The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking by Peter Reinhart Read Free Book Online Page A

This protects the dough from oxidation and also ensures that your baked goods won’t stick.
    Pizza cutter: This nifty tool is very useful for crackers and also for … well … pizzas.
    Rolling pin: When you make crackers or piecrusts, a rolling pin is essential for rolling them out evenly and thinly.
    Rubber spatulas: We’re sure you don’t want to waste even one iota of the delicious batters and doughs you’ll be making. If you don’t already have several rubber spatulas on hand, invest in a few so you always have a clean one, ready to scrape the bowl.
    Seed grinder: Of all the tools listed here, this is probably the one you’re least likely to have—but it’s also one of the most important. Although you can use a food processor or blender to make nut and seed flours, a seed grinder does a superior job ofgrinding nuts and seeds into flour without overheating them (see full instructions ). You can also use an electric coffee or spice grinder for this purpose (though coffee grinders sometimes get clogged), and you may discover devices marketed for all of these purposes. Whatever name they go by, these grinders are commonly available at cookware stores or in cookware departments and can be a very economical (and fun) purchase. Denene loves her Cuisinart Nut Seed Grinder (about $55), and Peter feels the same way about his Bosch Seed and Spice Grinder (about $45).
    Whisk: We find whisking to be the easiest way to combine both dry and wet ingredients. Of course, you’ll want to use a dry whisk when stirring dry ingredients together. And if you have a strong whisk, you can just keep mixing with that when combining wet and dry ingredients.
    GLUTEN-FREE, LOW-CARBBAKING METHODS
    The bread recipes in this book are essentially quick breads. As mentioned,yeast can’t be used to leaven these doughs because there aren’t enough carbs available to feed the yeast. In the few recipes where we use yeast, it’s purpose is flavoring, not leavening. Although these recipes don’t yield the flavors and textures of traditional breads, the final results are tasty and satisfying—and come with the huge bonus of streamlined preparation time. So, the first step is typically preheating the oven and preparing the pans. By the time you finish mixing the dough, the oven should be hot and ready to bake your creations!
    The sections below will take you through the most common steps. All are straightforward, but if you have questions, consult our website: www.thejoyofgluten-freesugar-freebaking.com .
    Mixing
    Most of these recipes are easily mixed by hand. In the few cases where an electric mixer can make a big difference, we specify that in the method but also provide instructions for hand mixing for those who don’t have a mixer. As you’ll see, we typically call for mixing the dry ingredients first, then mixing the wet ingredients in a larger bowl and stirring in the dry ingredients. In most cases, you could do it the other way around, adding the wet ingredients to the dry, but in some cases it does matter, so we recommend sticking with the instructions as written. One advantage to our method is that you can use the same measuring utensils and even the same whisk for both mixtures if you combine the dry ingredients first. But the bottom line is that these recipes are so forgiving that you can hardly mess them up unless you measure incorrectly.
    Mixing by Hand
    If you can stir, you can mix these doughs! Most of the recipes call for first putting all of the dry ingredients in the bowl and whisking until well mixed. Next, all of the liquid ingredients are combined in a separate bowl and whisked until thoroughly blended. You’ll see that eggs are generally the first wet ingredient listed. If you put them in the bowl first, you canwhisk them a bit before adding the remaining liquid ingredients to speed mixing if you like, but this isn’t necessary.
    Once the liquid ingredients are mixed, simply add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients