Late last year, in October, my doctor told me to stop eating gluten. It was causing inflammation in my body and in my brain. So, I stopped. It’s ben difficult, given that I love to eat all manner of baked goods, and I used to make and bake bread regularly. Also, my favorite cookies are wheat-based.

I found some alternative flours, mainly buckwheat flour, but that’s heavy and grainy (buckwheat is a grain, despite the name), and the batter is on the slimy side. I don’t like slime, or anything that resembles it. (shudder)

So I began to research recipes for gluten-free baking on the Internet. I found loads of recipes for cakes and cookies and sweet breads, but nothing really for something I can slice and make sandwiches with. So, I broke down and bought a book by Bette Hagman, called “The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread.” She seems to have done her homework, and last weekend I made my first loaves with her book.

It’s not the same as baking with regular wheat, or spelt flours, as I’m used to. The dough is more like cake batter, only thicker. But, I’m jumping ahead. FIRST I had to gather all these different flours together to make a mix of them. The kitchen was full of bags and bowls and flour dust in the air.

I made up a flour mix and followed one of her recipes. The resultant loaves were OK. I forgot to put salt in the batter, so I’ll have to do that next time. The texture is rather like a sponge cake, only stiffer. After a few days the whole thing goes pretty stale and gets very crumbly.

But I’m OK with my first attempt and will continue to experiment, for sure.

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Non-wheat flours for mixing	The dough
Ready for rising	The result