Gluten-free Bread Recipe

It's wee and little, but full of goodness

Here it is people, my own gluten-free bread recipe! Now, the first time I tried this recipe I mis-measured my flour and managed to create a super fluffy bread loaf. Unfortunately I couldn't remember what I'd done wrong and it's taken several attempts to recreate that glorious first loaf.

But I think I've finally got it - and here it is (or download the printable verion):

Some of the ingredients I use - soon to be replaced by bulk items!

Dry Ingredients:

• 4 tsp millet meal
• 1/4 cup of arrowroot
• 1 cup brown rice flour with 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour (or any other gluten free flour you want to try)
  
• (optional Baking powder (see the packet for instructions))
• 1/4 cup psyllium husks
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 2 tsp instant yeast

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 tsp of chia/flax seed 'slurry' (for every tsp of seed add 2 tsp of boiling water and whisk together, it will form a glutinous texture)
• 2 tsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar, but any will do)
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil (plus extra for brushing)
• 2 tbsp yoghurt (I used Greek yoghurt)
• 325ml warm water (keep this separate)
• 30ml soy milk (or whatever milk you prefer)

Mixing the dry ingredients

1. Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together. I've included baking powder to give my flour some extra lift, but you don't need to include it. I also keep my flours in the freezer, so I measure these out and let them sit till they are room temperature.
2. Whisk the liquid ingredients separately (NOT the water, keep that separate).
3. Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry and mix well.
4. Pour the water in a little at a time until you get a good dough consistency, I find this varies each time depending on the weather.
5. I left my dough in a bowl, covered, overnight but if you're short on time you can leave it for an hour.

Shaping the dough

6. When you are ready to bake - shape the dough into a log, grease your baking tin, pop the dough into the tin and brush with oil.
7. Preheat the oven to 245C (220C fan-assisted)/475F/gas mark 9. Bake for about 50 mins.

Ready for the oven

8. Remove from the oven, pop your loaf out of the tin, and leave to cool on a wire rack, covered with a cloth - this helps keep the bread soft.

After quite a bit of research I found this recipe by Dan Lepard (for The Guardian) and adjusted with advice given by Shauna of glutenfreegirl.com. I wanted a recipe that didn't include eggs - whole eggs create a cake consistency, and separating yolks to get the whites is just plain irritating. I stuck with yeast because I like as fluffy a bread as possible, rather than a soda bread variety.

I replaced the soya flour with millet meal; the potato starch with arrowroot; the cornflour with a mixture of buckwheat and brown rice flours and the milk with soy milk. Xanthan gum can be replaced by chia or flax seeds - I could only get chia seeds so that's what I used. I'd like to perhaps try adding some flaxseed oil next time.

I'm loving my gluten-free bread, even though the bread is quite small I still enjoy my vegemite toast in the morning. I also have buttered slices with my soup each night. The buckwheat flour has a strong, earthy taste which took some getting used to - but now that the cold weather is setting in it's quite hearty and comforting! I'm almost out of buckwheat flour, so I'm keen to try some other grain flours like barley, rye and spelt. Have you tried baking with any of these? Let me know your thoughts!