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Many thanks for sharing your experiences baking GF without xanthan and other
gums.

My own best effort to date has been about 1/8 tsp psyllium husk powder per
cup of GF flour for quick breads, pancakes, and such.

For "real" breads, the best substitute I had found so far is the "Pixie
Dust" developed by Dr. Jean Layton.  It is a mix of chia, psyllium husk, and
flax seed.  It can be found at
http://www.drjeanlayton.com/2014/12/pixie-dust-xanthan-gum-replacer.html

Suggestions from Listmates include the following:

I have used ground psyllium husk as a substitute for gums. Works well.

I've tried psyllium husk powder, and have had no success

GUAR GUM  We used it in a GF cooking class for dough.  It seemed fine.

In Against the Grain, Clarkson Potter (2015), Nancy Cain "pregelatinzies"
the starches.

Joan provided this quote from the Gluten Free Girl and the Chef:

"We only need something like psyllium (or xanthan gum, guar gum, or any
other hydrocolloids) in baked goods that truly require gluten. Quick breads,
cakes, cookies - they don't need the elastic protein gluten provides if you
are using the right ratio of fats to flours to liquids in a baked good.
Muffins fall into this category too. I rarely use anything like psyllium in
muffins now. 

I just keep experimenting, really. As I did with xanthan and guar gum when I
started, I used too much psyllium at first. I've been scaling back since
then. These days, I really only use a pinch of psyllium in a bread dough,
for example. If I'm using 420 grams of flour, I might use 10 grams of
psyllium. And I simply add it as a dry ingredient, since it reacts with the
liquids in the dough immediately. Breads are where we most need the help of
a hydrocolloid. Pancakes? Not at all." 

The mention of hydrocolloids sent me researching.  Found Martin Lersch, a
chemist and food enthusiast in Oslo, Norway, whose blog, Khymos, is
dedicated to molecular gastronomy and related subjects.  His formula for
using guar gum in GF baking is 0.5% for cookies, 1.0% for cakes, muffins,
and such, and 2.0% for bread and pizza.  Like this, in his bread flour
recipe:

525 g br rice flour

60 g potato starch

115 g tapioca starch

220 g sweet rice flour

60 g cornstarch

With Guar gum added as follows:

For cookies, 5g

For Cake, muffins, etc. 10 g

For bread or pizza 20 g

 

And here's the BEST: Listmate Elizabeth's 13 year old daughter is in the
middle of a school science project in which she is testing xanthan, guar,
psyllium and chia in a standard GF bread recipe.- conducting five tests of
each product - that means baking FIVE loaves of bread using each.  What a
project!  And she will post the results when completed.  This is going to
provide some rich information for those of us who need it!

 


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