Inauguration

How fitting that my first blog post incorporates my first loaf of (gluten free) bread!

Now, I was a baker for a couple of years, but only did desserts. So I've never baked bread, period - not even the "real" glutened version. I think this might work to my advantage, seeing as I don't really have any habits or expectations surrounding bread creation to abandon.

I've been reading a lot of recipes in preparation, and had somewhat of a success yesterday with Sarah's Bagels from The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread. I'm not going to post about them because they came out rather flat, and besides, I forgot to take a picture after I sliced them in half and stuck 'em in the freezer. But suffice to say, they were yummy and I'm so psyched to eat sandwiches that will not cause me pain for the first time in years.

For today's attempt, I chose Gluten-Free Flax Bread. I've been slowly accumulating the array of flours, gums and starches that frequent GF bread recipes, and want to try them all out before I settle on my basic bread recipe. Today's leans towards the sorghum/garfava variety as opposed to yesterday's rice-heavy bagels.

It was my intention to follow the recipe to the letter, but I couldn't resist tweaking it a little:

Gluten Free Flax Bread

1 c. sorghum flour
1/4 c. brown rice flour
1/4 c. garfava flour
1/2 c. tapioca starch
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 c. flaxseed meal
2 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. salt

2 eggs
1 egg white
1 tbsp. flax meal mixed w/ 2 tbsp. H2O
1 c. warm H20
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 200 deg.
Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients w/ hand mixer on low. Add dry ingredients slowly. Scrape sides, mix on low for 3-4 minutes. Turn off oven. Spoon dough into greased 9 by 5 loaf pan, and place in turned-off oven. Let rise to the top of the pan, about 80 minutes or so. Bake at 350 deg. for 40 minutes. Remove from pan, cool and slice.


It looks and smells so good - I can't wait for it to cool down so I can try it!

Edit - It is really that good! I ate 2 slices - one w/ butter and one w/ PB&J. There were no crumbles, and the flaxseed definitely gave it a more "authentic" texture. This recipe is awesome.
I haven't done the cost breakdown, but I think the whole thing was kind of expensive - mainly due to all of the different flours and the tapioca starch, which I don't have a cheap source of yet. So I will definitely be tweaking this, because the whole point of baking my own bread is to avoid paying $6 for a frozen brick.