Crunchy Sandwichy Goodness

Mike, here.  Had the day off, due to a couple of dead presidents (no, I didn't bribe my boss, I'm talking about a certain holiday).  And because of a rather nasty blizzard that's been raging outside for the last day or so, we have a rather spotty internet connection as well, which means Kelly's VPN session was unable to stay connected to her home office (she telecommutes) for longer than a few minutes, so she finally threw in the towel as well.  Snow day!  Woo!

What to do?  Well, what else would we do?  We bake, of course!  So, when Kelly asked me if there was anything special I would like her to research on our gluten free baking quest, I responded with two simple words: sandwich bread.

Ahh, yes, sandwich bread.  The Holy Ghost to our Father Pizza and Son Pancakes.  I believe we have mentioned those three items repeatedly in the past.  If we can pull this off, nothing is impossible.  Kelly tried a week or so back with an almond flour bread recipe, and while it was very good, it wasn't something we could really see ourselves slapping in a sandwich press and using to make panini.  It was, however, quite good toasted with peanut butter, especially once the PB soaked into the bread a little, so it wasn't a total loss.  But the quest for a gluten-free sandwich bread recipe continued.

Today, it seemed, was the day to resume our crusade.  So Kelly got to work.  And quickly discovered that there was a common theme to all of the "good" GF sandwich bread recipes out there: sorghum flour.  Which we don't have.  Recipe after recipe mentioned it, and specifically recommended it because of the taste.  "You can use a finely milled brown or white rice flour," more than a few of them said, but they cautioned that the taste would not be as satisfying.  

OK, so today was not the day for a true slice-able sandwich bread.  OK, what recipes were there for other kinds of bread?  Hmm.  How about focaccia?  

Well, now.  

We have made a "thumbprint" focaccia bread many times in the past, with herbs, oil, garlic, etc, that is fantastic.  It contained wheat, of course.  So how would a GF recipe measure up?  

Kelly was up the challenge of making it.  I, selfless martyr that I am, was up to the challenge of eating it.  Kelly had some leftover basil (got a big bunch of organic basil at the Shop & Save in Presque Isle), so she made a nice homemade pesto (I got to eat the leftover parmigiano reggiano bits...you know, the stuff that won't go through the grater?  I love that stuff.  Smells funky, like...well, you don't want me to say anything specific.  But it tastes fabulous). And for the sake of variety, she did half of the focaccia with oil and Williams-Sonoma's pizza spice (it's really good.  We're almost out.  That could be a problem).  And baked.  

Came out of the oven looking kind of dry.  We thought it was overcooked.  We tried it anyway.  We're happy we did.

Very crunchy.  But not tough at all.  The garlic and spices give it kind of a sourdough-y flavor.  And the taste is fantastic.  I honestly would pit this against any wheat-based focaccia out there.  I preferred the pesto side slightly over the pizza-spice side, while Kelly was the other way around.  But we both agreed that all sides were fantastic.  In fact, I would put this up to a taste test compared to a gluten-based recipe and dare your average wheat-eating person to tell which one was GF.  It was that good.  

It's really, really good on its own.  But wait!  Slice it horizontally with a serrated knife held parallel to the cutting board, and you get...sandwich bread!  Aha!  We haven't done this yet, but we have the following ingredients:

• Chicken
• Prosciutto
• Fresh mozzarella
• Pesto
• Salad greens

I don't know about anyone else, but to me, that sounds like a killer sandwich.  Especially if we press it, and make panini (that's plural, remember.  Singular is panino.  Don't screw it up and make the Italians hate you.  If they ever rebuild the Colosseum, they're going to amuse themselves by siccing lions on everyone who mangles their language).  If/when we do that, we will report back.  

Hopefully with pictures.  :-)

Oh, the recipe?  It's right here.  We seem to enjoy blogging in tandem; this is the second such experiment and it's pretty funny how we end up discussing the same topics, from a different point of view.  Expect more of that from here on out.