The Gluten Free Ratio Rally – popovers!

It’s sunny out.  It’s remarkable how different that makes me feels vs a cloudy, snowy day in January.  I needed a day such as this to type up this post.  I had it all typed up on Monday, with the perfect amount of quirkiness to text ratio and whammo! I guess I hadn’t refreshed my open post page before starting, didn’t copy it before hitting save and lost it all.  Sunshine clears the funk away and makes it all better.  It also makes me aware of what a bad housekeeper I am.  Who has time to dust, vacuum and to cook? I certainly like making time for cooking.  I am lucky if I can remember to water the plants before they die.  The only thing bad about sunshine in my house is that it points out the need to vacuum again.

I decided to join the gluten free ratio rally in the hopes of getting more creative in the kitchen and challenging myself, especially with baking.  Baking in winter is so nice and cozy.  It’s like winter’s soulmate.  So is a wood stove, but I don’t have one of those anymore.  This month’s challenge is easily made in a regular oven, no need for a wood stove and it’s popovers on the baking list.  This month’s host is Mrs. R of Honey from Flinty Rocks.  The Gluten Free Ratio Rally is a group of gluten free bloggers using Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio method of weighing ingredients to create a gluten free equivalent from baked goods to sauces and everything in-between. I used his ratio app on my iPhone.

The popover ratio is 2 parts liquid to 1 part egg to 1 part flour.  I decided to go popover crazy and try 2 batches in the same day following his ratio.

Batch 1

3.5 oz oat flour; .5 oz tapioca flour; 4 oz of eggs and 8 oz of milk; chives and black pepper; butter

My eggs are a bit smaller than what was called for as my chickens just recently started laying (eggs get bigger over time) so 2 eggs made for 3.5 oz, so I added an extra yolk to make 4 oz.  This, quite possibly was a mistake to do.  The milk was organic whole milk from Sheltler’s Dairy – a fabulous local dairy.

please ignore my dirty glass door

These tasted pretty good but were a bit heavy.  Probably because of the oat flour and the extra yolk.  They did pop up pretty marvelously in the oven and I wouldn’t say they fell once out,  they were not airy all over, just in a few places, like where the butter was.  I added about 1 tsp of butter per the Michael Ruhlman Ratio directions and next time would opt for 2 tsp.  I loved the chives in these.  Batch 1 was baked at the same time as part of Batch 2.

Which brings us to Batch 2

3.5 oz fine white rice flour; .5 oz corn starch; 4 oz of eggs (2 eggs plus 1 yolk again); 8 oz of whole milk, toasted onion and aleppo chiles; butter

These were fairly inedible.  The inside was like a flavorless egg pancake, heavy and dense.  About 1/3 of this batter was baked with batch 1.

During round one of baking, I sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on three of the muffin tins of both batches.  The Parmesan did not work.  See the comments dense and heavy line above, add the words more dense and heavy and that about approximates it,  with a cheesy flavor. Which is good, but not in this case.  I decided to call them popunders.

So, I decided with my remaining batch of rice flour batter to add a tablespoon or so of millet flour to give the popover something to rise against in the tin.  I also filled the tins half full vs the 2/3’s full that I filled round 1.  These worked much better and were more airy as can be seen in the picture at the beginning of the post.

the popunders

So with my popovers fresh out of the oven, I raced around the house in search of our nice Nikon camera.  No where to be found.  I texted my hubby who lives in Ann Arbor (a possible 2 year temporary thing – jobs, you know) and indeed he took it down with him after his last visit.  Alas, that left me with my 3 year old iphone camera for photo taking.  I did the best I could.  I dislike all those blogs with awful off putting photos with bad lighting and color tones, yet must present you with one this week.

A final note about popovers.  They mean it when they say these should be eaten while warm.  Do not under any circumstances attempt to eat a cold one.  I do plan to make these again, but will tweak the recipe first.  However they must wait until I have a crowd to eat them as 2 dozen popovers is about 22 too many!  I probably wouldn’t have tried making popovers for a while if it hadn’t been for the gluten free ratio rally, so it’s working already.

Check out all of the rally popovers:

Brooke | B & the boy! – Chocolate & Sweet Potato Popovers – http://bellwookie.blogspot.com/2012/02/ratio-rally-popovers.html

Charissa | Zest Bakery – Lemon Vanilla Popovers with Minnesota Raspberries – http://www.zestbakery.com/fruit/lemon/lemon-vanilla-popovers-with-minnesota-raspberries

Claire | My Gluten free home – Chai Popovers – http://www.myglutenfreehome.net/2012/01/popovers-3-claire-0.html

Erin Swing | The Sensitive Epicure – Popovers – http://thesensitiveepicure.blogspot.com/2012/01/popovers.html

gretchen  |  kumquat – strawberry cream cheese popovers – www.kumquatblog.com/2012/02/gluten-free-ratio-rally-strawberry.html

Heather | Discovering the Extraordinary – Basic Popovers – http://www.discoveringtheextraordinary.blogspot.com/2012/02/basic-popovers-for-the-gf-ratio-rally.html

Jenn | Jenn Cuisine – Chocolate Popovers – http://jenncuisine.com/2012/02/gluten-free-ratio-rally-popovers

Jonathan  |  The Canary Files – Cinnamon & Star Anise Popovers – http://thecanaryfiles.blogspot.com/2012/02/ratio-rally-gluten-free-dairy-free.html

Mary Fran | FrannyCakes – Gluten-Free Honey Coconut Popovers  – http://wp.me/p1HfLM-l4

Morri  |  Meals With Morri – Little Bitty Popover Bites – http://mealswithmorri.blogspot.com/2012/02/little-bitty-popover-bites.html

Rachel/The Crispy Cook – Corny Popovers – http://wheat-free-meat-free.blogspot.com/2012/02/pop-on-over.html

TR | No One Likes Crumbley Cookies – Sweet Cherry Popovers – http://tcrumbley.blogspot.com/2012/02/gluten-free-popovers.html

i’m out