The post Gluten-Free Hot Cross Bun Recipe appeared first on Gluten-Free Baking.
]]>If you love hot cross buns, I’ve got some great news: the gluten-free version is wonderful. It makes buns that are soft and tender buns and filled with raisins and spices. While this is a traditional Easter recipe, you might find yourself baking them all year long.
Here’s a look at the ingredients and what role they play in the recipe. As with any recipe, I suggest measuring all of your ingredients before you start mixing. This is especially important when making gluten-free yeast dough. You don’t want to get halfway into mixing and realize you’re out of an ingredient!
The full recipe and directions are included below. But I suggest you read through this–especially if you’ve never worked with a gluten-free yeast dough before.
After the dough is puffy, it’s time to shape the rolls. They’ll need another rise after shaping. But we’re getting close to baking!
These last about two days on the counter. Like all gluten-free bread, this largely depends on your location. If you live in a cold, dry area, the hot cross buns will stale faster than if you live somewhere warm and humid.
Store the cooled hot cross buns wrapped on the counter. If you aren’t going to finish them before they’ll stale, freeze them for up to two months.
To freeze, let the buns cool. Place them into a freezer container. If you need to stack them, place a piece of parchment paper between the layers.
Note: This recipe was originally shared in 2019. In 2024, it was updated. The blog posts now includes step-by-step directions and photos. The recipe has been updated to use a gluten-free flour blend and now makes a kneadable dough.
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]]>The post Gluten-Free Soft Dinner Rolls Recipe appeared first on Gluten-Free Baking.
]]>When I sat down to create this recipe, I asked myself, “What would this recipe look like if it were easy?” The answer: I’d use a flour blend.
If you’ve been with me for a while, you know this is a somewhat new development. But over the last year or so, I’ve started using commercial gluten-free flour blends. My (current) favorite is Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour.
I don’t use it because they’re a sponsor. (They aren’t!) I use the blend for two reasons: 1. It works well. 2. It’s easy to find. While there are many gluten-free flour blends on the market today, none enjoy the reach that Bob’s has. I want you to be able to make these rolls without having to run all over trying to find the flour. If your local store doesn’t carry it, you can order the flour online.
If you’d prefer to mix your own flour, replace the flour with a mix of brown rice flour or millet and tapioca starch. The exact flour replacement is included in the recipe.
Since all commercial flour blends vary, I can’t say if this recipe works with a different blend. If you use one, let us know how it goes.
I’m still working on an egg-free, gluten-free bread recipe but, I have to say, I’m not there yet. This recipe requires one egg. Without the egg, the rolls turn out dense and heavy.
Whole milk and melted butter make these rolls flavorful and rich. But you don’t need to use them. You can replace the milk with a dairy-free milk or simply use water. As for the melted butter, use an equal amount of vegetable oil.
Rolls made without dairy tend not to brown as well as those made with dairy. They also seem to stale a little bit faster without the fat from the whole milk and butter. To prevent the gluten-free/dairy-free rolls from staling quickly, freeze the leftovers. (see directions below on how to best freeze gluten-free buns.)
Although the flour blend contains xanthan gum, for these rolls a little more is needed for the best texture. Without the additional xanthan gum, the dough is too soft to allow the yeast to rise and you wind up with gummy, dense rolls.
It’s best to enjoy these rolls the day you bake them. Like most gluten-free baked goods, these dry out on the counter. If you have any rolls left over, wrap them well. The next day, warm them slightly in a toaster oven or low oven.
Yes! After baking, allow the rolls to cool completely. Once cool, place in a freezer bag. Freeze up to two months. Thaw the rolls on the counter. Warm in a low (200 degree) oven before serving.
Nope! The added butter adds a nice flavor to the rolls and keeps them soft but it’s an optional step.
The best way to check for freshness is to check the date on the package. If you’re worried about your yeast, add 1 teaspoon of sugar to the warm water before adding the yeast. After stirring in the yeast, allow it to stand for 10 minutes. It should get foamy. If it doesn’t don’t use the yeast.
Yes. The dough is thick but can be made with a high powered hand mixer or mixed by hand with a wooden spoon.
Yes. Even though the flour blend contains xanthan gum, the rolls benefit from the additional teaspoon. Without it, they don’t rise as well.
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Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour
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]]>The post Gluten-Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread Recipe appeared first on Gluten-Free Baking.
]]>Cinnamon raisin bread is one of my favorites—and I don’t usually like raisins!
This recipe, based on my popular gluten-free sandwich bread, makes a loaf that’s soft and tender but not too sweet. It’s a wonderful loaf for beginner gluten-free bakers.
For yeast breads, like my gluten-free sandwich bread, it’s best to use a homemade gluten-free flour blend. My preferred blend contains brown rice flour, tapioca starch, and xanthan gum. If you use a commercial blend, make sure it’s recommended for use with yeast breads. Some are not.
Instant dry yeast, also called “rapid rise”, “quick yeast” or “fast acting yeast” is an excellent choice for gluten-free yeast breads. It dissolves quickly and, as the name implies, works quickly.
This loaf takes about 45 minutes to rise. Very warm or very cold environments will impact how long the dough takes to rise. You want the loaf to have doubled in size before baking.
Look for the dough to have doubled in size. If it rises higher than that, it can sink during baking or cooling.
Not in this recipe.
No. Sorry.
Yes! Replace both the milk and melted butter with your favorite dairy-free alternative.
No. This recipe makes a very soft gluten-free dough. It can’t be rolled into cinnamon buns.
It probably rose too much. THere’s a balance between a rise that’s enough and too much. When gluten-free yeast dough rises too much, it deflates when it bakes, causing it to sink.
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]]>The post Gluten-Free Italian Easter Bread appeared first on Gluten-Free Baking.
]]>A few months ago, a recipe request appeared in my inbox. That’s not unusual. What was unusual was that this recipe, for a classic Italian anise Easter bread, called for 12 cups of flour. This wasn’t just any recipe. It was a family heirloom.
Take a look:
2 dozen brown eggs, room temperature
3 cups sugar
21 teaspoons Crisco, melted and cooled
10 teaspoons anise seed, crushed between palms of hands to release flavor
1 shot whiskey
1 yeast, cake style, dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water. I used my hands to dissolve/crush the yeast, sprinkled it with sugar and let stand for 5 minutes to proof
12 cups Robin Hood flour, plus one cup more
Elana wrote that she’d attempted the recipe with gluten-free flour and that the taste was great but the texture was off. The loaf didn’t rise.
After glancing at the recipe, I could see why. Although the bread called for two dozen eggs, it contained no liquid. There wasn’t any water or milk in the recipe, even for wheat-based doughs, this is unusual.
I set out to both fix and convert the recipe. I must admit, I thought I had a bit of a leg up on this one. I’m Italian and this style of Easter bread often graced our table, along with ricotta cheesecake each year. But when I tried to remember the bread, my memory failed. I couldn’t remember for the life of me what the bread tasted like. Was it like brioche? Or was it more like challah? I couldn’t remember. I’m guessing that child-Elizabeth spent most of Easter eating candy, not chowing down on anise-scented bread.
Instead of relying on childhood taste memory, I leaned heavily into my baking knowledge. Here’s the thing: I know yeast bread. Not just gluten-free yeast bread, all yeast bread. While in culinary school, I adored learning about yeast-based breads. Those were my favorite classes. Cakes, candies, and pastry making were fine but yeast bread I loved. So much so, in fact, I spent time on Saturdays in a baking club. We cranked out dozens of loaves. These mornings were some of the happiest times I spent at school.
After years of baking gluten-free, I also know that gluten-free yeast recipes represent the hardest part of gluten-free baking. Are the results similar? In my opinion, no. They aren’t. I can eat a chocolate chip cookie and not know that it’s gluten-free. Same goes for cake or brownies. Give me a piece of gluten-free bread, even the best gluten-free bread ever and I still know that it’s not made with wheat. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. I just meant that it’s different.
Knowing that gluten-free yeast bread isn’t ever 100% on, provides an interesting challenge when attempting to convert a beloved holiday bread. I want to get it right. Or as close to right as gluten-free yeast bread allows.
The first thing I did was to honor the recipe. It’s a sweet, enriched dough, similar to a brioche or challah. This isn’t a lean recipe or a hearty whole grain bread. The next thing I did was honor the best way to make this bread gluten-free. My final result, I think, succeeds at both.
The original recipe called for 12 cups of Robin Hood Flour*. This flour, mostly sold in Canada, has a slightly higher protein content than traditional all-purpose wheat flour. It’s great for breads and pizza. To mimic this flour, I selected a variety of flours and starches that would provide good structure but, flavor-wise, fall into the background, allowing the eggs and anise to shine. This wasn’t an easy task. In fact, the flour blend I settled on, calls for four different flours and starches. Is that a lot? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
*The recipe used traditional Robin Hood wheat flour. The brand makes a gluten-free flour blend, which was not used in the original recipe.
The blend of rice flours (there’s three) and tapioca starch lend a soft, light texture to the bread. But without xanthan gum, the flour blend on it’s own wasn’t enough to give the bread the structure it needed. As with all my yeast bread recipes, I use as little xanthan gum as possible. I’m not a believer any type of set ratio for xanthan gum. No “one teaspoon per one cup of flour.” In some recipes, I don’t use xanthan gum at all. In others, like this one, I use the enough to give the bread structure but not so much that it gets gummy. I hate that weird, gummy texture that you find in some gluten-free breads.
The last thing I did was reduce the recipe to make one loaf of bread; the original recipe made four loaves. If you want to make multiple loaves, don’t multiply the recipe. Instead make as many individual recipes as you need loaves of bread. 12 cups of gluten-free flour, plus all the other ingredients, is too much for a home mixer, even a stand mixer like a KitchenAid, to handle. You’ll get much better results if you take the time to mix it multiple times.
Here’s something I added that might surprise you: baking powder. This is a little trick I learned while developing my gluten-free sandwich bread recipe. Double acting baking powder, the most common style of baking powder sold in the United States, rises twice: first in the bowl when combined with a liquid and again when it hits the oven and gets hot.
Since gluten-free bread lacks the rubber band structure that gluten brings, the baking powder gives it a little help. Basically, it lifts the dough, giving the yeast room to do its thing.
The original recipe called for cake yeast. This is live, fresh yeast. For home bakers, it tends to be incredibly unreliable. I used active dry yeast, which, unlike fresh yeast, is really reliable. Just be sure to use a gluten-free active dry yeast.
For the most part, I left these ingredients alone. I swapped liquid vegetable oil for the melted Crisco because I think it gives the loaf a better texture. If you prefer melted shortening, go ahead and use it. I would not, however, use melted coconut oil. Not only will this oil affect the flavor of the finished loaf, it will affect the texture. Coconut oil is a hard fat and gives this loaf an almost tough bite.
Anise seed and whiskey bring flavor to this bread. During most of my test, I didn’t include the whiskey. Why? Because you don’t need it. If you have a bottle on hand, include it. But there’s no need to buy a bottle of whisky just to make this bread. Simply replace it with two teaspoons of vanilla extract.
As for the anise, it’s a flavor I really like. Not everyone shares that opinion. If you’re looking for an Italian Easter bread but don’t like anise, skip it. Replace the anise with a little vanilla or the zest of a lemon and orange.
After adjusting the ingredients, I set out to work on the method. The original recipe calls for an overnight rise and then the individual loaves are baked on a pan.
I tested the recipe with both the overnight rise and a traditional two hour rise. I found I liked the results from a shorter rise better. All the tested loaves rose higher than those made with dough that had been allowed to rise overnight in the refrigerator.
The biggest change I made, however, wasn’t replacing the overnight rise. It was how the loaves were baked. When gluten is present, the elastic dough holds itself together rather well. Gluten-free dough doesn’t. When I baked a loaf on a sheet pan, the loaf turned out rather flat. So I decided to force a bit of structure and bake the loaf in an 8-inch springform pan. Not only does the pan hold the loaf in a beautiful shape, it helps the edges brown, something that didn’t happen as well on the sheet pan.
The rise and texture came out great. Did it look like a traditional Italian Easter bread? It did not. Instead, it looked more like an Irish soda bread. This is one area where adjusting expectations helps. The bread tastes great; it just looks different.
The original baking temperature called for a 250 degree F oven. Yikes! This is a really low temperature for yeast bread. For my recipe, I went with the more traditional 350 degrees F.
The finished loaf turned out beautifully. Dotted with anise seeds and rich with eggs, this loaf makes a welcome addition to an Easter table.
I did make one small change to the recipe. I added a simple glaze. To make this, combine powdered sugar with a little water or milk until thick. If you like a little lemon tang, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Many Italian Easter bread recipes finish the loaf with a sprinkle of nonpareils. I did’t have any in the house. If I had, you know I would a added a generous sprinkle to this loaf.
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]]>The post How to Make the Best Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread: An Easy Recipe for Everyone! appeared first on Gluten-Free Baking.
]]>Ah, gluten-free sandwich bread. It’s more than a bit of a pain, isn’t it? The pre-made loaves, while light and tender, are expensive and often filled with holes. Homemade recipes save you money but are often dense–and depending on the recipe dry or gummy.
With these problems, what’s a gluten-free eater to do? My advice: don’t give up on sandwich bread!
I’ve baked my own gluten-free sandwich bread for over a decade. In fact, there’s recipes for sandwich bread in both of my cookbooks. But while I love these recipes, I wanted to make a bread that was light and soft. Kind of like–dare I say it?–Udi’s bread but without the holes and the high price tag!
For about six months or so I’ve been working on this recipe. To be honest, I ate way too much bread and butter during these months. That’s the sacrifice I had to make, I guess. 😉 Finally, FINE-AH-LEE, I have a gluten-free bread recipe that’s easy to make, soft in texture, doesn’t fall apart, and tastes great. Oh, and it’s dairy-free, corn-free, and rice-free to boot. I LOVE this bread.
Let’s talk about how to make it. (BTW, I have a lot to say about how to make gluten-free bread. If you just want the recipe, I suggest you scroll down. Way down. Yeah, way, way down. #BakingTeacher #IHeartBreadAndICanNotLie)
When I set out to make a soft gluten-free bread, I started by looking at the flours and starches I used in previous recipes. Unlike wheat-based bread, which can be made with only flour, water, salt and yeast, gluten-free bread requires a blend of flours and starches. My original bread recipes both use brown rice flour. At the time (old timey gluten-free baker alert!), it was hard to find any gluten-free flours other than rice flour. Using brown rice flour made sense. Today we have lots of other options.
After giving it some thought, I narrowed it down to two flours: millet flour and sorghum flour. Both are tasty and relatively inexpensive. I ended up using Bob’s Red Mill’s millet flour. Have you used millet? I’m in love with it. While brown rice flour can lend a somewhat gritty texture to recipes, millet reminds me of wheat flour. It’s soft. And it contains more fiber than rice flours! Yup! Cup for cup, millet offers twice as much fiber as brown rice flour. A soft texture and twice the fiber? Awesome!
Next up…starch!
Since I was rethinking the flour, I also wanted to rethink the starch. In my first cookbook, Easy Gluten-Free Baking, my sandwich bread used corn starch. In my second, How to Cook Gluten-Free,I used potato starch. For this recipe, it’s all about the tapioca starch.
You might be wondering why you need starch at all. Good question! Wheat and other grains contain a starch called amylopectin. It’s part of their makeup. When combined with a liquid and heated, this starch gelatinizes. It thickens and almost turns jelly-like. If you’ve ever made a stovetop pudding, you’ve seen this happen. One minute the pudding is thin, the next it thickens. This is good news for gluten-free bakers. Without the stretch of gluten, starch helps hold bread together.
Even though grain contains starch, it’s not enough to make a soft sandwich bread. Enter: added starch. Without tapioca starch, this loaf turns out dense and heavy. In the future, we’ll made some rustic bread. Those don’t always need added starch. This loaf does.
The reason I reached for tapioca starch for this recipe is because it adds an almost gluten-like stretch to recipes. Notice I said “almost”. There’s no 1:1 replacement for gluten. It bakes up lighter than both corn starch (which can get a little heavy) and potato starch (which is light but doesn’t add much stretch).
Ah, xanthan gum. (deep breath) Usually the follow-up question to, “Elizabeth, how do I make bread?” is “Why do I need to use xanthan gum?”
Simply put, you need xanthan gum because gluten isn’t present in the dough. Gluten, which comes from the Latin word for “glue”, provides elasticity and strength to traditional wheat-based doughs. If you’ve ever kneaded dough or watched someone throw pizza dough over their head, you’ve witnessed the stretchiness of gluten in action. Without this rubber band-like protein, gluten-free bread dough lacks the essence of what gives bread structure.
Enter xanthan gum.
While I wouldn’t go as far as calling xanthan gum a gluten replacement, it does prevent gluten-free bread from collapsing in on itself. Made from a microorganism called xanthomonas campestris, xanthan gum becomes very viscous and sticky when combined with water. It doesn’t have the same rubber band-like properties of gluten but it does a good job providing structure to gluten-free breads. If you accidentally omitted it from this recipe, you would have a very short, very dense loaf of bread.
There’s a wee bit of sugar in this recipe. It helps feed the yeast and helps the crust to brown. Even though it’s only two tablespoons, there’s a big difference in color and flavor between a loaf made with the sugar and one made without. Feel free to use turbinado (Sugar in the Raw) sugar if you prefer.
Ah, salt! The amount of salt in a bread recipe seems quite small, doesn’t it? There’s only one teaspoon in the entire recipe. However, salt is an essential ingredient in bread dough. It helps enhance flavor, it controls yeast growth (more about this in a sec), and it helps the crust to brown. If you forget to add salt to a bread recipe, the bread will taste flat and the texture won’t be right.
For this recipe, use table salt, not Kosher salt or sea salt. They don’t measure the same (You need to use 1 1/4 teaspoons of Kosher salt to replace the table salt) and sometimes coarse Kosher salt doesn’t fully dissolve in the bread dough.
One other note about salt: when salt is in direct contact with yeast, it will kill the yeast. Never, ever add salt to your water-yeast mixture. You want to add the salt to the flour mixture and whisk everything together. This distributes the salt and keeps the yeast happy. And happy yeast is happy bread!
What’s baking powder doing in a yeast bread recipe?! I know. I know. Another ingredient to measure (I’m sorry!). During testing of the bread recipe in “How to Cook Gluten-Free”, I wanted the loaf to have a little more rise. Increasing the yeast didn’t provide the lift I wanted. So I tried adding a little baking powder. PERFECT. Since it worked so well, I borrowed the idea for this recipe. It still works great. Commercial baking powder is double acting. This means it releases gas in the bowl when it comes in contact with liquid and then again in the oven when it gets hot. Adding a little lift during mixing and at the start of baking seems to give the yeast a little more room to do it’s thing.
The star of the show! Yeast! (woo-hoo!) For some reason yeast makes people nervous. I understand. Unlike other leaveners, like baking powder and soda, yeast is alive. It needs a little bit of special care. Not a lot of care, just a little.
The main thing is water temperature. For yeast to work, you want your water temperature between 105°F and 115°F. For the best results, grab an instant thermometer and take the temperature of the water. At around 120°F, the yeast begins to die and at 140°F, thermal death point kicks in and the yeast totally dies. (#RIPYeast).
For this recipe, I like to use “Quick Rise” yeast. Depending on the brand, this might be called Rapid Rise, Fast Acting, or Highly Active Yeast. This yeast is dried in smaller particles than traditional Active Dry Yeast. Technically, you don’t even need to dissolve it in water. You can add it directly to your dry ingredients, whisk everything together, and go. I prefer dissolving it in water. It’s up to you. If you decide to add your yeast directly to your dry ingredients, increase your water temperature to 120°F.
“Elizabeth! You just said that yeast begins to die at 120°F! Have you lost it?!?”
First, thank you for paying attention. Second, I might have lost it. I can’t keep track of these things. 😉 AnyWAY, about that temperature. It’s higher because the yeast is never in direct contact with the water.
Lastly, water temperature and keeping yeast away from salt is all fine and good. But you need to start with yeast that’s still fresh. I don’t mean cakes of fresh yeast, that’s a different product. I mean check the expiration date on the packet! If it’s expired, toss it and get some new yeast!
Answer: no. While “Saccharomyces cerevisiae” (that’s baker’s yeast to you and me) is a fungus and is naturally gluten-free, some packaged yeast is NOT gluten-free. Always check the label. As of this writing, Red Star’s Platinum yeast was NOT gluten-free. All of their other products are gluten-free. Read those labels!
Now it’s time to talk about what holds everything together, the wet ingredients!
As written, the recipe calls for only 3/4 cup of water. To measure the water, use a liquid measuring cup or weigh the water (more on that below). As mentioned above, water temperature is key to bread baking. Use water that’s around 110°F. If you want to make a rich loaf of sandwich bread, replace the water with milk. Heat the milk to the same temperature as the water. When milk is used, the loaf bakes up slightly darker and has a creamier taste than a loaf made with water.
Eggs add fat and flavor to this bread. They also add moisture. Unfortunately, this bread doesn’t do well egg-free. If you look at the photo of this bread, you can see it’s really yellow. That’s because I used local eggs and the yolks were BRIGHT yellow. Did I mention they were bright? When this bread is made with store bought eggs (something I use a lot of the time!), it won’t bake up so yellow. Also, if you prefer a less rich bread, omit the egg yolks and use only egg whites.
BAKER’S NOTE: If you buy your eggs from a local farmer, weigh them before you use them as the size tends to vary. An egg, out of shell, should weight about 50 grams.
Two tablespoons of fat help to soften the texture of this bread. For this bread, any liquid oil, like olive, canola, or vegetable, works.
Successful baking relies heavily on successful measuring. An error in measuring ingredients can cause a recipe to flop.
You have two good options for accurate measuring:
Using a kitchen scale is the most accurate way to measure ingredients. Simply place a bowl on the scale, zero the scale (sometimes called “tare”) and add the ingredients. Zero the scale after adding each ingredient. For this recipe it looks like this: zero —>weigh the millet flour —> press zero—->add the tapioca starch. Done! The rest of the dry ingredients are small and are measured with nested measuring spoons. More on that in a sec.
If you prefer to use measuring cups and spoons, that’s fine. While some claim that it won’t work, I disagree. If you take care when measuring your ingredients, you will be successful. In fact, when I started writing gluten-free cookbooks, few home cooks owned kitchen scales. My entire first baking book relies on volume measures and the recipes work for thousands of bakers.
1. Select a set of nested measuring cups. (Prefer metal to plastic. Over time, they won’t warp.)
2. Spoon flour or starch into the cup. Overfill slightly.
3. Level the cup with something straight, like a chopstick or the back of a butter knife.
BAKER’S NOTE: Don’t confuse nested measuring cups with a liquid measuring cup. You don’t want to measure dry ingredients in a liquid measuring cup.
Small ingredients are best measured by volume. Many kitchen scales aren’t accurate enough to measure a half teaspoon of salt. For small ingredients use a set of nested measuring spoons. I prefer metal as plastic or those “slider” measuring spoons tend to be less accurate.
For small ingredients, you can dip the spoon right into the ingredients, overfill slightly and then level with something straight.
For the water and oil, use a liquid measuring cup, like the one shown above. Fill the cup and squat down to eye level to make sure you have two cups of water. Holding the cup in the air or looking down at it can result in inaccurate measuring. If you are unable to squat down to eye level, Oxo makes an angled measure cup that can be viewed accurately from above.
Without gluten to hold everything together, gluten-free bread dough looks very different from traditional bread dough. Instead of forming a smooth dough ball, it looks like a thick, sticky cake batter.
The easiest way to mix this thick dough is with a stand mixer. I use a KitchenAid mixer fitted with a flat paddle attachment. With gluten-free bread, you want to ditch the dough hook. It doesn’t mix gluten-free bread well. The paddle attachment, in contrast, does a great job chugging through our dough. Mix on medium-high speed for about three minutes.
If you don’t own a stand mixer, worry not! You can use a handheld mixer for the job. Again, I like my KitchenAid hand mixer for this job. I’ve found other mixers can’t handle the dough. If fact, over the years, I’ve had several readers tell me that they burnt out the motors of their handheld mixers while making gluten-free dough. Yikes!
Mix the dough until it’s smooth. You don’t want any dry flour hanging around the bottom of the bowl. Use a flexible spatula to clear around the little bump at the bottom of the KitchenAid mixer.
For this loaf, I use a Chicago Metallic loaf pan. It’s a little smaller than a traditional 9×5 bread pan. In fact, it’s 8-1/2″ by 4-1/2″ by 2-3/4″. If you are going to go to the trouble of making homemade bread, I’d strongly suggest you use this pan. It works GREAT. You end up with a loaf of bread about the size of Udi’s. This is smaller than traditional wheat bread but without gluten, smaller is sometimes better for gluten-free bread.
If you don’t want to invest in new pans, that’s fine! Just know that when this bread is baked in a 9×5 inch pan, it won’t rise as high because the pan is larger than the Chicago Metallic pan.
No matter what pan you use, be sure to spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray before adding the dough.
Cover the bread with a piece of plastic wrap that you’ve sprayed generously with non-stick cooking spray. This dough is soft. If you don’t spray the plastic wrap, the dough sticks to it.
After an hour or so, the dough should have doubled in size. Don’t let it over-rise. While it seems like the higher the rise, the higher the bread, this isn’t true. When dough rises too high, it can collapse during baking. Once the dough doubles, it’s ready to go.
The best place to allow dough to rise is on the counter. If your kitchen is very cold, throw the pan in the oven (be sure the oven is off). You don’t need to find a special spot for the bread. I know some people place their pan of bread on top of the fridge. Um, I don’t remember the last time I dusted the top of my refrigerator. There’s no way I’m putting food up there. 🙂
If you remember that rise time is an estimate, you’re all set. Sometimes bread dough rises fast (usually in the summer) and sometimes it takes its time (usually in the winter.) If after 90 minutes nothing has happened, check to see if you forgot to add the yeast. Occasionally issues with yeast happen but it happens fairly rarely, especially if you follow the directions about yeast above.
Finally! It’s time to bake! Yay!
It’s important to preheat your oven before you bake your bread. Something magical happens during the first few minutes of bread baking: the yeast goes into a hyperactive phase. As the temperature of the dough rises, the dough rapidly converts sugars (from the starches in the flour) into carbon dioxide. At the same time, the water in the dough turns to steam. This boost of carbon dioxide and steam help the dough to rise. Oven spring can account for an additional 10% rise.
And then…it all stops. When the temperature reaches 120°F, the yeast hits its thermal death point and dies off. No more rise occurs after this point.
I find it difficult to judge exactly when a loaf of bread has baked all the way through. There’s nothing more disappointing than spending time baking a loaf of bread only to find out that the very center of the bread is under baked. Thankfully there’s a simple solution to this problem: take its temperature. Yup, just like you’d do for a turkey at Thanksgiving!
Stick an instant read thermometer into the center of the loaf. Don’t poke the edges of the bread, the temperature is hotter there and won’t tell you if the center has baked.
The bread should reach 210°F or above. This is slightly higher than the temperature for wheat dough but I’ve found that once gluten-free bread hits 210° F, it’s done.
When the bread comes out of the oven, it’s done baking, right? Wrong! It’s almost done baking. Carryover baking occurs because the loaf is so hot. How hot? The loaf is steaming hot and it’s this steam that can cause problems for the gluten-free baker. Remember our friend xanthan gum? It loves to suck up water and it doesn’t stop doing this after baking. You want to ensure that the steam can escape from the baked loaf. If it doesn’t, the xanthan gum and starches can “grab” onto it. This leads to a gummy loaf of bread and soft crust.
To prevent a gummy loaf, remove the loaf from the baking pan and place it on a wire rack to cool. If the bread cools in the pan, the steam gets trapped and the loaf gets soggy, especially on the bottom.
Once the bread is cool (or almost cool if you are impatient), it’s time to cut it. Use a serrated knife. Let me say that again, use a serrated knife. A smooth-blade knife will squish the bread. Lots of people ask me how to slice straight pieces of bread. Um….this is one that I can’t help with. They sell bread-cutting guides if this is an issue for you.
After doing all that work, you don’t want your loaf to get moldy or stale, right? Right!
Bread tastes best the day it’s baked. You can store it on the counter for a day or two. But if you know you aren’t going to eat an entire loaf in a day, here’s what I recommend: allow the loaf to cool, slice, place a piece of waxed paper or parchment between the slices, and slide the whole thing into a freezer bag. When you want a piece or two of bread, remove the bread from the freezer. You can either thaw at room temperature or microwave for 15 seconds.
BAKER’S NOTE: Never store bread in the refrigerator. It stales very quickly in the fridge. Either store bread on the counter overnight or freeze it.
Are you ready to make bread? Yeah, I thought so! Here’s the recipe. Enjoy it!
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Rubber Spatula
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Digital Thermometer
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]]>The post How to Make Easy Gluten-Free Garlic Bread appeared first on Gluten-Free Baking.
]]>Another culinary confession! You know Udi’s bread? (Of course you do!) Well, I’m not wild about their hot dog buns. They are too bready/dry/something for me. But then, THEN, I realized that they’d make fabulous garlic bread! And now, well, now I love em! (Just not for hot dogs!)
Remember the warm, cheesy garlic bread that Italian restaurants serve before a meal? This recipe makes that style garlic bread. It isn’t fancy bread. And it doesn’t use fresh garlic. Did I lose you there? I hope not! Because here’s a secret: most inexpensive Italian restaurants–at least the “mom and pop” ones around here—don’t use fresh garlic either but even without fresh garlic, this bread is AMAZING.
Here we go!
Thaw as many Udi’s hot dog buns as you think you’ll need. (This recipe doesn’t really have a “recipe.”) Drizzle the face of each bun lightly with olive oil.
Spread on a generous amount of softened butter. Yes, both oil and butter. Trust me. Truuuuuuust me.
Sprinkle on some garlic powder. Just be sure it’s garlic powder and not garlic salt. To make this easy, you can use the handle of a spoon to control the amount of garlic on each bun. And, really, you just want a sprinkle.
Top with a generous amount of–wait for it–canned Parmesan cheese (Like the garlic powder, canned cheese is important if you want the bread to taste like “restaurant bread.”) Sprinkle on a little dried basil and you’re done!
Bake in a preheated 425°F. oven until golden brown. If you want, cut into slices and enjoy!
You can serve garlic bread with just about anything. This time of the year, I serve it with antipasto. But it’s good with anything.
Garlicky Yours,
Elizabeth
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]]>The post How to Make Chewy Gluten-Free Soft Pretzels appeared first on Gluten-Free Baking.
]]>Soft pretzels are just about perfect. They’re chewy, salty and great with everything from a beer to a salad. The thing is: they’re chewy. And gluten-free flour doesn’t do chewy well.
But this year I decided I didn’t want to go through another football season or Oktoberfest without a soft pretzel. So I headed into the kitchen.
Since gluten, the protein found in wheat and other grains, is responsible for the distinctive soft pretzel chew, I began by focusing on the flour blend. The flavor of pretzels is rather subtle I first used white rice flour and tapioca starch. I hoped the white rice flour would be bland enough to fade into the background while the tapioca starch, along with a little xanthan gum, provided chew. It worked. Sort of.
The white rice flour was so bland that the pretzels tasted flat, and since I only used a little tapioca starch, there was very little chew. One of my first tasters said, “These taste like they want to be soft pretzels but just aren’t. They’re odd.”
Since I didn’t want bland pretzels, I replaced the white rice flour with brown rice flour. While the flavor was better, the pretzels were unappetizingly grainy. Combining the white rice flour and brown rice flour solved this problem.
During testing, I increased the amount of tapioca starch in the recipe. From previous experience, I knew that too much tapioca starch could make a recipe gummy. I added it cautiously, and one day, after using 3/4 cup of tapioca starch, I pulled a baked pretzel apart. There was some resistance as I tore the pretzel and the crumb had the tight appearance of wheat-based soft pretzels. When I took I bite, the pretzel felt chewy! Finally, a gluten-free soft pretzel that was chewy and flavorful.
But texture isn’t the only characteristic unique to soft pretzels. They need to be dark brown and shiny. Commercial bakers achieve this by boiling the pretzels in water with a little food-grade lye, a powerful alkaline. The solution turns the dough slightly yellow during boiling and aides the Milliard reaction during baking ,causing the pretzels to darken.
Since I didn’t have any lye on hand, (and I’m guessing you don’t either!) I used an alkaline that I did have in the kitchen: baking soda. While baking soda isn’t nearly as powerful an alkaline as lye, it did turn the dough slightly yellow during boiling. The finished pretzels, however, were a little too light for my liking.
Adding additional baking soda wasn’t solving the problem. On a whim, I added some granulated sugar to the solution. I hoped the sugar would help turn the pretzel a nice golden brown.
It worked! And best of all, the additional sugar didn’t add sweetness to the pretzels, just a lovely golden brown color.
Now, with a pretzel in hand, I’m ready for football season!
Here’s how to make ’em!
You want the dough stiff but not dry. Don’t worry if it doesn’t form a dough ball in the stand mixer. It won’t.
After two minutes of mixing, no dry ingredients should cling to the bottom or sides of the mixing bowl. If dry ingredients remain, add one to two tablespoons additional water.
Turn dough out onto a lightly white rice floured surface. Don’t use too much flour. A light dusting to prevent the dough from sticking to the counter is all you need.
Gently knead dough into a ball. Gluten-free dough requires a light touch. Once the dough forms a ball, stop kneading and place into a lightly oiled bowl to rise. Brush or spray the top of the dough with oil to prevent a skin from forming.
Allow dough to rise until doubled in size. This usually takes about an hour but the time varies depending on temperature.
Turn dough onto a very lightly white rice floured counter. Too much flour on the counter makes it hard to shape the pretzels. A light dusting of white rice flour will do.
Divide dough into equal portions. (A bench scraper works well for cutting the dough.)
Knead each dough ball until it becomes smooth. It should lose its shaggy appearance.
Roll out into 12-inch log. Take care not to use too much flour on the countertop. If the dough has too much flour on the surface, brush it off with a pastry brush. Cover the other pieces of dough with a piece of plastic wrap.
Gently turn dough into an upside down “U.”
Twist ends together.
Press the ends into the bottom of the “U”. You want to be sure the dough sticks to itself, so it doesn’t come apart while boiling.
Boil the pretzels until they float.
Once boiled, the pretzels turn slightly yellow. (The four pretzels on the left have been boiled. The two pretzels on the right have not been boiled.) Sprinkle some kosher salt on the pretzels and bake.
Enjoy!
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]]>The post How to Make Gluten-Free Panettone appeared first on Gluten-Free Baking.
]]>To me, Christmas morning smells like burnt panettone. After spending Christmas Eve cooking a huge meal, my mom did not make Christmas breakfast. Instead she burned panettone. And I loved it.
I’m sure she didn’t mean to burn the panettone. But the Italian holiday fruit bread never seemed to make it out of the toaster without singeing—sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Looking back, I can see that paper-thin slices of a sweetened, rich bread never stood a chance in our toaster. And now, it’s hard to find a gluten-free way to recreate that taste memory.
Unless, of course, I made my own gluten-free panettone. With a little patience (this bread takes about 16 hours from start to finish), a sturdy mixer, and a few gluten-free flours, homemade gluten-free panettone is fairly easy.
If you’ve never made gluten-free bread before, you might want to check out my recipe for sandwich bread for a few tips on gluten-free bread baking.
Getting Ready
Traditional panettone uses a biga—a pre-ferment made from a mixture of flour, yeast and water that ferments overnight—to achieve a high rise and a nice deep flavor. This is good news for gluten-free baking—thanks to the lack of gluten and the amount of fat and sugar in the dough, this loaf needs all the help rising it can get. (By the way, the biga doesn’t work alone. The finished loaf contains a generous amount of active dry yeast and a little baking powder to aid its rise.)
To get the full benefit of the biga, mix it about twelve to fifteen hours before you plan on baking. Just stir the ingredients together and let the yeast do its thing while you sleep. You might find the consistency of the biga a little startling. This gluten-free biga is wet, thick, and sticky. It looks a bit like marshmallow fluff.
After mixing your biga, combine the dried fruits with lemon and vanilla extract. Macerating the fruits overnight infuses them with flavor. Since many people dislike the classic panettone fruits of citron and candied lemon and orange peel, I’ve include a list of alternative dried fruit options for the recipe. No matter which fruits you choose, all benefit from an overnight soak.
Mixing the Dough
To prepare the dough, you’ll first mix the wet and dry ingredients together until a dough forms. Like most gluten-free bread dough, this dough does not form a firm ball. Instead it’s a really thick, wet dough, almost a cross between a dough and a batter. To chug through the dough, you’ll want to use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
After the dough forms, add the butter. Be sure to use very soft butter for this step. Anything harder leaves clumps of butter throughout the dough. To test the butter’s softness, stick your finger (or a fork) into it. If your finger sinks easily into the butter, it’s the right consistency.
The dried fruits go in last. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the fruits, mixing until the fruits are just incorporated.
Rising and Punching
The panettone goes through two rises. For the first rise, just cover your bowl with a piece of greased plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for about two hours. In approximately two hours, the dough should double in size. Once it doubles it needs to be punched down.
Since this dough is so sticky, you don’t want to punch it with your bare hands or you’ll end up with dough all over yourself. Instead, stir it gently with a greased wooden spoon or rubber spatula until it is almost fully deflated, or use the piece of greased plastic wrap that covers the bowl to help punch down the dough. I prefer the second option. Simply remove the plastic wrap from the bowl and place it loosely over the dough. Deflate the dough by using your knuckles. The plastic wrap barrier between your hand and the dough prevents the dough from sticking to you.
No matter how you do it, deflate the dough about 75% and then spoon it into a prepared pan.
Shaping: A Pan or a Paper?
Tradition dictates that you bake panettone in paper. While pretty, paper doesn’t make the best vessel for baking gluten-free bread. Each time I made this recipe in paper, I ended up with raw spots in the center of the loaf. Gross!
Baking panettone in a tube or Bundt pan can help to prevent raw spots. The rod in the center of the pan gets hot during baking and thoroughly bakes the center of the loaf. Of course, it doesn’t look quite like a traditional panettone, but I’d rather have a funny-looking panettone over a raw one.
Baking
This loaf takes about one hour to bake. The finished loaf should be between 207-211°F. (Take the temperature in the center of the loaf, not near the sides.) When the bread reaches the correct temperature, remove it from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool.
Serving and Storing
I love this bread served as is or toasted. To avoid burning panettone like my mom did so many times, slice the pieces at least 1/2-inch thick. And be sure to keep your eye on the bread as it toasts.
Wrapped, this bread keeps for about three days on the counter. If you don’t plan on eating the entire loaf in three days, wait until the panettone cools, slice it, and freeze.
Ready to Bake? Here’s the Step-by-Step
The dry ingredients are mixed with the wet ingredients and the biga. At first the dough is thick.
Softened butter goes in a little at a time. You want your butter soft, not cold.
After you add all the butter, the dough looks very soft. This is totally normal.
After the fruit is added, transfer the dough to a large greased bowl. Why large?
The dough doubles in size! Hence the need for a big bowl.
Have a bit of pent-up holiday anger? Take it out on the dough! It needs to be “punched” down before the second rise. Don’t have holiday anger? Punch it anyway!
Once you’ve punched the dough, transfer it to a well greased bundt pan.
The dough rises again. This rise takes about one hour. And then…
You bake it! Isn’t it pretty?
Slice it up. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and call it day!
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