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.

The Multi-Tasker

I miss sandwiches. I know there are alternative breads out there for me to use, but the truth is I just don’t love them. I will say this, though. Udi’s Sandwich Bread makes pretty good toast. And The Grainless Baker’s Cinnamon Raisin Bread does as well. But to have a good ol’ ham and cheese sandwich on bread just isn’t the same. Rice-based bread is either sweet (and in my opinion, the sweetness works against a deli sandwich) or rather rough. There have been times where the inside of my mouth has actually gotten scraped up from the roughness of the bread.

No thanks.

So, in the quest to find alternatives to the alternative breads, I’ve had to get rather creative. The first attempt was inspired – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – by McDonald’s McGriddle Sandwich. Could I use two small pancakes to make an egg and cheese sandwich? I must say, it wasn’t shabby. Sure, it didn’t taste like white bread… but it was soft and squishy. I love soft and squishy.

After a while, I gave up on anything bread-like and just made ham and cheese roll-ups… complete with a pickle in the middle. It was a nice change for lunches, but rather boring.

Then I stumbled across The Multi-Tasker. Buttermilk Biscuits. Salty, crisp outside… light and soft inside. They can be your “toast with jam” in the morning, or your egg and cheese sandwich. They can be your “english muffin” with peanut butter or your companion for a bowl of beef stew. Yes, they can even be your ham and cheese sandwich!

Explore the world of sandwiches with the buttermilk biscuit. That baby will take on many forms and fulfill that empty, sad place in your heart where you thought only squishy bread could live. Alright, so I’m getting a little dramatic… but you get the point.

Gluten Free Buttermilk Biscuits

½ cup potato starch

½ cup corn starch

¼ cup tapioca starch

¼ cup brown rice flour

1 ¾ tsp xanthan gum

1 Tbsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

1/3 cup cold butter, cut into ¼ inch cubes

¾ cup buttermilk

2 Tbsp melted butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray or line the baking sheet with a Sil-pat.

In a food processor, pulse together the potato starch, corn starch and tapioca starch, brown rice flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda and salt until thoroughly mixed.

Drop the butter cubes over the starch mixture and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Turn the food processor on and pour the buttermilk in as it churns, until well incorporated.

Turn the dough out onto a piece of wax paper lightly dusted with white or brown rice flour. Using your hands, pat down the dough to about an inch high. Cut out biscuits with round biscuit cutter and transfer to the baking sheet. (It helps to flour the cutter as well.) Cut out as many circles as possible, then gather up the dough and pat it down again to one inch. Repeat the process until all dough is used.

Bake for 25 minutes. Immediately after removing from the oven, brush twice with melted butter.

Restaurants... Who Needs 'Em?

Alright, so the title of this post is a little misleading. I miss restaurants. It’s true. Sure, there are a few I can still eat at… but there are ones I will never eat at again that I miss. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very thankful for the exceptional restaurants I have found that go out of their way to provide a “safe” meal for me. They are my heroes! But once in a while, I do find myself dreaming of days gone by…

One restaurant that was in the top 10 of "Katie’s Favorites" was Cracker Barrel. The truth is, I don’t really like their food all that much. Confused? Let me explain.

The food, in general, is way too salty. But I am a sucker for a restaurant that invites you to SHOP while waiting for your table. Ingenious. I can plunk down a pretty penny or two in their little shop. There was one thing on the menu, however, I always looked forward to at Cracker Barrel. Cornbread. I love cornbread. Personally, I think it should have its own food group. But I digress.

I would even go so far as to call myself a cornbread snob. I’m not proud of that title, but it’s true. I don’t like cornbread that is so dry it sucks all the moisture out of your mouth. I like cornbread to be warm, soft and sweet. Warm and sweet can easily be accomplished in the gluten free world, but soft?

Well, dear friends, I can honestly say I’ve done it. I’ve come up with a recipe for warm, sweet, SOFT cornbread. I know it’s good because just today I made a small batch (to photograph, of course!) and I heard my mom eating it in the kitchen. No, I didn’t hear her smacking her lips and chowing down. I heard, “Ohhhh…” and, “Mmmmm…” throughout the entire snack. (Always a good sign.)

Sure, I may not be able to go to Cracker Barrel anymore. But I now have a darn good recipe for cornbread and my husband doesn’t have panic attacks anymore from me shopping… er, I mean, eating… there.

Gluten Free Sweet Cornbread Recipe

• 1 cup Pamela’s Baking Mix
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix Pamela’s Baking Mix with the cornmeal. Add in sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir to mix the ingredients. Next add your egg, milk and oil. Mix well. Grease your pan and fill, then bake.

8 inch square pan - 35 minutes
11x7 baking pan – 25-30 minutes
13x9 baking pan (when doubling recipe) – 30-35 minutes

Every oven is different so look for some browning around the edges, a golden brown color on the top, and firmness in the center when lightly touched. Insert a toothpick in the center and if it comes out clean it’s done.