Another adventure in hotel room baking…and what was I thinking?!? A yeast bread in a hotel room with questionable humidity, an oven with a questionable thermostat and unfamiliar baking supplies? I was thinking that I wanted to de-gluten a friend’s favorite sweet treat. I failed miserably. These were still edible, but did not have the light, airy quality I like in a sweet yeast bread.
Occasionally flops come from my kitchen. I don’t usually share them, but this time I will. Because I was baking in a hotel room, I did not have time or the supplies to re-make these or to choose an alternate treat to bake. You should not make these, but I’ll share the recipe anyway. Here is the recipe I used. Please note I made the following modifications:
I used my favorite gluten-free flour blend.
I added 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum.
I could not get the dough to rise. These were still better than the pecan pinwheel pastry things at the grocery store, but I would not make this particular recipe again. I would instead revert to my favorite cinnamon roll recipe from Gluten Free Girl and modify it with the caramel stickiness from the above recipe. (I am sure the recipe I tried works very well with regular, gluten-filled, flour. This is not the recipe’s fault!)
This week’s Sweet Friend is Mark. I wrote about Mark here last year on the 52 Donuts journey. Mark wrote a blurb about himself here on the 52 Foods on a Stick blog. What else should I say about Mark…well, he lives in a polka-dotted house. He drives an RV (the Rolling Man Cave) from fair to fair to festival to fair during the warm weather months, keeping all of us rowdy artists in line, or maybe encouraging us to step over the line as needed. Unlike many other agents and producers I have worked with in the past 15 years, I have never once heard Mark say a bad word about any of the acts and artists he represents. I believe he has found a good way to make a living–he works with the people he likes to work with. And it sure makes working with him enjoyable!
Mark and I share this mutual love of food, but also both have a past that includes weight struggles. We’ve both conquered those struggles with food moderation and fitness, yet we still talk about food a lot. We both still really enjoy food, even the occasional not-so-healthy food, but I believe a balance has been found. In a recent conversation about the Krispy Kreme donut burger, we both knew the calorie count of a glazed Krispy Kreme donut off the top of our heads. We both still eat junk food, just with a more conscious outlook of how much and how many miles we will have to spin the wheels on a bike to burn it off. I enjoy having a friend with whom I can talk about calorie, fat-laden food and then talk about our favorite music for spin class.
That concludes my hotel room baking adventures for awhile. I think the next time I have to go on the road for an extended period of time, I am going to try pre-baking my goodies, freezing them and seeing if that is more reliable. My friends deserve only the best from my kitchen and I will find a way to make that happen!
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