Gluten Free White Bread

Homemade Bread! It is the hardest thing I have had to live without by going gluten free. There are a lot of commercial breads out there that are gluten free but I personally don't care for most of them. They leave a funny aftertaste and the texture is either crumbly or rubbery plus they are very expensive! (Udi's bagels are the closest commercial brand I have tried that taste like "regular" bread. I like them lightly toasted). They also make a delicious pizza crust & cookies if you decide to buy commercial brands...they are worth the money!

However, I wanted to make some sandwich bread so I searched the internet and tried a couple recipes and tweaked this particular one to where I think it is pretty good. It came out with a good flavor although slightly heavier and heartier than a traditional store bought white bread (like Wonder). I used it for grilled cheese sandwiches, panini sandwiches and toast...it worked fine for all of those! I will be experimenting a little more with making bread! My husband thought it tasted similar to the Hawaiian Style Rolls but just not quite as sweet. (Since I really like the Hawaiian rolls...I think I will try making the recipe slightly sweeter next time! This recipe would also be great with some Rosemary and garlic added to the dough before baking for a savory bread). I also think it would function well as a pizza crust.

I found the recipe to go together fairly quickly since it doesn't require kneading. (I am not a fan of kneading. I do have a bread machine but I wanted to try to make this recipe without one because most of my readers don't have a bread machine and I wanted to make sure the recipe would work without one). If you plan on substituting or tweaking the recipe...I would suggest using a little bit of either soy flour or sorghum flour because it will keep the bread from being crumbly. I personally don't care much for the flavor of sorghum flour so I use the bare minimum I can get by with. The trick about baking with gluten free flours is that you need to combine several types of flours to get the texture and elasticity that you are missing from wheat gluten that is in "regular flour". Using just rice flour or corn starch will give you a very crumbly texture. Adding xanthan gum is also important. It gives baked goods the elasticity but a little bit goes a long way! It tends to be expensive but lasts for a long time! If you don't want to purchase a large bag of it, check out your local grocery stores because I found that our Walmart carries tiny sample size packets (.32 oz. size) for about 33cents each for the Hodgson Mill brand. It is great for people that don't bake a lot and don't want to spend the money on a big bag.

Homemade Bread Recipe:

• 1 tbs. active dry yeast
• 3 tbs. sugar (I used raw sugar but you can use regular sugar if you prefer)
• 1 1/4 c. warm water
• 1 c. brown rice flour
• 1/2 c. white rice flour
• 1/2 c. corn starch or tapioca starch
• 1/2 c. potato starch
• 1/2 c. sorghum or soy flour
• 1/3 c. vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbs. xanthan gum
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt

Found @ Walmart for 33cents

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a bowl. Let stand until the yeast softens and begins to form a creamy foam, about 5-10 minutes. Combine yeast mixture, flours, starches, oil, eggs, xanthan gum & salt with a mixer until well incorporated, about 2 minutes. Spoon dough into greased 9x5 loaf pan. Smooth top with a wet spoon. Place a piece of greased plastic wrap loosely on top of dough and put in a warm place to rise for about an hour. (The dough should rise just over the top of the loaf pan). If you don't have a warm place to put the dough - just turn  your oven on low heat for about 5 minutes then turn it off. Put the dough in the oven to rise for about 1 hour). Remove plastic wrap and bake at 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden on top.

Dough rising in the greased loaf pan with greased plastic wrap loosely covering it

Getting ready to slice bread :)

Up close look at the warm bread

Bread right after it is removed from oven

Mmmmm. Eggs with my gluten free homemade toast! :)

Enjoy!

Tanja

Gluten Free Casually