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gluten free (yeast) bread

marym@mpd.tandem.com (Mary Matejka)
Tue, 17 Jan 95 10:16:29 CST
v006.n004.2
I saved this info awhile a go but you might give it a whirl. The book
is available from King Arthur Flours as well.

Gluten does hold the bread together, and allows stuff to rise. Devin Ben-Hur,
in <1992Apr2.215835.4605@quclab.scn.rain.com> suggests using Xanthan Gum as a
binder, but puts way too much in (can you spell r-u-b-b-e-r) -- you only need
about 1t per cup of flour. That's what my wife uses to bake bread (she's
dictating this article to me over my shoulder!) 

First of all, let me recommend a cookbook to you: The Gluten Free Gourmet:
Living Well Without Wheat, by Bette Hagman. It is published by Henry Holt;
ISBN 0-8050-1210-9. This cookbooks has all kinds of baking recipes, including
mutliple pizza dough recipes. Its main trick is to use a mixture of non-gluten
flours as a substitute for regular flour -- this mixture is 2 parts white rice
flour, 2/3 part potato starch, 1/3 part tapioca flour. You can use this
mixture almost as a 1 for 1 substitute in regular recipes for quick breads
(e.g., corn bread, muffins). You can also use it in normal breads, but other
adjustments are required -- see the book for details.

Here's - quick pizza dough that doesn't even use the mixture. My wife has used
this and thinks it's pretty good. You take 1/4c of milk, and 2 lg. eggs and
beat them together. Add 1/3c cornstarch, 2/3c rice flour, 1/4t xanthan gum
(optional, see note), 1t salt, 1/4c melted shortening. Beat well. Spread this
stuff on a pizza pan. Top it, and bake in a preheated 400oF oven for 25
minutes. Allegedly serves 6, although if you have pizza-starved, GF people,
will probably serve about 3.

Note: If you don't have a local source for xanthan gum, you can order it from
Ener-G Foods, in Seattle, 800/331-5222. In WA State 800/325-9788. This is also
a source for Methylcellulose and prepackaged GF stuff.

Corn breads with sufficient
milk and eggs, using the GF flour mix mentioned above in place of wheat flour,
will usually hold together OK. You can also use the cornbread recipe from the
side of the Albers cornmeal box, substituting GF flour mix or rice flour for
the wheat flour (and soymilk for the milk, if need be). It holds together with
the GF flour mix. Lastly, if your friend is truly gluten free for a medical
reason (such as Celiac Sprue), she should contact the Celiac Society. The
number is in Bette Hagmans book ... hold on whilst we look it up ... there,
got it ... Gluten Intolerance Group of North America -- 206/325-6980; Celiac
Sprue Association of the US: 402/558-0600.