Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Grains

Saturday, I'm going to learn to make bread. Maybe I'll take pictures!

I tried making bread long, long ago when I first took to cooking on my own (when I first started grad school). I was all about whole grains, so that's what I tried first. It came out like a brick. I'm thinking that might have been my mistake: trying whole grains. In fact, if I remember correctly, I think I might have made some successful white loaves. But that wasn't good enough for me, so I gave up. I decided I couldn't make bread.

So Saturday I'm getting with colleague R, and she will help me. However, it will be white (French) bread.

And the complicating factor now is that C was recently diagnosed as being highly allergic to all gluten-containing grains. We don't really know what that means (he doesn't break out, have breathing problems, or any of the usual things associated with allergies.) Still, he avoids them on the whole. (A few weeks ago, he started the day with pancakes and continued to eat wheat-based foods throughout the day. He didn't sleep so well that night, but his allergist thinks wheat was not likely to be the cause.)

So what I really need to learn is how to make rice bread. Or tapioca bread. Or something on that order.

And I have a feeling that if whole grains were hard, gluten-free grains are another thing entirely.

Sigh.

No! Onward! Face the challenge! Develop those skills.

All righty, then.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck! Bread has always been hard for me, too.

If you're aiming for gluten-free, you might be interested in Shauna James Ahern's blog: http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/. She's got quite a lot up there about gluten-free baking, and her writing is also delicious.

Anonymous said...

Some of the best bread is the easiest: flour, yeast, water. And a pinch of salt.

Donna said...

Thanks for the link, Krista!

And, Jeff, yes. But. Most flour has gluten. So...