Gluten Free Sandwich Bread

I have been avoiding food with gluten for a year and a half now. Successfully, most of the time. Being that I am a South Indian, my diet has always been rice-dominant. This has helped me with the gluten-free diet. I don't miss the rotis and the parathas( flatbreads) and the regular bread even.. That's because I never ate it on a regular basis anyways! I ate bread mostly on weekends, when my husband makes his special American omelette  with lots of fresh veggies and herbs. I love that breakfast. Now he brings gluten free bread from the store for my occasional use; usually Udi's or Ezekiel brands. Both are pretty good and the loaf lasts me for a while!

I always thought of baking bread as a tedious process and since I didn't have the necessity, I never made an attempt. I would always drool over the wonderful bread pictures posted by the amazing members of this 40,000 strong group called Chef at Large( CAL).Recently, they had an event titled #yeastmadness. I saw that even novices were participating. I too wanted to make something. I figured this is the right reason to do my research on gluten-free breads. Making gluten free bread is tricky and most of them taste like cardboard anyways! I was looking for something that is soft and as close to the regular flour sandwich bread.You know what they say.. "Seek and you shall find". I came across this wonderful recipe on this website called alittleinsanity.com. I decided to give the recipe a try with modifications of my own. I must say that the bread came out really well.You can tell though that it is not the regular flour, but still good;soft and with a nice texture. Here's how I made it:

Source: alittleinsanity.com

Servings: makes  1 regular 9x5 loaf

Ingredients:

Yeast Mix:
Milk: 1 1/2 cup
Honey: 4 tbsp
Dry active yeast: 2 1/4 tsp ( 1 packet) I used Fleischmann's Active Dry yeast.

Dry Mix:Brown rice flour: 1/4 cup
White rice flour: 1/4 cup
Sweet rice flour: 1/4 cup
Tapioca starch: 1/4 cup
Xanthan gum: 2  3/4 tsp
Baking powder: 4 tsp
Salt: 1 tsp

Wet Mix:Apple Cider Vinegar: 2tsp
Olive oil: 1/4 cup
Eggs: 2 large

Method:

Mix honey and yeast in lukewarm milk and set aside 10 minutes for proofing.

Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan and keep aside.

Add all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Keep aside.

Add all the wet ingredients to another bowl and beat for a few seconds on high with a hand mixer.Now add the yeast mix and beat for a few more seconds.

Now slowly add in the dry mix little at a time and beat for 3-4 minutes. Your dough will be wet and sticky. 

Transfer the dough to the greased 9x5 loaf pan. Cover with a cling wrap and keep it aside for 20-30 minutes or until the dough doubles in size. Do not let the dough rise above the loaf pan as while baking it will spill over.

Preheat the oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Mine was done in 30 minutes.

You can check for doneness by inserting a wooden skewer into the middle. If it comes clean, then the bread is done.

If the crust seems to be darkening too fast, halfway through the baking, loosely cover the bread with a foil and continue baking.

When done, take the pan out of the oven and let it cool in the pan for 5- 10 minutes. Now overturn the loaf pan on a wire rack and let the loaf cool down. Slice the bread only when it has cooled down completely.

Enjoy with a slice of cheese or butter.

Store the remaining bread in an airtight container in the freezer.

Cooking made easy:

Cooking is a breeze if you make sure if you have everything ready in front of you when you start. Make good use of the time when you are waiting in between steps of cooking a dish. Do some clean-up and dish washing so that you don't have too much cleaning up to do at the end of the cooking process.

Tip for healthy living:

One of the best ways to eat healthy is by avoiding processed ready-to-eat meals and food which may contain preservatives to increase it's shelf life.These preservative may affect our body in ways unknown to us.

Food for thought:

When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves. William Arthur Ward.