Although I had a really bad loaf of bread recently using gluten free sourdough starter and buckwheat flour, in general I'm starting to get the hang of gluten free baking. Recently I made some delicious scones with dried apricots. I used King Arthur Flour almond flour and white rice flour, plus some tapioca flour to replace the all-purpose wheat flour and I increased the baking soda to a teaspoon, plus used yogurt and water instead of buttermilk, but otherwise it was pretty much the same as one I baked before. I big difference was using very cold butter flavored vegetable shortening instead of butter. Needless to say, it doesn't taste like a wheat flour/butter scone, but it was tasty and the texture was pretty good, if just a bit gritty from the almond flour.
In case you are keeping track, I cut the last pieces today for Phil's stained glass piece and finished the copper foiling. Hope to work on it some more tomorrow.
Apricot Almond GF Scones
Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet.
3 cups all-purpose flour (substitute equal parts almond flour, white rice flour and tapioca flour)
½ cup sugar
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (substitute equal amount very cold butter flavored vegetable shortening)
¾ cup finely diced dried apricots
1 cup buttermilk (substitute 3/4 cup plain yogurt mixed with 1/4 cup water)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 egg yolks
Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. With pastry blender or two knives, cut in vegetable shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add diced dried apricots.
Combine yogurt mixture and almond extract in a bowl or measuring cup. Whisk in the egg yolks. Pour over crumb mixture. Stir together with fork just until mixture comes together. Gather dough gently into a ball; knead 4 or 5 times to make sure all components are combined well.
Cut dough in half and transfer pieces to prepared cookie sheets. Shape each piece into a 6 inch x 1/4 inch thick circle. Using floured knife, cut each circle into 8 wedges.
Optional: Brush top with egg beaten with 1 tablespoons water, then sprinkle with sugar.
Bake 15 – 20 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Makes 16 scones.
I use Honeyville Blanched Almond Flour - it's very fine-milled, so it doesn't feel quite so almond-y. I sometimes add gluten powder to baked goods to give them a little more lift and smoothness as well --
ReplyDeleteDried fruit is such a lovely thing to bake with, and having a few cool days entice me to make scones! And soda bread! And everything else...!