Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Brown Rice Bread Recipe



Kayleigh here. So, after many, many, MANY crumbly and dense loaves of bread, I think we've finally found a recipe for the perfect gluten free sandwich bread. The recipe? It came from my Great Grandmother.

Well, mostly. She had no concerns about using non-gluten flours, so I did have to modify it a bit to match our needs. But fortunately for us, nearly every baked good she wrote down the recipe for included 2, 3, or even 4 different sorts of flours. So instead of guessing at what would match what quantities of the All-Purpose flour, I just plugged in direct substitutes I knew would match the taste!

Another addition to this particular recipe came from the previous post, actually! After making a wonderfully light and fluffy Angel Food Cake, Jason wondered 'Why can't we just make sandwiches out of this?' Although a sandwich made out of cake sounds a bit tempting, we realized it was probably not the best idea, but there was nothing saying we could not take a couple pointers from the cake-making process.

For those of you who have made gluten-free bread before, you know how hard it is to make anything close to the light, springy wonder breads of yesteryears. Certainly, the right flour blend can help with this, but most of the success actually comes in the process. Sift the dry ingredients at least once or twice to introduce more air to the loaf. Make sure all the refrigerated ingredients are taken out well beforehand, so they are at room temperature. Before adding the egg, beat it with Cream of Tartar until it forms a stiff foam. And make sure to proof your yeast beforehand!

What is proofing? Well, just take your liquid (water or milk, depending on the recipe) and heat it until just slightly warm. Add a tablespoon or two of sugar, then pour in the yeast, stirring well. After ten minutes or so, the surface should be very foamy looking, which means the mixture is ready to use. If you give it a fair amount of time, and it still does bot foam, then either the liquid was too cold, or the yeast is no longer active. Either way, it is no good, and your bread would not have risen with it!

If you are using a breadmaker, like we are, then you do need take an extra step beyond pressing the 'start' button. Pay attention to the first stirring cycle. As soon as it ends, reach in and remove the stirring paddle. That way, the first rise can happen uninterrupted, and the second stirring cycle will not undo all of that. Really, this will make or break the final rise and texture of the loaf, so do not forget this step! Gluten-free loaves do not have enough elasticity or strength to rise a second time.

Well, suppose I should stop rambling. Onto the recipe!



Brown Rice Bread

Ingredients:

1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1 Cup Tapioca Flour
1 Cup Tapioca Starch
2 ts Guar Gum
1 ts Baking Soda
1 1/2 ts Baking Powder
1/2 ts Salt
1 Packet Active Dry Yeast (or 2 1/2 TBS)
1 Cup Milk
2 TBS Sugar
2 ts Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 Cup Mollasses OR Corn Syrup
1 Egg
1/2 ts Cream of Tartar

Directions:

1) Heat the milk until just barely warm, then stir in sugar and yeast until dissolved. Let this sit for at least 10 minutes, or until proofed.
2) Sift all three flours, guar gum, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. If you're feeling ambitious, sift it two or three times!
3) Break the egg into another bowl, add the cream of tartar, and beat with an electric mixture until very foamy, and you can form stiff peaks.
4) Add the milk mixture to the breadmaker, followed by the molasses/corn syrup, vinegar, flour mixture, and egg.
5) Set the bread machine for a 1 1/2 lb loaf, and press start. We recommend checking a couple of times early on, and scraping off the sides if they are not getting combined properly. Remove the stirring paddle after the first mixing cycle, them just let the rest of the process run its course as normal.

By the end, you should have a beautiful, airy loaf with an earthy brown color. And we promise, it tastes even better than it looks!
Jason here. I’ll be brief, I promise.
Finally a decent home cooked bread I could enjoy. All of the previous breads turned to bland tasteless mush. This holds its texture fairly well, while having a distinct bread taste. The bread itself is harder than a regular bread, but not in a dense sort of way. It is more like how bread feels after you lightly toast it, just now all the way through.
It is missing the elasticity that gluten brings to regular bread. This can make it crumbly at times, so I have taken to occasionally eating my sandwich with a fork and knife. I don’t really mind, it just makes it a little messier. 

All in all, this makes for very decent sandwich bread, if you can spare a little mess.

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