Gluten Free Baking
I typically make gluten free bread in my trusty bread maker. It usually comes out just fine. Last weekend I apparantly could not follow directions and ended up having to bake a loaf in the oven. I have no idea what happened but it turned out very hard. It was still good and I still ate it because I’m not a huge fan of throwing food away. My Italian boyfriend on the other hand, did not approve. So I went about finding a recipe that I could make in the oven because sometimes you just don’t want to drag out the bread maker.
I found a few recipes and daringly tweaked them to suit my needs. I mixed it all up and anxiously waited for it to rise. It seemed to be taking forever. I decided to walk my dog in the hopes that when I got back it would have risen. Upon my return, it had risen a bit more but still very SLOW…. I did start to panic wondering what the heck was taking so long. But, alas, about 3.5 hours later it rose about an inch above the pan and was ready for the oven. I think the issue was I didn’t add a bit of sugar to proof, so maybe try that.
50 minutes later the top was browning good so I took it out and the internal temp said it was ready. While waiting for it to cool I went to take a bath. My boyfriend came in eating a piece a few minutes later and it was Mikey approved! Now that is HUGE since he’s a pasta and bread man! So here it is the anxiously awaited recipe. I’m sure you could make it in the bread maker too. If anyone tries it in there please let me know how it turns out.
Ingredients
1.5 cups brown rice flour
1.5 cups tapioca flour/starch
1.5 cups cornstarch
1 tablespoon potato starch
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1 tablespoon gluten-free egg replacer
2 teaspoons himalayan salt
1½ cup almond milk
9 tbsp water and 3 tbsp ground flax seed (or 3 large eggs if not vegan)
1¼ cup coconut oil melted
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 cup honey
1 package (2¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast (not INSTANT dry yeast)
1 1/2 cups warm water
Directions:
Spray cooking spray into two 8-inch bread pans.
Add the yeast to the 1 1/2 cups of warm water and stir until mixed. Set this aside to activate while you mix the rest of the ingredients. (don’t forget to add the tsp of sugar)
Mix the flour blend, xantham gum, gluten-free egg replacer, and salt in a medium-size bowl and set aside.
Put eggs, butter, vinegar, milk, oil and honey in the bowl of your mixer. Mix together for about 30 seconds.
Add half the dry ingredients to the wet mixture in the mixer. Mix just until blended, and then add the remaining dry ingredients and mix for another 30 seconds, until blended.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the warm water and yeast mixture, then turn the mixer to medium-high speed and beat for 4 minutes.
Spoon the dough into your greased bread pans. Set aside in a warm place to rise for approximately about 50 to 60 minutes. Mine took a lot longer but again I think that was because I didn’t add the sugar. While dough rises, preheat oven to 375 degrees. I put the pans right on my preheating oven to keep them warm.
When the dough has risen to about an inch above the top of the pans, place the pans in your preheated oven on the middle rack and bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until the breadâs internal temperature reaches 200 degrees. I used a meat thermometer because that’s all I had. It said 200 when it came out. If you don’t have a thermometer you’ll just have to hope and pray it’s done. 😉 For some odd reason my bread deflated a bit when I poked the hole in it with the thermometer. Too much air?!
Remove the bread from the oven and let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Then remove loaves from pans and place on a rack to cool. Make sure it’s cooled completely before cutting into it and go easy with the cutting. Gluten free bread takes a bit of extra care.
Enjoy! And let me know how you like it!!
