Question About Baking

[Generic]

Okay here goes, LOL. I have been gluten-free for 20 years, but have never done alot of baking due to being in the past I was the only one gluten-free that I knew. Now my whole family is, so I have been trying to make bread, etc.

I recently made a pie crust that uses rice flour, butter and cream cheese. (there may be other ingredients, don't have the ccok book here at the computer).

I used half the crust it worked fabulous, froze the other half. Used it a week later and the butter seemed to bubble all out. I had to microwave it dry it up a little and to get it to bake up some.

I have used this same recipe for several years now, have froze it and it worked great. I used the same temp, same oven, etc.

I had the same thing happen with Lorka's bread recipe. I made it, had great results, made the same recipe a couple of days later, same exact ingredients, same directions, etc. and it turned out dry and like a brick. The flour hasn't gone bad, because I have since used it for other things with no problems.

Anyone else have this issue? I feel like I am playing roulette. Sometimes it turns out good sometimes it is terrrible. Any suggestions or ideas to prevent this from happening? I can't afford to throw food out because it didn't turn out and no one will touch it.

Thanks in advance!

[babysteps]

I'm not a baking expert, but two ideas:

1-do you have an in-oven thermometer? Because I have had oven's built-in thermometers go bad - depending on the day a given oven could be 20 degrees cool or 100 degrees hot (!). Based on my experience, it is more common for an oven to be consistently 'off' (hot or cold), gradually more extreme for several years before it fails. But in at least one case I had an oven with mood swings

2-does the humidity vary a lot where you live? Cooking on a dry day vs. a humid day can make a big difference. But it seems like this would have affected you in the past, so seems less likely.

Hopefully you'll get lots of theories & one will solve your problem!!

[irish daveyboy]

Okay here goes, LOL. I have been gluten-free for 20 years, but have never done alot of baking due to being in the past I was the only one gluten-free that I knew. Now my whole family is, so I have been trying to make bread, etc.

I recently made a pie crust that uses rice flour, butter and cream cheese. (there may be other ingredients, don't have the ccok book here at the computer).

I used half the crust it worked fabulous, froze the other half. Used it a week later and the butter seemed to bubble all out. I had to microwave it dry it up a little and to get it to bake up some.

I have used this same recipe for several years now, have froze it and it worked great. I used the same temp, same oven, etc.

I had the same thing happen with Lorka's bread recipe. I made it, had great results, made the same recipe a couple of days later, same exact ingredients, same directions, etc. and it turned out dry and like a brick. The flour hasn't gone bad, because I have since used it for other things with no problems.

Anyone else have this issue? I feel like I am playing roulette. Sometimes it turns out good sometimes it is terrrible. Any suggestions or ideas to prevent this from happening? I can't afford to throw food out because it didn't turn out and no one will touch it.

Thanks in advance!

.

Hi a couple of things come to mind, you probably use cup measurement for flours etc, 2 different cups of the same flour taken at different times can 'weigh' differently.

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1. loosely packed as against densely packed.

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2. flour from an airtight flour bin will be lighter than flour from a bin that is exposed to moisture in the air.

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I always use a weighing scales for measuring ingredients.

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I recently made a bread and every thing was fine it turned out great and a friend asked me to make him one

for a friend who was a coeliac, I measured all the dry goods out including the dry yeast, mixed it in a bowl and

covered it with saran wrap and had to leave it we werre going off for the morning and part of the afternoon.

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when we returned, I made up the wet ingredients, and mixed it together put it in a warm oven to 'rise',

I noticed it rose more than usual and baked it as normal, as it cooled the middle sank!!!

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I of course made another fresh one which was perfect, all I can assume is that during the hours we were away

the dry ingredients absorbed moisture from the surrounding kitchen air (Which led to too much moisture in the finished mix)

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It's something to think about.

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Best Regards,

David

[Generic]

Hhmm, we did get a massive amount of rain recently. I live in the Pac. NW. Thanks for the thoughts at least I know I'm not crazy. I will also invest in an oven thermometer.

[JAMES14]

My wife and I bake a substantial amount of gluten free baked goods every week to sell at a couple of farmers markets. The road to consistancy has been long and sometimes painful. But we seem to have it together now. Here are a few points I would offer.

Change in the weather does affect baking somewhat, change in humidity etc. Not really sure how to battle that one.

Oven temp is critical. We spent $1000 on a domestic convection oven which does wonders in our opinion, though we did have great success with a regular oven.

The amount of liquid used is very critical. It is easy to overdo the liquid. We have found it unwise to use the liquid measure exactly as per the recipe. Always leave a little out and add if necessary, but keep in mind if you are mixing in an electric mixer such as a Kitchen Aid you will need to mix it for a few minutes before you know if more liquid is needed.

One of my most recent lessons taught me much about the affect of certain ingredients. The other day I was mixing bread in the Hobart and it was way too runny. I panicked, I assumed I got my dry mix wrong and missed my flour weight (we weigh our mixes on scales). After checking my ingredient weights I discovered I was off exactly the amount of the Xanthan gum. I missed the Xanthum. That led me another conclusion. I now know what Xanthan gum does to my bread recipe, so now I know how to tweak it if necessary, especially as I experiment with other bread recipes.

I could be wrong, but having bread drop a lot may mean too much liquid. That was our conclusion when first baking gluten free bread.

Hope that helps a little.