Pamela

I first noticed Pamela at Whole Foods. Couldn't help it. Her package of chocolate chip walnut cookies looked wonderful. You could see the cookies through the packaging and they looked pretty fantastic. I passed them by the first couple times I had the need to buy gluten free cookies. When they went on sale, I did finally pick up a package. I didn't dig in right away. As always, I was and still am battling a few (well, more like 10) pounds and was holding out on opening these up. Truth be told, I should have left them at the store. 

Before I had opened them up, I started reading Elizabeth Hasslebeck's book, "The G Free Diet". She even mentioned Pamela in her book. If I remember correctly she mentioned that even her non-gluten free family members get into her Pamela's cookies. I had a good feeling about this chick, Pamela.  

When I did finally give into the call of the cookies, they were amazing.  So much better than any of the other brands of cookies I had tried up to that point. They were a nice size, more than one or two bites. They had some thickness to them. They had a wonderful texture, so wonderful. As you may have noticed by now, I've got a lot of texture issues that are only enhanced now with trying to adapt to the new texture of gluten free foods. I would buy these cookies even if I did not have to eat gluten free, they are that good. 

Moving on...

I made my way to a natural food store a few towns over and was so thrilled to find a ton of gluten free foods and they were at decent prices. Their sale prices were even better. They were aware of Pamela too. They had her flour blends and mixes on sale. I'd seen these also at Whole Foods but hadn't paid too much attention to them because at the time, I was still hesitant about paying the price for these mixes. 

However, this was the day I got over it and realized that if I were to ever bake again that I needed to accept the fact that it was going to cost more money. Also, I had to accept the fact that it was very likely that I would fail a lot at the beginning and be wasting some of that money I was spending on these ingredients. I opted for the bread mix and flour blend since I have been missing making bread so very much.

I've had success with the mix.  There has been nothing technically wrong with the things I've made with this blend/mix.  

I first made the Amazing Bread recipe from the back of the bag. It was easy to put together. I love that you don't have to knead gluten free bread...no gluten to develop!  It rose like I couldn't believe. It looked lovely when it came out of the oven. It looked lovely when I sliced it. It tasted great and had a really decent texture. There was something though, I don't know what it is. The more I ate it, the more I wasn't so sure about it. I can't say it was the taste and I can't say it was the texture.  It just wasn't as pleasing as I wanted it to be, I guess.  

I even have a very not-fancy picture of it:

I can't say that I won't make it again and give it another try. I rather think I'd like to make the Cinnamon Bread variation of it that is also on the back of the bag then cut it in thick slices and make French toast with it. That, I think, is what this may be more suited for. Lots of flavor to go along with it.

I then made the Crispy Buffalo Wings found on the Pamela's website. The website is amazing for recipes. It's broken down really well. You can search by meal, type, product or diet. There are 10 pages of recipes for the bread mix and flour blend! The wings were really good. I tweaked it to use boneless chicken breast tenders and we each picked our own sauce to dip them in once they were done. I actually ate them plain as I thought the flavor of the breading was very good. It was a success but I hate frying so I don't know how soon I'll be making it again. Plus, all that frying does not help that 10 pounds that's stuck to me.

The third and final thing I've made up to this point is the Fococcia recipe from the website. I touched on this a bit in another post but, I had hoped that this bread recipe would be different from the Amazing Bread recipe because it omitted the eggs that the Amazing Bread recipe required. I really couldn't even tell the difference at all between the two. I put some coarse sea salt on it before I baked it and it wasn't bad. It kind of tasted like a soft pretzel....kind of. I still was not thrilled with the bread. 

At this point, I wasn't sure how I was feeling about Pamela. I loved her cookies (I also tried the swirled shortbread in the meantime) but was having a love/hate relationship with her flour blend that I had bought.

I had mentioned last week that my husband was having some travel trouble. He was in California. Near where he stays when he goes there is a grocery store called Mother's Market & Kitchen. He tells me I would absolutely love it. I'm sure I would. He asked if I wanted him to look for anything special there when he went this last time. I looked up their ad and saw that they had Pamela's mixes on sale. I looked up the kinds of mixes and blends on the Pamela's website and sent him a list. 

I noticed two things on the website that I had not seen around here. One was a Pizza Crust Mix that looks like a new product and the other was a product called Whenever Bars that came in different flavors, one being Oat Chocolate Chip Coconut. I put these on my list hoping they'd have them. Turns out they did and, they totally have made Pamela my new bestest friend.

First off, the bars. So good. Another thing I'd totally eat even if I didn't have to eat gluten free. They are so easy to grab in the morning when I haven't had time to feed myself. There's nothing too special about them but they are soft, chocolate-y, coconut-y, oat-y...it's all stuff I'm a huge fan off and I'll be grateful if they show up on the shelves around here.  

Now, and I think, more importantly, the Pizza Crust Mix. 

Look...

Not only is it another not-fancy picture, it is pizza that turned out really, really well. 

I was so nervous to make this. The directions were saying to handle the dough very gently. What if I was a little too un-gentle with it? The pressure. I mixed it all up and set it aside in a warm spot to rise. While the bread mix rose like crazy, this seemed like it hardly rose at all. Was the yeast it came with bad? After 2 hours, I decided to go for it. It did seem to rise some so I figured at least something happened. I divided the dough into two 10 inch pizzas, pre baked as instructed then topped them off and finished baking. 

Still very nervous, despite the fact that they looked good, I took my first bite. It was good. Really good! The texture was totally different than that of the bread mix. I suspected that there may be tapioca flour in it based on the Against The Grain copy cat recipe I had made. I checked the ingredients and sure enough, there was some in it. When I got to the end, the crust, I was so happy...it was crunchy! I've not yet experienced crunchy/crusty bread yet unless I've accidentally burnt my bread under the broiler trying to toast it because we still have not gotten a second toaster for me to avoid cross contamination when I want toast. I cannot tell you how happy I am with this pizza crust mix. I did try another brand, I can't even recall the name of it, and it pretty much tasted like a biscuit, not good for pizza. This however, is just lovely.  

I checked the list of ingredients in Pamela's Artisan Flour Blend and they are somewhat similar to the Pizza Crust Mix ingredients. This will be my next purchase from Pamela's line. I'm trying to not get my hopes up too high but I am somewhat hopeful that this blend will produce a bread that is a little more pleasing to me. The little I've played with tapioca flour, I've noticed it does seem to produce a gummy result but I'm hopeful that it being balanced with the other flours that are in the Artisan blend that it will work out to make something that will be just right.

I will be sure to post my results when I get it and I might even post a not-fancy picture or two! 

 

Sweet Pizza Sauce

Hellooooooooo.  I am back.  I never really left but just found it hard to blog in the summer.  The fall came and I fell off track horribly with my eating, gained a bit of weight and have been resisting making anything that I felt was blog-worthy.

Although this may seem like a very un-blog-worthy recipe, I felt like I had finally found my go-to pizza sauce and wanted to share it with you.

Let me preface this recipe with a story about a little pizza place in my hometown called Pizza Oven.  Anyone who is reading this who has been away from Pizza Oven, like myself, is likely drooling at the thought of this little hole in the wall pizza joint. A trip back home is not complete without getting a tray pizza and a bucket of wings and sharing it with my mom, step-father, brother and step-grandfather.  It’s one of the most gluttonous moments I have each year.  I eat as much of that pizza as I can that night and I don’t care.  Those who know Pizza Oven know what I am speaking of.

Pizza Oven has a very sweet sauce.  One in which I’ve been trying to mimic for years.  I add sugar to my sauce and while it’s sweet, it does not have the something special about it that Pizza Oven’s sauce has.  I have never been able to figure out what it is that makes their sauce tastes like it does.  I have had a discussion with my friend Michele about this and while both of us do a lot of tinkering in the kitchen, we can’t crack the secret.

I am not going to say that this recipe is a clone for Pizza Oven but it is the closest I have ever come to making a sweet sauce that doesn’t just taste like I added a bunch of sugar to some canned tomato product.

I made the sauce and used it the same day and really enjoyed it.  It’s actually a Papa John’s copycat recipe.  I know, I know…chain pizza?  Yes.  I love Papa John’s and while there was never one really close to us, there was one that was close enough but it has closed.  There are still a couple around but are too far to drive for take-out, even this one we used to use was pushing it as far as distance.  The sauce seemed to mimic Papa John’s very well.  I had tried to mimic their dough as well and I felt quite happy with the result.

Next day I needed a quick lunch so I took a Flat-Out wrap and made a pizza with it and used some of the leftover sauce.  Topped it with some sliced up leftover sausage and mozzarella cheese and had myself a little pizza.  As I sat there and ate my pizza I could not help but notice how the flavor of the sauce had developed over night in the fridge.  There were certain bites that were very reminiscent of Pizza Oven.  Even on a light Flat Out wrap.

I then made another pizza with the sauce on a beer bread crust.  I had seen a blog using the beer bread recipe as pizza crust and thought it was a brilliant idea.  Quick and easy…no kneading, no rise time.  I had told my husband how the sauce was reminding me of Pizza Oven and as he started to eat the pizza on the beer bread crust, he did not think so.  Then, somewhere during his second piece, he declared that he understood what I was saying. 

There is something about this sauce that almost gets it.  There has to be enough of the sauce in the bite of pizza as well as the cheese being just right.  It’s going to take a lot of tweaking to make any pizza taste like Pizza Oven but I feel like I at least have a start with this sauce.  As anyone who’s had the pizza knows, their crust is a bit different too and I feel like that maybe even more of a challenge than the sauce.  No, I will likely never make a perfect Pizza Oven clone but if I can manage a bite or two of a homemade pizza that brings me to the oblivion I feel when I eat Pizza Oven, I’ll take it for now until we get back home to get the real deal.

Sweet Pizza Sauce

Adapted from:  pizzamaking.com’s message boards (which is Todd Wilbur’s copycat recipe for Papa John’s sauce)

1 28 ounce can of tomato puree

3 tbsp sugar

3 tsp olive oil

3/4 tsp lemon juice

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp oregano

1/8 tsp basil

1/8 tsp thyme

1/8 tsp garlic

It’s as easy as putting all these ingredients into a saucepan, mixing them up, bringing them all to a boil over medium heat and then lowering the hear and simmering for 15-20 minutes. 

Now, I used it right away.  Of course I let it cool a little before I put it on the raw pizza dough.  However, if you read all my blah, blah, blah above you will know that I preferred the more developed flavor of the sauce after it had sat in the fridge overnight.

(If you looked at the recipe in the link I provided for where I got the recipe from, you will notice that they added water to the recipe.  I did not forget to include it, I left it out.  I felt that once I had the other ingredients together that I liked the consistency of the sauce.  I felt that adding water to it would have made it way too thin.) 

As always, a few notes about the ingredients:

Tomato puree

I could do a whole year’s worth of blogging about Wegmans but I will keep this short and tell you that I used Wegmans Organic Tomato Puree and cannot be happier that I now have a Wegmans close enough to be able to use their products.  I usually use Muir Glen which I find at Trucci’s for about $2.69-$2.89 a can.  Wegmans brand is $1.69 so I am thrilled.  I have about 6 cans of it in my cupboard right now.  This is the base ingredient for any sauce I make since I can’t do any chunk at all in my sauce.  I’m just way too picky for my own good.

Sugar

I had mentioned a while back in one of my blogs that I had spotted organic sugar at BJs Wholesale Club.  At the time I hadn’t quite convinced myself that it was worth it but have since changed my mind.  What brought me to my decision was that the sugar is unbleached and it’s fair trade.  Buying it at a wholesale club makes it much more affordable...if they did not have it, I would not be buying it.

Olive Oil

There’s nothing too special about the oil I used but I did want to note that I’ve been keeping my olive oil in the fridge.  This calls for planning ahead to use it so it can un-solidify or else you have to run the bottle under warm water which, in my opinion, is wasteful of water and the heating oil it takes to heat the water...cold temps are here so I’m super aware of our usage of the heating oil because that bill when they fill the tank up is a killer.  I had done some reading about cooking oils and feel better keeping olive oil in the fridge so it does not go rancid as quickly.  Sometimes it takes me a long time to get through a bottle and I’d always just kept it on my counter.  I’ve just started to dabble in learning about oils/fats-what’s good, what’s not so good.  I find it all a little overwhelming since everything we once thought about saturated fats is now being called out as maybe not as true as was once thought.  At any rate, as well as a few other things, I did take from my reading this tip about olive oil in the fridge.