Changes

It’s inevitable that things change year by year.  In 2011 the big change was my mother dying.  2012 hasn’t been that dramatic, but nevertheless, there have been changes.  We are older and our bodies are beginning to show that.  Michael decided to eat less sugar and to try to exercise more and I was diagnosed gluten intolerant.  I have always loved to bake, but baking is now a whole new game of alternate flours and xanthan gum and avoiding eggs. I had been putting it off but after Thanksgiving I embarked on baking my first batch of gluten-free cookies.  I turned the radio to 106.9, All Christmas Music All The Time Starting the Day After Thanksgiving, setting the cookie baking mood.  

I got out all my baking tools, put the parchment paper on the cookie sheets, gathered the unfamiliar ingredients, the brown rice flour and the garbonzo bean flour, the familiar sugar, baking soda and baking powder, the chocolate chips and walnuts. I had been warned that GF baking is “different”. I followed the recipe from the gluten-free recipe book, the normal steps of creaming the sugar and oil (I'll use butter next time), then adding the dry ingredients and milk. I tasted the batter. It was grainy.  I hoped the graininess would retreat to the background when the chips and nuts were added.  I dropped the batter from a teaspoon onto the cookie sheet and put the first pan in the oven.  The time suggested for baking was 17 minutes.  When the timer went off the cookies were still pale.  I added 2 more minutes.  Still no browning.  2 more minutes and then 2 minutes more.  After adding 10 minutes to the baking time, 2 minutes at a time, I finally got a slightly browned cookie.  On the next batch I jacked up the heat and got browned cookies in a shorter amount of time and made a note on the recipe to use butter next time and to start with a higher heat.  

I think it's going to be like America's Test Kitchen around here for awhile, until I get the hang of this kind of baking.  In the meantime, the music was nice and the cookies aren't bad--I like them (Michael doesn't)--I'm used to gluten-free eating after several months of it and everything tastes less sweet and less flaky and let's face it, less good.  Who knew gluten was so important in mouth-watering concoctions?  I'll keep at it  until I have something I would be willing to serve to gluten-eating-people, something that feels and tastes less like cattle feed. Wish me luck!