Breakthrough

Yesterday (Friday) I had my most favourite lunch in the whole world - boiled eggs and toast fingers (soldiers . . . although we used to call them piggy fingers!)  This was the first time I'd been able to eat this meal for the last six months, because that's the length of time I've been unable to eat bread.

After numerous little experiments, I realised it was the yeast that was affecting me and making me feel so ill.  The only way round this has been to make tortillas and plain scones and have those instead.  But it just didn't taste right with boiled eggs.

Then, about a month ago, a friend of ours sent me some kefir grains (they actually look like little cauliflower florets, but they're soft) which you put into milk for 24 hours at a time to make a cultured drink.  I didn't really like to have so much milk though, so I started putting mine in soya milk every alternate day and that was much better.  It ends up a bit like thin yoghourt with a bit of a fizz and a tangy taste.

The other day I was lying in bed, thinking.  It suddenly occurred to me that maybe I could use this in home made bread to make it rise.  So I Googled the question, and sure enough found quite a number of recipes on the internet.  I picked a really easy one and had a go.  You can see the result here :-

Yes, that's bread, real bread.  It's very like sourdough, with a delicious nutty taste.

Bon appétit!

So how was your day?

Just when you thought it was safe to read my blog and not be bombarded with silkworm photos, have a look at these.  Aren't they growing fast?  They only have one more skin change to go before they begin to make cocoons and they're eating like crazy.

Remember when they first hatched and they just about measured 2mm?  Well they're now almost 5cm.  Not bad in 19 days!

Bread

I love bread, don't you?  Especially ultra-fresh home made bread.  For the last month though not a crumb has passed my lips, and I miss it.

I'd been feeling a bit "off" sometimes after meals for some time and it was gradually getting worse - uncomfortable stomach, bloating and, more recently, acid reflux - not nice. After a lot of thinking about what I was eating when it happened I realised it was only after meals where we'd had bread.  Not knowing what it was that was affecting me (wheat, yeast or the additives commercial bakers use) I decided I had to cut it out of my diet for a while.  Result : symptoms disappeared and I had more energy, I'd been feeling quite sluggish too.

A month later, I'm really missing bread.  So, I decided that to get to the bottom of this I have to do a few experiments.  Firstly, I need to see if it was additives in commercial bread (apparently they use flour extenders and stuff that makes it rise and cook faster), so the obvious test was to make my own bread. Yesterday was baking day as well as dyeing - flour, a little salt, fresh yeast mixed with a spoon of honey, and water, it doesn't come more basic than that.

Today, for lunch, I'm having one of these - fingers crossed it doesn't affect me.  If it does, I'll have to make some unleavened bread, without yeast, and see how I get on with that. Actually, a few weeks ago, a friend who's a wheat expert suggested I try making pancakes to see if that affects me because if not, I could probably blame the yeast.  We did try some that same lunchtime and although my stomach felt OK, I did get acid reflux afterwards.  So, a bit inconclusive.  The final test will be to make bread with something other than wheat.

I know this is not an allergy, it's an intolerance to something.  The fact that it crept up on me tells me that.  I'm really, really hoping it's additives, I've no problem with baking my own bread for the rest of my life!

Fingers crossed X