I eat mostly gluten free. Not due to celiac but rather that simple white wheat flour products bring out some giant craving in me that i’m tired of fighting. I’ve found gluten free pasta that I like, cereal, even pizza crust but sometimes I just miss bread. While I know there are exceptions, I haven’t found a bread that I like.
I can bake although my sister is the kitchen magician. She doesn’t have my wheat aversion but shared a story with me of a baker who was on a group trip with her, who set up his bread machine every night for fresh dough in the morning then baked hot tasty delectables every day. I thought, bread machine…. hmmmm. I don’t like appliances that do one thing so the idea of making the investment in a bread machine didn’t feel right. Then one day, shopping at a local thrift store, I spied a whole shelf of bread machines! I brought home two- one for my sister, of course.
The machine is basic, one pound machine with (ugh) a teflon coated pan but I’m running an experiment here so I decided to roll with my machine’s “limitations” since the half off $10 price tag fit me so well. Mine is a giant thing but seemed like new and is very quite to operate. My sister’s, on the other hand, makes a heck of a ruckus. So I chose well… in half my choices? 😉
Long store shorter…
I tried the recipe from Michelle Palin at My Gluten Free Kitchenfor a wealth of information.
She recommended a machine with a gluten free setting, which mine did not have. Her recipe is also for a 2 pound machine and mine is a 1 pound so there was a bit of math involved. From other baking experience with gluten free flour, I have found that doubling the baking powder works for cookies and muffins so I tried doubling the yeast and added maybe an extra tablespoon of water (just a guess, might not be necessary.) The next time, I might try 1.5 times the yeast because I did get a big air bubble at the top but nothing awful. The only other recipe adjustment was in my halved recipe, I should have used one egg and 1/2 egg white. I just used two eggs.
I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour as i’ve found it makes gluten-free baking easy for me. Chucked the water, yeast and liquid ingredients in the bottom of the pan. Dumped the flour on top. Closed the lid and pushed the “make me some bread” button. Maybe 3 hours later… voila, bread.
As you can see from the picture, the bread has nice “nooks and crannies,” left my house smelling like mama lives here and tastes like… bread. It is tasty and infinitely better than many commercial gluten-free breads i’ve tried.
So, as a reminder, i’m not a kitchen whiz. I’m providing this story to perhaps inspire you to experiment also. Changing your diet to improve wellness and still feeling happy seems like a winner to me.
have fun!
❤️