Tuesday, November 23, 2010

gluten-free bread recipe


We have been a gluten-free family for eight months. In that time we have seen miraculous changes in my four-year-old's behavior. His asperger's symptoms have disappeared. It's really quite remarkable. To be fair, we also have him off of soy, dairy (casein), and a few other foods that he seems to react to. We keep a food journal and make note of foods that cause troubling behaviors. Anyway, the hardest part of the gluten-free diet is giving up good tasting bread. After awhile cravings go away, but sometimes it is nice to eat bread, no? For my birthday this year I got this cuisinart bread maker. It is available right now at Costco and has a gluten-free cycle. You can save about $10 if you buy it in-store. It has revolutionized the way we eat. I can throw in some ingredients, push a button, and have warm, delicious bread in a little over two hours. The key is finding a good recipe. Here is mine, adapted from gluten-free goddess.

Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside:

1 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
3/4 cup millet flour
2 teaspoons zanthan gum
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 package yeast, or 2 1/4 teaspoons

Pour wet ingredients in the bread maker:

1 1/4 cups warm water
3 tablespoons grape seed oil (or olive)
1 tablespoon agave nectar (or honey if you don't have an infant in the house)
1/2 teaspoon raw apple cider vinegar
2 egg yolks (or whole eggs, whipped egg whites make lovely bread but we are allergic)

Pour the dry ingredients on top of the liquid. Sometimes I don't even bother to whisk them together beforehand, just make sure to add the yeast last. Make a little well at the top. Set your bread machine for the 1.5 pound loaf. Bread machines with gluten-free cycles work best. Otherwise try the rapid rise selection.

The dough will be softer than regular bread dough, closer to a muffin dough. Play around with the dough consistency and flour ratios until you tweak it to your liking. Add more flour or liquid as needed. Sometimes I use teff or brown rice flour instead of millet. I grind my own flour (so cheap!), but buy the tapioca flour at an asian grocery store. They sell it for one tenth the price of health food stores. If you don't have a grain grinder, I hear that cheap coffee grinders work well too.

2 comments:

  1. I am really impressed with how hard you work to do the right thing for your family. Your kids (and J-P) are so lucky to have you! Thanks for blogging - I love checking in and learning new things. We can all benefit from paying more attention to what we put into our bodies.

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