Flat Bread

I'm taking this recipe from Gluten Free Carla who posted it here. Due to copyright issues that don't make much sense to me, I am forced to remove Carla's recipe. I will leave, however, the modifications I introduced.


Equipment
measuring cups
measuring spoons
1 sifter
1 medium glass bowl
1 medium to large glass bowl (for dry ingredients)
1 large glass bowl (for liquid ingredients and mixing)
1 mixer
1 rubber spatula
1 8x8 silicone pan

Ingredients

I substituted extravirgin oil with rice oil and agave syrup with rice syrup. 

Procedure
As I wrote in my previous post, I always take care of measuring everything very carefully, then start by sifting the dry ingredients, so that all the flours that would normally tend to clump up are fine and smooth.

Directions
I modified some steps according to my own needs and equipment.

1. I preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). This is because I used a red silicone pan. By doing so, I also won't need any cooking spray or parchment paper.
2. I sifted all the dry ingredients before mixing them.
3. I added the dry mix one spoon at a time.

Here's the results of my implementation with modifications:

The smell is simply unbelievably good. It smells like bakery... I'm thinking I'll use this mix as a base for further experiments. Its consistency too is remarkable... it tastes particularly good with cheese, rosemary and tomatoes. The crust is think but crunchy and slightly - but only slightly - a tad too dry.


Overall, this is definitely a great keeper!!!


Due to copyright issues though, it's extremely unlikely I will feature any other recipe from Carla on this blog, no matter how good they are. And that is not a threat, it's a promise.

Sandwich bread

Today I got inspired to test a recipe for sandwich bread I found on Nourishing Meals. Because I had already tried another recipe - this time from Gluten Free Bay - I incorporated some suggestion from the latter in the former.


So here it goes....


Equipment
measuring cups
measuring spoons
1 microwave-safe bowl (for warming up the water)
1 immersion thermometer 
1 whisk
1 medium bowl
1 medium to large bowl (for dry ingredients)
1 large bowl (for liquid ingredients and mixing)
1 mixer
1 rubber spatula
1 9x5 bread pan


Ingredients
2 to 2 ¼ cups warm water (100-110°F aka 38-43°C)
2 teaspoons organic cane sugar4 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
⅓ cup maple syrup
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup millet flour
1 ½ cups sorghum flour
½ cup sweet rice flour 3/4 cup potato starch
1/4 arrowroot flour
½ cup tapioca flour
2 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum
2 teaspoons sea salt




Directions
1. Preheat oven at 200°F (about 95°C).


2. Grease a 9x5" bread pan


3. Warm up 2 cups (500 ml) of water and check with the thermometer that the temperature is between 100-110°F (38-43°C). Then add the active dry yeast and stir. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes, then stir in the maple syrup and the oil.


4. Carefully measure all the dry ingredients and put them in the medium-large bowl. In order to measure it the right way it's vital that you:

1. do NOT put the measuring cup inside the package of the flour
2. you DO in fact pour some flour in a small bowl and then fill the measuring cup with a spoon
3. you DO even out the flour with the rims of the cup, precisely, helping yourself with a knife, like this

When you measure sorghum flour, be careful. This is in fact a very hygroscopic flour (fancy term to mean it retains water easily so it clumps very easily!). What you want to do is to VERY gently press the surface of the flour so that you can flatten to the top some and THEN use the knife to even it out. If you use the knife without tapping it first it will roll the clumps around, and the measurement will be imprecise. The same thing happens to garbanzo flour, chestnut flour and - to a lesser extent - buckwheat flour.


Pour the wet ingredients in the large bowl of the mixer. Add the dry ingredients 1 spoon at a time and be careful that no clumps get formed. When you are done adding everything, the dough should look like this:

At this point, pour the dough into the pan, place the pan in the oven, turn the oven off and allow the dough to rise till it doubles.


The problem is, it doubled in 10 minutes. And, it didn't stop there - it kept on mushrooming out of control :) So I think next time I will avoid doing the proofing and, possibly, diminish the amount of sugars!


The final result is a bread with excellent taste and consistency, although the shame needs some improvement:

I promise you, it does NOT look as good as it tastes!!!


Do you have suggestions for improvement and/or questions? Please leave a comment!!!