The Learning Umbrella

Having a wheat free family dinner frequently means I need to bake some bread.  You can buy gluten-free bread at both grocery stores I use, but it’s dry nasty stuff.  Starting off gluten-free is like learning to bake all over again, but after 3 years (that long now!) of doing this I’m getting the hang of it.

I made WF (wheat free) Irish American Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day.  I took the recipe out of the Joy of Cooking and replaced the flour with my favorite blend for sweet breads: 2 parts rice flour to 1 part potato starch and 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum.  Gluten is what makes baked goods stick together, so when you take it out you need to add in something “sticky”.  Starch and gum do the trick, but I still played it safe and baked it in a bread pan instead of as a round loaf.

So then I was feeling pretty sure of myself.  I can make up my own recipes!  Sure.  So I took my Mom’s basic zucchini bread recipe and made it wheat free by using the same flour blend as before.  But then the recipe calls for 2/3 cup of oil, which I just totally left out and instead I dumped in a can of crushed pineapple with its juice.  It was an experiment, and I was so happy to pull those loaves out and see them look so good!  But, alas, I had forgotten to put any sugar in the mix.  Without sugar, only a half a loaf was consumed, and the rest ended up in my compost.  I’ll have to try it again with sugar.

This is a yeast bread, using a bread machine.  Ten years ago, I made the best purchase ever when I bought this bread machine at a yard sale for $5.  It is a fantastic invention, and priceless for wheat free living.  This is the Poppy Seed Bread from my favorite gluten-free bread cookbook: The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread. 

I’ve made some alterations, and my version is:

1 cup potato starch

1 1/2 cups rice flour

1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour

2 1/4 t. xanthan gum

1 t. salt

5 T. sugar

lemon zest

2 t. yeast

3 t. poppy seeds

1 1/2 t. instant potato flakes

1 cup warm water

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 egg + 2 egg whites, beaten

4 T olive oil