Yikes! We have too many products already — I’m thinking of cutting out a couple of muffins even — but we HAVE to make room for a few last things. Please tell us what’s important to you!

1. YEAST-FREE, SUGAR-FREE BREAD - we get a lot of requests for this one, but I think it’s impossible! We can make yeast-free CRUMBS, and yeast-free SPONGY PUDDING, and a few different varieties of yeast-free ROCKS, but gluten-free, yeast-free BREAD seems to be eluding us. What we CAN make, however, is a nice yeast-free flour tortilla. Anyone want a burrito?

2. GF-OAT BREAD MIX, TO SHIP. Ever since word got out that we’re making a kosher gf-oat bread, we’re getting flooded with requests from Orthodox Jewry across the continent. But it’s crazy to fly baked bread to Miami, or Toronto, or even Denver. And let’s be real: Y’all don’t care if it’s baked, you only care that it’s oats! Make it yourself - just add 2 cups water and 2 teaspoons of oil.

$7 for approx 22oz. bag, makes a single 2lb. loaf or 4 mini loaves.
(Includes 4 Novacart mini-loaf pans, while supplies last.)
Ships GROUND, but refrigerate it when you get it.

(Oats have high protein content - treat oat flour like ground nuts.)

3. SUGAR-FREE — ??? Cookie? Tartlets maybe? (Or is that too grown-up?) Does anyone worry about natural sugar in fruit? Should we sweeten with agave, or xylitol, or something new???

Sugar-free gets requested second only to yeast-free. (In fact, that’s usually how the question goes; “Do you have any yeast-free or sugar-free items?”) But we only have room for ONE more thing. What should it be?

Choices, choices, too many choices!! Please click on “comments” to help us decide!

(P.S. I don’t know why, but when you click “comments” you get to another page that starts just like this one! It’s a little confusing & I’ll try to fix it, but I wanted you to know so you’ll SCROLL DOWN FOR THE ACTUAL COMMENTS.)

The question of the week seems to be, “What do you have for Passover?” Yeah. Um… Our bad, once again — We’re closed the entire week of Passover, and half the next week, as well. (We opened a can of worms when we brought oats into this place - we were essentially kosher for Passover until that moment. Not that the rabbis would allow any of our recipes — everything contains rice, which Jews of European descent don’t eat on Passover. But we wouldn’t have had to clean.) (sigh.)

Anyway, the point is, I thought it wouldn’t matter so much if we’re open Passover, since it’s the one time a year you can find a trustworthy gf-cake at a NORMAL bakery! Don’t believe me? Try this: Delice Bakery.

[Please note they’re closed the whole week of Passover, too. That’s what the “Chol Hamoed” bit means. The cakes are sold the week before Passover, starting April 13th.]

Kosher bakeries seem a tad slow getting on the internet (what’s up with that?), but I called:

Eilat bakery (310-205-8700) will be kosher-for-Passover. They’re closed the week of, selling GF products the week before, by reservation only. The Fairfax store (323-933-5000) may be open mid-week.

Schwartz Bakery (310-854-0592) Fairfax store (323-653-1683) will have kosher-for-Passover products packaged & sealed (be careful because they’re also selling chametz right up to the last day!); including bagels made from potato starch!

So, just to re-cap:

We are OPEN Thursday April 17th,
until 6:00 or until we run out of food, whichever comes first.

We are CLOSED Friday April 18th THROUGH Tuesday April 29th, 2008.

We Re-OPEN Wednesday April 30th.

This has to be a quick post, but we must have gotten 10 calls in the last week about Matza, especially after the discussion of Matzo on Gluten-Free by the Bay.
Gluten-Free Bay: New Source for Gluten-Free Oat Matzo

Anyway; No we are not set up to do matzo, and it’s one of those things I’d really hate to do wrong. (It’s a good day when we can get pizza out of this place!)

So this is what I’m telling people:

Western Kosher will have gf-oat matzo.
444 N. Fairfax Ave, LA

It’s over $30/box yikes!
They don’t have it ’till next week but
CALL NOW AND RESERVE!
(323) 655-8870.

And yes, I did forward them the information that GF-btB posted about the Lakewood matzo factory, but they had not heard about it yet, so I don’t know if they’re going to be able to get any this year. They will have the British kind, but RESERVE! Reserve, reserve, reserve.

Hey, it’s only been two months since we started serving lunch. For us, that may be a record of some kind, to get it all finalized and published in such a short amount of time. So, as simple as it is, we are proud to present… (drumroll, please…..)

… the lunch menu!

These are incredible but we can’t sell this batch. Stupid me; I asked Guadalupe to make them out of the vegan cookie dough, and then I told her to put an egg wash on them. (What was I thinking?) But we’ll have more next week and the week after, boxes of 4 for $8. (I know it’s outrageous, but they are a lot of labor. Be grateful they ARE vegan - the price of eggs seems to have doubled in the past two weeks, so eggy ones would be even more!)

My suggestion always is to buy the cookie dough because not only is it half the price (1.25 pounds for $15); making the cookies becomes a great family activity, the memories of which will last a lifetime.

(Has anyone seen my violin??)

It was the best of breads, it was the worst of breads….

Ah challah, that fluffy, rich white bread; golden braided loaves peeking out from under the covers Friday night; perfect for French toast Sunday morning. If breads were people, challah would be a Malibu surfer with hidden depth. {Scroll down this Wikipedia article on “Challah” to learn about challah’s spiritual side.}

For a long time it was considered impossible to make a gluten-free challah - rice doughs are like cake batter, too wet and runny to shape into braids.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cookies seem to be the hot item of December, between the Channukah cookies, the gingerbread cookies, and now the x-mas cookies.

Cookie trays are available with decorated sugar cookies (egg-free) and gingerbread (egg-free/soy-free), 6 pieces $18, or 3 pieces $10. Also available are trays of mixed chocolate chip and quinoa-cranberry cookies, 2 dozen / $24.

Last week we made 180 gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free gingerbread house pieces -enough for 30 houses. As we rolled, cut and baked I wasn’t terribly confident that these houses would stand. I had memories of Christmas’ past of sliding roofs, crumbled walls, candies popping off…and these were gingerbread houses made of gluten and eggs. So how would cookies made with inherently structureless ingredients fare (besides a pinch of xanthan gum)? Surprise, surprise, shockingly well!! The cookie icing made with rice milk and powdered sugar held the walls and roof in place. I have to say that ironically this was my best gingerbread house effort to date. The roof stayed in place, the candies didn’t move…it was meant to be. I thus highly recommend our gingerbread cookie dough (we sell it by the pound) for gingerbread people and houses. Oh and by the way it is delicious too.

I took the 180 pieces down to the California Integrative Hyperbaric Center in Irvine for a gingerbread house assembly and baking class for parents with children on a gluten-free/ casein-free diet. Their enthusiastic response from the parents was inspiring. My worries about the gingerbread houses standing are insignificant compared to these parents’ delight in finding treats their children can actually eat. I think my days of “regular” gingerbread houses are over as The Sensitive Baker now has a house that everyone can build…and eat.

Last night was the first night of Channukah, and today we featured Star-of-David cookies - ta da!

Unfortunately those churros we hoped for didn’t happen. The cake lady was sick Monday and spend all day Tuesday making back-ordered bundts. This was all she could do today, because we’re busy getting ready for Eugenie’s cooking class tomorrow at the California Integrative Hyperbaric Center.

Eugenie is bringing the cutest little gingerbread houses to assemble and decorate in the class, and demonstrating a cake recipe (with a sample cupcake for everyone). That’s a lot of gingerbread, because last we heard the class was completely full.

If you tried and couldn’t get in, don’t despair! Eugenie is bringing extra gingerbread dough (soy-free) and sugar cookie dough (not) for sale at the low! price of $10/lb.; and extra packages of cupcakes. (6 chocolate or 6 vanilla $14, 6 vegan chocolate $17, 6 vegan vanilla $18.) (Not so low, I know. And the only soy-free one is the eggy vanilla. But that’s the best one. )

Grandma Evie - and mom Stacie - made what look like the most incredible gf/cf-sufganiyot ever last week from the recipe on Gluten-Free by the Bay. (If you missed the link, check out the post below). Stacie says the donuts were a labor of love, and I believe it - both the labor part, and the love!

These were made with nut-milk and lemon juice instead of buttermilk, and with a blend of rice and quinoa flour instead of straight rice flour; proving once again that gf-recipes are more flexible than you think.