It’s Not Summer Without A Tomato Sandwich

I’ve not has a piece of bread since embarking on my gluten/egg/dairy/soy-free adventure back in April. Cream scones, French baguettes, and chocolate pumpkin breads no longer emerge from my oven. As much as I enjoy baking bread, I’ve been strangely ok with my bread-less life. But all that ended when Beth sent me home with these jewels from her husband’s garden:

Fresh From the Garden

Home-grown tomatoes require tomato sandwiches. Sandwiches made from thick slices of tomatoes on white bread that’s been slathered with Duke’s mayonnaise. Sandwiches so sodden and drippy with tomato juice that they must be eaten standing over the kitchen sink.

And a tomato sandwich requires that which has been missing from my kitchen for the last four months: Bread.

A Google search came up with “The Top 20 Gluten-Free Bread Recipes.” Many of these bread recipes made up for the lack of gluten by using eggs or egg whites for extra leavening power. There were a few vegan bread recipes, but all of them required ingredients that I didn’t have. Making yet another foray to track down sorghum flour and arrowroot starch was not in my plans.

Looking a little further down the Google search results, I found “Vegan Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread|jessicacorra,” on a WordPress blog, no less. Making a quick trip to Jessica’s blog, I found a recipe that matched all the gluten-free baking ingredients in my pantry. Three hours later (one hour to mix and bake, two hours to cool thoroughly)  I was slicing into my first loaf of gluten/egg/dairy-free bread:

My First Loaf of Allergy-Free Bread

My favorite mayonnaise, Duke’s, and all other real mayonnaise, is made with eggs, which makes it taboo for me. I found a tasty alternative in Earth Balance Mindful Mayo, which is made without eggs or soy. After slathering two slices of bread with it, I ended up with my first gluten-free, allergy-free tomato sandwich:

Ready To Dig In

Yum! The only problem with my tomato sandwich was that I couldn’t figure out how to take a self-portrait of me eating it while the tomato juices dripped down my chin into the kitchen sink.