oat flour - Just About Baked

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Maple-Glazed Applesauce Bread

August 20, 2014
Mir
Bread Basket, Dessert for Breakfast, Gluten-Free Goodness
18 Comments

I’m really trying here, folks. You know, to come to terms with the end of summer. It ain’t so easy.

As a warm-weather enthusiast, I greet cooler temperatures with about as much joy as a toddler greets a shot-wielding nurse. Over the past two weeks, my fellow awesome food bloggers have pulled out the pumpkin, heralding an early start to autumn. It’s still August, people! Rage against the dying of the light!

I’m going to hold out against pumpkin for a bit longer. I mean, I love pumpkin. But I want to use it when I really need it, i.e., when the long sleeves start coming out of my closet.

Salted Oatmeal Caramel Bars

Years ago, when I was still single in the city (and pretending I could be as cool as Carrie Bradshaw), I used to go to a place called Teaism. It sold lots and lots of tea, but also really good food. One day I walked in and noticed a salted oatmeal cookie. I remember thinking, “That’s gross.”

Oh, I was so young and stupid. The salted caramel trend was still a few years away from starting and I never stopped to consider that salted baked goods were the best thing to happen to the dessert industry since peanut butter and chocolate. But like I said, I was not that clever. I was in my twenties and had perfect skin. But I was dumb.

Anyway, eventually I climbed onboard the salty dessert bandwagon. And here I stay, until long after it will be considered trendy. I’ll be one of those annoying grandmothers who still bakes salted caramel stuff while her grandchildren roll their eyes and say, “But Grandma, it’s all about sardines dipped in ganache right now.”

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies (With Oat Flour!)

Last year was kind of tough. My husband, who is without any doubt the best human being on the planet (not that I’m biased or anything), had a lot of complications from his Crohn’s Disease. For those of you who don’t know what that is, Crohn’s typically inflames and attacks the intestines and colon over most of a person’s lifetime, and it takes some pretty strong medication and ongoing treatment to keep it under control.

Sometimes the medicine needs some help, though, and that’s where gluten comes into the story.

After a few hospital visits, we decided to try dramatically lowering my husband’s gluten intake, to reduce his dairy consumption, and to have him avoid white flours and refined sugars even when he did “cheat.” After all, it couldn’t hurt, and it might help.

Six months later? Wow. He does cheat sometimes, but he’s so much better. And I’ve gotten better at baking him recipes that convince him not to miss the wheat.