Request For Help!

[kaylee]

Hi all,

I am hoping someone will be able to help with my bread baking problem. I am about to give up my attempts for now as I am, as we speak, in the middle of producing yet another failed loaf!

I made a number of really good loaves following one of Bette Hagman's basic recipes. The thing is, my son can have neither egg whites nor the dry milk powder called for. I have been following the recipe for her egg replacer bread, using 2 egg yolks and 5 teaspoons of egg replacer to make up the amount called for. I have tried using ground almonds to replace the milk powder, and I have gone out and bought fresh yeast. Whatever I've done so far (on my fourth attempt with slight variations) isn't working as the bread refuses steadfastly to rise. Since it rose perfectly when using eggs and milk powder in the basic recipe I know it isn't something wrong with my machine. I had already succesfully reduced the number of eggs in the basic recipe to one whole one plus 2 whites plus egg replacer to equal one egg. It is perhaps the change away from milk powder that is messing things up?

I have already wasted so many ingredients I hesitate to try again without advice!

Thanks for your ideas,

Kaylee

[Kim]

It sounds like the almonds are messing it up -- I would think "dough enhancer" would be a better replacement for the milk powder or try cider vinegar. Either one of those would be better than almonds. Also, if you can "halve" the recipe for experiments, it will save you on ingredients until you are sure you have it right. Good luck, Kim.

[kejohe]

To be honest, I haven't made egg free bread in a while, but I do know that problems with rising can be casued by a couple of things. Sometims too much salt can prevent a loaf from rising, so you might want to try decreasing the amount called for in your recipe.

Also, if you don't think the salt is a problem, try increasing the sugar. Yeast feeds on sugars and ferments causing the rising action, so by adding sugar, you give it more food thus (hopefully) getting more of a rise or a quicker rise.

Another option might be to try adding a little unflavored gelatin powder, to help replace the milk powder. I have never done this, but I have seen many recipes that use it, so it may work.

I also agree with Kim, try to halve your recipe until you are sure you got it right. I used to make rolls, rather than a full loaf, to save money. And if you do get a floppy loaf, don't toss it. Cut it up and let it dry out, then process it in your food processor and use the crumbs in any recipe that calls for bread crumbs, like chix parmesean, or coated fried foods. You won't be able to tell the difference and then you don't feel as though your throwing your money away.

Hope this at least gives you a few ideas... Good Luck!

[kaylee]

Thanks for your replies! It hadn't even crossed my mind that the almonds could be interfering in the rising process. Halving the recipe is a good idea (why didn't I think of that??)

What are your thoughts on soy flour or potato flakes for replacing the dry milk? Now that I think of it for that matter, what exactly ARE potato flakes?

kaylee

[justmel74]

What book are you using? Are you using Bette's Bread book? There is a recipe for an egg and milk free bread using her four flour bean mix on page 101 (The Gluten Free Gourmet bakes bread). There is naturally more protein in the bean flour mix and makes it easier to make an egg-free/dairy free loaf of bread. If this isnt the recipe you are using, hopefully, it should work better for you. It already has the gelatine, almond meal, egg replacer, dough enhancer, and even uses lemon peel, brown sugar and honey.

Also, I find the bread machine to be a HORRIBLE way to make these breads, unless yours can be programmed to not have the second rising. I find that using a good Kitchen-aide stand mixer and mixing the ingredients exactly as Bette says, with a cake batter consistency for the 3-4 minutes she suggests to work a lot better. I think the yeast gets mixed in better with the ingredients with a mixer than with those paddles, and because the mixing time in a machine is about 10 minutes, I think that the batter gets overworked. I also have found making the bread into rolls using english muffin rings to work better as well.

A couple of other things...I like my bread to be on the sweeter side, so I always add an extra TBSP to whatever the recipe calls for. In fact, if you want a sweet bread (like for cinnamon raisin bread), you can put as much as a 1/4 of a cup of sugar in the dough. Just dont let it rise for as long as the recipe says. Watch the rising period of the recipe and when it is doubled, it is time to bake. Also watch the crust, as the x-tra sugar makes it brown faster and get crunchy easier.

I've been baking bread for years, and now I find that the gluten free breads are not too much different as far as the yeast is concerned. It behaves the same in a gluten free bread as a reg. bread. If anything, gluten-free bread is much easier in that there is no kneading, and no need to punch down the dough or let it rise a second time. When using yeast, make sure your liquid is warm enough or not too warm. If the yeast is mixed into the dry ingredients, you can let it get as hot as 120-130 degrees fahrenheit. But if it is being proofed (mixed into water with a little bit of sugar) it has to be more like 110-115 degrees. When I first started making breads I would use a candy thermometer to always measure how warm my liquid was. If you warm the liquid in a microwave, make sure to stir it before checking the temp or mixing it into the dough to even out hot-spots.

I hope this helps, and is not too much info.

[justmel74]

I forgot one more thing...I think you can use a soy baby formula to substitute for the milk powder (ex. Isomil Soy, or Similac Soy). But you might want to double check on that.

[kaylee]

I haven't seen the book you mentioned but it looks like it would be worth checking out. I sniffed around a bit to find out about the 4 flour mix, and see it uses sorghum and garfava flours - both which I have never actually seen. That doesn't mean I can't figure out how to get hold of them.

I am hoping my son will grow out of the egg white and dairy problems with time, but for the moment they just have to be worked with. I have found a lot of recipes on the internet for gluten free baking, but most of the gluten-free bread recipes I have turned up so far do seem to require whole eggs. The recipe I am using for me I think is great. It uses half brown rice and half chick pea flour and the taste really is very good (for me! I know tastes vary considerably!). I am going to experiment next by altering the egg requirement without touching the dry milk requirement, then vice versa, to try to pinpoint the problem.

I appreciate your remarks about the bread machine. It really sounds like you've gotten yourself into an effective and happy routine and that is of course what I'm aiming for. I just purchased this machine recently, though, before I found out about problems with gluten-free flours and whatnot, and frankly I hate to just box it away so soon! If it turns out I can't produce a decent egg free, dairy free AND gluten free bread, I will use the machine for myself and start making my son's bread by hand. I haven't tried the soy baby formula but will definitely keep it in mind for my experiments.

Thanks for your time,

Kaylee

[justmel74]

You can buy the four flour bean mix from Authentic foods (it's called Bette Hagman's Four Flour Bean Mix:

Open Original Shared Link

This page also has her feather light mix too.

Since you don't have the book, I copied the recipe for you for a medium 1.5 lb loaf

Dry Ingredients

four flour bean mix: 3 C

Xanthan Gum: 2 1/4 tsp

Salt: 3/4 tsp

unflavored gelatin: 1 1/2 tsp

NutQuik or Almond meal: 3 TBSP

Brown Sugar: 3 TBSP

Dried lemon peel: 1 1/2 tsp

Dry yeast granuals: 2 1/4 tsp

Wet ingredients

Egg replacer: 6 teaspoons

Cool Water 1/2 cup

honey 1 1/2 TBSP

Dough enhancer or vinegar: 3/4 tsp

margarine or butter: 3 TBSP

warm water (more or less) 1 1/2 Cups

If using loaf pan(s), grease and dust with rice flour

The water temp will be different for hand mixing and for bread machines

The hand mixing have it about 110 degrees; for your bread machine, read the diretions in the manual.

For both hand and machine mixing, combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk the egg replacer and the cool water until it resembles egg whites. Add the honey, dough enhancer/vinegar, margarine, and most of the warm water. The remaining water should be added as needed after the dough has started mixing, either in the bowl of your mixer or in the pan of hte bread machine.

For the bread machine: Place the ingredients in the bread machine in the order suggested in the machine manual. Use the setting for white bread with medium crust the first time. If necessary, lower to light crust if over baked.

(my note...bette has some variations as well for this basic mix. I can post those too, at another time...hope this recipe works for you! I've personally never tried it).

[kaylee]

wow, thanks for the recipe!

So far I haven't invested in an actual cookbook. I guess that's been part of my way of just easing myself into this new way of life ...

I will give this recipe a try as soon as I get myself organized enough to get the new flour. I hope it works out, as I have been finding the regular gluten-free bread I make too rich with the eggs - too rich for regular eating, in any case.

Thanks again.

Kaylee

[Linda74]

Hi. Am newly diagnosed celiac and also have a new egg allergy. Could someone tell me about the "egg replacer" and where to get it. Also, anyone have any recommendations for premade baked goods without egg? it seems like most of the gluten free stuff always has eggs! Not a great combination to need to avoid.

Thanks

Linda