Delicious Gluten-free Bread Recipe

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. yeast

1 Tbsp. honey

1 ½ c. water (105 degrees or a little less than hot)

2 ½ cups gluten free flour mix (see below)

2 tsp. guar gum (or xanthan gum, which is corn based)

1tsp. salt

3 eggs (or 9 Tbsp. water and 3 Tbsp. ground flax seed – but bread is not as fluffy)

1 ½ Tbsp. light olive oil (or raw, unrefined coconut oil)

1 tsp. cider vinegar

Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix:

Option 1

3 parts brown rice flour

3 parts tapioca or corn starch

2 parts sorghum flour, quinoa flour, or garfava (blend of garbanzo bean/fava bean) flour

1 part masa harina (or almond flour)

Option 2

5 parts brown rice flour

3 parts sorghum, quinoa or garfava flour

2 2/3 parts tapioca or corn starch

1 part potato starch

1/4+ part potato flour

Directions

1. Start by combining the yeast and honey in a small bowl. Let this mixture sit while you mix the rest of the ingredients – bubbles and foam should form if the yeast is good.

2. Combine the flour mix, guar gum, and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir well.

3. In a third bowl (or I use my Blendtec), whisk the eggs, oil, and vinegar until the eggs are a bit frothy.

4. By this point the yeast mixture should be foamy, so you can pour the two liquid mixtures into the flour mixture. Blend the dough with a mixer for 4 minutes. (I add the yeast mixture to the egg mixture already in my Blendtec, then add the flour mixture to the Blendtec, and blend until combined. Then, I pour the “batter” into a prepared bread pan).

Conventional Oven Directions:

Scoop (or pour) the dough into a greased loaf pan (more like thick batter than regular gluten bread dough). Allow the dough to rise in a warm area until it is about 1 inch from the top of the pan (for me it’s usually around 20 min.). Then bake at 375 degrees for 50 – 60 minutes.

Bread Machine Directions:

Scoop your dough into the bread machine and smooth the top of the dough. Bake bread using an 80 minute setting that allows for 20 minutes of kneading, 18 minutes of rise, and 42 minutes of baking. Don’t use the paddle – without the paddle, you are effectively doing a 38 minute rise and a 42 minute bake. The advantage of not using the paddle is that you don’t end up with a hole in the bottom of your bread.

Other Notes:

·      You can buy the GF flours (but sometimes they are expensive and blends are not as good), so I grind mine in my mill (The Kitchen Mill by Blendtec) or dry in my Blendtec turbo blender (which is not as fine as my mill but still works).  I make a big batch of GF flour and keep it in an air-tight container in my fridge or freezer for regular and frequent use (makes it easier than blending flours every time).

·      For almond flour (can't grind in mill), I use the dried bits of almond strained from the almond milk I make (“waste not, want not” ;) ).

·      The masa harina in the flour mix for this recipe is usually available in the Hispanic sections of most grocery stores. Due to the way it is processed, masa harina is very absorbent and you cannot substitute corn meal or corn flour. You can purchase masa harina on Amazon.com if it is not available locally.

·      If you are allergic to corn then you can make the following substitutions: guar gum instead of xanthum gum, tapioca starch instead of corn starch, and almond flour instead of masa harina.  I try to avoid corn products as much as possible since we already get so much corn in our diets through refined & packaged foods (which I try to avoid entirely, but I'm human!!) – best to get variety.