Bread baking in the oven or on the woodstove…. What an amazing smell!! A Simple Pleasure that entices your senses and fills your home with comfort.
I must confess I have always been a starch girl… I LOVE bread… Multi-grain, seeded, sprouted, good southern buttermilk biscuits and butter galor…. If it is starchy – I like it….
Little side note – my Mountain Man makes great fun of me as I watch very careful what I eat and take being healthy very seriously until I reach for the butter. Everyone has their weaknesses and butter just happens to be mine and it also happens to be one thing that I will not give up…. I might even give up coffee for my butter…. ummmm wait not so sure on that… hummm I'll have to give that some more thought… <3
Now our Mountain Boy has been on a gluten free and casein free diet for over 10 yearsnow and I have been perfecting gluten free cooking in my home so that I no longer need to make a whole wheat bread for the Mountain Man and a gluten free bread for the Mountain Boy. I have perfected our gluten free cooking and baking to the point that the Mountain Man (who knows when something is different – even a touch) can't tell the difference. So this took a great deal of masterful cooking/baking. I was very thankful this year that I have been able to perfect such amazing tastes in a gluten free specimen because after feeling under the weather for a good part of this past year I determined that I too feel better eating gluten free.
So I am here today to report to you that you DO NOT have to give up flavor, texture and the comforts of your comfort foods if you are gluten free or casein free. You can still make breads that rise and taste amazing, your pie dough and pastries are flaky and out of this world. If you are on a gluten free diet you know there have been some pretty harsh packaged foods – we will not name any brands, but you all know what I mean when you toast a piece of packaged bread and it softens briefly and then very quickly returns to it's rubbery texture somewhere in between foam and cardboard or the other end of the spectrum would be the piece of bread that when touched in the bag falls into a million pieces before you even get it to the toaster. Then you have the packaged pastries and desserts that have absolutely no flavor and almost have a chalky taste once you start chewing. With a few new skills in your kitchen, the right products to bake and cook with and you can be making meals and desserts that will amaze. Keep in mind as well that I am not talking about ingredients that will break the bank. Stay with me and I will show you the way.
Below is a recipe that can be made either with regular wheat flour or with the substitutions that I point out to make it gluten free and casein free.
- Dissolve: 1 tsp Yeast, 1/3 C Sugar and 1 C Water
- In another bowl add:
- 3/4 C Evaporated Milk (see below for instructions on non-dairy substitute)
- 1 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 Egg
- 1 C flour (I use Better Batter Gluten Free Flour)
- 1/4 C melted butter cooled (I use Nucoa)
- In a bread bowl cut: 1 C butter into 4 cups of flour
- Pour yeast and milk mixtures over flour mixture. Fold with a spatula, put in a covered bowl or plastic bag in refrigerator from 4 hours to 4 days.
- Roll into 15″ circles. Take a pizza cutter and cut in halves, fourths, sixths and eights. Then roll from the large end to the small end; place on ungreased baking sheet; Let double in size; Bake 325 degrees from 20 – 35 minutes.
- Almond frosting or maple frosting is really good on these.
- For non-dairy evaporated milk (version 1):
- You can use powdered soy, coconut, etc by mixing 1 1/2 C Warm Water, 1 C of non-dairy milk powder of your choice and 2 tbsp Nucoa butter or non-dairy butter of choice
- For non-dairy evaporated milk (version 2):
- You can also use non-dairy milks such as soy, coconut, hemp, rice, almond, etc…. and bring 2 C of the non-dairy milk of choice and heat until it reduces to 3/4 C to 7/8 C.
I hope you give this recipe a try and I hope you and your family enjoyed it as much as we did.
Some little side notes for today, I find that when a recipe calls for milk that Almond milk and Coconut milk work best. Rice is a bit too thin and I try my best to stay away from soy products because they are harder to digest for the Autism and Asperger bellies.
Also for an all purpose gluten free white flour that I SWEAR by, check out http://betterbatter.org Also if you have someone in your family diagnosed on the spectrum with autism or aspergers be sure to check out her financial aide. She offers a FANTASTIC discount and great VERY LOW prices on shipping.
For your specialty items, check out http://azurestandard.com They have drop locations throughout the north west and you can order online with direct ship to your home.
I hope you find some of this information useful and look forward to sharing more.
Blessings… Tam♥
Cool! Me and my 2 kids eat gluten free, I’ve been trying for 6 months to get my husband to agree so that life cooking is easier for me.
Hi Val,
Thanks for stopping by. I think you will love the recipe. I TOTALLY understand where you are coming from. I mastered gluten free cooking for the same reason – I was always making one cake with wheat flour and another with gluten flour… Everything I made I had to make two, but now that I have mastered things with some simple tricks, tips and ingredients he truly can’t tell the difference. If you ever have any questions don’t hesitate to ask and I also post other GFCF recipes at http://spectrumkidsintheoutdoors.com. Also be sure to check out http://betterbatter.org and http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com. These two ladies are my idols – the have AWESOME recipes and I won’t use anything other than Better Batter GF Flour…. Best of luck to you and I hope you continue to check in…. Blessings T<3
I’m confused. the butter and flour measurements are quadrupled in the instructions compared to the ingredients list. Which is correct?
Hi Cathy, I should have just posted the recipe as instructions… Follow it in steps from the ingredients down. Your 1st step is your yeast mixture, then in another bowl mix together the remain ingredients in the ingredients section and then move down to the instructions and then mix the flour and butter together and finally combine the yeast mixture and the evaporated milk mixture to your flour mixture. It is a bit of a confusing recipe. I will see about separating it and making it a bit easier to understand. It is a fantastic recipe… Report back and let me know your thoughts… Also let me know if I have made things clear enough in this message… Thanks for checking out my site – I hope you will continue to do so… Blessings T <3