No Gluten, No Problem

Gluten? Fuggedaboutit.

Friday Foto: Baguette

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First, apologies that today’s Friday Foto is a day late. Between being out of town for two days on a story assignment, and getting sick yesterday with a 103-degree fever (plus other symptoms…blech), I just couldn’t pull it together. None the less, excuses aside, here we are.

Today’s recipe is a companion to last week’s Mussels in a White Wine Broth. One of the best things about that dish – besides the mussels themselves – is the broth. And there’s no better way to enjoy it than by sopping it up with some tasty, crusty bread. And therein lay the rub…we needed a GF baguette.

I’m happy to report a success. Here’s how we made it:


1 1/4 cups warm water
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp active dry yeast
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 egg whites
2 1/2 cups + extra Artisan GF Flour Blend
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp each sea salt and crushed black pepper
De-hulled millet


1. Combine the water, sugar and yeast in a bowl.
2. Once the yeast is active, add the olive oil, vinegar, and egg whites. Mix.
3. Add the flour, xanthan gum, salt and pepper. Stir until well mixed. You will have a very wet dough.
4. Add additional flour, 1 tbsp at a time, just until the dough is workable by hand. It should still be soft, elastic, and doughy, but should not be so wet as to stick to your hands or your work surface.
5. Roll the dough into two logs, each 15 inches long.
6. Place the logs onto a greased baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 20 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
8. After 20 minutes, remove the plastic wrap and use a sharp knife to score the top of the logs on a diagonal.
9. Brush the loaves with olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt and the millet.
10. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Then, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

– Pete

Comments

  1. The picture alone made my mouth water! It looks absolutely AMAZING!!! Another recipe I can’t wait to try!

    Hope you start feeling better soon!

    Cris

  8. Phenomenal. Just got done eating half of one of the loafs. I made mine more loaf-like rather than baguettes, but they turned out perfect. After adding an extra 1/2 cup worth of artisan mix (my own custom mix) the dough was still very sticky and hard to work worth, so I had my doubts. About 40 min later, those doubts were evicted from my body by the tasty bread. Thanks!

    – Joe

  10. Hi,
    This is the second recipe of yours that I’ve tried. As with the strawberry shortcake this bread did not rise; rather it was very dense. It just occurred to me that the reason could be that I live at sea level. Any suggestions? Thanks.

  11. Hi Nicole… It’s interesting that neither recipe rose, since the modes of action are different (baking powder for the shortcake, yeast for the bread). You certainly might try “down-adjusting” for altitude.

    For the strawberry shortcake, try decreasing the amount of flour by 5% or more, and also increasing the baking powder by 30-50%.

    For the bread, what kind of yeast are you using? It might need to be proofed first. You can also try decreasing the flour here as well, though that would likely make the dough difficult to work with (too soft/wet/sticky) and roll into a log.

    Cheers, Pete

  17. From Charlotte, aged 8

    My dad made these baguettes for me the day after I was told I could not have gluten. I was really sad about missing out on bread, but then I tasted these and was really, really happy. They completely replaced gluten bread.