Whoa Nelly. I hope to all goodness that you had a better week than I did. You know those days when all you really want to do is have a mid-day meltdown, throw yourself face-first onto the bed and cry your face off like a two year old? Yeah that. For a few days last week that's pretty much what needed to be done. Work was stupid busy, and suddenly our glorious, gluten-free bread which is essentially the talk of the town - the stuff that I make every day - well it stopped being so glorious. In fact it was crap. It wasn't rising properly and was a hollow crater inside. Folks were coming far and wide for a slice and we weren't able to offer them any. In case you aren't aware - baking gluten free is a different animal. There's no bag of all-purpose flour to dip into and there you go, carry on with your recipe. Na-ah. Gluten free bread requires a carefully orchestrated symbiosis of flours and starches and gums and yeast and vinegar, and if one or more ingredients is defective, well you are in trouble. I was in the shit. After a couple of days of CSI: Gluten Free Baking Edition, we discovered the brown rice flour was stale. Yes, stale. It's lack of freshness destroyed the product and basically my soul. Everyone was so kind and supportive, but this bread is essential to the restaurant and if it flops, then that's not cool. The pressure I felt was my own, dumped onto these shoulders that can only carry so much. But holy Jesus, the relief I felt when a batch turned out absolutely perfect, made with fresh brown rice flour. I almost cried, yet again, but this time with joy instead of frustration. Oh the learning curve of cooking and baking with entirely new ingredients. As we discovered last week - it can be a steep one. But this was a good lesson for me - yes about the flour - but also how I need to chill the hell out.
