Baking Trial 008B 22 February 2013

Going Gluten-Free

Since any Tom, Dick, or Mary can use the Same Old Formulas to make a wheaten cake, I decided to take a break from Luscious Creme Filling R&D and venture into the market segment of what till recently has been quaintly termed “dietetic” foods: you know, the tiny, oddball section in the grocer’s where bland specialty products sit, mostly ignored by all but those desperate for something semi-normal to eat that won’t make them stupid, swell up, or send them to the ER.

So: gluten free is actually on the verge of mainstream, normal, really, ever since gluten intolerance and wheat sensitivities have become better diagnosed, and more food options made available. And while we’re at it, why not address those who are lactose-intolerant by removing that troublesome, indigestible disaccharide from the formula?

AP Flour        87g (Glutino® Beth’s GF Pantry All-Purpose flour:
                     white rice flour
                     potato starch
                     tapioca starch
                     guar gum
                     salt) 
Egg, separated 102g (as 3 Large eggs)
Flour, Rice RS  10g
Honey           30g
Oil, canola     45g
Raisins         40g
Sugar           80g (superfine)
Water           59g
WPC-80           9g (lecithinated/instantized)
Baking powder    5g
Lemon Juice      6g
Baking soda      1g
Lecithin      0.67g (sunflower, hydrolyzed)
Allspice      0.50g
Cinnamon      0.67g
Cloves        0.25g
Nutmeg        0.50g
Vanilla ext.     1 tsp.
Ascorbyl Palmitate 200mg. (fat-soluble Vitamin C; antioxidant)
Vitamin E oil    6 drops (antioxidant)

The tricky thing in deriving this dual-requirement formula was maintaining functional and baking properties while jettisoning the lactose and gluten—and of course making something fit to eat. But since I have a Master Spreadsheet that allows me to adjust and maintain correct macronutrient proportions, by simply increasing the whey protein and tweaking the starch & sugary fractions I was able to keep the mix In The Zone.

Zeroing out the lactose also meant dumping the fresh acid whey drained from yogurt, substituting Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC 80% protein) that has had the lactose substantially reduced. Fortuitously I was able to locate locally-sourced, organic grassfed WPC for our formula trials.

For this initial trial, a retail GF flour premix was used, rather than try to tackle a formula from scratch. The Glutino® brand is well-known in the GF “community” for both finished products and for their line of baking mixes.

Long-term, we would have to locate a functional equivalent in 55-lb. sacks for production. One issue in particular is the global shortage and price increases of guar gum, a kinda-weird commodity derived from ground-up guar beans. It finds thickener-stabilizer applications in food processing, in pharmaceuticals, and, of all things, in fracking. Other galactomannans that might serve just as well in NOT-winkie production might be got from fenugreek seed, long a traditional food plant with a host of dietary-medicinal benefits.

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Anyway,  mixing and baking the formula was straightforward. I borrowed an old trick from French genoise baking in pre-heating the whey (milk) proteins up to the critical temperature of 165°F—but no hotter—before incorporation into the mix. The resultant denaturation of proteins improves the emulsification of batters, and maintains cake-loft rise and stability in baking.

Prior experience suggested that GF formulas often make a heavier, denser product with more entrained moisture, so for this trial the base proportions were increased 50%, and baking times extended. The results were pretty good.

Spiced Fingers of Delight

Baking time for the canoe cakes was increased to 20min at 320°F. Instead of cupcakes for the excess batter, 4½" (11.4cm) springform pans were employed; baking for these mini-cakes required 23min. at 325°F. for a clean toothpick.

With a custom release coating of palm shortening, 7% sunflower lecithin, and 10% RS rice flour, release from the canoe pans was very clean and unremarkable, requiring little wiping or scrubbing for cleanup.

Test Batch 008B

The 4½" mini-cakes finished with a mostly non-domed top. During baking it was observed that the centermost zone of the batter stayed depressed and wet until the last 3 or 4 minutes of baking, filling out and puffing up level with the rest of the cake just at the end of baking.

The slight surface irregularities, which I think add “character” but would be cause for loathing and derision by other professional bakers, might be fixable with a bit more extensive mixing of meringue and flour phases before dispensing the batter. Maybe a smidgen of Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate would help...

Small-Cake Rise and Structure

For shelf-life testing, samples from the bake were placed in Pyrex® dishes and sealed with consumer-grade commercial shrink-wrap film, providing exposure to ambient diffuse light and shirtsleeve temperatures without unrealistic packaging means.

Shelf-Life Long-Term Testing

Each canoe cake weighs an average 38.5g—curiously, exactly the same as with the 005B formula; weird—and each 4½" mini-cake about 140g. Nutritional breakdown of each 008B canoe cake is:

Protein    2.7g
Fats         6g
Carbs       10g
Fiber      0.5g
Sugars      14g
Sodium     177mg
Energy     159kcal

Multiply these figures by 3 for each 4½" mini-cake. It should be noted that the Fiber fraction includes soluble and insoluble fiber from the raisins, as well as resistant starch from the rice flour.

With the particular WPC-80 used in the 008B formula, lactose content is only about 85mg per canoe cake. Since the USFDA has no fixed definition for “lactose-free” or even “lactose-reduced”, maybe comparing lactose content to regular and 70% lactose-reduced milk in groceries would be in order.

Whole milk contains about 4.8% lactose, so our 85mg per cake would be found in 1 2/3g milk or 1/3 tsp. fluid milk: not very much. And in the case of 70%-reduced milk, raise that to 1 tsp. more or less: still not a lot.

If 85mg./cake were deemed still too much, it would be little trouble to use Whey Protein Isolate (WPI), which contains about as much lactose as you’d inhale walking downwind of a cow. But WPI is much more costly than WPC...


The 008B cake is 100% wheat-free/gluten-free, and 99.7% lactose-free. There are only trace amounts of corn/maize (anticaking agent in the baking powder) and non-GMO soy (Solubilizer in organic WPC); with a little effort, even these could be purged.

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Sensory evaluation & comments from the Browne Crowe Bakes Sensory Evaluation Team:

• Firm texture, not crumbly, gummy, or sticky
• Clean taste, not overly-sweet or cloying
• Satisfying and wholesome
• Attractive spice-cake appearance
• Distinct, aromatic spicy aroma & taste
• “Goes well with tea”
• Moist, slightly chewy crumb

Overall the outcome of Trial 008B is satisfactory.

Beekeeping for Poets

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