Classes are limited to 10 students (that's how many comfy chairs we have) and are taught audience-style, with opportunity for students to gather around to observe crucial techniques. Students will be able to taste generous portions of all recipes prepared. Recipe packets will be given out for note-taking and to take home. Classes are generally 2 to 2-1/2 hours, and held approximately once-a-month on Saturday mornings. Our culinary studio is located in the Mukilteo area.

Our basic gluten-free classes center around alternative flour-based recipes, and will be offered on a rotating basis, covering different areas such as cookies, muffins, breads, pasta, pizza, cakes, and pancakes. Flavorful recipes are chosen for their simplicity and usefulness—hopefully becoming staples in your kitchen.

Examples of classes are described below and will consist of 3 to 5 recipes, depending on complexity. (Contents are subject to change.) When a class is scheduled, we'll post the course date and fee, and open it for registration.

CYA Disclaimer: as a gluten-sensitive, I have been fine with these recipes, but please use your own discretion regarding tasting of class samples. Information and recipes presented are not intended to substitute for professional medical advice.

Note: most recipes contain EGGS, and often dairy BUTTER.
Others sometimes have soymilk, yogurt (dairy or soy), dairy cream, or nuts/nutmilk.

 

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS:

Baking Favorites I:

Gluten-free yeasted loaf bread can be dense and dull and always in need of toasting--our solution is flat sandwich buns! Crusty on both sides and individually-sized. Learn Golden Millet Buns/Bread for your everyday sandwich needs. Cookies are what I missed most until I learned how to use alternative flours...Try satisfying Chocolate Chip Cookies two ways. Using different flours (amaranth or masa), we'll see how taste and texture is subtley changed. Based on the tatse concept of a macaroon, combine different nut meals with fruit jams for blissful combinations: little "nutty jewel" muffins, like apricot and almond for Golden Nugget Jewels.

Baking Favorites II:

Learn our favorite yeasted bread for lunchtime and snacks geared to the adult palate: Ploughman's No-Rye Pumpernickel mini loaves (or make without caraway for simple brown bread). Great with a bowl of soup. Our favorite nutty jam-filled and moist muffins are a delectable treat. These are everyone's favorites that get gobbled up. This class we'll make pistachio and strawberry for Emerald Jewels. We'll also make Blue Ribbon Peanut Butter Cookies, perfect for the lunchbox. And what baking repetoire would be complete without brownies? We'll make our version of "two-bite" brownies: Northwest Brownie Bites.

Baking Favorites III:

Learn how to make a succulent Heavenly Angel Food Cake, and a flavorful Rich Banana Nut Bread. We'll do a crusty french loaf of Lemon and Olive Bread that is great for making party sandwiches. And we'll round it out with Betsy's Breakfast Biscuits--classic drop biscuits made with sorghum flour and almond milk--great for a family breakfast.

Baking Favorites IV:

We'll make moist Carrot-Walnut Cake, an appealing Sunshine Bread with millet and heart-healthy soy flours, herbed Greek Pita bread (great for scooping hummus), and chocolate Black Forest Cookies flavored with dried cherries.

Baking Favorites V:

Learn how to make a moist and tender Lemon Poppyseed Loaf and tasty Cinnamon Rum Raisin Muffins. We'll also make a fast and easy Sundried Tomato Foccacia Bread, and chewy Almond Macaroons.

Baking Favorites VI:

After doing perfect graham crackers, I'm jazzed to come up with yummy Club Crackers to nibble on (preferably topped with 2 year-aged Tillamook white cheddar cheese!). My girlfriend Betsy has modified her biscuit recipe, and turned it into real Cinnamon Rolls (actually rolled and filled with cinnamon sugar!). We'll also do one of my all-time favorites, Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, which I used to bring to the office birthday celebrations. We'll round the class off with Mexican Corn Cake Bites, perfect for serving hot with dinner or with autumn soups and stews.

Pan"cakes":

Learn how to make delectable sweet crepes and turn them into Blueberry-Lemon Cream Cheese Blintzes. Sunday brunch will never be the same! We'll also make fluffy Apple Pancakes that the whole family will love. On the savory side, we'll make traditional Breton Buckwheat Crepes, stuffed with cheese and spinach and drizzled with herbed cream sauce. Great for party bites, Russian Blini are little buckwheat pancakes that serve as a canapé base—we'll top ours not with the traditional caviar, but with Northwest smoked salmon.

Italian Favorites:

It took a lot of tries, but we finally came up with a successful Medium-Crust Pizza Dough. Pizza dough is the trickiest recipe in our arsenal, but absolutely essential to life on this planet! This recipe turns out better than the store-bought doughs for make-your-own pizzas from my wheat-eating days. The crust may be Italian, but we'll trick it out Hawaiian-style with ham and pineapple because that is my favorite, or Mediterranean with goat cheese, carmelized onions and green olives. We'll also include a reciple for simple and fast Herbed Pizza Sauce that won't sog out the crust. Of course no family meal would be complete without a a crusty Rosemary Italian Bread and a crisp and sweet Tuscan Almond-Cherry Biscotti.

Holiday Favorites I (for Thanksgiving):

We can always eat the pie filling and leave the crust, but why not learn Basic Gluten-Free Pie Crust to serve as the base for Quebec Maple Sugar Pie with Pecans. Also learn Gingerbread Cookie Crumb Crust and turn it into a light No-Bake Pumpkin-Coconut Pie to free up space in your busy oven this Thanksgiving. Melt-in-Your-Mouth Popovers provide a nice accompaniment to dinner, as well as Sage & Onion Cornbread Stuffin' Muffins to give that taste of stuffing you'll be missing. [This class likely to run 2-1/2 hours long...]

Holiday Favorites II (for the Yuletide season):

Yuletide classics such as Italian Panettone Bread full of orange and raisins (sort of like Scandanavian Julekaka), and Moist & Dark Triple-Ginger Cake will be on the menu. Favorite gift-giving cookies will include delectable Chocolate-Peppermint Drops (made with real peppermint schnapps!) and melt-in-your mouth Pecan Snowballs. Note that BUTTER will be in the cookies and bread.

Sweetheart Favorites:

Make goodies for Valentines celebrations. Chocolate Hazelnut Torte enrobed with ganache is a rich soy yogurt-based cake that you can't get enough of. Delectable Coconut "Custard" Cookie Hearts will introduce you to baking with coconut flour. We'll also do a Sweet Rice & Honey Bread using white bean and coconut flours to enhance the fiber content without a bran taste. This bread also stays soft! And to round it off, Peachy Pancakes will also be demonstrated. Recipes contain eggs and dairy.

Sweetheart Favorites II:

You know it will contain chocolate! We'll make rich and silky El Diablo Flourless Cake (with a twist of chili spice, garnished with fruit, and served drizzled with warm lime marmalade). We'll also make Chocolate Wafer Cookies, which can be made into a crust for a brandy-laced Cherry Cordial Torte, inspired by the classic gift-giving confection. Instead of a box of fine chocolates for your sweetheart on Valentine's Day (that is, until Jeffrey and I become real chocolatiers), use the same decadent ingredients to make Austin TX's famous Black Gold Cookies that I've renamed Absolutely Evil Cookies, which taste like an exploded gourmet truffle, somewhere between a pavlova and a gooey nut brownie. Oh my! And last but not least, "how about a cup of coffee" for a date with Mocha Orange Walnut Biscotti.

Spring Fling:

Mother's Day Brunch season 2008 brings us a twist on the classic sachertorte, using white chocolate to top Orange Almond Sachertorte. Since we GF eaters miss out on the wonderful Blueberry Crumb Cake served at a local restaurant chain with their brunch selections, I just had to give this one a try. (The test model was gobbled up by my office mates.) We'll follow with tangy Lemon Squares for a sunny delight, and end with a flavorful, long risen, Saturday White Bread, baked in parchment. (This is my favorite bread now!) Except for some soy flour, the bread is almost allergy-free without eggs or dairy! And it stays fresh longer too, from the yeast-made chemicals created during fermentation.

Springtime Favorites:

Getting ready for brunch season, we'll make Sweet Crepes into Blintzes, authentic griddle-cooked English Muffins (that taste like the real thing and are great for toasting), a tasty Teff & Pecan Bread, and delicious Ginger-Apricot Scones with walnuts and a hint of lavender. Try these recipes out for Easter or on Mother's Day. (The English Muffins also make wonderful Eggs Benedict bases or sandwich halves.)

Summer Favorites:

Family reunion summer picnics are the season for burger-ready whole-grain Flax Hamburger Buns and Old-Fashioned Peach Cobbler. Gluten-free Honey Graham Crackers, that taste and feel just like the real thing, are great for kids' snacking, turning into s'mores, or for the crust of a light and zesty, low-fat, no-bake, My Mom's Key Lime Pie.

Hot Summer Eats:

Summertime means hiking and traveling, so what better than energetic California Trail Bars?! Using nuts, fruit, and GFcereal, delicious and satisfying power bars are the result, handy for treks, airplane rides, and breakfasts on the road. Summer is the season for entertaining, and I love serving fish tacos at patio dinners...so I'll show you homemade Amaranth Tortillas good for mini wraps (plus my favorite fast slaw recipe to tuck in with the fish). Summer is also the season for picnics and fresh salads, so I'll show you one of my very favorites (based on our family recipe) -- a lemony fresh side salad of the classic Mediterranean favorite Tabbouleh, made from fresh parsley, tomatoes, and quinoa in lieu of traditional bulgar wheat. We'll end the class with a soft and comforting fruit dessert recipe, such as Pear Clafoutis.

Pumpkin Party:

Gotta love canned pumpkin puree -- it's loaded with vitamins and healthy fiber. To celebrate this autumnal bounty, we'll go pumpkin crazy with Pumpkin Nut Bread and White Chocolate Pumpkin Blondies. We'll do super-easy Maple-Pumpkin Pannacotta for an elegant creamy dessert, perfect for molding into individual servings. And lastly, while not really made from pumpkin, it sounds like it...a soft Pumperknickel Bread, great for hearty sandwiches on those cool days.

New Basics :

Let's start 2008 with recipes that you can use all year! Every day is a day for a Classic Birthday Cake, frosted in two layers and filled with berry preserves. To meet your entertaining needs throughout the year, we'll make Pâte à Choux hollow puffs that can be used as savory hors d'ouvres when filled with ham or chicken salad, or made sweet into Profiteroles when filled with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce. Or, turned decadent when loaded with cheese as the classic appetizer, Gougères. Enjoy crunching the new year away with real crackers to hold your cheese -- we'll make easy Water Crackers, elegant and crispy, flavored rosemary or savory sesame. The year wouldn't be complete without everybody's favorite cookie, Snickerdoodles. (This recipe passed muster with a snickerdoodle expert.)

Got an idea for a class? Send us your suggestions and requests: