Give Us This Day. Gluten Free Bread.

My obsession knows new bounds.  For the last couple of days I've been obsessing about bread making. Gluten free bread making.  The more I read, I think the less I knew! In the end, the only way to see what works was to get in the kitchen, and well, see what works.

So for Vegan MoFo 2013, Day 20.  I'm giving us this day our daily bread. Sans gluten.

Gluten Free Bread

3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup wholemeal teff flour
1/4 cup sorghum
3/4 cup cassava (tapioca) flour
1 tbs psyllium powder
2 tbs ground chia
1 1/2 cups warm vegan milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp pink salt
1 tsp white sugar



Bake at 180 degrees for 55 minutes, then five minutes extra with aluminium foil over the top.  I took it out of the oven at 50 mins and tapped the bottom but it did not sound hollow enough so I popped it back in again.   When it is cooked, remove it from the loaf tin.  Leave it to completely cool before slicing.  I had to go for a once around the lake at the end of my street, to cut into it was too great.

I read on one website that it was better to introduce the quick acting yeast to warm liquid before adding to the flour. I have no idea what difference this made but I went along with it.

Use a tsp of olive oil to make smoothing down the top easier and also improve the crust.  If you don't want to use oil then wet hands will help to smooth.

I let it rise in an lightly oiled mixing bowl for 1.5 hours. The house was warm, this is important.  Yeast is a bit like me, performs better when warm.  The risen dough then sat in the loaf tin for a further ten minutes whilst I waited for the oven to heat up. 

I've read so much about gluten free bread in the last three days.  Some recipes have had such a long list of ingredients, all the ones that looked like they were triumphs used a high ratio of starch.  Some said 2:1 ratio of gf flours to starch, others said 60% starch 40% flours. Some said flours with high protein content best, some said rice flour best.  Some used vinegar to create a little chemical friction in the baking, thus resulting in a more tender loaf, others didn't.  Some used baking soda…some, not.  

Am I happy with my first home baked loaf of bread?  It was denser than I'd hoped for.  I liked the flavour and the crust had a nice chew.  It was lovely toasted.  Overall, my first attempt was more like a German Brot.  Denser than sandwich bread.  The wholemeal teff defined it a brown instead of a white loaf.

I'm making another loaf in the next few days, I will be tweaking the recipe here and there to see what the effect is.

It's not perfect.  No, let me rephrase that.  It is a perfect, dense and flavoursome, bread.  Perfect and lovely in it's own way.  What it isn't, is the hoped for, spongey, chewy crusted, flavoursome copy of the freshly baked sandwich loaf I used to slather with whatever took my fancy, atop an artery clogging layer of butter (pre-vegan days), type bread.  That will come in time.  For now, I'm loving what I have.  It's kind of exciting.  The idea of a bread making journey, with failures and successes. I will learn as I go, make little adjustments, discover new ideas.  I sometimes can be rather uncomfortable with learning something new.  At times, want to skip to the finish line without all the stuff in the middle.  But, can a craft be truly learned without study and time to proof?

If you have any gluten free bread making tips or stories please do tell.


These sites were some of my inspiration and places of learning.
Gluten Free 4 Goofs
Book Of Yum
Gluten Free Girl



Today is Day 20 of Vegan MoFo.  I missed a day of posting so this is the 19th post.  I've a minimum of one more post to go.  It is going to be a good one.

See you tomorrow! x

Deep Filled & Rich, Chestnut Mushroom & Ale Pie

day 18 of Vegan MoFo 2013.  It has driven me to drink.  Thirteen years of straight-edge, teetotal.ness down the drain.  Well, not quite. It doesn't count when it's cooked in food.  Because I have been a non-drinker for longer than my love affair (yeah, what's one of those..but that's a whole other story) with vegan cooking began, I have never had food laced with alcohol.  Until now, this MoFo, for me, has been about breaking down some barriers and trying the new, or experimenting with recipes I'd been putting off because they seemed complicated and thus doomed to failure.  Failure has become the new success. Really, there is no way to bypass it when skiing along a learning curve.

I wanted to make food with beer.  I'd make food with lashings of cider and wine in my pre-vegan days, but never beer.  What better way to begin than with a classic, good old fashioned pie!  Rich and earthy. The perfect transition to Autumn eating.

There a few steps involved in this recipe, but worry-ye-not, I'll walk you though it best I can.

Deep Filled & Rich, Chestnut Mushroom & Ale Pie

Filling

1 bottle 330ml Greens Beer - vegan & gluten free

1 block tempeh & a little gf flour for dusting

350 g organic chestnut mushrooms

1 large organic carrot chopped in rounds

1 medium onion diced

3 cloves garlic minced

1 stick of celery chopped

1/2 cup gluten free flour (I used Bobs Red Mill GF garbanzo & Fava mix, but sorghum would be perfect too)

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbs whole grain mustard

2 cloves garlic

2 tbs tomato paste

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp dried or fresh thyme

pastry

3/4 whole grain teff

1/4 cup almond flour

1/2 cup garbanzo & fava flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbs arrowroot flour

3/4 tsp xantham gum

2 tbs solidified coconut oil (the flavourless one is best for this recipe…or use vegan shortening)

vegan milk. enough to form a dough.

Method

Fry the onion & celery on a low heat for about 10 mins, until caramelised. If you sprinkle a little salt over the onions whilst cooking it helps them to release their water and encourages caramelisation. Add garlic & thyme. Cook on a low heat for a further 1-2 mins.  Careful not to burn.  Set aside.

Clean any soil off the mushrooms with a dampened piece of kitchen towel(don't wash), slice (leaving a few cut into halves) and then fry (in quite a large pan..I will explain why further down) in a little oil until soft. Sprinkle over 1/2 cup gf flour and mix with a spoon. Set aside.

Make the pastry

sift the flours, salt and gum into a food processor or a bowl and cut in the coconut fat or shortening. Rub lightly with your fingertips (or slowly pulse in the dough mixer) until the mixture is crumbly. The tiny bits of solid/cold fat are what makes the pastry 'short'. Slowly add the cold water to form a ball of dough.  The amount needed will depend on the humidity, and the flours that you use.  I used about 7 tbs in the end. 

Chill the pastry for 15 mins.  Heat your oven to 180 degrees, whilst the pastry is chilling.

On a sheet of parchment paper, roll out your pastry to fit your pie tin. Body & lid.  Line your tin with the pastry (keep the lid aside).  Pop into the oven to blind bake.  About 5-8 mins depending on your oven. We do this as the filling is already cooked and so a short overall cooking time may not properly cook the pastry.

While the pastry is blind baking...

Cube the tempeh and dust in a little gf flour.  Oil and heat a pan and fry the tempeh until golden.  Remove the tempeh and set aside.  Add the carrots and fry for a couple of minutes. Next, deglaze the pan by slowly pouring the bottle of Greens Discovery into the pan.  With a wooden spoon dislodge any remaining crispy bits from the tempeh.  Cook on a low heat for 2 mins.

Now to bring it all together. Add the onion mix, & beer carrot mix to the mushrooms and stir on a low heat until it thickens.

Remove the pie tin from the oven.  Spoon the mix into the pie tin.  Gently pop on it's pastry lid and with wet fingers, crimp the sides to seal.

Cook in the oven for 25-30 mins.  The top will take on a lovely colour.  Careful not to let it burn.

At this point I made a quick garlicky spinach and pea mash.  No potatoes just the veggies quick fried with a bit of veggie stock and lots of cracked black pepper.   

I have never eaten anything cooked with beer.  I was surprised, it tasted so good.  My (dyed-in-the-wool) carnivorous dining companion said he'd choose my pie over any meat and ale pie he'd eaten before.  After years of forcing encouraging him to favour honesty over being nice (with me anyway), I take this as gospel.

I will be making this again very soon.

Special thanks goes to Green's Original Gluten Free Beer available in Europe and a few countries outside. Approved by the Coeliac UK and The Vegetarian Society UK for making my alcohol infused foray into food possible.  Have you heard of Barnivore too? They have an online vegan, beer, wine and liquor guide.

Just a few more days and Vegan MoFo 2013 will be in the bag! 

See you tomorrow! xx

[Giveaway] Enter To Win A Fabulous Gluten Free Foods Bundle

a selection of products included in the giveaway

A couple of days ago I told you about my latest gluten free, low fat rave. Bean Pasta. Now, other than just telling you about it, we are giving you a chance to win a box of gluten free goodies for yourself.  The online gluten free food speicalists  Gluten Free Food Market contacted me, after seeing the blog post and said, 'do you want to send a whole box of goodies to one of your readers?'.  Um, YES! said I.

They are generously giving away, one of each of the following;

• Explore Asian bean pasta
• Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour
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• Bob's Four Grain Porridge
• Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats
• Bob's Red Mill Oat Bran

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