“I would say to housewives, be not daunted by one failure, nor by twenty. Resolve that you will have good bread, and never cease striving after this result till you have effected it. If persons without brains can accomplish this, why cannot you?”
’Housekeeping In Old Virginia' Marion Cabell Tyree ed. (1878)
I have no idea who these apparently marvelous zombie bakers are, but I do like this quote as it represents the "try, try again" attitude that gluten free bakers need to live by.
One of my first decisions for my new gluten free lifestyle was that I was not going to give up bread. After sampling some of the pre-made breads and mixes the second decision was that I would have to make the bread myself. There are a few good mixes out there - my favorite is Toro brand from Norway, distributed in the US by Tastes Like Real Food. But these are too expensive to feed my 1 loaf a week habit, so I started trying a few of the many recipes I found on the Internet.
My favorite so far is Gluten Free Mommy's Oatmeal Millet Bread. It is chewy and delicious and will keep well in a plastic baggie for about 3 days. It also has some good nutrition from the whole grains used in it. I've made it with sorghum flour too, substituting it in for the millet. Another good one is Laurie150's Gluten Free Flax Bread; it seems everyone's tried this one! It is fluffy and soft like store-bought sandwich bread, but it only holds up well for about a day. After that I either slice and freeze it or make bread crumbs. One more easy recipe that I like is from Whole Foods. I say easy because this one only has 2 flours to measure. Their Brown and White Bread is very yummy and is more like traditional white bread than the others. It's not as nutritious, but I think next time I will add flax seed to improve this.
Brown and White Bread
Wet ingredients:
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp cider vinegar
3 Tbls canola oil
1 1/2 cups + 2 Tbls water
Dry ingredients:
2 1/4 cup white rice flour
1 cup brown rice flour
2 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
3 Tbls sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbls egg replacer (optional - I use it)
1/2 cup dry milk
1 package active dry yeast
Let ingredients come to room temperature. TIP: I don't have the patience to wait, so I put the eggs in a warm water bath for a few minutes to get them to room temperature.
Combine dry ingredients and whisk. Combine wet ingredients in mixer bowl and whisk. Add dry ingredients to wet and beat in a mixer for 10 minutes.
Check appearance of dough. It should be stiff like cake batter, but not as stiff as cookie dough. If the dough appears too stiff, add water 1 Tbls at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Pour batter into greased bread pan. Let rise approximately 1 hour - until the dough reaches the top of the bread pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes - until the top is browned and the bread makes a hollow sound when you tap it.
I have learned a few things while experimenting with different recipes (I still have plenty more to try). Not only does wheat flour have gluten that make bread so yummy, but it also contains more protein than a lot of gluten free flours. That is why recipes normally call for several eggs, egg replacer, or dry milk and using milk instead of water (if you can!) can also add more protein. Vinegar, lemon juice, or dough enhancer are used to add flavor and preserve the bread. And most importantly, you may have a great recipe, from a great blogger, but the bread may still turn out like a bad tasting round brick (not that I've ever had a good tasting brick, round or otherwise shaped!) I'm not sure this picture does justice to how bad it really was, but just compare it to Shauna's lovely loaf - hers has a nice fluffy texture with air bubbles, mine, not so much. But I think I'll try it again sometime because it sounds so yummy and crusty!
