Isn't It Ironic...

[luvs2eat]

My all time favorite food to bake was bread. I used to make beautiful braided challah breads and big round crusty country loaves... I still do make them. Only now I can't eat them.

The loss of bread since my diagnosis (August 2003) has been the hardest for me. Whenever someone asked what my favorite food in the world was, I always said, "Homemade bread... and butter... that's one food, right??"

With all that's happening in the world... I know this is so not important. I'm just missing bread today. I've yet to find a good celiac bread and ... trust me... I've tried a bunch of recipes.

[DrLeonard]

Have you ever noticed that when you're telling someone about the gluten-free diet for the first time, how they go through this list of foods saying "So you can't have ____?"

And when they get to bread, they so often get emotional about it: "So you can't have a sandwich? Or a hamburger? Or a hot dog?" Life would be so much easier if there was good, gluten-free bread around.

That's my venting coming off the holidays, where it seemed that everyone I knew was eating turkey sandwiches for two weeks. I miss turkey sandwiches. There are certainly more important things going on in the world, yet I'd still want the person who invented great gluten-free bread to win a Nobel Prize of some kind.

[Guest PastorDave]

I always liked Italian food myself. I found some good pasta's (more expensive because they are actually from Italy) but never a good pizza crust (don't tell my wife ) My mom (also Celiac) was the bread lover in our family, when we got her a bread machine (pre-diagnosis) she thought she was in heaven, she could make home-made bread with her schedule.

Oh well...it's better to know what's wrong than to be as sick as a dog and not know why. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

[Guest PastorDave]

Have you ever noticed that when you're telling someone about the gluten-free diet for the first time, how they go through this list of foods saying "So you can't have ____?"

Have you ever had anyone ask if you could have white bread??? After all it's not "wheat" bread? I love that one.

[IrishGirl71]

My mother's always offering me breaded stuff like fried chicken.

ahhh...patience is a virtue...

[celiac3270]

Have you ever noticed that when you're telling someone about the gluten-free diet for the first time, how they go through this list of foods saying "So you can't have ____?"

And when they get to bread, they so often get emotional about it: "So you can't have a sandwich? Or a hamburger? Or a hot dog?" Life would be so much easier if there was good, gluten-free bread around.

OH, YES! .....the list goes on and on. Then many start to think that I can eat hardly anything. They start asking about milk, meat, vegetables, fruits....also funny.....what would I be eating then?

Have you ever had anyone ask if you could have white bread??? After all it's not "wheat" bread? I love that one.

Yes, another good one came from my dad when I was first diagnosed and he and my brother were clueless. He thought that with cereals I could have corn flakes since it's CORN flakes and not something like frosted mini WHEATS......lol

I don't miss tasty bread like many...well, not sliced bread...i can make do with ener-G and kinnickinick. I miss italian bread...used to love that, too...and I miss everything that's sorta bready/pastay: pizza, cheese ravioli, bagels, etc.

[DrLeonard]

celiac3270, I just had a gluten-free frozen pizza from Amy's---plain cheese, but still pretty good.

[tyki]

I used the Gluten Free Pantry Sandwich Bread mix through this past holiday season. You see, tyki's favorite grandmother taught her years ago how to make nutmeat bread (its more like a bread roll with ground nuts where cinamon would be in a cinamon roll) like her mother-in-law from Czechoslovakia had taught her.

Nutmeat bread for the holidays is a family tradition. From the time I figured out I was gluten intolerant, nutmeat bread was the thing I was most upset about. I am the only one in the family that makes it, and I really didn't want to do without. And it was making me angry that I would make it and not be able to have even one piece.

My hubby convinced me to try the Sandwich Bread mix, and it was a pain to roll it out between sheets of plastic wrap.But once the dough was rolled out, the ground nuts, sugar, cinnamon, and raisins were spread around like a blanket on the dough and then rolled into a long thin loaf. The rolled loaves were very fragile when we slid them onto the baking sheets. But as they baked, they smelled just like I remembered nutmeat bread smelling.

I carried fresh baked loaves of nutmeat bread to every family gathering this Thanksgiving and Christmas. Guess what.....no one in the family could tell the difference until they saw me take a piece of nutmeat bread. Then they all said, "but you've been so careful about being gluten free." Then I just smiled and said, "Yep, and this was made with a gluten free substitute."

I was able to use the mix to substitute for a family tradition, and keep the tradition alive. On my side of the family, it helped keep everyone a little healthier, you see my dad is convinced that now that I made the connection, he can see signs that others in the family may have gluten intolerance at the root of some problems they have had and couldn't figure out.

[cdford]

Ah, for those days when my mill and three bread machines sat atop my kitchen counter. Twice a week, I faithfully milled my own wheat and carefully baked whole grain bread for my family. After all, what could be better for us (and our cholesterol, and our digestion, ...) than fresh baked bread with honey and a little butter? Little did I know that I was precipitating a catastrophe in our home by setting up the trigger for multiples of us to show up with celiac. Of all the things I cannot have, this is the one that will bring tears to my eyes. At least I can use my new mill to create buckwheat for pancakes and amaranth or teff to add nutrition to other dishes.

[darlindeb25]

after over 3 years of being gluten-free, i was happy to think that my kids were all excepting the fact that i cant have gluten --my oldest didnt want to believe me and he would tell the others, "it's just a crazy diet mom is on" ----he had ran to town to pick up a few things and called to ask his 7 yr old daughter what she wanted him to bring her from mcdonalds, then asked if i wanted anything, or was there anything i could have cause he knew i couldnt have a burger --he had gone to town to pick up rolls for our family dinner, after mcdonalds he calls from the grocery store and asks, "ask mom what kind of rolls she can have?"----someday i am sure it will all connect deb

[Twister2]

My biggest temptation is when I walk though a store that makes homemade bread and the smell just fills the whole store. I swear my mouth starts watering every time! Dave...I miss good pasta the most! Italian food has always been my favorite. My husband and I are planning a vacation right now and he suggested we go to Italy the other night. I just about cried. We have been to Italy before and the pasta is like nothing you have ever had! I'd be off the diet before I got off the plane.........

[veggf]

Tyki,

Thank you, thank you, I'm so excited to hear that you made gluten-free nutmeat bread. It sounds very similar to potica (a Slovenian food). I've been very disappointed that I couldn't eat potica since dx. I'll have to try it with the mix.

Thank You!!!

[jboom]

What I wouldn't give to eat a hot dog or hamburger on a bun. I don't even like hot dogs but they look soooo good on a bun. Hamburgers just aren't the same with out a bun either. I just had to sit through lunch and watch everyone at the table eat burritos.

PastorDave try the Chebe Pizza Crust. I think I like them better than regular crust.

[luvs2eat]

I tried the pizza crust from Bette Hagman's book and found it to be quite good. We cooked it on one of those Pizza Pizazz things and everyone thought it was geat!

[cynicaltomorrow]

I just get so irritated when I'm talking about the diet with my friends and then they say something stupid, haha. Like, all my friends know I can't have gluten or dairy... and then my friend the other night was like... well you can have hot chocolate! And, I was like "HELLO... chocolate!" It's always entertaining to say the least. I find it interesting that everyone's response is always "Wow... that sucks." When in actuality, this is probably the best thing to ever happen to me. If I kept on eating like I was, I probably would've had a lot of problems later on in life. Maybe even not so later on.

[tyki]

veggf,

For all I know my "nutmeat bread" could be your potica. You see my maternal grandfather immigrated to the US from Morovia (part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). He liked to refer to himself as a Bohunk. Part of his family lives now in Prague.

It was his mother who taught my grandmother to make the nutmeat bread. With the way so many things were Anglicized when they came to the US, my great-grandmother may have just translated the name of what she was making to be more understandable to my grandmother. When they arrived in the US my grandfather's name was changed from Josef to Joseph, and his mother's name was changed from Josefa to Josephine.

So perhaps instead of clinging to the name potica, she just said she was making nutmeats and bread, aka nutmeat bread. A variation that the family used to make (unfortunately I didn't get the recipe for the filling) was to use poppy seeds instead of ground walnuts.

After writing this, I looked up potica on the web and read through several recipes, the filling I am using is not quite as complex as the recipes I saw on the web, but it looks amazingly like what I have been fixing for years.

[celiac3270]

What I wouldn't give to eat a hot dog or hamburger on a bun. I don't even like hot dogs but they look soooo good on a bun. Hamburgers just aren't the same with out a bun either. I just had to sit through lunch and watch everyone at the table eat burritos. 

PastorDave try the Chebe Pizza Crust. I think I like them better than regular crust. 

Definitely try chebe...i'd recommend making the crust using the regular chebe bread mix, though, rather than the mix for the pizza crust....turns out better using that one to make the crust in my opinion.

[tarnalberry]

cynical - you can still have hot chocolate. plain powdered cocoa has no dairy (or gluten), and you can make it with soy milk if you want it creamy. many dark chocolates also contain no dairy (or gluten). I particularly like Scharfen-Burgher's cocoa powder.

[cynicaltomorrow]

cynical - you can still have hot chocolate. plain powdered cocoa has no dairy (or gluten), and you can make it with soy milk if you want it creamy. many dark chocolates also contain no dairy (or gluten). I particularly like Scharfen-Burgher's cocoa powder.

Oh yeah, I know. I have made it with soy milk and chocolate syrup. My friend wanted me to get it from a gas station though, haha.

[jendenise]

It's been a while since I've been here... Quick question does most regular hot chocolates (like the kind from quicky marts) have gluten in them??? Thanks

[darlindeb25]

it shouldnt--i worked at speedway and their hot cocoa didnt--i read it to be sure, ubt i never drank it--i dont like hot cocoa much--sorry-----deb

[lovegrov]

None of us can guarantee you that some unknown hot chocolate is gluten-free, but all that I've checked have been. Stephens, Quick, Swiss Miss.

richard

[mrsfiles]

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new to Celiac (2 1/2 years). I cried the first time I tried the frozen pre-made gluten-free breads out there. Nothing I did would make them palatable enough for me. My wonderful husband bought me a great programmable bread machine and I have since learned to make a great variety of breads with Bette Hagman's gluten-free Gourmet Bakes Bread recipes. With the machine, all it takes is throwing in the ingredients, starting the machine (which is programmed to skip the 2nd kneading & rising that gluten-free breads do not need), and within 3 hours, I have tasty bread at my disposal. My sandwiches do not fall apart, and I use any crumbs for gluten-free croutons or gluten-free bread crumbs. Take heart! It does get a little easier with time, research and advice from fellow Celiacs.

[sunflower]

A variation that the family used to make (unfortunately I didn't get the recipe for the filling) was to use poppy seeds instead of ground walnuts.

tyki,

there is a similar Polish cake with poppy seed filling. It is called makowiec (pronounced makovietz), though I'd translate that as "poppy seed cake" rather than "bread"... It is also a traditional Christmas cake in Poland.

Here are a few recipes that I found on the Web, although they are not gluten-free, I think you could try making them with a gluten-free flour substitute ( I never had enough patience to try to make gluten-free yeast dough myself, but the filling should be OK ).

here's a recipe for makowiec and for the poppy seed filling (and for a few more Polish cakes):

Open Original Shared Link

and a recipe for potica

Open Original Shared Link

I hope you enjoy it

[once and again]

I never liked bread, pasta or pizza that much - so I really don't miss them that much. What I really miss is being able to bake cookies and biscuits. I used to go through 20 lbs. of flour between Thanksgiving and New Year's! I didn't eat that much of it - gave most of it away. This is my first holiday season since being diagnosed and I didn't trust myself not to eat cookies warm from the oven. Rugelach, pecan tassies, triple chocolate cookies with nuts.... I missed the tradition. Maybe next year I'll feel comfortable enough that I can still bake for others and not be tempted to taste.