Making gluten-free bread
Lucinda Bruce Gardyne is a skilled ‘special-diet’ cook –see the review of her new book, How to Cook for Food Allergies, in FM Nov 07 or on the FM website at
http://www.foodsmatter.com/Books/Cookery.html.
But her speciality is making gluten-free bread – a skill which many readers would be only too happy to learn! So now is your chance...
For more free-from recipe ideas check outLucinda’s website at www.lucindabrucegardyne.com
Both bought and homemade gluten-free bread can be heavy, dry and so disappointing to eat that people allergic to gluten often give up on bread all together. It doesn’t have to be like this...
With an understanding of why wheat flour is traditionally used to make bread, how to substitute it with gluten-free flours and by altering the method accordingly, it is possible to make your own delicious gluten-free bread.
The gluten-free bread recipe on p38 is actually easier and much quicker to make than
wheat bread, giving you an added incentive to try it.
It can also be used to make bread rolls, and as the base for speciality breads such as Italian focaccia and pizza bases.
Why wheat flour is traditionally used to make bread
Wheat flour is the principal flour used in bread making because it is rich in the elastic protein gluten.
Gluten, developed by the addition of water and kneading, strongly binds the ingredients in bread dough together, trapping and stretching around expanding bubbles of air, produced by yeast, rather like bubble gum.
The trapped bubbles cause the dough to swell and rise, forming the characteristic light, open texture of cooked bread.
The bland flavour and soft, fine texture of wheat flour also contributes to the tender texture and neutral flavour of wheat bread.
The proportion of wheat flour in bread is far greater than the proportion of wheat flour in conventional cakes, pastry and biscuits and for this reason it is much more difficult to substitute it successfully with gluten free flours.
However, by blending specific gluten-free flours (that collectively imitate the taste and texture of wheat flour) with the invaluable gluten substitute xanthan gum (a natural gum,
available from good supermarkets and health food shops), it is possible to make a gluten-free flour mix that closely imitates the important properties of wheat flour for bread making.
Mixed with basic ingredients traditionally used to make bread – water, yeast, salt, sugar and a little oil – it is possible to make a well risen, crusty, versatile loaf that rivals wheat bread
in appearance and flavour.
Gluten-free flour blends for white bread
Potato flour, rice flour and gluten-free corn flour, mixed with a small quantity of tapioca flour makes an ideal flour blend for white gluten-free bread.
The flours are white, fine and starchy and sufficiently bland in flavour to allow the yeast to give the bread its familiar delicate flavour and smell.
Gluten-free flour blends for brown bread
Rice bran (available from good supermarkets and health food shops) adds a fibrous quality
and natural colour to my blend of white gluten-free flours and its delicate flavour ensures
brown bread made with it remains neutral and versatile.
Xanthan gum
Xanthan gum is invaluable in gluten-free bread making. When mixed with water, xanthan gum becomes gluey and elastic, very like gluten, providing the binding and stretching properties that gluten-free flours lack.
Added to gluten-free flour, in small quantities, it gives gluten free bread dough the ability to
trap and support the large bubbles produced by yeast.
This is essential for gluten-free bread dough to rise and lighten like bread made with wheat flour.
Without xanthan gum, gluten-free bread dough is only able to support very small bubbles.
Large bubbles simply rise and escape through the surface, resulting in dense, unrisen,
close-textured bread.
Yeast
The addition of yeast to bread dough is essential for the overall texture, appearance and flavour of bread.
When mixed with flour, water, and a little sugar, yeast starts to reproduce.
As it does so, it produces the all important large bubbles of carbon dioxide that cause bread dough to rise and form its characteristic open texture.
Chemical raising agents such as baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar, which fizz with small bubbles on contact with water, are often included in gluten-free bread recipes to lighten the dough as much as possible.
I do not recommend using them as the bread is left with a fine crumbly, cakey texture and an
unpleasant bitter flavour.
Oil
Adding a little neutral flavored oil or olive oil to bread dough enriches the flavour of bread and helps to keep it fresh for longer.
Water
Use water to form a well-developed crust.
This contributes to the overall appetizing flavour and appearance of gluten-free bread.
Milk, often used in bread recipes, interferes with the rising process of gluten-free bread to produce closer textured, slightly cakey bread with a soft crust.
Making gluten-free bread
Wheat flour and gluten-free flours behave very differently and these differences affect the method for making gluten-free bread in two major ways:
• Unlike dough made with wheat flour, gluten-free dough has the consistency of cake mixture
and is beaten, not kneaded, to mix the ingredients together.
• Unlike wheat-bread dough, gluten-free bread dough, even with the addition of xanthan gum, is unable to hold onto sufficient bubbles to rise in the tin before it is baked.
However, if the dough is spooned into a loaf tin and placed straight into a hot oven, the dough rises to twice its original volume as the precious bubbles, produced by the yeast,
do not have time to escape.
Other key tips for success
• Make sure the yeast is mixed in thoroughly to ensure the bread rises evenly.
• Make sure water used to make bread dough is tepid or blood temperature. If it is too cold the yeast will be slow to release bubbles.
If too hot, the yeast, a living organism will be killed off and will fail to leaven the bread.
• The quantity of liquid required to make bread dough varies slightly with different flour batches and with dry and
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