stevia = swiss cheese muffins

I finally made some muffins last night using Stevia. Hildegard brought over a bottle of bulk NuNaturals Stevia diluted with Maltodextrin. I didn’t have a handle on how much to use because of the Maltodextrin, so I tried it out first sprinkled over a bowl of puffed Millet. It does taste sweet, but not so sweet that I will need to be afraid of using too much. It also has some licorice-like aftertaste. Looking at the structure, I don’t think this comes from the steviosides, so another source of purified steviosides may be aftertaste-free, but this is pure speculation on my part.

I used my standard muffin recipe with 1 cup chopped frozen apricots. After mixing it with 2 tsp Stevia powder, it looked a little wet. I added 2 Tbsp flour mix to compensate for the missing volume of sugar.

They rose quite a lot, and browned nicely. Cutting one open revealed a texture similar to swiss cheese -- Big bubble holes unevenly distributed, and a hard crust. Actually, they are more bread-like in texture than some bread I have made. This bears more investigation later, I think.

It turns out that they aren’t sweet enough for my taste, but Hildegard might like them. She says that she likes things not so sweet. For me, I can still taste the baking soda, so I say make them sweeter. The licorice aftertaste is faintly noticable. I like licorice though…

1 ½ c (9:2 Sorghum flour/Potato Starch)

¼ c Soy flour

2 tsp NuNaturals Stevia powder + 2 Tbsp flour mix

2 ½ tsp Baking Powder

¾ tsp salt

½ tsp Xanthan gum

2 eggs

1 c milk or soy milk

1/3 c vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 c chopped apricots

I think that flour isn’t the right volume subsitute to use. Karina suggested chopped coconut, but sugar dissolves, so I was thinking something less solid. I think that next time I will try some tapioca starch. I think that this will help them be more chewy and less crusty. Hopefully, the longer chain starch in the tapioca will also contribute to holding the developing gases from collecting in large pockets as they rise in the oven. I’ll let you know when I get time for a re-trial.

Hildr's Chewy Morning Waffles

Yesterday I got to take Hildr in for her 15 month check-up, and they gave her three shots. She was very sad about this, as you might imagine, but we made it through without the kicking and fighting that the Maestro would have done. Like him, however, she had to pull off the bandages immediately after the nurse left. She didn’t stop whimpering until she had them off and thrown in the trash. I think throwing them away was cathartic.

She was pretty cheerful all day, but didn’t sleep well. She woke up early this morning with a low fever and wanted to lay in bed with us. She has been doing this a lot lately. Whoever gets her out of her crib is instructed firmly to take her back to bed, and if one of us gets up before she is ready, she lets us know that we aren’t dismissed yet. She likes to roll around meowing like a cat, and hide under the blankets.

Because she woke up early, I got to make waffles. Hildegard gave us some waffles the other day, and Riley realized that she likes her waffles more chewy than I had been making them. I started out using a 2:1 Jowar:Cornstarch. Then I switched to 3:1 Jowar:Potato starch and dropped to half the Xanthan Gum, which made them more crispy, and got rid of the corn flavour the Riley didn’t like. To make them more chewy, I thought I could finally try the jowar/Tapioca mix I’d wanted to investigate. I started with 2:1 and they turned out great. Riley thinks that this is just how she likes her waffles, for now anyway…

Hildr’s Chewy Morning Waffles

2 eggs (separated)
¼ cup corn oil
1 ½ cup milk
2 T sugar
½ t salt
1 ¾ cup sorghum/starch mix*
4 t baking powder
1 t Xanthan gum

* 2:1 Jowar (Sorghum flour)/Tapioca Starch

Oh, one other note. I think our waffle baker is dying after about ten years of service. I think that might have something to do with how long they take to cook. I reduced the soy milk to 1 ½ cups from 1 ¾ cups in previous versions. I think this helps compensate.

First Take Brownies

Well, I have done it. I have gotten to the point that I can take a regular wheat-based recipe, and bake something gluten-free without any problems. I suppose that to be fair, I should mention that I made brownies, which have slightly different requirements for texture and leavening than most baked goods. But nonetheless, I used my Jowar/potato starch mix in place of wheat flour, and threw in a ¼ tsp of baking soda and they came out perfect. I guess they aren’t exactly perfect; they are a little crumbly, but they tasted just like they should, and have the density they should, and the conversion of chocolate squares to cocoa took more effort than the conversion to gluten free. THIS is what I have been trying to do with this process.

I thought about taking a picture, but I decided that you all know what a brownie is supposed to look like. Picture that, and you have what I made. It was thick and brown, and moist in the middle.

First Take Brownies

½ c shortening
1 c sugar
2 eggs
2 squares melted chocolate (or 6 Tbsp cocoa, with 2 additional tsp shortening)
½ tsp vanilla
1 cup 3:1 Jowar:Potato starch mix
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp Xanathan Gum, or whatever

Cream together the shortening and sugar, add the eggs, then the other things. Mix and bake like you would other brownies. They take longer to bake than I remember. The recipe called for 25 to 30 minutes, and I think I took them out after 35, but my oven is a little weird.

Stevia

Stevia has been on my mind the past week. A friend of mine from Washington asked me about it. The Maestro's Cello Teacher, who is Celiac, also can't eat sugar. Then the Karina, the Gluten-Free Godess, did a run down of sugar alternatives.

The figure ab0ve is a list of the so-called steviosides, a collection of very sweet natural products isolated from the leaves of the stevia tree. They are purportedly 100 times sweeter than sucrose, which is table sugar. If you can make out the structure above, (I know that it's a little small) you can see that glucose (glc) and Rhamose (rham) is linked to a steroid-like carbon skeleton, which is called steviol. It is essentially a natural example of the same principle that gave us olestra (which is totally synthetic). If you stick some sugars onto some large frame, it still tastes sweet to the tongue, but it isn't metabolized.

Scientific Literature I have looked at indicates that it is generally excreted completely unmetabolized. Being unmetabolized, it purportedly has no effect on blood sugar, nor any effect on candida. There is some indication than it has a mild lowering effect on blood pressure, and also some signs that it is beneficial for diabetics. In a test-tube, intestinal flora have been able to cleave the sugars off the steroid-like framework. This framework, steviol, has been shown to be a carcinogen. No studies have shown that this cleavage occurs in the body. That is to say that studies have shown that the cleavage is not observed, not that the studies haven't been done. Granted, you can find haters that will argue that stevia is going to kill you, but that doesn't appear to be supported by the review I read.

How does it bake? Well, I haven't tried it in any baking yet. Reports are that it is stable past 200 Celcius, which not all artificial sweeteners are. Sweet, and stable. Because it IS so sweet, you have to reduce the amount you use considerably. Depending on what form you buy it in, the conversion will change. I found a good conversion table . I come from a Herbally goodness type background, and I can say that the liquid extracts DO taste like licorice when I brushed by teeth with it as a kid. The purer steviosides taste less that way. I'm looking at getting some to try out this week.

Kudzu Powder

I was just looking at Gluten A Go Go, http://glutenagogo.blogspot.com/, and had a question.  Hopefully Sheltie Girl will look at my blog, as I did at hers, on Shauna's mention.  I am on blogger beta, and can't leave a comment to ask her directly.  If anyone on blogger alpha can ask her for me, that would be great.

 

She doesn't like the taste of xanthan gum, so she mixes a number of things, including Kudzu Powder.  What is up with this?  I'm not sure I can taste xanthan gum, but maybe I just think that it's part of what Jowar tastes like.  How are your experiments going?  What ratios have you found that work?  How does it compare to xanthan gum?  Please, share some more details...  The chemist in me is dying to know.

Tropical Pineapple Muffins

I made some muffins for the Maestro's Cello Teacher, using pineapple, nuts and coconut. This is an extension of the Banana Nut recipe. She loved them, but I thought they were a little bland. I only used a 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple ina double recipe. Next time I plan to use more pineapple, and subsutitute some pineapple juice for some of the soy milk.

1 ½ c (9:2 Sorghum flour/Potato Starch)
¼ c Soy flour
¼ c Sugar
2 ½ tsp Baking Powder
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp Xanthan gum
2 eggs
1 c milk or soy milk (or use some pineapple juice)
1/3 c vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ripe banana
¼ c sliced almonds
¼ c coconut
¼ c crushed pineapple (use more, or include some banana)

Most other food bloggers include pictures of their fare. I've not done that to this point, mostly because I am focusing on the method and the ingredients. I realized this morning, looking at the gluten free goddess blog, that people like pictures. I'll try to include more. I often find that I am taking muffins out of the oven as I am getting ready to run for the bus to work, and I still have sorghum flour dusting everything. While I am gone, Riley puts them in the freezer for optimal storage, and there never is a good time to take a picture. I'm sure no one else can relate to this, though.

GlutenEase

http://www.enzymedica.com/glutenease.php

 

Has anyone heard of this stuff before?  It makes me curious, but I remain fairly skeptical

Blog Day

I subscribe to several blogs using bloglines.  This morning I had an update for Gluten Free Girl, http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/ .  It said that it was posted Aug 31, so either my bloglines is working really slow, or she got busy and posted later than she had intended.  It seems like she has a lot going on right now, so I am guessing the later.  School started, right?

 

Anyway, this is relevant here because she mentioned me.  She is a rock-star in the gluten-free blogging world, so we might have more visitors today.  So, if you are here on Shauna's recommendation, welcome!

 

I explain what I am doing in the archives, but if you are new here, it is essentially this.  I want to bake foods that taste like the "real thing".  I want to do this as cheaply as possible.  I'm a science grad student, and don't have a lot of money to buy baking mixes and pre-made foods.  Jowar flour, from the Indian grocery, is the cheapest grain flour other than corn starch that I have found.  It is the right colour, and has a mild flavour.  It is even good for you, comparable to quinoa.  So, it's perfect for what I want.

 

The problem is, there aren't many recipes using it that don't also add lots of other things that I don't want to get into.  It doesn't need them.  So, I have to develop my own recipes.  Like Shauna said, you must create what you wish you could experience.  I'm currently interested in the effects of tapioca starch, but grad school hasn't given me much time in the test kitchen lately.

 

I'm the chemist, so I experiment with the baking, and my wife does most of the other cooking while I am at school.

 

Feel free to share any tips you have.

 

--Elwood City

 

Tapioca Starch

I have to balance making snacks for the Maestro to take to pre-school, and keeping the test kitchen running. Now that I have a workable formulation for potato starch, I'm interested in Tapioca Starch, the purest of flavours. According the the esteemed Ms. Hagman, Tapioca starch imparts "chew". What does that mean, exactly? I had a waffle made with a high proportion of tapioca starch, and it was very chewy. That was a long time ago, though. How does the moisture -retaining properties compare to potato (moist, like extra xanthan) and corn (hygroscopic and quick staling)?

If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Also, if anyone has any ideas for cheap and easy things to put in muffins, give me a shout. I think the Maestro is getting tired of banana.

Banana Nut Muffins

Sorghum Blueberry Muffins

1 ½ c 3:1 Sorghum flour/Corn Starch
¼ c Soy flour
¼ c Sugar
2 ½ tsp Baking Powder
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp Xanthan gum
2 eggs
1 c milk or soy milk
1/3 c vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c blueberries (rinsed and drained)


I used this recipe, took out the blueberries, added one ripe banana, and a half cup of walnut chunks. To convert it to potato instead of corn, I used 3: 2/3 (9:2) ratio of Jowar to potato starch, and only ½ tsp of Xanthan gum.


Banana-Nut Muffins (Potato Starch)

1 ½ c (9:2 Sorghum flour/Potato Starch)
¼ c Soy flour
¼ c Sugar
2 ½ tsp Baking Powder
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp Xanthan gum
2 eggs
1 c milk or soy milk
1/3 c vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ripe banana
½ cup walnuts

As far as mixing, the only important thing is to make sure that it is mixed very well. I typically mix everything, prepare the muffin tins, and mix it again.

Potato Starch, Final Edition

I have found the answer to the question of converting corn starch to potato starch. It goes thus,

Use 2/3 equivalents of Potato Starch, compared to Corn Starch, and cut the Xanthan Gum in half.

This doesn't give you exactly the same product, but they are close. The Potato version is crustier, and doesn't appear to be as hygroscopic. The taste is different too, but you can decide which you like bette.

I think it has to do with the water absorbance, which is greater for Potato, and also the size, which is much bigger. (See previous posts) Because it is longer and holds more water, the starch polymer fills some of the role that Xanthan Gum plays. One equivalent of both Starch and Xanthan Gum gives very mushy, wet muffins or pancakes. The waffles stick and tear in half because they are too soft in the middle.

Soon, I'll post my perfect potato based Banana-Nut Muffins that the Maestro took to his first day of preschool.