Gluten Free Bread

This golden crusted loaf of bread came from my oven!

This week I bit the bullet and stocked my fridge with all of the necessary flours needed for a loaf of homemade Gluten Free (GF) bread. A friend recommended The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread by Bette Hagman, and I picked up a virtually new copy at a used bookstore. That was three months ago...

But I have been toying with the idea of alternative flours all that while just to mix it up a bit AND to see if I feel any different after going GF. Store bought GF bread is very pricy and it doesn't come with that 'fresh baked bread wafting through your kitchen' aroma.

Homebaked bread takes a while, but after some practice, I hope to be able to whip up a loaf... at nap time, after the laundry BUT before the dishes.

Today I made the following large batch of dry bread mix. The next time I want a fresh loaf, (tomorrow) I can add yeast and the wet ingredients, mix 4 minutes, let rise 45 minutes and cook for 50 minutes.

Bette's Four Flour Bread Mix-

Makes 3 loaves / 12 cups of mix

3 cups Garfava bean flour

1 cup Sorghum flour

4 cups Tapioca flour

4 cups Cornstarch

3 Tbsp Xanthan gum

1 Tbsp Salt

1 Tbsp Egg Replacer

3/4 cup Sugar

Place dry ingredients in a bag, mix & store until needed.

Single Loaf of Four Flour Bread

DRY INGREDIENTS

3 1/3 cups above bread mix

1 package quick rise yeast

WET INGREDIENTS

1 plus 2 whites eggs

4 1/2 Tbsp melted butter

3/4 tsp vinegar

1 cup 115'F water plus 1/2 c more if needed

Grease bread pan and dust with brown rice flour.

Put dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

Mix wet ingredients in a large bowl.

I used a hand held mixer with funky spiral dough hooks to mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. It worked for the first minute, but as the dough was 'mixing for the recommended 3 minutes', the dough started to creep up the hook and wanted to get into the mixer body. So my wooden spoon got a work out for 3 min. instead. The batter looked like cake batter, hence no need to hand knead. Just pour the batter in the prepared pan, cover with a dry towel & put in a warm place for 45 min. to rise. Then bake in a preheated 400'F oven for 10 min. Open oven to place tin foil on top, being careful not to remove bread from oven (or it may not cook through to the center). Cook for another 40-50 min.

Cool on a rack before cutting. Ours baked through & did not crumble when cut. What a happy day!