I’ve been playing around with the gluten-free recipes from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes per day.  Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg have done a great job of providing whole grain and gluten-free options for their Artisan Bread in 5 minutes per day method.

Simply put, this method is great for families and households where you would like [...]]]>

I’ve been playing around with the gluten-free recipes from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes per day.  Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg have done a great job of providing whole grain and gluten-free options for their Artisan Bread in 5 minutes per day method.

Simply put, this method is great for families and households where you would like to be able to make bread with a minimum of fuss.  It involves mixing larger batches of dough, and letting a long, cool, delayed fermentation do the rest of the work for you.  For wheat-based breads, this method is great, as it develops the gluten structure slowly, but thoroughly, and has the added benefit of the enzymatic reactions typical of a delayed ferment.   Obviously, with gluten-free breads, there is no need to develop the gluten, but this method is a great one nonetheless, for the convenience AND for the flavour development

While I’ve been doing my own noodling around with these recipes to make them egg and dairy-free, a while back, I noticed that ABin5 put up their own version of an egg-free, gluten-free version, which was also whole-grain heavy to boot!  AWESOME, I thought, and read on, only to discover that it made use of some of the new King Arthur gluten-free flours — not at all readily available to us up here in B.C.  In my trials with this method, I’ve moved completely away from commercial egg-replacers as I found them too drying, and been relying on chia seeds or flax seeds, so I was interested to see that ABin5 also fell back on flax seeds for theirs.

Undaunted, I set about to play around and come up with a recipe that would be heavier on whole grains, but be feasible for those of us still buying our flours separately!  This is my modification of Zoe and Jeffs — the proportions are based on their original recipe, with the major change being the flours.  This relies on only about 25% starch for the texture: considerably less than the minimum of 50% that many other gluten-free breads require to achieve a pleasant texture.  The other addition here that is critical, is the inclusion of sweet rice flour, which adds moisture and helps with the binding of the final flour.

A final note:  I’ve given proportions in volume measures here.   There is minimal mixing required for this approach, as the xantham gum hydrates slowly while the dough sits, and I’ve found that hydration levels are easy to adjust for as you go.  I’ve tried both volume and weight measures, and had consistent results with both, so left the measures as volumes as many folks find them easier.

We’re making baguettes here today, but stay tuned to see what else we can make with this dough!  We’re also sending this one over to Yeastspotting, go check out  what some amazing bread bakers have been up to!!!

Whole “Grain” Gluten-free, Egg-free Baguettes

(modified from Artisan Bread in 5 minutes per day)

• 2 tablespoons flax meal (I use golden flax seeds for their flavour)
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch
• 2/3 cup brown rice flour (make sure to use one that is very finely ground, not gritty)
• 1/3 cup sweet rice flour (also called “glutinous rice” or “sticky rice”)
• 1/2 cup millet flour
• 1/2 cup amaranth flour
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 Tablespoon Xantham gum
• 2 cups warm water
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon honey or organic cane sugar

Mix together the flax meal and 1/3 cup water and set aside for 15 minutes until it becomes thick and gloppy.

In a large bowl, mix together flours, yeast, salt, and xantham gum.  Whisk well to combine all the ingredients (You do NOT want to have blobs of xantham gum!!!)

Add all the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula until the dough is well mixed.  Transfer the dough to a container with a loose fitting lid, and let rise for 1 1/2 – 2 hours until doubled in volume.  The dough will be airier in texture than wheat-based dough.  Store the dough in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

To bake baguettes, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Grease a baguette pan, or line with parchment paper.  (You can do this on a heavy sheet pan, but the baguette pan allows for greater air circulation on all sides of the baguette — its all about the crusty exterior!!!)

To shape this dough, you want to handle it as little as possible.  I’ve found the easiest way to form into baguettes is with a scoop, laying scoops of dough all in a row and then use a wet spatula or fingers to smooth out the scoops into a uniform baguette.  Sprinkle seeds or gluten-free grains of your choice on top of the baguettes.   Once you’ve formed the baguette, let it sit for about 30 minutes, to take the chill off the dough.  It won’t double in size, but will have oven spring once it starts baking.  You can also slash the top of the dough to control the rise, just be gentle when you do!

Bake at 450 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Let the baguettes cool completely before you try to cut them!

One of the other things on the list was to incorporate chia seeds into more of the baking [...]]]> Well I’ve had a couple of things I needed to do on the gluten-free baking front, one being to work on a new loaf to add to the mix, and a cinnamon raisin loaf seemed like just the thing.

One of the other things on the list was to incorporate chia seeds into more of the baking as a replacement for eggs.

So having some time this afternoon, off I went with the mixer and baking pans!

I started with a recipe from Betty Hagman (this woman was a gluten-free baking genius!!!) and made a few changes along the way to make it vegan, so this loaf is gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free!

Oh, one of the other things I’ve been wrestling with is the apparent difference in strength of xantham gums — some are ground more finely than others, and I recently made a change in brands and had some puzzling results which I thought were the fault of yeast (or my fault due to overproofing!) Turned out it was neither, but the fact that the more dust-like xantham gum isn’t as strong as the stuff that has a slightly more granular texture!  Of course, I found reference to this in one of the last books Betty Hagman wrote! Oh well, live and learn!!

So here’s the loaf — I modified the recipe to use both xantham gum and guar gum (which results in both working together very nicely).  The addition of the chia seeds creates a nice moist loaf with some good shelf-life to it, and the teff creates a nice mildly nutty flavour.   The loaf is only very lightly sweet — 1/4 cup of raisins in this one, as I wanted to see how well the dough carried the raisins, it could probably be upped to about 6 Tablespoons for extra raisiny goodness!

Gluten-free Cinnamon Raisin Bread (adapted from a Betty Hagman recipe)

• 80 grams teff flour
• 30 grams sorghum flour
• 154 grams Bette’s Featherlight Mix (equal parts cornstarch, brown rice flour, tapioca starch, plus 1 teaspoon potato flour for every 1 cup other flours)
• 2 tablespoons almond flour
• 3/4 teaspoon xantham gum
• 3/4 teaspoon guar gum
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon gelatin or agar powder
• 2 Tablespoons evaporated cane juice
• 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 2 Tablespoons chia seed soaked in 6T warm water
• 3 tablespoons grapeseed oil
• 2 tablespoons light agave syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons warm wter
• 1/4 cup – 6 Tablespoons raisins

Bake at 400 degrees for 55-65 minutes, until internal temperature registers 205 degrees.

This yeasty recipe is being sent over to Yeastspotting – if you haven’t been there already, go check it out!  And if you have already, go on back and see what’ new this week!

My first attempts used Ener-g egg [...]]]> Ive been playing around with the Timtana flour and the gluten-free recipes from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes per day for a little bit now.  The basic recipes all use eggs in them, and I decided I would like to try and make them vegan for those unable to eat eggs.

My first attempts used Ener-g egg replacer, which worked fine for the loaves baked immediately, but did not perform so well when the dough was stored (which is the whole point of ABin5!).

I was also interested in finding a way of using the Timtana flour, as I really like the way it performs in yeast-raised breads, so after a bit more dabbling, here`s what I`ve come up with.

This is a dense loaf, as it contains a fairly high whole grain/starch ratio. With the delayed fermentation, this bread has a nice, slightly sour taste, and a very crusty exterior.  The addition of the timtana flour, helps the bread remain moist and pliable for a few days after baking (as well as being pretty darn tasty!)

This recipe is adapted from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes per day to use the Timtana flour, as well as be egg-free. For those who don’t have timtana flour, an equally tasty variation on the loaf can be made with teff and light buckwheat flour.

Printer friendly recipe: Timtana Artisan Bread

Gluten-free Artisan Style Timtana Bread

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk well to mix.

• 2 cups (316 grams) brown rice flour (or sub 240 grams light buckwheat flour)
• 1 1/2 cups (180 grams) Timtana flour (or sub 180 grams Teff flour)
• 1 1/2 cups tapioca starch (180 grams)
• 1 1/2 cups potato starch (288 grams)
• 2 Tablespoons xantham gum
• 2 teaspoons agar powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 Tablespoons instant yeast

Add liquid ingredients to the bowl of a mixer, then add the dry ingredients and mix well with the paddle attachment and mix until the dough smooths out, about 2 minutes.

• 2 2/3 cup water at room temperature
• 1/3 cup grapeseed oil
• 2 Tablespoons light agave syrup or cane sugar

Cover and allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 90—120 minutes, until risen.  If you use immediately, take about 700 grams and shape into a smooth ball on parchment.  Allow the dough to rest for 30-40 minutes while the oven preheats to 400 degrees.  Slash the top just before baking.  Bake (with steam) for 45-50 minutes.

Refrigerate the remaining dough.  Let the cold dough sit for 90 minutes after shaping.

Dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

The Timtana flour comes from the seeds of [...]]]> So I received a new flour in the mail a couple of days ago: Timtana flour, made by Montana Gluten-free Processors (in Montana of course!).  I’ve been waiting with some interest to see what it would look like and more importantly, what it would be like to bake with.

The Timtana flour comes from the seeds of Timothy grass (basically a perennial forage grass).  What is interesting, is that it is grown as a perennial, rather than continuous annual cropping like most other grains.  Its also packed with protein and nutrients.  Looking at the properties of it, I had some ideas in mind, thinking it might behave much like teff flour in baking.  Nutrient content as outlined on the bag:

120 grams = 1 cup flour

nutrition facts per 1/4 cup flour:

• 90 calories
• 2 grams fat (0 saturated, 0 transfat)
• nil cholesterol
• 0 mg sodium
• 19 gram carbohydrate (5 grams dietary fibre)
• 1 gram sugar
• 5 grams protein
• This stuff also contains Calcium and Iron!

The flour is completely gluten-free, processed in the Montana Processors facilities with no risk of cross-contamination.  Not only that, but the Timothy grass is also grown in fields that have not had any glutinous crops grown on them within a four-year period.  Hard-core attention to detail!!!

So this morning, I opened the bag of flour up, and was somewhat surprised!  Right out of the bag, the flour is much fluffier than most other gluten-free flours, which tend to fall either in the starch or the fine-sandy camps. The flour itself is a little bit nutty in flavour, with a sweet, slightly grassy aroma to it, and a light brown colour.

So for the first round, I figured I would go pretty basic, with bread.  Not too many other flavours as I really wanted to get a sense of not only how this baked up, but also whether the flavours would change much on cooking.  I’ve been thumbing through the new Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and opted to try out a modified and veganized version of the basic gluten-free boule.  I’ve made this gluten-free bread before, with millet flour, and wanted to see if the Timtana flour would provide much loft and whether it would develop a crust.

I mixed up this batch of dough by hand and it wasn’t difficult.  When you make the dough this way, it is quite a bit more dough-like than many other gluten-free bread “doughs”, but it remained fairly soft throughout.  After letting it rest for about 2 hrs, I split it in half, to bake part of it, and stash the other half in the fridge to see what it will be like tomorrow.  For those of you who haven’t tried the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (and you can do a gluten-free version!), you mix up a large batch of dough, let it go through an initial proof, and then store it in the fridge for 1-2 weeks, pulling of a loaf-sized amount as you need it.  It really does work, so we’ll see what happens with this batch with the Timtana flour.

So here’s the bread fresh out the oven — a small boule perfect for 3-4 people with dinner.  I baked this at 450 degrees, under cover for 15 minutes, and uncovered for 20-25 minutes.  The texture of the inside is quite nice — hearty but not too dense.  The Timtana bakes up with a nice crust, which is also aided a bit with the cornstarch I added to the initial flour mix.

The interior is fairly moist (made very few additions to this to encourage the moisture).  The crust is chewy, with a soft interior crumb, which I thought had a faint alfafa aroma.  Where the dough was browned, the flavour is much more nutty.  All in all, a pleasant loaf of bread — Jeff gave this a thumbs up.  I am thinking for the next round I may add a little bit of almond meal or flax meal.

I’m thinking this dough would also make tasty bagels — holding their shape well with a nice crust on the outside.

Basic Timtana Bread (adapted from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day)

• 1 3/4 cup Timtana flour (210 grams)
• 3/4 cup tapioca starch (112 grams)
• 3/4 cup cornstarch (96 grams)
• 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 Tablespoon xantham gum
• 1 Tablespoon Ener-g egg replacer whisked with 4 Tablespoons water until very foamy
• 1 1/3 cup water
• 2 Tablespoons grapeseed oil
• 1 Tablespoon evaporated cane juiuce

Whisk dry ingredients together until well combined.  Whisk wet ingredients together, and add dry ingredients, stirring well until the dough starts to smooth out.  Cover and let the dough rest at room temp for 2 hours.  Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks if not using immediately.   Dough will be best if used by 7-8 days.

To bake, take half and smooth into a loaf or ball on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Let the dough rest for 30-40 minutes, and slash the top just before baking.   Put the pan in the oven, covering with a disposable lasagna pan for 15 minutes.  Remove the foil pan, and continue baking for about 20-25 minutes, until the internal temperature registers 205 degrees.  Let cool for at least 45 minutes before slicing.

I also tried the Timtana flour out in Banana bread — post to come as its just come out of the oven but is too hot to slice

Bread pudding is one of those easy things to whip up, and if you are familiar with Michael Ruhlman‘s book Ratios, once you understand that bread pudding is basically custard with lots of stuff in it, [...]]]> So what do when you’re testing bread recipes, and you find yourself with a surfeit of bread? Why make bread pudding!

Bread pudding is one of those easy things to whip up, and if you are familiar with Michael Ruhlman‘s book Ratios, once you understand that bread pudding is basically custard with lots of stuff in it, you are pretty much open to freestyle it.

The custard for this is a basic 2:1 custard (2 parts milk or cream to 1 part beaten eggs), sweetened with a bit of sugar, and spiced however you like.   I rummaged through the cupboards and decided to sweeten the custard with brown sugar, spike it with a bit of bourbon, and toss in some chocolate chips.  Don`t forget to bake this in a water bath!  It may seem like a hassle, but it really does help make the custard nice and creamy.

Gluten-free Chocolate chip Bread Pudding

• 1/2 loaf gluten-free sandwich bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups light cream
• 6 T brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3-4 T bourbon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Mix liquid ingredients and pour over the bread in an 8-inch square pan.  Let sit for at least 15 minutes, and bake in a water bath for 35-45 minutes, until just set in the centre.

You know the drill! If its got yeast in it, it goes over to Yeastspotting!  Check out all the yeasty treats this week!