Ian_banjo - Posted - 02/10/2011:  08:35:26

A few weeks ago, after a short period of being unwell, I was diagnosed as having gluten sensitivity - not full-blown celiac disease, just a bad reaction to gluten. So I have been trying to follow a gluten-free diet.

I have been baking my own bread, very successfully for many years and can turn out great loaves of all description - generally far better than we can normally buy (except from the best artisan bakers). So I thought I would try my hand at gluten-free. I have bought gluten-free bread in the supermarket and it's OK; not the best by any means, but comparable with real bread.

However, my own efforts at baking gluten-free bread have been a complete disaster. I have tried a ready prepared gluten-free flour mix, which incorporates xanthan gum, and that certainly gave my best results but nothing like as good as the bought gluten-free bread. I have tried various flour combinations, all using xanthan gum, too. I have tried recipes off the web as well as my own concoctions. I have tried quick yeast from a sachet and fresh baker's yeast. The results have been terrible: dense, pasty, gooey and solid.

Most recipes seem to use xanthan gum to replace the gluten. But it behaves nothing like gluten. I always think of the gluten protein as being stretched into a tangle of tiny elastic bands by kneading, which gives bread dough its wonderful elasticity. But xanthan is nothing like this. It is, I believe, thixotropic, which means that when stirred it becomes quite fluid but is much more solid when it stands. In which case, the yeast is given a hard time during proving, because it has to expand the dough when it is at its most solid.

One final thing, I notice that many gluten-free bread recipes include a small amount of vinegar which I assume is required to provide an acid environment for the yeast to work. I tried using yogurt instead and, at least from a flavour point of view this was quite an interesting result. There was a definite sour taste very similar to what I get from my own sourdough bread.

Does anyone know how they get the manufactured gluten-free bread so good (relatively!)? The ingredients on the pack seem to be much the same as I have used. So do they cheat with the processing or are there chemical additives to help the texture? Does anyone here know how to make good home-made gluten-free bread?

catty - Posted - 02/10/2011:  08:38:32

We're a gluten-free family...but I don't know anything about gluten-free cooking/baking/recipies..

figmo59 - Posted - 02/10/2011:  08:44:34

i had glutant free bread ...once


i'de rather starve....

KE - Posted - 02/10/2011:  14:40:21

Ah, I've been struggling to remember this --

This weekend there was a show on public radio "On Your Health with Zorba Paster" and he had a lady on who specialized in gluten-free cooking. She and her son both have celiac disease and she has made it a mission to develop recipes.

She has just published a cookbook and has a website. Here is the page with bread recipes:

elanaspantry.com/category/breads/

Shall we move this to the Food Forum [FF]? Yes!

P.S. Ian, you're welcome to join

Edited by - KE on 02/10/2011 14:41:45

Mimosa Banjo - Posted - 02/10/2011:  18:19:38

We are a gluten free family too. We usually don't eat the prepared bread because we have not really found one that we like. My husband is retired and likes to cook so he enjoys making the gluten free bread out of a recipe that he worked out. Years ago we found some round metal muffin/hamburger rings that we place on a silicone sheet on a cookie sheet. We found that we do better if the breads are small rather than trying to do the bread machine 9more bread than we really want to eat) or bread pans (always sank in the middle). The ingredients is relatively simple I think - the usual blend of flours plus zantham but nothing really complicated. We freeze the bread and take out what we want to toast, etc. Actually, we prepare more meals with gluten free spagetti and pasta than based on bread.

Edited by - Mimosa Banjo on 02/10/2011 18:21:17

catty - Posted - 02/10/2011:  18:23:59

quote:

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Originally posted by Mimosa Banjo

Actually, we prepare more meals with gluten free spagetti and pasta than based on bread.

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