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!

                                 

Grains or Not?

Currently in our culture, an extraordinary number of people have digestive disorders and challenges, some involving gluten sensitivity. There are now two well known diets recommending the elimination of grains: The GAPS diet and the Paleo diet.

The GAPS diet recommends removing all grains from the diet for a period of time in order to let the digestive system rest and heal. They believe that this protocol will heal people of the gluten sensitivity, allowing them to eventually tolerate gluten products after they heal. Many people have embraced the Paleo diet which also suggests removing grains from the diet and theorizes that humans are not meant to eat grains.

If you are focused on healthy eating and are trying to heal your body from digestive issues you have probably heard of these diets. For those of us that seem to heal slowly or barely at all, we are always looking for the next food or supplement or diet or practitioner that might help us turn things around. It can be grueling.

I have heard from people that have made progress on the GAPS diet. They will often turn to my book and gluten-free breads as a stepping stone before they reintroduce gluten breads. I have also heard from people that didn't do well on the diet. They were always hungry or their issues simply did not resolve. Some lost an alarming amount of weight and felt like they were starving.

I don't know too many people who practice the Paleo diet although a dear friend of mine has embraced it as a last resort after going through years of tests and different practitioners. She finally was diagnosed with intestinal parasites. Her practitioners are trying to strengthen her body to prepare for the parasite treatment. After many years, her health is finally improving on this diet! Removing the grains has really worked for her although she said she had to get used to the feeling of never feeling full after a meal. The Paleo diet eliminates all grains, gluten-free or otherwise, as well as legumes.

It could be very easy to fall prey to cultural pressure to go grain-free. As I get older, I need less grain at meals. Is it because I'm healing and utilize and assimilate my food better? Is it because I should be grain-free? Is it because humans need less calories as we get older? Is it because my blood type is a grain-eating blood type? (remember the blood type diet?)

As a child, I had blood sugar fluctuations. As an adult, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroid disease, the symptoms of which, mimic hypoglycemia. We now know that these symptoms are linked to gluten sensitivity. Once, I tried going without grains which became a severe blood sugar roller coaster. I simply could not function. Proponents of those diets might say I'm grain-addicted but if grains makes me feel healthy, strong and clear headed and going without them makes me a nonfunctional mess, I don't see eating grains as an addiction or a problem for me.

Some people never need grains at a meal. Some people always need grains at a meal. It seems that for me, grains are fuel...and I need them to feel clear headed and stable. But not everyone seems to need them for fuel.

Those of us who are able to heal on a grain-free diet are fortunate that they have found the next step that moves them towards optimal health. Those of us that heal using other methods are also fortunate for the same reasons, that we move on to the next level of health. That's what it's all about. To get to the next level. And the next. And the next...until we feel good again.

People's bodies are different and people's histories are different. People's bodies need different diets at different times in their lives. No diet is right for everyone, no practitioner is right for everyone and no food is right for everyone.

Our generation has a host of new diseases that have baffled conventional medicine. The answers are coming slowly and seem to have to do with having access to clean food and water while minimizing medication and environmental toxins.

Grains or Not? The answer will always lie with how you and your children react to grains or no grains. Your gut knows what it needs and will let you know, if you pay close attention. If you are the parent of a small child with food sensitivities, until your child can tell you how s/he feels, you must trust your own instinct and observations over the many strong messages out there.

A mother of a young child asked my opinion about something I've heard a number of times:
"Fermentation will completely eliminate the gluten in wheat or rye bread."

This woman's sister was pressuring her to give her gluten-sensitive child sourdough wheat bread, saying it was safe and would not hurt her since it was fermented. The mother was hesitant, given her child's other anaphylactic allergies. This is where I began ranting. I apologized for the rant but she said "Please, I really want you to tell me how you feel about thisl". I ranted and railed for awhile and finally got to a place of composure again whereupon I said:

             "Even if the tests say that fermentation will completely neutralize gluten, the tests still don't speak to the depth of the child's complicated medical history and stressed digestive and immune systems. The tests test the gluten, not the patient. New diseases cannot be resolved with blanket statements that worked in the past, even if they fed people for millenia, like sourdough bread. And you know how committed I am to the concept of sourdough bread!!

I strongly believe in traditionally prepared foods as they dramatically helped me to heal. But so did removing gluten from my diet. Together, they helped me heal. Our current diseases are deeply complex. Our road back to health can be equally complex since we have little information about these diseases upon which to base healing treatments."

New diseases, new theories, new treatments. Our bodies will let us know what works for us. I support you to trust your gut and exercise control over your body as well as your child's body. And keep the faith that you will heal. It makes a big difference!

Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread Crumbs

The Weston A. Price Conference was last weekend and it was a great success for me. I sold some of everything, books, starters, bread mixes, baked breads and cookies. I donated 1000 Sprouted Almond Cookies and 400 Muffin Tops to the lunches and they were greatly received! I still can't believe that I pulled that off and managed to also bring breads and cookies to sell. Check out the photos!!

There were leftover muffin tops from the donation so I brought them home and turned them into bread crumbs. I have a lot of regular bread crumbs and some pumpernickel bread crumbs.



Here's an unsolicited testimonial about how a customer used the savory regular bread crumbs for a lightly sweetened dessert:

Hi Sharon,
The products are delicious! ! So, so good. It feels so good to eat bread and not get intestinal distress! I used the bread crumbs as a topping for a sour cherry crumble. I mixed the crumbs with some almond flour, vanilla extract,  coconut oil, date syrup, cinnamon and a pinch of sea salt.  It came out heavenly! !!
V.W., Virginia

Here are 2 ways I use bread crumbs:
Pan sauteed catfish:


Gluten-Free Egg-Free Meatloaf

Here's the recipe!

Order Bread Crumbs Here

Here's my Fall Discount!! Good to the end of 2014
5% Discount Coupon Code on all orders $50 or more (excluding shipping). Type RC5 into the coupon box on the shopping cart.

Video of my Bread Mixes!

A friend of mine, Wardeh Harmon, creator of Gnowfglins, a Real Food cooking site, made a video of herself making my Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread Mixes. I think she did a stellar job! 

Click here to Watch the video!

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.

Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread Mixes...At Last!!!

Bake a Gluten-free Sourdough Bread Mix in your own home!! Pumpernickel, Cinnamon Spice, and Simple Dark Bread.

Old-fashioned sourdough technique adds complex flavor, easy digestibility and long shelf life.

Mixes are fully fermented and free of gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, commercial yeast and gums.

Ingredients: Unsprayed, high-protein Teff flour and Organic flavorings.

Assembled in a dedicated gluten-free vegan facility.

www.glutenfreesourdough.com

A Story about a Child and Food Allergies

Just a quick story to balance the many difficult stories associated with food allergies and our children. I was giving a Healing with Food presentation at the Ashland, MA Farmers Market and was offering samples of Lacto-Fermented pickles donated by The Real Pickles Company. A dad was gently coaching his son to ask me if the samples contained...and then the boy quietly and sheepishly recited the list which sounded like the big 8 allergies.

I turned around to a member of my team and said "Food Allergies, let this boy read the ingredients". My team member motioned for him to come to the back of the booth and although the boy was hesitant, his dad came with him and they read the ingredients together and found he could indeed have a sample. It seems like such a simple thing but I know this was an important step in this boy's learning to take care of himself in a world that could make him very sick...or worse.

So many children have to be ultra-careful about what they put in their mouths. So many parents have to literally micromanage their children's coming and goings around food in schools, birthday parties, soccer games, etc. in order to avert disaster and simply keep them safe.

I have been on the receiving end of wait staff who say they understand my food allergies and then bring me dangerous food.
I have been on the receiving end of people who say "just taste a little...it won't hurt you".
An extended family member who is a nursing student said the eating gluten-free is a life style choice! Is that what they are teaching in nursing school?
And though I would not call it bullying, I have also been on the receiving end of someone saying I wasn't cool because I have to watch everything that goes into my mouth. 

These people were all unfortunately ignorant and need training in awareness and compassion. As more and more people are diagnosed with food sensitivities and anaphylactic allergies, we must support each other in these areas, looking for the opportunity to help where we can.

My new bake shop will have a big sign outside the entrance stating "Allergen-Free Facility. Please do not bring any food or drink into this kitchen".  When I have my bake shop launch party, I will keep my new facility safe by providing all the food and drink rather than have a pot luck (which is the norm for my friends).

Back to the shy boy learning to ask for what he needs to keep him safe. I was proud of my team for making this happen for him. I was proud of his father's coaching and support. I was proud that even though the boy was nervous about asking, nervous about coming into the booth, nervous about the whole thing, he stayed with it and empowered himself to keep himself safe.

Look for the opportunities in your life to support and educate others about food sensitivities and allergies. We need to grow a strong safety net for all of us!

Here are a couple of photos from the Healing with Food event:

A demo table full of pickles and jars ready to be filled.

Sarah offering samples to the crowd.

Thanks again to my team: my husband Allen, my friend Laurel,  and my assistant Sarah. It was a really great day!!

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 JANUARY NEWSLETTER!!

This newsletter features some of the recipes that were published in 

Living Without Magazine last month. Enjoy! 

 

Click here to read!

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

Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter Recipe

How to Make Gluten Free
Sourdough Starter (Excerpt from The Art of Gluten-Free Sourdough Baking)

(Also free of milk, eggs, yeast, soy, gums & chemical leavener
The steps below might seem daunting just to make bread but with practice it becomes easy.

Here are the basic steps for Gluten Free Sourdough Starter:

• Make Water Kefir (made from a culture)
• Make Brown Rice Starter
• Boost Brown Rice Starter with Water Kefir
• Feed Brown Rice Starter with brown rice flour and water, 2-3 times a day
• Use for pancakes, breads, muffins and pizza dough

Info about Water Kefir:

• Water Kefir is a tasty and potent fermented drink, full of natural probiotics and enzymes. (If you try drinking it start with a small amount at first! It’s really potent)
• Made from a culture and takes 2 minutes to put together
• Ferments in 1-2 days
• Stores in refrigerator for one month
• With care these cultures can be used repeatedly and live indefinitely


Making pancakes will help you get the “feel” of working with a sourdough starter. They take a fraction of the time needed for a bread recipe and
produce tasty pancakes.




Water Kefir Recipe

Ready for use in 1-2 days

Ingredients:
Water
Sugar
Raisins
Lemon
Water Kefir Culture * (purchase from Cultures for Health)

Equipment:
Glass quart jar
Spoon
Paper towel or cloth
Rubber band

Day 1

• Fill a quart jar with water leaving 2 inches of space at the top of the jar.
• Add 2 tablespoons sugar, stirring to dissolve.
• Add 20 raisins.
• Add a slice of lemon.
• Add water kefir culture into the quart jar.
• Cover with paper towel or cloth and secure with a rubber band.

Day 2

• When raisins float to the top, around 24 hours later, use a nonmetal spoon to remove raisins and lemon and discard them.


• In cool weather: Re-cover the water kefir drink with the paper towel or cloth and rubber band and ferment for 6 more hours on the counter.

• In warm weather: Put the water kefir drink directly into the refrigerator.

• Cap and store water kefir drink (along with cultures settled at the bottom) in the refrigerator and use as needed taking care not to pour water kefir cultures out of the jar. They will easily just sit on the bottom until you make your next batch.

• Water Kefir drink is now ready to use for Boosted Brown Rice Starter.

Replenishing Your Batch

• When you have used the water kefir liquid down to about an inch in the jar (with cultures still sitting on the bottom) begin a new batch in a new jar adding fresh water, sugar, raisins, and lemon.

• Then pour the remaining water kefir drink and water kefir culture into the new jar.

• Cover and ferment as above for Day.











*Purchase Water Kefir at Cultures For Health






Boosted Brown Rice Starter


Ready for use in 3-4 days


Ingredients:
Brown rice flour
Water
Water Kefir

Equipment:
Ceramic or glass bowl
Whisk
Cloth or paper towel
Rubber band


Step 1

• Put one cup of brown rice flour into a ceramic or glass bowl

• Pour in 3/4 cup of water and whisk smooth

• Add 1-2 tablespoons of water kefir and whisk again

• Cover with a cloth or paper towel and secure with a large rubber band

• Leave it on the counter away from drafts or extreme temperatures

Step 2

The key to a healthy starter is regular feedings
of brown rice flour and water


How to Feed:

• Feed 3 times daily, roughly every 8 hours.
• Feed with ¼- ½ cup of flour and slightly less water, whisking smooth and covering

• If you know you won't be able to feed it after 8 hours, put it in the refrigerator after feeding. You won't have to feed it for another 12 hours

• After two days put the starter in a clean bowl (to keep the dry starter from mixing with the fresh starter) and continue feeding

• At around 48 hours the starter should show signs of viability
If you don’t see any bubbles or “hilling”, (when the flour makes a hill) you can add another tablespoon of water kefir

• By the third and fourth days you may see bubbles of different sizes and hear a hissing sound when stirring


Your starter is now ready for pancakes.





Gluten Free Sourdough Pancakes


Since buckwheat, teff, quinoa or oat flour will give the pancakes some needed density (a pure rice flour starter tends to be on the thin, soupy side) have the last feeding of the starter be 1/4 - 1/2 cup of one of those flours plus a little less water. Let ferment 7 hours.

Yield: 4 pancakes

Ingredients for 4 pancakes
1 cup boosted brown rice starter (including the last feeding of buckwheat or other flour plus slightly less water
1 tablespoon oil, melted butter or fat
A large pinch of salt
1-2 tablespoons freshly ground flax seed (grind in a coffee grinder)

Directions
Mix oil, salt and ground flax seed into starter
Let sit for at least 15 minutes to allow the flax to thicken the batter.
The batter should be like a thick cake batter.
If the batter is too thick whisk in a little water, a tablespoon at a time, until you get the desired consistency
(The batter can sit for up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. The finished pancakes will be thinner and lighter)
Oil pan or griddle and heat to fairly hot
Spoon or ladle out the batter onto the pan
These take longer to cook than wheat pancakes so flip a few minutes after bubbles show up or the edges start to dry out.
Cook another 1-2 minutes and serve.

You can also cool them on a rack and refrigerate in a container for a 3-5 days. Just reheat them in the toaster.



Resources

Purchase The Art of Gluten-Free Sourdough Baking


Other Books Available

Lacto-Fermentation Through The Seasons – Fermented vegetables are a homemade probiotic-rich condiment. A year’s worth of recipes for making your own fermented vegetables starting in spring, moving through summer and into fall.

Intestinal Recovery – Recipes and techniques to slowly and gently help repair the digestive and immune systems.

Highly Digestible Beans – Technique for making the most easily digestible beans possible. 4 recipes included.




Contact me:
glutenfreesourdoughbaker@gmail.com

Copyright 2012 by Sharon A. Kane

Same Recipe-4 different results

A few people have written to me about how their gluten-free sourdough breads don't seem to rise properly. Come to find out that using different grinds of flour foster very different results.

I use home milled flour brown rice flour. When I first started home milling I ground it once on the finest setting on my Kitchen Aid Grain Mill attachment. It came out fairly coarse and gritty. Then I learned about grinding twice, once on medium and again on that same finest setting. The flour was finer but still on the coarse side. My initial recipes were based on this coarse and less coarse flour and produced excellent bread.

I learned that the people having trouble were using store bought flour which is much finer than my home milled. Some of them were able to switch to home milled and got much better results. But certainly there are many, many people who will never mill their own flour for all sorts of reasons. I figured I better do some trials with home milled flour to see if I could learn how to compensate for the much finer flour.

I made 4 starters using a different grind of brown rice flour for each:
1. Once ground
2. Twice ground
3. Bob's Red Mill with added rice bran
4. Bob's Red Mill

Here's a photo of the breads after baking. Look at the differences in height.


I'm analyzing the taste, texture, and crumb of these breads. Hopefully, I'll be able to make some recommendations in the not too far future. So much to learn...

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.

Better late than never!

It's Gotta Be Gluten-Free: Kefir Starter for Gluten-Free Sourdough

Above is the link to a blogpost I accidentally stumbled upon about...Me!!!...
Take a minute and read it.
Cheers,
sharon

Gluten-Free Sourdough and Perfect Loaves, Yeah Right!

 

 

 

HI All,
Lately I've been asked many questions about various technical aspects of making my bread. It seems the universe decided to remind me of some of the challenges so I could answer your questions from the best experience possible.

I'm preparing to vendor at a conference in a few short weeks.

Let's set aside that I decided to revise my book so the books I sell will be the most current and needed to have that done in time to self-print many books.

Let's set aside that my editor had to let go of my project about 10 pages into the book.
(My wonderful daughter took over the editing while she was preparing to move out of my house. The first night in her new apartment she stared at her computer for many hours, faithfully editing my book. I owe her big time)

Let's set aside that the ink I bought, at a good price online, has been delayed. When it finally arrived, I wasn't home and the delivery people needed a human to sign for it so it is still in their truck. (got ink from different site, not the best price, no shipping, next day delivered. I'm printing books as we speak, or as I write)

Let's set aside the logistics of packing my car for the conference: books, bread samples, humans, our own food, (we're all on special diets) rice cooker, toaster, hot pot, special pillows.

Now we come to what I wanted to really write about: I'm making samples, Mock Rye Bread. I froze some starter last week, took it out on Friday and planned to bake on Monday. The starter was sluggish, minimal bubbles, not much ferment smell at all.
Gave it an extra dose of water kefir but it didn't really help. (someone just wrote to me about just that).
Then I had to be out for a whole day so fed the starter and refrigerated it. (someone asked about that recently).
Still sluggish, no smell. I kept feeding it worrying it wouldn't be ready or perhaps it was never going to ferment properly. (Now that it's Fall the ambient temp in the house is cooler, probably part of the problem) (3 cold aspects, frozen starter, refrigerated starter, cool house)

Monday morning comes, I hoped to have Peggy videotape a Mock Rye Bread demo for the online course but the starter is just sitting there. We switch gears and do a Feeding Technique #1 and #2 video.

Early Monday evening I feed it once more rather than dump the whole thing in the compost.
Late Monday night the starter starts rumbling and quaking and is in danger of overflowing its 16 cup bowl. (someone just asked about batters overflowing their pans)

I divide it into quart measuring cups, feed, cover and plan to bake on Tuesday morning. I'm left with 5 batches, a lot to do at once but hey, a baker's work is never done.

As I assemble the ingredients for the first loaf I see the starter is a bit too thick, so I add a little water to the next 4. They seem to be alright but instead of a slow pour into the pan, they plop in to the pan. Nowhere in my book do I mention "plop" as a batter texture.

Of course, my schedule for Tuesday does not allow for a proper rise. I will get home one and a half hours later than a 7 hour rise but I really can't get around it. As I'm driving home I visualize that the breads should stay nice and risen, hold their texture, be tall but when I come home they've fallen quite a bit. (someone just wrote about too short and too long rise times).

I bake them, they seem okay. I cut them open using a hacksaw (like someone just wrote about) Although they rose they're not fully cooked through on the top in the center of the loaf. (some wrote about that, too) I would have cooked them longer but they started to get a scorched smell.

A lot of it was usable, though, I cut off the uncooked pieces, hacksawed the rest into slices and froze them for the conference. I feel 99% sure they will be fine after thawing and toasting.
Luckily I also have some perfect loaves I made a few weeks ago.

I saved the uncooked parts and will see if they respond to double toasting. (more info for future questions)

So, All, if you thought I made perfect loaves all the time, you now know the truth. I'm still working with this fluid animal called Sourdough.
And Loving 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!