Gluten-free Gourmand

Photo credit: Stephen Scott Gross I recently reviewed the new book  Gluten-free Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day  by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe François.  They have given me permission to share one of the recipes with you.  It's one that I've tried several times and I've gotten to love making it on a regular basis. If you don't have the book in hand yet, here's a recipe to get you started.  It's reprinted with permission

There is an updated version of this recipe here:  http://glutenfreegourmand.blogspot.com/2013/12/BouleBreadRecipe.html I'm sorry for the absence of new recipes lately.  I've been really busy with some major career events.  I'll post more on that in the weeks to come, but the long and the short of it is that I should have more time to post to the blog now that I've re-arranged my whole work life.  I'll be delving into some great recipes, including the ultimate bread recipe: sourdough.  I've been working on creating a nice, tangy, flavorful sourdough recipe for you, complete with an easy-to-use starter.  Keep checking back for that!  In the meantime, I have another nice traditional boule bread recipe for you to munch on. For those who have been following my gluten-free bread recipes , I'm giving you another in the series.  This one is very similar to the Traditional Round Loaf recipe.  In fact it's the same but you get a larger loaf, about...

If you've ever done any gluten-free baking, or checked the ingredients of a packaged gluten-free product, you will have seen the ingredient xanthan gum.  It's everywhere.  It is used as an emulsifier, a thickener, and a gluten replacer, depending on what kind of product it inhabits.  You will see it in sauces as an emulsifier and thickener.  It's often found in ice creams - especially low-calorie or non-dairy ice creams - to smooth and thicken it for a creamy texture.  For gluten-free cooking it's used to replace the gluten in your baked goods to give the product structure.  Some people claim that you can't cook gluten-free without it, but I'm here to tell you that's not true! Think about the first two uses I of the gum that I described.  In both cases, the gum is used to give the substance more body and form.  However, both sauces and ice cream are liquids, and xanthan gum is used to thicken them.  Breads and baked goods are not liquid in ...

Recently I've been obsessed with gluten-free bread.  How does it work?  How do I make it rise?  How do I give it a bread-like flavor?  I've been experimenting with creating my own recipe lately and I've learned a lot.  There are still some things that are a mystery to me, however.  That's why I decided to make Fire and Salt's Gluten Free French Bread for the November Adopt-a-Gluten-free-Blogger event hosted by The Book of Yum . I started with the intention of making the recipe as true to the original as possible.  That being said, I have a hard time restraining myself from putting my own stamp on things, and I love making modifications.  I am also known to be a little haphazard and ill-prepared, so while I double-checked that I had the list of ingredients I forgot to get a French bread pan as Brian (Fire and Salt's blogger extraordinaire) strongly suggests in his blog post.  I even tried to swing by a kitchen store before heading home, but ...

If you haven't been to New Cascadia Traditional yet, you should go.  If you have gone but you haven't tried their teff sandwich bread yet, you should try it! It was the first full-sized sandwich I made in a long time.  I really liked the texture - it was very spongy and not at all dry.  The flavor is a little different, and very pleasantly whole-grain.  The bread has flax seeds on top which gives it an even earthier flavor.  The best thing about this bread is that it stays good for several days.  It doesn't get completely hard like most gluten-free bread products.  I've heard that it also freezes pretty well, although I tend to eat the whole thing once I get a loaf. Have you tried the Teff Sandwich Bread at New Cascadia?  What did you think?