from the bakery: gluten free sandwich bread

So I finally tried my hand at homemade bread. I was very nervous at first especially starting out with a gluten free recipe. This past Saturday I purchased a second hand bread machine that came without instructions and I had no idea how to use it. I must say it was quite the adventure and ended being an all day process. The assembly of ingredients was simple, and then one hour was spent trying to put the machine together. Machine assembly has never been my forte, and I almost gave up right there. But a deep breathe and internal pep talk was all I needed to do to tap into my common sense. Finally, 5 hours were wasted with the dough being on the wrong setting so it was double kneaded, double risen, then kneaded again.

Fortunately, I found the instruction manual online (don’t you love Google) and was able to figure out the settings so around 8pm I got the machine to the right setting. Four hours later, my round loaf was finished. I didn’t slide it out of the pan until this morning, held my breathe and I was blown away. I finally had a soft, chewy textured bread that looked , felt, and tasted just like any other bread; like gluten filled bread but this bread was gluten free.

Hooray for me! My first attempt at gluten free bread with a recipe that I calibrated was a success. Ironically, I have my first meeting tomorrow with a local deli as they are interested in purchasing my bread, in fact the only reason I test baked the bread was for this meeting. Was it fate that sent me to buy the bread machine on Saturday? I don’t know. I don’t believe in fate, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason and as they should.

the gluten free chef