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Hello all, good bread is becoming increasingly available as more and more wonderful people launch gluten free bakeries. I am thrilled to be able to go into my local GF bakery, Living Earth Bakery in Corvallis, and sit at a table reading the paper, eating a cinnamon roll, and drinking coffee. It's a  perfect way to spend a leisurely Saturday morning.

But, their products are expensive, at least for me. My frugal nature won't let me spring for a loaf of bread that costs more than $6 except as an occasional splurge. So, I make my own bread most of the time. Over the eight years since my diagnosis of celiac disease, I've tried many bread recipes.  Some have been reasonably successful, some were much better ground up for crumbs. We are all probably familiar with the brick, the collapsed, or the burned on the outside, raw in the middle loaves. But I've recently developed a technique that has worked really well for me--it makes a loaf that rises, doesn't collapse, and is of a good consistency for sandwiches. And tastes good! The technique doesn't rely on a particular recipe. I've used it with several of Bette Hagman's, and one of Bob's Red Mill mixes, with good results. 

I want to give credit to several sources that have inspired me along the path to good bread. One is Naomi Poe, who writes the betterbatterblog. I ran across her Using the European Method to Make Bread post a couple of months ago, and started experimenting. The other source is Shauna Ahern of the glutenfreegirl blog. She had a post on using the no-knead technique that was the rage a year or so ago. She adapted a sorghum bread recipe to the no-knead technique. I made the sorghum recipe a couple of times with not so good results (the loaves were heavy, dry, and tasted of soda), but I adapted the technique she describes with other recipes and they turned out surprisingly well. So my thanks go to them for sharing their recipes. And of course, to Bette Hagman, without whose book The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread I would not have thought I would ever eat bread again!

There are a couple of ways that this technique is different. One is that it needs a heavy covered baking dish or dutch oven. With a lid, the bread bakes evenly with a crust all the way around, which helps it keep its shape. I use a covered rectangular corning baking dish that makes the perfect sized loaf for sandwiches. I haven't used this technique with a regular, thin walled loaf pan, but it might work, especially if you cover it with foil. Because my corning dish is medium-sized, I usually have dough left over that I put in small, hamburger-sized pans, bake, then freeze. Or sometimes I put dough in muffin tins for a dinner-roll tidbit.

Another difference is that I knead the dough. Yes, knead! I never thought I would be kneading gluten free bread, but there you go. This seems to improve the crumb of the finished loaf. It's also easy to shape the loaf and smooth its top.  I love kneading bread--it's a very meditative, calming, and centering experience. So although this is based on a technique that developed from the no-knead technique, it has come full circle back to kneading!

Here's how it works:

Gather the ingredients for a loaf of bread, either a "scratch" recipe, or one of the ready-made mixes. Blend the dry ingredients together (the flours, salt, & sugar) and divide the blend in half. Place one half in a bowl and set the other half aside in a zip-lok bag to use later. Add the yeast to the half in the bowl along with just enough water to wet it. Start small and work your way up so it doesn't get soupy. Cover and hold in a non-drafty place at least overnight, or even for 24 hours. (I warm my oven slightly, turn it off, then put in the bowl.) Overnight, a sour sponge will begin to develop. It will be bubbly, and when you peek at it in the morning, the sponge will smell delightfully of sourdough. (Once the sponge is developed, it is likely you could hold it in the refrigerator for a while if you don't have time to finish the loaf right away, but I haven't experimented much with that.)

When you're ready to finish the bread, add all the remaining ingredients to the loaf except the liquid (the saved half of the flour, eggs, honey, vinegar, oil, melted butter) and mix well with whatever you have handy--a spoon, a hand-held mixer, or a stand mixer.  I just use a large spoon. Then, add just enough of the liquid (milk, water) to wet the dough. This is a slightly tricky thing. The dough should not be at all soupy. The consistency is close to a cookie dough (although that might vary depending on the cookie).

The next stage is kneading.  I have a silicone baking mat that I use for the kneading surface, but you could use your counter or a bread board. (Silicone mats don't skid on the counter and are easy to clean up.)

Have a cup or more of flour handy (I use brown rice flour, but another flour might work just as well).  Flour your kneading surface, scrape the dough onto it, and start kneading. (For an illustrated tutorial on kneading try this link. But ignore the instructions on when the dough is done. Ours doesn't have gluten so it won't behave in the same way.) I generally knead the dough between five and ten minutes, adding flour as needed to keep it from sticking. 

When the kneading is finished, shape the dough according to your choice of baking pan (greased or sprayed with cooking spray) and put it in. How much of the dough you put in a pan is variable, as I find that some of Bette Hagman's large recipes will make enough for my rectangular corning dish, plus a couple of smaller ones. Generally, put in enough dough to fill the pan halfway or slightly more.

Set your dough in a warm place to rise. Again, I use my slightly warmed oven. Because of the sourdough sponge, the dough will tend to rise fairly quickly, so start checking after 1/2 hour or so. (Before I started doing the sour sponge, this stage took a very long time, and sometimes wouldn't rise very much at all.)

When it's risen enough (I judge this by estimating when it's close to being doubled in bulk), preheat the oven to 450 (taking the loaves out first if that's where they've risen. Although I forgot to do that one time, but the bread actually came out just fine anyway!). When the oven has heated to 450, put the pans in. Bake until done, which will depend on the size of the pan. Smaller loaves may be done in 15-20 minutes, larger ones may take longer. It's ok to pull it out every so often to test. A bamboo skewer or toothpick should come out clean when it's done. Or, use a meat thermometer to take the temperature of the loaf. The internal temperature should range around 190 degrees.

Remove from pan, cool slightly, and enjoy!

This was a long post, and for people who want precise instructions, these might be a big too loose. This is what works for me. Not everyone will get great results. But I hope that if you try it you will let me know how it came out. I'd love to hear of any modifications that worked for you, or made it better.

Best,
Mary Garrard
 


 
   

 

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