Gluten-Free "Rye" Bread
Sorry for the quality of the pics, y’all. It was that or no pics at all because family was going in right then!
Y’all may remember that I did not have such a great time with my last gf baking foray. It honestly took me this long to get over it, because baking just shouldn’t be hard like that. About a month into my
I love this woman.
about gf baking, I told Sabrina that I wanted some Cup 4 Cup (C4C) flour, and she sent me some. It seemed reasonable that I would take a step back and not try to reinvent the wheel here just now. I looked at that flour for another 2 weeks, telling myself that King Arthur wouldn’t make it if it wasn’t good.
Then I read the package.
It talked an awful lot about cookies and brownies and how it’s basically inappropriate for bread. That was kind of disheartening. Then I saw on the package that they make one for bread and pizza. Except I guess they must not anymore, which was more disheartening. It kind of went on and on like this. Y’all know how it is.
And then a rye post came out, and Sarah couldn’t read it because it would make her sad. And Farah told (I’m pretty sure reminded) me that she also has Celiac, and thus can’t eat the yums anymore. I felt bad about that, so I figured I should make them some rye bread. Except without any rye in it. I got the gf starter out of the fridge. I had been dreading that moment, but I felt I owed them rye. Plus, it wouldn’t be kind to leave all you gfers out of the quarantine bread posts. I built up the starter using the C4C, and while that was happening I thought about the cherry problem.
I figured this would take me a while to work out, because rye has a unique flavor that doesn’t seem easy to reproduce. And maybe, the flavor of rye bread wouldn’t be as easy to feel right if you didn’t put caraway in it (I really didn’t put enough, but it’s a good amount for people who aren’t #ryealldayandallniteyesplz). But this bread was really close and I didn’t have to feed my family lunch after lunch of bread pudding to get it that way. You’d have to decide that. I ate a lot of this bread and I don’t think it was exact, but I don’t think it’d be possible to get much closer. If you guys monkey with this and get it closer, please tell me. I’m interested in gf baking now, for the first time ever.
There’s some stuff in here that might seem weird to you, so I’m going to go through all of that so you understand the choices I made before you read the recipe itself. The cherry problem was the thing most on my mind, because rye tastes like cherries. I mean, not entirely. But it’s there, and I can’t imagine how it wouldn’t be missed if it wasn’t. I’m honestly not sure what took me so long to realize that almond extract (ditto marzipan) also tastes like cherries, but it took a while. Luckily, I had not used all my extract on something I forget recently, so I went with that. In most America rye breads, some cocoa powder is added to deepen the color. I had a very small amount of mesquite flour I wanted to use up, so I used that instead of cocoa. The only problem left is sweetness, because molasses isn’t particularly so. If you happen to have Barbados molasses, you could use it one for one in this and skip the extra sweetener. Otherwise, it’s your call. A bit of added sweetener of any type will help a lot in achieving that full on rye essence, but if you prefer not, your bread will still be awesome.
This did not crumble at all. No matter how stuffed the sandwich, it held up to the very last bite.
More cheese crumbled than bread. I ate this one over the board so y’all could see for yourselves.
Here’s what you do!
500g (3.21cups, 17.64oz) GF C4C flour (I used KA)
20 g (.7oz) mesquite flour OR cocoa powder
15g (.529 ounce, 2.5t) salt (I am pretty sure I used regular iodized)
1T-ish caraway seeds (you can use fennel or anise if you must, though, won't be the same, or you can omit)
300g (10.58 ounces, somewhere around 1.5c) GF sourdough starter*
1.5c water
1/4c each: oil, molasses (I put oil in first, then molasses, into the measuring cup then into the bowl - no need to scrape out molasses that way)
1/2 teaspoon of almond extract
2 tablespoons of sugar, maple syrup, agave, or other sweetener
Mix together the first set of ingredients, then whisk together the rest and add them. It might by easier to mix this up with a spatula, and it's definitely what I used next. Once it's mixed like cookie dough, knead with spatula for 5 minutes. Then cover and rise 4 hours. Oil a bread pan, then put your dough in there and spread it out flat with your spatula. Cover and rise 1.5 hours, then bake in a 375F preheated oven for 60 minutes, turn off the oven and leave there overnight.
*if you don't have sourdough and are using commercial yeast, do 2 cups of water and 650g flour, plus a tablespoon of yeast. Cut rise times to 90 minutes each.
If you don't have sourdough starter or commercial yeast, do 2 cups water and 650g of flour, but add in 1 tablespoon of baking powder and skip all the rising to go straight to the preheated oven.
