Tag Archive for 'Bakery'

News, a Reminder, and Two Questions

Hipcooks

Hipcooks has news. They’re expanding into Seattle. I didn’t notice this until today, but the Portland class descriptions page has information on which classes are wheat free. A lot of them are, which is very cool.

New Cascadia Traditional Bakery Event

New Cascadia is having a kids event next Wednesday, August 18. Here’s the blurb from their email:

“On Wednesday, August 18th from 2:00-3:00 We will have a special musical performance by Snailpeople! Kids’ Music Duo for our youngest gluten free friends and those who love them.

Snailpeople! is an electric, eclectic, and exuberant kids’ music duo featuring Mindy Dillard and Eric McEuen. Between us, we play many instruments. In the course of a Snailpeople! adventure the audience may hear us play guitar, mandolin, banjo, and percussion (sometimes a washboard and tap shoes too!). We came together in early 2010 to create Snailpeople! Between us we have 7 years experience performing for kids in both music and theatre contexts. We have given classics like ‘On Top of Spaghetti’ and ‘I Know an Old Lady’ our own Snailpeople! twist. We believe in inclusive and participatory musical experiences with kids. We encourage singing and moving along with our show for maximum fun!”

Keana’s Candyland Opening a Store?

We got a mysterious email that Keana’s Candyland will be opening a gluten-free bakery this month. More details to come as soon as we have them.

Portland GIG Meeting this Saturday

The speaker for this month’s GIG meeting is Abby Fammartino of Abby’s Table (see our review of Abby’s Table here).
Meeting times are from 10:00am-12:00pm
Legacy Emanuel Hospital
2801 N Gantenbein Ave.
Portland, OR. 07227-1623
(503)413-2200
Room: E-1075/1077

Portland Metro GIG Pancake Fest Coming

The Portland Metro Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG) is having a pancake breakfast next Saturday (August 21st) at Lingonberries Market in Vancouver. They will be using mixes from Gluten Free Mama’s, Sylvan Border Farm and Pamela’s. Dairy free options will be available. The cost is $5 per person – $12 max per family. (I can’t say for sure as of this writing, but I can only imagine that the proceeds from this event will go to support the Portland GIG.) Here’s the relevant info:

Where: Lingonberries Market – 6300 NE 117th Ave – Vancouver WA 98662
When: Saturday, August 21 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Contact: christina@lingonberriesmarket.com or call (360) 260-4411

Question One

Reader Shari is looking for suggestions for gluten-free dining in Central Coast Oregon. Anybody got any tips?

Question Two

Reader Donna is looking for gluten-free, rice flour free, yeast free bread. Anybody know of such an animal?

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Published on August 11, 2010 in News. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Product Review: Gluten-Free Mama’s Cookie Mix

I’m continuing to work my way through the gluten free flour mixes that we got samples of from Gluten Free Mama. Check out our earlier review of their Gluten Free Pancake Mix. Something I really miss is cookies. It’s funny, too, because there are a lot of gluten-free cookie mixes available now. There’s even a Betty Crocker Mix. I just haven’t got around to checking any of them out.

The other day I found myself at home with some time on my hands and a hankering for some cookies, so I broke out the mix. Here are the ingredients: Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar, White Rice Flour, Tapioca Flour, Potato Starch, Sweet Rice Flour, Almond Meal Flour, Aluminum-Free Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate), Xanthan Gum, Sea Salt, Vanilla Powder (Vanilla Bean Extractives, Evaporated Cane Juice, Silica, Cellulose). It happens that these are the exact same ingredients that are used in their pancake mix, except that there is more cane sugar in this mix. There is also more salt. Mama’s figures that there are fifteen 100 calorie servings in the container, and that each serving has 100 mg of salt.

The cookies are a snap to make. Just add 1.2 cup butter, an egg, and 2-3 Tbsp of milk.

Then roll out on a surface with some rice-flour to keep the dough from sticking.

Cut out shapes and top with sprinkles, sugar, or what-have-you. I topped half of mine with sugar and half with shredded coconut. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350* for 12-14 minutes or until edges start to brown.

I sort of separated the two batches and took a photo. They look kind of scared of each other here. While I wasn’t that excited by the Mama’s Pancake Mix, I did enjoy these cookies. Sienna did not like either product. She says that they have an nasty metallic after-taste. It’s somewhat rare that Sienna and I differ so much on a product, but there it is. On the plus side, that left more cookies for me! So, our verdict is maybe you’ll like them, and maybe not.

Get Gluten Free Mama’s Sugar Cookie Mix on Amazon. Many thanks to Gluten Free Mama for sending us these mixes to review. See our disclosure policy, here.

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Published on March 8, 2010 in Product Review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Coming Product: Jensen’s Better Buns

We were contacted last month by Jensen’s Bread and Bakeries, who are working on bringing a brand new gluten free product to market in Portland, Oregon. Both David Jensen and his daughter, Brenna, were diagnosed with Celiac disease a few years ago, and like most people quickly learned that they weren’t going to have anything resembling real bread without some action on their part. Most of our readers can certainly relate, I’m sure. After suffering through months of awful imitations, they started making their own bread.

David’s wife, Debbie, who has been a recreational baker for over 40 years, started working on recipes to make better gluten free bread and buns. She and David spent two and a half years coming up with a product that they think is good enough to sell. Then they took a course at the Portland Small Business Development Center to figure out the next steps. They are almost ready to start selling them, and we got a sneak peek.

Jensen's Better Buns Packaging

The good news is that we have tried the buns and agree that they are awesome. The bad news is that you can’t buy them – yet. I met David last week and we talked about gluten-free bread, buns, and what the next step is for their company. David is very clearly serious about bread. They are in the process of getting a commercial kitchen set up and hope to get their products on shelves near you in the first quarter of this year.

Gluten-Free bun

Take a look at this. I brought one of these to work last week and a fellow co-worker who is also gluten-free saw it and couldn’t believe that it was a gluten-free bun. The buns are flexible and soft. They toast excellently and aren’t crumbly. They don’t need to be toasted and freeze well. The flavor is as close to a hamburger bun as I’ve had since I stopped eating the real thing. Sometimes buns and breads will end up having a beany flavor, or a corn aftertaste. These buns don’t suffer from that problem.

Gluten-free burger

Given buns like these, we had to make some hamburgers immediately! These make awesome hamburgers. They are the best gluten-free buns we have tasted and are head and shoulders above the competition. The Jensens have other gluten-free products in the pipeline, including sesame seed buns, multi-grain buns, and bread. You can check in on their progress on their website, Gluten-Free Concepts. They can be found on Twitter, here and on also Facebook, here. We’re looking forward to hearing more from them!

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Published on January 27, 2010 in Product Review. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

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