Gluten Free Bread: Good Enough for Any Bread Lover

I am currently in my second week of eating entirely gluten free. I have not been diagnosed with Celiac, fortunately, but it does run in my family and there's a good chance that I'm gluten intolerant. My experiment is to see if eating gluten free for a month helps alleviate some health problems I've dealt with for many years. None of this is incredibly serious, so no need to worry. I debated even sharing this because, as of now, eating gluten free is not what my blog is about. There are a lot of great gluten free blogs out there but mine is more about recipes for every day using common ingredients. For the most part, you probably wouldn't have even noticed that I'm eating gluten free. My last few posts have all been recipes that just naturally contain no gluten.

Eating gluten free sounds a lot more intimidating than it actually is. Most natural foods don't have gluten in them. The things you have to watch out for are processed foods but there are plenty of great brands out there making everything from pancake mixes to chips to brownies, all without any gluten. I certainly don't recommend going gluten free if you don't need to, but if you do have an allergy--as many people do--there are a lot of options of great things to eat without feeling like you've given up a major part of your life.

Sandwich on gluten free bread: Recipe to come

I'm sharing this with you because I really wanted to write about a gluten free bread recipe that I made from the new cookbook out by Gluten Free Girl and the Chef. I figured I needed to explain myself before including a recipe for bread that uses millet flour and almond flour and a thing called xanthan gum. Bread was one thing I was really sad to even think about giving up. I love bread. And this bread is so good that even someone who can eat gluten would love it. Gavin, for one, thought it was great and probably wouldn't have known it was any different from most breads had I not told him. So I realize this recipe won't be a must-make for a lot of you but if you know someone with Celiac or with gluten-intolerance, pass it along. They will thank you, I promise. I also wanted to include this recipe on my blog in honor of my aunt and a good family friend who both have Celiac. Hopefully a great bread recipe will make their lives a little fuller. Because a life completely without bread would be a sad one indeed.

I recommend making the millet, oat and almond flours in the food processor using millet (a small cereal grain), whole oats and blanched almonds. The entire recipe could actually be made in the food processor by first grinding the three flours, in the order above, and then adding the rest of the ingredients and mixing with the dough blade. A stand mixer or by hand would also work. Weighing the flours is the best way to ensure the correct ratio of flours but volume measurements are also included if you don't have a scale.

Gluten Free Bread

• 1 1/4 cups (8 oz) potato starch
• 1 1/4 cups (3.5 oz) almond flour
• 2/3 cup (3 oz) oat flour
• 1/2 cup (3 oz) millet flour
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 3 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/3 cups warm water (110F)
• 2 eggs
• 1/6 cup canola oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• Extra canola oil for oiling bowl

Sift together potato starch, almond flour, oat flour, and millet flour.
Add yeast, xanthan gum and salt, stirring to combine.
Pour the warm water, eggs, canola oil, and honey into the dry ingredients. Mix until the dough has fully come together. Mine looked like very thick pancake batter but it looks more like bread dough after it rises.
Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a clean cloth. Let it rise for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 500F. Divide the dough into two oval shaped loaves and make three small cuts on the top of the dough. Cook the bread either directly on a pizza stone or preheat a Dutch oven, line it with parchment paper, and cook the bread in that. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a thermometer reads 180F and comes out clean.
You could also let the bread rise in an oiled loaf pan for the last hour. Then bake it at 375F for about 45 minutes to make sandwich bread.

For a printable recipe click here