Fixing Gluten-Free Fiascos – Party Prep

Make Ahead Means Now!

Less than two weeks to go to the wine pairing party. The push to prep is in full swing and some of these dishes take awhile to do.  I have a master schedule to pace make-ahead elements, so I don’t get early burn out.  Cooking is supposed to be fun, or cathartic, or something or other. That’s why I do these dinners, right?

The focus at this time is for anything I can make ahead and freeze. This includes several of the more time-consuming dishes: Curry base, Empanadas, Lamb Sweet Potato Cakes, and Lamingtons. 

I plotted one dish at a time over several days, so each dish could have my full attention. Play nice music, focus, and breathe (well not on the food).  Last week, I finished the Lamingtons and Curry base. They are sitting pretty in my freezer.

Fixing a Blah Sponge

I wasn’t sure about the gluten-free sponge cake recipe I found. The ingredients seemed fine– so I didn’t change anything for fear I would unbalance it (lesson from prior gf attempts).

 It made a slightly dense sponge, but the issue I had was the flavor. It was very bland, and I didn’t like it. But it would have to do. Gluten-free flour is not cheap, and time was ticking.   Besides, I can work with bland.

Because it was rather dense (for a sponge), I risked using simple syrup soak. I took some orange juice, boiled it down a bit, then added a tooth ache worth of sugar. And voila, orange syrup.

I also decided, most definitely, I would fill the lamingtons.  It would be more challenging to ice, it still needed more flavor.  Raspberry jam and a thick layer of Vanilla Chantilly Cream, which is just whipping cream with extra sugar and vanilla. Then everything got a good coating of dark chocolate icing and coconut flakes (unsweetened, there’s plenty of sugar inside the cake).

Believe it or not, all these flavors go together nicely. I sacrificed two for taste testing. My daughter gave it her stamp of her approval, which she proclaims is extra special because she is such a picky eater.

Unforgiving Pie Crust

The next dish I just finished was even more challenging. Gluten-free Empanadas.

Pie crusts are rather simple ingredients and the idea seems very straightforward. Yet I barely manage them and mine are rarely pretty.   Layer on that I’m using a gluten-free base, and I had quite the challenge ahead.

I have tried many gluten-free crust recipes with lots of failures. Since I noted I’m not good at pie crusts in general, no big surprise.  If you are just shoving them into a pie tin and covering them up, there’s a lot more wiggle room.  But hand-pies are free form, need to be flexible without tearing.  Most gluten-free crusts could not handle being folded or they dissolved quickly when in contact with the filling. Oh goddess of pie crusts, why do you vex me so!

I was getting desperate, so looked for some sort of cheat. There was strong consideration for doing a “deconstructed” empanada: meat in a bowl with a gluten-free pie crust cracker on top. Always have a backup plan.

No success in the search for pre-made gluten-free pie crusts, which I swore I saw at some point in my life. However, I did find mixes. In fact, the King Arthur Gluten-Free Pie Crust mix boasted a picture of hand-pies on their box. So, I went all in on several boxes.

It still wasn’t easy. They were fragile and sticky. It took extra gluten-free flour (ahem, still not cheap) and parchment paper to roll out and fold over carefully. Parchment paper is my ultimate baking tool. The dough had to be just the right thickness. Too thin, it would break away. Too thick it would crack on folding.  The filling had to be cooled completely, and only use so much as there was not much stretch to the dough.

Bake, Wash, Bake again

The other issue with this crust, was it would not brown up well. Egg washes with extra baking time helped.  I would check about 3 times during baking, and anywhere that wasn’t browning up I would do another layer of egg wash. You could say I was watching my little pies like a mother hen, but that sounds cruel considering what I was using. Overall, the result was a nicely browned, flaky crust.

It was a process over two days (in between the school drop off/pickup, laundry, cleaning, dinner-making life stuff). There are 29 beef and 5 potato empanadas secured in my freezer. Gluten-free at that.

Today is a day of…not rest, exactly. Just not power cooking. Off I go on regular life escapades to take a breath before taking on the next dish. Lamb Potato cakes, a recipe I am still futzing with. Well, I have time to figure it out. Or do I?