If there is one food other than eggs I love, it must be bread. When given the choice, growing up I always preferred a loaf of bread or a bocadillo over dessert. Pan con chocolate was always my favorite mid afternoon snack after school.
My mom or aunt or anyone who would pick us up from school in the afternoons, always had a loaf of bread stuffed with bars of chocolate inside. Sometimes even Nocilla, which was our version of Nutella.
Although I did have bread baking classes in culinary school, pastry chefs and bakers always had different roles in all the places I worked. Even rivalry at times. Bakers were super fast and sometimes even messy. Pastry cooks meticulous. (ok, I know I will get some grief by saying that!). Pastry was my love.
I did however go through a bread baking phase a few years ago. I became a bit obssessed with Peter Reinhart, Richard Bertinet and Ciril Hitz. I read and experimented at home.
Soon after that, C. also started experimenting with sourdough bread baking trying to emulate the taste of the northern California sourdough loaves he grew up eating. But recently all that came to a halt when we had to start living gluten free. I have had great gluten free bread before (particularly from this place), but apart from this, I had not been very successful at baking it at home.
A few days ago, my friend K. sent me a link to a recipe published in Body & Soul magazine. It was loaded with great grains and molasses. Not just plain rice flour, but millet, teff and quinoa (a substitution I made since I cannot have soy).
So this past Sunday morning, while I had the house all to myself, I decided to bake bread and play around with the recipe. I made different batches with raisins and pumpkin seeds, chocolate chips, and dried fig and walnut.
Nothing beats the smell of yeast fermenting and bread baking in the oven. This is a great basic recipe that can be adapted to add other flavors and textures. My freezer is now stocked up with bread and I will certainly be using this recipe again.
Post Title
→A Weekend of Gluten-Free Bread Baking
Post URL
→http://mercymadame.blogspot.com/2010/06/weekend-of-gluten-free-bread-baking.html
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