Best gluten free yeast bread – easy and reliable recipe

Why do I think that the suggested recipe is the best for baking gluten-free yeast bread at the moment? For these many reasons:

because in the 20 years I’ve been living with a gluten-free diet, this bread has proven to be the best among my own recipes and commercial versions of gluten-free yeast breads in terms of the combination of taste and structure of both a crust and crumb
bread’s crust is not too hard and not too thick
the dough is very easy to prepare with stationary or hand held mixer
the dough rises perfectly and bakes without problems, the dough does not shrink when baking (!) and the height of a loaf reduces very little, if at all, when bread cools down
bread loaf can be sliced almost immediately
even bread loaf inside is neither dry nor wet
this bread is delicious
this bread nutritional composition in terms of whole grain to starches ratio (2:1) is the best you can find, it also has increased protein content, not even compatible with commercial gluten free bread

The dough can be also baked in the baguette shape, using special baguette baking tray.

Freshly baked bread loaf is soft, but it can be sliced immediately if wanted. I would advice that slices of warm or even hot bread had to be made not too thin. I slice this bread after 10-15 minutes resting in 1+ cm slices, freeze them on a flat tray, transfer them to zip-locked bags and store frozen. Defrosted in a toaster provides exactly the same texture and taste as in freshly baked bread.

I want to make one important note. As the dough for this bread was prepared in the mixer, I am not 100% sure that exactly the same result would be achieved when the dough is mixed manually. Several authors have noticed that dry to wet ingredients ratio had to be adjusted when using 2 different ways of dough preparation.

Ingredients:

100g raw buckwheat flour
100g corn/maize flour (not corn starch)
50g flour/tapioca starch
50g corn starch
20g flax flour (golden flax)
1 egg (50-55g without shell)
100g sour cream 36% fat
15-20g sugar
6g sea salt
8g xanthan gum
6g psyllium powder (not flakes)
7g dry yeast pack
260g warm water

Preparation:

prepare loaf baking tin, line it with baking paper with extra paper sticking out from the tin to support the dough raising
mix all dry ingredients with exception of sugar, but including instant yeast
put the dry mixture through a sieve three times, finally into mixer’s bowl

mix wet ingredients
add sugar to wet ingredients
if using sour cream from the fridge that might make the mixture cold, warm wet ingredients by placing a glass with ingredients into another, larger bowl with hot water
add warm wet ingredients mixture to mixer bowl
make sure that sugar is fully dissolved
it might be easier to dissolve sugar in warm water first, and add the rest of wet ingredients later

stir the contents of the bowl slightly lifting the bulk of the dry mixture from the bottom of the bowl
turn on the mixer to knead the dough, the total kneading time is from 4 to 4 and a half minutes
in the process of kneading, the dough will first begin to gather into a ball, and then it will spread flat again and will be almost evenly distributed over the mixer bowl
it may be necessary to stop the mixer in the middle of mixing and check if there is some dry ingredients stuck to the bottom or the sides of the bowl
I also tried to mix ingredients in the opposite order, placing wet ingredients into the bowl first and then adding dry mixture, this way there is less chance to have dry ingredients mix to stick to the bottom of the bowl, choose what works best in your mixer

working with yeast dough for gluten-free bread

prepare a work surface, generously wet it with water, the best option is to use a silicone mat or benchtop surface, if using a wooden board, then cover it with cling film
moisten a spatula with water and separate the dough from the sides of the mixing bowl
turn the dough onto the work surface
working with wet hands, shape the dough into a brick shape to the size of the baking dish
the dough rises about 3 times, so I like to line the tin with baking paper with a large margin of height
first make sure that the paper will fit into the shape of the tin, if necessary, make cuts in it )commercial tin liners will be to small and will not be able to hold raising dough)
transfer the dough into a lined tin and spread it to fill the tin evenly, make the surface flat
sprinkle the dough with water
grease glad wrap with olive oil, lay the film on top of the paper so that the surface of the dough is protected from drying out
preheat the oven to a temperature of 40-45C
put a bowl of hot water on the bottom
spray water into the oven to create a humid atmosphere
put the dough to rise, it takes me 40-45 minutes

when the dough has risen, remove loaf tin from the oven, turn it on to heat up to 190C fan forced regime
remove the film covering the surface of the dough
spray the surface of the dough with water again
bake in for 60 minutes, check the readiness of the bread with a wooden pick, it must come out dry
remove the bread from the tin, I grease the hot crust with butter, but this is optional
I cut the bread with a large bread knife 10-15 minutes after the end of baking, while the bread was still very hot
cutting hot bread is not very convenient, but it makes it possible to lay out slices of bread on the wire rack so that they cool without losing the size of the air pockets
the cooled loaf is much easier to cut, but bread slices would have smaller air pockets

This bread is soft and truly delicious. It is perfect on its own with a bowl of soup. It also makes excellent sandwiches, both from a loaf or baguette slices.