Well, this month's challenge was something I've been wanting to make for a while: Crackers. Lavash, specifically. We had the choice of doing these as per normal or making them gluten free. I double checked to make sure corn products were gluten free and planned to try to make two batches, one gluten free and one normal. However, I discovered I am a moron.

Now, I know a lot about food and cooking. I've been doing it a long time, have had great teachers and am a natural at it. If you have a food question or obscure ingredient, chances are I can help you out. That doesn't mean I know it all, though. I cook with semolina all the time. One of our favorite breads I make is a sesame semolina bread. Semolina, though? It comes from wheat. Not corn as I have thought for over 20 years!

I'm glad I checked a food dictionary before I went ahead and made my "gluten free" version. Boy, wouldn't I have looked like an idiot! Now, I only look slightly less idiotic.

I still used semolina (for 1/2 a cup of the flour). I was going to use za'atar, in honor of my people, with olive oil for my topping, but someone else came up with that, and I didn't want to duplicate. Then, I went ahead and used the most obvious topping possible. Sesame seeds.

I had great plans to make a few batches, all different, and to make these lovely dips, but our month was crazy, so I ended up making it tonight and one topping out of one of our red tomatoes from the garden and a few of our yellow pear tomatoes with fresh basil from the herb garden, salt, pepper, kalamata olive oil and champagne vinegar. The dip/topping had to be vegan and gluten free. I make all sorts of vegan dips, but all of a sudden when I was thinking of what to make, all I could come up with were things that required cheese or yogurt or sour cream. I wanted to make hummus, because mine is so good, but I thought that was a little too obvious. I decided on a tomato based relish/bruschetta type thing and came up with this.

Even though it was incredibly foolish to try these tonight, I did anyway. It tasted great and I am so glad I made it. Also, I didn't want the tomatoes to be all soft and wilty the first time I tasted it. Since I kind of copped out on the gluten free business, this really wasn't that hard, although I think I could have rolled the dough out thinner. It took me twice the time to get it browned and even remotely crisp. I forgot to split the dough in two and roll each half out, so I would try it that way next time I make these. And there will be a next time.



Thank you to Natalie from Gluten A Go Go and Shel, of Musings From the Fishbowl for hosting this month!

Labels: Daring Bakers, Homemaking, Tales from the Kitchen