Gluten Free Gobsmacked

Oh, Natalie!
Seamaiden!

Who do I thank first?

Natalie: Your Millet & Oatmeal bread is now one of my all time favorites. Not only does it prove the fact that GF baking is NOT difficult but that GF bread is DELECTABLE!

Seamaiden: If it were not for your Adopt-A-GF-Blogger Event, I would have postponed baking this delight and lunch-saving bread. You’re a gem!

After my conference, I was looking forward to being home with my love and pup and back in the kitchen. Mind you I had no problems finding more than enough delicious food to eat, but I rather enjoy puttering in my kitchen. I wanted to be back.

In fact, before I left the city, I stopped at Sur La Table to putter a bit. I think i can spend way too much time (and money!) in kitchen stores and bookstores. Can’t you? I can’t help it – sometimes I just like to get some new ideas.

On this trip, I found some fabulous cookie & cracker cutters. They are shaped with fluted edges or circles of various sizes. Some cutters have the centers removed – perfect for jeweled crackers or stained glass window cookies. I also found a couple cookies cutters shaped like an elephant (I’m making some pink elephant cookies for my conference-roomie as a fun reminder of our cosmo & wine night). I picked up a couple others too. Love that store.

I scored a 10″ x 5″ commercial bread pan too. (Made by Chicago Metallic – Professional Series 1 1/2 pound bread pan) Finding this bread pan made me think about Natalie and the Adopt-A-GF-Blogger event.

You see, Natalie posted a fabulous recipe for Millet & Oatmeal bread a little while back and I’ve been dying to try it. Like all GF eaters, I’m always willing to try a new bread recipe. And hers looked divine (it is!).

The thing is, this recipe calls for a 10″x5″ pan (1 1/2 pound capacity) which can be hard to find. (Here’s one here on Amazon.com)

After making this bread, I can assure you that you can easily use two smaller bread pans (not the standard 9″ (1 pound) pans – but the 8″ pans) or even 3-4 mini loaf pans. And trust me, this one is worth making.

While I did make a few adaptations to fit my pantry, you can find Natalie’s original recipe is here.

Here is a list of what I did:

• I used sorghum flour instead of rice flour.
• I used quinoa instead of oat flour…and contemplated using chestnut flour instead too. That will have to wait until the next loaf.
• I used cornstarch as I didn’t have arrowroot starch.
• I used a teaspoon of agave nectar + 1/2 teaspoon of sugar for my yeast proofing.
• I used 1 1/2 cups of water overall. 1/4 water for the yeast proofing and an additional 1 1/4 cups of water for the rest of it.
• I lessened my beating the dough from 15 minutes to 5. (Hey… it was 11:00PM by the time I got started…LOL)
• I let the dough rise for 45 minutes and baked for 40 minutes.

It only cooled about 20 minutes before we couldn’t resist any more and had to take a slice.

It was sandwich heaven on Sunday. We had the best grilled corned beef and cheese (cranberry & chipotle cheddar) sandwiches for lunch. All accompanied by some fabulous chickpea fries. (I’ll post that recipe this week too – no worries!)

And by the way, today (Monday), I had the most delicious corned beef sandwich at work with this tasty bread. And tomorrow, I think I will make it a ham sandwich. And…well… I will continue to be in sandwich heaven until I make another loaf again.

Thanks again, Natalie and Sea! This was FUN!
Happy Bread-making and GF Blogging!
-Kate