Cooking Disaster!

[gfmolly]

So I am new to cooking with gluten free mixes. I have shyed away from anything that needed dough and stuck with the basics. For New Year's Eve I decided that each family member could pick an appetizer and I would make it and that would be our dinner celebration. My oldest son chose pizza dippers. So I bought Whole Foods gluten free pizza crust mix and went to town. I threw the mix in the bread maker on the dough cycle. (This works for other doughs, why not gluten free??) It came out really sticky and like there had been too much air put into the dough by the bread machine. I was able to salvage most of the dough by adding some gluten free flour, but wasn't able to roll out the pizza, so it was more like pizza bread. It was still very good. It was pretty funny. I feel like part of the club now! My first gluten-free sort of disaster!

So my question....if it doesn't state that you can use a mix in the breadmaker, then you just have to knead by hand? I know this seems like a no-brainer, but I just don't do dough!! Is there a mix that anyone recommends that can go in the breadmaker? Can you adapt the mix so that it can go in the bread maker?

Thanks for your advice.

Terri

[JNBunnie1]

I think you've been under a wrong impression about gluten free dough, which is understandable. Gluten free dough does not need kneading. Kneading is a process carried out with gluten filled flours in order to develop the gluten's elasticity. That's what gives gluteny bread that light airiness so difficult to achieve in gluten-free baking. Our flours have no gluten, so once they are done with their rise cycle (when applicable) they are simply baked. Most gluten-free mixes and doughs are best mixed by hand or standmixer, I've found. Unless you're going to bake your dough in the breadmaker, you don't really need to use your breadmaker to mix the dough. Once you've stirred the dry properly into the wet, you're ready to bake. No kneading necessary!

[gfmolly]

I think you've been under a wrong impression about gluten free dough, which is understandable. Gluten free dough does not need kneading. Kneading is a process carried out with gluten filled flours in order to develop the gluten's elasticity. That's what gives gluteny bread that light airiness so difficult to achieve in gluten-free baking. Our flours have no gluten, so once they are done with their rise cycle (when applicable) they are simply baked. Most gluten-free mixes and doughs are best mixed by hand or standmixer, I've found. Unless you're going to bake your dough in the breadmaker, you don't really need to use your breadmaker to mix the dough. Once you've stirred the dry properly into the wet, you're ready to bake. No kneading necessary!

That makes alot of sense!!! Thanks for your insight. Kneading is the part of baking that often scared me off, so this is a positive!

Terri