April 21, 2021 - 5:18am
Vegan and gluten free winning recipes?
Hi bakers,
I'm posting to ask for a couple of types of baked goods you'd recommend which find a compromise between being manageable in a limited time frame while also making people smile.
I'm scheduled for a baking trial in two weeks, which will involve a vegan item and a gluten free one, which are areas where I don't have loads of practice. So I'd appreciate hearing anything you've really loved and trusted baking from those categories especially!
Many thanks.
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What is a "baking trial" ? I have not seen that term before.
This is an international forum. What country and city are you in? Food is closely tied to culture. What is the primary language and dominant culture(s) of that city? Those things are closely tied to what kind of food "makes people smile."
What kinds of things do you have experience baking?
Perhaps that information would be factors for what would be a good suggestion.
OK, wow, I hadn't thought about all that. I live in the UK, we speak English and I try to learn about baking styles outside the rather drab UK baking tradition, most of the time. I make mostly sourdough bread, which I've been doing for more than ten years, and I've worked in a couple of artisan bakeries. The trial is part of an interview for a permanent job.
I don't know too much about local traditions, though I've heard people talk about something called either a "dripper," "dripping cake," or "lardy cake," which sounds pretty heavy and involves animal fat, cinnamon and glazing.
Really, though, I don't mind where the recipe comes from, just hoped to find something that's both good and manageable, as there's a time limit on the things I'll be baking for the trial.
Thank you!
Good luck in the trial! But I wanted to clarify: what's the problem with a vegan recipe? Any lean bread is vegan, or even enriched bread with oil is vegan...
I have zero experience with gluten free baking unfortunately, but there is an occasional post here about this, hopefully someone can comment.
I'd look to the many British bakers for recipes that would appeal to your judges/interviewers.
I suppose it would also depend on the job, are you going to bake at a high class restaurant, or a bakery that caters to the middle or working class? Or will you be instructing at a baking/cooking school? Don't answer that out loud. I'm just saying consider your audience, or who your judges consider your audience to be.
Brit Vanessa Kimbell has two baking books at reasonable prices for the Kindle editions. One sourdough bread, and one sourdough sweets. https://www.amazon.com/Vanessa-Kimbell/e/B004SYAJUK?sort=price-asc-rank&tag=froglallabout-20
Also British: Gemma Stafford: https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/Update: Oops. Gemma is from Ireland, and is currently in California, US. But she does claim some world-wide experience.
And of course Paul Hollywood, and the GBBO crowd all seem to have books and web sites.
Richard Bertinet has three inexpensive Kindle books out: Dough; Crust; and Crumb. He is French, but he is based in UK and caters to the British palate as far as I know. https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Bertinet/e/B002SIFTDK?sort=price-asc-rank&tag=froglallabout-20
Hope this helps. Bon chance.
I sent a recipe for GF lemon scones that might be of use to you.
Paul
Hi and thanks for all the replies. I haven't been able to find sorghum flour here, but I did make up some GF self raising flour to use this crumpet recipe:
https://www.kimieatsglutenfree.com/2018/10/05/gluten-free-crumpets/
They came out more pleasant the second time, with about 1/3 cottage cheese subbed for milk, but then they lacked the characteristic bubbles of crumpets. Otherwise, the flavor was better than most standard crumpets.
Does anyone have any tips to make sure the bubbles come out? I've made sourdough crumpets with normal bread flour before and they worked well.
Going in to the bakery tomorrow, so a little nervous, but also excited.