Making Bread -- Can I Leave Out Vinegar?

[strawberrygm]

I stopped at the only health food store within an hour from here the other day and bought 4 items.

Bobs Red Mill Choc Chip Cookies -- we have made these and we like them, although they burnt very quickly on the bottom -- could be b/c I used tin foil to prevent cc from cookie sheet

Bobs Red Mill Pancake Mix

Bobs Red Mill Homemade Bread Mix

Arrowhead Mill Pizza Crust Mix

I want to make the bread today by hand (we dont have a bread maker). It calls for 1tsp cider vinegar. I dont have any. What is it for and can I make the bread without it?

This store did not have any other brands to choose from.

[Takala]

There are a lot of baking recipes for gluten free calling for cider vinegar. Real apple cider vinegar is made from apples so it will not be sourced from grain, therefore no worries as to possible gluten contamination. Pure rice vinegar would also work. Avoid "cider flavored" vinegars which are grain based and only colored and flavored to taste vaguely like cider. Lemon or lime juice would also work. Organic Balsamic vinegar might work. I think somebody here also used vitamin C dissolved in water.

Vinegar does 2 things. One it acts as a "dough conditioner" to help the gluten free flours break down a little bit and become stickier and act a little bit more like wheat flour. The other thing is it acts as the acid to be added to the baking powder or soda base to make bubbles that expand and create leavening for the baked good.

If you have a recipe that is for a quick bread, you need the vinegar or other acid/sour additive to make the soda work. If you have a recipe that is going to be risen by yeast only, then you might not need it.

[munkee41182]

Hey there, I tried Bob's Bread Mix and I wasn't a fan. However it did make great breadcrumbs though. Any bread mix that you try and you don't like, just toast up the bread and grind it up in your food processor for meatballs, meat loaf, chicken parm, etc. Hope you like the bread mix better than I did. Although I am pretty picky about my breads

[RiceGuy]

I don't know how the vinegar would react with the gluten-free flours, but even for a quick-bread, vinegar/lemon juice isn't necessary. Neither is baking soda unless the recipe includes dairy or other acidic ingredients. For a quick-bread, baking soda is added to neutralize acidity, typically from dairy. Then the baking powder won't fizzle out too soon. I found that Bob's Red Mill baking powder is the way to go, since it starts to fizz when heated in the oven. Most baking powders (including Rumford) start reacting upon contact with water, and it seems the gluten-free dough doesn't contain the bubbles while being mixed. At least that's my experience.

I agree that a yeast dough should be fine without the vinegar.

[Vamonos]

  strawberrygm said:

I stopped at the only health food store within an hour from here the other day and bought 4 items.

Bobs Red Mill Choc Chip Cookies -- we have made these and we like them, although they burnt very quickly on the bottom -- could be b/c I used tin foil to prevent cc from cookie sheet

Bobs Red Mill Pancake Mix

Bobs Red Mill Homemade Bread Mix

Arrowhead Mill Pizza Crust Mix

I want to make the bread today by hand (we dont have a bread maker). It calls for 1tsp cider vinegar. I dont have any. What is it for and can I make the bread without it?

This store did not have any other brands to choose from.

How did the bread turn out with out vinegar? I did a quick check of my gluten-free cook books regarding vinegar. You can substitute dough enhancer (available in the health food section) or even substitute lemon juice for the acid the vinegar provides. I can recall the acid is necessary for the chemical interaction. I wouldn't omit the vinegar without substituting. Do you have regular white vinegar? That would also work.