GF Banket (attempt 1)

Today I headed out to the Grand Rapids farmers market with my Dad and little siblings after grabbing a tasty bite at Marie Catrib's. While there I spotted a vendor selling banket, a wonderfully delicious pastry that a family friend always made for us. It is SOOO GOOD. banket is a tube like pastry that has an outer crust and is filled with an almond paste on the inside (see pic below). Since I, along with my family, am gluten free I had to resist. However, when I got home I still had a craving. My solution = make gluten free banket using a gluten free recipe I find online. Good idea, problem was there were NO recipes for gluten free banket yet I still wanted it really bad. My next solution = make my own by following and modifying a normal banket recipe. I have never done a recipe modification (so obviously I really wanted some). Ohh and through my online searching I found out the banket is a Dutch pastry, West Michigan has a fairly large Dutch population so that might explain why I have had it.

There were a few bumps along the process and I had to think on my feet and trust my instincts but overall the banket turned out pretty darn good. I am not fully happy with the recipe and I intend to change it the next time I make it. In this recipe there are two whole sticks of butter, not something I like. Also, in the filling I used about a cup of coconut sugar, and while it is a low glycemic sweetener we usually never have to use more than 1/2 cup for recipes.

Yes, sweet success! As you can see one has already been eaten =)

The crust turned out crumbly and falls apart a little bit. I have included a picture so you can see the final product. I won't be posting the recipe until I experiment a little bit more and get a recipe that it more to my liking (if you really want to recipe I made today just leave a comment). I was just so very excited about my first recipe modification (and the fact that it worked) that I had to post =).