Gluten Free Bread and Thanksgiving

This was one of several gluten free Thanksgivings we have had. We made our own bread from scratch, using a gluten free flour blend, for the first time. We have always used mixes in the past. The bread turned out great! Although, I want to work on the blend some more to eliminate the potato starch from it as one of our children has trouble with potatoes. She used to throw up with potatoes and doesn't anymore, so we thought we'd give it a try. Potatoes do, however, tend to make her a lot more emotional. I wanted to try the flour recipe as my friend had first, before I started making adjustments.

Here is the recipe for the GF flour blend:

Part:
1 Tapioca Starch/Flour
1 Potato Starch (not Flour), can substitute for another part Tapioca Starch
2/3 Bean Flour (prefer Navy Bean, could do pinto bean or Garbanzo/Fava, least favorite)
1/3 Sorghum Flour
add Xantham Gum to baked goods (holds it together)

I just buy navy beans and grind them in the Vitamix as I have been unable to find navy bean flour. I grind it several times to get any lumps out of it. I have used it to make cookies, muffins, and now bread. I was told to use any recipe and just substitute it for wheat flour. We just looked up a GF Sandwich bread recipe on the internet. We also used it for stuffing and it made great stuffing.

Other things that worked: making our own cream of mushroom soup, green bean casserole, and a really yummy Peach-Sweet Potato Casserole:

Pre-cook sweet potatoes and mash them by hand leaving them coarse
Add skinned chunks of peaches
Mix together in a pan

Put together a mixture of flour (we used rice flour), butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a pinch of salt for a crumbly topping.

Stick it in the oven until it looks ready. Honey could be substituted for the brown sugar and put in less butter. I chose this recipe for its simplicity and minimal number of ingredients. Since our children have multiple allergies we are always looking for SIMPLE recipes to limit the ingredients.

The pumpkin pie didn't work out so well. I found a recipe that didn't call for eggs, but called for cornstarch as a thickener instead. We used tapioca starch instead and it had that gumminess that tapioca gives. We'll scratch that one and try again with something else. Overall it was a very great Thanksgiving. Great company, my Mom and our friend Paul, a gorgeous table, four healthy happy children, and a healthy meal. We are so grateful the Lord brought us to this place where we know how to eat and care for our children.