Firstly, let me apologise for the long wait between posts but Husband and I went to Niagara Falls last month and broke the camera while there, so I’ve felt like without the photo accompaniment, my posts were best left saved for the holidays when I knew I’d be a busy bee in the kitchen. The camera has not yet been fixed, however, so bear with me.

This was my first gluten-free Thanksgiving and I thought instantly of my home cuisine of the south (which is a complete lie- the words ‘gluten-free’ are like ‘fat-free‘, ‘low-cal’ or ‘diet’: these do not exist in the southern vocabulary and certainly not in any reference to cooking, bebe). However, I figured if I stuck to some simple standards I’d be okay and not have to do a lot of screwing around with substitutions and this bore true- it was a pretty straightforward deal and I’ll be posting my recipes in the coming days so others can use them for their holidays. My one caveat was the pie, however. I was going to attempt a gluten free, not a zillion calories pecan pie.

This was my first time making GF pie crust, something I’ve dreaded since the doc told me to cut the gluten out. I had looked at several recipes and settled for this one onCooks.com from Libby’s Pumpkin, substituting the flours it calls for with a ready mixed flour from Bob’s Red Mill. Of course there is a story with this and of course the stove went wonky and half the pie bubbled over and congealed in a petrified state on the bottom, but I only used half the crust. The other half I hopefully rolled out and added a little sugar to to cut and bake and hopefully have some sort of biscuit-y thing for breakfast. Actually, I do’t know what the heck I was thinking but it turned out really well.

Here is my variation of this recipe and the ‘accidents’ that turned it into a really excellent tea biscuit!

Rose’s Variation- Happy Accident Tea Biscuits
1 1/2 c. pre-mixed GF flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 c cold margarine, cut into small pieces (I froze it first and then cut it)
1 large egg, beaten
2 tbs red wine vinegar
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water (I didn’t end up using this at all)
Gram flour to dust
4-5 tbs caster sugar

Sift the flour, salt and sugar into a bowl and cut the margarine pieces into the flour with 2 knives. In a separate bowl beat the egg and vinegar and make a well in the middle of the flour. Pour in the egg/vinegar and mix inward from the outside of the bowl until mixed, using ice water if needed to mix completely. Use hands if necessary until a soft dough forms. Divide dough in half. Dust a surface with a generous amount of gram flour and place a piece of waxed paper over the 1st ball of dough. Roll out the dough underneath the waxed paper to about 1/4″ thick or more if you prefer and cut in rounds with a biscuit cutter. Repeat with second ball of dough.
Bake on sheets lined with parchment paper on 350F for 10-15 minutes, checking after 10. Biscuits are done when bottoms are golden-brown. Remove and cool on the sheet 5 minutes before removing. These have a nice solid texture and slightly sweet flavour and the gram flour toasts a little on the bottom which is really quite nice!

Tasty Factor: thumbs up- we thought the accident of my putting in too much vinegar for the recipe and the wrong kind would really mess this up but it came out pretty well.
Poopy Factor: None for the biscuits. The crust took a bit too long to bake as opposed to the pie filling but we think this was due to the type of pan used.