gluten-free dough is STICKY!
My cooking this holiday season has been dedicated to making the perfect gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free, egg-free pumpkin pie. I think the last pie I made might have been a success, and so it is now time to take it out into the world and see if others agree. (My hope is to start selling it!)
In the process, I've made a few crusts both from dough and also from cookies. Specifically, Ninjabread cookies :)
The dough for either a pie crust or a Ninjabread cookie, however, requires rolling. Unfortunately, the helper used to make gluten-free stuff hold together (xanthan gum) is like magic glue, and so whatever you consider to be sticky gluten-based dough is NOTHING compared to the stickiness of standard gluten-free dough.
This makes rolling it out super-difficult. Standard-suggested techniques of plastic wrap and excess flour don't quite work. Excess flour helps, but we are talking tons and tons of flour, not a sprinkle, so eventually it really changes the dough itself as you roll many times.
Jon and I have been using the silpat technique: two silpats, with the dough in between. It's still a challenge to get the top silpat off, but at least it is possible!
Anyone have any ideas or recommendations about how to make rolling gluten-free dough out a bit easier?










Comments
You're not kidding...
I just tried making some dough for steamed buns using gluten-free flour, and it was a sticky disaster. A complete failure; I tried twice, and used what was supposedly the magical "cup for cup" flour substitute from Thomas Keller. It'[s just not that simple. The chemistry of gluten and xantham gum are sufficiently different in certain circumstances that one just cannot substitute for the other.
ice cream scoops
I find it easier to work with the drop method than any kind of cutting method. If you get one of those ice cream scoops that has the handle to squeeze and "eject" whatever you've scooped, it really helps with getting your buns where you need them to be!
I don't know the Thomas Keller flour substitute, as I like to mix my own blends. There are a lot of gluten-free cooks out there with blends that work nicely. Check out Carrol Fenster and also this blog: http://forkandbeans.wordpress.com/ - Cara has a great guide to flours! And Bob's Red Mill has a great blog post with xanthan gum amount recommendations: http://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/2010/05/14/guar-gum-vs-xanthan-gum/
My first effort at straight substitution ended up with a chalk-like substance I was trying to call pumpkin bread. It litterally crumbled into dust on the slightest touch ;)
Looking forward to any stories you have, and any discoveries you care to share!
Rain Breaw is a photographer, web developer and gluten-free cook and the creator of this website :)
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