Laughing At My Bread

[lpellegr]

I mostly bake gluten-free bread to get the bread crumbs, although some recipes give me nice slices. But yesterday I had to laugh at my bread. I doubled the recipe for Bette Hagman's 4-flour bread - I made one loaf last time (for the first time) and it was beautiful, but after a few slices I made the rest into crumbs. Yesterday's loaves - when I opened the oven after 10 minutes to cover them with foil, they had risen like something out of a horror movie - at least 2" over the top of the pan, and they weren't even at the top to start. So I finished baking them and let them cool, and took a slice off the end of one - looked good. But then came the second slice, and the third, and by then I was laughing - it looked like a colony of massive termites had been working on them . Holes, tunnels - too ugly for slices. So I cubed it all, baked at 250 until dry, and today I sacrificed them all in the food processor for one full quart ziploc bag of fine dry bread crumbs for cutlets and meatballs. All that work (and I was low on cornstarch and had to go get some because I was low on the 4-flour blend and had to make more) for about 4 cups of crumbs. Oh well. It's cheaper than buying gluten-free crumbs and I have time.

I think sometimes about my late grandparents - my Italian grandfather was a professional baker and his wife made all the family's bread (wonderful bread it was, too), and my maternal grandmother made the most wonderful homemade bread for her family from a very old recipe - she taught me a lot about kneading (well, I don't need to know that anymore) and rising time and how it affects the bread. I have her old pans, and I think of her every time I bake, but I wonder what they would all have to say about this bread? Bean flour? Sorghum flour? Xanthan gum? Then again, I don't think I would ever be able to make them believe that bread could make anybody sick.

[Cheri A]

((hugs)) I have done that too when my bread rises too much.

I use a modified Bette Hagman recipe for bread and found a tip in another book (I think Incredible Edible) about rising/baking. It said to put on the oven's lowest temp (I found 200 works best for me) and preheat while you are mixing the bread. Then put the bread in the oven and turn it off. It rises for me for about 20 minutes (until the batter is just below the rim of the pan)and then I turn the oven back on to 400 and bake for another 20-25 minutes (no foil). It hasn't failed me since I started doing that.