huzzah for the baker!

So much going on! We're preparing for an event our church is having this weekend for the neighbors in celebration of Easter, we have Easter with our families, and then Renaissance Faire. All in a week's time. Oi. So much to do, so little time!

The recipe I'm going to share is one that I specifically tried in preparation of Ren Faire, so I'm going to focus this post on the Faire.

I'm working on making a cotehardie for the Faire. I wanted something new to wear this year, and a dress sounded fun. (ie, flowy) I found this gorgeous pattern and decided to give it a try. My Mom and I found a whole bunch of light green linen at Salvation Army for an absurdly cheap price, so that's what it'll be made of. The gal who wrote out the pattern and blogged it called one part of the 'never ending eyelets of doom'. Yep, aptly named! That's where I am right now and I'm only 4 in! Ahh, but it'll look good when it's done... If you want to know what it looks like and how to make one yourself, here's the blog that I'm stalking following. ^_^ http://romantichistory.blogspot.com/search/label/cotehardie

We always brought our own lunch instead of buying food at the Faire. Mostly just because it's cheaper, and it's rather fun to walk back to the car, pull out our ice chest and find a picnic table with a group of friends and break bread together in the shade. It's just a lovely experience. Since I've been gluten free, it's more of a necessity than anything else. Get a rotisserie chicken (or roast one the night before), get some cheeses and some bread, some grapes...modern day Renaissance feast! Each year I've looked for a Renaissance-esque bread that I could bake and bring. And today, I've found it!

The original recipe is your normal bread. (ie, glutened) But I've tried making it now gluten free style, and it worked! Huzzah!

First, here's the link to the original recipe, and then I'll tell you what I did: http://www.simplysogood.com/2010/03/crusty-bread.html

Crusty Bread

3 cups TG's All purpose floud

1 3/4 teaspoons sea salt

1/2 teaspoons yeast

1 1/2 cups water

I followed the directions as she listed, mixing the dry ingredients together, adding the water, setting aside with plastic wrap to rise for at least 12 hours. (I waited 16 hours, as I had to wait for my little guy to go down for his nap) I used my Deep Covered Baker (from Pampered Chef) as the tool for baking. I heated the oven to 450 and let it heat in there for 30 minutes as instructed. I deviated from the instructions here. GF will not handle well in the sense of rolling into a ball and being all dandy like glutened stuff is. So I left it in the bowl it had been in, sprinkled flour over it while there, and waited. After 30 minutes of the DCB being in the oven, I took it out, took off the lid, dumped a good spoonful or two of flour on my dough, lifted it and dropped it into the hot DCB. Covered with the lid and put in to bake for 30 minutes. Just shy of 30 minutes into it (27 minutes, to be exact) I took the lid off and let it bake for 15 minutes un-lidded. Took it out of the oven, flopped it onto my cooling sheet, debated for a minute, then tore the bread in half and started taste testing. 

For having only 4 ingredients, it was really good! Wow! It was great with some Earth Balance butter on it. We're going to make some again (after Easter, methinks) and try adding some Daiya or other cheese-like stuff in it to see how it'd be with cheese. So exited for such a simple bread that I can make! Super simple for every day life AND for Ren Faire! Huzzah! Huzzah for the Baker! 

Seriously, you've gotta try it. I'm seriously impressed! If I remember to try it with the cheese sub and it turns out good, I'll do my best to post a note here!