Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Kim's Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Whole Grain Bread

I think the most common complaint about being on a GF diet is the loss of wheat bread. If you have ever bought a loaf of gf bread you know what I am talking about. It is hideous. It has a funky texture, you can not eat it if it isn't toasted, it falls apart, it has to be kept in the freezer and for all that you pay a fortune. On top of all that, it is nutritionally void. it is usually made of white rice flour and tapioca flour. Metabolically speaking, those are nothing but sugar. And fiber...ugh, none. Wouldn't it be nice to have yummy bread again? Well, here it is. I have been asked several times to post this recipe. It has taken this long because I was going to save it and then figure out a way to market it and then make my millions. ;) Yes, it's that good, in our opinion. But since I will probably never get to that here it is. The directions look like this is really involved. It isn't. I have just added all the little options and possibilities.

I have posted a revised simplified version of this same recipe. There are fewer ingredients and the result is the same. If you want to combine several flours for a varied nutritional profile then use this recipe. If you want speed use the simplified one.



Kim's GF, DF Whole Grain Bread


3 large eggs lightly beaten
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup oil of choice (canola, olive, corn, coconut, grapeseed etc)
1 1/3 cup milk of choice - unsweetened (rice, hemp, almond, cows) warmed to about body temperature
1T +1 t honey
3 T brown sugar


1/2 cup millet,sorghum, quinoa, amaranth or buckwheat (choose one)
1/2 cup second choice of flour - millet, sorghum, quinoa, amaranth or buckwheat (choose one)
1 cup multi grain rice flour, brown rice flour or my favorite teff flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup corn starch (potato starch works too)
3 t xanthan gum
1 1/2 t salt
2 1/4 t dry active yeast
optional add ins:
flax seeds
sesame seeds
sunflower seeds
add in a total of about a 1/4 cup

Directions:


Combine first 6 ingredients in bread maker pan. Sift next 7 ingredients and then add it on top of liquid ingredients. Toss in your add ins. Make a little well in the dry ingredients and add the yeast in to the hole. Start the bread maker. I do not have a bread maker that has a setting for gluten free bread. So during the initial mixing part I help it out a little. I use a soft spatula and scrape down the sides and help everything get all mixed in. GF bread needs less time as there is no need for additional punch downs like with wheat bread. My machine allows me to program in personal recipes so I use the following settings:
No preheat
Knead 1 = 5 minutes
Knead 2 = 15 minutes
Rise = 60 minutes
Bake 50 minutes
Temp 340 degrees













This makes about a 1.5 lb loaf and I always used to make this bread on the regular bread setting and it turned out fine. I now use my own program just so that I can speed up the process. It takes about 1 hour less my way. One other thing I do is remove the paddle after the mixing is done. I just don't like having the hole left in the middle from it. I just wet my hand, reach in and grab it, then smooth the top down, filling in the hole. Just make sure you grab it before any rising has started.

This recipe is really forgiving. I routinely mix and match the flours. I usually make this without any rice flour as I am not convinced that rice is terribly healthy. Besides, if you use much rice flour then you get the typical texture of gf rice bread which I don't like. Depending on which flours I use it will alter the look and texture as well as taste. We like them all. Often the bread rises really well but by the time it is finished baking and cooling it will fall a bit in the middle which will create an uneven top. We couldn't care less how it looks because it tastes GREAT. My mom eats gluten and she loves this bread. So much so that the last time she came to visit I baked her a loaf to take home. I have been making this for nearly 2 years and although it looks pretty involved it goes pretty quickly. Recently I bought a loaf of gf bread because I wanted to make turkey stuffing and that was just more convenient. It was approximately $6 per loaf! And it tasted like styrofoam to me. I could not eat it. Not even toasted. And this was the only bread that I used to be able to choke down, best of the best so to speak. My bread can actually be eaten as bread instead of toast. (I could never eat the store bought stuff unless it was toasted.) As with all gf baking, it is best on the first day but it is still good after several days. You could slice and freeze to use as needed but we usually eat it all in 2-3 days.
*xanthan gum: if this is your first time baking gluten free bread, you might not be familiar with this ingredient. This is needed for most gf baking. It is what replaces the gluten in wheat bread. It's what holds everything together. When you buy this be warned it is kind of pricey but it is essential and it will last a long long time.
**gf flours are expensive. We have found a way around this to some extent. We will buy 25 pound bags of several whole grains and then grind our own flour. We decided to go this route since CD is a lifelong diet change, the grinder etc will pay for itself over the years. We either get the grains directly from the mills online or we get it from our usual health food store. Given a little notice the local store can order it for us and then we get a discounted price from them. It is also safer to do it this way as there is no possibility of cross contamination from those bins and scoops. We use this online company. On their site they also have some great information on nutritional values of the grains they sell. We also bought our grain mill here. They have several different ones available. Another option for buying gf grains is to go to an asian supermarket. The one we have here is incredible. They have every possible flour. They are also much much cheaper than getting those 1 1/4 lb bags of flour from your grocery store. The only problem is that they are not labelled gf. So if that is important to you then you could try online retailers as well as a health food store or grocery store but you will pay a little (or a lot) more for that certification.
Edited July 20/09: I have had several people contact me asking how to make this bread without a bread maker. Honestly I hadn't tried, until today. I was really winging it with the mixing times, rise times, baking temp and baking time but it turned out perfectly. Like picture perfect. So here is what I did today.

I put the first 6 ingredients in the bowl of my kitchen aid. I mixed on low speed for a few seconds just until it was all mixed. Then I added everything else with the exception of the flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and yeast. I mixed that for 2 minutes on medium speed. I added the remaining ingredients and mixed for another 2 minutes while occasionally scraped down the sides. I sprayed a glass bread pan and let it rise in my oven with the oven off but the oven light on. (Although here in Arizona simply leaving it on the counter is sufficient.)I let it rise for 40 minutes. I took it out of the oven and preheated the oven while it continued to rise.
I baked it for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. Here is what it looked like. I wish you could taste this!!!
So, yes it can be done and yes it turns out perfectly. A couple other things I did with this loaf (yes, I am forever playing with this recipe) I omitted the apple cider vinegar, I used whole goats milk, subbed potato starch for the corn starch and used just teff and sorghum flours as the base.

21 comments:

Wendy said...

Mmmmm...that looks yummy!!!! Thanks for sharing...I'll have to give this a try sometime!

Small world, bloggin' buddy!!!

Jenetta Penner said...

sounds good- just so you know you can't take advantage of the health benefits of flax seeds unless they are ground first- apparently they do not digest.

Kim said...

Ya, I know. I just like the crunch.

KellyK said...

Thank you for the recipe! I am making my second loaf as I write. My boys ate every last crumb of the first. And you should have seen the look of pleasure on my Celiac Son's face as he finally ate a slice of bread he likes.

But I have a few questions if you don't mind.

First, in the mixing stage of my breadmaker, it looks as though the dough has too much moisture. It lays flat as the paddle spins in the center. It almost looks in your photo that your dough is pulling away from the sides of the bread pan like normal, wheat bread dough. I dumped extra tapioca starch in my first loaf in a panic and it turned out ok. Just how moist is your dough?

Secondly, I'm interested in your suggestion to grind my own flours, especially after the sticker shock of buying teff flour. Do you have an economical source for teff or teff flour? I didn't see any in the link you posted.

And lastly, what flour gave your bread that delicious looking golden color? The buckwheat makes a very dark, albeit yummy, loaf but I'd like to change it up sometimes.

I have enjoyed your blog so much. Thanks again.

Kim said...

Kelly

Your post brought tears to my eyes. I know how hard it can be to get kids to eat never mind throwing a GF diet into the usual hassels. I am so glad that you found the recipe and that it works for you guys. And, thank you so much for letting me know you have tried it. So for your questions,

#1 the batter is pretty wet. it looks more like muffin batter. It looks like it is pulling away from the edges in the picture only because I was in there with the spatula helping the paddle mix it. Otherwise it mixes really well in the middle and the edges and sides don't get uniformly combined. I don't know if that is an issue with my bread machine or all bread machines but it only takes a minute to do so no big deal.

#2. Teff is one of the flours that we don't grind. We bought it here http://www.truefoodsmarket.com/product_info.php/products_id/1422 and the cost of the whole grain and the flour were the same so we just bought 25 lbs of each. (Now I need to come up with some other ways to use the whole grain) Lately I am making the loaves with teff flour to replace any rice flour (1 cup) We grind our own millet, buckwheat, quinoa, corn, amaranth and 8 grain wild rice mix. We buy sorghum, coconut, tapioca and white rice and sweet rice flour. Where did you find teff and how much was it?
#3 The loaf pictured had 1 cup of teff, 1/2 cup amaranth flour and 1/2 cup quinoa flour, I think. I have been trying to use teff in place of rice flour in several things and is has been mostly successful. Not so much with the brownies though. Brownies aren't supposed to be healthy! I haven't used buckwheat for a long time. I made buckwheat pancakes one morning and it was NOT good and ever since then I have been off of it. I need to give it another try. Thanks for the reminder.

Again, thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment and let me know how it worked out for you. Hope this helps.

Anonymous said...

Kim:
Cari made a loaf of bread from your recipe today.
It was deeeelicious. Maybe the best bread of any kind.
When you eat a piece of that, you know you've had serious food.
Thanks. Now that Cari has gotten started and had a success maybe she will be more keen to cook the food I need.

DAD...

Kim said...

Kelly,
I just found this site for purchasing teff flour. Apparently it is the same brand only much cheaper. http://www.azurestandard.com/product.php?id=FL166

Kim said...

Nope, sorry we bought teff here.

http://www.teffco.com/products.html

Karen Joy said...

Well, Kim, I didn't make your loaf, but I did link to it!!!

And, I'm with you -- brownies aren't supposed to be healthy!!! I've gotten requests on my blog for healthy cake, healthy brownies, healthy cookies, etc. Other than my GFCF Breakfast Cookies (have you seen that recipe??), I can't help. I'm of the conviction that everyday bread products should be healthy, but desserts should be nice, gooey, sugary, and profoundly unhealthy. Hehehe!

kellyc said...

HI this bread looks awesome. Thanks so much for sharing it. I don't have a bread maker, but I am handy with my kitchen aid. I saw the kneading times, what would you suggest for a that? Any ideas would be great. I just checked my pantry and I have all the right ingredients to try this and I am needing to make bread (again!) =0) Thanks, Kellyc
cooperkelly4@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Email from Joan (cut and pasted with her permission)

I made the bread and it is really good. I used the sorgum and rice flour. The first time it was not so good, so the next time I added the yeast and the apple cider vinager and alittle of the warm milk so it would start to ferment, and then started the bread machine, and added the yeast mixture on top, and it raised good, and the flavor is great. i missed the wheat type of bread.

the first one didn;t rise, but when mixing the yeast with the warm milk it raqised really good.
> Tonihjt I made it with buckwheat and sourgum and rice and baked it on cookie sheets for pizza, and even the non gluten free family members loved it. It tasted like real pizza crust and had the texture too. i missed good pizza, but not any more. This will be our new pizza crust from now on.

when spreading the dough I used a spatula and kept spraying it with cooking spray so it wouldn;t stick. Then I baked the dough, then put the toppings on. It made 3 pizza;s. we had one left over and it was even good today.
Before GF I used to make pizza with frozen bread dough, so I thought why not now. Most GF pizza crusts are doughy on the top and brown on the bottom. AThis was really good.
Good luck. Let me know how it turns out'

Anonymous said...

Email from Kelly - great detailed instructions for making this bread without a bread maker.

saw your "new" bread and it looks awesome. Looks like mine honestly. They came out beautifully! The kids had some toast this morning and I'll make some more today or tomorrow so we don't run out. I made a copy of your recipe. I will put what I did in red.

I just read that you live n AZ. I lived there for 10 years in Tucson and now in NM. I think the dry heat (for you) has a little do with your baking/rising times. I'll explain what I mean here at the end. I mention it because how I did it may help other who live with a little more humidity (it was rainy here yesterday, but normally considered high desert and the temp was 97! I am spoiled now, because that is hot for here. =0) Anyway, on to the recipe:


Kim's GF, DF Whole Grain Bread

3 large eggs lightly beaten

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup oil of choice (canola, olive, corn, coconut, grapeseed etc)

1 1/3 cup milk of choice - unsweetened (rice, hemp, almond, cows) warmed to about body temperature ( I did 1 cup "Better than Milk" rice powder and 1/3 cup 1% milk. I added the powder to the flours mix)

1T +1 t honey

3 T brown sugar

1/2 cup millet,sorghum, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat

1/2 cup second choice of flour - millet, sorghum, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat

1 cup multi grain rice flour, brown rice flour or my favorite teff flour (1/2 cup brown and 1/2 cup teff)

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1/2 cup corn starch

3 t xanthan gum

1 1/2 t salt

2 1/4 t dry active yeast

optional add ins:

flax seeds (I had flax meal so I used that)

sesame seeds

sunflower seeds

add in a total of about a 1/4 cup

Directions: (Here is what I did):

1) Preaheat oven to 200 and then turn if OFF. Yup, turn it off.


2) In a small bowl, combine the warm milk or water (for me it was the one cup water. I just added the 1/3 c up milk to the wet ingred.) If I was doing all milk, I'd add the entire amount. So combine the warm liquid with the yeast and 1/2 tsp sugar (this was my addition to help the yeast proof)

3) In a separate bowl, combine eggs, cider vinegar, 1/3 cup milk (see note at top), oil, honey, and brown sugar.

4) In a separate bowl, combine all the other dry ingredients (flours through salt).

5) Combine the yeast mix with the wet ingredients and mix just until combined.

6) Now add the flour mix to your wet ingredients and mix until combined.

7) With your kneading hook, knead the dough for 8-10 minutes ( I did if for the full 10, but it could have been less. lol. I wanted to be sure. =0)

8) Grease baking pan. ( I used a metal pan, same size as yours)


9) Cover( used a clean towel) and put in oven (make sure it is off) and let it rise for 20 minutes.

10) Take bread out and keep covered. Preheat oven to 350.

11) When oven temp is ready put in oven for 10 minutes, then cover with foil and bake for another 35 minutes. Take out of pan and cool.




So mine rose just like yours did and browned just like yours. I will take a picture of the next loaf if you like. It was moist and dense and sliced great. After I read that you only baked for 35 min. I was a little worried that mine might be dry, but I am thinking now it is a climate thing, because mine came out very moist, etc.





Anyway, sorry for all the details, but I thought it may help you. Thanks for your recipe. I actually found two bread recipes ( your and one other) to try. I am still going to try this other one, but I am leaning toward yours. =0) I have tried MANY and am looking for just the right one. =0) Yours looks pretty darn good. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again, Kelly

Anonymous said...

From GFCFKids message boards:

I am pretty sure if your kids will eat wheat bread they will eat this. I have
used the brown rice flour and buckwheat options and it has turned out great.

This bread stays soft on your counter and does not spoil for several days- but
my guess is that you will eat it long before it does that.

It is the softness, nicest gluten free bread I have had- if someone ate it it
who was not GF- I don't think they would know it was gf.

if you make it w/o a bread maker. Mix the batter (yes it will look pretty much
like batter). Line your pan with greased parchment paper (if you do not do this
it may be hard to get out) an pour it in the bread pan. Let it rise for about 1
hour in a warm place. Then bake at 375 for about 60 minutes- might want to
check around 50 minutes depending on your oven. no need to preheat.

Unknown said...

Hi Kim, Just had to post some new info that could be used with your bread recipe and make it a little less expensive. Instead of a dry dairy substitute, you can use equal parts of tapioca flour! Tried and tested, delicious! This is great for our family because our dry milk subst. is 12.00 a can compared to 3.00 for tapioca flour. Hope that helps someone. Kellyc

Kim said...

Kelly, What dry diary substitute? I don't use it.

kim

Anonymous said...

Would I be able to sub the eggs & what would you suggest?

Kim said...

Anonymous: I have never tried subbing eggs but if I was going to do that I would use the commercial egg replacer and follow the directions for 3 eggs. I know you can also make a flax goo as a replacement. It is done with ground flax meal and water. I don't know off the top of my head the ratios. My concern with using that would be that it might make the bread really dense and heavy. Personally, I really don't mind bread like that so if you're ok with that consistency maybe give that a try. If you do try it, either way, could you drop me a line and let me know how it turned out and what you did?

cooperkelly4 said...

Hi Kim! Just wanted to let you know that I finally got around to taking pictures of my favorite bread (your bread recipe!) I shared it on my blog (with links to yours of course. You wouldn't believe how many times I have been asked for this recipe since I first tried it. It is a a lifesaver! Kellyc

cooperkelly4 said...

oops, I think I forgot to give you the link. =0) sorry about that. Her it is:

http://lovinglifeslittlemoments.blogspot.com/

Kim said...

Thanks so much Kelly. I appreciate your links to my blog. Could I ask a little favor though? A while back I moved my blog. The new address is http://gfmum.wordpress.com/ Here is the link directly to the bread recipe http://gfmum.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/kims-gluten-free-dairy-free-whole-grain-bread/ Everything from the first blog is there. I just transferred hosts. I was hating blogger but love wordpress. One day I will figure out how to get my domain name/address transferred over to the new site. Until then I will keep this blog public but everything new I post will be at the new blog.
Those are great pictures of the bread. Thanks so much for sending me the link to your blog. I have been playing with the recipe a bit too and have been adding a bit more potatoe starch (and using that as my only starch - no tapioca or corn starch) and adding ground flax seed too. The loaves come out picture perfect, just like yours do.

Thanks again for the links and being my biggest advertiser!!

cooperkelly4 said...

Hi Kim, sorry about the wrong link. I just switched it. I remembered something about a new a new address, but I have that specific bread post bookmarked. so now I have the correct one for me too. Hey ya got to give credit where it is due. Happy to advertise for ya. =0) Kelly