Cake, Bread & Gluten

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I received these Bauducco Panettone Cakes as part of my relationship with FoodBuzz as a Featured Publisher

Boxes of Panettone Specialty Cakes

I had never tried a cake like this before

Panettone cake in wrapper

It looks like a giant muffin until you cut into it and then…

Slices of Panettone bread

…It’s more like fluffy, light, airy bread

Slices of Panettone bread

From the Bauducco site: “Bauducco Panettone is a moist and ready to eat specialty cake loaded with a variety of SunMaid raisins with candied fruits and Hershey’s chocolate chips!”

I found the bread itself to be slightly sweet and then there’s chocolate melted into it.

Slices of Panettone breadYum.  It was really good and I could have really gone to town on this stuff.

I didn’t have more than a couple bites because gluten and me really do not get along well and I didn’t want to have a horrible stomach ache.

But Skylar got along very well with this bread!

Skylar eating breadThat’s actually her eating pizza samples at TJ’s from a few months ago but she enjoyed the chocolate Panettone cake in similar face-stuffing type fashion while proclaiming, “Mommy, this is good bread!

I noticed a recipe for french toast on one of the boxes.  I think we need to try that and start using some of this bread up.

Back of Bauducco panettone bread box

Because I still have the box of raisin Bauducco Panettone Raisin Cake to dive into, too.

And now it’s time to announce the winner of the Hoodie & Leggings Giveaway:

Ilana September 27, 2011

“right now I’m obsessed with this pair of Beyond Yoga pants I just bought. They’re so comfortable I bought two other pairs in different colors.”

Congrats, Ilana!

All the talk of cake and bread reminded me of…

Peanut Butter Banana Cake

Peanut Butter Banana Cake
Peanut Butter Banana Cake slice

or Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Peanut Butter Banana Bread
Peanut Butter Banana Bread in pan

Both versions are gluten-free, vegan, and will make your house smell like a million bucks.  Peanut butter and bananas baking have a tendency to do that.

And being that I have cake on the brain, I was also thinking about Angel Food Cake & Berries

Angel Food Cake & Berries with whipped cream on topI styled the food and took the photos at one of the food photography workshops I attended  <— life changing event and I believe it changed the course of my life and what I want to be when I grow up

Questions:

1. Do you like bread? Would you prefer bread or cake?

Scott is a huge bread lover.

When I went gluten-free and I was strictly GF for about 5-6 years, I never really missed bread.  Sure, it would have been nice to have a hearty, chewy bagel with cream cheese or a warm piece of toast with melted butter or peanut butter on it every  now and then, but the loss of bread wasn’t really that big of a deal to me.

However, I love cake, cookies, donuts, brownies, blondies, you name it, I never met one of those items that I didn’t like.  And the loss of the traditional versions of those was hard to adjust to.

2. Do you eat gluten?

Going gluten free forced me to learn how to cook and bake without using gluten-containing ingredients and for most of that time I was also vegan, so no eggs or butter, either.

Gluten-free vegan baking can be tricky but lots of trial and error and experimenting was how I learned.

Recently, and on a very limited basis, I do use eggs and butter in my baking, but prefer to make things that don’t need eggs, don’t need egg-substitutes, and don’t call for gluten-containing flours.  i.e. these Caramel Apple Bars

Caramel Apple Bars

Sometimes it’s really hard to navigate around using an egg or a little all-purpose flour but I try my hardest not to use it because:

1. it’s hard for me to tolerate and digest gluten

and

2. I think it’s hard for most people’s systems so why use it if you don’t have to and can use something else instead

Just my own personal choices and to each her own.

As an aside, the gluten in certain foods does more of a number on me than in others, and bread is unfortunately one of those foods that I need to be really careful with.

Overall, I am less sensitive to gluten than I used to be because I believe I’ve healed my gut; but I also don’t abuse the privledge and go crazy with gluten, either, which would render me right back where I was with gluten issues, pain, and upset.

There are things I’ve trialed back in, but have had to cycle them back out, i.e. Included No Longer

It’s such detective work to figure out what works, what doesn’t, and certain days some foods are more likely to cause symptoms but on other days they don’t bother me as much.

And if you can go to town on bread, bagels, pizza crust, crackers and chips, pastries or baked goods that have gluten in them with no ill effects, more power to you and enjoy!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter the Case of Bella Bars Giveaway

TGIF!

About the Author

Welcome to AverieCooks! Here you’ll find fast and easy recipes that taste amazing and are geared for real life. Nothing fussy or complicated, just awesome tasting dishes everyone loves!

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Please note: I have only made the recipe as written, and cannot give advice or predict what will happen if you change something. If you have a question regarding changing, altering, or making substitutions to the recipe, please check out the FAQ page for more info.

Comments

  1. Though I am not GF, I´m not that much into bread, I eat it maybe 3 times a month?
    I find it really easy these days to get substitutes and often I prepare GF meals, just because I think gluten might not be so good, but I honestly never feel a difference when I skip gluten. Must be because I simply am not allergic ;)

  2. The bread looks wonderful, great pics!

    1. Yes and probably bread compared to cheap, dry sheet cake. If it’s a raw choc cake, that’s another story. :-)
    2. Yes, I’m not allergic. But I don’t eat a lot of it and usually only when eating out.

  3. I like bread, but I’m like you: don’t live for it. I adore cake, brownies, etc. So if he choice were between giving up cakey stuff and bread-y stuff, I’d give up bread in a heartbeat.

    As for gluten, I do limit it. Seems I feel and look better with less of it in my diet, but thankfully, I’m not allergic or even highly sensitive to it.

  4. ooooh i should be getting those soon! they’re so italiano haha i only know this because when we went to my brother’s girlfriend’s parents house for dinner they served it like straight from an italian bakery. i wasn’t a fan but i know my younger brother will be! guess he’ll be doing that review haha

  5. I have never heard of this bread/cake/muffin thing (HAHA)! Being that I’m gluten-free now, I won’t be trying it. But I’m LOVING trying new gluten-free goodies (baking them, at least!)

  6. Looks tasty! Im much more of a bread girl than a cake girl! But it has to be goooood bread! Hope y’all have a nice weekend

  7. Panettone bread/cake is an Italian bread. The original is made with raisins, and orange zest, and maybe some sort of nut, but no chocolate chips. And when you slice it, you sprinkle icing sugar over top. It was always traditional to have it on christmas eve, and christmas morning as breakfast. We italians like our sweets! I’ve made french toast with it, its amazing! I love this stuff, could definitely eat it all the time! Thankfully we only have it around christmas. We would always bring it as a present to my Nonna and Nonno (grandma grandpa) cause they all come in neatly decorated boxes. You can also cut it like a star shape, and the slice it horizontally so you get stars. My dad used to do it that way.

  8. I wish I could eat gluten because I love all sorts of soft, doughy, bready things. I never really thought about it, but I don’t really miss actual bread either. I miss cinnamon rolls, pancakes, cake, etc. All things that are fine in moderation for others, but aren’t even options for me especially because I can’t handle guar or xanthan gum either. I bought a gluten-free cookie once and it crumbled into dust onto my lap. No good! Those are things I miss.

  9. I’ve never had that bread before and I prefer my bread dense and chewy – artisan breads are a staple in our house and we lucky that my husband works with a man who also owns his own cafe and bakes his own bread – it is fabulous! I definitely prefer bread over baked goods :)

  10. I agree that panettone makes excellent french toast!

    I was recently diagnosed with celiac disease, even though I don’t have many of the typical symptoms. It really caught me by surprise because I LOVE bread (I can leave sweets) and had no idea that my body was reacting to it in negative ways. I guess it’s nice that giving up gluten seems to be the new “diet” trend because I’ve been pretty lucky finding GF options everywhere I go. :)

  11. Panettone is one of my favorite bread!!! there’s an argentinian kind that i really like, it only has chocolate chips in it! so so good! i have g.i. issues every night basically so i’m starting to wonder if i have a bit of sensitivity to gluten. i know i’m lactose intolerant already.

  12. For me, crusty, savory bread is what was hard to let go of. I can do without baked goods as long as i have a chocolate bar in site. But for a while it was hard to pass up quality bread. I don’t mean plain sandwich bread, I can do without that. But these days the cravings are pretty much entirely gone. When you eat a certain way for such a long time it becomes so second nature.