The sweet science of baking.
Baking is as much alchemy as chemistry. You take these ingredients at just the right stage, you combine them in just the right amounts under just the right conditions with just the right force and, if you've done it right, they turn into something else. What constitutes "right" at each point can and does vary.
Gluten-free baking is more alchemy than chemistry. There are categories of baking, and subcategories of other categories, for which gluten is not such a vital component that you'll need an advanced degree in Chemistry and a Master certificate in Pastry from a culinary vocational school just as a starting point for attempting a gluten-free recipe. Things that don't rise much except during the baking, things meant to have a certain amount of flakiness/crumbing. Most cakes and cookies are like this, happily. Pies and crumbles. Tortes, if you're doing them right, are already gluten-free (because you're using nuts instead of grain flour).
Then there's Lussekatter.
Lussekatter are sweet buns, and buns depend on gluten for a boost to the rising and for some serious binding action. Buns are srs alchemical bznss, because if you don't do them "right," you're likely to end up with rocks instead of something edible. And since Lussekatter are as much ritual as food, doing it "right" is important to your nourishment on several levels.
Now, there's no way a Celiac's definition of "right" is ever going to include gluten. It's not just that we can't digest the stuff, it's that the stuff does damage. So the Celiac baker of Swedish extraction desirous of doing her St. Lucia's Day (and birthday, not so incidentally) up proper finds herself in the position of adapting the alchemical recipe and changing the ritual with neither degree nor certificate, and hoping like hell the Saint is smiling down on her "right" intentions. The first step is Googling for gluten-free Lussekatter recipes. There aren't a lot, and if you're USian, you'll find yourself in need of a measurement converter. The English speaker's top options involve a recipe that calls for potatoes. I...cannot go there. Arguably the most popular recipe is in Italian, so I shall have to try to hunt down someone who speaks recipe Italian next year (recipes do not use the standard of any language), and hope there are U.S. equivalents for any Italian-only ingredients.
When I first tried this in 2007, I found two English-language recipes, one the potato one, the other sans cardamom. I ended up pulling them both off the 'net, but didn't get a chance to try them until last year, when I combined the two. The result didn't rise much, though getting anything to rise in my old place was a serious problem, and they were still edible, if dense. Because my French bread for Hallowe'en rose so beautifully here, I had hopes for the Lussekatter. Plus, I intended to find a better recipe this year.
Well, the one sans cardamom is gone, and the only new English-language one involves using a particular bread mix that is, in my experience, not especially appetizing. After making a couple of horrified faces at the computer screen, I decided to fall back on my old Frankensteined recipe and cross my fingers the result rose this time. Sadly, this was not to be, not even a little bit, not even after leaving them to rise all night. I decided to bake them anyway and, like last year, the result is edible.* I will say the Saint done her best, and try adapting a glutened recipe from scratch next year. I've had some success in doing that for other things. In the meantime, there are cats in the house for tomorrow, actually less dense than last year, if tiny. They blink with little golden eyes under the lights of the Christmas tree, which is as close to a candle-crown as the clumsy (so no candles) and migraine-prone (so no headgear) are inclined to get 'round these parts.
I have freshly cut hair for my birthday, very short and flippy and tousled, which is really the only option when my entire head is covered in elflocks (or cowlicks, but elflocks sounds more mischievous, and my hair is that). I also get my brows trimmed when I get my hair cut, because they grow very long and very curly. Apparently, this is an aberration. I will be 38 tomorrow, and while my elflocks remain unchanged, individual strands of stark white have started cropping up in my brows. Since said brows are a very dark red-gold, the effect is a bit like frost under fallen autumn leaves, a kiss from Jackie, promising winter and snow. This pleases me.
Spouse has been acting sneaky this week, running mysterious errands and insisting on checking the mail. It's adorable. I got two presents from him today, plus the teeny laptop counts for anniversary, birthday, and midwinter of each kind. My boy is the best.
Tomorrow, there will be tidepools and cupcakes, and probably more rain. We'll see how well I do at juggling camera, umbrella, and writing implements. I may forego the umbrella and wipe the camera lens on my sweater when necessary; I am a creature of the sea and Oregon. Possibly, Jess and the godpuppies will be here next weekend. Cross your fingers the snow doesn't hold them back, they've already had a long go of it. Maybe I'll have a Solstice poem draft to share by then. I rediscovered last year's attempt, plus the first line of a different one, and have krushed them together and rearranged the pieces to see what I will get. Maybe the result will rise.
Today, Happy Birthday, csecooney! Happy Hannukah, all!
*Spouse, in an example of what I've come to call the Wisdom of the Eater, has a very straightforward system by which he rates all baking: if he likes it and he can eat it with his fingers, it's a Cookie. If he likes it and must eat it with a fork, it is Cake. If he likes it and must eat it with a spoon, it is Pie. If he doesn't like it, however it's eaten, it is Not a Cookie. All of this is regardless of whether it "turned out" as the recipe says it should. My Lussekatter are Cookies.
Gluten-free baking is more alchemy than chemistry. There are categories of baking, and subcategories of other categories, for which gluten is not such a vital component that you'll need an advanced degree in Chemistry and a Master certificate in Pastry from a culinary vocational school just as a starting point for attempting a gluten-free recipe. Things that don't rise much except during the baking, things meant to have a certain amount of flakiness/crumbing. Most cakes and cookies are like this, happily. Pies and crumbles. Tortes, if you're doing them right, are already gluten-free (because you're using nuts instead of grain flour).
Then there's Lussekatter.
Lussekatter are sweet buns, and buns depend on gluten for a boost to the rising and for some serious binding action. Buns are srs alchemical bznss, because if you don't do them "right," you're likely to end up with rocks instead of something edible. And since Lussekatter are as much ritual as food, doing it "right" is important to your nourishment on several levels.
Now, there's no way a Celiac's definition of "right" is ever going to include gluten. It's not just that we can't digest the stuff, it's that the stuff does damage. So the Celiac baker of Swedish extraction desirous of doing her St. Lucia's Day (and birthday, not so incidentally) up proper finds herself in the position of adapting the alchemical recipe and changing the ritual with neither degree nor certificate, and hoping like hell the Saint is smiling down on her "right" intentions. The first step is Googling for gluten-free Lussekatter recipes. There aren't a lot, and if you're USian, you'll find yourself in need of a measurement converter. The English speaker's top options involve a recipe that calls for potatoes. I...cannot go there. Arguably the most popular recipe is in Italian, so I shall have to try to hunt down someone who speaks recipe Italian next year (recipes do not use the standard of any language), and hope there are U.S. equivalents for any Italian-only ingredients.
When I first tried this in 2007, I found two English-language recipes, one the potato one, the other sans cardamom. I ended up pulling them both off the 'net, but didn't get a chance to try them until last year, when I combined the two. The result didn't rise much, though getting anything to rise in my old place was a serious problem, and they were still edible, if dense. Because my French bread for Hallowe'en rose so beautifully here, I had hopes for the Lussekatter. Plus, I intended to find a better recipe this year.
Well, the one sans cardamom is gone, and the only new English-language one involves using a particular bread mix that is, in my experience, not especially appetizing. After making a couple of horrified faces at the computer screen, I decided to fall back on my old Frankensteined recipe and cross my fingers the result rose this time. Sadly, this was not to be, not even a little bit, not even after leaving them to rise all night. I decided to bake them anyway and, like last year, the result is edible.* I will say the Saint done her best, and try adapting a glutened recipe from scratch next year. I've had some success in doing that for other things. In the meantime, there are cats in the house for tomorrow, actually less dense than last year, if tiny. They blink with little golden eyes under the lights of the Christmas tree, which is as close to a candle-crown as the clumsy (so no candles) and migraine-prone (so no headgear) are inclined to get 'round these parts.
I have freshly cut hair for my birthday, very short and flippy and tousled, which is really the only option when my entire head is covered in elflocks (or cowlicks, but elflocks sounds more mischievous, and my hair is that). I also get my brows trimmed when I get my hair cut, because they grow very long and very curly. Apparently, this is an aberration. I will be 38 tomorrow, and while my elflocks remain unchanged, individual strands of stark white have started cropping up in my brows. Since said brows are a very dark red-gold, the effect is a bit like frost under fallen autumn leaves, a kiss from Jackie, promising winter and snow. This pleases me.
Spouse has been acting sneaky this week, running mysterious errands and insisting on checking the mail. It's adorable. I got two presents from him today, plus the teeny laptop counts for anniversary, birthday, and midwinter of each kind. My boy is the best.
Tomorrow, there will be tidepools and cupcakes, and probably more rain. We'll see how well I do at juggling camera, umbrella, and writing implements. I may forego the umbrella and wipe the camera lens on my sweater when necessary; I am a creature of the sea and Oregon. Possibly, Jess and the godpuppies will be here next weekend. Cross your fingers the snow doesn't hold them back, they've already had a long go of it. Maybe I'll have a Solstice poem draft to share by then. I rediscovered last year's attempt, plus the first line of a different one, and have krushed them together and rearranged the pieces to see what I will get. Maybe the result will rise.
Today, Happy Birthday, csecooney! Happy Hannukah, all!
*Spouse, in an example of what I've come to call the Wisdom of the Eater, has a very straightforward system by which he rates all baking: if he likes it and he can eat it with his fingers, it's a Cookie. If he likes it and must eat it with a fork, it is Cake. If he likes it and must eat it with a spoon, it is Pie. If he doesn't like it, however it's eaten, it is Not a Cookie. All of this is regardless of whether it "turned out" as the recipe says it should. My Lussekatter are Cookies.