Gluten free bread, made easy by Angie!

As you might have guessed, I’m on honeymoon. I have also decided to take a much needed break from the kitchen and from any major online activity. Before I left, I did however, ask a few respected foodie friends and family to contribute guest blogs for me while I was away.

Today, I am posting a blog written by Angie Morrison, of SOMETHING DIFFERENT. She creates a line of unusual goodies such as green tomato chutney, sugar-free strawberry jam, rocket and cashew pesto (made with rocket from her garden J) and whisky marmalade. She is also a busy mother of two and her journey with gluten free bread baking has really caught my attention.

Gluten free baking is fiendishly difficult, but the gluten free living trend also seems to be becoming more and more mainstream nowadays. Angie’s recipe seems, on the other hand, to be really easy (as long as you have the right ingredients) and she has been gracious enough to share it with us.

Angie’s story and recipe

One innocent two-friends-having-breakfast-and-a-gossip some time ago, my friend revealed to me, as I was slathering some butter over my warm toast, that she had recently been diagnosed with a gluten and dairy intolerance. She was terrified of having to have to live a life without all her favourite foods - pasta, cake, cappuccinos, pancakes, muffins and worst of all, BREAD. In a moment of genuine concern for my friend I promised I’d help her out. In the famous words of Jeremy Clarkson “How hard can it be?”…

Six months and many tears of success and failure later, I have come to terms with just how hard it really is to make a decent, non-dairy, gluten free bread. Initially I researched the concept, like what was gluten and why was it so important for bread. It is literally the “glue” that holds the bread together.

So how do we overcome this? Firstly I had to learn a whole new language that makes up the gluten free world - guar gum, millet flour, tapioca starch to mention a few of the alien ingredients that are essential to successful gluten free baking.

And milk substitutes? Soy milk (sometimes not so yum), rice milk (which I learnt recently can have gluten in from the maltodextrin. Sigh!) and almond milk. Butter is replaced by oil (canola or olive), so now we are ready to make our bread. Or so I thought. Allergies, it would seem, come in threes or MORE. My friend couldn’t have soy or yeast either. What did I get myself into?

As a result of much experimenting I have finally come up with a couple of working recipes, one of which is truly a very tasty dairy free, yeast free, gluten free buckwheat bread. Despite its name, Buckwheat has no relation to wheat at all, but is related to rhubarb, the seed of which is ground up to make a wonderfully silky nutty flour. It has now become so popular I have started baking bread to order and also do premix packs complete with instructions.

Anyone who would like to contact me can do so at SDbyAngie@gmail.com. I welcome any suggestions and challenges.

So, six months later my friend is overjoyed that she can eat bread again. Now to make a gluten free, dairy free Red Velvet cake for her birthday… Oh Boy!

Gluten Free Buckwheat Bread

1 ½ cups of gluten free plain flour (see notes)
½ cup of buckwheat flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp salt
2 Tbsp castor sugar

½ tsp xantham or guar gum
2 egg whites
1 cup reduced fat milk or milk substitute of choice
1/3 cup canola or olive oil
3-4 Tbsp seed mix (flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds to personal taste)

Preheat oven to 180˚C and grease a medium loaf pan. Sift together the gluten free flour, buckwheat flour, bicarb, cream of tartar, salt and stir in the sugar. Beat the egg whites until just frothy, and stir in the milk and the vegetable oil. Pour the egg white mixture into the flour mixture and beat for 2 minutes or until smooth. Pour the batter into the pan, and press the seed mix lightly into the batter. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the bread comes out clean.

Notes:

For the gluten free plain flour you can use the Glutagon Plain Flour or this mix:

Angie’s bread flour mix 1:

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup millet/sorghum flour

2/3 cup tapioca starch

1/3 cup cornstarch

Sift all together at least 3 times. Store leftover flour air tight container in the fridge or freezer.