It's gonna be a great Gluten Free Super Bowl XLVIII! Even though the host city is in my backyard, I don't have the $2000 to shell out for a ticket so I'll be watching at home. And by “watching” I mean serving the food. I know where I'm most useful! Whether you're a football fan or not, there's no reason not to show off your mad gluten free cooking skillz to your friends and neighbors. Some think it's all about the commercials, but we know it's really all about the food. May the best team win!
[If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know the drill with the clickable collage, but just in case—hover over each photo for the recipe title, then click the picture to open a new window with that post and the entire recipe]
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Here's the 10¢ tour of these gluten free snack and appetizer recipes for the Super Bowl and what I love about each of them:
Gluten Free Puff Pastry Cheese Straws: If you have never made gluten free puff pastry, will you at least consider it this weekend? It doesn't require any real special ingredients, and it's practically designed to be made ahead and refrigerated or frozen until you're ready to knock your family and friends' gluten free socks off. I'm with you, step by step, and once you realize it's alllll about temperature (cold!) and architecture (layers!), you're home free. In fact, once you get the hang of it, I submit that it is easier than making gluten free pie crust. Yes! I said easier. Believe it!
Gluten Free Soft Olive Garden-Style Garlic Butter Breadsticks: If you have all the ingredients ready for the recipes from Gluten Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread (we talked about them here), you basically have no excuse not to make these breadsticks this weekend. No excuse! There is only one rise, so you don't have to plan ahead much (although you can make the dough 12 to 24 hours before and stash it in the refrigerator, if you've gotten used to the convenience of that, like I have), and the dough is just lovely. MAKE THEM!
Gluten Free Quinoa Burgers (on Gluten Free Hawaiian Buns): For the Super Bowl, I'm planning to make these in miniature size, similar to the Cauliflower Fritters, and maybe even make mini Gluten Free Hawaiian Buns for little vegetarian sliders. How lovely would that be?
Gluten Free “Wheat” Thin-Style Crackers: This recipe is so good that these crackers made their way into the Bread Book. Make them any time, and store them in a sealed glass container at room temperature and they'll stay crispy for about 4 days. And they really do taste like Wheat Thins! There's something bittersweet about giving a copycat cracker to a gluten free kid who either has never tried the “real” thing or just doesn't remember it.
Gluten Free Crispy Fried Onions: We made these before Thanksgiving in service of the essential Gluten Free GBC, but have you tried making them for snacking? Do.
Gluten Free Pretzel Rolls: Gluten free pretzel dough wrapped around hot dogs, boiled and baked just right. I made these long before the Gluten Free Bread Revolution, so if you have the new book, turn to page 153 and make that dough. It's way easier to handle. But as you can see from the photo, the old recipe still works!
Gluten Free Cauliflower Fritters: The most recent addition to our gluten free finger food library, these crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside cauliflower fritters have plenty of make-ahead options. And a fabulous Better Than Thousand Island dipping sauce to go with it all (great for the Crispy Fried Onions, too!).
Gluten Free Potato Pierogi: This was a recipe that so many of you asked for way back when that I could no longer ignore them! The dough is really lovely, and even though I filled them with potatoes, you can use your favorite filling here—whatever it is.
Here's last year's Super Bowl XLVII Menu, too, for easy reference:
Love,
Me
P.S. Don't forget your copy of Gluten Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread! Your support means the world to me!
Corrine says
I just found your blog and ordered all three of your books. You food looks so good.. I have recently gone gluten free by choice, thankfully, and am looking forward to broadening my recipe offerings in this new world of NO WHEAT. As a former bread maker I am really looking forward to your bread book, and to making a sweet treat now and again. You are really funny too!
Monica F says
Hi Nicole,
I’m getting ready to bake my thick crust pizza, AND my lean white crusty bread tonight!! Which means it’s time for me to fill my proofing buckets with this week’s delicious creations for their fridge rise!
And this leads me to a question. I wanted to make tortillas, but the recipe calls for all-purpose GF flour, and only Expandex. As I use Ultratex 3 (baking in Canada), I don’t know what to do here for proportions… I can figure out your math for the bread flour, but not sure what to do math wise when the recipe doesn’t call for the Whey Protein Isolate.
Do you have the Ultratex 3 modification for this recipe? Thanks!!
Kelly says
Thank you so much Nicole, just finished eating the Thin Crust Pizza from your book! I was a little nervous but the dough was a dream to work with and it tasted even better than we imagined. Keep up the great work, so glad I found your blog.
Amanda D says
I bought your book, even though I knew some of the recipes would involve dairy, which my husband can’t have, and was delighted to see that you made concessions for us! Yay! But I was wondering about your comment that read something like: “You can have varying levels of success by using the pea/rice protein powders instead of the whey protein but the results won’t be as stretchy as mine.” Could you elaborate on what kind of results we can expect?
Background: I made the breadsticks into hoagies using the all-purpose blend before my other ingredients arrived to make the actual hoagie recipe. And they tasted great – definitely better than other breadsticks [read: sticks] we’ve made in the past! The only complaint I had was that the bread was rather dense, though not dry and crumbly, and I thought it’d be something the Bread Flour mixture would help solve. However, once I used the same recipe for breadsticks with the Bread Flour mixture the results were the same rather than better. We used pea protein instead of whey but every other ingredient was the same and I even measured out by weight rather than volume. I have to say, though we’re dairy free, we still use unsalted butter (I know…it’s just as dairy as whey) so really the only change in ingredients from yours to mine was the pea protein.
I actually made two batches with the Bread Flour, one that was left to rise once, and the other that was let in the fridge for a longer rise over night. The first batch was tasty but still dense, in the same way the original batch was. The second batch that was left to rise in the fridge was awful! The yeast flavor was so strong it almost stung your tongue. My husband and I had to almost cover the bread with peanut butter/mustard/what-have-you before the yeast flavor could be covered. Now I’m a little paranoid to start some of the recipes from your book that involve long rises.
So I’m wondering…should I even bother using the Bread Flour instead of the All-Purpose if the results are so similar? What kind of results did you get when you used the pea protein? Any suggestions on why the breadstick flavor wasn’t yummy but rather alarmingly yeasty for the batch left to rise longer?
Thanks for your help. I know you can’t be in my kitchen to see everything I did and maybe it was just a misinterpretation of the directions. But any hints you could give me would be appreciated! :)
Nicole Hunn says
Hi, Amanda, Did you increase the liquid to 150% and increase baking time by 25%, as directed in the dairy-free substitution section in the book? If not, you won’t have good results at all. You must increase the liquid.
If you are fine with butter, perhaps you could give the recipes a try with whey protein isolate instead of pea protein?
You won’t get the same “stretch” as you do with whey protein isolate, as it simply isn’t as similar to gluten as whey protein isolate is (nothing else is, in fact). The dough will need to be wet, as well, if you are making it dairy free.
As far as the yeasted flavor, I’m not really sure what to say. Yeast development is something that, if you having been eating gluten free for a long while, you probably haven’t tasted in all that time as conventional gluten free bread doesn’t have it. It’s meant to be tangy. That’s part of the allure of artisan bread.
Amanda D says
(Duh!) I read everything very carefully and then, just as carefully, decided to completely forget about adding 150% more liquids! Thanks for reminding me of that. I was just about to experiment with some of your short rise recipes today! Do you think that will help solve the density? The bread really wasn’t dry at all and the one-rise batch was very tasty, just…very thick.
My husband has a milk protein allergy, so whey is specifically one of the things he’s allergic to. I can’t convince him to give up butter yet (because his doctor, who didn’t know how butter is made, thought it was just fat and said small amounts would be ok. Even though…you know…it’s entirely cream, whey and casein and all, beaten to a pulp!) So the whey protein isolate is completely out. It’s sad, because I know you gave rave reviews of the bread with whey in it. :(
I don’t eat exclusively gluten free (I only cook/bake gf though) and I was shocked at the yeast flavor. Maybe the yeast had gone bad…I don’t know. Here’s hoping it was a fluke (not that we didn’t still eat every crumb) and the next long-rise recipe turns out completely different – especially with more liquid! Thanks again. You’re a pal. ;)
Amanda D says
(P.S. Sorry for all the text – I feel like a chatty Cathy – but I really appreciate you taking the time to read/respond to it all. That was the first [eva!] comment I left on a blog, or really anything other than Facebook, before and it was encouraging to see you got back to me so quickly. Thanks again!)
Mare Masterson says
I have 2 batches proofing for pretzel buns. I turned up refrigerator 1 notch (meaning temperature higher) and was already getting a better rise just hours later! We are going to a friend’s house, so I will probably bring pretzel wrapped dogs and burgers on pretzel buns and leave the actual snackage up to her. I am with you, Nicole. I am in it for the food and the friends–I really do not care about the game. Now if it was college football, that would be a different story! I also have another lean crusty white bread proofing and will make English Muffin bread tonight for a gathering at my house tomorrow morning. I am out of Whey Protein Isolate — need to get more ASAP, along with more flour!
Nicole Hunn says
I’m so glad you were able to solve your refrigerator rise problem, Mare! That’s great. Sounds like your friend is going to be on the receiving end of some great bread!
Jennifer S. says
Sooo many options for a fun evening!!! We have a first communion to celebrate that morning and she requested your black out cake, so I’ll be busy with that…next on my list are the pretzel bites though!!
Made the ricotta bread last night. This is such an awesome loaf of bread!!! So moist and soft. And with the cinnamon, I bet it is so fab for French toast! Sent in #1’s lunch today with PB&J. Can’t wait to make the wonder loaf this week….
Nicole Hunn says
I haven’t made French Toast with the Ricotta Bread, Jennifer, but I agree that would be amazing! Just be sure to let the bread dry out a bit before since it’s a pretty tender bread.