Simona

[KiwiBrit]

Thank you!

[Simona19]

Thank you!

You welcome!

Are you planning to make it, or you did it already? My lunch, just now was French toast from my bread that I baked on Friday. Yummy!

[Poppi]

I made the bread this evening. I made it as specified except I used salted butter and regular cow's milk.

My dough was way too sticky to braid so I formed it into a roundish loaf on a piece of parchment on my pizza peel. After it had risen I slashed the top, did the egg wash and popped it onto my preheated baking stone.

Slashing the top was a big mistake. The loaf wound up kind of exploding outward from the X I cut in the top. My friend and I were giggling about how ugly it was.

That was the only downside.

The smell was amazing. As someone who used to bake bread almost daily it was so nice to have that wonderful yeasty bread smell wafting through the house again. My 6 year old son came in from playing and gasped. "Is that bread I smell? YIPPEE" He ate 4 pieces with dinner.

The texture was that uniquely gluten free bread texture. I was hoping for lighter but that's a fantasy I think. It was like a scone.

The taste was amazing. The crust was perfect. All in all, it was without question the best bread I have had since going gluten free. We ate half of the loaf with dinner (family of 7 plus 1 guest over for dinner) and are looking forward to having the other half as french toast tomorrow. I am ridiculously excited, I haven't had french toast since March because I haven't found a bread that was suitable.

Thanks so much for the recipe.

[notme]

*bump!*

ok, this is my new go-to dough thank you so much, simona! i made it last night and followed your directions (except i used unsalted butter instead of margarine and lactose-free milk instead of rice milk) it came out AWESOME (except it flopped over a little during the rising) it is soooo delicious i picked at it a little before i went to bed last night and today i am having some with black raspberry jam. i am so excited to have a dough that i can actually shape like gluten dough!! for halloween, we fix a spread for the kids when they are done trick-or-treating they get some hot beef vegetable (used to be barley in it but last year i used quinoa and when they are cooked really good, they sort of unraveled and they looked like worms - the kids just loved that!) soup and i used to make bread 'bones' but haven't found a workable recipe. i think i could make a whole skeleton from this dough - they would love that! next time i make this bread i am going to add a little sugar and make sweet italian bread. also cinnamon rolls. also something with apples and caramel......... i wonder if you added some whipped egg whites at the end of kneading if it would make bigger air bubbles in it?? hmmmmm...

thank you again, as i just couldn't get into baking with bread 'batter'

ps - i also didn't trust rice flour very much, but this is not grainy at all. also, i have to freeze some of it b/c it is a Giant Loaf so i hope it freezes well. LOL if it lasts that long....

[Simona19]

I just want to make correction in the recipe: in salt. For this recipe you need more salt, if you want your cake to taste better. I'm using now 1 Tbsp. of salt.

For sweet version use 4 Tbsp. of sugar and 1 Tbsp. of salt.

[Simona19]

Simona's braided Challah
(Gluten and casein free)

Ingredients:

3 cups white rice flour
2 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 cup potato starch
1/2 cup arrowroot starch
3 Tbsp. Xanthan gum
1 teaspoon Baking soda (I used measuring spoons)
1 Tbsp. of sugar
1 Tbsp. of salt  (I elevated this just now from 1 teaspoon to 1 Tbsp.The challah will taste better.)

3 cups of warm vanilla rice milk
2 rapid yeast packets
3 Tbsp. of sugar, for sweeter version add 2 more Tbsp.

4 large eggs
1 egg white
1 stick of Fleishman margarine in room temperature, not melted

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp. or sugar
1 Tbsp. of rice milk

Direction:

1. Mix yeast, sugar and warm milk together and let it rise for about 15-20 minutes.

2. Put all dry ingredient in stand mixer. Add proofed yeast, eggs, and egg white. Mix for 3 minutes on low and 2- 3 minutes on high.

3. Place waxed paper on 10x15 baking sheet. Take a bigger cutting board and spread some oil (vegetable, canola) over. Divide dough on 6-8 pieces. Put some oil on yours hands, the same way like you do with lotion. Take one peace of dough, make ball and roll it into braid long about 6-7 inches. Repeat it three times. Take this braids and braid them together. Place them on baking pan.
If you work with 8 pieces, make second row of the Challah the same way as first. For the third row of Challah use only two pieces.



If you work with 6 pieces, then make second row with two braids and the first with one (like letter S).
When you work with braids, always have oily hands. Don't be afraid to use oil. Nothing will happen to dough.
This part is messy and little complicated, but it can be done.

4. Let it rise for 40-50 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 350 F.
6. Mix 1 egg yolk, sugar and milk and spread this mixture with brush over Challah. Bake it for 50-60 minutes.



7. Mix 3 Tbsp. of sugar and 2 Tbsp. of water and spread it over Challah after you take it out.
Enjoy! This Challah tastes like the real think. It's very good and very soft for 3-4 days.



OR

I bough round porcelain dish for pies. It's 2 inch deep and have 9 inches in diameter. I used it the second time when I baked this Challah.
I divided dough 6 times. I braided three braids together and placed them in one half of the pie pan. I repeated this with other three braids.



I let it rise for 1 hour and baked on 350 F for 50 minutes. After I took it out, I spread the sugary water over the top of Challah.