Gluten Free Bread

One of the hardest things for most people going gluten free can be giving up bread. When you go to the store and touch the package of most gluten free bread...feels like they can make a good weapon rather than for eating. Most of them are hard as a rock with cardboard taste. I love baking bread, but very new to gluten free world of baking. So I've tried a couple of recipes...which didn't turn out as well as I hoped. While baking this bread I chose to use coconut sugar in substitute of regular sugar. It adds a deepness, almost molasses type taste. Plus diabetes runs in my family, so I'm careful of sugars at times when I can.

If you are new to gluten free baking, you will find this a new experience in baking bread. I love kneading dough for breads a lot, but with most of the recipes I've found with gf you don't. It's almost like baking a cake with sticky dough...kind of fun. Let's get down to business!

Gluten Free Bread

Prep time: 20 minutes      Cook time: 25 minutes      Ready in: 1 hour 50 minutes

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• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 3 tablespoons sugar (I use coconut sugar) 
• 1 1/4 cups warm water
• 1 1/3 cups brown rice flour
• 2/3 cup sorghum flour
• 1/2 cup potato starch
• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon xanthum gum
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.
2.  Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a bowl. Let stand until the yeast softens and begins to form a creamy foam, about 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Combine yeast mixture, rice flour, sorghum flour, potato starch, cornstarch, vegetable oil, eggs, xanthan gum, and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer; mix on medium speed until incorporated, about 2 minutes. Spoon dough into the prepared loaf pan. Smooth the top of dough with the back of a wet spoon.
4. Place dough in a warm place until it has risen just over the top of the loaf pan, about 1 hour. (My tip for this is...while I'm mixing the ingredients together I turn my oven on to the lowest setting. Let it heat up then turn it off. I place a damp tea towel over the bread & put it in the oven to rise for the hour. Once the the time is over, take bread pan out & preheat for baking.)
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
6. Bake in the preheated oven until loaf is medium golden brown, about 25 minutes. (Optional...take melted butter & brush on top of bread 20 minutes into baking. Then continue baking for the remaining 5 minutes.

Take bread out and allow to sit for about 5 - 10 minutes, then pop out of loaf pan to cooling rack. I allow to cool more before slicing. The bread looks a little different and may have a little crumble to it, but it tastes yeasty and yummy. I mostly toast our bread when we eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I usually keep mine in the refrigerator wrapped up, but if you go through bread within 3 - 4 days it might be just fine that whole time out (wrapped up tightly).

This is the bread sliced...ready for lunch time! I have to add, my husband had the hardest time with gluten free bread. He said it brought out a gag reflex in him...lovely I know!! But this apparently can be common to most people. So I wanted to mention this...because he actually really likes the bread too! I hope you enjoy this bread and I promise as I try out more recipes I will share them with you. So far happy with this one and it's not complicated with ingredients. These ingredients I keep on hand at all times, since they are used in a lot of gluten free baking. Hope you enjoy this bread!