The Best-est Gluten Free Waffles

As you noticed I'm claiming to have the recipe for the best-est gluten free waffles. Walang kokontra, ok!:) Hahaha! But I strongly encourage you to give my recipe a try. I promise you will agree with me that it is indeed the best-est! Even my son who is not gluten intolerant have found a liking to this particular GF waffles.

Gluten-induced eczema

I've mentioned it too many times already that my girls suffer from gluten-induced eczema. All three of us went on a gluten-fast for three months, some of us more diligent than the others. Proud to say that we survived that!

My youngest daughter is so proud that ALL her skin rashes cleared up within a few weeks of gluten starvation. She used to have these marks on her upper arms, similar to the ridges on the surface of a basketball. When they appear, they would be so itchy that when she started scratching, she couldn't stop. If your kids suffer from eczema, I'm sure those itching and sugat are also not new to you. I try to limit putting steroidal cream, reserving those for the worse of attacks, which happens every now and then. The scratching would leave raw wounds on her arms, with blood staining her uniform and bed sheets. Not an exaggeration!

I am very happy to update you all that my youngest hasn't had an attack from March until now. That's four months of being itch-free!!! Woohoo! We are now slowly re-introducing gluten back to our diet. I started serving gluten once a week, then twice, then thrice. I think twice to thrice a week would be a fairly good standard to maintain.

I love baking and my kids love to eat what I bake... so I've been trying to come up with gluten-free alternative to my baked goods THAT ACTUALLY TASTES GOOD! Mahirap ha!

Gluten-Free Flour Endemic to the Philippines

Personally, I don't want to be stuck with a pantry full of expensive, imported flours which no one will touch, so I researched on gluten-free foods that are endemic to the Philippines.  And it led me to cassava starch, rice flour, sticky rice flour (malagkit), potato starch, corn starch. all of which are readily available in any local grocery, at very affordable prices.

Best-est Gluten-Free Waffle Recipe

One flour only + No Xanthan Gum

Finally! Gluten-free waffles that even my son and husband, who are not GF, are begging for. 

Recipe loosely adapted from here and here:

Makes for a very big batch, because batch cooking is the only way I remain sane with the way my kids eat.
*Best eaten right after cooking.

Dry Ingredients:
1-1/2 cup white rice flour*
1/2 cup corn starch*

3/4 cup potato starch
1-1/2 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients:
1-1/4 cup yogurt + 1/2 cup milk  ( I use the BTIC brand because of its thick consistency)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1-1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
non-stick cooking spray

*If you are not on a gluten-free diet, then just replace the items marked with "*" to all-purpose flour.

1. In medium mixing bowl, whisk together white rice flour, cornstarch, potato starch, baking powder, granulated sugar, salt. In small bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract until smooth.
2. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients. Blend until batter is smooth. No lumps should remain.
3. Heat waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions. Spoon batter onto hot iron (amount of batter will vary depending on your iron) and bake until golden brown and crisp, about 4-6 minutes.

PHENOMENAL Tips:

1. This GF recipe works well because of the combination of the rice flour + starches. Potato starch is added to make the waffle light and fluffy. Cornstarch makes for the crispy exterior.

2. Rice flour is the cheapest available gluten-free flour. Not only is it the cheapest, it is also the one that closely resembles wheat in taste. Try to not use rice flour that's labeled as superfine because they soak up too much of the liquid and you will end up with a very watery batter.

3. The consistency of the batter is highly dependent on the texture of the yogurt and milk mixture. I adjust the yogurt-milk ratio based on the thickness of the yogurt I'm using.

Severin Waffle Maker

I am thankful that modern kitchen gadgets have simplified most of my cooking related chores because let’s face it, kitchen tasks are often time-consuming talaga ha!

Another important thing when making waffles is the kind of waffle maker you have.

My latest addition to the kitchen is my Severin Multi-Sandwich Toaster, which also doubles as waffle maker. It comes with 3 removable plates: sandwich plate, panini press plate and waffle plate.

But for now, I use my Severin Multi Sandwich maker primarily as a waffle maker. If I make my waffle batter thinner, then the waffle comes out in squares.

If my make the waffle batter thicker, then I am able to use the waffle maker and make these round waffles.

When my daughters and I first started eliminating gluten in our diet, the first to go was bread and pasta. Breaking from pasta was hard, but it was doubly hard when we had to let go of bread. So thankful for this waffle maker plus this waffle recipe.

I'm enjoying using my Severin Waffle Maker. My kids are also enjoying all the waffles that I have been making!

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DOLE-licious Quinoa Pizza Crust Recipe {Gluten-Free}

Thank you to WhimsicalSushi for creating this custom illustrated recipe for me. 

For inquiries, email whimsicalsushi@gmail.com

Everyone in my family loves pizza! We regularly have pizza nights at home, with the toppings all lined up so everyone can just make their own pizza by liberally piling on whatever they wish. The kids love it, and consider it a treat. And I also love it because it makes dinner prep easier for me.

DOLE-licious GIVEAWAY at the end of this post!!!

 If you're a long time reader, then you must have seen that when we do pizza nights I try to serve up an assortment of toppings, from gourmet to the simple. But I've noticed through the years that my kids always request for their tried and tested combo of ham, bacon and pineapples. My kids all love Hawaiian pizza because the combination of flavors from the tomato sauce, the salty ham and bacon, and the sweet pineapples is just a winner!

Why the need for Gluten-Free?

There are more and more people who are discovering that they are intolerant to wheat and gluten. My two girls are intolerant to wheat. It triggers an eczema / skin asthma attack, so bad that sometimes it leaves my little one scratching at night that her sheets are stained with blood in the morning. If you have kids who suffer from eczema, then you surely know the heartbreak and frustration that I am feeling.

When I got the results from my Food Intolerance Test, it showed that I was intolerant to wheat, as well. That's the reason for my feeling bloated all the time. Plus my headaches were becoming more frequent.

That's when I began researching on how to use alternative flours. At first I was a skeptic because most gluten-free baked goods ask for a variety of flours. I am not a fan of having too many kinds of flour in the pantry because I know each recipe only needs a small amount of each kind of flour and most are quite expensive. Nakakahinayang if I just end up throwing them away because I couldn't use them all up.

I also know that most of them taste yuck! Let's be honest, we all heard how gluten-free food taste like, right? Dirt dry. Boringly bland. In other words, nothing we would eat if we didn't have to. Certainly nothing worthy to post in a blog about.

So I researched a lot about gluten-free recipes just so my girls and I can still enjoy our pasta, bread, cookies and pizza, but now made gluten-free! I read about a pizza crust using cauliflower, but that sounded like too much work. I found another one that said substitute with all-purpose gluten-free flour mix, xanthan gum and psyllium husk... teka lang, ano daw? xanthan what? psyllium what? Di bale na lang!

So the past few months I started experimenting. I researched online, baked, tweaked the recipe. Repeat. And then I came upon a gluten-free pizza crust recipe using only 4 ingredients. Boom!

And this one doesn't taste like it is gluten free... which means it is not yuck! Promise!

Enter the Quinoa Pizza Crust

Why you should give this a try:
1. The dough only requires 4 ingredients (quinoa, salt, water and olive oil)
2. It is very simple to make.
3. Unlike some alternative pizza crusts, this one closely resembles "the original" in taste and texture.\

The dough requires only 4 ingredients (quinoa, salt, water and olive oil) and is amazingly simple to make. It does involve a little planning ahead because the quinoa needs to soak overnight; but other than that, it’s as easy as making pancakes.

When I plan to make it for dinner, I simply just soak the quinoa first thing when I wake up in the morning to make it ready for dinner time prep. Or if I want to make it for lunch, then I just soak the quinoa after I've eaten dinner and just leave it on the kitchen counter overnight.

I used a mixture of red and white quinoa because that's what I have on hand. But you can also use just white quinoa, and the end product will have a "whiter" appearance, which will resemble "regular" pizza even more.

After soaking for about 8-12 hours, the uncooked and soaked quinoa is blended in a high-speed blender with salt, water and olive oil until smooth. The resulting mixture resembles a very thick pancake batter that bakes into a chewy, golden crust that tastes just like pizza crust made from wheat flour.

DOLE-licious Hawaiian Quinoa Pizza Recipe

illustrated recipe done by whimsicalsushi

Makes: One 10 x 15 pizza crust.
QUINOA PIZZA CRUST Ingredients:
recipe loosely adapted from here

1 cup uncooked quinoa
1/4 cup water, add a tablespoonful at a time if dough is too think.
2-1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt

1. Soak uncooked quinoa with enough water to cover for 8-12 hours. Rinse quinoa
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line the baking pan with heavily oiled foil. This step is important because the quinoa crust can be difficult to remove when you don't oil and line the pan.
3. Add water and salt and process in a high-speed blender until the mixture resembles a thick pancake batter.
4. Pour the batter into a baking pan covered with heavily oiled foil. Bake for 10-15 minutes.
5. Take out from oven and put desired pizza toppings. See below for a list of toppings for Hawaiian Pizza. But feel free to put anything you want. I've tried this using a pesto base instead of tomato, and piled it with mushrooms and cheese.
6. Put back into the oven and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes more, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Phenomenal Tips:

* Optional: For a more flavorful crust, seasonings can be added. I've tried adding 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning, 1 tsp homemade celery salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp finely grated Parmesan / or nutritional yeast ( cheese alternative if you want to make it dairy-free / vegan)

* I cannot stress enough that you have to oil the pan - heavily! After baking, I take the pizza with foil and slice the entire pizza on a wooden board. Then we peel off the foil as we get our individual slices. I find that to be the easiest way.

DOLE HAWAIIAN PIZZA TOPPINGS Ingredients:

1 cup (8 oz.) Dole Sweet Italian Garlic and Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce

3/4 cup (2 oz.) sliced bacon, cooked

3/4 cup ham, cooked

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 can (8 oz.) DOLE Pineapple Tidbits, drained

1. Spoon Dole Sweet Italian Garlic and Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce over crust. It is optional, but I noticed that when I simmer the sauce for 30 minutes, the flavors intensify. But if you are in a hurry, you can skip that.

2. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. 

3. Top with ham, bacon and Dole Pineapple Tidbits.

4. Bake at 425ºF., 12 to 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.

Such a simple recipe for a gluten-free pizza... that closely resembles the "original" in taste and texture.

The quinoa crust is stable enough to hold all the toppings, too!

DOLE-licious Hawaiian Pizza Recipe

Since not everyone in my family has to go gluten-free, we also made two pizzas made from a "regular" store-bought crust.

You can still use the recipe I shared above, but just start with the steps for the Dole Hawaiian Pizza Toppings.

The toppings are lined up on the dining table and everyone gets a free hand on how they want their pizza to be. I usually just use our favorite store bought pizza dough, Village Gourmet's pizza base for extra convenience. Often enough, I also use tortilla as pizza base when my family want their pizza ultra thin and crispy. See my previous post on how to use tortilla for pizza and call it tarte flambee.

DOLE-licious Blog Giveaway!
I want to share the DOLE love with you, me dear readers. So I will be giving away 4 baskets to 4 winners!

4 winners will win a DOLE-licious gift basket containing: 

1 can (822g) Pineapple Tidbits

1 can (822g) Pineapple Chunks

1 pack (1 kg) Tomato Sauce

1 pack (1kg) Sweet Style Butter & Cream Spaghetti Sauce

2 cans (240ml) Pineapple Juice

2 cans (822g) Tropical Fruit Cocktail

1 Pot Holder

1 Microfiber Kitchen Towel

Easy to join:

1. Like DolePh and The Phenomenal Mama on Facebook and Instagram
2. Post a photo on Facebook and/or Instagram (you must do at least one to qualify). It can be a photo of a dish you made at home, or a photo showing you are having fun in the kitchen. It can be solo with food or with others. Set to Public so I can see your post.

Just follow the easy steps in rafflecopter to make sure your entires are counted:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms:
Raffle period is from May 23 - June 5, 2015 midnight.
Posting on both Facebook and Instagram earns you more entries. It can be the same photo on FB and IG.
Four (4) winners will be drawn via Rafflecopter one week after the contest ends, and will be notified via email.
Winners should reply to email within one week from notification date. If no reply, another winner will be drawn.
DOLE Philippines will ship the gift basket to each winner.
Open to all The Phenomenal Mama readers with a valid Metro Manila delivery address.

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