I can only guess that it overrose the first rise and the yeast was tuckered out by the second rise. I have no experience whatsoever with gluten free or low gluten cooking.

My 100% spelt loaves come out like bricks so I’ve finally settled on 50% low-gluten flour and 50% high protein flour. I’m wondering if I used a combination of commercial yeast and wild yeast how that would affect it. Right now I’m busy reverse engineering the pizza dough because we have gone down the wrong road with that one this year.

Not to lay any blame but the more removed I’ve become from the process the more like chewy bready dough it is. I’m the cracker pizza camp and pizza man is deep dish. Maybe we just need to rotate who makes the dough so we each get our turn.

Oats are great in bread, especially if you add extra molasses or honey! They are low gluten though so don’t add more than 50% unless you want to make it a quick bread. Try making waffles with oats – they are really yummy!

It went like this:

First kneading produced a somehow elastic dough but it had the consistency of soft play dough – when stretched a bit too long, it’d separate.

First proofing went OK, the dough rose quite a bit.

Second kneading, the dough felt drier so I added a bit of water as per instructions. Similar consistency to first kneading, maybe a bit smoother.

Second proofing, in the pan, didn’t rise at all and the top of the dough separated a bit (think of stretch marks).

> Why don’t you make 2 loaves and try to put
> one in a little early and let the other go longer
> so you can see the difference?

I have and, like you, I prefer the crumb not too loose.

> I have been making my sandwich bread using
> 34% hard wheat, 33% rye and 33% spelt and it
> comes out great.

Yes, it does! I have been using 2 cups of hard or soft wheat and the rest equal parts of rye and spelt. For the pitas I used 60% hard wheat and the rest spelt. Lovely.

How does your 100% spelt bread turn out?

Now I want to start using seeds (sesame, poppy).

Also, I have steel-cut oat that I could mill. Would oat work in your bread recipe?

The overnight rise with milk gives the dough enough time to compensate for any slow-rising yeast and works because there is so much structure to the bread from the high protein and fiber.

If you let the bread overproof that last rise you will get very airy bread that tears when you try to spread butter on it. It’s really a matter of preference. I try to put mine in the oven a little early so that it finishes rising in the oven but the crumb is not too loose.

Why don’t you make 2 loaves and try to put one in a little early and let the other go longer so you can see the difference? Just be sure to slash the top of the overproofing one or the top crust will lift away and fall off when you slice the bread.

Xanthan gum is a binder so it helps the low-protein flours to bind better. Otherwise the bread would fall apart like cake does.

The potato starch keeps the baked goods tender and the xanthan gum binds it together if that makes sense. We are approaching laboratory bread with those ingredients though and moving away from kitchen alchemy.

I haven’t used sorghum flour for bread since we don’t have any wheat allergies. I am, however, playing around with all spelt bread. Traditionally people would eat a wide variety of grains and not predominantly corn and wheat like we do now.

I have been making my sandwich bread using 34% hard wheat, 33% rye and 33% spelt and it comes out great. That is the beauty of the grain grinder – whole grains have a long shelf life so I have jars of everything you can imagine and just throw whatever I feel like in the grain hopper.

Oat/spelt pancakes are so yummy! And oh my the freshness of the cornmeal is indescribable.

Barley muffins are yummy as a side with soup. Spelt cookies don’t distract from delicate flavors like whole wheat can.

It’s been fun trying new grains in old recipes.

I’m so glad you are having fun baking!

Interesting what you say about the milk. Does it apply only to this recipe because of the rice flour? Because I’m using cold milk in your fabulous soaked ww bread and it rises fine. Would it rise more/better if I scalded the milk?

Potato starch… I see. Does xanthan gum have the same purpose, that’s one of the weird (to me) ingredients many of the recipes called for.

BTW, have you used sorghum flour for bread?

(Yesterday I made pitas. Half of your bread dough recipe makes 8 of the most d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s-l-y tender pitas. So far, with that dough I’ve made the regular loaves, burger buns, dinner rolls, pizza rolls, sticky buns, stuffed bread and pitas. And everything turned out great. I can’t thank you enough for that, sweetheart. )

Since the flours in here are all low gluten and the yeast is commercial I’m wondering if it needed a shorter rising period? Did it rise and then fall? Or not rise at all? The milk should have been scalded to make an enzymatically weaker environment for the yeast to do it’s work.

There isn’t any gluten in this recipe and most gluten free flours contain some type of potato starch for structure. In the absence of that it’s probably critical that the moisture/flour ratio be pretty spot on to provide enough structure and tension to contain the escaping gas. The multiple kneads would help provide tension and structure to the dough.

This would be a great question for a real baker or someone on a bread forum like KAF or the Fresh Loaf. That would be my two cents, for what it’s worth. :p

I searched your entire site and couldn’t find that comment either.

You had said that rice flour is difficult to work with but to let you know if I found a recipe that works.

Most of the recipes I found called for weird ingredients that I don’t have in my pantry but this one (I’m pasting the whole thing below) seemed quite straight forward in terms of ingredients but it calls for “scalded milk” but then it instructs you to use water? It also tells you to knead and proof twice and bake for almost an hour.

I used milk and baked for 50 minutes and got a nice brick with overcooked crust and cake-like crumb that didn’t rise at all.

The recipe says that the dough will turn “shiny” and elastic. It didn’t. It felt like soft play dough.

So this recipe obviously does not work but why?

Here it is:

Ingredients for Rice Bread Recipe

2 cups rice flour
1 cup white flour
1 yeast cake, dissolved
1 cup milk, scalded
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon shortening
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Sift flour while dissolving the yeast in lukewarm water.

Put sifted flour in a bowl or on a pastry board.

Dissolve salt, sugar, and fat with lukewarm water and add gently to the flour.

Put the mixture in a bowl and add the dissolved yeast.

Mix as thoroughly as possible, slowly adding more water until a soft dough is obtained.

If dough is too soft to be handled, add more flour; if it is too hard, add more liquid.

Next, beat and knead the mixture for about 10 minutes until smooth and shining, or until the dough does not stick any more to the bowl, finger, or knife.

Take the dough and place it in a floured or greased bowl, cover with a floured cloth, and let stand in a warm place (80 to 88 degrees F.) at uniform temperature and away from drafts.

Let rise until double its original bulk and full of bubbles, or until a slight touch of the finger leaves an impression. This should happen in about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Remove dough from bowl or pastry board and dredge pastry board with flour.

Lightly flour hands and dough.

Fold the farther edge of the dough toward the front without pressing the fingers into it.

With the ball of the hand lightly pressed into the dough, roll it slightly away from you. Make your strokes in kneading light and even strokes. After each stroke, turn the dough a quarter of the way around the board with a second stroke.

Repeat this, adding a little flour at a time, or water, if necessary.

The dough, when kneaded enough, will keep its shape on the board and is spongy, elastic, and smooth. It will also have a velvety surface.

Take the dough and divide it into equal parts, according to the sizes of bread desired.

Grease pans or molds.

Fill the pans or molds half-way with the dough.

Each portion of dough should have an even surface and be smooth.

Pat the dough well into the corners of the molds.

Cover with a thick cloth and place where the dough will be warm (80 to 88 degrees F.) as for first rising, until the size of the dough doubles in bulk, about 40-55 minutes. The dough will then begin to follow the shape of the pan.

Place in a hot oven (400 to 425 degrees F.) to allow it to form a crust and stop rising.

After the first 15-20 minutes, decrease the temperature to 380 degrees F until the bread is cooked.

The bread should start to brown at the end of the first 20 minutes.

An ordinary bread loaf requires from 50-60 minutes for baking.

One of those mornings – preschooler woke up with pinkeye, lost my voice, dog dug under the chicken run and there was a breakout…and it’s not even 10 a.m. yet!

What was it you wanted to know about the rice bread? I did look at that link and commented somewhere but now I can’t find where. Maybe it was on a different entry.

Damned hackers!

However, if you’d rather not comment on this, no problem, just let me know. I’m pursuing it only because you showed interest a few days ago.

Julia – I was threatened plenty with the rocks or lumps of coal but never actually got them. That is too funny. I was tempted to do that to my 3 year old this year but couldn’t bring myself to it. :p