About

Welcome to GF-Breads!

My name is Claudia and I’m a senior at a Massachusetts public high school. Like most high school students, I am eager to graduate and start my future; which for me is studying nursing at UMass Amherst. But before I can dream about graduation day, my high school requires its’ seniors to complete a 6-week internship of the student’s choice, beginning in April and wrapping up in the last week of May. In my case, I will be creating gluten free breads and blogging about my experience. Along with the recipes, I will compliment my food posts with expert opinions and research on what it means to be gluten free. I am so excited for the opportunity to learn how to become a better and more thoughtful cook, especially for those with food allergies.

Besides wanting to widen my collection of recipes, I’m interested in studying the gluten allergy because two of my close friends eat gluten free. One of them, my friend since childhood, has had Celiac’s disease since I can remember. I had found it odd that she couldn’t share the foods I loved because they’d make her sick when they did nothing to me. But as a 5-year-old, I gave it little thought. It wasn’t until this year, when my own parent tested positive for Gluten intolerance, that I started to give the allergy deeper consideration. When my family started buying gluten-free snacks and phasing out the white flour based cookies and pretzels in our pantry, I was surprised to find that I’d preferred the new “health food” to our old standbys. Many of the foods hardly tasted different, but felt a lot better to eat. I started noticing a trend: when I ate gluten free, I had more energy and less stomachaches compared to when I treated myself to something made with wheat flour.

Although I am eager to practice a gluten-free diet, I actually don’t need to. I have yet to develop a food allergy, but at 17, that hardly means I’m in the clear. So, although this project is technically designed to fulfill a simple graduation requirement, it could end up serving as my “dietary training” for the future, should I be diagnosed gluten intolerant.

That being said, stay tuned for recipes, reviews and research of gluten free bread!