Food In My House: Gluten Free Bread: Experiment 2 and 3

This post is a picture story of experiments 2 and 3 in gluten free testing. I used one recipe and made it two different ways. I think the pictures will speak for themselves on how the experiments turned out.

Gluten Free Experiments 2 and 3 were quite interesting. I used a different recipe and a different flour blend. This time I used the Gluten Free Flour from Trader Joe's a touch of coconut flour. I used flaxseed instead of xanthan gum because, who really wants to pay $12 for xanthan gum, and I already have the flaxseed.

For Experiment 2 I used whole milk and For Experiment 3 i used almond milk. I don't think this made too much of a difference and that's a good thing! In experiment 2 i used flaxseed dry and experiment 3 I used flaxseed mixed with twice the amount of water and then microwaved for 30 seconds to create a gel. I don't know if this made a huge difference in the overall structure of the bread, but maybe it did.

Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread

Courtesy: King Arthur

3 cups Gluten Free Flour (I used Trader Joes)

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tsp instant yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum (or 1 1/4 tsp flaxseed with 3 1/2 tsp water mixed and heated to form a gel)

1 cup warm milk (110F)

4 tablespoons softened butter

3 large eggs

Place the flour, sugar, yeast, salt and flax seed (or xanthan gum) in a bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix until combined.

Using an electric mixer, drizzle in the milk, beating all the time. The texture will be crumbly, but it does come together. Add the butter and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, then beat at high speed for 3 minutes. The dough will be very smooth and thick. It reminds me of a thick brownie batter.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the batter rise for 1 hour. Grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan (or a 9"x5" if you're scared it'll overproof)

Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl, gently deflating the dough in the process.

Scoop the dough into the pan. Press it level, using a spatula or your wet fingers.

Cover with greased plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise until the loaf barely comes to the rip of the pan. This should take about 45-60 minutes. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake the bread for 38 to 42 minutes, until golden brown. Remove the bread from the oven, turn it out of the pan, and cool on a rack. Enjoy! (hopefully)

Ingredient List for Experiment 2. Just change out the Whole Milk for Almond Milk for #3.

Here's what the dough looks like after mixing

Here it is after rising!

I put the bread in the oven and after 8 minutes I smelled something burning. I rushed to see what had happened and the bread exploded; or it vomited in the oven. I did not have it on the cookie sheet, so the bottom of my oven was a mess! Luckily the dough isn't sticky and cleaned up very well.

Here it is after baking and after an emergency transfer to a bigger pan. It did not rise again and resulted in a very short loaf. This will eventually turn into bread pudding.

Experiment 3