Isn't this stuff the sustenance of life?  So why is so hard for my family to have decent bread?  Well, really just our littlest one.  The rest of us eat this multigrain bread off the supermarket shelf that doesn't have any corn syrup or preservatives in it.  But the littlest one, well hers has to be wheat free (gluten free), egg free, milk free... and so on. 

Here is what happens.  We buy really expensive mixes, I am not kidding we pay around $6 a loaf - THAT I MAKE!! - and it starts to rise.  Oh it rises beautifully.  I always fall for this charade.  I am looking at this gorgeous loaf in the bread pan that has risen to the top of the pan, yes that's as good as it gets for gluten free folks, and by the time it comes out of the oven it's fallen.  The bread at the crest of it's dome is about 1.5 inches high.  Our daughter's sandwiches are cracker sized. 

All this was to tell you that I bought something new today and I can't wait to try it tomorrow night.  It's a gluten substitute.  I will reveal the name after I have tried it and give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down.  Gluten is so very important in baking b/c it's what makes bread dough, for example, elastic.  And b/c it is elastic, as the yeast creates bubbles, those bubbles become trapped in the dough...  dough rises.  Without gluten it's very difficult to get a rise... eh hem...  but it's even harder to keep it!  ah...

I am simply dreaming of making my daughter a yummy pizza dough, making her sandwiches on regular sized pieces of bread and baking her cakes that aren't so dense.  It almost makes me feel warm and fuzzy when I think about our holiday dinners this year.

Namaste