Master Mix & Bread Making

I’m back from Alaska… and I sure do miss it. A few years back I made a push for moving to Fairbanks but my sun-loving husband wouldn’t hear of it so we moved to Tucson instead. Yes, like the opposite end of the spectrum from Alaska! But it’s been awhile now and after our 3 year sojourn in Tucson, hubby is more open to the idea of moving to the frozen north. And after my recent trip to Sitka and Juneau, he’s on board for life in far north. As of now, we’re looking to relocate to either Kodiak or Fairbanks in mid-spring of 2012. Exciting!

For my trip, I took along some packaged mixes (Chebe, yum!) and pasta as well as making my own fry mix, buttermilk pancake mix, hush puppy mix, and taking some flour. A few days before my flight home, I found myself craving something cakey but having used the flour to make whoopie pies and more fry mix (fresh halibut fish-n-chips are *the bomb*) I figured I was out of luck. Then I realized I had a good amount of the pancake mix left so I thought why not and used that instead.

Fabulous! I made a carrot cake with buttercream frosting and wow, was it ever good. So that got me thinking… why not create a master mix that contains things like gluten-free flour, salt, baking soda/powder, sugar, etc and then see what can be created from that.

I’m out of flour at the moment and once my shipment gets here, I’ll be doing just that and then coming back here to share the results. I know that with the amount of traveling I do, this could end up being a real winner of an idea. Make up 10 pounds of master mix in a nice storage container and then take that 1 container with me rather than bags and bags of different mixes or combinations. I look forward to experimenting with this idea.

A week before I left for my Alaska trip, my mom and I traveled down to Vancouver, WA where we went to a gluten-free sourdough bread baking class. This is the first cooking/baking class I’ve ever attended and it was not only fun and informative, it was supremely delicious as well. The instructor made some buckwheat sourdough rolls that were, beyond a doubt, the *best* bread I’ve had in my entire gluten-free experience. The entire day was an eye-opening experience and I’m so very excited to start playing with my sourdough bread again after learning some valuable information.

Once my flour arrives, I’ll be tackling several different sourdough recipes and then sharing the results here with you. In addition, I’ll share the recipes for a few of the sourdough breads that we made at this class. I think you’ll find them easy to do and the rewards of a soft and chewy bread will make them a favorite… drat. Now I’m craving bread again.

Hurry up UPS and get here with my flour!