The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Waving in Warm Hello from SWLA

Beverly the Inspired's picture
Beverly the Inspired

Waving in Warm Hello from SWLA

Thrilled to find TFL site & forums. Long time family bread baker with a challenge. What a challenge it is... DH dxd Celiacs. Quick breads & muffins, pancakes & popovers, cookies & cakes convert to GF fairly easily. Yeast breads & raised pastries *sigh* not so well.

Threw in the towel on making “real” yeast breads for 20+ years, relying on occasional box mixes. Some good, some horrid. Always mulling & steeping thoughts of freshly baked breads & sourdough starters.

Retirement is a funny thing. It breaks the Creative Muses out of their 9-to-5 trance induced daily grind. Suddenly anything is possible again in inspired youthful delight (tempered by hoary Wisdom of course).

Thanks to the forum owners & everyone who participates for sharing recipes, hints tips & suggestions. Looking forward to learning more, much more & breaking bread together.

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Welcome Beverly. Retirement and bread baking are a match made in heaven. I’m also living the dream...

Are you able to tolerate whole whaet sourdough breads that have undergone long fermentation? It is many much more digestible than typical white bread.

Ask question, post often, and include images. We welcome you with open arms...

Danny

Beverly the Inspired's picture
Beverly the Inspired

All gluten—wheat, rye, barley, einkorn is off the menu for DH. Celiacs can’t take the health risks of additional damage or complications.

Been reading your thread on pizza *yum*. One of the few yeast doughs I’ve had any luck GF. Flat.

Plan on following your Community Bake, too. Picking up ideas along the way.

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy

Greetings.   I just  saw where you already commented on one of Angelica Nelson's posts.  I was going to recommend following her.  Her posts are bookmark-worthy,

Another GF baker is "metropical" with the cat icon photo.  

To "follow" another user, go to their Account (/user)  page, then click on the "track" tab.  For instance, for Angelica, it is:  https://www.thefreshloaf.com/user/152316/track

That will show you both the posts that they wrote, and others' posts that they comment on.  Then create a bookmark/favorite in your browser for that track page, ie, for  https://www.thefreshloaf.com/user/152316/track

That way, you don't clutter up your browser's bookmarks/favorites with a gazillion posts.

The TFL system automatically keeps track of which posts and comments you have read.  So.... the next time you go back to that user's "track" tab/page, it will show you which posts/comments are "New."  (to catch up, just click on all the posts on the first page of their track tab, to remove the "new" flags.)

And, of course, TFL lets you add bookmarks inside your TFL account, that you can see both on your account page and your account/bookmarks tab.

Beverly the Inspired's picture
Beverly the Inspired

Thanks for the info on bookmarking people & recipes, etc. Very helpful.

Think I’ve read one of Metropocal’s threads. The B&W cat with round sunglasses avatar.

Always nice to know of more GF bread bakers *\0/*

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy

In case you haven't discovered them, Indian grocery stores are good sources for GF grains and flour.

At my local, I've found sorghum, two kinds of millet (bajri and ragi), quinoa, rice, various bean (mung, chana/chickpea), corn (true corn flour, not masa, not corn-meal).  And about a dozen or more varieties of rice.  I love Basmati and Jasmine rice.

Teff is a fun flour to work with too, I got some at a local Patel Brothers store.

Asian (Chinese and Vietnamese, usually) grocery stores are also good sources for whole rice, red rice, brown rice, black rice, wild rice, etc.  And rice flour.

I have some Tapioca and Potato starch and/or flour, but I forgot where I got them from. 

--

One problem with foreign-sourced GF flours is possible cross-contamination, because they have been using them as traditional foods for centuries before gluten-free became a thing.  GF is not their raison-d'etre, so look carefully at packaging if you absolutely need _certified_ gluten-free.

If a mere puff of wheat dust in a pound of otherwise non-gluten flour absolutely must be avoided, then foreign-sourced non-gluten flours may not be for you.

Beverly the Inspired's picture
Beverly the Inspired

*Grin* Our selection of specialty stores is quite limited. I’d have venture forth to Baton Rouge or to Houston. Both 6+ hr round-trip safaris maybe an overnight “camp”. Love the idea of exploring Indian & Hmong markets!

Cross contamination unfortunately is a major concern with DH. To a point where I have to read labels on shampoo/conditioner, body wash/soap, toothpaste... “It’s a whole ‘nother country” with Celiacs.

Amazon & KAF are fantastic for specialty flours. They deliver, HaHa. But, an adventure may just be in my future.