Life, as they say, sometimes gives you lemons. That can be true with baking too. But did you know that with a little confidence and creativity, you can bake your way to that proverbial lemonade with your gluten free recipes? Indeed!
Many people are afraid to bake gluten free. Heck, many folks are afraid to bake, period! It’s my job to help people achieve baking success with gluten free products and recipes, but things don’t always turn out as we’d expect. It happens to all of us at some point, and that’s ok.
The best tip I have to avoid the mistakes in the first place is to simply use my gfJules™ Flour or baking mixes. I designed them to make people happy, not frustrated, because they take all the guesswork out of baking — they just work.
Using my trusted products eliminates the need to buy lots of different gluten free flours or other funky ingredients and they save you time and money because everything tastes so good, your whole family will want to enjoy it together (even if they don’t have to eat gluten free!).
My mixes are all designed to make the most beautiful, yummy whatever they’re made for: the muffins have a lovely crown on top with no sinking; the pizza is crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle; the cookies don’t spread … you get the idea. And my gfJules Flour (as well as my mixes) are consistently voted #1 in the Gluten Free Awards because they’re loved by both new and experienced bakers — people just like you!
But every once in awhile we all have a bad baking day. Forget an ingredient? Oven too hot? Don’t set a timer? It happens! Here are some of my lemons and the lemonade I’ve made with them.
I hope these inspire you to venture boldly into the kitchen with renewed excitement, no longer fearful of the outcome! I’d love to hear about some of the ways you’ve made the best of some less than perfect baking outcomes – do share!
Making the Best of Gluten Free Baking Mistakes
Gluten Free Bread Too Dry or Too Hard: Slice and cube the loaves, then freeze them for croutons, bread crumbs (pulse in blender or food processor), bread pudding, stuffing … (gluten free croutons recipe here)
Gluten Free Cookies Too Flat: Crumble them and sprinkle on top of ice cream and pulverized them in a food processor for delicious cookie pie crust (see a recipe for gluten free cookie crust here) or in the centers of a gluten free ice cream cake!
Gluten Free Graham Crackers Too Soft/Thick: I use the soft graham crackers for s’mores and ice cream sandwiches! (gluten free s’mores recipe here)
Gluten Free Graham Crackers Too Crispy/Thin: Pulverize them in a food processor and freeze to make graham cracker pie crusts later! (gluten free graham cracker crust recipe here)
Gluten Free Pie Crust Dough Too Dry/Fragile: In my early gluten-free pie crust experimentations, I couldn’t get a pretty top crust with the dough because it fell apart, so I used cookie cutters to cut small pieces of decorative crust and laid them individually on top of the pie, covering the whole top with small, manageable pieces (it was quite beautiful!). Meanwhile, if you’d like to make a gorgeous WHOLE top crust, try my gluten free pie crust recipe and tutorial! It makes all the difference!
Making Homemade Ravioli & Realize You’re out of Cheese: We empty out the fridge on ravioli night, now that we learned that the fillings can be deliciously unconventional! Hummus, tapanade, grilled veggies, taco filling, pesto … (gluten free ravioli recipe here)
Your Homemade Gluten Free Flour Tortillas are Overcooked: No worries! Cut them with a pizza cutter and toast or broil lightly for crunchy toast points for dips! (gluten free flour tortilla recipe here)
Gluten Free Brownies Won’t Set Up: Ever heard of a spoon?! Seriously, there’s little better than eating warm brownies with a spoon, even if you can’t cut them into squares, who cares? Top with ice cream, and that’s a little piece of heaven!
Gluten Free Brownies Too Crunchy: Brownie Brittle is a thing. It’s a delicious thing, actually. It’s basically overcooked, crunchy brownies that people actually intended to make! That’s what you were going for, too, … right?? 🙂
Gluten Free Muffins Too Dense and Moist in the Middle/Undercooked: (This can happen especially with wet fruit muffins like peaches or strawberries, especially). If it’s too late to simply bake them longer, cut up the muffins into crumbs and sprinkle on top of cut fruit like berries or peaches, drizzle some melted butter on top, sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar, then bake until set. Voilà! A new spin on fruit cobbler!
Leftover Gluten Free Beer: I often bake with GF beer but there are always leftovers … so I drink it! See, baking is fun! Cheers! For more information on which beers are safe for gluten free folks, check out my gluten free beer tasting notes.
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Making GF cupcakes for the first time today…this attitude may come in handy as I’m lacking a few ingredients but am determined to have cupcakes. I wonder what I can do with them if this goes badly. LOL
Digging these tips — we’ve done the cookies on top of ice cream on a couple of occasions and I especially like the idea of drinking the leftover beer.
Thanks for the ideas!
Shared it on my Celiac in the City FB page too!
Thanks for all the ideas for mishaps!
I never throw away my duds, not only is it expensive – but I hate to feel wasteful period. It’s not the bread’s fault I put 4 cups of flour instead of 2. :p
Love the positive ideas in spite of mishaps! I shared this on facebook, also. Thanks!
It is amazing how you take some of your mishaps in the kitchen and turned them into something useable. I must remember some of these tips instead of just disposing of my gluten & dairy free mishaps. Thanks Jules:)
I save all the crumbs from gf chips and crackers and use it for bread crumbs!
Thanks for the tips! This will save some much food!
Thank you for the giveaway.
Love your lemon bars and just about anything else lemony, so was hoping for some new lemon-flavored goodies… (sigh) But thanks for the tips anyway!
I like the ideas for leftovers.
I posted your entry on Twitter.
Gotta love this blog!!
As to the previous comments, I’m not quite a year into this GF life but what I’ve found for me is this: i am doing better by not relying on pre made foods and mixes, I make everything myself so I can control what I’m eating. Jules’ flour and her cookbooks have been my family’s lifesaver. Don’t give up, ladies and never fear baking. Start out with some easy chocolate chip cookies (you can find Jules’ recipe on her blog) and you will be thrilled with the results and eager to try more recipes and improve your health.
When 1st diagnosed and not baking GF yet, I bought a loaf of bread for my husband who is celiac. I did not really have a choice of brands and it was HORRIBLE ! My husband said throw it in the garbage. I said after paying about $6.00 for that little loaf of bread I was not going to throw it away. I did like you….made bread crumbs out of it and made a meat loaf with it !
Shared on facebook. I baked a gluten-free cake mix for Mother’s Day, but I’m thinking it must have milk solids in it because I’m also lactose intolerant and the cake has really been bothering me. I’ve been avoiding doing a lot of baking from scratch but I might have to start. I keep forgetting to read the labels.
I like your list. I guess my most dramatic save was the one time the Greek pizza crust stuck to the pan. Could not get it out. I had salad greens on hand so I scraped the toppings off and made Greek salad instead. We really liked the hot toppings on the salald. It took a lot of soaking to finally get that crust out of the pan.
thanks.. still fear baking
Bummer, I was going to get SO excited about lemonade you could bake with…*winks*