Desserts Breads Special!! 

Chocolate Bread Mini Loaf  Ginger Bread Mini Loaf.....          
                    
     

 Holiday Pricing through the end of the year!
$6.00/loaf     4 loaves/$20.00

 

 

The Chocolate and Ginger Bread Mini Loaves are great at room temperature and simply knee-buckling warmed in the toaster. They are great plain with tea or coffee as well as slathered in butter, olive oil, coconut oil or jam. They would also be perfect on a holiday table, sliced, warmed and served with a mini-dollop of whipped cream, be it dairy or cashew (recipe here).

The breads are substantial and a small piece satisfies. They have no noticeably sour taste but are fully fermented making them highly digestible and nutrient dense. Grace the holiday table with a dessert bread that makes people feel good!!

These keep for 3-4 months in the freezer.

Holiday Special
Order Here!

                                 

The Art of Self-Regulation

                                           
Recently, I received some feedback from a woman who said she would never buy my cookies again because she ate a 1 pound bag in 3 days. Her email was full of bold letters and exclamation points.

A different woman sat on her couch eating her 1 pound bag of cookies like chips, one cookie after the other. Three quarters of the way through the bag, she knew she had seriously over eaten! She called me and described her experience. Here are the highlights of her description: "seriously stuffed" and then she made a grunting sound. Besides the feeling of having eaten too much, she realized the cookies had a high nutrient content because she did not feel hungry again for many hours.

She really loved the cookies and strongly suggested I package them in single portion sizes so that she could self-regulate her consumption of them.

I have to admit that when I don't eat my cookies for awhile and then have some, I feel that old familiar addiction response kick in. I want to eat as many as I can, for like forever!! But now I know that If I exercise my self-regulation skills, I can enjoy them without feeling like grunting afterwards. When I'm baking large amounts of them, I am surrounded by cookies that seem to be whispering "Eat Me", Alice-in- Wonderland-style, but I just glare at them and walk away. I reward myself with 1.5 ounces after my weekly Friday afternoon swim. And then don't feel like eating again till 7:30 pm.

These cookies have very high nutrient dense food value. I make them with sprouted, dehydrated almonds, fermented chia gel, shredded coconut and coconut oil. They are really power packed and one doesn't need much of them to satisfy.

It's similar with the baked breads and bread mixes. I think that when we have a taste of gluten-free bread that is "real food", we want to consume a lot of it to make up for the absence of good bread for way too long. I must confess that I gorged on each bread recipe as I perfected it but now I've found that one Muffin Top works well for a snack, one English Muffin is great for a meal and 1/8 of a bread mix flat bread is really enough. We just need to listen to our bodies about when we're truly satisfied and give ourselves a chance to self-regulate.

Last summer I brought some cookie experiments to my brother's house where his wife, 2 kids and I plowed through a lot of cookies, tasting and critiquing as we ate. I had to hide some away for my parents, who were next on my itinerary. There were cinnamon cookies, ginger cookies and my original recipe, vanilla spice. My young nephew said "Aunt Sharon...is chocolate gluten-free?", whereupon I said yes...whereupon he said "then I think you should put chocolate chips in your cookies".

I've been tinkering again and believe I have perfected the ginger cookies. The cinnamon cookies are close to perfection. Of course, adding mini chocolate chips to anything makes it better so the chocolate chip cookie doesn't need any more work. I used a chip that was dairy, soy and nut free. Alas, it has evaporated cane juice in it also known as sugar, but I think it's okay for the occasional treat (rather than consuming massive quantities at once). There's that self-regulation idea again. 
                                
                                Cookie dough ready to bake
                              
                                       Cookies baked
If my price points seem high, please remember that I invest in high quality organic ingredients rather than fancy packaging.

I really need some feedback on the cookies so I will happily include some free samples in any orders I ship out in April. If you are interested in receiving samples, please check "Yes" on the shopping cart contact info page. Please let me know any and all feedback about them.

 
Chocolate Chip

  
Cinnamon  

 
Ginger          

Customer sales update:
The woman who swore she would never buy them again has just purchased a 3 oz pack!

Click Here to Check out my products!

View From the Other Side of the Table

Before I was a farmer's market vendor, I was a farmer's market customer, checking out booth after booth and sometimes balking at the prices of things. Imagine charging that much for homemade bread, chocolate, salsa, wine or produce! Not having yet been a vendor, it was impossible for me to know how much time, energy and resources went into the crafting of the product that seemed so pricey.

Now that I've been on the other side of the table, I really get it!! High quality ingredients, hand made beautiful products, long hours making the products and on market day (after working at a frenzied pace in the days before, then packing the car the night before)...up at 5 am, out the door carrying lunch, drinks, coffee (or in my case, vitamin powder drink), set up the tent, tables and products by opening bell.

It can be challenging to have a smile on one's face at that opening bell especially if it's cold and drizzly or burning hot or even if it's a nice day because the long week of preparations has left us with some real fatigue.

Yet we keep on keepin' on to build our businesses, try out new products, and best of all, to take part in the community spirit!

Market day is a happy day. Everyone is out with babies, kids, and dogs looking for beautiful food and crafts and connection.

My friend, Peggy, who helped me at the market a few times, pointed out the changes in people's faces upon trying my products. Of course, not everyone likes my products but most people did. When someone tried the Sprouted Almond Cookies or a Pumpernickel Muffin Top I watched their face move from neutral to pure joy and delight.


Comments like "these cookies are delicious and are not too sweet!" and "I haven't had pumpernickel in sooooooo long! Thank you!!" remind me that I am on the right path, bringing healthy delicious food to people like myself with food restrictions.

Peggy suggested that sometime we set up a video camera to document the facial changes. I think it's an interesting idea!

I learned so much from my first vendor year at the market. I didn't figure out everything, though. Some days I sold out of one product. The next week I'd bring lots more of that product but it would just sit there while something else would sell out. Baffling.

I felt a lot of solidarity and support with and from the other vendors. We shared business tips and supported each other through the season.

We have one last market, the Pre-Thanksgiving Market which will be indoors so no tent to set up. I'll be presenting  my newly perfected Chocolate Bread as well as my Ginger Bread. Hopefully, my new Cocktail breads, which need another week or so of testing, will also be ready.

               
        Ginger Bread                               Chocolate Bread

Being a farmer's market vendor was a fabulous experience and I hope to do it again, next year!!

Click here to learn more about and order products!

How To Buy Gluten-Free Without Getting Duped

Here's a fabulous article from the Daily Beast, on healthy gluten-free food vs. gluten-free junk food. I'm proud to say my recipes and products fall within their "healthy food" parameters! I've added my own photos:-)
 
By Nicole McDermott for Life by DailyBurn


A quick trip down the natural foods section of your grocery store likely reveals box after box showcasing “gluten-free” on the label, indicating items free from wheat, rye, barley or crossbreeds of those grains. Now, the buzz phrase is infiltrating the rest of the aisles—on pasta, cereal, and even items like sauces, popcorn and potato chips that never even contained gluten in the first place. From 2011 to 2013, the gluten-free market grew 44 percent. More than half of consumers who buy these foods (65 percent) do so because they think the items are actually healthier. But, reading “gluten-free” on a product’s label doesn’t always mean it’s automatically a nutrition rock star.
Compared to whole-grain foods, gluten-free versions often lack essential vitamins and nutrients and turn to added sugar and fat to make up for taste and texture. They’re loaded with refined un-enriched grains and starches, meaning the grains have been milled (a process that removes dietary fiber, iron and many B vitamins).
While it’s generally better to just ditch processed foods and stick to whole, real foods when possible (for instance, fruit, veggies, nuts and beans) we all crave some carbs and comfort food every once in a while—gluten-allergy or not. Learn how to buy healthier gluten-free products—from pasta and bread to crackers, snack bars and cereal—with our tips and insight from Rachel Begun, R.D., gluten-related disorders expert.

Gluten-Free Pasta
Tons of conventional pasta brands have joined the gluten-free ranks with their own varieties. But beware: Though bigger brands have the ability to produce pasta for a fraction of the price, most varieties have sub-par nutritional value.
Watch out for:
While gluten-free and regular pastas typically have the same amount of calories per serving, some of the former options have only one gram of fiber versus many whole-wheat varieties that have six. And though whole-wheat pasta has only a small amount of iron in every serving, most gluten-free brands lack any vitamins or minerals at all. “Some gluten-free pastas are made from empty starches and refined grains, thereby providing little in the way of nutrition,” Begun says.
Look for:
Try to purchase pastas made from whole grains like quinoa or brown rice to add back some of that iron and fiber. “Fiber, protein and healthy fats all contribute to satiety,” Begun says, “meaning they fill us up on smaller portion sizes.” Look for brands with ingredients like flax seed, rice bran and nut flours, which add healthy fats to the mix and keep us fuller, longer.

Gluten-Free Bread
With a super-low fiber content (usually only about one gram per two slices), gluten-free breads may leave your stomach grumbling soon after lunch is over. Quite a few of these loafs use potato starch and tapioca starch in attempts to produce a lighter, fluffier product. Unfortunately, that leaves out many of the healthy nutrients found in whole grains.
Watch out for:
Beware of starches and white rice flour leading the pack on the ingredients label. As a result of using those ingredients, most gluten-free breads have double the carbs of whole-wheat bread (and that factors in the small size of a gluten-free slice). Even whole-grain gluten-free breads are highly processed and contain a long list of ingredients, including added sugars and chemical agents to soften the dough since there’s no gluten present. According to Begun, at this stage in the gluten-free game, refined grains and starches are still necessary to make good quality, better tasting products, “so it’s unlikely to find options that completely eliminate them,” she says.
Look for:
Purchase breads containing seeds and a mixture of healthy grains (like millet and amaranth) other than just brown rice. “Breads with a whole grain as the first or second ingredient are ideal,” Begun says. Extra protein, like pea protein for instance, or all organic and non-genetically modified ingredients are an added bonus.

Gluten-Free Crackers
Yes, it’s possible to have cheese without them, but sometimes we’ve just got to kill that crunchy, salty craving with a cracker. Pretzels aren’t exactly a healthy gluten-free snacking choice as the first five ingredients are typically starches, oils, sugar and salt. Thankfully, some crackers are made of more promising ingredients.
Watch out for:
Just like the other foods on this list, we have a similar guideline for crackers: Steer clear of varieties with low protein and low fiber content. Crackers that list cornstarch as the first ingredient? Those are a no-no unless you’re a fan of baked, flavored cornstarch, which features no fiber, no protein and a whopping 24 grams of carbohydrates for a very small serving.
Look for:
According to Begun, options made mostly from gluten-free whole grains and nut flour reign supreme. Seek out varieties that include seeds—like flax, chia and sesame—which add nutrients including omega-3s and protein. Bean powders may be tossed into the mix to increase the fiber and protein count even more. Look for at least three grams of fiber and three grams of protein for a more satisfying crunch.

Gluten-Free Snack Bars
Granola and protein bars make for a convenient, grab-and-go snack. They’re pre-wrapped, mess-free, and easy to toss in a gym bag or briefcase before heading out the door. Unfortunately, many snack bars rely on sweet syrups and coatings for optimal taste rather than optimal nutrition.
Watch out for:
“Avoid bars with an added sugar as the first ingredient,” Begun says. Many snack bars on supermarket shelves, gluten-free or not, are loaded with the sweet stuff. Chocolate or yogurt coatings are a major red flag, too. Some labels feature incognito sugars with less recognizable names including brown rice syrup, maltitol, evaporated cane juice, dextrose and sorbitol. “There are very few snack bars on the market that are truly a healthful option,” Begun says. And, many bars print “gluten-free” on their labels just to appear healthy.
Look for:
Try to find bars with high protein counts. As a rule of thumb, choose bars with more grams of protein than sugar (shoot for at least eight to 10 grams). Products made with naturally gluten-free ingredients like nuts, seeds, gluten-free grains, beans and dried fruit tend to be the healthiest options. “Protein enhancers such as whey, whole soybeans and pea protein are good, too,” Begun says.

Gluten-Free Cereal
For gluten-free eaters, most conventional cereals are automatically off the table (unless you’re looking in the natural foods section of the grocery store), since the majority of boxes on the shelf include wheat. There are a few gluten-free friendly mainstream cereals, but they’re generally lacking enriched vitamins and nutrients.
Watch out for:
“Just like their conventional counterparts, gluten-free cereals can also be loaded with added sugars,” Begun says. A good rule of thumb, she says, is to stick to options featuring five grams of sugar or less per serving. While puffed grains (light and air-filled grains created by high pressure and steam to increase their original size)—such as puffed white rice—are a good low-cal option, but the high heat used during manufacturing destroys a lot of their nutritional value.
Look for:
Choose cereals with gluten-free whole grains such as brown rice, oats (make sure they’re certified gluten-free), quinoa, amaranth and millet. If you want to try out puffed grains, opt for fortified versions, meaning essential vitamins and minerals like iron and amino acids are pumped back into the cereal. Seeds are an added bonus. Or you can buy your own gluten-free cereal grains and whip up a semi-homemade cereal.
Yes, it’s easy to point fingers at most of the food found in boxes and bags (read: processed), but that doesn’t mean gluten-free eaters have to cut out pasta, bread, crackers, snack bars, or cereal forever. With the right ingredients and nutrition stats in mind, gluten-free buying is a little less complicated and a whole lot more satisfying.

A bit less water may make your bread just right!

One of my readers sent in photos of her Teff Carob Pumpernickel loaf. The bread looked excellent but I noticed a slight dip in the top of the loaf. From my own many trials and errors, this usually means there is too much moisture (water) in the overall dough. I suggested that the next time she make the bread, she reduce the water in the last feeding of the starter. Sometimes, reducing by just 1-2 tablespoons makes enough of a difference to get it just right. 

Here's the first bread. Notice the slight dip in the top.



This recipe is Teff Carob Coconut minus a bit of extra moisture.
Instead of a dip, a nice arc on the top!


The sliced bread shows a perfect form: a nice arc and nearly uniform texture



There are many factors that affect the moisture balance in gluten-free sourdough bread:
-Some grain mills reach very high temperatures.
If the grain was heated when it was milled, it will dry it out causing it to absorb more water.
If it wasn't heated when it was milled, it won't absorb as much water.
-The humidity in the kitchen will affect the starter.
Very high humidity causes the flour too absorb less water.
Very low humidity causes the flour to absorb more.

-The grind of the flour
A very fine grind will absorb more water.
A medium to coarse grind will absorb less.

Another interesting piece of information:
A reader wrote to me wondering why I used volume measurements (cups and spoons) rather than weight measurements (a scale) for my recipes. She reminded me that the most accurate baking uses weight and that professional bakers use weight.

A few years ago I tried to convert from volume to weight but discovered something very surprising. I measured 1 cup each of home milled brown rice flour, Arrowhead Mills brown rice flour, and Bob's Red Mill brown rice flour. Each of these has a different fineness of grind resulting in a slightly different weight per cup! Instead of an exact weight I was looking at even more variables in a sourdough process that already has enough variables.

The more coarsely ground flour particles leave more air space between the particles. The finely ground flour takes up less space, filling up the spaces between particles with more flour. The finer flour will weigh more per cup than the coarse.

I did not see how I could give an accurate  measurement given the fact that people use all sorts of different brands of brown rice flour and use all different types of grain mills to mill their own. I decided to stay with the volume measurements and give helpful information about how to work with the flours and what the visual and tactile goals are for the final texture.

I wish I could say " Just follow the recipe and it will be perfect every time". I wish it were true! Sourdough is a living entity that is affected by everything around it. To receive the benefits of sourdough, we must respectfully, and sensitively, learn to work with it.

Keeping this in mind, when you make starters and breads, you gain experience as to what thicknesses and textures you are looking to create.

July Newsletter

This month's newsletter features an article on baking Gluten-free Sourdough Bread in the heat of summer!

Also a recipe and video for Marinated Tomatoes using home made Kombucha vinegar. Yum!

Click here to read! 

Thoughts from a Reader

Thoughts from Readers What is "Normal" bread? Hello baker friend, The other day I had dinner with a friend and she made a paleo yeasted bread. She is quite the explorer in the kitchen and especially around baking. Though she hasn't shown much interest in sourdough yet. She was hoping to make a paleo challah. She said the dough wasn't the right consistency for challah so it came out as a loaf. It was very beautiful and delicious, almost cake like. She also expressed that she wanted to make a high rising bread. (Her bread had risen quite well and looked like"normal" bread.)

I share all this with you because I think that we are culturally bred (pun intended) to regard bread as being big, grown into something with a particular shape and consistency. While exploring and enjoying my sourdough loaves, which are not big and light and fluffy, my partner and I often reflect that it's like working with a different artistic medium. Pastels and oils can make a portrait, but the effects are quite different. It's a reminder that sourdough gluten free baking is just different. It's not meant to look like Wonder bread. Just like Wonder bread isn't intended to have the same nutritional or digestive properties GF sourdough does.

My partner and I like to reflect upon the origin of bread and what early loaves might have been made from and how they were discovered. It's easy to imagine that some ancient woman had porridge left over and it sat in some corner of her hut for awhile as she was unwilling to throw precious food away and as it aged and fermented, rather than throw it out, she patted it together and put it on the fire somehow and came by bread. Looking at the origin of breadmaking like this, makes me feel that what I am eating is actually closer to its origin, than the fluffy light yeasted loaves we regard as "normal" and desired today.

That's my tangent for today. Wishing you happy baking, J. Oregon

Sharon's Response:
Here is my opinion about light and fluffy bread:

I totally agree with your opinion that we are culturally "bred", (excellent pun, by the way) to expect bread to be light, fluffy and tall. This is what most of us in the US grew up with. Wonder bread is the epitome of light and fluffy but even the "real Jewish rye' breads from bakeries in Brooklyn, where I grew up, were light and fluffy.

There was light rye and dark rye. I asked a baker what the breads were made of, (this was before the era of mandatory labeling). She said mostly white flour with a small amount of rye flour. I asked what was in the dark rye bread and she said it was the same ingredients with a little caramel color added to make it dark.

Wow, was I surprised! I had this fantasy that the dark rye was some ancient recipe handed down from baker to baker. In reality it had a bit more substance than Wonder Bread but probably no more nutrition.

We all know that that gluten makes a wheat bread rise. To create a light and fluffy bread, one must have a variety of wheat that has a high amount of gluten in it. Over the last 50 years, perhaps, I believe wheat growers have been selectively seeding for strains with more and more gluten in them to fill the desire for light and fluffy.

Humans can adapt to selective seeding over long periods of time but the amount of gluten in current strains of wheat has been increased so much and so quickly it is probably more than most of us can adapt to. As a result our digestive systems are stressed. If we continue eating these strains of wheat we may develop Celiac intolerance and end up with the autoimmune disorders and many other serious diseases our population is dealing with.

To have the expectation that good bread is light and fluffy may mean that we have been greatly mislead. The breads of our ancestors, no matter what our lineage is, was coarse, dense, fermented, nutritious and with a long shelf life.

When I set out to make my breads my first goal was to make a nutritious bread using only food ingredients. Using an old rye sourdough technique made it possible. The bread was not light and fluffy but was chewy and substantial. I didn't need to eat much of it to feel sated.

When people taste my bread, the ones have only light and fluffy as a reference point don't care for it. The people who appreciate old world breads love it. The people who appreciate sourdough love it. And of course, the gluten-free people, who are looking for something beyond potato flour and tapioca starch breads, are really happy to have it.

Bread has sustained humans for perhaps 5,000 years. Fluff never sustained anyone!

Free December Newsletter

December Newsletter features a delicious and beautiful holiday dessert: English Trifle and it's gluten-free, sugar-free and vegan!!

Click to read

Letter from a Reader

Hi Sharon,
I purchased your ‘Art of Gluten Free Sourdough Baking’ book a little while ago. It arrived just in time for me to transform my first batch of boosted brown rice starter into a reasonably successful loaf. It was a little flat and moist but with a great taste and lovely chewy texture that is missing in the normal gluten free shop offerings!

I didn’t think I would make another loaf soon so I used the leftover brown rice starter to make pancakes for Easter breakfast and included fruit and some spices. We ate these with soft goat cheese and sugar free jam. Wow! Even my husband and mother enjoyed these. I ran out of bread before my next batch of starter was ready so I used a bought loaf that I had in the freezer. I couldn’t believe the difference in the way my stomach felt.

I have just made two loaves using a mix of brown rice starter with Quinoa flour and potato flour. I had a really good result with these, so much so that I had four slices of the first one that I cut up! They seem to slice easily and last very well.

Thank you so much for putting so much effort into researching and producing this book. I had all but given up on bread until my sister in law brought your book to my attention. I am looking forward to trying some of the other things as well. Like banana bread!

Warm regards and thanks again!
D.B., Australia

The Imperfect Loaf

Truth be told, I still make imperfect loaves of bread. With sourdough there are so many variables it is nearly impossible to achieve duplicate results from batches to batch.

Some variables that affect the finished product are:
*the fineness or coarseness of the grind of the flour
*amounts of water
*ambient humidity
*ambient temperature
*the slightest variations in measurements

With practice I have gotten to the place where I can make adjustments to the starter and batter as I go, correcting what might go wrong.

If I haven't made a specific recipe in a while I may have an imperfect loaf the first time around and a perfect loaf the second. I recently made my Mock Rye Bread using a refrigerated starter instead of a room temp starter. Refrigerated starters can be deceiving as the chilled starter may appear thicker than it truly is. This one seemed too thick so I added more water to the starter to make it the texture I remembered it should be.

The loaf rose but not as much as I had remembered it rising. When I sliced open an end of the loaf, the texture was a bit dense. The holes were not as large as they should be.











I continued slicing as I wanted to freeze some and found the closer I moved to the center of the bread the wetter the top was. That's when I realized the batter was too wet and I made a mental note not to add as much water next time.












Some pieces near the center were almost squishy.
I continued slicing and lay the slices on a rack to dry out for a day. Then I froze half of them and stored the others in a container lined with a cloth. They toasted up fine, the taste is great albeit a bit dense.












You can see that the tops of many slices came apart. I saved those pieces, let them dry out and dropped them in the bottom of a bowl of soup. Perfect!

Saturday Night, November 5, 7:00 pm EST! Live Internet Radio Interview with Vickilynn Haycraft!

Wow! Another interview! This time it will be a live internet radio show by Vickilynn Haycraft, who is an excellent interviewer. This will be a relaxed one-hour talk where we will delve into gluten-free sourdough baking as well as discuss some aspects of my own personal healing journey.

Click here for a direct link to the show page.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/doctorprepper/2011/11/05/get-real-get-prepared-with-vickilynn-haycraft-1

The show will be live Saturday Evening, Nov. 5, from 7-8PM EST, so you can tune in live via that link.

This link will be available after the show to access the interview On Demand, or to download as an Mp3.

If you would like to hear the show live via phone and not on the computer, the number is 1 (347) 326-9604

We will also be open to taking live calls on the air at the above number!

Make a cup of tea, toast a piece of gluten-free sourdough bread and join me for an easy going evening!

Summer Starter Tips for Gluten-Free Sourdough Starters

Just a tip to all of you baking in the hot summer weather:
Feed your gluten-free sourdough starter every 5-6 hours rather than every 7-8 hours to prevent overfermentation, which results in unpleasantly sour tastes and loaves that don't rise much. This is a good time to grow your starter partially or even completely in the refrigerator. I'm growing mine on the counter during the days and refrigerating them at night.

Also, if you have fruit flies, make sure you keep your starter covered.
Enjoy the summer,
sharon

Honey Cake was a success!

My dad's birthday celebration went well and the gluten-filled honey cake was pronounced perfect by the family. Glad I still have the touch...even though I couldn't touch it. :-)

Moving forward into finishing up testing a whole bunch of recipes. That's my equivalent of summer reading.


Coconut Biscuits

Grandma's Honey Cake - NOT Gluten-Free

My beloved father will be turning 85 and asked me if I would make my Grandma Marion's Honey Cake for him. This is my Grandma's secret recipe from the 1940's. When she would share it with the women and girls in the family, she would make us swear we would never give the recipe to anyone outside the family. I have faithfully upheld my promise.

When my father asked me to make it for him I felt sure I did not want to handle gluten flour, eggs, piles of sugar and honey, baking soda and baking powder, crisco...At first I told him no, then thought about it for a week and realized that the man who is so generous and never asks for anything for himself was asking me for something he really wanted. And that I needed to get over whatever I was feeling and make it already.

I got out the recipe, remembering the fabulous taste and texture of this cake. I remember separating the egg whites and yolks, creaming, mixing, folding, gosh the smell of the batter was amazing. I remember seeing large slabs of it in the freezer in shimmering aluminum foil.

So I will make it next week and take it to our family celebration the following weekend. I'm really looking forward to once again taking part in this family ritual of baking Grandma Marion's Honey Cake. I may wear a dust mask when I work with the flour. I know I'll be wondering if I can convert it to gluten, egg and sugar free but I'd prefer to focus on enjoying making it again after a couple of decades of not. And seeing Dad's face when he eats it.

My Student's Success!

I received this photo from one of my very industrious students. This photo was taken after a particularly complex cooking/baking session.



Back row from left:
Water Kefir, Kombucha Tea, Red Cabbage Sauerkraut with her new airlock jars, fermented tomato pepper salsa (I have to get that recipe from her.)

Front row from left:
Gluten-free sourdough pancakes, Mock rye gluten-free miniloaves and Buckwheat Buns.

This photo makes me just smile!

Grain Mills for Gluten Free Seeds and Grains

I’ve been wanting to try a new grain mill for 2 years and just recently bought one and wanted to share about my grain mill experiences.

I started off with a Kitchen Aid grain mill attachment because when I started baking I already had a Kitchen Aid mixer. This attachment is excellent for large grains like rice and buckwheat but cannot grind small gluten free grains like amaranth, quinoa and teff. These tiny grains just fall under the grinding worm and sit there.

The rice flour wasn’t nearly as fine as store bought but my breads were still good thanks to the long sourdough fermenting periods. Then I learned, from someone on this forum, to grind once at medium and then again on fine. Much, much better!
I like the Kitchen Aid but I can only do 3 cups of rice, twice, before the machine gets very hot and needs to cool off. I don’t mind that, just have to plan my time accordingly.

I used a Krups coffee grinder for my small grains, which did an excellent job. The downside is that only ¼ cup can be ground at a time, which was fine initially but now I bake in 4 loaf batches and need large quantities.

Then I tried a Barista coffee mill for the small grains which was bigger, fancier and with a larger capacity. I was happy with that for a good while but lately noticed the grind isn’t as fine as when I started. I think the blades must be getting dull.

After a year of reading blogposts about grain mills I finally purchased the Blendtec Grain Mill. It grinds the small grains really well, excellently in fact but I had to dig out my chain saw ear protectors because of the high decibel level. As it finishes grinding it sounds like a plane taking off.

It also makes a bit of a mess as it sends flour out through small vents and slots, much messier than my other mills which hardly sent any flour out at all. Now when I use it I cover it with a cloth to contain the flying flour. Beyond that it seems to be an excellent machine. I can grind many cups of grain, and the holding basin holds about 20 cups of flour before needing to be emptied.

I continue to use my Kitchen Aid for rice and buckwheat but will use the Blendtec for the others.

Gluten Free Sourdough Bread as an Intuitive Art

After nearly 4 years of gluten free sourdough experimentation and observation I can now intuitively work with the never ending variations that emerge during the sourdough process. Much like people, every gluten free sourdough starter is unique. They respond to temperature, humidity, air flow, and miniscule differences in measurements.

Lately, I’ve become so adept at this kind of baking that I can “correct’ the starter or bread dough as I move through the tasks rather than dutifully following the recipe and ending up with a brick.

I can tell by the smell of the starter if it’s fermenting too quickly and needs to be fed more often. I can tell by the density if more flour blending is necessary. In a heat wave I can correct before over-fermentation sets in. The way the pizza dough comes together tells me if I need more arrowroot flour to attain that stretchy doughy quality. The quality of sponginess of the nearly finished bread batter tells me if it needs more ground flax seed.

My hope is that people who bake my bread will get a feel for working with a gluten free starter and the resulting dough so that they can correct as they go. My other hope is that they will be brave enough to try variations so that they can turn my bread recipes into their favorite breads. I love when people tell me they experimented with dried cherries instead of raisins and sage rather than coriander or used mini loaf pans instead of muffin tins.

My new motto is “Go forth and bravely bake!”.

Gluten Free Sourdough and Weston A. Price Principles

After a number of years of building Weston A. Price principles into my daily life I learned I had multiple food sensitivities and had to let go of some beloved foods, namely butter and homemade sourdough rye bread. Unable to find suitable store bought gluten free and allergen free breads I began a journey of culinary discovery that taught me more about gluten free sourdough baking than I ever could have imagined . I coupled Weston A Price principles with modern gluten free baking principles and came up with some lovely breads, muffins and pancakes that have become nutrient dense, highly digestible comfort food for me and my family.



It took me one year to perfect a 7-day Sourdough Rye bread. It required an easy starter: equal amounts of rye flour and water whisked smooth. The starter had to be fed additional amounts of flour and water every day for the next six days. I watched in awe as the starter bubbled and took on the appearance of a sponge. The recipe said the dough should be like goop, and it was! Kneading was not necessary or even possible. I wasn’t sure this heavy goop would rise but it nearly doubled in size in 12 hours. As it baked it filled the house with a beautiful malty aroma. The first warm slices out of the oven were flavorful and dense without being heavy. I began to regularly bake this lovely bread. At first I bought bagged rye flour but soon I purchased the grain mill attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer and bought 25 pounds of organic whole rye berries. I believed that my bread had its nutrients still alive in the freshly ground flour.

My family enjoyed the bread toasted with butter, jam, and nut butter. While some people couldn’t appreciate the bread because of its density, others really loved it. Some people commented that the bread reminded them of bread their grandparents used to make. My daughter brought home a Serbian friend on college break. I watched them cut thick slabs of the bread, toast it, slather humus on it and top it off with my home made sauerkraut. These two kids were in heaven, especially after all that dorm food. The friend proclaimed with wonderment that this bread was just like the “Serbian bread” his grandmother made and could they please take some back to college along with some “Serbian sauerkraut?”

I happily packed them off with a few loaves. I hesitated on the sauerkraut, though. I had visions of it blowing up in their backpacks.

I was flattered and deeply satisfied to feed people this wonderfully healthy food. I was also very pleased to have my food fondly remind people of their traditional ethnic foods.

I started making this bread to improve my health. I had been on a long journey of recovery from various illnesses and a friend gave me “Nourishing Traditions” as a gift. Each new food or technique I tried seemed to boost my health to another level. Some symptoms, however, persisted. I went to a Holistic MD who tested me for food allergies. It turned out I had an extreme gluten sensitivity as well as sensitivities to cow and goat’s milk, eggs, and soy. I was deeply distressed that in order to feel better I had to give up my sourdough rye bread. I was already off of all milk products except butter so that meant just letting go of the butter. I wasn’t happy about giving up eggs but was willing. I had already stopped eating soy months before after reading about it in “Nourishing Traditions”. Back then, I had muscle tested myself for it and having registered an extreme loss of strength, dropped it out of my diet and lost 1 pound a week for 8 weeks without dieting!

But my beloved bread! I discussed it all with a friend over tea and unexpectedly put my head on the table and started sobbing. When I finished crying I resolved that I would figure out a way to make a Gluten Free Sourdough bread.

I had my last slice of rye bread that night, perfectly toasted, sweetly aromatic, soaked with warm organic butter. I expressed my gratitude for this wonderful nourishing bread and butter, both of which had fed me well. I said my goodbyes and moved forward. Within 48 hours all the persisting symptoms I had up until that point disappeared! I began to understand the significance of the gluten allergy and how gluten was damaging my intestines and consequently my overall health.

I took a break from bread baking while I adjusted to my new diet. I looked at different store bought gluten free breads. Some of them used white rice flour and I wanted whole grain flour in my bread. Most of them contained milk or eggs for leavening. Just what I needed to avoid. The ones that didn’t use milk and eggs used commercial yeast for leavening, which, from previous experience, I did better without. In addition, many of the breads contained added sweetener, something I was trying to stay away from. I became frustrated looking at all these gluten free breads and still not being able to eat them.

There was also the issue of digestibility. I was not convinced these breads were highly digestible given that they were essentially “quick breads”. Dry flour mixed with wet ingredients, mixed with commercial yeast and risen for a few hours at most. According to Weston A. Price principles, soaking grains and flours neutralizes the antinutrients, generates lactobacillus and enzymes, gives a full bodied taste that increases with age and has a long shelf life. These were the qualities of my beloved rye bread and I was ready to have that again. I wanted a bread free from the foods I was sensitive to, free of commercial yeast and sweetener in any form, complete with great taste and high digestibility.

I began to experiment with Gluten Free sourdough, using the same sourdough guidelines substituting brown rice flour for the rye. My first attempt seemed to be spoiled. The starter harbored a greenish tinge towards the end of the 7 days. The finished bread smelled awful and I spit out the little bit that I tasted. Besides seeming spoiled, the bread was dense, compact because it had hardly risen!

I continued to experiment by trying different combinations of flours and different ways of working with the starter. During this time I had been trying water kefir as a morning tonic. It was nicely potent but really too alcoholic for me to drink. I continued making it to boost the soaking water for beans and grains. One morning as I was taking my daily walk, an activity that generates problem solving as well as new ideas, I wondered if the water kefir, being too alcoholic for me to drink, might be strong enough to leaven bread? I emailed an experienced fermenter from Australia, who said that he and his family often used water kefir to leaven their sourdough products. He gave me some tips for the starter as well as the bread and I started to have success. I continued to experiment with different combinations of store bought gluten free flours until I came up with a really tasty and dependable one. This whole process from the first spoiled bread to the successful, dependable bread took one whole year!

I began to bake four loaves at a time and freeze some. The bread was excellent even after 4 months in the freezer! I could toast a piece in the morning, pack it in a lunch container and eat it right out of the box six hours later. It still had a freshness about it even after all those hours. I used the bread for toast with nut butters. I used it in soup, stew and bean bowls where it nicely soaked up the juices. At the winter holidays I even used the starter for a chocolate cake. I didn’t let it rise long enough so it became a gluten free brownie! My crew ate the entire tray in five minutes…

I shared the bread with people on gluten free diets and watched their reactions. Their eyes closed, inhaling the aroma right out of the oven or toaster. I think I even saw someone swoon. Some people wanted to buy it! They said “this is what I’ve been looking for. Gluten Free, good taste, beautiful texture, long shelf life, and even freezes well”. I wasn’t ready to begin baking full time but I began to teach bread baking classes.


I was ready to branch out. I researched gluten free muffin recipes and cobbled together a recipe using the same rice starter for leavening. The results were exciting. The muffins were great and were a nice change from the bread. There was a little starter left over so I tried some sourdough pancakes. I was careful to make sure the batter fermented for at least 7 hours before cooking so any fresh flour I added was properly soaked. They were quite good. I still had a little starter leftover so I dropped spoonfuls of it into soup and got rather amorphous looking but great tasting dumplings!

After two years of euphoric bread eating I started to show symptoms of sensitivity again. One of the principles of healthy eating is to eat a variety of foods. This ensures a mix of nutrients, micronutrients and enzymes. One of the challenges of having multiple food sensitivities is that it becomes difficult to eat a wide variety of foods because we must avoid so many foods and food products. Undiagnosed gluten sensitivity impairs the intestinal system thus making us that much more sensitive to foods we consume often.

I muscle tested for all the ingredients in my beloved bread and found I was sensitive to three of the five flour ingredients! The two I was most sensitive to were highly processed flours, chick pea flour and tapioca flour. I was less sensitive to the third ingredient, sorghum, something I had never eaten before using in my bread. I tested fine for the fourth ingredient, potato flour although it is also highly processed. Thankfully, I tested well for the organic brown rice flour which I ground in small batches in my grain mill and refrigerate for short periods of time to preserve the nutrients.

I started to think again about the Weston A. Price principles around using organic ingredients with as little processing as possible. I felt sure I had to begin experimenting again using only organic grains I could grind in my grain mill. I was happy to grind as much of the bread ingredients as I could ensuring a “nutrient alive” bread. As much as I loved my bread I had never been completely comfortable using flours that were not organically grown.
I was also concerned about the length of time the flour may have sat on the market shelf. My ingredient options were not exactly what I preferred but I worked with what was available and the knowledge I had at the time.


Again I took a break from bread baking to ponder. During that time I attended a Gluten Free Culinary conference taught by professional chefs, pastry chefs and cookbook writers. Through the information they shared I got a clearer understanding of general baking principles as well as gluten free baking principles. I started to understand that each gluten free flour had a specific property to give to the finished product. The chick pea flour gave the bread a nice buoyancy. The tapioca flour gave it lightness. The sorghum flour gave it a spongy texture. The potato flour binds it.

Now the challenge would be to substitute new flours for the flours that the Gluten Free Baking movement has grown to depend on. My question became “Which fresh ground flours would give me the properties needed to make an excellent product?” I decided to experiment with small batches of pancakes rather than bread in the hopes that in the event of failure the losses would be minimized.

I made a new starter with brown rice flour and made a few batches of pancakes using teff, amaranth and buckwheat flour. The teff and amaranth grains were too small to be ground in my mill so I used a coffee grinder which worked very well. With each new batch I saved some rice starter for the next batch. Each batch had very different qualities. The teff pancakes had a very dense texture. The amaranth pancakes were light and delicate. The buckwheat pancakes were thick and cakelike. I even tried some ground up gluten free steel cut oats which nicely fluffed them. I went one week feeding the starter twice daily, making pancakes every 2-3 days with no sign of diminished freshness in the starter. Previously, I would begin each batch of bread baking with a new starter as the old starters seemed to die in the refrigerator between batches. I assumed this was a characteristic of gluten free starters.

Looking to experiment a bit more, I decided to try adding different flours directly to the starter. With the addition of each new flour I watched the starter change texture and density. I learned not to use the same flour more than twice in a row because the pancakes would be too cakey or too dense or even too light! After a few more batches the pancakes themselves seemed to take on a melding of characteristics from this mix of grainy genetic material. They became more full bodied and, perhaps, more satisfying. By this time my starter had been alive for 3 weeks.

I was scheduled to teach an upcoming bread making class and began new rice starters. Since I hadn’t baked for 3 months I decided to make extra starter to experiment with after class. I would teach my tried and true original recipe even though I would no longer eat it.

Bread class was a success and everyone took home a loaf to rise overnight and bake the next day. I gave everyone ¼ cup of rice starter with instructions to sit it on the counter and feed it twice a day with equal amounts of flour and water, changing the bowl every 2-3 days. I hoped that with this starter they could begin baking soon while class was fresh in their minds.

The day after class I was ready to experiment. I ground more buckwheat, amaranth and sweet brown rice flour. I had some leftover potato flour but only enough for 3 loaves. I put those loaves together and was happy to see the dough had a spongy texture similar to the original recipe. I decided to try a fourth loaf without potato flour. The dough was as thin as cake batter so I added more sweet brown rice flour. It thickened but it was still thinner than I had ever worked with. I didn’t think it would rise properly but to my surprise it rose beautifully, baked well and was the best loaf of the four!!!

Later that week my students let me know that their breads rose beautifully, and baked well. They said the good taste seemed to get better with age. In addition, they were dutifully feeding their starters twice a day.

I continue along with my experiments. I tried mini muffin tins because they are a better size for a snack than standard size tins. Using the rice starter I will try another chocolate cake for the holidays. It will be gluten free, dairy free, egg free, sweetener free, yeast, baking soda and baking powder free using stevia rather than sugar. Next, I’d like to try rolls and scones, maybe a holiday fruit and nut bread and after that, maybe an onion bread.

Two and a half years after giving up gluten I have achieved what I had hoped. I have successfully created my own nutrient-dense, allergy-free bread products using a combination of ancient sourdough technique and an ancient fermented drink. It is encouraging and comforting to me that as we move into the future and have to deal with some of the very difficult challenges of our day, we can fall back on the wisdom of the ancients to strengthen and nourish us.