Tuesday, November 20, 2007

I give up! (At least for a while!)

I wanted to make pizza yesterday so I tried to make the crust using Gluten Free Pantry French Bread and Pizza Mix and it did NOT go well.

I want to preface this by saying I am no super-skilled baker but in my pre-GF days I did make loaf bread and pizza crust at home every week and never had any trouble. But so far my GF baking has been really bad.

I followed the directions on the box for pizza crust, which involved mixing it up in my stand mixer and letting it rise for a while before rolling it out into a crust. After mixing it up, it was apparent that I was NOT going to be able to roll it out. It looked like cake icing. There was no cohesiveness at all. After rising, when I tried to scoop it out to roll it out, it would not come out at all. When I touched it, I got just little sticky bits. It was completely the wrong consistency.

It was at that point that I realized that I had read somewhere that GF crusts are really hard to roll out. Since I did not have time to research that, I just baked it as a loaf with the intention of making french bread pizza instead. I have to say I did not like it at all. I think I have some texture sensitivity issues or something as I just can't seem to eat GF bread. (I have tried several now - mixes and storebought to no success)

But here is the question:
Was my dough "right" and would it have rolled out if done correctly?
or, as I am inclined to think, Would it never have rolled out?

2 comments:

Mama Squirrel said...

I know how you feel--I've tried two gf bread mixes that turned out inedible. But I did try that same French Bread/Pizza mix today and the pizza was great! My review is here: http://deweystreehouse.blogspot.com/2008/05/gluten-free-pantry-french-bread-and.html . Try what we did: letting it rise just for a short time, pushing it out on the pizza pans, covering it with greased plastic wrap, and then letting it rise a while more until it seems to fill out more and you can actually work with it a bit through the plastic. Not roll it out--I think that would be impossible--but you can push it around with a rubber spatula.

I am just a GF neophyte (actually just a wanna-be), but I was pretty happy with this one.

Alli Dailey said...

Don't Give up! I was feeling the same way! And last night I found Mama Squirrel's blog and tried the greased plastic wrap method and was amazed! I added garlic and italian seasoning to my crust to give it some flavor and know I could have added more - but for GF it was amazing! Not quite as spongy as others I've tried and no horrible after taste - this stuff is bland which helps it absorb the flavors of whatever you want to put on it! Go with Mama Squirrel! She has inspired me to blog my gluten free adventures as well.