baking bread, gluten free

posted in: in the kitchen | 6

Time for a break from all the shop talk, don’t you think? I’ve been wanting to share a current favorite recipe. After making this enough times, I feel I can confidently declare this my fail-safe gluten free bread recipe. I was never a natural with baking gluten free bread (or any bread), always getting slightly odd results, but this recipe works for me every time. And I’ve been using my bread machine, which makes it even easier.

In the bread machine pan, add:

3 large eggs

1 2/3 cup water

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

In a separate bowl:

¼ cup brown rice flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1 ½ cups cornmeal (fine ground)

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

1/2 cup ground sesame seeds

1/4 cup millet, ground into flour (I use my coffee grinder for all this grinding mentioned)

3 tablespoons sugar

1 ½ teaspoons salt

2 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum

Any add-ins – like herbs, spices, seeds, nuts, dried fruit, etc…

Add the dry contents to the wet, and mix (not everyone would do this, since the machine mixes for you, but I like to mix just to be sure). Add 2 ¼ teaspoons gluten-free yeast and mix a little more. On my machine, which is a Breadman, I set it to the 1.5 pound whole wheat setting and press Start. In about 4 hours the house is smelling amazing and bread is almost ready to slice.

I have tried a few variations with the add-ins, including

–  1/2 cup chopped fresh cranberries, a handful of walnuts, some cinnamon and zest of one lemon zest (shown above, and very tasty)

– Raisins, lots of cinnamon, a small pour of molasses and a handful of walnuts (my favorite)

– 1Tbs chili flakes, 1 Tbs dill and a big handful of cashews (His favorite. This has the perfect amount of heat. Great for toast and cheese).

Experimenting is fun, and once you feel confident with the base recipe you can play around with subbing different flours to achieve different textures. Subbing more tapioca for flax or millet makes a spongier, lighter bread (I tend to like a denser, more fiber rich bread, but I tried this and it did make a really nice loaf). You could try quinoa flour, oat flour, or any other grain of your liking. Have fun!

6 Responses

  1. Valerie

    i’m of course more than interested !
    and have to try & find xantham gum online because none of the health stores here have it, and i keep seeing it in the GF american recipes ! a lady told me i could replace it with guar gum… (?) i don’t know…
    your bread looks delicious. the cranberries/walnut/lemon wins my heart !!
    have you decided to go GF, or maybe just diversify flours ? which can only be an healthy option ! i more & more read that our western worlds use too much wheat.
    bon appétit 🙂

  2. infusionfibers

    Valerie, I could send you some xanthan gum. I have also heard that you can substitute guar gum. The gum acts to bind the bread together, which is what gluten does in wheat bread. Sometimes I just use flax to do this, so it may be fine without the gum, if you use ground flax. We have been gluten free for many years now. We feel better without wheat and gluten, and are also wary of wheat anymore, being such a mass produced crop (though corn is right up there). bon appétit to you!

  3. Kristin

    My mom has a wheat allergy and we are always looking for gluten-free recipes. We will have to try this for the holidays!

  4. Anonymous

    Wal-Mart sells Xanthan gum, the RED MILL brand, in the grocery department.

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