New Mum’s Food Adventures

Ingredients:

• 500 grams orgran gluten free self raising flour
• 2 teaspoons of xanthum gum
• 2 sachets of instant yeast which is equal to two teaspoons
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt or to taste
• 6 tablespoons of oil I used sunflower but you can also use olive oil, macadamia oil or vegetable oil. If you use coconut it might have a noticeable coconut flavour throughout. You can use butter or ghee but don’t use canola oil. Macadamia oil works especially well for gluten free bread but it’s expensive
• 2 & 1/2 cups of water

Method:

Combine and stir all dry ingredients together first. I use fresh yeast that comes in foil packets so I don’t test if it’s active. My packet doesn’t have many either so it’s not an issue for me but if your yeast has been in the cupboard a while or you use from a packet with teaspoons then please place yeast and sugar in water until foamy so you don’t waste your time.

Add water and stir until a thick smooth batter forms then slowly add oil and tablespoon at a time. It will smooth out the batter even more and emulsify. This can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes. Mine took about 10 for all of the lumps and fat to be mixed in and smoothed out. It’s idea to use a mixer but if doing it by hand, perseverance is key.

The batter should be similar to the image but less lumps. It should be smooth and thick but hold a little shape. You don’t want it to wet or too dry. Once your batter is ready, grease up a loaf pan. I used oil. Pour in the batter and allow to proof. Proof either to double size or almost double size. Time varies so just keep an eye. It’s warm here in Australia still and it only took 20 minutes this time. You don’t want it to over proof or you could end up with a flying crust or flying crumb. In other words, a giant hole and it collapsed.

Bake on 200 degrees Celsius fan force, 220C for regular oven for 40-55 minutes or until golden brown. Give the bread a tap for a hollow sound. Tap along the length listening for any potential dense spots. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes then remove to cool on cooling rack.

Resist cutting until fully cooled.

I poured some in small ceramic pots to make buns. it kind of worked. Worked just enough to make buns that aren’t super dry which was really awesome. Next time I would like to revisit this and add a bit of sorghum flour to it to change the structure a bit.