Sunday was my dear Dad’s birthday, he would have been 91, Happy Birthday Dad!
What does your grocery shopping map look like? Ours is called the Golden Horseshoe which means we shop the outer edge. Here in Canada it usually means that we enter the store in the vegetable section, round over through the deli/specialty cheese then bakery then fish/meats and finish off in dairy.
We don’t do a whole lot in the aisles. Recently I did a couple of assisting jobs that took me deep into un chartered territory: the middle aisles! I had to pick up groceries for a Canadian lifestyle TV show for two segments and I have to admit that it was an eye opener! What I found enormously frustrating was that a number of items that could be in more than one spot. Even the staff didn’t know for sure. Gluten free is a great example because a number of GF products are also organic, so now you’ve hot two completely opposite locations for the same product. Or if it’s flour and it’s a national brand, it could be in the normal baking section on the same shelf as the regular glutenated versions! Yes, it’s frustrating. What does your grocery store layout look like and do you shop the aisles?
I was making polenta the other day and as I was stirring the polenta and it began to thicken I was suddenly reminded of Pâte à Choux just after you add the flour to the butter and water mixture, and the idea came to me so I spent the following day developing a gluten free Pâte à Choux that you could not tell was Gluten Free. I must tell you, this is it. Many Gluten Free recipes just don’t cut it for me, it’s either the weird flour smell (garbonzo bean flour), taste or the crumbly texture, so you know this recipe must have checked positive on all of these points.
My first attempt used superfine corn meal (I blitzed it in a coffee grinder a few times) and even though it puffed up as well as the glutenated version it was just too corn mealy (think corn muffin texture even though the corn meal was superfine) the texture wasn’t right at all and so the experimentation began. Perhaps if I had used corn flour instead of meal, it would have been a different story, but I’ll leave that for another time.
After some research I decided a pastry made only with cornmeal was not the answer so I went searching for home made gluten free flour recipes so I didn’t have to waste time hunting down a GF flour in the grocery store. Many of them had similar ingredients but I was limited to what I had at home and the volume of each ingredient I had on hand which determined my home-made GF flour recipe; a combination of 6 parts superfine corn meal, 3 parts potato starch and 1 part tapioca flour was the result and I’m rather pleased how it worked out in this recipe. The texture and mouth feel of these choux resemble the texture and mouth feel of the glutenated choux cheese pastries that we know and love! I was so happy because my BFF is gluten intolerant and my brother has chosen to omit gluten from his diet to manage an illness. The last time I asked him if he wanted me to make a gluten free item for him he said it’s just not worth it. He’ll surely change his mind with these.
I tried making these the quick and easy way that my normal food processor choux is made (like this) but did not have as good luck with them, they were not as elastic as a good choux should be, so I reverted to the old fashioned way with the hand mixer and it worked out perfectly.
Gluten Free Cheese Choux Pastry
Makes 25, 4 cm or 1.5 inch puffs
Ingredients:
- 65 mL soda water
- 30 g unsalted butter
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 40 g gluten free flour*
- 1/4 tsp zanthan gum (see notes)
- 1/4 tsp gluten free baking powder
- 1 egg
- 30 g grated sharp cheddar cheese
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 200° C/400° F.
- Combine the gluten free flour, zanthan gum and gluten free baking powder and stir well.
- In a saucepan with high sides, melt the butter into the water with the salt over medium heat. Add the flour mix all at once and cook this mixture until it clears away from the sides of the pan.
- Remove from heat. Using a hand held mixer, whip this mixture for about a minute. Add the egg and beat for about 2 minutes, add the cheese and beat the pastry until it is elastic and smooth.
- Prepare a baking sheet by measuring a piece of parchment to cover it, soak the parchment in running water and squeeze out excess water. Smooth the wet parchment over the baking sheet. (see notes)
- Using a pastry bag with a 2 cm (3/4 inch) nozzle, pipe very small rounds (see note) onto a the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Serve warm or freeze once cooled and reheat in a warm oven at 177° C/350° F for 12-15 minutes from frozen.
*Gluten Free Flour Recipe
Makes about 120 g of flour, enough for 3 batches if these puffs
Ingredients:
- 6 tbsp superfine corn meal
- 3 tbsp potato starch
- 1 tbsp tapioca starch
Directions:
- Mix well until combined. Store in an air tight container until required.
Notes:
- Zanthan Gum is used as a binder in gluten free baking, if you omit it your baking may end up crumbly. It is also used as a thickener but I’ve never tried it that way. It has no perceivable smell or taste. The general consensus is that you add 1 tsp Zanthan Gum to 1 cup GF Flour so that is how I determined how much to add in my recipe.
- I found that piping about 2 cm or 3/4 inch balls onto the damp parchment and slicing it from the piping tip made the task very quick and quite neat. It also regulated the size of the rounds so that they were more or less equal.
- I used soda water because I thought it might make an airier pastry, not sure if it helped or not but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
- Years ago I had read a recipe for choux that the author lightly wets the baking sheet in order to create a humid environment which helped the choux puff up even more. It was so long ago, I don’t know where I read it but my wetting and wringing the parchment is different enough.
[…] polenta. I loved the crackers because I’ve already made Polenta Fries, Polenta Crisps, and Polenta Choux Pastry. Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe includes a beautiful tapenade but I didn’t have parsley and […]
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I’m infuriated by stores here. In England and France the entrance to the store is by the checkout, with clearways running the length of the store so if you need to go in grab one thing from the front and immediately pay and leave you can. Here you have to go in and once you’re in there’s no doubling back. You’re then forced to walk a circuit of the store to get to the checkout which takes AGES, especially if you just want some milk 😦
Nice looking puffs Eva – I don’t bother much with GF cooking… fortunately no reason to and I don’t think I know anyone with a gluten intolerance so roll on the fully-loaded gluten puffs for me, but if I ever have a need I’ll bear this in mind!
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Hi Charles, thank you for your comment. What you describe in grocery store layout is a particular design that our designers employ here in Canada too. The milk and bread are always at the very back of the store. In response, about 30 years ago, a few ‘convenience stores’ opened which carried milk, bread, eggs, butter and such but of course the prices are always higher because it’s convenient. Sometimes our ‘drug store’ Shoppers Drug Mart (which is kind of like Boots in the UK will also carry some staples and sometimes their prices are better than the grocery stores, but sadly they are usually merchandised at the back as well, although the size of store is usually not as large as a grocery store. A few years ago there was talk to create a mini store within the large grocery to hold some of those staples I already mentioned but nothing has come of it.
You are very fortunate not to have GF requirements but to be honest I believe this is more of a North American phenomenon, from all the processed foods we (the royal we, not me) eat. I think that we’ve just built up an intolerance, our bodies have said that they’ve had enough.
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Oh yeah, absolutely – marketers have it down to a science. Put the things people need most… bread, milk and veg right at the far back, and put things they’ll also probably need as FAR away as possible to you’re maximising the exposure to peoples’ eyeballs. And it works. I went in the other day needing to buy 1L of milk. I came out with 1L of milk, feta cheese, fresh parsley, a bell pepper, blueberry soup and a pack of cream cakes… much to my annoyance :(.
My main store in France (a huge place at the entrance to a large mall) even piped the smell of roasting chickens out into the parking lot. The roaster was nowhere near that side of the store but they put a giant duct through the store to carry the smell straight out into peoples’ noses as they arrived! Talk about sly!
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Now that’s clever! I shall remember that when I start my new business!
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Your parents made a beautiful couple 🙂
I am a totally outer isle shopper. I rarely do packaged food, and my idea of prepared meal is usually a box of readymade masala that has the recipe on it – a recipe that calls for all fresh ingredients. So I hardly ever venture into the inner isles, unless I have to pick up jars of sauces and stuff. I hardly ever bake, so that inner isle is also less frequented. To me, the way you have figured out a GF flour is nothing short of genius. I can hardly get my hand around to baking with regular ingredients, so even thinking of coming up with something like this is a dream. Love the serving dish, it looks perfect.
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Thank you for your kind words Minnie. I’m finding that the majority of my blogger readers are like you and I and shop the fresh areas too.
I’m quite flattered, thank you.
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It seems that nowadays everyone has at least one person following a gluten-free diet… Parties are more and more complicated… I must say your cheese choux look beautiful with their lovely yellow hue.
Personally I don’t bother transforming recipes to a gluten-free version because many Asian dishes don’t contain gluten, so I usually choose such an Asian dish and the rest is for other guests. I don’t know anyone who is allergic or has the coeliac disease and I refuse to adapt my whole menu for six or more people to just one GF obsessed dieter who never even consulted a doctor.
Your parents look beautiful on this photograph. They are no longer there but good memories stay forever.
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Hi Sissi, thank you for your lovely words. For a larger crowd I don’t usually make a GF table but subscribe as you do to a naturally GF selection of goodies. My family also have sugar intolerant people so the table would be quite limited.
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I remember this photo of your Parents, Eva. What a great looking couple they made.
Hat’s off to you for tackling a GF choux pastry. I’m very impressd to read that it has the same texture and mouth-feel of “regular” choux pastry. Well done, Eva!
I’m lost when it comes to trying to modify a recipe so that it’s GF. I wouldn’t know where to begin. I had tried to come up with a GF pasta dough that could be frozen for my GF Cousin. My intent was to eventually make and freeze ravioli for her. Well, as time passed, she’s become more sensitive and now none of my kitchen equipment can be used to make anything for her. I’ve had to give up the quest.
As for shopping, like you, I’m a stranger to a grocery’s inner aisles. More often than not, I have to ask someone where something is located if it’s not to be found in an outer aisle. 🙂
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I’m impressed that you tried GF pasta John, that’s quite ingenious. It’s too bad that your cousins intolerance turned into a full-fledged allergy. Fortunately the people I cook GF for are just intolerant and not allergic so keeping the kitchen GF isn’t 100% necessary.
Thank you for your lovely words about my parents.
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What a great image of your parents Eva, they are both so expressive and full of character — I appreciate how you celebrate your family on your blog; it’s really nice to see. And these cheese puffs look delightful — I love that you made your own gluten free flour this time! Kristy’s right, your serving dish could not be more perfect for cradling these lovely little bundles. Though the majority of our purchases are freshies, I like to meander through all the aisles (I’m just curious that way 😉 ).
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Thank you for your kind words Kelly. I find necessity is the mother of invention in the kitchen, I’m glad you liked my flour. I’m finding myself on more of a schedule these days so meandering is not something I can do often but you’re right that it’s good to know what’s out there too.
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i cant believe these are gluten free! You rock! i can’t wait to try them
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Thanks Jessica.
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This is a great recipe, Eva. Can’t wait to give it a try soon.
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Thanks Angie, I would love to hear about your version.
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I find it useful that you created an own gluten free flour mixture with tapioca etc, I never thought of this before and I am rather intrigued by your discovery and out of the box thinking. Also I never thought that gluten free choux could be possible. Again, the teachings of our school time is way too deep ingrained, we were never allow to break the “law” of classic pastry recipes. Right now i wish I could show your recipe to the teacher we had, I would rub it into her face. ^.^
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Hi Helene, thank you for your kind words. I’m glad that you liked my recipe for GF flour. The choux of course, isn’t as beautiful as real choux but for GF it is certainly a very good option.
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What a lovely image of your parents! I know your frustrations with the shopping aisles – it happens in Sydney too. I go in looking for organic products to buy and they’re all over the store – why not just have an organic section and stick all the organic products in the one spot? Your GF choux pastries look really good xx
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Thank you very much Charlie, it is annoying to have so many items merchandised in ways that they are difficult to find.
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This is a lovely recipe to make, and your parents look like old time Hollywood glamour 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
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Thanks CCU.
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You’d never guess that these gorgeous puffs were gluten free! Your hard work paid off!! Congrats, my friend.
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Thank you very much Liz.
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We find that items are spread all over the supermarket too, and at different price points! Very annoying. Great recipe, love it!
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Thanks Liz, I’m not surprised that grocery stores all over the world practice the same merchandising.
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This looks really good Eva. And a lovely remembrance of your dad. I can see you in both your parents so clearly! 😀
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Thank you so much Lorraine, it’s one of my favourite photos of my parents.
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Yes I always go through the middle isles. That is where all the dry staples, the baking supplies, the spices, oils, zyploc, parchment etc, the greeting cards, the condiments, sauerkraut, mustard, the bagged dried fruit, the pastas, breakfast grains and the rice are. If I kept to the perimeter of the store I would find it terribly limiting.
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Yes, we buy some of those things too but not nearly as often as the fresh ingredients!
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Of course Eva. Except I keep forgetting things and I have to keep going back for stuff. So it seems I am always circling the middle and looking for things. I have been out of spatzle noodles for two months now. I look for it and then I see something else and come out of the store without the spatzle. I am a lot less organized than I used to be. I forgot to mention I enjoyed your parent’s photo.
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Thank you kindly Zsuzsa, it’s one of my favourite photos of my parents.
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Your GF choux look perfect, Eva. I have to admit that I, too, am put off by Xanthan gum as I’ve seen that ingredient in so many processed foods. Since my household is not GF, I haven’t had to deal with it yet. Our groceries, both the whole foods version and the regular, force you to go through the aisles. You used to be able to do the horseshoe, but now a lot of basics like olive oil, tinned tomatoes and dry goods are “hidden” to make you stop and shop…I hate that. Still, the veg, seafood, meat, dairy, cheese, alcohol and bread are all within the horseshoe.
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Even though I have several people who cannot have gluten, I am making an effort to do more GF foods just because I believe they are better for us. Although I am finding that GF doesn’t necessarily mean calorie reduced, in fact for the most part the recipes tend to be more caloric for sure.
Yes, the grocery stores are finding more ingenious ways to get you to shop aisles you don’t necessarily go into a lot.
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The horseshoe, never thought about it like that, but clearly that’s what it is, eye opening for sure. Your cheese choux look delicious and the serving dish looks like it was made for them.
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Thank you Cheri, I appreciate your kind words.
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Look at that serving dish – it is perfect for these little choux! I love it. This sounds delicious. I remember we made something similar with the tapioca flour. I really like this version though and I know the kids would as well. You are so dedicated to experimentation. I don’t think I have the patience. Fortunately though, I can rely on your recipes instead! 🙂 And I’m with you at the grocery store – the horseshoe is where we reside (although I do still have to hit a few inner aisles regularly – beans, lentils, rice, oatmeal and baking goods).
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Thanks so much Kristy, I really enjoy recipe development so I guess I’ve picked the right career choice for my second time around!
Yes, we do the beans, lentils and baking goods too. It’s good to know that the majority of the readers are similar to us!
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I shop on the outer too but in Australia, we don’t have a lot of processed food. Cake mixes, mac ‘n cheese, a few sauce packets and that’s about it. People here cook their own or they go out.
Your choux pastry sounds really good, Eva!
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That’s very interesting Maureen. Europe is the same I suspect. North America is all about the mixes and pre packaged foods for sure.
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Your friend must be happy that you created a recipe for her.
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Thanks Karen, she’s used to it!
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You’re so innovative … xanthan gum just sounds scary.
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Hi Maria, thank you for your kind compliment. I don’t really understand GF baking but I’m working at it. I have no idea what xanthan gum really is, I’m going to google it now.
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