Recipe: Sourdough Bread

As I’m sure some of you may know, bread baking is terrifying. People dedicate their entire lives to sustaining a cultured yeast that’s been passed down from generation to generation. Bread bakers can spend entire weeks letting bread proof, settle, re-fold, and proof again. Oh, and then they let it proof again.

What does any of this mean? You know, I’m still struggling to figure that out. Once I have, I’ll post a page entirely dedicated to explaining yeasted break baking for gluten-free newbies. My philosophy, however, was to get my hands dirty, make my mistakes, and then learn from them.

Well, this recipe was riddled with mistakes! It again comes from the Culinary Institute of America’s Gluten-Free Baking book. The major draw back of this book is that it demands that you pre-mix certain flour mixes that they repeatedly use in each recipe. So this recipe, for example, called for mix 1 and mix 3. Of course, I hadn’t bothered to mix these things ahead of time. I said to myself “rather than wasting flour for mixes that only apply to this book, I’ll just make the partial mixes as I go!”

Folks, this doesn’t work. Don’t do it. Just make the mixes. They’re well thought out and can be applied to other recipes (there’s a nifty explanation of protein content that accompanies each mix, which allows you to match the mix’s purpose with other recipes from other books! If this confuses you, see “Baking Basics” on the Gluten-Free 101 menu *not completed at time of posting*). The recipes in this book are generally excellent and professionally crafted, so you might as well make the mixes ahead of time. This spares you the stress of conversion and limits the likelihood that you’ll screw everything up (like I did!).

I’m also suspicious that either corn or potatoes are another irritant for my gluten symptoms, which meant I needed to alter the flour mixes themselves. These mixes called for white rice flour (which I was out of, sub brown rice flour), potato starch (sub corn starch), and Tapioca starch. While I was worried that this would cause some grittiness, I think the texture and taste turned out nearly perfectly at the end (aside from being a little undercooked. You know I really should invest in an instant thermometer).

Finally, I’d never proofed yeast before. So, as I was trying to mix the dough, I was youtubing and then youtubing again to remind myself how to proof active dry yeast.

In the end, it actually turned out to be quite delicious. The flavor was remarkably similar to be beloved pieces of sourdough bread from days of yore (perhaps better!), while the texture was an unconventional-but-pleasant combination of dense and moist.

I doubt that this is how the writers of the recipe envisioned the final project, but I’m sure I’ll put it to good use. I’m fairly proud of my first attempt at yeasted bread breaking. The addictive allure of the hobby has become much clearer to me. I look forward to many more batches of Gluten-Free Sourdough bread!

Recipe: Sourdough Bread

Ingredients

Flours

Mix 1: Brown Rice Flour (9.5 oz), Corn Starch (7.25 oz), Tapioca Starch (7.25 oz)

Mix 2: Brown Rice Flour (5.25 oz), Corn Starch (14.25 oz), Guar Gum (1.25 oz), Albumen (powdered egg white 3.38 oz) (I usually use normal eggwhite because I can’t find Albumen for the life of me).

NOTE: I halved this recipe and made one loaf. There’s something called Baker’s Percentages, which I didn’t follow and it turned out fine. If you’d like to stick close to what the writers of this recipe intended, google Baker’s Percentages and see how the concept is applied.

Everything Else

• 1.5 tbsp Salt
• .5 cup Sugar
• 13.5 oz Mix 1
• 13 oz Mix 2
• 3 Tbsp Instant Yeast (I subbed Active Dry Yeast. Conversion is 1.25 tsp Active Dry Yeast per 1tsp of Instant Yeast. Google Yeast Conversion of calculation in oz).
• 3 ea Eggs
• 1 cup melted Butter
• 24 oz Butter Milk
• 4 tbsp White Vinegar (I subbed white wine vinegar, and I think it contributed a very nice flavor).

Instructions:

1. Combine salt, sugar, flour blends, and yeast (if you’re using Active Dry Yeast instead of Instant Yeast, proof the yeast now. Here’s a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksziuzwLuGY)
2. Mix in remaining ingredients (it’s ok to mix very very well in gluten-free bread recipes. You cannot over mix, since there’s no gluten! More on this on the baking basics page).
3. Coop mixture into greased loaf pan, filling to about half to two-thirds full.
4. Proof the shaped product in a warm, humid environment for 30 to 45 minutes (set the pan with batter in it in the oven at about 150 degrees temperature. Put an open bowl full of warm water on the same rack as the bread in the oven. This will evaporate and retain moisture).
5. Once proofing is over, bake at 375 degrees F (The recipe says to preheat, but since I only have one oven, I couldn’t exactly do that. It didn’t seem to matter much, except that I should have left the bread in for maybe 5 more minutes).
6. Bake for 45-55 minutes (I took the bread out at 45, and it was just slightly undercooked).
7. Remove immediately from the pan and cool.
8. Wait until cooled significantly to slice!

Recipe: Blueberry Muffins

These gluten-free muffins were made from a recipe found in the Culinary Institute of America’s Gluten-Free Baking book. The recipe involves a pretty complex blending of flours (which I totally screwed up), so pay close attention during flour mixing! They turned out pretty well, although I wish I’d used frozen blueberries rather than freshish blueberrys (they were a little too tart for a muffin). I think I’ll try experimenting with some recipes that are a bit less complicated (flour wise) before coming back to this one.

Recipe Coming Soon (Too lazy to type it all out right now).

Recipe: Pita Bread

For those of you who might remember my Chicken Shawarma post, this is my second attempt at gluten-free pita bread. I’d say it’s a significant improvement over the last attempt! This bread tasted delicious, but was a little too crumbly for practical use as a fillable pita. This probably has a lot to do with the pre-made flour mix I used, which didn’t include any high-protein density flour in the mix. I’ll experiment with making my own mix next time and let you know how it goes. In the mean time, these worked (although they were messy!). As I said the taste was great, and at the very least the messiness of dinner time made for a few laughs 🙂

Here’s the recipe:

http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/how-to-make-quickbread-pita-bread-step-x-step/

Recipe: Banana Bread

Hello readers! I have wonderful news to share 🙂 Today, I made my first loaf of gluten-free bread…and it was delicious! And soft! and didn’t crumble when you sliced it! My gluten-eating boyfriend even loves it! I made it using the book Gluten-Free Baking with The Culinary Institute of America by Richard Coppedge Jr. If you’re picky about your breads (as I am), and Udi’s frozen gluten-free bread just doesn’t cut it for you, this book is a must buy. It was developed by some of the US’s premier bakers and is sort of the pinnacle of modern day innovations in gluten-free baking (see the Baking Basics page under Gluten 101 for more info on the intricacies of gluten-free baking. This book masterfully navigates these challenges). This bread came out very nicely, and I can’t wait to explore the book further! The banana bread could perhaps benefit from a bit more flavoring (maybe up the amount of bananas slightly…but this will affect bake time). Anyway, give it a shot!

To make the flour mix needed for the recipe, mix:

White Rice Flour......5.25 oz (3/4 cup)
Potato Starch..........14.25 oz (4 cups)
Guar Gum..............1.25 oz (3.5 tbsp)
Albumen (powdered egg whites, substitute normal egg whites if needed) 3.38 oz (1/2 cup) (a little less than 1 eggs worth)

Note: I reduced this flour mix recipe to 1/3 of the amounts called for here (which didn’t give me quite enough for the bread recipe listed below, but it was almost enough). The book offers these recipe mixes as general purpose flour mixes. It’s pretty in depth, so check it out if you want to know more.

Banana Bread Recipe

3/4 cup (6 oz) Butter, softened
1 cup (8 oz) Sugar
1 Egg
1 1/3 cups (8 oz) Flour Blend
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 cup (6.5 oz) bananas, mashed
2 tbsp (1.2 oz) Sour Cream
3/4 Cup (3.75 oz) walnuts, chopped (really not optional. A lot of the flavor comes from these).

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream together softened butter (microwave for 20 seconds) and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Add egg gradually and scrape down bowl.

4. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add all dry ingredients to wet ingredients at once; mix until just combined.

5. Add the mashed bananas and sour cream to batter and mix until just combined.

6. Fold in chopped nuts by hand.

7. Pour batter into a greased and lined loaf pan.

8. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted near the center of the loaf comes out clean.

9. Enjoy! 🙂