April Gluten Free Cooking Class Recap

You know it was a good class when there is virtually no food left and the students are pickin' through the remains and scraping the bottom of the bowls as you clean up. Our Gluten Free Breakfast Basics class started with a quick lesson in how to sautee bananas. There are five simple rules for every sautee:

1. Use High Heat
2. Make Sure the Product is Dry
3. Use Very Little Fat
4. Don't Crowd the Pan with Product
5. Don't Cover the Pan while Cooking

We finished our bananas with a little brown sugar, lemon juice and spiced rum - yum! They were perfect inside the gluten free crêpes or as a topping to the gluten free pancakes Kathy was cooking.

Gluten free blueberry scones were next. No one could believe how quickly they came together using our Cheatin' Wheat Pancake Mix. One of our students, who considers herself a scone aficionado, rated ours "top drawer!" Check out our recipe.

In my opinion, there are two things that should get slathered on scones - a perky little lemon curd and/or clotted cream. As it turns out, I have a silky smooth, tantalizingly tart lemon curd recipe. Don't worry, even if you missed the in-class demo, you can still get the recipe.

Now, if you have ever made gluten free crêpes, you know that the batter is quite easy to make. You simply throw all the ingredients into a blender and let it rip. The hard part, if there is one, is getting the batter to spread into an even, thin layer inside the non-stick pan. The key is pan temperature and practice. Don't worry, the first crêpe is always a throw away and by the fifth one, you will be a whiz.

Although there are always a lot of great questions, there is one standout for me in this class. A lady asked if brown sugar was always gluten free. I must admit, I stammered a little. My brain was racing with ways brown sugar would not be gluten free and I was hard pressed to come up with one. So, although I could assure her the brown sugar we were using was gluten free, it has taken me a week and a little more research to come up with a more thoughtful answer.

Kathy and I love these classes. They are fun, insightful, engaging and keep us on our toes. Please join us for the May 7th class featuring some classic Italian dishes.