The gluten free scones experiment

The tricky thing about baking is that there's literally a science to it. Chemical reactions happen during the baking process, so flour, fat, liquids, binders and leaveners need to be carefully portioned in order to achieve desired results. Add gluten free flours to the mix (pun intended) and it's a whole new beast. The prime trickiness of gluten free baking is that there's no gluten; the substitute flours are lacking the wonderful binding protein that helps to keep the baked good together. Gluten is what makes bread kneadable and pie crust roll-out-able. It also provides the ability to trap bubbles of air in the dough (think yeast, flaky pastry, or any creaming of sugar and butter). Another wild card is that GF flours often require more liquid than the wheat kind. Working in the gluten free realm means a lot of trial and error, and a lot of sifting,while you search for a blend of flours that will let you replicate the effect you desire.

I've made GF cookies before with success, though an attempt to make cut out cookies this past Christmas failed miserably. Muffins and quick breads can be dense. I can't even make regular yeast bread, so I won't be attempting gluten free anytime soon. I hadn't tried scones before, but thought they'd be relatively easy: at least they're supposed to be on the dry side.

Now, if you type in a google search for gluten free scones (which is what I did) you'll find a lot of different recipes. Most of the ones I looked at called for "my favorite gluten free flour blend". Some of them called for specific brand name GF mixes. My cupboard being what it is, I decided to take it a step further and find a blend recipe, which led me to here. The Gluten Free Goddess' flour blend guidelines break the types of flours into weights, and suggest what types are interchangeable. I liked the additional substitution listings she had (egg, sweetener, dairy, etc). It seemed as though this site held help for any type of allergen free baking that might need to be done.

I made a blend of the following, which she recommends for cakes, muffins, breads and cookies :

1 cup Sorgum/ brown rice flour mix
1/2 cup millet
1 cup tapioca
1 teaspoon guar gum

Since I don't own a sifter, I whisked them together.

Now, as delicious as many of her recipes sounded, the Goddess' scone recipe called for pureed butternut squash and vegan cream cheese. I wasn't aiming for vegan scones, so I sought a different site for a recipe. That led me here. The Gluten Free Gourmand's scone recipe was full of butter and cream. Yum! I decided to follow that recipe. However, I did make some adaptations. I didn't think any of my changes would have made a difference, but my results were decidedly un-scone like.

For starters, I didn't hand cut the butter into the flour. I used a food processor, pulsing the butter pats into the flour until the "large crumb" stage was achieved. I chilled the bowl that the flour then went into, to help preserve the butters integrity. I did use nuts, which were fresh out of the freezer. I omitted the fruit, and since my lemon zest was dried I pulsed it along with the flour and butter to chop it fine. Instead of cream, I used a mixture of almond milk and whole milk yogurt. I made no adjustments to amounts, whisked my wet ingredients separately, and added them to the dry.

Now, it was when I added the wet ingredients to the dry that I sensed trouble. Instead of it forming a dough I got a batter. It was a thick batter, but definitely something I couldn't knead. So instead I lined my baking sheet with parchment paper, spread my thick batter in a round in the center, brushed it with almond milk, sprinkled sugar on top, and slid it into the oven.

My first thought was that maybe I'd treat it like biscotti: bake it until it set, then slice it and re-bake it. I decided to wait and see what the result was. I baked it for longer than 10-12 minutes (more like 15) and after it passed the toothpick test I pulled it out of the oven. I let it cool slightly, then cut it into wedges.

What I had was definitely not a scone. It was more like a muffin. It was tasty though, so I let it cool and judged it worthy of meeting it's food destiny.

Next time, I think I'll try the flour blend for the heartier breakfast bars.