Gluten free bread: My Nemesis.

Okay, so I have a small gluten intolerance.. Nothing major, I just have to avoid it for the most parts as it can make me pretty ill sometimes. It’s all easy to deal with, being a mostly gluten-free vegan is super easy. There are loads of easy substitutes for everything.. Except bread. Store bought gluten-free bread is pretty gross. Kind of like, cardboard. I have only so far found one store-bought brand which is actually vegan and tolerable in taste and texture. But only tolerable.

Many times I have tried to make my own gluten-free bread, and up until now every attempt came out either as thick as a kitchen sponge or as dense as a block of cheese. Not ideal. So I started doing some research, looking at what flours are best (hint: there are so many!), to use xanthum gum or not, right down to the how to tell if it is done? Should it sound hollow? .. And well, there is a lot of stuff to think about. Blog posts, on blog posts, on blog posts of recipes by people who have made gluten free breads. Most not vegan, a few which were. They were good reads, and I tried a few with very little success. Then I came across this blog onegoodthingbyjillee. The post was called ‘Finally….Gluten-Free Bread which doesn’t suck’, Now this one sounded like my kind of post. I checked out the recipe and made some adaptations to make it vegan and holy moly, it worked. It wasn’t perfect but it was leaps and bounds ahead of any other gluten-free bread I had ever tried!

So, this original recipe had eggs and dairy in it. Obviously, these were the first things I needed to change. Dairy was easiest, the recipe called for milk powder which in the vegan and dairy free world isn’t the easiest or cheapest thing to come by, so instead, I decided to cut out some of the water content and replace with non-dairy milk. Sweet, that was that sorted.. Now for the egg. There are so many good egg replacements both commercial and homemade e.g.: Orgran no-egg, flax seed egg, chia seed egg, banana, apple sauce.. but my egg replacement of choice was simple decision: aquafaba. Now, if you aren’t aware of what aquafaba is it is incredibly simple, it is merely the cooking water from legumes ( chickpeas being the most commonly used). It can be the water from a tin you have just opened (my method of choice.. who has time to cook chickpeas?!) or it can be the liquid you boil your own chickpeas in which is reduced down to an egg white consistency. This stuff i pure magic, I’ve used it to make the likes of vegan meringues and macarons.. but that is a whole other blog post.

Right, so i have my replacements sorted, now to decide on flour blend. The original post was viewed from my phone and as my phone loves me very much, it wouldn’t tell me how much of each ingredient i needed.. but the blend list did say it made around 4 cups. So i decided to wing it and use the flours stated and make up my own blend quantities (this could’ve gone terribly wrong!). The flour blend ingredients list makes up the correct amount of flour to use in the recipe, and with my terrible math, i managed to add a tbsp more and decided, meh, throw it in any way.

So, I think my attempts went pretty well, it looks like bread!

And i guess now is the time for a recipe:

Gluten-free Brown Rice Flour Blend

• 1 1/2 cups pf brown rice flour
• 1 1/4 cups of tapioca starch
• 1 1/4 cups of corn starch
• 1 tbsp of potato flour

Bread Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

• All of the above flour blend ( about 4 cups)
• 1 tbsp of xanthan gum
• 1 tbsp egg replacer (Orgran no egg is what i used)
• 2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of non dairy milk (I used almond)
• 1/4 cup of vitalite (or other vegan margarine)
• 2 tsp of apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup of agave syrup (less may also work)
• 9 tbsp aquafaba

Yeast Mix

• 2 1/4 tsp of dried active yeast
• 1 1/2 cups of warm water

Instructions

• Grease two 8 inch loaf tins with oil*.
• Add the yeast to the warm water and give it a gentle whisk to combine, let sit whilst you prepare the rest of the bread mix.
• Sieve all of the dry ingredients in to a bowl and mix thoroughly to ensure it is all blended, set aside.
• Place all of the wet ingredients in another bowl and whisk until just mixed, the vitalite will still be chunky, but this is okay.
• Put half of the dry ingredients in to the wet mix and beat well until just blended, then add the rest of the dry ingredients and beat until all mixed together.**
• Add the yeast mixture to the bread mix and beat into the dough. Continue this for roughly 4 minutes***. After this time the mixture should resemble a thick cake batter.
• Share the dough between the two greased loaf tins and if desired, using wet fingers, smooth out the top of the loaves.
• Place the two loaves in to a warm place to rise for between 60-90 minutes****. The dough should rise to about 1 inch above the top of the loaf tin. Towards the end of this rising time, preheat the oven to 190’C/375F.
• Once the loaves have risen, place them in the middle of the preheated oven for between 45-55 minutes. The best way to know when gluten free bread is cooked is by using an internal thermometer. When the internal temperature reaches 93.3’C/200F the bread is done. If you don’t have a thermometer, you will have to use your best judgement on when the bread is cooked.
• Take the loaves out of the oven and let them cool in the tins for 10 minutes. Then, take the loaves out of the pans and let them sit on a cool rack until they are completely cooled.

*I used spray oil and lined the bottom of my load tin with grease proof paper, my tins tend to stick.

**I used a thick paddle spatula to do this next step, but it can be done in a stand mixer.

*** Hello arm muscle workout! this step is easier in a stand mixer if you have one! (I don’t).

**** Mine took 90 minutes, it is cold this time of year.

Tip: Wait until the loaves are completely cooled before trying to slice them, they will cut easier and not squash. Use a sawing action when cutting the loaves, avoid putting too much pressure on the knife, let the knife do the work.

Notes: This bread is great the first day, but over the next couple of days it goes very moist and slightly gummy (slightly resembling crumpets.. which admittedly i kind of love!). I have found so far that leaving the loaf whole and slicing when needed helps, as well as lightly toasting the slices to dry them out a little before use. Any tips on avoiding moist/gummy bread would be greatly received.

Anyway, I hope you like my first real post!