Hello
I am starting a new topic on baking Gluten Free Bread.
To start with I have a genetic condition called Celiac disease, as do several of my cousins. Celtic people have the highest rate of celiac disease in the world. So Australia with its large number of celts has a lot, the number of diagnosed celiacs is about 3 per 100 in Australia. Many people have this condition and are not diagnosed, but around +20% of Australians have the genetic markers. There is also non celiac gluten sensitivity which is still not well understood. Many people also just want to avoid gluten in their diet, this is a bit problematic for genuine celiacs. Celiac's must be totally gluten free and even tiny bits of gluten (e.g. bread crumbs on butter) will make us very sick (stomach cramps, nausea and diarrhoea) and in the long term increase our risk of stomach cancer. So I do not eat gluten and have not intentionally since I was diagnosed in 1997.
http://www.coeliac.org.au/coeliac-disease/
So therefore, we bake our own bread at home and when travelling. Some store bought gluten free bread is OK, much supermarket gluten free (GF) bread tastes very ordinary and is very expensive. After many years of experimenting we settled on a Gluten Free bread mix from Victoria and we bake bread every 2 or 3 days and use a bread maker. Finding the right program on the bread maker is not easy and if you get it wrong the GF bread does not taste very good. If you get it right, really nice bread.
The mix we use is from Victoria and we usually buy 30-40 mixes at a time to save on freight. They used to be made by Springhill Farm (which still sell some nice GF biscuits), but now are made by a different company. It is now called Bakers Magic Gluten Free Flour.
http://decalt.com.au/bakers-magic-gluten-free-flour-shop.
The recipe we use is in two stages:
1. Dry ingredients:
Mix one packet directly in the bread maker pan, add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar and one packet of "Tandaco" dry yeast (make sure yeast is GF). Mix the dry ingredients.
2. Wet ingredients:
*boil 200ml of water
*add 250ml of cold water
* then add 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
This warm water and vinegar mix is then added to the dry mix in the bread maker pan. Add 1tablespoon of olive oil. Blend with a spatula to make sure no dry ingredients are left in the corners.
Turn on the bread maker; if you have a Sunbeam (BM7850) Smartbake Custom, the next step is easy.
*select program 2 "turbo" and select large size and dark crust option and 2hr 17 min later you should have some very nice GF bread. One extra step is after mixing (20 min) take out mixer blade if removable and just make sure that bread loaf is centred in pan and there are no unmixed ingredients in the corners.
If you have another brand of bread maker if it is programmable, you need to knead for 22min, allow to rise for 50min and bake for 65min. If not programable get as close as you can to these times, sometimes this can be done with varying loaf size and crust colour options. We did this successfully with one of my cousins antique bread maker. You may need to experiment to get it right, but it is worth the effort to get really nice warm GF bread. The loaves keep well for 1 week in fridge of caravan. We toast the bread or zap in microwave to soften when we make sandwiches.
The bread maker works on 240V and we have also run it on our inverter when free camping. The main power usage is when in bake part of cycle and this with solar we can replace the power used easily on a sunny day. The bread can be baked, after doing the mixing and rise in the bread maker, in an oven or BBQ, but we have not done this while travelling.
Hope this helps some celiacs and others who are gluten sensitive who travel in a caravan and want some nice fresh bread.
Regards
Terry
I am starting a new topic on baking Gluten Free Bread.
To start with I have a genetic condition called Celiac disease, as do several of my cousins. Celtic people have the highest rate of celiac disease in the world. So Australia with its large number of celts has a lot, the number of diagnosed celiacs is about 3 per 100 in Australia. Many people have this condition and are not diagnosed, but around +20% of Australians have the genetic markers. There is also non celiac gluten sensitivity which is still not well understood. Many people also just want to avoid gluten in their diet, this is a bit problematic for genuine celiacs. Celiac's must be totally gluten free and even tiny bits of gluten (e.g. bread crumbs on butter) will make us very sick (stomach cramps, nausea and diarrhoea) and in the long term increase our risk of stomach cancer. So I do not eat gluten and have not intentionally since I was diagnosed in 1997.
http://www.coeliac.org.au/coeliac-disease/
So therefore, we bake our own bread at home and when travelling. Some store bought gluten free bread is OK, much supermarket gluten free (GF) bread tastes very ordinary and is very expensive. After many years of experimenting we settled on a Gluten Free bread mix from Victoria and we bake bread every 2 or 3 days and use a bread maker. Finding the right program on the bread maker is not easy and if you get it wrong the GF bread does not taste very good. If you get it right, really nice bread.
The mix we use is from Victoria and we usually buy 30-40 mixes at a time to save on freight. They used to be made by Springhill Farm (which still sell some nice GF biscuits), but now are made by a different company. It is now called Bakers Magic Gluten Free Flour.
http://decalt.com.au/bakers-magic-gluten-free-flour-shop.
The recipe we use is in two stages:
1. Dry ingredients:
Mix one packet directly in the bread maker pan, add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar and one packet of "Tandaco" dry yeast (make sure yeast is GF). Mix the dry ingredients.
2. Wet ingredients:
*boil 200ml of water
*add 250ml of cold water
* then add 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
This warm water and vinegar mix is then added to the dry mix in the bread maker pan. Add 1tablespoon of olive oil. Blend with a spatula to make sure no dry ingredients are left in the corners.
Turn on the bread maker; if you have a Sunbeam (BM7850) Smartbake Custom, the next step is easy.
*select program 2 "turbo" and select large size and dark crust option and 2hr 17 min later you should have some very nice GF bread. One extra step is after mixing (20 min) take out mixer blade if removable and just make sure that bread loaf is centred in pan and there are no unmixed ingredients in the corners.
If you have another brand of bread maker if it is programmable, you need to knead for 22min, allow to rise for 50min and bake for 65min. If not programable get as close as you can to these times, sometimes this can be done with varying loaf size and crust colour options. We did this successfully with one of my cousins antique bread maker. You may need to experiment to get it right, but it is worth the effort to get really nice warm GF bread. The loaves keep well for 1 week in fridge of caravan. We toast the bread or zap in microwave to soften when we make sandwiches.
The bread maker works on 240V and we have also run it on our inverter when free camping. The main power usage is when in bake part of cycle and this with solar we can replace the power used easily on a sunny day. The bread can be baked, after doing the mixing and rise in the bread maker, in an oven or BBQ, but we have not done this while travelling.
Hope this helps some celiacs and others who are gluten sensitive who travel in a caravan and want some nice fresh bread.
Regards
Terry