How to Make Gluten-Free Garlic Toast and Gluten-Regular Toast at the Same Time

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When you first start cooking gluten-free, you make a lot of cross-contamination mistakes. You walk around giving your GF kid the guilty eyes, because she's sick and you're responsible. So before you try any more recipes, wipe that guilty look off your face. It's not your fault. You've got to go through a learning curve before you reach perfection, and after six years of cooking GF, even I'm not perfect. So live and learn, but don't wallow in guilt over it.

Today's GF instructions are for something you'd think is simple, but really, it's not. There are a lot of cross-contamination issues when we cook GF, and making garlic toast is a biggie. So here are the instrucitons for making gluten-free garlic toast simultaneously with your regular garlic toast, all on the same cookie sheet:

Guten-Free Garlic Toast AND Regular Garlic Toast Recipe

Here's what you need:

• cube of butter or uncontaminated margarine
• garlic powder (fresh garlic is okay, as far as I'm concerned, but my kids complain it's too strong)
• 3-4 slices of GF bread, whatever fits on your cookie sheet
• 3-4 slices of regular bread, same deal
• 1 pastry brush labeled GF
• 1 pastry brush that's strictly for your gluten-containing ingredients
• aluminum foil
• cookie sheet

Instructions:

1. Lay the cookie sheet on a table or counter. Measure the aluminum foil to 3-4 inches LONGER than the cookie sheet actually is.
2. Place the aluminum foil on the cookie sheet, but fold it in the middle. (See illustration.)
3. Melt 1/2 cube of butter (I chop it up into little pieces and microwave it in a measuring cup) and mix with a good dash or two of garlic powder. Use your GF pastry brush to mix it. I stick my finger in to taste it, making sure it's got a solid garlic flavor, but it's not overwhelming.
4. Use the GF pastry brush to spread melted butter on both sides of your aluminum foil. (The gluten-side has not yet been contaminated, so it's not going to matter if you touch the GF pastry brush to that side, at this point.)
5. Place only the GF breads on one half of the aluminum foil. Use the GF pastry brush to spread butter on each of these pieces of bread. If you have any extra butter, flip the bread over and spread extra butter on the back. The more buttery the bread, the yummier!
6. To avoid contamination, discard all GF items in the kitchen sink or dishwasher while you work with the gluten-contaminated side of the aluminum-foil-covered cookie sheet.
7. Place gluten-containing breads on the empty half of the aluminum foil, being careful not to accidentally drip crumbs on the GF side.--Cross-contamination can happen easily, so don't touch the GF side with your hands, don't carry gluten-containing breads over the top of the GF side, etc...
8. Melt the other half of the butter. (Again, I chop it into bits and microwave it.) Sprinkle a couple dashes of garlic powder in this and mix it with the pastry brush that is NOT for GF items. -- You must keep this pastry brush separate at all times, even when this recipe is over and done. Pastry brushes easily store bits of gluten between the bristles, so once it has been used on gluten-containing breads, it will forever be contaminated.
9. Brush the butter onto your gluten-containing bread slices now. Extra butter should be discarded, not stored, because it has been thoroughly contaminated with gluten.
10. Place the cookie sheet in a 400 degree F oven for a very brief time--usually 5 minutes or less. Just keep checking it. You want the garlic bread to turn golden brown but not black. I usually flip my garlic toast over once--doing the gluten-free pieces first to avoid contaminating them. Tongs will help you do this safely, but don't use them again to serve the bread unless you clean them thoroughly.

Variations:
It's possible to sprinkle your garlic bread with any of the following before toasting:

• dried parmesan cheese (the kind that comes in a can)
• dried parsley flakes
• grated mazarella cheese