Best Bread Ever

     Making gluten-free bread is an enjoyable task and makes the house smell incredible.  It tastes so good fresh out of the oven with butter and honey or jam and makes a great addition to any meal for the gluten-free eater.  It is perfect for making stuffing and cheese sandwiches and toast.  It can be time consuming with all of the ingredients gluten-free bread requires, but it is worth it to save money and have a product you made yourself and know is safe.
     For those times when you need bread and don't have any on hand, UDIs has made the most excellent bread in the world.  Smiths carries it as well as many other stores and you can find suppliers at the website www.udisglutenfree.com.  When I first started purchasing UDIs, it was only $3.00 and it is now $6.00.  It is worth every penny.  I have tried MANY different kinds of breads, pre-made, pre-mixed as well as my own home-made and UDIs makes one of the best tasting breads.  I prefer the brown rice bread to the white rice bread, but they are both great. 

     Another option for making bread is provided by King Arthur Flour   http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/mixes/special-diet.  You can purchase pre-made mixes ready to go in your bread machine or to mix and bake.  The bread mix is really good and doesn't have the grainy texture or odd after taste of many mixes.
     If you want to tackle the task of making your own bread, you can purchase all the ingredients from many health food stores or specialty stores and, even lately, mainstream stores.  I am fortunate to have a wholesale place close to me which sells in bulk  http://www.augasonfarms.com/Products/Gluten-Free and they ship as well.  They have great options with food storage, bulk storage and buying what you need for a better price.

Gluten-Free Flour Mix
This will substitute for flour straight across with any recipe pretty well and is taken from Bette Hagman's book.  Mix it and store it for easy use in an airtight tub or big zip lock bag.
6 cups rice flour (white or brown or a mix, we like to buy brown rice in bulk and grind it ourselves).
2 cups potato starch (not potato flour as they are different).
1 cup tapioca starch

Homemade Rice Bread, Recipe #1

Yields 2 small loaves

Heat oven to 200 degrees

Combine and let sit while you put dry ingredients together

1 ¾ cups warm water to activate the yeast

1 Tablespoon yeast

2 Teaspoons sugar

In the mixer stir:

2 cups of rice flour either white or brown or combination

2/3 cup potato starch (not potato flour)

½ cup tapioca flour (tapioca starch and tapioca flour are the same thing)

2/3 cup dry milk

2/3 cup whey protein powder (wild oats, nutrition stores, check for GF)

1 ½ Tablespoons Xanthan gum

1 Tablespoon salt

After blending the dry ingredients, add:

Yeast mixture

3 eggs or egg substitute equivalent

¼ cup oil (we usually used vegetable oil, but now favor coconut oil).

Mix until fully blended. The dough is very soft. Split the dough between 2 small, greased bread pans (small pans cook the middle best). If you wet your hand with water or oil, it is easier to pat down the dough to smooth it out.

Cook:

200 degrees for 30 minutes and then turn up the oven to

350 degrees for 30 minutes

Cool in the pan and then slice and serve or store in the fridge or freezer. It goes stale much faster than regular bread and needs to be in an airtight container or in the fridge or freezer.

Homemade Rice Bread, Recipe #2

Yields:  1 large loaf

3 cups GF Flour mix of your choice

¼ cup sugar

3 ½ tsp xanthan gum

1 ½ tsp salt

1 ½ Tablespoon yeast

1 ¾ cup warm water

1 ¼ cup oil (vegetable or coconut)

1 tsp rice vinegar

3 eggs or equivalent egg substitute

Mix flour, sugar, xanthan gum and salt together in a mixer bowl. Make a hole or dip in the mixture and put the dry yeast in the dip. Combine oil and vinegar and warm water in a separate bowl and then pour it on top of the yeast to activate the yeast and let it sit for 3 minutes.

Mix everything together on low speed and then add the eggs and mix until combined on high speed for 5 full minutes.

Grease loaf pans and spoon in batter and let it rise or 20 minutes. As the bread is almost ready heat the oven 200 degrees.

Cook:

200 degrees for 30 minutes and then turn up the oven to

350 degrees for 30 minutes

     Bread is something which is very hard for most people to go without.  When I first started trying to eat gluten-free, a hot, fresh roll at a restaurant wasn't something I could pass up.  Over time, the consequence of the gluten outweighs the craving and it stops looking like a hot, steaming enticement and more like a long time in the bathroom later. Although I eat paleo 6 days out of the week, on my cheat day it is the bread I want most.  I eat gluten-free all the time, even on cheat days, and enjoy rice bread and rice products on that cheat day.  Remember that everyone is unique and has a different chemistry and different set of food allergies.  You have to find what works best for you and how your body responds and heals to different foods.  Rice bread once a week is one thing that allows me to stay focused on eating healthy.  It truly is the little things that make us happy.