baking pans and make the glaze. For the glaze, just mix together the brown sugar, butter, and karo syrup. Grease 3 or 4 8" baking pans and line the bottom of the pans with the glaze mix. If you want, you can add chopped up walnuts or pecans on the glaze (we used pecans).

Bake the rolls at 370 for 15-20 minutes (they took about 27 with the GF flour - anyone know why that would be?). After baking, set a plate on top of the pan of rolls, then flip it over. Let it sit for a minute to let the glaze drizzle down, the remove the pan. There you are - a beautiful pan of glazed sweet rolls! They get stale quickly, so make sure to cover them soon after they cool.

Resulting Deliciousness:

These rolls were the closest to the real thing that we've ever gotten using GF flour - Jules' mix definitely works well, I highly recommend it. The taste was exactly what I remember. The only shortcoming was the texture - these did not rise as well as the flour ones, so they were a little more dense and harder. However, they were very worth the effort. If anyone can give me some tips on how to tweak the recipe to get them to rise better, please let me know in a comment!

Local Grass-Fed Applewood Smoked Beef

Many people are intimidated by slow cooking techniques like smoking.  In reality, it is one of the oldest, simplest, easiest, tastiest ways to prepare food.  Low temperature slow cooking is very forgiving.  While you'll want a smoker to really do it right, you can improvise quite well with a grill (see my North Carolina Pulled Pork Barbecue!).  This was the first thing we made with my dad's new smoker.  

The meat we smoked was very special, although it shouldn't be.  We used extremely fresh, locally raised grass-fed beef, which was absolutely beautiful.  As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I am a huge supporter of feeding animals the foods they evolved to eat.  No cow can properly digest corn.  A happy cow is out in a field eating a variety of different grasses.  A grass-fed cow's meat is leaner and far superior in taste to any feedlot meat.  Because the meat is more lean, low and slow techniques are helpful because it can be easy to overcook lean meat on a grill if you're used to fatty grain-fed beef (less fat means less juices).  Low and slow also helps make the meat even more tender.  If the environmental, health, and moral shortcomings of feedlot meat won't convince you to go for more expensive grass-fed meat, maybe the taste and texture benefits will.  And that isn't limited to cows - in my opinion, the taste benefit of a free-range life and natural diet is even greater for chicken and pork than it is for beef (check out forestfed.com, makes other pork taste like uncooked tofu).  Anyway, here is what we did:

Ingredients:

• Sirloin Roast
• Short Ribs
• Kielbasa
• Dale's
• Rub
• Sea Salt
• Brown Sugar
• Paprika
• Black Pepper
  
• Garlic Salt
• Dry Mustard
• Celery Salt
• Red Pepper
• White Pepper
• Cumin
• Thyme
• Onion Powder
• Cloves
• Zucchini
  
• Yellow Squash
• Potatoes
• Barbecue Sauce
• Ketchup
• Dry Mustard
• Tabasco 
• White pepper
• Red pepper
• Black pepper
• Oregano
• Garlic Salt
• Paprika
• Red wine

Procedure:

My dad and I started this meal by marinating the beef.  I used some Dale's, one of the very few pre-packaged marinades I use.  While the meat marinated for about an hour, we got the fire in the smoker going with some charcoal and scraps of oak, and cut some green branches off our apple tree (you can also buy wood to smoke).  While the fire burned down, I mixed up the rub - about half and half sugar and salt, plus whatever seasonings you have around, to your taste.  After marinating for an hour, I took the beef out, patted it semi-dry, and rubbed in the rub.  Remember to really rub the rub into the meat - it's not called a 'sprinkle'.  Once the fire was ready, we put the beef on the lower rack in the smoker, right above the water pan.  About 5 hours later, it was ready.  Over the course of of the 5 hours, we periodically threw in some more green applewood to keep the smoke going.

This was the first time I've tried to smoke vegetables.  I ended up losing track of time and didn't put them on as early as I wanted.  So, I cut them up, coated them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, wrapped it loosely in tin foil, then added them to the upper rack of the smoker.  After about an hour, they were soft and ready.

    Just before serving, my dad mixed up his barbecue sauce.

Resulting Deliciousness:

    This was the best smoked beef we've ever made.  The rub worked very well and the smoke flavor was fantastic.  The meat, however was the real star.  It was moist and so tender you could cut it with a spoon.  You could really tell the difference from going with good cuts of grass-fed meat.  The vegetables were good, but because they were pre-sliced, the smoke flavor was too strong.  Next time I wouldn't cut them up and would use more seasoning after smoking and slicing.

Although very good, my rub and my dad's sauce didn't closely follow any major style of barbecue, so any fans of a particular region would probably point out some shortcomings (although the apple wood was definitely a feature of our region of Western North Carolina).  I think the next few times I do barbecue, I'll try to follow a few different regions closely.  If you have any favorites that you want to see me try, tell me about it in the comments!