Gluten Free

I have been intending to add a gluten free recipe to my bread site for years and when Rosie asked me earlier today if I wanted any flour whilst we were out shopping, I grabbed some Doves Farm Gluten Free White Bread Flour - so here we go.......

For people with Gluten allergies, an alternative to bread made from Wheat is essential to health and well being.  The standard recipes for such bread are simple.  The properties of gluten are replaced with a chemical alternative like Xanthan Gum. This is used to facilitate raising in gluten free flours like potato or rice flour. The following recipes will give an idea of how this concept is used.

Gluten free white bread flour-
Blended Rice flour and Potato flour, sometimes with Tapioca flour; Xanthan gum:

1. Basic mix
400g gluten free flour, 320 ml warm water, tablespoon olive oil, pinch of salt teaspoon of sugar, 7g dried yeast.
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and add the wet ingredients to form a loose dough. Kneed into an even consistency and place in a bread tin.  Leave to rise for about an hour and bake at 220 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes until done.

2. Doves Farm recipe
450g gluten free flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons dried yeast, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 325 ml warm milk, 1 teaspoon vinegar, 2 eggs, 6 tablespoons oil.
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Beat together the wet ingredients and add them to the bowl to form a sticky dough. Place the dough in an oiled bread tin and leave to rise for an hour.  Bake at 220 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes until done.

Since excessive kneading will not help much, the dough (which is very loose) is placed directly into a bread tin to rise.

My basic recipe produced a fairly simple white loaf.  The texture is a little more firm than wheat bread and the taste is different, but I like it and would not mind eating this type of bread regularly.  It makes a good sandwich, but needs careful attention during toasting to stop it burning.

The Doves Farm recipe (use a more appropriate tin size than I did.) is a little more effort and gives a better taste.  The crust is very firm on this bake - I used a water spray, and I suspect a dry bake would be better.  I was pleased with both of these bakes.

I will have to repeat these bakes to see if I can improve them before they go onto my website at Paul's Bread Pages. I also need to decide where to place the information on the pages.