gluten-free Flour And Bread

[LeahKristen]

Is it just me or does the gluten-free flour and bread made with gluten-free flour have a weird medicine like taste? I have not found a good gluten free bread and even when I tried to bake my own it tasted really gross. How do your get rid of that taste. I think the flour is the problem. Does anyone know of a good flour to use in gluten free baking. So far I have had bad luck with millet, brown rice, and garbanzo bean. I mean they have not all been terrible but they have not been good or even comparable to regular flour.

[JennyC]

You should try the featherlight mix. It has no funny aftertaste!

1 cup cornstarch

1 cup tapioca starch/flour

1 cup white rice flour

1 tbsp potato flour

[Roberta]

Tom Sawyer Gluten Free Flour is the best. www.glutenfreeflour.com

[RiceGuy]

There doesn't seem to be one single flour that will yield a decent bread. They should be used in combination. I use millet flour as one of many. IMO it is much more preferable than rice flour for both texture and taste.

The question is, what sort of bread are you looking to make? I mean, if you want something like "white bread", that would commonly be be achieved with a blend of flours which is high in starch content. A more hearty bread requires a blend of flours which has more protein and fiber content.

As for a "medicine-like" taste, I'm not sure what you mean. It may be one or more other ingredients you are using, and not the flour. However, gluten-free breads simply aren't going to taste exactly like those made with wheat. I wouldn't say they taste bad, just different. Personally I like the heartier, whole grain breads. Even when I was easting gluten, I didn't like "white bread". So I may not be able to help you if that's what you're looking for.

[dbmamaz]

One of the things I really liked in the introduction in the gluten-free cookbook I bought (gluten-free baking basics) - she said that the taste you miss when you make gluten-free bread, is the taste of the wheat. Wheat tastes good, and you can make breads which perform somewhat like wheat breads, but they will never TASTE like wheat breads, because nothing else tastes exactly like wheat.

If you have a sensitive pallette, you might want to wait a few months before you try the gluten-free breads - that way you wont remember regular bread as well, and the substitutes wont be quite as dissapointing.

[RiceGuy]

I agree with the flavor aspect. I sometimes like adding caraway seeds to the recipe, which is the distinctive flavor rye bread is known for (besides the rye). Minced onion goes well with this too IMO.

[buckeyenc5]

There doesn't seem to be one single flour that will yield a decent bread. They should be used in combination. I use millet flour as one of many. IMO it is much more preferable than rice flour for both texture and taste.

As for a "medicine-like" taste, I'm not sure what you mean. It may be one or more other ingredients you are using, and not the flour. However, gluten-free breads simply aren't going to taste exactly like those made with wheat. I wouldn't say they taste bad, just different. Personally I like the heartier, whole grain breads. Even when I was easting gluten, I didn't like "white bread". So I may not be able to help you if that's what you're looking for.

I like the heartier breads too. Do you a favorite whole grain/hearty bread recipe?

[Nanna]

Hi All,

I'm in the middle of the testing process. I feel much better off-gluten, but I sure miss bread. I love a hearty whole-grain bread and am looking for ways to make something that will satisfy my desire for hearty, chewy bread. No...I know, it won't have the taste of wheat.

All the recipes for bread call for kneading the dough for 15 minutes while using a mixer, like say, Kenwood or Kitchen Aid. I used to have these items but since I moved to Europe where the EL is different I haven't bothered with these expensive items. In Denmark, you pay 25 percent VAT on everything so it adds up.

I have to have a mixer of sorts and would like to know what you think is good, bad or impossible.

A Braun CombiMax 650: Open Original Shared Link

Very reasonably priced and on sale.

For kneading dough, the recommended time is 1

[MNBeth]

Nana,

I'm sure your machine will work for gluten-free bread. It looks very much like a food processor; I've used mine for gluten-free bread many times. I would recommend using the universal blade rather than the dough hook, as gluten-free bread is too different from regular bread to mix properly w/a dough hook.

And w/ a food processor, 15 minutes is definitely too long. 2 minutes should be plenty.

Sadly, I don't think there's any way to make a chewy gluten-free bread. That chew is all about gluten. Sigh. I was completely fascinated by bread before going gluten-free; now I can take it or leave it, even when the family loves it.

You can make it a bit heartier, though, by reducing the starch content and choosing more substantial whole flours. Skip the white rice and go for sorghum, millet, amaranth, quinoa... Most recipes I've seen use bare starches for half the flour or more. So far I've been able to get it down to 2 parts whole flour (sorghum & millet) to one part starch. I love the millet for it's flavor, but too much seems to make the bread too crumbly. I'm hoping to shrink that starch content even further, but am not yet sure how far I can go. You can also bulk up the bread by adding things like almond meal, flax meal, or rice bran.

Hope that helps a little. Let us know how you get on!

Beth

[Nanna]

Thank you, Beth,

I'm still messing around trying to do the best I can with not enough knowledge. I'm pleased to read that the food processor will do the trick and that it doesn't need 15 minutes to knead the dough. I will use the universal blade, as you suggest.

Yesterday, with some trepidation, I baked hahahaha a bread uhu huhuhu using a gluten and lactose free bread mix made with just rice flour. Well...I am sure the ducks would sink to the bottom of the pond were I to feed them the bread. I had misgivings, but the picture on the package looked so good...

I will try your suggestions:

"Skip the white rice and go for sorghum, millet, amaranth, quinoa... Most recipes I've seen use bare starches for half the flour or more. So far I've been able to get it down to 2 parts whole flour (sorghum & millet) to one part starch. I love the millet for it's flavor, but too much seems to make the bread too crumbly. I'm hoping to shrink that starch content even further, but am not yet sure how far I can go. You can also bulk up the bread by adding things like almond meal, flax meal, or rice bran."

I've made a great tasting corn bread using the same ingredients as always, but substituting quinoa flour for the wheat, which is a little bit bitter, so the next time I will use half quinoa and half millet. It's dry-ish, so I may increase the oil. Would that work, or do you have a better idea?

I have tried making a sweet with dates, cocoa, almonds, coconut fat and coconut all chopped up with some gluten free orange marmelade. It would have been good had I not added two teaspoons of sugar. It made my teeth ache, it was so sweet.

With time, I'll get the hang of this baking thing.

Nanna

[dbmamaz]

I like the heartier breads too. Do you a favorite whole grain/hearty bread recipe?

This has a link to a popular multigrain gluten-free bread. Personally, when I tried it, it flopped and i didnt even like the flavor, but most people rave about it:

Open Original Shared Link

This has some good baking tips:

Open Original Shared Link

[MNBeth]

Wow - you are ambitious. I'm impressed with all you've tried already. I've been pretty chicken; my initial attempts at gluten-free yeast breads were disastrous and very discouraging, especially because I had considered myself a very knowledgeable and experienced bread baker. I was not happy to find myself a newbie again!

I had heard that quinoa could be bitter, but have not used it. I do buy a quinoa/corn pasta that we really like.

For the dryness, more oil might well help, or more egg. I also add a teaspoon of plain gelatin per loaf, and that seems to help, too.

[MNBeth]

This has a link to a popular multigrain gluten-free bread. Personally, when I tried it, it flopped and i didnt even like the flavor, but most people rave about it:

Open Original Shared Link

This is, indeed, a very popular recipe, but because it's so non-specific about the flour, results can vary quite widely. For the "gluten-free flour" called for, people are using an endless variety of flour combinations, some with lots of starches, some with none. Anyway, it didn't really fly around here. Clearly, though, we're some kind of oddball family.

I did learn, partly through my daughter's science fair project, that a little bean flour does wonders for the texture of gluten-free breads. Sadly we didn't care for the flavor. I have heard, though, that Bob's Red Mill garfava flour has a funky flavor because it's stone ground and overheats in the milling process; bean flours from other sources were said to be better. I have no idea whether that's true or not.

Happy baking!