GF Crunchy Tuna Turnovers

I DID IT!!!! I finally managed to find an all purpose GF biscuit dough that's actually WORKABLE!!!

One of the biggest frustrations with learning to bake gluten free, is overcoming the problems of not being able to mold and shape GF bread doughs like you would expect with normal doughs, because most of the time they end up with the consistency of a thick cake batter.

But I finally managed to find one that not only tastes REALLY good, but is also versatile for many recipes (or just regular biscuits), AND it's much more like the texture and consistency of a regular, non GF, bread dough that you can roll out, cut, and shape into whatever you want!

Which means some of the family favorite recipes I thought were a lost cause can now be back on the menu! [Ignore the awful hair above, it was an at home day and I'm desperately overdue for a decent haircut!]

One of those such recipes, is my Crunchy Tuna Turnovers, which I used to make every once in a while as a nice change from regular tuna sandwiches.

But I haven't made it GF, so this was a great experiment with my new dough. After separating the dough into small balls, I lightly floured my countertop and used my rolling pin to roll out the dough flat.

Then I moved them onto wax paper so it was easy to pick up again.

The original recipe calls for a can of big flaky biscuits that are already made, and of course not GF. After making up the dough I came up with 12 flat biscuits.

I added a third can of tuna, some more cheese, and lemon pepper to the mix to have enough filling for this many turnovers. The original recipe for the filling is here.

Since the dough is actually movable, you can fold the dough over the filling, and crimp the edges closed.

It is still more fragile than regular dough, so be careful, but if it does crack or break, simply push the dough back together.

The next step on these turnovers is to lightly coat them with a beaten egg, followed by sprinkling them with crumbled potato chips.

Again, because the dough is fragile, I found it worked best to use 2 bowls to pour the egg over the dough from one bowl to the other.

Above you can see a small crack in my turnover, but that's okay here because you end up cutting a couple of slits in this dough to help with the baking, so don't worry about them.

Once coated, place on an ungreased cookie sheet. I wasn't sure exactly how this dough would bake, so I did actually spray just a very light coating of cooking spray on this sheet before placing the turnovers on top, but I'm not sure if that's really necessary.

Cut 2 slits in the top of each turnover with a sharp knife. Then bake at 375° for 18-21 minutes or until golden brown.

My turnovers turned out PERFECTLY! Dough fully cooked and lightly golden brown on the bottom.

We like to dip these in mustard and serve with a side of chips and fruit.

Awesome! The recipe was a HUGE success, and now I have this really great dough to use to make any kind of biscuits, and shape them however I want!

What's the dough recipe? It's the same one I used to convert my Ham Potato Puffs to GF, I quadrupled the amounts as follows:

GF Biscuit mix:

• 2 cups GF flour blend (2 parts white rice flour, 1 part tapioca flour, 1 part potato starch)
• 4 tsp. xanthan gum
  
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. salt
• 8 tbsp. shortening
• 12 tbsp. milk
• 2 tbsp. melted butter

Dump all dry ingredients into a large bowl. Blend shortening into dry ingredients with a mixer until it turns into small, fine crumbs. Then slowly add milk until soft, workable dough forms.

I have a feeling it's all that extra xanthan gum that's holding the dough together that makes this work. It's really expensive, but worth it!

Cinnamon-Sugar Fan Biscuits

The other day we were really in the mood for muffins. While my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins are a huge success that the entire family loves, it can get kind of old and boring to eat the same flavor muffins all the time.

So since I've had such great luck with substituting my GF flour blend into some of our regular favorite recipes, we decided to thumb through a few favorite cookbooks and see what we could find.

EJ was in the mood for something with cinnamon, and she really wanted to help make them.

KW showed up to help too, but yeah that's his hand down his pants once again, his new favorite obsession, so he didn't help this time.

But he did stick around long enough for a couple of cute pictures, sans hand in the pants.

Okay, back to the baking. I let EJ do everything while I read the directions and only helped on some of the tricky parts.

This was an interesting cinnamon muffin/biscuit recipe where you flatten out the dough, cover it in butter and cinnamon & sugar and cut it in strips to layer on top of each other.

Then you cut those long strips into shorter strips and place them in the pan. I just bought a new jumbo size muffin pan so it was perfect for trying it out since this recipe makes 6 jumbo size muffins.

Taste testers at the ready!

Including the chef, of course.

The recipe turned out great and everyone loved it. The only thing we couldn't figure out was why the recipe didn't include any kind of icing or glaze? So I whipped up a quick glaze with some powdered sugar and water and it fit perfectly. These muffins are ever so slightly thick and dry, more like a biscuit, so it really needed the icing and a cup of milk to help wash it down.

Yup, they were REALLY good! The only problem ended up being that the recipe only make 6!

Cinnamon-Sugar Fan Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (***See below for gluten free alternative)
  
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2/3 cup milk
• FILLING:
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

***For Gluten Free Flour blend: 1 cup white rice flour, 1/2 cup tapioca flour, and 1/2 cup potato starch all 3 mixed well together. Plus add 3/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum.

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cream of tartar. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in milk just until moistened.

2. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead 8-10 times. Roll or pat into a 12-in. x 10-in. rectangle. Spread with butter. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over butter.

3. Cut into five 2-in. strips; stack strips on top of each other. Cut into six 2-in. pieces; place cut side down in six greased muffin cups.

4. Bake at 425° for 11-14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to wire racks. Serve warm.

Yield: 6 biscuits, 6 servings, 1 per serving.