More Adventures in Gluten Free: BREADS
Gluten or Gluten free? Hard to tell! The Seeded Loaf Sandwich Bread
One Sunday morning, I woke up with the burning desire to fulfill a mission…to go on the hero's journey of attempting to make homemade gluten free bread that actually tastes delicious.
I searched for gluten free bread recipes with a certain criteria. So many recipes required so many ingredients. As a baking-philic wife of a gluten intolerant man, I have MANY flours and starches, so if the recipe called for a flour I actually didn’t have, I passed. Until I found the perfect one…. I had all the ingredients - here’s to a wing, and an uncardboardy tasting prayer. And made the sign of the Star of David for some extra!
New baking recipes feel like an adventure. You don’t really know what you are doing, where you are going, or how it will turn out. If the recipes don’t turn out well, they get filed in the circular.
Gluten free baking has its challenges. I try to reduce the amount of gluten in general, so it’s worth exploring other options. The picture looked so beautiful, I was convinced mine would NOT look as nice, but I was wrong! I made a beautiful, artisan looking, delicious, spongy, like the real thing gluten free bread!
I didn’t have a proofing basket or a blade lame but onward. This recipe uses whole psyllium husk which, mixed with water, acts like a binder, activated yeast, and a combo of buckwheat (no actual wheat) flour, potato starch, and brown rice flour. I had white rice flour on hand so I used that. Although the recipe says that it’s not a good substitute, it still worked great, so for once, baking rebellion paid off. I would recommend it if you have a scale to weigh everything. It’s not better, it’s actually easier!
I have now found that hand kneading worked best rather than a stand mixer dough hook. My hands were super sticky, but adding water to my hands helped and doesn't affect the outcome. This bread has 2 rises. A steam bake (a pan of water in the oven), then an oven bake.
It’s definitely a project when you have a couple hours at home, and can multi task well. The active time is easy, the wait time is wherein lies the patience. But during rises, you can work, or do other domestic duties! It saves you a lot of money in mediocre grocery store offerings or a drive to an expensive bakery. I wish I had a picture of my first one, but sadly, no.
With a hero’s confidence, I then moved on to a seeded loaf sandwich bread and took the above picture of my third one! I needed a bigger pan for that so the first time, I made it into 2 loaf pans on hand, which worked! The big pan gives it that sandwich-like situation. I still think I don’t have the correct dimensions loaf pan, as mine is wider looking. Both recipes are from a blog called The Loopy Whisk and I will have the links below. I guess the name is a British thing as is where the author lives, I feel silly telling people about it, but out of all the blogs I have read, it truly is fantastic! I do think the measurements of the pan and oven temperatures have a hard time crossing the sea. I am always having to convert. That’s when weighting things is more convenient. Still worth trying!
I bought her cookbook and it’s one of my favorites. It’s mostly desserts and breads, but as a scientist, she goes into the chemistry of gluten free, hypothesizing the truth of unbelievably delicious!
Click on the picture for the recipe to make this, it will turn as as pictured!
Click pic for recipe! If you want another advantage in GF Bread, this loaf is perfect for sandwiches or toast! It’s all about the pan size to get it this high and narrow…I am still working on figuring out the dimensions of this!