Photo a Day Challenge - Texture

Have you ever tried making your cakes with gluten free flour?  Even if you don't eat gluten free - you should try a recipe. 

My favourite cakes are marmalade or a fruit cake and I had made it with wheat flour, up until about two years ago, I discovered gluten free flour.  Happen to be walking though a street market, and found a stall selling just gluten free products. 

You use it in the same quantity as you use wheat flour, but sometimes you may need a little extra fluid in the cake mix.

The texture in the marmalade cake is like eating a shortbread biscuit, and in the fruit cake the texture is different, but you find it in the taste.

 I try and make all my cakes with gluten free flour now, only because I like the texture better than cakes made with wheat flour.

But be warned - you can't make pastry - like you can with wheat flour - you need to add Xanthan Gum. 

Before I knew this I tried to make an apple pie. I could not make out why it remained in bits, and I kneaded and kneaded it,  and added more water,  to no avail.  It still would not roll out into a nice sheet of pastry. Rather than waste the pastry I "picked" bits off and laid the pieces across the top of the apple pie til it was covered and baked it.  Of course the texture was dry. hard and bitsy.  It was only when I looked up on the Internet, that I realised that one should add Xantham Gum.

So now I keep at least one packet of  gluten free flour and one small container of Xantham Gum in my cupboard until I bake again.