This week I tried a new gluten free bread recipe and we had success! One of the hardest things to find is a gluten free bread that my husband can eat. The majority of the commercial breads have sulphites or would have hidden sulphites because of the flours used.
Over the years we’ve tried a number of different bread options without much success. I’ve liked most of them but my husband generally hasn’t.
Here’s some of the different breads we’ve tried:
- Grain-free Sandwich Bread – a great yeast free bread but quite eggy
- Seed and Nut Sandwich Bread – Basically a mixture of seeds, nuts and eggs
- Seed Toast – Basically a mixture of seeds & eggs
- Grain Free Sultana Spice Bread – Very much like a fruit toast and my husband likes it.
- Super Soft Paleo Grain-free Seed Bread Rolls – Quick and easy, yeast free and a good alternative for bread rolls. My husband liked these.
Grain-Free Dough
For the past couple of years we’ve been using the basic grain-free dough recipe from Life Changing Food, which is very versatile. It makes good flat bread, pizza bases, sausage roll pastry, pastie dough and lasagna noodles. It can be adapted to make ham & cheese rolls and a yummy Chocolate Hazelnut Christmas tree; among other things. All in all, it’s a versatile dough but it doesn’t make a sandwich loaf.
Grain-Free Wraps
Then a few months ago we were having homemade Doner Kebabs for dinner, with leftover roast meat. Normally the kids would have Doner Kebabs with normal wraps & we would have the leftover meat in an omelette or similar. This time I thought I’d try making some gluten free wraps. I’ve only done this occasionally without much success. However, this time I tried the Grain-free Wraps from Life Changing Food and they worked so well. For a gluten free wrap they are very soft & pliable. This recipe is similar to the grain-free dough in that it’s based on potato but it has more tapioca flour, which I think makes for a more pliable product, once it’s cooked.
Since trying this recipe, I’ve made it a couple of times. I’ve also used it for lasagna noodles and in this Bacon Chicken Alfredo Lasagna Roll. So another versatile recipe but still can’t make a loaf of bread with it.
It was also a reminder to try more of the recipes in some of my cookbooks.
Other Successful Gluten Free Bread Options
We’ve also made Brazilian Cheese Puffs a number of times. They are always popular and a good alternative to dinner rolls. These are also successful with dairy free cheese alternatives, though a bit more dense. Recently I made larger ones in individual pie tins, that were more like bread rolls. We then had the pleasure of having hamburgers for dinner, using rissoles.
Last year I started making gluten free ham & cheese mug muffins based on a breakfast muffin recipe.
Whilst I will still able to make my ethical groceries order I was purchasing an Almond Road Bakery Paleo Loaf every fortnight. When ORCA is able to start this up again, no doubt I’ll go back to ordering this bread on occasions.
Gluten Free Bread Loaf
Recently, Jo from Quirky Cooking was sharing about making her gluten free artisan bread. It’s taken me a few weeks but on the weekend I finally got around to giving it a try. I used the original recipe from her Quirky Cooking Cookbook. You can watch this video to see how to make it and she also talks about some substitutions (I wished I had watched it before trying the recipe).
As I was using the original recipe I used xanthan gum instead of psyllium husk. Once I use up my xanthan gum I think I’ll substitute psyllium husk in other recipes that use xanthan gum, as I believe it’s a better option. I used brown rice flour, rather than grinding brown rice. I also didn’t have sorghum flour, so used 1/3 of the amount of coconut flour. This probably made for a heavier loaf. Ground millet is an option that Jo suggests on the video. I also used tapioca flour instead of arrowroot flour. Apart from that I followed the recipe.
The recipe suggests using a baking stone of pizza stone. As I don’t have one I just used a baking tray. A quick research revealed a few suggestions such as an inverted baking sheet or an unglazed terracotta tile. I might invert my cookie sheet next time. My daughter had suggested a tile, so that might be an option. If I continue to bake bread it might be worth investing in a baking stone. My daughter has been baking bread in the slow cooker, so I may even try this with the gluten free bread.
My batch seemed to prove well in the first 2 hours. After I put it in the fridge I realised that I hadn’t added the correct amount of brown rice flour (I got confused with the instructions as I wasn’t grinding brown rice). I added the extra flour the next day when I got it out to prepare for baking. So between adding the flour later & using coconut flour we ended up with a fairly doughy loaf that I had to cook a little longer.
All in all it was still yummy and I’ll definitely be making it again but I might try using sorghum or millet flour.
So now I think we have good options for a basic grain-free dough, grain-free wraps, grain-free rolls and a gluten free loaf of bread. Most of our favourite gluten free bread options are Quirky Cooking recipes from her blog or cookbooks. Writing this post has reminded me of how many gluten free bread options we can now use.
Do you have any good gluten free bread recipes that you would recommend?
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