Pamela Ellgen - No-Fail Gluten-Free Bread Baking: Classic Bread Recipes for the Texture and Flavor You Love

Copyright 2018 by Pamela Ellgen

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, Rockridge Press, 6005 Shellmound Street, Suite 175, Emeryville CA 94608.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering medical, legal, or other professional advice or services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an individual, organization, or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the individual, organization, or website may provide or recommendations they/it may make. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (866) 744-2665, or outside the United States at (510) 253-0500.

Rockridge Press publishes its books in a variety of electronic and print formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books, and vice versa.

TRADEMARKS: Rockridge Press and the Rockridge Press logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Callisto Media Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Rockridge Press is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Book Design Jennifer Durrant

by Rich Ellgen 2018

Illustrations Tom Bingham 2018

ISBN: Print 978-1-64152-019-5 | eBook 978-1-64152-020-1

FOR
BRAD & COLE

Contents

F ew if any other foods hold the cultural significance that bread does. Since the dawn of civilization, humans around the world have ground grains, mixed them with water, and set them by the fire or into an oven to bake. Bread is the staff of lifequite literally for the millions of people who rely on it as their primary source of sustenance.

And yet, for me and so many others with celiac disease, a wheat allergy, or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, the thrill of baking and the pleasure of eating good bread are often a distant memory. Most of us know what it tastes likeor at least what it should taste likeand reminisce about tearing off a hunk of French baguette and dunking it into olive oil or slathering a piece of sourdough toast with butter sigh.

I went gluten-free nearly a decade ago, when the only options for gluten-free bread were leaden loaves of brown rice bread. They weighed as much as a brick and tasted only slightly better, something like yeast, sand, and sawdust. Initially, I opted for no bread at all. And the sacrifice was worth it. I said goodbye to a lifetime of unexplained stomachaches, mysterious tingling in my arms and legs, nagging food cravings, and mood swings. Eventually I learned to bake without wheat and found gluten-free products that were, well, good enough.

Weve come a long way since then. Today you can find gluten-free sandwich breads and ciabatta even in mainstream grocery stores. While these commercial varieties are getting better, and they might answer the daily dilemma of what to pack in your kids lunch-boxes, they dont quite satisfy that longing for good bread. You know, the kind of bread that stretches gently as you tear it from the loaf. The kind of bread you bite into and savor. The kind of bread that makes wherever you are feel like home.

In The Art of Eating , M.F.K. Fisher describes bread making as an almost hypnotic business, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the worlds sweetest smells. There is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.

In this book, I want to connect you with the homely ceremony of making bread, fill your kitchen with the sweetest smells, and leave you eagerly anticipating many future encounters with delicious, homemade, gluten-free bread.

Many gluten-free baking books begin by telling you to forget everything you know about baking. But you neednt do that. Yeast is still yeast. It still feasts on starches, converting them to sugar to leaven bread. It still needs time to do its yeasty business. No matter the grains you use, they are still ground to a powder to compose our bread. Some feel like silk between our fingers. Others are nutty and rough. Some of them are ancient. We combine them with other grains to bring out the unique taste and texture we want in each loaf. Like the millennia of bakers who have gone before us, we bake our bread with the precision of a chemist and the artistry of a painter.

How is gluten-free baking so different? It isnt. And this fact shouldnt be forgotten. While gluten-free baking differs in a few consequential ways from baking with wheat flour, which I will hereinafter call traditional baking, the prevailing principles are the same, and the joy of baking bread belongs to us as well.

Beyond Traditional Baking

Before we explore the nuances of gluten-free baking, lets briefly discuss baking with wheat flour and which characteristics of flour help make really good bread. By understanding traditional baking, we are better equipped to replicate it in our gluten-free baking.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye). Gluten can also be found in other grains, such as oats, due to cross-contamination. When wheat flour is mixed with water, the proteins glutenin and gliadin develop within about seven minutes to form gluten, which gives the dough an elastic quality, especially when fully developed through kneading. This allows the dough to stretch as it rises, giving way to pockets of air without falling apart. Modern, genetically engineered varieties of wheat exploit this quality of gluten, making it even stretchier and strongerwhich is in all likelihood more damaging to our gut. In gluten-free baking, this stretchiness is instead achieved through a blend of flours and starches and the addition of emulsifiers and gums.