Allergy Free Bread That Tastes Great!

     This is the recipe as promised for all my yeast free, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, egg free, sugar free and potato free friends out there.  Can an allergy free bread really taste good and not fall apart when you take the first bite?  Yes it can.  With this recipe, not only will it hold together but the flavor matures while sitting.  Bread tastes best the second day.
                     

Erika's Allergy Free Blessing Bread

Recipe By:  Erika Harms
Serving size: 1 bun
Yield: 1 loaf or nine buns

2 tablespoons  ground flax seed -- mixed with
6 tablespoons  hot water

MIX TOGETHER IN MIXER BOWL: DRY INGREDIENTS
3   cups  all purpose GF flour mix "allergy free"
1/2 cup  powdered rice milk -- optional***
1  teaspoon  baking soda
1  tablespoon  baking powder
1/2  teaspoon  unrefined fine grain sea salt

LIQUID INGREDIENTS: MIX TOGETHER IN SEPARATE BOWL
1/4 Cup  canola oil
1 1/2 cups  distilled water -- or rice milk if not using powdered***
1/4 cup  agave nectar (blue) -- plus
2 teaspoons  agave nectar (blue)
1 teaspoon  rice vinegar -- *** If you have IC or are allergic to vinegar, use pear juice.

Advance Preparation:  Mix the flax seed with hot water and let stand for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  This is your egg substitute.

FOR DOUGH: In the mixer bowl, stir the dry ingredients together.  Set a flat beater into the mixing arm and lock bowl into place (or use beaters if you don't have a stand mixer).   In a separate bowl, whisk together the liquid ingredients well.  With mixer on low, pour in the wet ingredients slowly.  Beat on low just until blended.  Add the "egg replacement" and do the same.  Then turn mixer to high and beat for 3 minutes.

FOR A LOAF OF BREAD:  Double the dough recipe for extra height for a nice sandwich bread.  Grease and flour a 8 x 4 inch loaf pan.  Pour dough into pan and smooth top with wet fingers.  Sprinkle with ground flax if desired.  Bless your bread.**  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and bake the bread for 60 to 65 minutes.  Bread is done when toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Pull out of the oven and place on a wire rack.  Remove bread from pan carefully.  Let cool completely before slicing.  Bread will be a dark brown color.

FOR BREAD CRUMBS:  Follow directions for the loaf of bread.  After you set it on a rack to cool, cut bread into 3/4 inch slices and lay flat on cooling rack.  This will allow it to dry out.  Let it go stale and get crispy.  You can speed the process if desired by baking it in the oven at 200 degress or place in a food dehydrator until completely dry and crispy.  Be careful not to burn it.  Grind the bread into breadcrumbs in your food processor or blender.  Keep breadcrumbs in a tightly sealed jar until ready to use.

FOR ITALIAN SEASONED CRUMBS:   Follow directions for the loaf of bread adding 1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning to the dry ingredients.  After you set it on a rack to cool, cut bread into 1/2 inch slices and lay flat on cooling rack.  This will allow it to dry out.  Let it go stale and get crispy.  You can speed the process if desired by baking it in the oven at 200 degress or place in a food dehydrator until completely dry and crispy.  Be careful not to burn it.  Grind the bread into breadcrumbs in your food processor or blender.  Keep breadcrumbs in a tightly sealed jar until ready to use.

FOR PUMPERNICKEL/RYE BREAD:  Follow the dough recipe. and add Tbsp. Carob powder*** to the dry ingredients.  When dough is mixed, gently stir in 1 Tbsp. caraway or fennel seeds (soaked if desired*).  Bless your bread.** Bake as directed.

FOR HAMBURGER BUNS:  Set 9 greased and floured English muffin rings on a cookie sheet that has also been greased and floured.  If you do not have English muffin rings, you can use tuna or chicken cans  that have been washed out.  Try to use the bigger ones if you can that have 12.5 oz of meat in them.  After dough is mixed, spoon dough in even amounts into rings.  Smooth the tops of the dough with wet fingers. Bless your bread.** Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  When oven reaches 350 degrees F. place pan of buns carefully in.  Bake for 20 minutes. Remove buns carefully from cookie sheet to cooling rack and gently remove rings.  Allow to cool completely.  Freeze if you are not going to use them immedieatly.

FOR HOT DOG BUNS:  Follow the directions for the Hamburger Buns except make oval shapes out of aluminum foil OR you can use a french bread pan and place dough in 4 to 5 inch lenghs several inches apart on well greased and floured french bread pan.  If using aluminum foil forms, place them on a greased and floured cookie sheet and grease and flour the forms well too.  Follow cooking instructions for Hamburger Buns.

FOR TURKEY STUFFING BREAD:  Follow the dough recipe but reduce GF flour mix to 2 2/3 cup.  Add 1/3 cup cream of rice cereal, 1/3 tsp. xanthan gum 1 1/2 tsp. celery seed (soaked if desired*), 3/4 tsp. poultry seasoning, 1/2 tsp. sage, 1/2 tsp. peppy*** and 1 tsp. dried basil to dry ingredients.  Replace all water with homemade chicken or turkey broth warmed to 110 degrees F. if desired.  Follow direction for loaf of bread.  Eat as is or cut into cubes once cool and dry in oven at 200 degrees F. or in food dehyrator.  Use as you would a dry seasoned stuffing mix or as croutons for your salad.

*Note on soaking seeds:  Soaking seeds at least eight hours or overnight reduces the acidity and makes them more nutritious.  If your bladder is especially sensitive, this can be important, but it is not necessary if time is a factor.

**Blessing the bread - This is an age old tradition in my family passed down to me by my Estonian grandmother.  As a young child, I would spend any chance I could get helping her in the kitchen baking bread.  She would set the dough in a bowl to rise and then ask God to bless her bread by indenting a cross on the dough with her fingers.  At the time I was so young, I didn't understand why she was doing this, but now as an adult it is such a wonderful memory that I apply it to my own bread making practices.  What a wonderful way to bring God into the kitchen!  I share this in hopes that you allow God to bless your bread and pass on this meaningful tradition.  "But you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst.  Exodus 23:25 (note yeast free bread will be blessed right before you put them in the oven)

***Distilled water does not have to be used.  Regular tap water will work just fine.  Regular powdered milk works just as well too. And Cocoa powder can be used instead of carob when making pumpernikel.  Pepper can be substituted for the peppy, which is a pepper substitute.  Vinegar does not have to be used but does help in the rising process better than juice.  These ingredients are used in consideration for people who have Interstitial Cystitis.

Description:  "sugar, corn, yeast, dairy, egg and potato free"
Source:  "Method Inspired by the recipe from the Anoka Celiac Support Group cookbook."
Copyright:   "© 2009-2010 ERIKA HARMS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED"
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NOTES : For Bread Success:

Key flours - My flour mix contains millet & montina, both of which are important ingredients.  When used in combination they can perform miracles in GF baking.  Both flours add stability in the bread batter and help prevent loaves from being dense bricks and also allows them to rise with stability.  Potato starch is also great for adding stability.  Replace one of your starches in any recipe with potato starch (not potato flour which is different) for even better success.

Beating the batter at high speed for at least 3 minutes is also essential in the process.  This helps to incorporate air and also helps it to rise.

Vinegar - Vinegar in combination with baking soda will help yeast free breads rise because there is a chemical reaction that takes place.  However, vinegar has no place in yeast breads because it retards yeast growth!  If you must add something, substitute it with juice instead.  Pear or apple works well.

Rising -  Baking soda needs something acidic to work properly as a levening agent.  Without this acid, the chemical reaction that causes the bread to rise won't take place.  By adding juice or vinegar to the recipe, it provides this necessary acid to allow the bread to rise.

Consistency - your bread dough will not be like your traditional wheat bread doughs.  It will be more of a thick batter.  Like a brownie batter.  This is normal.

Agave nectar - you don't have to use agave, but can use corn syrup, molases or brown rice syrup instead. However, agave is metabalized by the yeast at a slower rate than other sugars - thus helping to control the rate at which the bread rises.  If you use other syrups, reduce the rising time by 5 to 10 minutes.  It will rise faster in the oven while baking too, so you may not want it to "proof" as much before baking.

Grease and Flour your bread pans - this is important if you want to get your bread out in one piece and it also allows the dough to "crawl" up the sides while baking.

Blessing your Bread - When setting your dough to rise, make an indentation if a cross in the dough and ask God to Bless your Bread!