While all-purpose flours can give you a decent loaf of bread, true bakers know that to achieve the perfect loaf, you need a specific bread flour as well. If you have Celiac or a gluten sensitivity, however, this may seem like a challenge. Thankfully, it is easy to combine flours to make your own bread flour, or to find readymade blends for sale that can make your dreams of freshly baked bread come true.
Recipe for Gluten-Free Bread Flour
This flour yields a chewy, hearty loaf with a light brown color and golden brown crust. It can be used in many different bread recipes. If using it for a gluten-containing recipe, double the number of eggs and allow extra time for rising for best results.
This makes enough flour for one standard-sized loaf.
Ingredients
- 1-1/3 cup buckwheat flour
- 1/2 cup white rice flour
- 3/4 cups tapioca flour
- 2-1/4 teaspoons xanthan gum
- 1-1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Sift together the ingredients into a large bowl.
- Use immediately or store in a tightly covered container until ready to use.
Companies That Make Gluten-Free Bread Flour
Each gluten-free flour blend will taste slightly different from the next, because it can contain so many different ingredients. If you choose to purchase your bread flour, give any of these brands a try.
King Arthur
King Arthur makes a gluten-free bread mix. It can be used in a bread machine or in an oven and can also be adapted into a pizza dough. A recipe for producing sandwich bread from the flour comes on the box. The company does note that the bread produced will be coarser than traditional loaves of bread, particularly if used in a bread machine.
Maninis
Maninis sells several different bread flour mixes depending on what you want to bake. These include the following options:
- Ready-to-mix oat bread flour, which requires no kneading
- A no-knead, one-rise peasant bread flour
- A hearty, rustic multi-grain flour
These are the same mixes used in producing Maninis bread, which is sold extensively on the West Coast. The mixes are all formulated to be easy to use, and have minimum mixing, kneading or rising.
Bob's Red Mill
Bob's uses strict manufacturing processes to make sure their products are completely free of gluten, and this includes their bread mix. The mix produces a loaf of bread that is similar in taste and texture to whole wheat breads. The bread mix does include garbanzo bean flour as its base, so if you are soy sensitive, you may want to pass.
Pamela's Products
Pamela's Products makes a wheat- and gluten-free bread mix and flour blend. This sorghum-based bread flour comes complete with the sweeteners added and a yeast packet enclosed. Those who wish to limit the amount of sweetener in their bread may have difficulty with this blend.
Namaste Foods
Namaste Foods makes a bread mix that is free of the eight most common allergens, including wheat, gluten, soy, corn, potato, dairy, peanuts or tree nuts. The mix is brown rice flour-based and is sweetened with cane juice.
Start Baking
With so many different bread flours and mixes available, it shouldn't be any trouble to find that one recipe that yields results similar to what you may have experienced before going gluten-free. Don't be afraid to try different mixes or even to combine some in the quest for that perfect loaf of bread.
