Victory: gluten-free bread with no weird gums in it.
Since so many people have trouble with gluten these days, I’ve been trying to learn about gluten-free baking. There are some good resources out there (Gluten Free Girl is great), but the recipes usually include things I don’t have in my kitchen, like xanthan gum and guar gum, and lots of obscure starches.
Gluten-free bread is supposed to be impossible without these slimy, gummy additives: they create the structure that allows the bread to rise. Hmmm. I know something else that’s real slimy. Why not try to use the slime in flax seed instead?
Today I made gluten-free bread with ingredients I already had around the kitchen. And it’s good! It tastes good! It looks like bread, it tastes like bread, it has no gluten in it, and it was easy to make.
Since it was my first try and I wasn’t really expecting it to work, I just made a small loaf and didn’t measure very well, but here’s the gist of what I did:
Whip up a few (I think it was two or three) leftover egg whites with two small eggs. Add about a half a cup of milk, some salt (maybe 1/2 tsp? maybe a bit more?), and a little dry yeast (again, maybe 1/2 tsp). Whip again.
Grind up about half a cup of flaxseeds in the blender. Whisk them into the egg-milk mixture. Let them sit for a few minutes to get nice and slimy.
In the meantime, grind up about the same amount of millet in the blender. Add it to the flax-egg-milk mixture. Let it sit for a few minutes to absorb.
Now mix in somewhere between 1/2 and 1 cup of tapioca flour. The dough should be wetter than a non-gluten bread dough, but it should be nice and sticky and stretchy from the eggs and flax.
Let it rise in a warmish place for, say, 45 minutes.
Put it in a small greased breadpan, muffin tin, or other baking dish, and let it rise for, oh, maybe half an hour.
Bake at 450 for about half an hour, or until it’s nice and brown and smells good and sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.
Happy new year!
Amy Hitzig said,
January 1, 2010 @ 12:29 am
Yippee!! Thanks, Rebecca – I can’t wait to try this bread…I love that it doesn’t contain xanthan gum…something I do not have, and which is expensive if I try to stash a quantity. Happy New Year! & lots of love…
Karen Bayne said,
January 3, 2010 @ 8:58 am
Lovely, really lovely. I may bake this as a birthday gift for a friend who has recently left gluten behind. Thank you so much.
baby herb-er said,
January 4, 2010 @ 7:13 pm
Oh Thaank you! That loaf looks like it really is bread. So many of those “bread” recipes are disgusting! Looks & taste!
lovinglandbase said,
January 10, 2010 @ 11:50 pm
hi rebecca.
i wasn’t sure where to ask this but on your twitter you said:
“Loving field bee balm (Monarda fistulosa) for its ability to calm acute autoimmune flare-ups.”
i was wondering if you’ve wrote a blog about this or if you’ve discussed this at the herbwifery forum? i’d love to know more about how you’re using monarda in this way.
thanks!
Ottawa Gardener said,
January 17, 2010 @ 1:26 pm
This is a really useful post to me as my youngest has Celiac Disease and I’m always looking for good ‘not weird’ healthful recipes.
Thanks.
Light said,
January 19, 2010 @ 4:49 pm
I knew a girl for years who has Celiac and forwarded this to her. She uses it in complement with low-level laser therapy and reports such great results. Thanks so much for this!
Denny said,
February 5, 2010 @ 8:17 am
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so, Excellent post
Norma said,
February 5, 2010 @ 9:36 am
Excellent post, I can always use a new recipe to add to my collection, especially if it will help me stay healthy.
Thanks
Suzanne said,
February 8, 2010 @ 9:33 pm
This bread looks wonderful! I haven’t had much luck in making a good gluten free bread so I’ll give your recipe a try!
Cheryl said,
February 18, 2010 @ 9:07 pm
Thanks for the recipe! This bread has the best texture out of ANY gluten free recipe I’ve tried. I changed it around alittle the third time and rose it over night and it rose higher. Thanks again
Leslie said,
February 18, 2010 @ 11:43 pm
mmmm…looks good!