Made a New Bread

For 2 years C. has been existing on grilled cheese sandwiches made from Ener-g Brown Rice Bread. It was the first safe bread I found for him. It is so dry that grilled cheese is about the only thing you could do with it.

I am trying to branch out and encourage C. to eat new things. We got the go ahead from the allergist to try Sunbutter so I thought he needed a better bread to eat a Sunbutter and jelly sandwich. I bought the Gluten Free Pantry Favorite Sandwich Bread. I have hesitated to bake bread in the past for 2 reasons. 1. I do not have a bread machine and I was not confident that I would get it to mix and rise properly. 2. I can not use egg and I was not sure how the egg replacer would effect the final product. I finally just decided to give it a try.

I mixed the bread according to the oven method preperation. I did substitute the egg for 3 tbsp of Ener-g egg replacer mixed with 2 tbsb of warm water. Be sure to whisk it thoroughly. I was a little unsure of where to set the bread to rise. The directions say "a warm place." Well, considering that it is summer and our house is cooled with air conditioning I was perplexed. I finally decided to heat a cup of water in the microwave to warm it up, and let the bread rise in the microwave. It seemed to work well!

I am pleasently suprised that it is quite good. It is like real bread! It smells good and has the right texture. It even keeps well in the fridge for a few days. My older 2 like it toasted with Soynut Butter. Of course, I have used it to make grilled cheese. Hopefully I can get C. to try a Sunbutter jelly sandwich! Even if he does not eat it now, I feel better that I can offer him a real sandwich when he get a little older and goes to school.

Need Help Cooking Without Eggs

I am not one to bake from scratch. I always felt that cake mixes were better than anything I could do from scratch, so why bother? Well now with all the allergies we have, I guess I have to become more adventurous. I will admit I am resistant, and not patient enough to make the same thing over and over again until I get it right.

Tomorrow I take C. in for a food challenge to oat and peas. I need to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (with gluten free oats.) I should be doing that now, but the health food store left my safe chocolate chips out of the bag! UGH - I was ready to cry when I discovered that. C. is sleeping now so I have to wait to go back and get them. In between swimming lessons, swim team practice for my oldest and my physical therapy. I know I will not be baking these until 9:00 tonight.

Anyway here is my question for you daring bakers out there. There are so many ways to replace eggs (applesauce, flax seed, Ener G egg replacer etc.) What works best when? Is there a cheat sheet out there somewhere? I have also read more than once that when using the Ener G egg replacer it is better to double the powder used. I also was going to buy a safe brownie mix that called for 4 eggs. I hesitated because I thought when replacing that many eggs there is no way it would come out right. Someone at the health food store suggested using purred prunes. For a $10 box of brownies I was not willing to take a chance. It is a little confusing for us non bakers. I would love any help!!

Thanks!

I was Inspired to Bake Today

I am on a mission to find more family friendly allergy free foods. Since it is food allergy week I have decided to try some new things. Today I was inspired to bake. I will admit that baking without standard wheat flour does intimidate me quite a bit. When I read my first recipes and saw how many ingredients I had to blend to replace wheat flour, I pretty much shut down. That was a couple of years ago, am now I think I am ready to face the challenge. But if I can find a short cut, you bet I am going to take it! I had purchased some bread mixes made by Gluten Free Pantry, and I thought I would give them a try.

The first was the Ginger Spice Cake Mix. Since C. is allergic to banana I have wanted to bake applesauce bread for him. I mixed the following:
· 1 cup buttermilk
· 1/3 cup vegetable oil
Added the dry mix and then folded in ¼ cup of applesauce, in place of the egg. I baked these in mini muffin pans instead of a loaf pan for 15 – 17 min. I find mini muffins to be more convenient for the kids and easy to freeze.

I have to say that they were really good! The whole family loved them. J You would never know that they did not have wheat and eggs. This will be a great treat to bring to preschool next year. They would also make a great cupcake - perhaps with cream cheese frosting. They are pretty sweet, so I think next time I will try unsweetened applesauce.

I was feeling really good about my results with the muffins, so I thought I would try the Sandwich Bread mix. I have hesitated in the past as we can not use egg, and the recipe calls for 2 eggs. I have been unsure if you can use egg replace in yeast bread. I finally just decided to give it a try. I mixed the bread according to the directions for the oven method. I used Ener-G egg replacer in place of the egg. I have heard from 2 different sources that this egg replace works best when you use double the amount of powder for water. So, to replace 2 eggs I used 6 tsp of egg replacer whisked with 2 tbsp warm water.

I let the bread rise for 40 min – it did not seem to rise as high as I would have thought. I am not sure if this has to do with the egg substitute or not. I decided to bake it anyway. I would say that this bread is pretty good. It is a little dense, buy fairly moist and good flavor. My kids enjoyed it toasted with soy nut butter. I will try using it to make a grilled cheese sandwich tomorrow. This bread is not as dry as the pre made brown rice bread that I usually buy, that is pretty terrible.

Does anyone out there know how to make good sandwich bread without wheat and egg?