While I have had some great success finding pre-made gluten-free substitutes for my culinary desires, gnocchi has not been one of them. Quite dissappointing really as I love these little dumplings that can stand up to any sauce you throw it in. Finally, the desire got too strong and as is my usual nature, I decided to take a crack and making it myself.
This recipe is definitely one I am proud of. After a couple of tries I believe this is the closest to perfection I will find in a gluten-free gnocchi recipe. I searched the world wide web for base recipes to try and found them on Serious Eats for Gluten-free Potato Gnocchi and Cooks with Cocktails for Gluten-free Sweet Potato Gnocchi. I tended to like Serious Eat’s version better in terms of ingredients and portions so I used that for both the russet and sweet potato recipes. As for consistency I started with the base measurements for the flours and added each by 1/4 cups until the dough was tight enough to roll and mold.
Please keep in mind that homemade gnocchi is a labour of love. You can always break up the task by baking potatoes and mashing them a day or two before mixing and rolling the dough. Even with this, the mixing and rolling will take time so make sure you allow yourself that time for a stress-free experience.
Please comment or message me with any suggestions, substitutions or solutions you have found for gluten-free gnocchi that you love.
Bon Appetit!
Gluten-free Potato and Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Ingredients
- FOR THE POTATO GNOCCHI
- 5 med sized russet potatoes (2 cups unseasoned mashed potatoes)
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups white rice flour
- 1 1/2 cups sweet(glutinous) rice flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1-2 teaspoons ground black pepper(optional)
- -
- FOR THE SWEET POTATO GNOCCHI
- 5 large organic sweet potatoes (4 cups unseasoned mashed sweet potatoes)
- 3 1/2 cups white rice flour
- 3 cups sweet(glutinous) rice flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- pinch ground cloves
- pinch ground nutmeg
Instructions
For the potato gnocchi
OIL potatoes until covered. Bake on a cookie sheet uncovered at 425f for 1 hour. Potatoes will be soft when pierced with knife or fork.
COOL potatoes until easy to handle. Peel potatoes and mash flesh until broken down.
RICE potatoes with a hand ricer. Mix in eggs and black pepper until fully incorporated.
WHISK together rice flour, sweet rice flour, and salt.
ADD flour mixture to potato mixture by 1/2 cups mixing completely with hands before the next flour addition. KNEAD dough until completely mixed.
SEPARATE and roll dough into tennis sized balls. Roll each ball into approximately a 5" log. Cut log in half, keep one half and put the other aside. Roll log until it is the diameter of a finger or to your desired thickness. Cut rolled dough into 1/2 inch pieces. You can leave as is or shape accordingly.
LAY each piece separately into a lined cookie sheet and freeze for 1 hour or overnight. Collect gnocchi pieces into a ziplock bag and freeze.
When cooking the potato gnocchi
Bring a pot of water to boil. Season with salt. Add gnocchi by the handfull (depending on your appetite size 2 handfuls will feed one person). Cook for 3.5 minutes. Drain and rinse if desired. Toss in favourite sauce.-
For the sweet potato gnocchi
Bake on a cookie sheet uncovered at 425f for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. No oiling is needed as sweet potatoes are filled with moisture. Potatoes will be soft when squeezed.
COOL potatoes until easy to handle. Peel potatoes and mash flesh until completely broken down.
Mix potatoes with egg, cloves and nutmeg. (You can rice the sweet potato but again the sweet potato is filled with moisture and it doesn't really do much.)
WHISK together rice flour, sweet rice flour, salt, cloves and nutmeg.
ADD flour mixture to sweet potato mixture by 1/2 cups mixing completely with hands before the next flour addition. KNEAD dough until completely mixed. This dough will be somewhat softer but should not stick too much to the hands. Refrigerate for 30 mins.
SEPARATE and roll dough into tennis sized balls. Roll each ball into approximately a 5" log. Cut log in half, keep one half and put the other aside. Roll log until it is the diameter of a finger or to your desired thickness. Cut rolled dough into 1/2 inch pieces. You can leave as is or shape accordingly.
LAY each piece separately into a lined cookie sheet and freeze for 1 hour or overnight. Collect gnocchi pieces into a ziplock bag and freeze.
When cooking the sweet potato gnocchi
Bring a pot of water to boil. Season with salt. Add gnocchi by the handfull (depending on your appetite size 2 handfuls will feed one person). Cook for 3.5 minutes. Drain and rinse if desired. Toss in favourite sauce.
Notes
After-the-fact Wisdoms
It is important to bake your potatoes and not boil them. Boiling will introduce too much moisture into the potatoes making it more difficut to work with for this recipe.
Always cook gnocchi in boiling water.
I've tested it and 3 1/2 minutes seems to be the perfect cooking time from when it drops into the water. If you like it really soft then add 30 seconds.
Feel free to play around with other starchy foods to make into gnocchi. Make sure that the dry to wet ingredient ratio is the maintained or else it will fall apart(that's the catch with gluten-free cooking)
