Sunday, August 19, 2007

RISOTTERIA: GONE SWIMMIN'

If you go to Risotteria today, stuff yourself while you can, and maybe buy some goodies to go, too: The restaurant will take a summer vacation from August 20 through August 28, when it will reopen for lunch at noon.

And take heart, breadstick fans: You can always try to make some yourselves using this recipe, though I note that one Jane Oswaks offered the following "correction" via the international celiac mailing list.
After experimenting with this recipe, as printed in the NY Times, I finally had success today! I doubled all of the ingredients, but left the water at 1 cup. Additionally, I proofed the yeast in the warm water with the sugar, then added it with the vinegar and olive oil to the dry ingredients. Perfection!! Depending on how long you make them, you'll get between a dozen (very long) to a dozen and a half. Here is the revised version.

Recipe: Risotteria's Gluten-Free Breadstick (Revised version)

1-1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1-1/2 cup organic brown rice flour
1 cup tapioca starch
2 tablespoon nonfat dry milk powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon of dried herbes de Provence
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
Nonstick spray or vegetable oil, for greasing baking sheet and breadsticks
Fleur de sel or other flaky sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium mixing bowl fitted with standard beaters (not a dough hook), rice flour, tapioca starch, dry milk powder, xanthan gum, gelatin powder, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt and herbes de Provence. Mix on low speed to blend. Put yeast in 1 cup warm water (105 to 110 degrees) and add sugar. Let sit for a couple of minutes. Add to dry ingrediets with olive oil and vinegar. Increase speed to high, and beat 6 minutes. (Dough will stay very soft and should not pull off sides of bowl; if necessary, add water 1 tablespoon at a time until dough does not resist beaters.)

2. Liberally spray or oil a baking sheet, and set aside. Put dough into a large pastry bag with a plain round 1/2 -inch tip, and pipe 12-18 breadsticks about 8 inches long, leaving about 2 inches in between. Spray or brush tops of breadsticks liberally with oil, and salt generously with fleur de sel.

3. Bake breadsticks 10 minutes, turn and spray or brush again with oil. Continue to bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes more. Serve warm.

Yield: 12-18 breadsticks.
And here's Puffy AmiYumi wishing the Risotteria folk a happy "V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N" (followed by "Puffy no Tourmen").



Source (6:15)


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have attempted to make these twice the orginial recipe and both times they came out like a cracker. I will attempt your recipe. Did you allow the breadsticks to rise or did you bake immediately? Thanks

David Marc Fischer said...

Thanks for your note, anonymous. I haven't prepared the breadsticks myself, but I noticed that Jane ran into a problem and posted the above fix. I'm interested to know how it works out for you.

For those who aren't familiar with Risotteria breadsticks, I note that they are bready, more like a ficelle than a baguette, and definitely not of the firm, crunchy variety.

Anonymous said...

It might be helpful to point out that gluten free flours should be at room temperature because the coldness interferes with the proofing of the yeast.