Das Brot
After 4 years of baking, here is a loaf I love!
Gluten-Free Bread
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Base Ingredients & Recipe
developed in Ho-Chi-Minh City and Sydney.
If you cannot get the flour brand I am using here, please read about the
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a standard bread loaf pan, non stick if possible, mine is 11 cm by 21.5 cm or 4.5" by 8.5". If in doubt that your pan could have lost its non stickiness, use baking paper to line the tin.
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1 large mixing bowl and 2 smaller ones for wet and yeast mix.
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a cup measure container
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a whisk and large mixing spoon
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a set of measuring spoons, 1/4 tsp,
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1/2 tsp, 1 tsp and 1 TB. These are important due to the amounts in gluten free baking being sensitive and all teaspoons that are not proper measuring spoons have different sizes-
Hardware you need
Ingredients for the Dry Mix
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himalayan rock salt, finely ground
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white rice flour, my favourite brand: Bangkok Inter Food (BIF)
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yeast flakes
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toasted seeds to your liking:
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I use sunflower-, sesame-, linseeds and pepitas.
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gluten free baking powder. I recommend Bob's Red Mill double acting baking powder, due to being gluten and aluminium free.
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filtered water
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guar gum (Guarkernmehl in german)
Ingredients for the Yeast Mix
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active dry yeast (I strongly recommend to use Bob's Red Mill, as other yeast brands have not performed as well)
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luke warm, filtered water
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rice malt syrup
Ingredients for the Wet Mix
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extra virgin olive oil
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organic apple cider vinegar, with the mother, I like the raw, unfiltered version from Bragg
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psyllium husks
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filtered water
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​I am using this mix as an egg replacement
Click on images below to start enlarged slideshow
follow instructions how to do it in recipe
make sure the mix is still luke warm
so that most of the yeast stays in the water
for about 20 minutes
Prepare the Yeast Mix
Amounts needed
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3 tsp of active, dry Bob's Red Mill yeast
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1/4 cup of very hot water
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1/2 cup of room temperature water
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1 TB rice malt syrup
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Process
Boil some water, you need 1/4 cup recently boiled water.
Ad hot water to mixing bowl and ad the rice malt syrup. Stir until combined.
Ad room temperature water, stir to combine. Now drizzle in the yeast, give it a gentle stir and let the bowl rest in a warm, wind free spot for 20 minutes. Click on the images to enlarge them and you can see how the yeast is rising. Photos were taken 5 minutes apart.
I usually do not use any rice malt syrup, however I have tried this recipe a few times with dried stevia powder, and the yeast does not rise with stevia.
Prepare the Wet Mix
Amounts needed
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1 tsp of apple cider vinegar (acv)
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1/2 cup of filtered water
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3 TB of water
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1 TB olive oil
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1 TB psyllium husks
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Process
Get your amounts organised, as the psyllium husks thicken up quickly and you don't want uneven blobs in the mix-
Whisk the acv and the oil into the 1/2 cup of water.
Pour 3 TB of water into a bowl, ad the psyllium husks and whisk quickly to combine, then straight away ad the oil-water-acv-mix and whisk again to combine. Make sure it is lump free.
Let this mix rest for about 5 minutes.
Prepare the Dry Mix
Amounts needed
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2 & 3/4 cups white rice flour
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1 tsp pink salt
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2 & 3/4 tsp guar gum
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2 tsp baking powder
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3 TB each of toasted sunflower-, sesame-, linseeds and pepitas
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1 TB yeast flakes
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up to 1/2 cup of water extra, only if needed, see tips in GF Bread Baking Basics
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Process
Dry fry seeds in the frying pan on medium to low heat. Do not walk away from it, as they can burn quickly. Keep stirring until slightly browned. Pour them into a bowl to cool down.
If you leave them in the hot pan they may
brown more or burn-
Ad flour, salt, guar gum, yeast flakes and baking powder to a large bowl and whisk till well combined. Ad cool seeds and whisk again.
Toasting the seeds is optional,
I prefer the flavour.
click on images below to enlarge
until it gets too hard to stir
stir until well combined
Mix the Mixes
​Process
Make a mould in the flour mix and ad the wet mix first, than ad the yeast mix.
Gently stir with a large spoon until you can't stir anymore due to the mix being too dry.
Ad 1/2 cup of water and stir until well combined.
Should you want to experiment here with different flours, the amounts of water you will need will change. And every flour behaves differently. Your white rice flour may need a bit more or less water than mine.
The end result should be quite moist and very sticky.
Save your Hands!
What ever you do, do not touch the dough.
It is very sticky and cannot be kneaded by hand.
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click on images below to enlarge
drizzle with a little olive oil
use the back of a large spoon to spread the oil around
Flatten the Top
I rub a little olive oil into my bread tin, as it helps removing the bread easily after baking and gives the bread a bit of colour.
I realised that after about 10 loaves, my bread tin was not non stick any more and I needed to start using baking paper. Just cut it to size with 2 rectangles or cut the corners. Then wipe a little olive oil on the paper.
Fill the dough into the bread baking tin and use a silicon scraper to clean your bowl.
click on images below to enlarge
 rest in warm spot |  after 10 minutes |
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 after 15 minutes |  after 20 minutes |
The Rise
This bread rises for 20 minutes
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Start pre-heating your oven at such time that it reaches 180 degrees celsius when the bread finished raising.
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Gluten free bread does not rise as high as a normal wheat bread would, but you can see in the pictures that it raises a little bit.
Ready for the Oven!
Put the bread into the pre heated oven,
in the centre.
Bake for approximately 40 minutes.
Due to every oven performing differently, the time may vary.
Keep checking it to make sure your oven is not hotter than mine, which could burn the bread.
Keep a timer handy and record exactly how long yours took, so that you can adjust the recipe to your appliance.
I take mine out when it has a good colour and sounds a little hollow when knocking on the top.
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Rest the loaf for 3-5 minutes in the pan before removing it and cooling it on a drying rack.
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I let it cool completely before slicing it.
And I freeze 2-4 slices of bread per freezer bag.
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The bread tastes delicious toasted, which means you can just take a slice from the freezer and stick it into the toaster when ever needed.
Done!
Done!
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I take mine out when it has a good colour and sounds a little hollow when knocking on the top.
This takes 40 minutes in my oven.
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Rest the loaf for 3-5 minutes in the pan before removing it and cooling it on a drying rack.
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I let it cool completely before slicing it.
And I freeze 2-4 slices of bread per freezer bag.
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The bread tastes delicious toasted, which means you can just take a slice from the freezer and stick it into the toaster when ever needed.
Cooling down
Rest the loaf on a drying rack.
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I let it cool completely before slicing it, to make sure it does not crumble.
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Dig in!
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The Bread is amazing when it's fresh and also performs really well after it has been frozen.
I just take out a slice and stick it straight into the toaster.
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When you freeze slices make sure they dont sit directly on top of each other, as it gets tricky to seperate a slice. Either freeze 2 slices next to each other or freeze them off centre from each other, which makes it easier to break a slice off.
The Toast
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Delicious!
Clean-up
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The important thing is to clean your bowl really well before washing it.
I once had to call a plumber to unblock my drain due to washing my dough bowls in the sink and flushing the sticky leftovers down the pipes.
I now use fruit nets that i keep when buying bulk fruit and vegetables and if they are big I cut them into pieces. If you use your normal sponge it will be ruined after clean up. The nets I use once and recycle them.
Pour some flour into the bowl, wipe clean and discard into the bin.
The last image is the cleaned bowl, ready to be washed.
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GF Bread Baking Basics
This is my recently acquired wisdom regarding GF baking in different countries:
I went back to Sydney after finalising the recipe in Ho-Chi-Minh-City and my bread recipe needed less water with a Sydney rice flour....
Flours from different brands and different countries are never the same. Therefore one needs to "play" with the flours you purchase and adjust water amounts. If you live in a country with no access to the Thai flour I used, you will most likely have to adjust the water amount I used to achieve the same consistency.
In Vietnam, I developed this recipe with a Thai rice flour by www.bangkokinterfood.co.th (BIF)
This was the only rice flour I could find here and it turns out it is my favourite so far. The bread rises beautifully and the end product is a perfect, fluffy and light bread, with a fantastic "springy-ness"-
When I arrived in Sydney, I tried the exact same recipe with an Australian brand of white rice flour and to my surprise I had to reduce the water to achieve the consistency I needed. So please use my recipes as a guideline and adjust your water amount to achieve a moist and quite sticky consistency. Try to avoid adding extra water and mix for 1-2 minutes to absorb the wet and yeast mix properly. Only if this becomes impossible add more water one tablespoon at the time. If you use too much water you will end up with a "sticky" bottom. The bread is still edible like that, but if you want perfection keep track of how much water you used for your chosen flour brand and adjust your recipe.
Let me know if you find a nice tasting flour brand near you, I would like to start a list of the most delicious flour brands to share with everyone!
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