Friday, July 6, 2012

Homemade Gluten-Free Bread!

For four weeks, I struggled trying to make gluten-free bread. Instead of having dense, but holey loaves, these could have easily broken windows. Last week and this week, I finally got it right! I am posting a recipe that is a combination of recipes. Some recipes claimed to do one thing, but I found another. So this is a hodge-podge of recipes that I guess I'll call my own!  If you have any questions, please post. I'll do the best I can to answer them, as I'm new to this as well. Enjoy!


Flour Mix
1 cup brown rice or sorghum flour
½ cup teff flour
½ cup garbanzo bean flour
2/3 cup tapioca starch
1/3 cup potato starch or corn starch
2 tsp xanthum gum
Scant T sugar
¾ tsp baking soda

Other Ingredients
2 oz. sour dough starter (substitute flour with gluten free flour)
2 XL eggs or 3 small
10.5 oz lukewarm tap water
1.9 oz. vegetable oil
¾ scant tsp. apple cider vinegar
Scant 1/8 tsp dry instant yeast
1 ½ tsp salt (last ingredient to be added)

Putting it all together
  •  Using a standing mixer with whisk attachment, at a medium/low setting beat the starter with water, eggs, oil, vinegar, and yeast.
  • Add flour mixture and beat for 2 min. Add salt beat 1 more min.
  • Remove whisk, and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Move to warm place for 1 ½ hours.
  • After it has risen, beat it again for 3 minutes.
  • Transfer to 9x5 prepared loaf pan (greased) and place pan in plastic container that is large enough to   hold pan and cover it.
  • Allow to rise for another 1 ½ hours.
  • Set oven to 375º and place bottom of broiler pan in lowest rack in oven. Heat for 30 minutes.
  • Dust dough with rice flour and, using a greased bread knife, cut three diagonal slits across the top of loaf.
  •  Just before baking, add a handful of ice cubes or a cup of cold water to the tray and place the loaf immediately into the steaming oven. After 30 minutes, rotate 180º and bake for another 20-30 minutes. If you notice the loaf getting browner than you like, cover the loaf with aluminum foil for the duration of the baking.
  • Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
  • Carefully, using a butter knife, loosen the bread from the pan. It’s best if you turn the pan on the side and let the steam escape for a few minutes before taking out of the pan. Careful! Steam is REALLY hot.
  •  Place bread on cooling wrack.
  • Once cooled, use a bread knife to cut loaf. Store in freezer. Your bread will last longer this way, and it really tastes best warm or toasted.

If you use a bread machine, stop by this link for helpful tips!

5 comments:

Susan said...

I don't eat much bread, but have tried a few GF recipes for a friend. I've not been too lucky getting them to be edible. I'm going to save this and consider making next time she's over. Thanks for doing all the experimental work ;)

Amy Whelan said...

I was so darned determined to get it right. I spent more money than I wanted to, but in the end it was worth it.

Amy Whelan said...

I actually tried this recipe in the bread maker (it's an old model) and it turned out good. It doesn't have the crunchier crust that the oven bread has, but it's good nonetheless. I did, however add 2 tablespoons of honey to the bread. Really activated those little yeasties! And it tastes even better!

Amy Whelan said...

OK, so this morning I made another batch of gluten-free bread in the bread maker, but I changed it up a bit: I mixed all ingredients first, and added honey to the batter (about 2 Tbls) Then after the bread maker beeped (after about 1/2 hour) I added cinnamon (1 tsp) and about 2/3 cup of raisins. Then I started up bread machine again. When the bread was just about finished, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and put a pan on the bottom rack.
After it was finished, I immediately took the bread out of the pan and put it directly on the oven rack. I added about a cup of ice cubes to the pan to steam. I baked 10 more minutes. This produced a lovely crust, but kept the bread chewy.
BEST bread I've made thus far!!!

Amy Whelan said...

I've also substituted some sorghum flour with some chia seed flour. It turned out tasty. Now instead of honey, I've been using about 1/4 of molasses to the batter. YUM!