Gluten Free

High school classmate, Judy, has Celiac's disease. She has to eat gluten free. I popped into her office the other day...cable company...for some reason or the other...probably having to do with the scarecrow contest we urged the businesses to compete in.

Knowing that I bake, she told me that she needed me to come up with an edible gluten free bread.

Last night I searched the web for gluten free bread recipes. BINGO! I found a bread machine recipe. OH MY GOODNESS! Forget just substituting one different flour for wheat flour! This recipe called for:
brown rice flour
white rice flour
potato flour
tapioca flour
and
soy flour

AND...there had to be something in it to make it have the texture of the bread we all know and love...wheat bread.

xanthan gum

?????!!!!!!!!!

I needed to make a run to Mt. Pleasant...which has two or three health food stores. I entered Fran's with my recipe. She directed me to the cooler and showed me what she had, then pointed to a package of bread MIX! WOW. Now THIS is the way to go. Especially when you are experimenting. Now lemme tell ya. The single loaf package was $5.99. We gluten gluttons should be glad we aren't paying that much for a loaf of bread!

The mix has several flours. And some other stuff. I added milk, melted butter, 1 egg and several egg whites, and a bit of apple cider vinegar. The dough was a bit wet and I thought it needed more flour. I actually had my hand on my flour canister when I thought about what I was doing. The dough just had to stay wet.

After it baked, I dumped it out of the pan. MAN was it ever one heavy loaf of bread! I dug the paddle out of the bottom and cut off a slice. Slathered with butter (the bread, not me), I thought...all this needs is a bit of salt. Not bad at all.

I kept an eye on my watch waiting for the loaf to cool. I poked it in a bag while it was still warm and jumped in the pickup. Her office was closed due to illness for the rest of the week. The illness is her husband...in the hospital. So...I called another classmate. Melanie had just gotten off the phone with Judy! I told her to call J back and tell her to meet me at M's house.

She pinched off some bread. Tasted it. And smiled. When I left, she had the loaf of bread cradled in her arm as she got in her pickup dreaming of cinnamon toast in the morning. ;o)