G-free Pizza Crust & A Cookbook Review

Learning to cook and bake gluten-free has been a bit challenging. I am sure it's that way for anyone who's used to doing something a certain way all her life, only to have to abruptly change it. Thankfully, the learning curve is generous, and I've had some great friends give me a good handful of g-free resources and recipes.

My sweet friend Linda, who helps tremendously behind the scenes here at Penny-wise, sent me a wonderful cookbook: The Gluten-Free Kitchen. This cookbook, written by Roben Ryberg, doesn't have any recipes in it that might seem daunting or weird. It's just plain ol', simple, cooking...my kind of cooking. I have already made the pizza crust (recipe posted below) and the traditional pie crust; and both were easy and tasty. In fact, I made two pizzas, and there were no leftovers! A few of the recipes contained in this cookbook are:

• Fried Chicken (YUM!)
• Hot Cross Buns
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Pancakes
• Gravy
• and of course, pies, cakes, and even streusel!

I plan on trying many more recipes. Linda, thank you AGAIN for this invaluable resource!

And now, The GF Pizza Crust (which is, by the way, much less expensive than buying a mix or a pre-made, frozen crust...very penny-wise!):

Ingredients:

1 packet yeast (about 1 Tbsp.)

3/4 cup milk, room temperature

1/2 cup potato starch (not potato flour)

3/4 cup cornstarch*

1 Tbsp. xanthan gum

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup shortening

Preheat oven to 375.

In a small bowl, combine yeast and milk. Stir to dissolve yeast and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine all other ingredients and mix well. (I used my KitchenAid mixer, and it worked very well.) To these ingredients, slowly add the yeast/milk mixture and mix well. Dough will look wet, thick, and pasty but is quite workable if you spray your hands with nonstick spray or keep your hands damp with water. This is a soft dough.

Roll or pat out dough onto a lightly greased baking tin or pizza pan. For a thick crust, pat out to 1/4 inch thickness. For thin crust, pat out to 1/8 inch thick. A 12-inch circle will produce "hand-tossed" thickness.

Top as desired.

Bake 15-25 minutes, until crust is lightly browned. Use a spatula to lift up the pizza to check for light browning on the bottom of the crust the first time you make it.

This crust is freezable! Bake the crust and freeze it without toppings. Then you only have to thaw, top, and bake briefly.

*Lindsey's Note: I made this crust exactly according to the recipe the first time. Then, I wanted to see if I could add more nutritional value by using other flours in combination with the cornstarch. For my second crust in place of 3/4 cup of cornstarch, I used 1/4 cup cornstarch, 1/4 cup brown rice flour, and 1/4 cup sweet white sorghum flour. The taste and consistency were not noticeably different from the original recipe, so I will probably use this method in the future.

Written & submitted by Lindsey @ Penny-wise

Simply in Season Cookbook Review

I should like to highly recommend the book Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert. It is written in the same spirit as the More-With-Less cookbook.

The book is divided into the four seasons and has recipes using things that are in season for each time of the year; there is also a section with recipes suitable for all seasons.

Many times we buy things to cook that are not actually in season, and of course we have to pay top dollar for the item. This is a waste of money and in these days, with food priced as highly as it is, that is something to avoid. How handy it is, therefore, to have a book that helps us know what is in season! This book has excellent recipes to help us make meals based around the seasonal items.  There is a handy guide at the front of the book telling which time of year most vegetables and fruits are available, and then there are the chapters named for the seasons. There is a recipe index at the beginning of each chapter/season, and from my point of view, all the recipes are extremely useful and cost-conscious. 

Like More-With-Less, this is a Mennonite book; and though I am not a Mennonite, I very much appreciate the Mennonite view of cooking and thrift. Each recipe has a little thought or story accompanying it which is most encouraging, and I have enjoyed reading them very much. I have found the recipes to be diverse, simple to prepare, nourishing, and thrifty--all the things I look for in a cookbook. 

If you can start to use locally grown produce in season, you are bound to save money and make the most of the nutrition that comes with produce not traveling 1,000 miles to reach you. It will also be very useful for those who grow their own produce or for those who visit the local farmer's market. I highly recommend this book.

Written and Submitted by Linda @ Penny-wise

More With Less Cookbook Review

We received this review from our friend Jen. We think it'll make you want to own the More With Less Cookbook just as much as we do! Enjoy!

When I got married and moved overseas to do mission work in a third world country, I was in for a bit of a shock. You see up until then, my idea of cooking involved cold cereal and toast for breakfast, sandwiches and chips for lunch, and a piece of meat for every person at the dinner table. Many of these and other convenience products I had always taken for granted were unavailable in our new home, and even if they were, they were often prohibitively expensive. If I was going to learn to survive and thrive in this new place, I was going to have to learn to cook from scratch.

It was during this learning time that I stumbled across the More With Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. Originally published in the 1970’s, it is not a book about cutting back, but rather “about living joyfully, richly, and creatively” (from the introduction, p. 12). Far more than just a cookbook, the book also contains a lengthy introduction about reducing our reliance on processed foods and sugar, seeking out alternate sources of protein (complete with comparison charts of various protein sources), and encouraging a sense of joy and creativity about how we look at food. The recipes are divided up into chapters on breads; cereals; beans and lentils; main dishes and casseroles; eggs, milk, and cheese; meats and fish; soups; vegetables; salads; desserts, cakes, and cookies; gardening and preserving; and snacks and miscellaneous.  

In addition to recipes, each chapter includes valuable information about each topic: the bean chapter talks about how to prepare dried beans, and the bread chapter talks about the basic process of making bread, the milk chapter even talks about how to make your own yogurt and cottage cheese! It was really just what I needed to ‘hold my hand’ as I was starting out on our scratch-cooking journey. It also changed my idea of what constituted a meal: beans and rice could be just as nutritious and tasty as the chicken dinners I grew up on, but much easier on the pocketbook. A hearty soup with warm bread could make a wonderful meal as well–but stretched out our meat much, much farther. Once I got more comfortable with this kind of thinking about food, it opened up a whole lot of new, creative options for me. In the past six years, I have gone from not knowing how to cook without a packaged mix of some sort to finding great joy in what interesting things I can do with the fresh, local foods that are available to us here.

You may not live overseas, and you may still have that Walmart right down the road from you. But if you are looking for ways to cut down on your grocery bill by cooking from scratch rather than relying on processed foods, I can heartily recommend this book as a great starting place. It is a simple, non-threatening way to begin a whole new way of looking at food. I wish you great joy on your journey!

written by Jen