The plan? Have the family over for a full on GLUTEN free, SOY free, safe, Easter meal prepared by my mom and I, and celebration of Jesus' resurrection together as a family.
Not in the plan? Me getting sick, yes sick, on Saturday. I never get sick, but this 24-hour bug just happened to catch me while I was down. School has been really stressful and busy lately, top that off with a 6+ hour plane flight home, +3 hour time change and the "post-stress let-down effect" and bingo, it got me. I haven't been this sick in ages, and it was not fun. Interestingly (sorry to gross you all out) throwing up was the best part, as it made me feel so much better (even if it only lasted about 15-20 minutes). Anyways, we heard from the family that a 24-hour thing had been going around, we assumed that's what I got, and today I am better. So it was definitely a 24-hour thing. I am still recovering (think barely any food and only juice/sprite while I was sick), and I hope to be 100% soon. Needless to say, it was a VERY different Easter than what I expected. Oh, and I forgot. The family stayed away. Wise decision!
The Easter meal, however (yay, I can eat real food again), was anything but a letdown. Mom made the pot-roast like she always does (family tradition, we have it at nearly every major holiday except Thanksgiving). Then we did a potato dish, steamed green beans, green peas (I couldn't really stomach the thought of grean beans on my recovering stomach), and bread.
Bread? Yes, bread. In my childhood days Mom used to always have a fresh loaf of bread for dinner straight out of the bread machine. It was homemade bread heaven every night. Needless to say we started learning about nutrition and that practice was thrown out the window. And now that I am gluten free, I remain especially nostalgic about the bread she used to make. Her bread machine oatmeal bread was by far, my favorite. Close behind was the apple-walnut, and cinnamon raisin, but the oatmeal bread "took the cake" - pun intended.
I have been searching for a good bread recipe for a while, and have had a few in my bookmarks on my computer, but haven't quite dug in and tried one. Finally, I found one that I had all the ingredients for, wasn't going to bake my back (in the complication factor) to make it, had GOOD reviews, and wasn't overly time consuming. Too good to be true? Only slightly.
from Recipezaar.com ^^
(my substitutions listed here)
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup white sorghum flour
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch/flour
1/4 cup arrowroot starch
1/4 cup ground golden flaxseed meal
3 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt (I used normal table salt, not sea salt)
2 eggs + 2 egg whites (use 4 large brown AA organic yada yada eggs)
1 cup room temperature water
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1. Preheat the oven to 200F degrees.
2. Mix wet ingredients in your stand mixer, and mix your dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
3. While the mixer is running, pour the dry into the wet and mix well on low/medium speed for about 2 minutes. There should be no lumps.
4. Turn into a olive oil sprayed (I always use my Misto) 9x5 loaf pan.
5. Turn off the oven and put the bread inside.
6. Let rise for about 90 minutes or until the top of the bread is noticeable (as viewed from the side) over the edge of the pan or until it just meets the top.
7. Then turn the oven on to 350F (try not to open the oven during the rise and during the transition to 350) and bake for about 40 minutes. The crust will be golden brown, cover with tin foil as needed to prevent over-browning.
8. Remove from oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes then turn out onto the rack and cool until no longer warm. Slice when just a touch warm or totally cooled.
I say only slightly because as you can see, the bread collasped after it's journey from the oven. I had kind of expected this to happen (some reviewers mentioned this problem) but just prayed it wouldn't happen to me; after all, not everyone encountered this phenomena. But it did. It didn't lack in the flavor or texture department. In fact it tasted exactly like my childhood oatmeal bread, even better! I am going to have to tweak the recipe so it DOESN'T fall in, but this recipe is certainly destined for greatness. It left my mom, my dad and I smacking our lips in pleasure. WE LOVED IT. Oops that was in capitals- wait, I meant to do that, hehe! It was soo good. We will definitely be making this again, and again and again. I might actually put it into muffin tins and do a "dinner roll" type. In fact, it was so good we demolished a WHOLE half loaf! And easily could have eaten the whole thing. I can't take credit though- this wasn't my recipe. Click the link and enjoy. Lots of different substitutions work well, so play around with it. I will update you will my new recipe as I bake more versions. Trial and error will get it right eventually.
Easter tasted so good! I only wish it could have been spent with family.
No comments:
Post a Comment