Thursday, October 30, 2008

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day Twenty


I love the smell of bread baking in the oven.  We tried out a new recipe yesterday using the large squash we baked the other day.  The kids and I are intolerant of wheat, so we are trying to find alternatives to the sprouted breads we normally use.  Annika has shown an interest in "helping" me in the kitchen recently.  I remember this stage with Gabriel; trying to teach her how to measure, stir, pour, and keep from eating the flour and spreading the dough all over the counter.  I took many deep breaths to calm myself, and we got through this baking adventure fairly well.  The bread is a yeast bread from Betty Hagman's Gluten Free baking book.  I usually have to tweak the recipe in some way, and try them a few times to get them right for my oven and ingredients.  The bread smelled wonderful until it smelled like burning...I had forgotten to put tin foil on top to keep it from browning too much.  Woops!  It turned out OK, we just had to cut the crust off to eat the soft and sweet interior.  We ate almost the whole loaf that afternoon, and I made another one today.  It turned out better than the first, and we ate all but two pieces.  Gabriel even boasted that it is the only bread crust he likes.  Annika begged me to let her help bake today, but alas, it had to be done during her nap.  Oh well, I still have more squash; maybe we'll make some more bread tomorrow.

2 comments:

Angela said...

will you share the recipe? I love having the kids help with the cooking - we have so much fun that it's worth the inevitable mess!

Jennifer Johnson said...

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Angela, I debated for awhile whether or not to type the recipe out. It's kind of complicated, since it uses about 20 ingredients, most of which any normal baker wouldn't have in stock (xanthan gum, egg replacer, almond meal, tapioca starch, and others). If you want to make it, I'd suggest checking out her book from the library (it's called The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread), but it will take an investment to buy all the stuff for it, and wheat bread is SO much better. If you don't have wheat allergies or Celiac disease, don't even try these recipes. If you can eat what, there are some heavenly squash breads, rolls and cookies in the Victory Garden Cookbook by Marian Morash. Hope this helps!
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