Gluten Free White Bread

Edited again!  January 21, 2008:

Completely new recipe was needed.  This one is still inexpensive to make.  However, it doesn’t rely on the dried milk pwd, as this was not as much of a cost-saver as I had originally thought! In our area, regular milk and powdered milk are the same price!

This loaf rises to the top of the pan in the bread-maker - and the crust gets a lovely brown color.  With the Chana flour that I use, it has a tinge of yellow color.  But the chana flour can be replaced with any other type of flour (not starch).

• 3 eggs
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 c canola oil
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1.5 c warm milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 c. tapioca flour
• 1/2 c. garbanzo bean flour (or chickpea flour/ chana flour)
• 2 c. white rice flour
• 1 Tbsp active dry yeast

1. Whip all wet ingredients together.  Place in pan.
2. Combine dry ingredients, mix and place on top of wet ingredients.
3. Add yeast to the top.
4. Bake according to breadmaker directions.
5. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before removing from pan.

I finally know what went wrong with the last recipe!!!  It was the powdered milk - apparently it DOES go rancid - the manufacturers won’t admit it, but it does - and it tastes AWEFUL!  lol  So keep your powdered milk in the freezer until you use it.  (Great for adding calcium and dairy goodness to baking.)
I have no idea what went wrong with the recipe below. It has grown a distinctly sour aftertaste! There are no GF forums to which I belong that have had this experience. I have substituted the sugar, yeast, tapioca, and milk powder. Replaced it all with new. The process of elimination is simply NOT working this time! Instead of going without bread for any longer, I found this one to give a try. Garbanzo bean flour is reasonably priced in the East Indian aisle of Superstore - called Chana Flour. Is ground really fine, and doesn’t seem to have a taste at all. My 3 year old wanted to eat three slices of this yesterday.

**Based loosely on Alison’s Gluten Free Bread from www.allrecipes.com.

December 31/ 2007  Ok, I am editing this for our winter climate - my loaves have been wet, wet, wet - yuck! I hope that you have subscribed and get this update - check for the bold below:

THIS IS IT, LADIES!

Before this, I hadn’t found a recipe that used less than 4 eggs, huge amounts of different flours and yeast - all pretty pricey ingredients for 1-2 loaves per day! This one just turned out a little heavy, and wet for my liking. So today I finally got a good loaf with some extra egg, yeast, xantham gum, and sugar. Anyway, i’m so excited to finally be able to post this for the GF crowd!

White bread:

• 2 eggs, beaten WELL (until light and frothy)/ 1 egg, well beaten
• 1 1/3 cups warm water/ 1 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tapioca starch
• 1 1/2 rice flour (i use a mixture of white & brown, & ground flax)
• 2 Tbsp sugar (you can use molasses for a brown colour if you like)/
• 3 tsp xantham (NOT guar gum) / 2 tsp xantham
• 4 Tbsp instant dry milk pwd (mine is fat free)
• 1.5 Tbsp yeast/ 1 tbsp yeast

1. Beat eggs until frothy. Add warm water. Add salt. Place in breadmaker pan.
2. mix together: flour, starch, sugar, xantham gum, milk pwd. Add on top of egg mixture.
3. Lastly, add yeast to top.
4. I use a “gluten free” setting in my breadmaker - it allows the dough to rise for 1 hr 15 minutes. And bakes it for over an hour at a lower setting too.

This takes about 3 hours to make, costs little (comparatively) and turns out fluffy, (not eggy), springy (not wet), airy (not crumbly). My kids like it. The crusts are fairly thick, but I need it to cook for a long time, so when I figure out a way around this - I’ll let ya know.

For Oven Method:

1. Add yeast and sugar to warm water to proof. (may take 5-10 minutes, and yeast should be fully dissolved)
2. Separately, beat eggs until frothy.
3. In separate bowl blend dry ingredients together.
4. Add yeast and eggs to heavy-duty blender. Add dry ingredients. Beat 4 minutes, or more. Until dough is springy, and smooth. (this creates air bubbles in it - which we want)
5. Scrape dough into greased 9×5 bread pan, or a circular corelle dish. (bigger is better here so it cooks evenly)
6. Let rise to double. (will take over an HOUR)
7. Bake at 325-350 for one hour, or until done.

OVEN VS. BREADMAKER:

My poor well-loved hand mixer was about to have a heart-attack when I began making GF bread from scratch. Previously it was a bread dough virgin. I bit the bullet about 6 months ago, and forked out the cold hard cash for a breadmaker. OMG, it is the easy life! We found one that has a gluten-free cycle, even better. If you’d like more information on my little shiny steel hero, let me know.

TIPS:

• pre-package the dry ingredients (except for the yeast) in little baggies.
• post the instructions for the breadmaker bread inside the cupboard.
• for some reason, this gets me over the it’s-such-a-big-hassle hump, and I can put those ingredients in that breadmaker.