Ah My Dear Friends
Coffin -
The problem with the Cracker Barrel Jarred Apples:
List of ingredients
Apples, sugar, water, modified food starch (corn), cultured sugar, cellulose gum, spices
John -
thanks, I may have to fall back on using "fresh apples", thank god the supply chain is still
offering baking apples, but there is a good reason I have a 6 month supply of canned goods LOL.
Firstly, a long winded explanantion....
Mrs Marvel is a diagnosed Celiac.
No Wheat of any kind, and many other grains are out. No Corn.
Many if not all Celiacs also end up with reactions to Milk and Eggs and Potatoes.
As little as 5 PartsPerMillion of Wheat sets off a Celiac attack, projectile vomiting , 7-10 day puking migraines,
Montezuma's Revenge for days, blah blah blah
Buckwheat, sweet potatos, and rice are ok.
So, hard restrictions:
No Wheat of any kind or Gluten bearing products in the house ever.
No Corn of any kind, including corn syrup, starch, etc
No soy
No tree nuts
No milk
No eggs
(also no shrimp, but it's a pie..)
Since Mrs Marvel has been under the weather for some time, I am doing pretty much everything.
As previously mentioned, I am NOT much of a cook but I have been trying to learn ove the last 5 years.
Mrs. Marvel was the Cook, baker, and epicurian...
Worse, "Gluten Free" cooking means vast numbers of substitutions which means a lot of experimentation is required.
And I was never any good at chemistry...
Experiments gone bad make for disgusting dinners.
Aaaand Gluten Free/Dairy Free/Egg Free Baking is a minor nightmare.
Literally nothing I have tried to bake will rise.
I have not yet, after 5 years, come up with an acceptable GF bread, hamburger bun, or cake.
Once, Mrs. Marvel tried to make GF chocolate brownies from a good, well-known mix, and it
came out like a greasy black inedible brick.
Through 2 years of experimenting I came up with acceptable recipes for
- chocolate chip cookies
- bisquits ( from GF Biskwik)
- pancakes and waffles ( from GF Biskwik)
- pie crust ( from GF Biskwik)
- the fruit pie using Krakow jarred fruit.
just that, nothing more.
even sugar cookies came out "too hard"
after a very long time and months of experimentation I found good egg substitutes, butter subs, and
a Coconut Milk Coffee Creamer that tastes bad by itslef but makes made a good milk substitute for baking
for making "biscuits" in cupcake tins.
Then the Barstiches that make the Coconut Milk Coffee Creamer decided to "save the world"
and changed the f'in formula - it now must be refrigerated, fails at baking, and it tastes like Suet!
So. Back to experimenting.
After a month I found via reverse engineering ( and help from Mrs. Marvel Organic Chemistry training)
that by adding 1 tablespoon ( no more, no less) of beet sugar or cane sugar ( nothing else) to
8.2 oz of plain Coconut Milk from any vendor reproduces my "baking milk" .... unless the weather changes...
If i use too much Coconut Milk ( ie 8.4 oz or more) or the pressure changes too much bisuits start
falling apart or stick to the cupcake tins or both ....
I still do not understand "why" ...
With everything else going on, and Mrs. Marvel's Celiac, Her back, pnumonia, teeth, dying cats,
dying relatives, dying friends, and etc,
I CANNOT HANDLE MORE EXPERIMENTING just now...
I was hoping to avoid MORE experimenting by using canned "ready to pie" apples.
The Lucky Leaf Canned apples come in water.
No syrup, no unknown sugar, (ie not corn syrup) and no starch,
and thus is safe. Also, peeled, cored, pre-cooked.
I NEED all the help I can get. I cannot spare MORE time to learning to cook everything from scratch.
let alone doing all the prep & etc required.
The recipe:
- 1 can (20 oz) Lucky Leaf Sliced Apples
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch ( sub'd rice starch)
- 1 tsp ground cinamon
- 1 Tbsp butter ( sub'd my special margarine)
- Crust ( used commercial Gluten Free pie crust that worked before)
Drain sliced apples, if necessary add water or apple juice to make 1/4 cup of liquid.
Put apples and liquid in pastry crust. Mix dry ingred . Spread over apples.
Dot with butter ( WTF does that mean?)
Cover with vented top crust (did not do that)
bake at 425 deg F for 10 min then reduce to 350 deg F for 25-35 min.
I had to go for 45 min and the filling was stiull too runny.
I think but cannot remmeber ( di not have my engineering cooking notebook)
that I used ALL the liquid in the can and added 1/2 cup of sugar and that
was probably too much?
So I guess I did not follow the Rx so well LOL
Any Ideas, thoughts etc?
Please help I am trying to make a holiday pie for Mrs Marvel.
She needs Something Nice for Desert this year...
yhs
prof marvel