French Bread: Attempt the First

Last night I tried to make the New French Bread recipe out of "The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread" by Bette Hagman. While I was unable to make anything remotely resembling bread, I did make some pretty tasty flat stuff that would make a great pizza crust, and with time and practice would probably make for a good loaf of French bread as well. I scaled down the French Bread/Pizza Mix from 6 cups to just enough for the recipe, hence the weird measurements. I think if I was going to do this again I'd make a larger loaf (partially because my roommate and I polished this one off in under 20 minutes and partially because I think it might work better with more dough), let it rise for a bit longer (HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN IT HAS RISEN ENOUGH?!?), and maybe add some rosemary.

French Bread/Pizza Mix

Ingredients:
1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons tapioca flour
2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
2 teaspoons egg replacer
1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar

Ingredients!

Blend flours, xanthan gum, gelatin, egg replacer and sugar well.




New French Bread

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups French Bread/Pizza Mix
3 tablespoons dry milk powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon yeast
2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2/3 cup warm water

Combine the flour, dry milk powder, salt, baking powder, and yeast. Put the dry ingredients in the bowl of a mixer. In a small bowl beat the egg whites, dough enhancer, and oil with a fork for a bit (the recipe is not very clear as to how well beaten they should be. Does she want them fluffy? Or just combined? I don't know!). Then add about 1/3 cup of warm water.

FUN FACT: Whenever I make bread I boil extra water so I can have a tea break. It is great. Right now I am really in to Lady Grey tea.

Tea time!

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. Slowly add more warm water until the dough is thick but not dry (I think I added too much water when I was making this... somewhere between 1/3 and 2/3 cup is the right amount). Beat on high for 3 minutes.

Using the big girl kitchen supplies.

Now Hagman tells you to spoon the dough in to a French bread pan or a cook sheet that has been greased and cornmealed. Now, I don't have a French bread pan (nor do I have any idea what they look like), and my cookie pan was dirty, so I decided to put it in another bread pan we have. I also decided to disregard any spoon-related advice and just use my fingers. This was a mistake. In fact, it was right around here that I found myself wondering what I had wroth, and if I was going to make it out of this alive.

AHH. What have I done?

Um, yeah. So, spoon the dough into a pan of some sort that you have greased and dusted with cornmeal. Then cover and let rise for 35 minutes for rapid-rising yeast, 60-75 minutes for regular yeast. I have RapidRise yeast, but I am pretty sure I should have let it rise longer because this is what it looked like after 40 minutes.

Probably not what risen dough looks like.

Cook in a 425 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when thumped.
My "loaf" cooked in 30 minutes, though the center was a tiny bit undercooked and the outside was pretty brown.

Mmm, crunchy.

So, it doesn't look like much, but it was actually pretty delicious. It didn't have the texture I typically associate with French bread (light and airy), and in fact fell pretty solidly on the denser side of things, but it had a really nice flavor, and I doubt that anyone would have guessed it was gluten-free. The texture I got this time was ideal for a focaccia or pizza dough recipe, and the next time I make it I'm going to let it rise for longer and add less water with the hopes that it will be less flat and more like French bread.

No bonus Linus picture this time, but I have a video of him playing that I might upload later.