Gluten Free Cooking School » bread

Eggnog French Toast

Mary Frances — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:01:21 +0000

This is a picture of my stove the morning after Christmas.

The monkey bread that I made on Christmas morning was a little dry and the only milk-like substance in the house was a half empty carton of Silk Eggnog.

So my little elf helper and I pulled out “Joy of Cooking” (picture a dirty white cookbook with a disintegrating spine and round burn marks from where I accidentally turned on the wrong stove burner) and improvised a recipe for Eggnog French Toast.

It was delicious!

Eggnog French Toast
(6 servings unless you have a two year old bottomless pit)

2/3 c. Silk Eggnog
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
6 thick slices of gluten free bread
butter or margarine

1. Mix the eggnog, eggs, syrup, vanilla, and salt in a shallow dish.
2. Soak the slices of bread in the mixture until completely saturated.
3. Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat and add a dab of butter.
4. Place the bread into the skillet (don’t overcrowd; you’re going to need flipping room) and cook until the underside is golden. Then flip the French Toast and cook until the second side is golden (it doesn’t take nearly as long).
5. Serve hot with maple syrup and any other sweet things you can find in the pantry (but don’t tell my husband that this is why our chocolate chips disappeared!)

If you haven’t found a gluten free bread that you like, try my recipe for Finally, Really Good Sandwich Bread.

Your Gluten Free Bread Baking Questions Answered

Mary Frances — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:56:44 +0000

I’ve made a recent discovery. All-day morning sickness is not conducive to cooking or writing a cooking blog! I’m feeling slightly better now that I’m in my 12th week, so hopefully there will be some new recipes to share with you soon. In the meantime, I’m catching up with responding to your comments and emails and working on a few other blog-related projects.

There were a lot of bread related questions in the comments and emails from the past month, so I’ve posted them below along with my responses. For the rest of you who are patiently waiting on me, I’m going to take another stab at my backlog on Wednesday night , so look for an email or comment from me then.

The picture above is my newest gluten free triumph . . . tall bread! This is my regular gluten free bread with one change – I beat the dough with my handmixer for several minutes. This extra “kneading” helped the xanthan gum to develop, which allowed the bread to get REALLY TALL.

I was completely jumping around the kitchen with joy when I got home and saw this bread! I couldn’t find my tape measure, but this loaf was almost double the size of my normal loaf. I never got this result when I used the paddle with my bread machine, so if you want to try to replicate this you’ll need to mix up your dough in a bowl before adding it the machine (and baking at your usual setting).

P.S. If you have any questions about a gluten free pregnancy, post them in the comments. Gluten Free Mommy is expecting too and we might get together to co-write a series if there is enough interest.

Questions about Bread Making:

1. I just bought a bread machine, and was impressed that it has a gluten free setting on it. It makes 1.5 and 2 pound loaves. Can you tell me what size is your loaf? I’m thinking it’s a 1.5 after reading the blog; but not sure.

I think that it’s a 1.5 lb loaf too, but I’ve never actually measured it.

2. The bread machine directions says I have to put in the wet ingredients, then the dry, then a small hole for the yeast. That’s not how your gluten free bread recipe goes. Since I’ve never used a bread machine before this one, I’m not sure if I will hurt the machine by not using the paddle and just putting it all in.

Either method should be fine. The reason that I mix the dough in a bowl and then bake the bread without the bread machine paddle, is that I’ve lost the paddle. After years of baking without a paddle, my machine is not showing any ill effects. However, I used to follow the normal bread and you should be able to do that with my recipe without any problems.

3. Can I just substitute your gluten free flour mix for a regular cookie / cake / muffin recipe that calls for all purpose flour? What about the xanthan gum, when do I need to put that in my cake? cookies? muffins?

When I’m converting a recipe that calls for all purpose wheat flour, I try my flour mix as a 1:1 substitution in my first trial. Based on the results I might later add more or less corn starch, but the 1:1 substitution usually works really well. For cakes, I like a flour mixture of equaly parts of brown rice flour, tapioca starch, and sorghum flour. Again, I use this as a 1:1 substitution for the wheat flour in cake recipes.

As for the xanthan gum, start by adding 1/2 tsp.xanthan gum per cup of flour mix to the dry ingredients. If your baked goods turn out crumbly, then add more xanthan gum. My experience with cookies is that the extent to which the butter and sugar are creamed has a much greater effect on the finished product than the amount of xanthan gum.

All that being said, my recipe is “all-purpose” in the sense that it can be used for a variety of gluten free recipes. It is not “all-purpose” like all-purpose wheat flour that already has leavening agents mixed in. If you use my mix you will need to add baking powder, baking soda, or yeast to your recipe.

4. Is tapioca flour the same as tapioca starch? And what is tapioca starch flour?

Tapioca flour, tapioca starch, and tapioca starch flour are all the same thing. They are a great substitute for corn starch if you have corn issues.

5. I have a vita mix blender that I used to grind up wheat kernels into flour. So, my question is can I grind up brown rice to make brown rice flour? White rice to make rice flour? Tapioca to make tapioca flour / starch?

I’ve never tried making my own rice flours, but I’ve heard of people who do. I don’t think there is any harm in trying, but be sure to wash the blender well if you’ve used it for wheat flour as well.

6. I found your website this morning and was wondering if you have any recipes for wraps and sandwich breads that are bean free AND yeast free. I am normally unable to digest beans well but during my pregnancy I have been unable to eat yeast as well.

Has anyone had any success with a bread recipe that is gluten free, dairy free and yeast free. Yep I’m serious!. I realize that these are all major players for successful bread but I am allergic to them all?

I get this question about yeast free bread a lot, but the only yeast free bread that I have heard of is the Simple Bread recipe at Elana’s Pantry. The recipe is also, dairy, soy, and corn free. The only flour in the recipe is almond flour so it should work unless you also have a nut or egg allergy. I haven’t tried this recipe, so I can’t vouch for it; but you’re probably willing to try anything at this point.

Another strategy might be to take your favorite recipe and start substituting baking power and baking soda for the yeast. This will take some willingness on your part to do some experiments, but may be worth the try if almond flour is prohibitively expensive.

7. Can you replace Apple Cider Vinegar with Rice Vinegar and not ruin the taste or performance of your gluten free bread /a>?

Amazingly enough, I don’t think that I’ve ever been out of apple cider vinegar when I needed to make bread, so I’ve never been forced to find a substitute. I just went to my pantry and did a sniff test on apple cider vinegar, white distilled vinegar and rice vinegar. Of the three the apple cider was the sweetest, with the rice vinegar coming in second. The rice vinegar that I use has added salt and sugar as it is supposed to be used to flavor sushi rice. I think that it would make a reasonable substitute especially if you add a bit of sugar to the recipe. If your rice vinegar does not already have added sugar, then I would add even more. It might make sense to add the sugar to the vinegar until you get a noticeably sweet smell, and then add that to the dough.

8. I have a recipe that calls for all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. I’ve found a good substitution for the all-purpose portion, but can’t seem to figure out what a good substitution for the whole wheat flour might be. I’ve heard substituting buckwheat flour or teff (one-to-one for the whole wheat) doesn’t work well, but don’t know what combination of flours/starches/gums would be best.

I’d suggest substituting 1/8th of the total flour in the recipe with buckwheat flour and using your all-purpose substitute for the remainder. Depending on whether you are using light, medium, or dark roast buckwheat this may or may not get the taste to where you would like it to be. But it should give you a good start. You can probably get away with using buckwheat for 25% of the flour, if you need to work up to that.

9. Your gluten free flour calls for brown rice flour. Do you think it would be an error to substitute this with rice flour (that isn’t brown)? I am aware that brown rice noodles, for example, have a different texture than ordinary rice noodles, so I imagine there will be some difference. I have found a supplier of rice flour, but not brown rice flour?

The white rice flour should not make a tremendous difference. I’ve replaced part of the brown rice flour with white rice flour before and didn’t notice any difference. That being said, Bob’s Red Mill is a great source for brown rice flour. I buy it in the 25 lb. bag, but you can also order individual bags or cases or 4.

If you have any additional bread or baking questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. And if know the answers to someone else’s questions, my feelings will not be hurt if you leave the answer in the comments section too =)

Multi-Grain Flat Bread: Gluten Free Bread Without Starch

Mary Frances — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:07:35 +0000

If you haven’t guessed by now, most gluten free bread recipes are a bit scarce in the nutrients we’re accustomed to seeing in wheat bread. One reason is that wheat breads are usually fortified with vitamins and minerals during the manufacturing process, and the other is that gluten free breads depend heavily on starch flours to achieve a (somewhat) normal taste and texture.

For years I assumed that there was no way around this, but recent requests from readers nudged me into a series of experiments with the Flat Bread that is ubiquitous in our household. Our usual Flat Bread recipe is based on the Gluten Free Wraps that Kate posted at Gluten Free Gobsmacked. I say “based” because John recently read the recipe, which we keep posted on the refrigerator, and realized that we don’t follow the instructions at all. Those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while will not be surprised that I completely skip the 40 minutes rise and the 30 minute cool down.

The Wrap recipe is delicious but the brown rice flour and corn starch are not high in fiber or iron, two of the measures that I’m most concerned with. I decided to reduce the brown rice flour and completely eliminate the tapioca starch. In it’s place I added Garbanzo/Fava Flour and Teff Flour, both of which are high in fiber, protein, and iron. And while I was at it, I made the recipe yeast-free and egg-free.

The first experimental batch was amazing! The bread was more tender and fluffy than I would have ever imagined possible for a bread that has no starch, and it had a great whole-grain taste. I’ve posted the nutritional data for the Multi-Grain Flat Bread and whole-wheat bread below for comparison. The Flat Bread definitely wins out if you’re concerned with adding more fiber, calcium and iron to your diet.

Two Slices of Multi-Grain Flat Bread:
Calories 276, Calories from fat 76, Total Fat 9g, Saturated Fat 1 g, Cholesterol 0, Sodium 294 mg, Total Carbohydrates 41g, Dietary Fiber 9g, Sugars 5g, Protein 8g. Calcium 10% RDA, Iron 17% RDA

Two Slices of commercially prepared whole wheat bread:
Calories 138, Calories from fat 8, Total Fat 2g, Saturated Fat 0 g, Cholesterol 0, Sodium 264 mg, Total Carbohydrates 24g, Dietary Fiber 4g, Sugars 4g, Protein 8g. Calcium 3% RDA, Iron 4% RDA

(P.S. I am working on a low-fat version of the bread. I was shocked at how much more fat my recipe had! Once I lower the fat, the calories will decrease too.)

(P.P.S The recipe does make 8 slices of bread. The picture above only has six because I snagged two slices for a tomato sandwich as soon as the bread came out of the oven.)

Multi-Grain Flat Bread

(Gluten Free, Soy Free, Yeast Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free)

1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. teff flour
1/2 c. garfava flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 c. water
5 Tbsp. ground flax seed
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. cider vinegar

Instructions:
1. Mix all dry ingredients together in a medium sized mixing bowl.
2. Add the wet ingredients (water, oil, flax seed) to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.
3. Divide the dough into two parts and place each one in the middle of an 8″ x 8″ square cake pan that has been lightly greased and floured.
4. Wet the back of a large spoon and use that to spread the dough evenly across the pan.
5. Bake the bread at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.
6. Allow the bread to cool for a few minutes and then slice each pan into fourths to serve.

No More Naked Burritos: Gluten Free Flour Tortillas

Mary Frances — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:20:25 +0000

For more great recipes like this one for gluten free tortillas, make sure to check out my online Cooking School. I’ll walk you through step-by-step how to cook great gluten free food using easy to find ingredients. You can find out more about the online Cooking School here.

I’ve been sitting here for ages trying to figure out what to say about these tortillas. If you’ve been gluten free for long, you can understand why I’m speechless. The wonder of it all . . . to have tortillas that bend without breaking; that are big enough to actually wrap around something; that taste like flour tortillas. If you’ve ever used gluten free bread as a wrap for a chicken salad sandwich, you’ll definitely want to give these tortillas a try.

And again, if you’ve been gluten free for long I’ve probably already said enough to convince you to try these. They are inspired by a recipe of Bette Hagman’s, but I’ve changed up the flour mix to add nutritional value (gotta love the iron and fiber in the bean flours) and made the recipe casein free.

If you’d like an idea for something to put into these incredible tortillas, try my recipe for gluten free tacos and stop back by on Friday for a tutorial on rolling tortillas.

Gluten Free Flour Tortillas
(makes 8 tortillas that are gluten free and casein free)

2 c. Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour Mix
1 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 c. warm water

1. Add the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix the ingredients thoroughly. (I do this with my hand)

2. Add the cup of warm water to the bowl and mix the dry goods into the water with your hand. Just squish it all up until all of the dry ingredients are no longer dry. And then keep mixing a minute longer because it’s fun and we should all be pretend we’re kids once in a blue moon. =)

3. Separate the dough into 8 pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Place all but one of the dough balls back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap until you’re ready to work with them.

4. Sprinkle a clean, flat surface with a bit of rice flour and then roll you dough ball into a roughly circular shape. Get is as thin as possible. (If you need some practice on rolling out dough, check back here Friday for a tortilla rolling tutorial)

5. Throw the tortilla onto a hot griddle (I use a cast iron griddle on medium heat with just a smidge of shortening or oil) and let it cook approximately 1 minute – or until it has started puffing up and the bottom side is developing those lovely brown spots. Flip the tortilla and cook the other side until is toasty as well.

6. Slide the cooked tortilla onto a waiting plate and repeat from step 4 until you’ve cooked all 8 tortillas. I generally roll one tortilla out while another is cooking, so that there’s is always a tortilla on the gridle.

Cook’s Notes: If you’re allergic to soy, I have substituted Fava/Garbanzo flour for the soy flour with success. If you’re allergic to corn, try tapioca starch instead of the corn starch and almond meal instead of the masa harina.

Gluten Free Bread & Bread Machines

Mary Frances — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:33:12 +0000

A Flour Shortage
We’ve been waiting for our 25 lb. bag of brown rice flour from Bob’s Red Mill forever! The gluten free oats that we ordered with it were back-ordered and the shipping people at Bob’s Red Mill were waiting to send us everything in one shipment. A quick call fixed this problem, but the flour won’t be here till Dec 3rd (I ordered on Nov 15th).

Needless to say we were getting desperate for some bread this week, since brown rice flour is the main ingredient in every baked good that I make. So off John went to our local Bruno’s. And home he came with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Homemade Wonderful Bread Mix .

Our History with Bread Mixes
Bob’s Wonderful Bread Mix is the first bread mix that we ever tried. We made it at least weekly for a year so. As you can see from the picture above, it makes a nice loaf of bread. It may need a little toasting, but it rises nicely and has a good taste. The only reason that we stopped baking it is that the recipe calls for 6 eggs* and I got tired of running out of the mix at inconvenient times. I abandoned bread mixes and moved on mixing my own flours.

Pride
As you probably know, gluten free bread can be temperamental. For years, we’ve eaten squat loaves, misshapen loaves, gooey loaves, and loaves with large air holes. Sometime the bread rises to a lovely height and then the sides and top collapse and you end up with bread that is so skinny that you can barely make a sandwich with it. (I’ve tried to draw the outlines of that type of loaf onto the picture above, but believe me it’s been much worse than that before.) Somewhere along the way I came up with a bread recipe that came out the same every time. That’s why I named it Finally, Really Good Sandwich Bread.

Goeth Before the Fall
Well, I was expecting this loaf of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Wonderful Bread mix to perform like all of those loaves from our early gluten free years.

Rise.

Collapse.

When John took the bread out of the breadmaker I asked him how it looked. “It rose well, but it looks like it’s going to fall.” Just as I thought.

Bud it didn’t fall. It maintained that lovely rise. And it had no large air holes. And I was left with a mystery. Had I really created a wonderful bread recipe, or was all of my success due to one brief moment of thoughtlessness?

My Theory
“Thoughtlessness?” you ask.

Yes. In a moment of thoughtlessness I threw away the blade to our bread machine and in the harried life of a new mother did not order a replacement. When it came time to make another loaf I just mixed the dough by hand, threw it in the machine and hoped for the best. And somewhere around that time (the same time we moved to a new house with a 5 week old infant) I made great bread. Really great bread and I’ve stuck with the recipe ever since.

You see, I’d been experimenting with this bread recipe for a while. Every time I made it I’d tweak in a little bit. And then it worked. And I thought I had succeeded. But is it possible that in the hazy days of early motherhood that the success of the bread came at the same moment that I threw away the bread blade? Is the true secret of gluten free bread making to not knead the dough? Does all that kneading overwork the xanthan gum bonds to that you end up with large air holes and collapsing bread?

You’ll have to tell me. Because I’m not buying another blade for that darned machine.

*I should point out that the recipe calls for one whole egg and enough whites to equal something like 3/4 cup. If you use large eggs, that means 1 whole egg and 5 egg whites. It also mean that you have 5 egg yolks that you need to find some use for. Because it would be a waste to throw them away, right?
“Right!”
“What is the solution?”
“My friend, the solution is creme brulee.” =)

Brown Rice & Buckwheat Sandwich Bread Recipe

Mary Frances — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 20:25:47 +0000

One of my readers recently asked if she could substitute a non-bean flour for the soybean flour in the “Really Good Sandwich Bread” recipe. I did some research and responded back to her that I thought sorghum flour or buckwheat flour would work well as a substitution. Last night, I picked up some buckwheat flour at the grocery store and decided to try it for myself.

The bread turned out really well, but I did have to alter the recipe by adding more brown rice flour and more cornstarch. The color and taste of the bread is reminiscent of whole wheat bread which worked really well with the Tofu Reubens that we had for supper. This recipe is a little different from the original, in that I calculated the exact measurement of each flour ingredient rather than creating a new “flour mix” recipe. If anyone would like me to write a recipe for a mix that uses buckwheat flour instead of soybean flour, let me know in the comments. Enjoy!

Brown Rice & Buckwheat Gluten Free Sandwich Bread

1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 ½ c. water (105 degrees or a little less than hot)

1 c. + 4 tsp. brown rice flour
1 c. + 4 tsp. corn starch
1/2 c. + 1 Tbsp. buckwheat flour
1/4 c. masa harina
2 tsp. xanthum gum 1tsp. salt

2 eggs
1 ½ Tbsp. oil
1 tsp. cider vinegar

1. Start by combining the yeast and sugar in a small bowl (I use the smallest in my set of three nested mixing bowls). Add the water while gently stirring the yeast and sugar. Let this mixture sit while you mix the rest of the ingredients - bubbles and foam should form if the yeast is happy.

2. Combine the brown rice flour, corn starch, buckwheat flour, masa harina, xanthan gum and salt in the largest mixing bowl and stir well.

3. In a third bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and vinegar until the eggs are a bit frothy.

4. By this point the yeast mixture should be foamy, so you can pour the two liquid mixtures into the flour mixture. Stir until all ingredients are well mixed and then dump into your bread machine. Cook on the 80 minute setting – the stirring paddle is not necessary.

P.S. Check out these other great bread recipes at Mike’s Gluten Free Recipes page.

Gluten Free Cooking School » bread

Eggnog French Toast

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