Super Easy Gluten Free (Sort of Sourdough) Bread

RecipesFoodBlog

22 Jul

I used to make my own bread when we ate gluten, often sourdough. I used to use spelt flour, rye or kamut, but we made a decision (well let’s be honest, I made it for us), about seven years ago, to be gluten free. When I say I made bread, I made it for me, and for about 20 other families in the village I lived at in the time in Leicestershire - it was a passion. So I have missed making it, and will continue to, because making gluten free bread is not the same as there is no need to kneed or work with the dough in the same way with the absence of gluten. However, I have enjoyed the alchemy of making gluten free bread. I find it more magical in a way because there is no gluten to give it structure. There is one recipe I make which includes many different gluten free flours, but I find it is overwhelming for most people.

Last year I tried the Dove’s Farm gluten free bread flour for the first time, and I found it was…OK. Then one day I accidentally left it to prove for too long, and it spilt all over my countertop. I couldn't waste it, so I put it back in the tin, but it being too late to bake at that point, I left it in the fridge overnight to prove again, so I could make it in the morning. The result was a much improved loaf! I told my friend Chris (many of you will know my friend Gus, Chris is her husband), as we have a shared passion for baking, and I knew he made bread with this flour too. Chris has a very process orientated way of working through ideas, and is curious and experimental. I kept experimenting too in a haphazard way (my style!). A month or so ago I was at Chris’ house + he told me his current method, using the principle of a long prove (following on from my discovery). I loved the systematic nature of it, so here it is.

I use these loaf ‘tins’ for the bread because the metal ones make the bread stick. These work wonderfully! Pyrex loaf tin.

Ingredients:

30g gram (chickpea) flour (sieved)
1 tbsp salt
6 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
520ml room temperature water (IN TOTAL - but not all at once)
500g Dove’s Farm gluten brown bread flour
2 tsp quick yeast (I use Dove’s Farm)
Coconut oil for the loaf ‘tin’ (note above what I bake this in - tin loaf tins didn’t work well, so I switched to glass)
Porridge oats to coat the bottom of the ‘tin’

Method (24 hours earlier than you want to bake the bread):

Mix 250g of the flour in a bowl with 200ml water and 1 tsp quick yeast.
Leave the bowl covered at room temperature for 24 hours.

Method (after the starter has fermented for 24 hours):

Add in all the other ingredients - sieve in the gram flour, and add in the remaining 320ml water + the remaining 1 tsp of quick yeast.
Gently combine.
Oil the pyrex loaf dish, using solid coconut oil (this is important because it helps create a nice layer of protection around the dish to stop it sticking, whereas olive oil runs down the sides), and put a thin layer of oats on the bottom of the dish (again to stop sticking). Then pour in the mixture (it is like a cake mixture).
Cover + leave to rise for about an hour - keep checking it because it will depend on the temperature of the room, but you want it to be nearly to the top of the dish (see photo below).
When it is close to being ready, preheat the oven to 220C, and place a oven tray at the bottom of the oven.
Just before you are ready to put the bread in the oven, boil a kettle.
Place the bread in the oven, on the middle shelf, and pour in the boiled water into the oven tray at the bottom of the oven (this gives the loaf a nice crust).
Bake for an hour. It should sound baked through when you tap it.
When it is out of the oven, run a knife around the edge, and then leave to cool completely (otherwise it will break).
When you take it out, you may choose to pop it back in a hot oven for 5 minutes or so to create more of a crust around the edge, but I don’t bother.
YUM!