Light White Bread Redux

Okay, so I've been doing a lot of baking with the almond flour over the last two weeks or so. And in general I'm really pleased with it. Does it taste like wheat? Not really. Is it pretty yummy anyway? Definitely. I've made bread, muffins, biscuits, and cookies and everything has come out more than satisfactorily. At this point, all errors lie with me.

That being said, I took another pass at the light white bread recipe found in Healing Foods. This bread is supposed to light in color and moist. I substituted some banana flour for some of the almond flour in my first attempt at this recipe. That experiment yielded a surprisingly dense bread but one that was super with butter and jam - my favorite way to eat bread. This time I executed the recipe as written. I won't reproduce the recipe for you here. You'll have to buy the book for that. But behold! Light White Bread.



This version of the bread came out golden and beautiful. It was light and moist. Tastewise it would have made excellent sandwiches although the bread is very fragile. It breaks easily, I expect due to the whipped egg whites that are called for in the recipe to give it it's lightness of texture. As before, I've consumed the entire loaf with butter and jam. It's one of my favorite things.

Will I be making this again? Oh, yeah!

Light White Bread

My first SCD baking experiment was the Light White Bread from Healing Foods. Sorry no pics this time. I'm having some trouble with my camera software. I chose this recipe to do first because I thought it might make a nice option to have with sandwiches. Unfortunately, the recipe didn't come out as light or white. This is probably due to the fact that I was using a coarser grind of almond flour instead of a fine grind. I also substituted plantain flour for half of the flour called for. I substituted the plantain flour because I wanted to cut down on the amount of almonds I'm taking in and because I wanted to add extra moisture to the bread. Plantain or banana flour is really soothing to the gut and is very moisture absorbent so it makes anything you bake really moist. If you're going to use it in your recipes you should really add a little extra water to get the consistency just right. I just eyeball it.

The bread was dark and dense and super moist. It didn't rise very much but that's to be expected. It has a really mild flavor. If the texture were lighter and fluffier it would make an excellent sandwich bread flavor wise. Right now it's super delicious with butter and jam. I can't keep from eating it. I'm definitely going to try this recipe again with a finer grind of almond flour. And maybe some coconut flour. I hear coconut flour bakes up very similar to wheat - lighter and fluffier than almonds. I'll also increase the recipe slightly. Since the bread doesn't rise a great deal you'll need a bit more batter to have sandwich size loaf.

Next up: Muffin Mix Muffins from Everyday Grain-Free Gourmet

New SCD Cookbooks!

I just got in two new-to-me cookbooks for the SCD: Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet by Raman Prasad and Healing Foods by Sandra Ramacher. I'm really excited by these additions to my cookbook library. One of the things that I struggle with in doing the SCD is the lack of variety that I fall victim to every time. I grew up in a household where a vegetable was corn or potatoes. As an adult that has made me into a naturally picky eater. And many of the lovely members of the vegetable family are completely foreign to me. The same for some of the more exotic spices and flavors that the food world has to offer me.

Both of these glorious cookbooks are filled with recipes that include ingredients that, while I have heard of them, I've never included in my cooking before. I really hope that the inspiration that I feel flipping through the books and looking at the incredible pictures will translate into many new food loves. The only real drawback to these is that they are a bit more gourmet than I'm used to in my everday cooking. That is not a bad thing because both books are filled with recipes that are of a quality that can be used to entertain. But many are a bit more complicated than I'm looking for for a midweek meal. That being said the desert and main course sections of both books are loaded with recipes I can't wait to try.

First up for me is the Foccacia recipe found in Raman Prasad's book. It couldn't look more yummy. And since it's made with almond flour I feel comfortable giving it a go. From Sandra's book the Light White Bread and the Pumpernickel bread recipes are calling my name. It's not a coincidence that these are bread recipes. I'm really craving bread today. But there are some awesome new takes on preparing chicken in both books that have me salivating.

Stay tuned for the results!

Welcome to the new blog!

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to my new SCD blog. Here's the history. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in the summer of 2007. I was immediately put on all of the standard medications. Unlike a lot of the other sufferers of IBD my doctor immediately approached me with the idea that I needed to do my research and experiment with my diet so that I could find the right combination of medication and diet to alleviate most of my symptoms. It didn't take long to come across all of the reports about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and it's effectiveness on many types of gut related issues. I immediately ordered Elaine Gottschall's book Breaking the Viscious Cycle and plowed through it in a couple of hours. I was very impressed with how she outlined the evidence, her theory, and her personal experiences in treating her daughter. Though I read other books, websites, and personal experiences of other sufferers I decided to go forward with the SCD.

Boy, did I bite off more than I could chew! I was able to follow the diet very well for a few months. But as the diet is very restrictive - no wheat, no corn, no rice, no sugar, no lactose, I had a hard time staying faithful. All of my favorite foods and diet staples had been eliminated. I had great results while on the diet, my symptoms almost completely disappeared during the time I was very committed. The amount of medication I needed was drastically reduced. But as I began to cheat the symptoms crept back in. Slowly at first and then more aggressively. I have been off of the diet totally since March and during that time I have experienced some of my worst symptoms to date. I'm now back on all of the heavy meds including Prednisone.

What's the point? The point is that I'll be going back on the SCD as soon as the course of steroids are over. This relapse experience has taught me that the SCD did more for my condition than the meds. I want to feel that great again. So stay tuned, I'll be reporting all my of successes and failures. Cookbook and recipe reviews, too.

I'd love to hear about everyone else's experience. Feel free to drop a comment.

Happy Eating!
Christy