Ep 103 Christmas Baking Basics

Let’s start the blog with the show notes for this Episode –

This week I go solo with a show that takes a deep dive into Christmas baking.  When I operated a gluten free bakery, this was our busiest time of the year.  We had procedures in place to make a large amount of a variety of foods.  Once the bakery closed and I went on to produce two seasons of my gluten free baking show on our local cable channel, I first had to shrink the recipes down to home kitchen size.  You can find the recipes on my website at www.suesglutenfreebaking.com.  Most of the recipes are in shows 5 www.suesglutenfreebaking.com/christmas-5 and 6 www.suesglutenfreebaking.com/christmas-6, which all have youtube video links to the show segments.

I talk about kitchen tips to get and stay organized as well as recipes for cakes, cookies, squares and breads.  I also add in a favourite Christmas morning recipe.

Stuffed French Toast

8-10 sturdy slices of gluten free bread, cubed

1 ½ – 2  8 oz pkgs of cream cheese, cubed

Beat together –

12 eggs, 2 cups milk & 1/3 cup of maple syrup

Place ½ of the bread cubes in an ungreased 9” x 13” baking pan, add the cubes of cream cheese, then top with the remaining bread.  Pour the liquid over the bread mixture, cover and refrigerate over night.  In the morning, bake at 375°for 45 minutes.  You can also add cinnamon nutmeg or raisins to the mix.

This recipe was always a hit in our home on Christmas morning.  If you have questions regarding your Christmas baking, I’ll do my best to answer.  You can email me at acdnceliacpodcast@gmail.com.

Sue’s Websites and Social Media –

Podcast https://acanadianceliacpodcast.libsyn.com

Podcast Blog – https://www.acanadianceliacblog.com

Facebook – @acanadianceliacpodcast

Twitter – CeliacPodcastCA

Email – acdnceliacpodcast@gmail.com

Baking Website – https://www.suesglutenfreebaking.com

Instagram – @suesgfbaking

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUVGfpD4eJwwSc_YjkGagza06yYe3ApzL

     (search Sues Gluten Free Baking)

Email – sue@suesglutenfreebaking.com

Other Podcast – Gluten Free Weigh In – https://glutenfreeweighin.libsyn.com

My Thoughts –

On the rare occasions when I do a solo show, it’s more difficult to write about my thoughts, as I have usually said everything I wanted to say in the podcast.  One thing did come to mind as I was writing the show notes for this podcast.  When I decided to produce a baking show for our local YourTV cable channel, I first had to re-develop the recipes to fit a home kitchen.

Writing this brought back many happy and frustrating memories.  It should be simple, I’m good with math, why should shrinking a recipe from making 200 cookies to making just 24 be so difficult.  Well it was. 

Originally, the recipes I used to start my bakery, came from my home kitchen.  Once I “expanded” the quantities, I also refined the ingredients and amounts, so it wasn’t easy to go backwards.  Also, in a commercial bakery many ingredients are measured by weight, but in our home kitchens, we use cups and tablespoons.  To this end, I have a weight equivalency table on my website in the recipe section.  In other parts of the world, weighing dry ingredients is the norm, but not in North America.  This was my biggest hurdle.

One other hurdle was eggs.  In the bakery, we often used packaged liquid egg whites, along with whole eggs.  Using one dozen eggs in a commercial recipe and having to divide by 4 for a home quanity is easy, but using one dozen eggs and having to divide by 5.3 is much more difficult. 

Each of the recipes had to be tested and re-tested.  The only one that sometimes still causes an issue is the shortbread recipes.  There are dry ingredients and butter.  I can often be heavy handed in my cup measuring of flours, which, for these cookies requires extra butter to be added.  It’s easy for me, because I know how the dough should look and feel, but it’s more difficult for the novice baker.

Converting recipes, both from wheat to gluten free and from commercial size to home kitchen size is a trip down mathematics lane.  Good thing I enjoy math, and baking.