Gluten-free, egg-free Irish soda bread

Adapted from this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

250 grams all-purpose gluten-free flour blend (I used King Arthur)

125 grams garbanzo bean flour

1/4 cup sugar (if you're making it sweet)

1 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick = 8 Tbsp.) cold, unsalted butter
2/3 cup currants or raisins
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds

6 tablespoons water

For brushing on loaf:
1 Tbsp. melted butter

METHOD:

Mix the ground flax seeds and water and set aside for 10 minutes. If you don't have buttermilk, you can make your own by putting a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in an 8-ounce container and filling it the rest of the way with milk. Set this aside for about 10 minutes, too. 

Preheat your oven to 375F. Blend all the dry ingredients. Break the butter into small pieces and put it into the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into the dough with your hands or a pastry cutter. 

Mix in the flax meal/water mixture and the buttermilk. Add the currants or raisins and mix them in. (You can use other kinds of dried fruit instead, if you like, or omit the sugar and use savory ingredients -- for example, a few chopped scallions and a few ounces of grated cheese). The mixture should form a dough. If it's too dry, add a little water. If it's too wet, add a little flour. 

Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Form the dough into a round loaf and place it on the parchment. Cut a cross shape into the top, and brush the top with the melted butter. 

Put the loaf into the oven and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, checking the loaf regularly to make sure it doesn't overbake. It's done when the bottom is crusty, the top is golden and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it on the bottom. 

Let it cool completely before cutting. 

Note: the original recipe calls for xanthan gum (Since xanthan gum sometimes irritates my stomach, I used flax + water instead, both as a substitute for the gum and for one egg). This loaf will come out somewhat flat if you follow the recipe above. Xanthan gum may yield a taller loaf. Experiment and see! 

Gluten-free, egg-free Irish barmbrack

My version of the popular Irish bread is adapted from this one. It's traditional at Halloween, but I've been craving it recently. This recipe changes a few things: it replaces the guar gum, xanthan gum and egg with two "flax eggs," and one-third of the flour blend is garbanzo bean flour.

INGREDIENTS:

210 grams King Arthur gluten-free all-purpose flour*
105 grams garbanzo bean flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon dry yeast
2 tablespoons ground flax meal + 6 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
3/4 cup raisins
1/4 chopped candied ginger

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 200° F / 93° C. Place a shallow baking dish with a half inch of hot water in oven. Turn off oven. This creates a good environment for the bread to quickly rise.

Grease a small 8×4-inch loaf pan OR a 8-inch deep dish pie plate (for a round loaf).

Combine flour, salt and ground ginger in a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

Mix the flax meal and water in a small bowl and set aside.

Pour water and milk into a small saucepan. Add butter and sugar and warm over low heat just until the butter starts to melt. Remove from heat, stir and cool to lukewarm. Sprinkle yeast over the liquid mixture and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

Gradually pour the yeasty liquid mixture into the dry mixture, add the flax-water mixture and cider vinegar and beat with an electric mixer or a stand mixer on medium speed. Increase mixer speed and beat on medium for 2 minutes.

Add grated lemon peel, raisins and chopped candied ginger and beat just until combined. Use a spatula to pour the thick, shaggy batter into prepared pan. Place uncovered in warmed oven (with heat off). Allow to rise until double in size, about 40 minutes.

Remove the bread from oven and turn oven temperature to 375° F / 190° C. When oven reaches this temperature, place the bread back in the oven. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the loaf is golden brown.

Remove from oven and let cool a while. Serve warm with butter.

Yield: 1 loaf.

*King Arthur's all-purpose flour is one of the only gluten-free flour blends on the market that doesn't come pre-mixed with xanthan gum, which can sometimes cause gastrointestinal issues. 

Chocolate cherry pecan bread -- gluten and egg free

Man, I did NOT get a good photo of this bread, but trust me, it was pretty. And tasty.

INGREDIENTS:

110 grams King Arthur gluten-free multipurpose flour

65 grams garbanzo bean flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup chopped fresh cherries

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons whole-milk yogurt

3/4 cup plus a splash of milk

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease one 8-inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, pecans, cherries, and chocolate chips. In a smaller bowl whisk together the yogurt, milk, oil and almond extract until blended, about 30 seconds.
3. Add the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir until just blended. Pour into prepared loaf pans.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let loaves sit in pans for 5 minutes, then remove and transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

Lavender Tea Bread (gluten-free, egg-free)

(Adapted from this recipe)

INGREDIENTS: 
3/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp. dried lavender flowers
190 grams King Arthur gluten-free multipurpose flour

90 grams garbanzo bean flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. xanthan gum
6 Tbsp. butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
6 Tbsp. plain yogurt

METHOD: 

Grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Heat milk with lavender almost to a boil, then steep until cool. Mix flour, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt together in bowl. In another bowl cream butter and gradually add sugar, then yogurt, beating until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture alternately with lavender milk, in three parts. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool. When completely cool, drizzle with a simple sugar glaze with more dried lavender added to it.

Gluten-free, egg-free honey and raisin scones

(Adapted from the recipe in The Pooh Cook Book: Recipes by Katie Stewart)

INGREDIENTS:
80 grams all-purpose gluten-free flour
60 grams garbanzo bean flour*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (optional)
1 ounce butter
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons raisins
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons plain yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
4 tablespoons milk

METHOD
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and move one of your oven racks to the top third of the oven. Mix the flours, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl. Add the butter, and rub it into the dry ingredients until it's evenly distributed. Add the sugar and raisins and mix them in, and then add the yogurt, milk, honey and xanthan gum. Mix until everything is combined, and let it sit for a moment so the xanthan gum can absorb some of the liquid.

Scoop the dough out onto a floured board, dust the top with a little more flour, and flatten it to about 1/2" thickness, shaping it into a rough rectangle as you go. Cut into about 8 squares and arrange them on a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment. Bake on the upper rack for 12 minutes, until the scones are golden brown. Let them cool slightly before eating.

*If you use Bob's Red Mill all-purpose flour, just use 140 grams. It already has the bean flour.

Gluten-Free, Egg-Free Brown Boule

I have been making bread for a while, mostly from this recipe (video), which in turn is adapted from this one. But I'm starting to feel comfortable enough with gluten-free bread (I wasn't that good at making bread before I learned I was gluten intolerant, so my repertoire was pretty limited) that I want to experiment and play. Another blogger recently talked about making crusty boules, so I looked up how to do that. Of course, I couldn't stop there; I wanted to also try making a brown bread.

The photo you see above is of the dough right before it went into the Dutch oven, but it didn't rise a ton more while baking, so the finished loaf didn't look a whole lot different. But it was tasty, rustic, and actually quite crusty! (You can see a finished slice here.)

INGREDIENTS
6.5 oz. buckwheat flour
1.5 oz. tapioca starch (potato or cornstarch would probably also do; I wanted something to lighten the buckwheat)
7.25 ounces Bob's Red Mill all-purpose flour (I like this for the higher protein content from the bean flours)
15 grams psyllium husk
1.5 t salt
1 packet yeast
1 cup water
3 T brown sugar
4 T olive oil
3 "eggs" worth of Ener-G Egg Replacer
1/2 c walnuts, broken up

Heat the water in the microwave for about 45 seconds, or until it's like warm-but-not-hot bathwater. Add the sugar and yeast, stir, and set aside to foam up. Mix the flours, psyllium husk, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer, just enough to incorporate them. Add the olive oil, "eggs" (follow the directions on the package, including the part about adding water), and yeasty water, pausing between addition to let things blend. Study the dough -- if it slumps like in the video above, you're almost done. If not, add water, a little at a time, until it's pretty wet. Once you're there, add the walnuts, just to incorporate them.

Put the dough into a large buttered bowl, cover it loosely with plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for at least 8 hours or up to 24 (seriously -- the longer you wait, the better the flavor from the yeast). On mine, the top dried out a little partway through, so I sprayed it with a little water but I'm not sure that's necessary.

When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 500F (or 550F if your oven will do it) and put your Dutch oven in (make sure to take off the plastic handle before you include the lid!). Preheat everything until it comes to temperature.

Take out the bowl and gently turn the dough onto a lightly floured piece of parchment paper, large enough for the dough plus some extra on the sides to grab onto. Shape it lightly if you need to, but try not to mess with it too much -- it should already be boule-shaped from the bowl. Sprinkle the top with flour, cut some slashes into it (if you want), and drop it -- parchment and all -- into the Dutch oven. Put the lid on and bake for 15 minutes, then take the lid OFF, drop the oven temp to 450F and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Take the bread out of the Dutch oven and immediately put it on a rack to cool.

Notes: this made a very seriously dark loaf. Next time I might cut back on the buckwheat and use more light-colored flour. The texture was good. The crumb was fine and I didn't have any big yeast-bubble pockets, which I'm finding is the case when I use psyllium. However, when you have a loaf like this that doesn't have the support of a bread pan, it needs to be firmer, and the psyllium helps with that. I'm still playing with psyllium, trying to find the right amount that holds the dough together without it preventing those air pockets.