Monday, April 6, 2009

Bread We Love! Gluten Free!

breadA
freshly baked gluten free bread

Our choices not that long ago were styrofoam, plastic, fiberboard, and sometimes sponge. Gluten free bread that tasted like bread was an almost impossible holy grail.

That is, until now.

We get to thank Pamela's gluten free baking mix and Karina's Gluten Free Kitchen, formerly Gluten Free Goddess for this achievement. On her website are volumes of tasty recipes, some vegan, some casein free, but others just simply gluten free. This bread mix turned out to be an enlightening forum of discussion. For some people it worked as is, for others not so much. After much tweaking, it finally works for most.

I bought this bread machine based on her review and it is exactly as promised. It has a gluten free bread making setting, yet none of the gluten free breads use that setting. I just like that it says that. It means that there are a lot of consumers out there who need that option and the manufacturer listened.

Nothing like warm fresh bread and butter. You have to let it completely cool to slice properly for sandwiches. I like to place wax paper or parchment sheets between the slices and double zip lock bag them for the freezer. That way I can extract a couple of slices easily and toast or thaw them for sandwiches.

The directions on the Pamela's bag for regular bread tell you to mix up the liquid ingredients together to measure two cups plus two tablespoons of water and place first in the bread bucket. Then pour the dry ingredients on top and make a tiny indent for the yeast and add that.

However - don't do that! Follow these directions instead and you will be guaranteed a pretty good loaf each time.

  1. Take the two eggs out of the refrigerator and warm them up in a small bowl of warm water for at least five minutes first.
  2. All the ingredients should be room temp or warmer, but not hot.
  3. Do not use the yeast that comes with the package. Buy some Rapid Rise dried yeast in the 1 oz. packets. Use two of those per loaf and make sure they are at room temp first if you store them in the refrigerator.
  4. Use vegetable oil, not olive oil.
  5. Mix the liquid ingredients together and the total should be slightly under 2 cups total. Never two cups and never more than that! Beat the eggs first, add the oil, then add the warm water totaling under 2 cups. Pour into baking bucket.
  6. Next add the dry ingredients to cover the wet stuff. Make a slight indent and add both packets of Rapid Rise yeast.

Place in machine and hit the menu to #6 for dough and close the lid. When it has mixed it for a little bit, peak and use a spatula to push all the dry ingredients from the corners and edges to the center to make sure they are incoprorated. It will be a very sticky dough. Then let it finish by itself.

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edges clean (spatula!) and dough mixing

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letting the dough rise, ready to bake

When the machine beeps, hit stop. Then using menu, go to #10, bake and add ten to twenty minutes. I like 20 - the loaf is less wet when finished. Medium dark is a good setting to use. Then just hit start and go away. Soon you will smell the bread baking.

Cool on a rack until you can slice it. The only pesky thing is the kneading tool that gets baked in the middle of the bottom. You can extract it while slicing or pull it out.

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freshly bake loaf, cooling

I'm off to make a peanut butter sandwich. It has been a long time!

Bon appetit.

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ready for sandwiches

Key items (following images from Amazon, all items on Amazon):

Pamela's Bread Mix

Some larger groceries will carry it, and if not you can order it from Amazon in a 6 pack which is tons cheaper anyway.

pamelasbreadmix


Bread machine

Breadman TR875 makes a 2 pound loaf. Notice #8 says gluten free! #6 and#10 are your best friends for making a gluten free loaf. It goes on sale periodically.

breadmanmachine

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