Showing posts with label flour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flour. Show all posts

5/28/11

ON LOCATION: Tabora Farm and Orchard



Greetings, friends!  It's been a minute, and I've missed intrepidly reporting to you all of my gluten free adventures.  Chalk it up to starting a brand new job in a brand new career, in a competitive nurse residency program, no less.  With both classroom theory training and regular 12-hour shifts, cooking has become a little routine - still delicious and healthy, if a little boring.  So I figured I'd catch up with one of my visits ON LOCATION to the incredibly tasty and welcoming Tabora Farm and Orchard, located in Chalfont, PA, about 30 miles north of Philadelphia in my homeland of Bucks County.  Tabora's highlights are seasonal produce (much of it grown on-site), homemade ice cream, and a knock-out, old-fashioned baked goods section, housed in a barn-style building surrounded by miles of farmland. 

At places like this one, I never expect to find things I can eat, considering my figurative butting-of-heads with both gluten and dairy.  And that's one of the many reasons Tabora is exceptional - they offer a growing selection of gluten free baked goods so good that you'll probably be suspicious the first time you try them.  And trust me, you will want to travel there just to try them.

3/2/11

Take Time to Smell The Flours

Q: What flours do you rely on?


Before I embark on my baking recipes (I do actually bake, though you wouldn't know it from the blog so far), I wanted to provide a little background on gluten free flours first.  One of the scariest parts of the diet transition for me was cracking open a recipe book and seeing "amaranth flour" or "quinoa flakes" as an ingredient...what is a "quinoa" and why does it flake?  Why does "amaranth" sound like a mumble?  Many questions.

It's a learning process.  Luckily for me, there were plenty of internet resources that do a fine job of explaining.  The rest is really just trial-and-error, and after awhile, you'll get an idea of which flour produces a particular result, and which you like the best.  If you're not gluten free and following this blog as a personal favor to me (I owe you one), maybe consider shaking things up a bit and giving these flours a try.

Instead of reinventing the floury wheel, I'd rather list a few good resources for you to check out and bookmark, then add a few tips and personal preferences.