Yeast Bread, Gluten-Free

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At REAL Worldwide Headquarters, the weekends are for baking bread. Once you get in the routine of it and have the ingredients on hand, baking gluten-free bread is relatively simple. Yet there’s nothing routine or simple about the taste. Fresh home made bread is always cause for celebration.

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
1 1/2 cups garbanzo flour
2 cups corn starch, potato starch or arrowroot starch
1 cup tapioca flour
4 teaspoons xanthan gum
OPTIONAL: 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar (evaporated cane juice)
2 packages active dry yeast
1 Tablespoon olive oil
4 1/2 cups warm water (more water may be necessary)
OPTIONAL: 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped nuts or seeds (sunflower, sesame, walnuts, etc)

Preheat oven to 200oF.

In a large bowl, whisk together the rice flour, garbanzo flour, corn starch, tapioca and xanthan gum, and salt.

In a medium size bowl mix the sugar with the yeast and pour in about 1 cup of the water. The water should be lukewarm, not hot, or the yeast won’t work. Beat the mixture with a fork and let sit for about 5 minutes. The top should foam. If it doesn’t the yeast is not good and the dough won’t rise. Pour the yeast mixture over the dry ingredients and incorporate with a fork whisk. Mix in another cup of water and the olive oil. Continue adding water until the mixture has the consistency of thick cake batter. It will be a creamy, very thick liquid. Stir in nuts/seeds.

Pour batter into two greased loaf pans, filling each pan about half-way. Place on the top of the oven and cover with a towel. I have a gas oven with the burners raised above the top surface of the oven so that the pans are not directly touching the heat – they are just in a warm environment. If you have a flat surface cook top you many want to place the pans on a rack so they are not in direct contact with the heat. Allow the batter to rise and double in size – rising above the top of the pans. This can take from 30 to 60 minutes.

Increase oven temperature to 400oF and bake loaves for 10 minutes. Remove loaves from the oven and cover each with aluminum foil. If the bread is not covered the crust will get very dark and hard. Bake the covered loaf pans for about 35-45 minutes. To determine if the bread is done, insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. I like a moist bread, so I baked it for 35 minutes after covering. The toothpick was free of crumbs but there were some gummy spots which when cool becomes a moist, spongy bread. Remove from oven and let cool.

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