GF Artisan Bread

[Dee]

This is my all time favorite bread.
It reminds me of all of the artisan breads that we use to bake at the bakery.
Like most artisan breads, it has a chewy center and the outside crust is perfect.

2 cups GF Flour Mix (I use: ½ cup each: sorghum, cornstarch or arrowroot, potato starch, and tapioca flour
1 1⁄4 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspon sugar
1 packet rapid rise or regular yeast
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup lukewarm water

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Quickly add olive oil and water to the bowl; mix thoroughly by hand or with a mixer.
Cover bowl with a light cloth or plastic wrap and let rise 2 hours at room temperature.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450°F.
When the oven is preheated put a 2 quart cast iron dutch oven with lid or a a 2 quart, round, Pyrex casserole with lid in the oven.
After 30 minutes, take out the hot pan, add the dough and smooth out the top with a wet spatula.
Put the lid on the pan, and put the entire thing in the oven. After 20 minutes, remove the lid and then bake 20 minutes more. The pic is a double recipe. Bake 400 for 30 minutes, then take off lid, bake another 20 minutes.
Let it cool completely before slicing...
This freezes well after being sliced. Place slices between waxed paper.
Then just toast it a little or microwave for a few seconds.

Just Baked-Will Post Another Pic When Sliced.

[bevfromwa]

Hi Dee, just got my lab tests back and I will definitely be haunting your kitchen looking for GF, and egg, dairy and soy free recipes also. Our first attempt at bread today brought to mind the comment that GF bread's best use was for a door stop, so would like to try this. question: do you grease or Pam the casserole before putting the dough in? We have a pyrex type, but worried about the bread getting stuck. Also, do you happen to know if the egg intolerance as reported by Enterolab is for whites only, or the whole egg. Thanks, Bev

[Dee]

Hi There!
No, you don't have to grease the pyrex dish and the bread will come right out of it after baked.
You can let the Artisan dough rise more than 2 hours if you want to, until it gets nice and airy & poofy!! LOL
Are you using a standing mixer to make up the dough, like a Kitchen Aid????
Sorry but the egg intolerance includes the whole egg. :-(

Dee

[bevfromwa]

thanks so much for your prompt response. My husband, Dave, has baked all our bread for about ten years, using a Kitchenaid with dough hook mixer. He is determined to do this, so we're anxious to get the ingredients to try this recipe. He modified his standard French/Italian type recipe that is baked on a stone, and used only white rice flour. Hence the door stopper comment. But in my reading I see you need something like xanthan gum or similar--don't know if I will have a problem with that, but it seems to be in a lot of things. And today we happened to notice that Pam is lethicin, therefore soy. I know there are other sprays available, but wonder if a small zap of Pam gives you that much soy. I know the goal is 100% elimination, and re the gluten that will be my number one priority, but with all the other sensitivities am feeling rather hopeless--like what is left to eat, and how bad can eggs be if 10, which I am is bad but 9 is ok.

[bevfromwa]

thanks so much for your prompt response. Finding the MC support board has been and I'm sure will continue to be a lifesaver! My husband, Dave, has baked all our bread, many delicious varieties, for about ten years, using a Kitchenaid with dough hook mixer. He is determined to do this, so we're anxious to get the ingredients to try this recipe. He modified his standard French/Italian type recipe that is baked on a stone, and used only white rice flour. Hence the door stopper comment. But in my reading I see you need something like xanthan gum or similar--don't know if I will have a problem with xanthan, but it seems to be in a lot of things. And today we happened to notice that Pam is lethicin, therefore soy. I know there are other sprays available, but wonder if a small zap of Pam gives you that much soy. I know the goal is 100% elimination, and re the gluten that will be my number one priority, but with all the other sensitivities am feeling rather hopeless--like what is left to eat, and how bad can eggs be if 10, which I am, is bad but 9 is ok.
FYI my labs were egg 10, yeast 20, soy 14, gluten 221 and casein 14. So I know I need to work on this, as I said, with the number 1 goal being 100% gluten elimination, but without yeast how do you make bread? Thanks again, Bev

[JLH]

When someone asks what I can eat, DH answers, "Cardboard."

Sorry you have so many intolerances. It will be rough going but not having D and all that goes with it will make it all worthwhile.

[Gloria]

Hi Bev,

You are not unusual in feeling hopeless after getting your Enterolab test results. It can be a jolt to realize that the foods you've loved all your life are suddenly bad for you. But there is hope--thanks to Dee and others, plus the Internet, you can find substitutions for those foods.

I'd recommend that you eliminate entirely the items that contain your known intolerances. Pam and almost all other sprays contain lethicin, which as you correctly stated, is soy. Substituting a lethicin spray with olive oil or some other non-lethicin spray is a pretty easy thing to do. I wouldn't compromise my gut for Pam. I've been able to find non-lethicin sprays during Passover. Some Jewish sects are not allowed to eat any legumes during passover, so many items are manufactured without soy at that time.

You probably could experiment with eggs if your egg score is right on the border. My score was 22, which was my second-lowest score. I was certain that I'd eventually be able to eat eggs again, but I have a reaction within a few hours of eating them. It's best to eliminate all questionable food until you get your MC under control. Perhaps someone else with a similar score of 10 can tell you how they've managed eggs.

Tex has a theory that we only test positive to yeast when we have an active yeast infection. I tested positive for yeast with a score of 18 units, my lowest score. I tried many times to make bread without yeast, but it was never near what I'd consider bread. The closest you can get to making bread without yeast would be something like pancakes or cornbread. However, Ener-g makes a yeast-free, egg-free rice bread (http://www.ener-g.com/store/products.as ... on=2&cat=2) and I ate that for a few months. It didn't taste very good (similar to cooked rice compressed in a bread pan) but it allowed me to eat sandwiches. After a few months, I resumed eating yeast bread, but I'm careful to eat no more than 2 slices in 4 days. I'm unable to maintain remission without Entocort, so I can't say for sure if eating bread affects me. I never have any reactions to eating it, so I don't think it does.

To answer your question "What is left to eat," most of us eat well-cooked vegetables and meat, which is a pretty healthy diet. If we want pasta, we buy rice pasta which is available at Whole Foods and health food stores. Many mainstream grocers are stocking gluten-free products, making shopping much easier.

Gloria

[bevfromwa]

thanks to Joan for reminding me to keep a sense of humor, and thank you Gloria for your comments. I plan to post my lab results on main message board sometime today to see if I can get further interpretative comments. Thanks, Bev