GF: An army of mini-crescent dogs

A day or two before Christmas, I opened my email to find a copy of a recipe from the Celiac forums (on Delphi). One that I was assured I would enjoy, love, and become another voice for WAHOO and GOODNESS in the Gluten-Free baking world.

My friend was RIGHT ON!

The original version of the recipe can be found at BetterBatter.com and was published there by Naomi. Her super easy crescent rolls are exactly that – but the version emailed to me was typed up by Jen on the Delphi Forums (who I adore as her cheery voice is a much needed guiding light along with many others from the forums there). She states in her post (the entire thing was copied/emailed to me) that she was retyping the recipe from the many suggestions, adaptations, and changes created and discussed by the many members of the forums.

A LITTLE SIDE NOTE: This (the sharing or ideas and recipes) is, seriously, what I miss MOST about participating with the Forums. I LOVE the mix of voices that enter and flow in and out with recipes. It makes cooking and baking in my kitchen alone feel like I am doing so within a large sisterhood of bakers. If you find yourself alone in the gluten-free world, please don’t hesitate to find a voice within a listserv or, in particular, the Delphi Forums that sings to your soul and echoes your needs/wishes. There are so many GF people in the world now; you are more than likely to find a dozen friendly-typers and supportive voices by exploring the forums. They will give you the courage to head out into the land of dinner parties, work trips, school pizza parties and more with your head held high and a plan in place (or a dang good story to distract you from the appetizer trays, etc). The men and women of the forums are fabulous. Check them out if you have the inclination.

….BACK TO THE RECIPE….

The beauty of this crescent recipe is the ease with which you can adapt it and use it for a wider variety of purposes – like Cassandra’s crescent rolls, cinnamon rolls, and now PIZZA! (You go, girl!)

Another beautiful thing? It’s dang forgiving when you rush through it and make adjustments on your own. Like me. I screwed up the first time I made it (screwed up = didn’t follow the recipe because I was in a hurry and chatting with my family when I was baking) but the rolls were DELICIOUS and DEVOURED within 30 minutes of being out of the oven.

Since then, I’ve made my little boo-boo version of the recipe 4 times (once was a double recipe). I’ve made crescent rolls to serve with dinner and an army of crescent dogs from mini Aidell’s spicy (GF) sausages as well as the Aidell’s mini Chicken-Apple Sausage (GF, of course).

The crescents were gone before anything else during dinner. My parents (both of whom can eat gluten) have been asking for the recipe and – get this – how to convert it to a GLUTEN one! (Bwahahahahhaha!)

My nephews (for whom the mini-dog crescents were created) were delighted to see the plates of mini-dogs enter their house for dinner. I am fairly certain that my sister and her husband were equally delighted. Although, we did eat all of the mini-dogs and not all of the chili my poor brother-in-law slaved over. (I am feeling a little guilty about that – but not guilty about the joy on my nephew’s face when he saw the dogs! LOL)

Last night, I made the recipe again for my lunch today at work. A little GF Stromboli, anyone? I wrapped some GF pastrami with some fresh basil leaves into the dough before baking. Once they had cooled, I placed them into a Ziploc bag on the kitchen counter overnight. In the morning, I packed the still-soft crescent rolls into my bento box and enjoyed them for lunch (still soft but a bit dry- not too dry though, thanks to the pastrami) some 5 hours later. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!

Lastly, I made some into sweet rolls last night too. I spread some Nutella (I’m a sucker for Nutella. I blame my mom, but that’s another story.) onto the dough before baking. Not too much – just a dab. And OH MY. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMY!

Now on to the real reason you are reading this far: THE RECIPE(s)

You can find a copy of the original recipe here at BetterBatter.com. (Thank you, Naomi!)

You can find a copy of Jen’s post (from the amalgamated Delphi Forums Sisterhood & Brotherhood of Baker’s) here on Cassandra’s site.

You can also find GREAT ideas from Cassandra about using this for cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, etc.

Here’s what I ended up doing: I used Jen’s version, but doubled the butter, added fixed amounts of cottage cheese and cream cheese, omitted the vinegar, and added a bit of sweet rice flour. I also have a batch for tomorrow into which I will be rolling/kneading some grated butter (frozen stick of butter into the grater on the food processor and WAH-LAH – grated butter that I store in the freezer). I want to see if I can make these already puffy and delicious CRESCENT rolls into a more CROISSANT-style final baked product.

The worst case scenario? I have to eat a ton of delicious crescent rolls before I am rewarded with a wonderful chocolate croissant and latte breakfast. I am willing to suffer the consequences. LOL

Here’s the recipe I finally ended up baking.

GF Crescent Rolls
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter, (8 Tablespoons) slightly softened
1/3 cup (generous) low fat, gluten-free cottage cheese
1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon (or generous cup) GF cream cheese
1 cup GF Flour Mix (I used mine or use a rice or sorghum based mix)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon sugar

Directions:

1. Cream together butter, cream cheese, and cottage cheese until whipped, creamy and semi-yellow in color (about 3-4 minutes)
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix until the dough comes together – mostly away from the sides and begins to form a ball or lump in the middle of the mixer (about 2-4 minutes).
3. At this point you have two choices:
   1. Wrap the ball in plastic wrap, flatten into a disk and refrigerate for up to two hours to chill the dough. This will help the dough become more puffy and soft when you bake it.
   2. Use it right away (yes, I have no patience). The crescent rolls made this way are tasty, but not as puffy or soft as the ones that have cooled and allowed the butter to become firm again.
4. Preheat your oven to 350F.
5. Dust a silpat or parchment paper generously with sweet rice flour.
6. Flatten the dough disk a bit with your hands. Dust the top of the disk with rice flour and flip it over. Dust the top again.
7. Roll the dough out to 1/4″ thickness (or a little thicker if you prefer). Again, you have a couple choices here (many more than I name):
   1. Roll it out into a circle as though it were for a pie crust. Cut with a knife or pizza cutter into eight slices. Roll each slice from the wide end up to the tip to form crescent rolls. Curl each slightly and place on a lined (with parchment paper or a silpat) baking sheet.
   2. Roll it into a large rectangle (10 inches wide and as long as you can get it) and cut into 2″ wide strips. Roll GF lunch meats or fillings (about 1 1/2 Tablespoons) into each strip. Bake as you would for the crescent rolls. (This is what I did for my pastrami sandwiches.)
   3. Roll into a large rectangle (as above) and spread a little Nutella on each strip. Roll and bake as you would for crescents.
8. Bake at 350F for 12-18 minutes or until slightly golden on top. The rolls will be soft once cooled a bit and tender due to the amount of butter in the recipe. If you prefer a firmer crescent, lessen the butter to Naomi and Jen’s version – about 4 Tablespoons or 1/2 stick.

Happy GF Eating, All!
-Kate