Wednesday, November 7, 2012

New Direction

     I haven't written for some time.  It's been crazy hectic around my home.  I am working on a new food project.  As you know from many of my posts, I don't like the conventional gluten free approach due to it's lack of nutritional value.  Many of the recipes I have on this blog have a decent nutritional value but some don't.  My hope for my family is to see food as fuel.  Many of the wonderful, gluten -free people I read about, have spoken to, etc. are just trying to NOT get sick.  I want to go further than that.  I want to heal my family.  Several months ago I began learning about natural yeast.  Most people have heard of sourdough, natural yeast is much the same but less sour.  The premise is that the wheat is very hard to digest.  Also, much of the available nutrition in wheat is unavailable read more here.  In order to break down the gluten in wheat and to make it's nutrition available, the wheat needs to go through some sort of change.  One could be to sprout the wheat, another to ferment (sourdough or natural yeast breads) the dough.  Fermenting has the benefit of adding probiotics to the system.  Those with autoimmune disorders need to strengthen the immune system in order to really heal.  Probiotics help with this healing.
     I have been experimenting with fermenting bread dough for a little bit now.  I have been letting it sit for 24 hours or nearly that.  It takes some time for the good bacteria to break down the gluten enough to be safe.  So far I only have the way my children act and feel with the baked goods I've made from the natural yeast.  I haven't seen any reaction.  My next step is to buy several gluten tests and use them to test the dough at various times of fermentation.  I have two kids with Science Fair Projects that will test the theory that fermentation makes wheat safe to eat for those who are sensitive to gluten.
     Okay, so that is all fine and good, but how does the bread taste?  I have made pancakes, pizza dough, crepes, waffles, french bread, crackers, and cinnamon rolls.  Everything was well received.  The cinnamon rolls were divine.  I haven't had such a wonderful, fluffy, yummy, cinnamon roll in SUCH a long time.  So, I'll keep you posted.