Braided Loaf pan

It arrived! It finally arrived! The braided loaf pan that I have been coveting for close to two years, the one that had been out of stock, worldwide; is now a working part of my kitchen. My daughter is allergic to wheat but on Fridays, they serve challah at her school. I often make hers from scratch, slicing and freezing some of the loaf. Even though it is sliced, she still gives me constant grief over the fact that it is not braided. For those of you who have done any wheat or gluten free baking, you know that it is absolutely impossible to braid dough that does not contain gluten. It may taste like something that might contain wheat, if it is done correctly. ButBEFORE it bakes and rises, it is more like a gooey and sticky cake batter. In any case, I had read about braided loaf pans on other blogs that I read. And then I searched high and low, across the Internet to no avail. I gave up looking. And then a few weeks ago, I decided to try my luck on Amazon again and I scored! The Kaiser Bakeware 15" Classic Braided Loaf Pan was $19.99. And even though I got a shipping confirmation, I still did not believe that it would ever make its way to my kitchen. But it did!

The first thing Ella and I did this morning was whip up a batch of one of her favorite bread recipes (let's be honest, it was from a mix but a good one... Pamela's Gluten Free Bread Mix). We followed the instructions for the sweet bread. The results were delicious. Both of my kids have devoured half of the loaf. And in Ella's mind, it is just as braided as any other loaf. (Thankfully, she has never seen the way it is done with conventional wheat flours). So it was a very worthwhile purchase and I can absolutely justify this glorious acquisition. (See, my darling husband... all of these pans DO serve a purpose and like my children, I could never imagine giving one up.)

Thumbs WAY up if you are considering one of these bad boys. Like my french bread pan, my popover pan and my mini muffin pans, this one will get used a lot!