If you were making bread at home before you started the gluten-free diet, forget everything you knew. It is no longer useful to you. You will never again get bread from the simple mixture of flour, salt and water. You will now enter the mysterious realm of gluten-free bread. Are you intrigued? You’re curious? That is how you must be. Are you discouraged? Do not be. It’s not complicated to make gluten-free bread, it’s just complex. Through this article I want to encourage you to try.
What is gluten?
When we say “gluten-free bread”, we mean bread that does not contain gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Don’t be fooled by the different names of wheat subspecies: soft wheat, durum wheat, spelt, einkorn, etc. All contain gluten.
Oats contain a protein similar to gluten, avenin, which can trigger intolerance reactions in sensitive people. It is also frequently contaminated with gluten during processing and packaging, so if you want to eat oats, choose the one labeled “gluten-free”.
What makes gluten-free bread different from gluten-containing bread?
By texture.
Gluten makes wheat bread springy and airy. When gluten comes into contact with water or another liquid, it forms a complex network of proteins, linking their molecules together. Gluten dough is elastic and can be easily formed into breads, buns, loaves and baguettes.
Gluten-free bread dough needs special ingredients to become elastic. Even so, it cannot achieve the level of springiness of gluten bread. In the last 50 years, wheat has been modified in such a way that the amount of gluten is higher than that of ancient wheat, and the elasticity of the obtained dough is very high.
Gluten-free dough can have some elasticity, but will need to be handled with care. The resulting bread is not as airy as the gluten-free bread, the slice may break easily or crumble when cut. Up to a certain level, these unpleasant effects for a toast bread, for example, can be avoided, by the special methods of making gluten-free bread.
By taste.
Wheat has an unmistakable taste. No gluten-free bread can taste like wheat bread. Gluten-free bread has the taste of the ingredients from which it is made. The taste is different, but no less tasty. Mixes of different flours can be obtained to make a tasty gluten-free bread for all preferences.
By the level of humidity
The gluten network gives the bread a certain structure that allows it to rise and hold itself during baking. In the absence of gluten, bread can have difficulty maintaining structure and can become denser and moister. There are methods here too to counteract the increased humidity.
What can you make gluten-free bread from?
Some voices claim that if you eliminate gluten and the grains that contain it (wheat, rye, barley) from your diet, there will be nutritional deficiencies, such as iron, group B vitamins and fiber. It might be true, if you didn’t replace gluten grains with gluten-free grains, pseudo-grains, vegetables, legumes, leafy greens, seeds and nuts. There are many other foods that contain the necessary nutrients besides gluten grains. And if we are talking specifically about bread, there is a wide range of grains, pseudo-grains, seeds, nuts or legumes that can be made into gluten-free bread.
Gluten-free bread can be made from: millet, buckwheat, quinoa, chia, rice, corn, amaranth, sorghum, tapioca, coconut; dried beans of all kinds, chickpeas, lentils, peas. All of these contain beneficial vitamins, minerals and fibers, in the form of flours or even whole, hydrated and ground.
Is it hard to make gluten free bread?
It’s not hard if you learn the mechanics of making gluten-free bread. You need to know how malleable and hydrophilic the ingredients you chose to make bread are, what they taste like and how you can combine these tastes. You also need to know what to use for elasticity, texture and dough growth.
And you still have to make choices. You can choose a commercial gluten-free mix, from which you can easily obtain a white, raised bread with a dense and elastic texture, but which contains various added additives, emulsifiers, sweeteners and preservatives. The fast carbohydrate content is high in these mixes, and can cause fluctuations in glucose levels.
Or you can use different wholemeal flours from pseudocereals and legumes. You can make your own mix of flours to get your favorite taste. Or you can use whole seeds, legumes or pseudo-cereals. This way the vitamins, minerals and fibers from the original ingredients are preserved.
You can use natural ingredients to bind the dough, such as psyllium bran, flax or chia seeds, nutritive dry yeast flakes or eggs.
To raise the dough, you can use regular brewer’s yeast, baking powder, eggs, or a mixture of all of these.
Different types of gluten-free bread
You can start exploring the realm of gluten-free bread by testing different tastes and textures. At first, don’t make big loaves, but buns, baguettes or flatbread. I leave you some links to my recipes, simple recipes, from natural ingredients.
This Garlic Rosemary Loaf is my first blogged bread recipe back in 2014. I used egg and psyllium bran for springiness, yeast for rise, and rosemary and garlic powder for flavor. I used rice flour, the first gluten-free flour I tried. It has a neutral taste, but a weak elasticity and is very “dry”.
Then I discovered millet flour, a flour with a rich, slightly bitter taste, as many of those who use it say. But the texture is good, not as dry as other flours. So, I use millet flour in specialties, like this focaccia or this ciabatta.
I use millet flour as the main ingredient in mixes with other flours, creating different tastes. For example, this bread, in which, in addition to millet flour, I used buckwheat flour and tapioca starch, or this one, with ground almonds and tapioca starch. The last mix I created is this one, with coconut flour, rolled oats and tapioca starch.
I’ve used cauliflower to make the flatbread in this recipe, or this one, a much-loved AIP recipe.
Bread can also be made from seeds or legumes, without using flour obtained from them, but whole grains, hydrated beforehand. This bread made from whole millet seeds, or this one made from a mix of green buckwheat, quinoa, chickpeas and chia seeds. They are very tasty and relatively simple to make. Another example is this sandwich flatbread, made only from green buckwheat seeds, a breakfast treat.
Bread with eggs or without eggs?
Most of my recipes do not use eggs, but I have a few with eggs, such as this recipe, which is similar in simplicity to recipes that use ready-made mixes. Just mix the ingredients in the right amount, let it rise and put it in the oven.
Using eggs in bread has several benefits, both for texture and taste, moisture or shelf life. I have written a special article debating this aspect.
Conclusions
If you’ve decided to follow a gluten-free diet, whether you’ve been directed to it by a doctor, a nutritionist, or a functional or holistic medicine practitioner, you shouldn’t be afraid to make gluten-free bread at home. It may seem complicated at first, but in time you will find the magic formula to get the tastiest and healthiest bread for you. Think that you have many ingredients at your disposal that you can try and where you can choose what you like best.
What do you say, I convinced you to make your own gluten free bread?
