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Gluten Free/Dairy Free Bread


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My friend John has a wife Athena, who is allergic to gluten and all forms of dairy including eggs. They mail order their bread that fits her specifications but at $4.00 a loaf plus shipping John has decided to create his own. He has no education on baking but has been persistent for a month and is now playing with pineapple juice with rice flour to create a mother. He brought in some samples the other day. At first glance they looked great. But the were really dry, sour and dense. Does anyone have any tips or recipes I could share with him?

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I'd suggest he go poking around http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/ and particularly that he start with

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/03/gluten-free-multi-grain-sandwich-bread.html Karina has some absolutely lovely recipes most of them would fit their needs. I believe she lost dairy and eggs after she started the blog, so some might not be appropriate.

I have a grilled flatbread recipe that I think would work, but it's really not the same as a loaf of bread.

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Dairy products (milk and butter) are optional extras in bread-baking.

They normally come with a higher price!

They aren't needed.

Gluten and dairy intolerances (as stated) do not mean a problem with yeast.

Baking bread well is hard enough to learn, especially gluten-free, without adding the extra complication of yeast-free, or rather commercial-yeast-free - because a 'natural starter' does contains yeasts!

Use an instant-mix yeast for simplicity, but choose one that has not been loaded with 'improvers' for bread machine use. Vitamin C (whether in the form of Ascorbic Acid or Sodium Ascorbate) is an utterly benign 'improver' - so don't worry about that one. All instant mix yeasts have a microscopic amount of a re-hydrating agent (sometimes called a 'wetting agent') to help them mix "instantly". Commonly a stearate (soap) is used - don't bother about that.

But you don't need anything else added.

You do need something to generate the gases to inflate the loaf.

Instant-mix yeast is the easy way.

Or use chemical gassing agents - baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, etc - if you want a "soda bread".

But trying to breed wild yeast, and hoping that pineapple juice will provide enough acidity to select for the 'right' yeasts, is just making things harder for yourselves. Walk before you try running!

In normal bread baking, gluten provides the structural strength to hold the bread "up". Without something providing that structure, loaves collapse.

One gluten-free structural alternative is Xanthan Gum.

Despite its scary, starts-with-an-X name, its a fairly natural, and benign. product. And its commonly used in commercial gluten-free baking (and pasta). Oh, and ordinary toothpaste, and ice cream, and ... http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-xanthan-gum.htm

You only need about 0.5% Gum mixed with the flour - thats 1/200th (by weight) of the quantity of flour.

So get a cheap digital "pocket scale" (see eBay) for accurately weighing out the tiny quantity.

Or else buy gluten-free flour with Xanthan Gum ready mixed in.

Here in the UK we can buy Doves Farm Gluten-Free Bread Flour in most supermarkets

http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/retail-flour/gluten-free-white-bread-flour-x-1kg/

Gluten Free White Bread Flour is a blend milled from natural gluten free and wheat free ingredients and natural gum which is a perfect alternative to wheat bread flour. This is ideal for anyone on a Gluten & Wheat Free diet.

...

Dietary and allergen information:

Made without: nuts, milk, casein, eggs, gluten, soya.

UK Mill does not use: nuts, milk, casein, eggs, gluten, soya.

Suitable for vegetarians & vegans.

Ingredients:

Flour blend (rice, potato and tapioca), xanthan gum

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch ... you must first invent the universe." - Carl Sagan

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Our own Zoe Francois has a brand new book out: Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day that has a whole chapter on GF breads. I haven't tried them yet but I've had great success with her other recipes so I have great expectations for this chapter as well.

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Orison Swett Marden

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our house was GF for a few months (we couldn't sustain it!) but during that time i discovered www.authenticfoods.com which has the most finely ground brown rice flour -- virtually eliminating the gritty texture that often comes with rice flour. it's really amazing stuff. i made chocolate chip cookies with it that *everyone* adored.

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I have allergies to gluten, dairy, eggs as well as some of the conventional gluten free ingredients that help with leavening and binding. I was determined to create bread for myself and have succeeded using old fashioned sourdough techniques. It took me a year to get it right! Lots of bricks, doorstops and hockey pucks. Now, however, I have a successful loaf 99% of the time with good taste, sponginess, good texture, good crumb and long shelf life. I have posted recipes for my starter and my first successful loaf bread on my blog, glutenfreesourdough.blogspot. I have begun teaching my technique to others in the same situation. If someone told me 5 years ago that I would be a bread baking teacher I would not have believed them.

I hope your friend has good luck,

sharon

www.food-medicine.com

sharon

www.food-medicine.com

glutenfreesourdough.blogspot.com

sophisticatedpeasant.blogspot.com

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