Excellent GF garlic bread, lost six pounds

The gf bread made excellent garlic bread last night. It was day two, and the bread was lovely pan toasted with olive oil. We've decided to continue making it in mini loaves, because although it's light, it's very satisfying. Unlike wheat bread, it's not necessary to eat vast amounts to "fill the hole" of an empty belly.

There was nearly a dogfight over the last slices :)

I've also lost six pounds (it's been 6 or 8 wks), though I give credit to the egg over easy with pickled hot peppers I have every night, and the two I have in the am. Low carb has always been my best bet for weight loss, but going whole hog makes me grumpy and my blood sugar wonky for at least a week. I end up doing it for half a day this way, and it's working. I never lose weight when working out, so this is pleasing. My sinuses are clearer and my energy better, too.

Gluten free cinnamon swirl bread, no gums, no starch, best bread to date! Corrected

I wanted healthier bread that didn't have starch in it, and I figured the starch might be causing some of the dryness in my baked goods, because it did in test pancakes. People use it to lighten GF flours, but there are better ways.

Also, I hate gums and they hate me back. I use potato flakes and sweet rice flours as binders, and occasionally, pectin.

Best of all, all these things are easy to pick up in the local grocery store, and they don't cost an arm and a leg. Local and sustainable, right?

My family gobbled up the cinnamon bread, and my husband snatched the last piece when I wasn't looking, and I didn't mind a bit. Even my kids admitted that they would happily take this bread in school lunches. Thank you, Jesus!

Like all bread, this is best the day it's made, but it's perfectly good the next day, too.

I made two test flour blends:

Test batch 1:

1 c white rice

1/2 c sweet rice

1/2 c toasted bean

1/4 c potato flakes

Makes 2 1/4 c mix.

Test batch 2:

1 c rice

1/2 c brown rice

1/2 c sweet rice

1/2 c toasted bean flour

1 tbsp potato flakes

1/4 tsp pectin

Makes 2 3/4 c mix.

*the brown rice is a whole grain and seems to do nice things for my sinuses and energy levels even in small quantities. That's good, because I hate it boiled.

I modified the bread to make it moister. Sugar and fat are essential to keeping the GF flour in the bread from crystallizing.

The bread:

2 1/4 c GF flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 c oil
2 eggs

1 tbsp molasses or honey
1 3/4 c water, cold or lukewarm (never hot)

1. Mix dry stuff.  Add wet stuff and stir well.
2. The batter will look thin, like cake batter. Don't panic! This is what it should look like. Don't add more flour.
3. Let this rise for 90 min to hydrate the dough, otherwise you'll have gritty flour. It won't rise much, but it will have tiny bubbles and it will develop more flavor. You can also let it sit in the fridge all day or over night.
4. Grease and flour a bread pan with brown rice flour (I often use parchment or greased tinfoil to help it come smoothly out of the pan).

5. Pour batter into prepared pans. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired, or layer batter with cinnamon sugar for cinnamon swirl loaves.

6. Bake in the preheated 350 F oven for 35-45 minutes (in a mini-loaf pan, up to 50-60 min for a large loaf pan) or until the bread is set and slightly browned. It won't jiggle when tapped with a finger and a knife will come out clean

This is a soft bread on day one, slightly dry on day two, at which point it makes excellent toast, lovely with pesto, bruchetta, thin ham slices, egg salad, etc.

I'm no photographer, but you can see that this bread rose properly and has a tight crumb.

Batch 1 was denser, and the batter looked like soft cookie dough. Batch 2 looked like pancake batter with lots of little yeast bubbles, and I worried I wouldn't like it as well, but it was the best loaf, light and moist. Batch 2 wins!

Batch 1

Batch 2, the winner! This batter was layered with cinnamon sugar.

On the left is batch 1, the right, batch 2. I put sesame seeds on top so I wouldn't get confused.

Good GF cookbooks

I'm reading these cookbooks now and really liking them. I've also achieved chocolate chip cookie excellence. They're buttery, made with affordable flour, no weird ingredients, GF and dairy free. They may also be the most delicious cookie I've ever made. Top three, easily. Here's the link.

Some cooks use maple syrup to boost flavor, which is very smart, but expensive in large batches. I've learned that chocolate extract is an excellent replacement for butter, because imitation butter flavor sucks.

      

   

2014 Local, affordable GF flour: now with toasted brown rice and no gums! Olive Oil, GF Chocolate Chip Cookies with sweet rice flour!

I'm all about using affordable, local ingredients. In the case of GF baking, I'll settle for flour common to my area of the US, because I have three teens and they eat a LOT. Also, my local bulk store, Cash n' Carry, carries 25 lb bags of Pacific rice flour. I'd love to use the Bob's Red Mill flours they carry, but they are contaminated with my nemesis, soy.

I will not pretend I took that well. There may have been lots of childish sulking involved. I'm not proud of it.

I'm stubborn, however, and I persevered. I bought a grain mill like this one:

I bought and roasted beans in bulk (to removed the raw bean flavor), added rice, starch and GF potato flakes and pectin as a binders. I was happy with my mix, and it had a complete protein thanks to the legumes (beans), I felt healthy and energetic with it, and I didn't have to track down anything exotic. It was great...except for the cookies. The texture was all wrong for cookies.

I've quested for delicious chocolate chip cookies for months. I could make it with the exotic (expensive) flour blend, with things I had to order, and they were great. I thought I could do better, and last night I did.

First I made cookies with sweet rice (sticky rice) flour, which is NOT the same as rice flour. For one thing, it's a great binder. I used Mochiko brand, because that's what my store carries in the Asian section. It makes pastry fluffier, and you can find it in Asian stores. You can also buy sticky rice and grind it yourself. Anyway, the cookies were great! I was very happy with them.

 

Olive Oil, GF Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now with sweet rice flour!

3/4 c GF flour mix

3/4 c sweet rice flour

1 c sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 c Enjoy Life chocolate chips (milk, soy and gluten free)

1/4 c olive oil

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp chocolate extract (essential to replicate buttery goodness)

1 tbsp nut milk

1 tsp molasses

1. Mix dry stuff. Add wet stuff and stir. Let rest in the fridge at least 90 min to hydrate so the cookies won't be gritty.

2. Scoop into mounds on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 F for 10 to 14 minutes, or until golden brown, rotating cookie sheets from top to bottom about half way through.

* * *

Okay, so that was tasty and I was happy, but I thought it would be nice if I could get a bit more nutrition in there, and I wanted to test the brown rice flour and see how it behaved. A cookie shows all of a flaws in a flour, so that was what I made.

I bought minute brown rice (the precooked, dried stuff) and ground it in the grain mill. I then ground raw brown rice and brown rice I toasted in a skillet, and made cookies.

I figured the minute brown rice would be less gritty than the raw rice, and I was concerned the toasted rice would be too strong.

Turns out, both the precooked rice and toasted rice made a less gritty flour. The minute rice tasted okay, but the toasted flour made a super awesome, tasty cookie. So good, I've no desire to test the raw flour, because it can't possibly be as good. I probably will some time, though, since John points out it's not a fair test without.

Also, we were almost out of chocolate, so I threw in some salted peanuts, and we loved it.

 * * *

Olive Oil, GF Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now with toasted brown rice flour!

3/4 c GF flour mix
1/2 c sweet rice flour
1/4 c toasted brown rice flour
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c Enjoy Life chocolate chips (milk, soy and gluten free)
1/3 c peanuts
1/4 c olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp chocolate extract (essential to replicate buttery goodness)
1 tbsp nut milk
1 tsp molasses

1. Mix dry stuff. Add wet stuff and stir. Let rest in the fridge at least 90 min to hydrate so the cookies won't be gritty.

2. Scoop into mounds on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 F for 10 to 14 minutes, or until golden brown, rotating cookie sheets from top to bottom about half way through.

Flour blend, 2014:

1 c rice flour

1/2 c toasted bean flour

1/2 c cornstarch

1/4 c GF potato flakes

1 tsp pectin

The blend is mild and the toasted bean flour provides protein that helps structure without raw bean flavor. Can't be tasted in the finished product.

The potato flakes make the bread bend, add moisture and make the bread stick together. Unlike the tapioca flour in so many recipes, it's a nice local ingredient, easy to find and inexpensive. I suspect it could be replaced with tapioca flour, butternut squash or sweet potato, but I haven't tested those. The last time I peeled and cubed a butternut, my hands were coated with a very sticky, hard to remove film that probably could be an excellent binder.

Pectin is a binder. You can find it with canning supplies in your local store. It's also good for you, but you can do without it in this recipe.