Things fall apart

With the savoury side of life mostly covered with suitable pasta, meat and dressing alternatives, bread is where it all starts to fall apart. Literally.



Pink Champagne Gluten-free cupcakes



The Great British Bakeoff is my favourite reality program in the UK, it’s so charming, quaint, fun and presents the aspiring bakers with wonderful challenges. Paul Hollywood (not to be confused with the Paul I usually refer to), while a tad arrogant, is a fantastic baker and celebrity chef who acts as a judge on the program. His specialty is bread-making and while I absolutely adore watching him bake and talk about the baking process, it is agonising to hear him mention gluten so damn much.

 XANTHAN GUM is an ingredient present in a lot of gluten-free products because it acts as a thickening and binding agent in an environment where the gluten from the wheat-flour would normally provide elasticity. Some gluten-free self raising flours have xantham gum mixed in while other plain varities often do not but the xantham gum is readily available in baking sections of large grocery stores.

I've attempted a few lots of cupcakes using gluten-free flour. The key-lime pie ones were a definite success, the pink champagne ones fizzled out, but Paul has even mastered a recipe for gluten-free pancakes.

I don't have much of a sweet tooth so I can't testify for too many store-bought gluten-free cakes and pastries. Any store-bought bread has been wholly unriveting. As a personal preference that fast approaches a general rule, gluten-free breads need to be toasted to be even remotely passable. Whether it's something about the preservatives used that make them unappetizing when cold, I'm not sure. 

SAINSBURY'S GARLIC & HERB PITAS taste great and work well as dippers but even after heating are difficult to open into a pocket.

GLUTINO bagels (acquired in Canada) have a nicer texture than most breads I've tried, with a density approaching that of a proper bagel but definitely need to be toasted as per instructions on pack. Seeing as how I had high bagel standards to begin with, anything called a bagel that is not a freshly based Montreal bagel was going to have to bring its top guns. Proper Montreal bagels are the one food I found most difficult to resist during a trip back home.

DIETARY SPECIALS do rolls that are the best I've tried for sandwiches and they double up well as hamburger buns. I prefer much of their line over most grocery stores' own 'Free From' ranges. While the DS buns are passable cold for sandwiches, I do toast them to ensure they don't disintegrate when in contact with anything hot 'n juicy. I've always been a fan of toasted buns so at the very least this element of this gluten-free adventure isn't a horrendous life-changing endeavour.