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Notes for Non-Celiacs Making GF Bread and Soup
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by the Lyles family
Our church likes to hold family-oriented Wednesday night events during
Lent, which begin with a simple soup and bread dinner. Different
church members make the soup and bread each week. Of course, we know
how "simple" that sort of thing generally is when you have two celiac
children. But our pastor took a progressive stance: He decided that
each week there would be at least one pot of soup and one loaf of
bread that was gluten-free (GF), so that we would not have the burden
of preparing both all six weeks.
We talked about how best to accomplish this. We agreed that it would
be possible to communicate enough information so that someone else
could prepare soup that was GF. However, my wife and I decided that
it wasn't practical to expect a non-celiac to make GF bread from
scratch. So our "game plan" was to prepare six batches of dry
ingredients for 1.5 lb. loaves of bread to give out to the bread
baker, and then include a list of wet ingredients and directions for
making the bread both manually and in a bread machine.
This experiment was mostly a success. We had a mishap one time with
the soup, but otherwise things worked out fine. To be on the safe
side, we always brought some GF cup-of-soup (Lipton broccoli and
cheese) and crackers (Elco, Hol-Grain, or Dietary Specialties) with
us.
Enclosed in this article are the instructions we passed out, for
non-celiacs making GF soup and bread. You may be able to adapt them
for your use in similar situations at church, school, social events,
or holiday family meals. (The bread recipe's dry ingredients are from
Butter-Basted Brown & White Bread, on pg. 39, in More From the
Gluten-Free Gourmet, by Bette Hagman. We made one change: We added
1/4 tsp. of ascorbic acid crystals to the dry mix, so we could
eliminate vinegar from the liquid ingredients.)
Instructions for Gluten-Free Bread
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1. The Ziploc bag contains all the dry ingredients needed to make a
1-1/2 pound loaf of bread, EXCEPT for the yeast. Please store it
in your refrigerator until the day you make it, then get it out
ahead of time and allow the ingredients to get back to room
temperature.
2. You can make the bread by hand or in a bread machine. Separate
directions are included below.
3. Please note that this bread is not like regular wheat bread, and we
don't want you to think you are doing something wrong:
A. The bread dries out very quickly. Please bake it the day it is
to be served if possible.
B. The dough has a texture between cake batter and cookie dough, so
it is too gooey to knead. In a bread machine, it should have
swirl lines on the top surface after mixing.
C. This bread does not need to rise twice. If using a bread
machine, run it empty through the first mixing cycle, or program
it for 20 minutes mix, one hour rise, and 55 minutes bake. You
may need to use a rubber spatula around the edges of your
machine's pan during the mix cycle to be sure the flours mix
evenly.
4. Contamination is a concern. If flour particles or crumbs from
regular baked goods get mixed in with or fall on this bread, it
will not be safe for those on a gluten-free (GF) diet. Please be
sure bread machines are cleaned thoroughly, measuring cups are
clean, grease used for pans has no crumbs in it, and that this
bread gets sliced and wrapped or put in a container BEFORE the
knife and cutting board are used for regular bread.
Other ingredients needed:
4 tablespoons margarine, melted
3 eggs (or 2 eggs and 2 egg whites)
1-1/2 to 1-2/3 cups water (room temperature for bread machines,
lukewarm otherwise)
regular (not quick-rise) dry yeast (Red Star or Fleischmann's
brand). Use 1 packet for a bread machine, or 1-1/2 packets for
oven baking
Bread Machine Directions:
1. Stir the yeast into the dry ingredients and set aside.
2. Beat the eggs lightly. Add the melted margarine and water to
the eggs.
3. Add the ingredients to the bread machine in the order specified
by your machine's owner's manual (wet then dry, or dry then
wet). Refer to item 2-C above.
4. You should notice swirl lines on top of the dough after a few
minutes of mixing. If the batter is too dry, add water 1
tablespoon at a time. If the batter is too wet, add cornstarch
1 tablespoon at a time (otherwise the bread WILL sink in the
middle during baking!)
Oven Baking Directions (1 large loaf or 18 muffins):
1. While the butter is melting, proof the yeast by dissolving 1
teaspoon of sugar in 2/3 cup warm water. Add 1-1/2 packets of
yeast and wait until foamy.
2. Put the dry ingredients in a mixer bowl. Turn the mixer on low,
and slowly add melted butter and the remaining 1 cup of warm
water. Then add the eggs one at a time, and finally the yeast
water. Beat on high for 3 minutes.
3. Spoon the dough into greased bread pan(s) or muffin tins. They
should be no more than half-full. Cover loosely with plastic
wrap or a towel, and let it rise in a warm place for
approximately 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
5. Bake, covering pans with foil after 10 minutes to prevent the
top from burning. (It WILL burn if you don't.) Bake for:
9" x 5" pan -- 1 hour
muffin tins -- 25 minutes
smaller bread pans -- 35-45 minutes, depending on their size
6. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove from the pan and
cool completely on a wire rack.
If you have any questions, please give us a call at ________________.
Instructions for Gluten-Free Soups
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Gluten-free (GF) soups cannot have wheat (including wheat flour, bread
crumbs, pasta, or any noodle), rye, barley, or oats; nor any
ingredients made from these grains. Below we've listed various
ingredients commonly used in soups, and categorized them for you so
that you would know which are safe for people on a GF diet. If you
have questions about any ingredient or brand, please give us a call at
________________.
Never Safe:
flour
barley
pasta (unless it is a special GF brand)
croutons
Always Safe:
fresh vegetables and herbs
plain canned vegetables (no thickeners or spices)
milk
dried peas and beans (no flavor packets)
plain fresh meats
plain salt and pepper
tomato juice, including V-8
olive oil
Crisco (regular or butter-flavored)
butter or margarine, as long as it hasn't been in contact with
bread crumbs from toast, etc.
cornstarch
Sometimes Safe--Only Use These Brands:
bouillon--Herb-Ox, if labeled "No MSG"
rice--use plain, non-seasoned varieties
broths--Health Valley beef or chicken; Swanson vegetable
ham--cannot contain modified food starch, caramel color, or
"flavorings". Hillshire Farms and Kowalski are okay
spices--McCormick's are safe if they don't list any ingredients, or
if they don't list flour or wheat in the ingredients
cheese--no blue-veined cheeses; also none that contain flavorings
such as Taco seasoning. Otherwise, most regular cheeses are
fine (but NOT Velveeta or other processed cheeses)
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