Ranch style shortcake

and gluten free too!

Since HD has had some issues with gluten, I have been adapting my standby recipes by substituting rice flour for wheat flour.  Most of the time the results are pretty good.  It sure helps to live near Bob’s Red Mill, the store is delightful!  I am just floundering through this process – for a look at a pro with tons of gluten free recipes, check out Paula’s blog, It’s All Gouda.  Your mouth will be watering at the pictures and recipes.

This one is the baking powder biscuit recipe I use the most, from one of my Grange cookbooks, NATIONAL GRANGE, Family Cookbook from Country Kitchens, 1979.  All the Grange cookbooks are full of great basic recipes, sometimes you have to overlook a recipe that calls for MSG or powdered milk, but the bare bones are there, and these books can be found in used bookstores or through AbeBooks for a song.

Here is the recipe in it’s original form, I will put my changes in italics.

RANCH STYLE BISCUITS

1 stick butter
2 cups flour     or         2 cups rice flour
1 T. baking powder
¾ t. salt             plus ¼ cup sugar if making shortcake
1 ¼ cups buttermilk or milk

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Sift dry ingredients, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.  Stir in buttermilk to make a soft dough.  Turn onto lightly floured board and pat into rectangle, cut into six 3″ x 6″ biscuits and place in greased 9″ x 13″ baking dish.  Or turn dough into greased baking dish and bake like a cake.  This method is much easier.  I like this recipe for those days when someone shows up and you need something quick.  In 5 minutes you can have these in the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Working with the rice flour is strange at first, since it has a gritty texture, but the graininess disappears with cooking.  The rice flour lends a nice flavor to the biscuits/shortcake and we actually are preferring this to wheat.  Who’da thought??

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