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).
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.
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