I thought I would share with you my experiences as the more I speak to people I discover that 'Gluten Free Baking' seems to be an issue and they are scared to Bake, This certainly isn't the case. I must admit at my first attempt at making a Quiche my Pastry was like a patchwork quilt but I persevered and created a delicious melt in your mouth Short Crust Pastry that I also tweek for my Sweet Pastry.
My attitude to Gluten Free Baking is that you choose your recipe change the flour and then break it down and replace the ingredients needed to be gluten free, most of my recipes are changing over the flour to 'Doves Farm plain (gluten and wheat free flour). Even in a sponge I would always use the Doves Farm plain and add gluten free baking powder, I don't like the texture you get from the Doves Farm self raising flour. Their are lots of other alternatives on the market to use but lots are Almond based therefore causing concern for Nut Allergies this is why I use Doves Farm.
My biggest Tip I can give you when making Pastry is that it requires more moisture than normal pastry, melt your butter before you add into the flour and just gently rub it into the flour, when you add the beaten egg use a spoon and mix it all together, this will seem a really wet mixture, but this is what you need, don't be tempted to throw lots more flour into it. I always grease my tin and put the pastry in and mould it in to the tin, then put the pastry into the freezer, when proper set this is ready to blind bake and no beans needed, I find freezing helps keeps the pastry from drying out. You need to keep a close eye when blind baking, if you bake to long the pastry will dry out and start cracking, bake until the pastry has just started to dry out and not soggy. Fill your pastry base and bake as normal. This Pastry gives you a melt in the mouth texture more like a shortbread texture.
Most of my Patisserie's and Cakes I have made have all been made using gluten and wheat free ingredients and you would never know, their is no reason not to have a delicious Bake. Every time I created another Patisserie or Cake I had the attitude that the creation was going to be as tasty and had faith in the ingredients that I was using. I think people look into it in the wrong way and start creating using ingredients that you wouldn't normally use. I mean why would you make a courgette cake when you wouldn't normally! My favourites have to be my Chocolate Ganache tart, Peach Frangipagne, Chocolate Brownie, Jam and Coconut tarts, Pecan Tarts, Lemon Meringue Tarts, Raspberry Friands,Creme Patisserie Tarts, I could go on and on, these are made using the Doves Farm flour and taste amazing!
I hope this will give you some confidence that you can create wonderful Bakes and don't have to miss out. If you would like my pastry recipe please drop me a message.
Have a go and let me know how you get on
Mandy x
