My first foray into gluten free baking was with bread. I had no clue what I was doing, all I knew is that I missed bread and had to figure it out on my own - so I jumped in with both feet. A woman that I was working with at the time was also on a gluten free diet so she shared her recipe with me. She said she didn't really eat bread though, so hadn't made the recipe many times. That probably should have been my first clue that it wouldn't make the grade.
My first attempt was an utter failure and ended up in the trash. It was goey and dense and well, just plain discusting. On my second try the bread was at least edible. I tried to make a sandwich with the bread, and was thoroughly dissapointed. This was a bread meant to be toasted. As were all of the other gluten free bread recipes I stumbled upon. I tried a few more recipes, but quite frankly most of the recipes I found were way over my head. I really knew only the basics about baking in general, let alone gluten free baking. Then, I found an easy recipe with great reviews so I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised.
I found the recipe on Food.com - a good resource for new recipes. The recipe filter makes it easy to peruse all of the gluten free recipes. Anyway, a gluten free french bread recipe popped up near the top of the list of bread recipes with great reviews. The recipe is intended to be for two long loaves of french bread however as I discovered, it could be baked in a loaf pan to create a more typical loaf of bread. I was overjoyed with the results. The bread was soft and crusty. It was not dense and actually rose to a desirable size. I even... wait for it... made a sandwich with it. No toasting!
My only qualm with this recipe is that it is not very fibre-rich. It's made with white rice flour and tapioca flour. However, when I tried to modify the recipe with more fibrous flours the results were not very good. I haven't given up yet, but I've really learned to love this bread as is.
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Gluten Free French Bread (Adapted)
Original recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/gluten-free-french-bread-180306
2 cups of white rice flour
1 cup of tapioca flour
3 teaspoons of xanthan gum or guar gum
1
1/2 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
1
1/2 cups of lukewarm water
2 tablespoons of fast rise yeast
2 tablespoons of melted butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon of vinegar
In the bowl of your
heavy-duty mixer (heavy-duty is absolutely necessary) mix the flours, xanthan gum/guar gum, and salt on low.
In a small bowl dissolve the sugar in the water and add the yeast. Once the mixture has foamed slightly, slowly add it to the dry ingredients with th mixer on low.
Stop the mixer. Add the butter, eggs, and vinegar. Beat on high for 3 minutes.
Spoon the mixture out of the mixer bowl into a greased and cornmeal-dusted 9x5 loaf pan. It will help to use a wet spatula to scoop out the mixture.
Place the dough in the oven to rise for 20 - 25 mins. Once the dough has risen, set the oven to 400 degrees and bake for approximately 50 - 55 mins.
Once baked, remove the loaf from the pan to cool on a cooling rack.
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I usually wait for the loaf to cool completely, then I slice it and freeze it. Although this loaf does make decent sandwich bread I find it looses it's moisture after about 2 days and is no longer suitable untoasted.
Happy baking!
