Confession

I've been holding out on you, Reader. I have led you along, letting you in with little glimpses of my gluten free life... my dislikes, loves, trials, flops. But there is one thing I've failed to disclose and I feel it's time to make the leap. After all, if I can't trust my readers, who CAN I trust? So here goes. 

I'm a full blown carboholic. It's not a new thing, really. I've been a carboholic for as long as I can remember. My mom used to joke that I ate a "white diet"... aka white bread. Of course, I'm also a cheese lover... so some mozzarella would be included in there, too. White on white. With a little white on the side.

When I was diagnosed with this gluten intolerance, so many things ran through my mind. Crusty, warm Italian bread? Gone. Soft, buttery Challah bread? Outta here. Chewy bagels? A thing of the past.

And I got depressed. Very depressed. (It wasn't pretty.)

Since then I have realized that, although things won't be exactly the same, they are still quite good. I have found alternatives to most of my favorite things and have had so much fun coming up with the recipes for things that gluten free companies aren't doing yet.

Today's recipe is probably the surprise of the year. I can't take credit for it... I found it on www.food.com. It was so incredibly ridiculous that I had to give it a try. The name of the recipe? Carb Free Cloud Bread.

Um, pardon? Carb FREE bread?? My brain could barely compute those words.

But surprise, surprise! It's really cool! It reminds me mostly of Challah... and that ain't a bad thing. The hardest part of this recipe is waiting until the next day, since it is recommended that you put the bread in the fridge overnight before eating it. The first thing I did this very morning is get one out and put a little light butter on it... and YUM.

When you read the ingredients, don't be frightened. If you, too, miss soft rolls... or if you happen to L-O-V-E Challah bread like I do, give this a try.

You'll have a happy, carb free mouth!

Gluten Free, Carb Free Cloud Bread (from www.food.com) 

3 eggs, separated
3 Tbsp cottage cheese
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 (1g) packet of artificial sweetener (I used Splenda)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spray two cookie sheets with non-stick spray or use silpats.

Separate the eggs carefully, there must be no yolk in the whites. In a small bowl, mix together the egg yolks, cottage cheese and sweetener. (Break up the curds of cottage cheese a little.)

In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar together until stiff peaks form. Very carefully fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites to keep the egg whites from losing their fluffiness.

With an ice cream scoop or large spoon, scoop the mixture into 10-12 rounds on the cookie sheets (about the size of the top-half of a McDonald's hamburger bun); roughly 3/4 inch thick and 4-5 inches across). 

Bake on the middle rack for about 30 minutes, but keep an eye on them. Remove when they are lightly golden brown. Remove from the pans and cool on a cooling rack. Once completely cool, place in a baggie and refrigerate overnight.