Use it: Millet is one of my top three used flours for its mild flavor and starchy, finely milled texture. In conjunction with sweet rice and oat flour, it makes a neutral flour that mimics all-purpose but with more texture, flavor and nutritional value. Millet flour tastes a bit like cornmeal or corn flour and pairs well with similar flavors, such as honey, berries, stone fruit, citrus, vanilla and dairy. It can have some bitter undertones, however, which is why I recommend using no more than 30 percent in any given recipe.
Health benefits: High in protein, fiber and the minerals iron, phosphorous, manganese, magnesium and copper. Do beware of eating too much millet if you suffer from the condition hypothyroidism, which can be exacerbated by consuming large amounts of the grain.
Millet seed has been a food staple for humans for at least the last 10,000 years, particularly in India and parts of Africa, where it is thought to have evolved. Millet actually refers to several different varieties of a cereal grass, the most common in North America being the proso variety, while pearl millet is the most common variety cultivated worldwide. Primarily grown in the United States for use as animal feed or birdseed, millet has gained in popularity as an alternative grain in its own right. The seeds are butter yellow in color. They cook up light and fluffy, not unlike couscous, and make a good stand-in for steamed rice. The flour is well loved in gluten-free baking for its soft, starchy consistency, particularly in breads.
Millet flour does have notes of bitterness, however, which is why I recommend blending it with other, milder flours, particularly sweet rice and oat. Toasted millet seed takes center stage in Millet Skillet Cornbread with Cherries and Honey, and the flour features in countless recipes throughout this book, including buttery scones and biscuits, light cakes and flaky pie pastry.
SORGHUM FLOUR
AKA: Milo flour, sweet white sorghum flour
Flavor profile: Earthy, nutty, vegetal, mild, sweet
Consistency: Fairly fine with a bit of gritty/sandy texture
Weight per cup: 4½ ounces (120 g)
Brand tested: Bob’s Red Mill Sweet White Sorghum Flour
Find it: With other alternative flours and/or in the bulk section of health food stores and upscale grocers
Store it: Airtight at room temperature in a cool, dry, dark place (such as a kitchen cupboard) for up to 3 months, or refrigerated airtight for up to 1 year
Use it: Where you don’t mind a bit of texture and whole-grain flavor in conjunction with softer, milder flours such as sweet rice and oat; don’t use more than 30–50 percent in most recipes. Pairs well with stone fruit, berries, apples, pears, chocolate, spices (especially cinnamon), honey, dairy and nuts
Health benefits: High in antioxidants (more per serving than blueberries and pomegranate) as well as fiber, protein, unsaturated fat and the minerals phosphorus, calcium, potassium and iron
Sorghum is an ancient, drought-resistant grain that hails from southern Egypt and remains a staple throughout Africa. It clocks in as the fifth most important grain worldwide. Though the United States is the biggest producer, many Americans are not familiar with this small, gluten-free grain. Sorghum can be found in many gluten-free flour blends. It reminds me very much of brown rice flour: nutty, grassy, with some bitter whole-grain notes and a slightly coarse texture. It is naturally sweet and was often boiled into a syrup popular in the southern United States before the rise of corn syrup.
Bob’s Red Mill makes sorghum flour that is ground fairly fine with a bit of sandy texture. I find it slightly troublesome to work with; it doesn’t absorb moisture well and it has a distinct flavor that isn’t always welcome. I tested it in several cake and biscuit recipes that baked up brittle and with a cornbread-like texture that staled quickly, before returning to softer millet and oat flours. Azure Farm, which I found in bulk at my co-op, makes a powder-fine sorghum flour that, when combined 50:50 with sweet rice, makes an all-purpose-like blend. Since this brand is less widely available, all recipes in this book have been formulated to work with Bob’s coarser grind. It does add a warm, cornlike flavor and custardy texture to oven pancakes, and its grassy flavor blends beautifully with Chocolate Zucchini Cake and Matcha Cream Cheese Frosting.
STARCHES
Starches can be a necessary addition to whole-grain baking to absorb moisture, create structure and add stickiness to baked goods. These are the two I keep in my pantry.
TAPIOCA FLOUR/STARCH
Powdered tapioca is sometimes labeled flour or starch, but it is all the same. Made from the root of the cassava plant, tapioca is a powerful binder and thickener and can add much-needed chew and stickiness to alternative baking. It’s traditionally used to make the Brazilian cheese bread pao de queijo or rolled into balls for Japanese boba tea and tapioca pudding. It does have an assertive flavor in large quantities, which is why I prefer the softer flavor of cornstarch for thickening fruit. However, tapioca adds essential chewiness in chestnut chocolate chip cookies, helps crisp topping clump together and makes pie dough extensible and stretchy, easier to roll out and handle.
CORNSTARCH (CALLED CORN FLOUR IN THE UK AND AUSTRALIA)
Just to confuse things, the starchy powder known as cornstarch in the United States and Canada is called corn flour in the UK and several other countries, while corn flour in this book refers to finely ground cornmeal, which is yellow in color and contains the whole grain. Cornstarch is made solely from the endosperm or starchy component of the corn kernel through a process called wet milling, which removes the outer parts of the kernel. The resulting slurry is washed of protein, then dried in centrifuges to remove moisture before being ground and packaged. The starch has no nutritional value, but small amounts can add big improvements to alternative baking. Cornstarch promotes browning and crisping, and can help absorb excess moisture. In my pie dough, it promotes flaking and helps the dough stand up to moisture. I use it to thicken fruit in pies and rustic fruit desserts, where it softens into a silky texture and leaves behind a more neutral flavor than tapioca. Do be sure to source organic cornstarch, which is GMO free.
FLOURS NOT COVERED IN THIS BOOK
These ingredients commonly used in alternative baking just don’t float my boat. Here’s why.
REGULAR WHITE AND BROWN RICE FLOURS
These two are the most widely used flours in GF baking. I’ve found that using sweet white rice flour rather than regular rice flour gives baked goods better texture, and allows me to use less of it, and fewer other starches or gums, than regular white rice flour. Brown rice flour tends to keep a gritty texture in baked goods that I dislike. There is superfine brown rice flour available, but I have yet to see it carried at any of my local grocers. Furthermore, rice has been found to contain arsenic and should not be consumed in large quantities (brown rice flour has higher levels of arsenic, as the arsenic likes to hang out on the outside of the whole grain, which is buffed away to make white rice, removing much of the arsenic). These findings are part of what led me to explore other alternative grains; I feared we were getting into the same situation with rice flour as we did with wheat flour, relying on it too much and edging closer to a mono diet. For all of these reasons, I prefer to use a small amount of sweet rice in conjunction with millet and oat as my neutral flours.
QUINOA FLOUR
Quinoa has a strong, fairly bitter flavor thanks to saponins that coat and protect the grain. I often rinse and cook the grain whole for savory sides and salads, but I haven’t found the flour to work well in sweets, preferring milder millet or complex-tasting amaranth. That said, quinoa flour’s texture is similar to both, so feel free to trade it in for either if you’re quinoa-curious.
BEAN AND LEGUME FLOURS (SUCH AS CHICKPEA)
Chickpea flour works beautifully in savory baked goods due to its soft texture and high protein content, but its assertive bean flavor tends to take over when used in sweets. Chickpea flour is classically used in socca, a delicious flatbread from the south of France.
POTATO FLOUR AND STARCH
; These two can add softness and moisture to baked goods. However, I’ve found that they both cause baked goods to go stale more quickly due to being hygroscopic, meaning that they grab water molecules from out of the air and hold on. You’ll find them both in many GF flour blends and products, but I prefer to do without them in my own kitchen.
GUAR AND XANTHAN GUMS
These gums are often used to replace the gluten in gluten-free baked goods. However, some people can’t tolerate these, they can be hard to source and I’ve found that they are usually not necessary anyway. When some extra sticky power is needed in a recipe beyond what sweet rice, tapioca, almond flour or egg can offer, I use ground chia seed, which has a similar effect as these gums but also adds a pleasant nutty flavor and is full of good-for-you fiber and nutrients to boot.
OTHERS
There are new-to-me alternative flours popping up every day that I have not yet experimented with, including wild rice flour, kaniwa, benne seed, purple corn, tiger nut, plantain, banana, coffee, water chestnut and sweet potato, among others.
OTHER INGREDIENTS
I generally try to use organic, seasonal and locally grown ingredients whenever possible—they taste better, are healthier for our bodies and benefit our communities and the planet as a whole. Besides, if you’re going to go to the trouble of shopping for groceries, making a recipe and cleaning up, you might as well stack the deck in your favor and start with the most flavorful ingredients possible. And, to quote an old hair commercial: You’re worth it. Here’s a little bit about the ingredients that went into developing these recipes; starting with similar products when possible will help you achieve the best results.
SEASONAL FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Produce tastes best when it’s grown close by, picked when ripe and eaten soon thereafter. Farmers’ markets, CSAs, co-ops and health food stores tend to provide the best produce. When picking out fruit for recipes, use your nose as well as your eyes; you can often tell a ripe pear or tasty peach by its scent, even when the fruit feels hard when you give it a gentle squeeze. Ask for samples and recommendations when you can. As a bonus, fruit at the peak of its season usually costs less than flavorless, out-of-season fruit grown halfway across the world.
Fruits and vegetables can vary in size a lot, so I recommend using the weight or volume measurements that I’ve included whenever possible for the best results in recipes. If you don’t have a scale at home, you can weigh produce when you shop and then you won’t have to guess.
What’s in season when will vary regionally as well as year to year depending on weather patterns. Here are some general guidelines for when the produce used in this book are in season in California and similar regions.
SPRING
Rhubarb, strawberries, cherries, apricots, early peaches, blueberries
SUMMER
Peaches, nectarines, plums, raspberries, blackberries (and berry hybrids such as tayberries and loganberries), marionberries, olallieberries, corn, zucchini, first crop of figs
FALL
Figs, huckleberries, pears, apples, quinces, cranberries, pomegranates, persimmons, winter squash, sweet potatoes
WINTER
Lemons, oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, blood oranges, kumquats, foods that keep such as nuts, dried fruit
DAIRY
Nasty stuff like pesticides tend to gather in the fat portion of dairy, which is why I feel that it’s particularly important to use organic dairy. Also, I like cows, and I prefer to use dairy made from mama cows who are treated kindly, which is more likely to occur in smaller dairies. Additionally, dairy from cows that have grazed on grass tends to be more flavorful and higher in nutrients, and dairy that is fresh and hasn’t been ultra-pasteurized tastes sweeter and cleaner.
I don’t have much experience with dairy substitutes, but much information can be found online if you need to make trades in these recipes. Look for ingredients that have similar consistencies and fat and water contents for the best results. For example, coconut oil contains nearly 100 percent fat to butter’s 80 to 85 percent and will usually not make a good 1:1 substitute. To develop a coconut oil–based tart crust, I had to add water and tweak the other ingredients to make it work. I hope you’ll feel free to play around based on your own dietary needs and preferences (and share your results with me at BojonGourmet.com and AlternativeBaker.com!). Don’t be discouraged if it takes a few tries to get it right.
CHEESES
Whole-milk ricotta cheese tastes like heaven, and is nothing like cheap, part-skim supermarket ricotta. Spring for the good stuff for these recipes. I use Bellwether Farm’s basket-dipped ricotta when I make the ricotta biscuits and shortcakes in this book (and much of it also goes directly into my mouth).
The farmer cheese used in blintzes should have the texture of a firm ricotta with more bite and is sometimes labeled fromage blanc (which is used in the Fromage Blanc Tartlets with Honeyed Kumquats—the two are interchangeable.
I’m a fan of artisan, crumbly cream cheese for eating, which is free from gums and stabilizers and has a goat cheese–like texture. But when it comes to cheesecakes and cream cheese frostings, the silky-smooth foil-wrapped sort is your best bet. I don’t recommend using whipped cream cheese, as it may give you different results.
Goat cheese in this book is usually the fresh, crumbly variety, sometimes called chèvre. It makes tasty cheesecake bites studded with berries. This will work in the fig bites as well, but a funky, aged goat cheese will taste extra complex and delicious there.
Mascarpone is a creamy Italian cheese sold in tubs, with a consistency similar to sour cream but with a sweet flavor. I have yet to find an adequate substitute for this delicious stuff that’s classically used in tiramisù and features in this book whipped with cream and spread into a couple of cakes.
I use two kinds of yogurt in baking: plain whole-milk yogurt and plain, whole-milk Greek yogurt, which is strained of some liquid and has a thicker texture and higher fat content. Both make delicious accompaniments to crisps, cobblers and breakfast treats when you want something creamy but less sweet.
Different types of cream contain different levels of fat; all recipes in this book were tested with organic heavy whipping cream (also called heavy cream) with a fat content of about 40 percent, but regular whipping cream, with a fat content of about 35 percent, will work, too. Just don’t go for something labeled simply “cream,” which could have a fat content as low as 18 percent and could give different results in recipes, particularly whipped cream and ice cream. For the record, “double cream” in the UK has an even higher fat content of 48 percent.
Butter in this book is always European-style unsalted butter, which contains 85 percent butterfat. Regular butters in the United States have a fat content closer to 80 percent, with a higher water content. Pie and tart doughs, scones, biscuits, butter-based cakes and cookies will all taste richer and more flavorful when made with excellent butter: their textures tend to be more tender and flaky and they won’t burn as easily. I’ve found European-style butter to be superior particularly when browning butter. All recipes in this book were developed with Straus brand butter; other brands with a similar fat content are Plugrá, Kerrygold and Organic Valley European-Style Butter. That said, most of these recipes should work fine with regular butter in a pinch. Ghee is butter that has been clarified and cooked until it takes on a warm, toasty flavor. With a high smoke point, it’s your friend for frying blintzes.
Crème fraîche and sour cream are usually interchangeable in recipes. Crème fraîche has a milder flavor and softer texture, and is easy to make at home with just cream and buttermilk (or a spoonful of Crème Fraîche.
Buttermilk as we know it today is different from old-school buttermilk, which was literally the liquid left over after churning butter. Buttermilk in Northern California is all low-fat, cultured and fairly thick in texture, like watered-down yogurt. When measuring buttermilk, it’s important to give it a good shake first, as the solids tend to settle to the bottom
of the container. Shaking the buttermilk also aerates it a bit. If you don’t have access to buttermilk, plain, unsweetened kefir, which is a sort of liquid, yogurtlike substance, usually makes a good substitute. You can also water down plain, whole-milk yogurt. Another common buttermilk substitution is to mix a tablespoon (15 ml) of lemon juice into a scant cup (230 ml) of milk, stir and let sit until thickened, 5 minutes. Do note that the watered-down yogurt and thickened milk won’t be aerated the way shaken buttermilk or kefir are, so you’ll want to use a little less than is called for.
Eggs in my recipes are always “large” (2 ounces [57 g] by weight in the shell). “Pastured” eggs are currently the gold standard of eggs (second only to eggs from your or a neighbor’s own chickens). These chickens are allowed to run around outside, beaks intact, pecking at bugs and eating lots of yummy things. These eggs have firm whites and bright orange yolks, and vastly more nutrients than conventional eggs (two to three times more vitamin A, two times more omega-3 fatty acids, three times more vitamin E, four to six times as much vitamin D and seven times more beta-carotene). They even have less cholesterol (by one-third) and saturated fat (by one-fourth) than conventional eggs. Organic, free-range eggs are the next grade down. These chickens are allowed some access to the outdoors and their feed is free of pesticides. All recipes in this book were tested with either pastured or organic eggs. Egg whites from both types will whip up better for use in chiffon cakes, and the yolks will add more color and flavor to custards and ice creams. I tend to stay away from commercial eggs because the way the chickens are treated makes me sad, as do their pale yolks and watery whites.
SWEETENERS
Sweeteners are part of the panoply of flavors we bakers get to play with. At home and on my blog I revel in all of them: unrefined muscovado sugar, buckwheat honey, coconut nectar, bourbon smoked sugar … To make the recipes in this book more accessible, I stuck with only a handful of easier-to-find sweeteners.
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