rsi and gluten free bread

Well, I've been on essential-only duties for the last week or two as I managed to flare up my RSI. So, try as I might, I just couldn't add crochet to my "essential" list and so have been craving the creating. It has pretty much settled down now, so I am back with the hook making something entirely new but more on that another time.

Whilst I have been out of crochet action, there are a number of other things that stayed on my essential duties list. And one of those is making gluten free bread. Having a bread maker (which I have due to said RSI), makes making bread easy and gluten free bread is easy too.



I make this one at least once a week. It is a combination/made by me recipe loosely based on a gluten free recipe from the book that came with my Breville bread maker. I've been playing around with gluten free breads and bread mixes for a while, and this is hands down the easiest one I make. Here's how:

Rice Flour Gluten Free Bread

In a measuring jug mix:

• 400ml (approx) of water with 2 tbls of Greek yoghurt to make a total of 450ml of yoghurty-water

add:

• 3 tbls oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar 
• 1 tbls golden syrup (or you could use honey)

in a large bowl mix:

• 2 1/4 C white rice flour
• 1 C brown rice flour
• 1 tbls Xantham gum
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1 small handful of gluten free seed mix (or pumpkin seeds)
• 1 tsp salt

add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Spoon into bread tin. Put bread maker on the largest loaf setting with a dark crust (my machine has a 1250g setting). Press go and walk away. Come back when finished and enjoy your bread!

 
As with most GF breads, this works better reheated as toast the day after making.

on being date-less

so it turns out that i need to pay a bit more attention to things. i made muesli and date loaf today:

well, actually i made date-less muesli and date loaf. see my new breadmaker (brilliantly op-shopped for $20) has an automatic fruit dispenser. and having not used it before, i popped the dates into the dispenser, popped the other ingredients into the bread tin and walked away. (the walking away bit was the killer). 

it turned out that the "automatic" fruit dispenser was automatic, but just didn't actually open wide enough to "dispense". opps. 

but warm buttered date-less muesli and date loaf is still good...    

my creative space is filled with commitment bread (yours can be too!)

i'm joining in with my creative space for the first time this year, and my creative space today is filled with the smell of baking of my favourite kind of bread (i posted a little bit ago about my second favourite bread oaty grainy honey bread):

but my favourite bread is: commitment bread. 

ok, so i know it is weirdly named, but it is based off the fabulous pip's famous pane toscano. see when i first read the recipe, i was a little put off by the fact the bread takes two days to make. it seemed like a bit of a big commitment. but then i realised i was going to be around the house for the weekend, and decided to give it a go. i committed the two days required and made my first batch of what has since become known as commitment bread. 

i now make it often and i have changed and refined the recipe so that it works a bit better for me. the major changes are that i like a bit of wholemeal flour, so i have added that into the mix, and i've also adapted it for my breadmaker (dodgy wrists from rsi mean that kneading dough is out for me).

so i thought i would share: my version of commitment bread (or pane toscano)

on day 1: make starter


starter: 
1 1/2 cups water
3 cups bread flour (it is so much better to use real bread flour. i get mine from here)
1 teasp yeast. 

put ingredients in bread maker on dough setting. once done, i pop it in a big bowl, cover and leave in the fridge overnight to rise. 

on day 2: make commitment bread

pull the starter out of the fridge and divide into quarters. (i pop 3 of the quarters in the freezer to make bread out of later). using one quarter of the starter, i make two loaves of bread. you also need:

2 cups water
1 1/2 teasp of salt
splash of olive oil
3 3/4 cups white bread flour
1/4 cups wholemeal bread flour
1/2 teasp yeast

put one quarter of the starter in the bread maker with all the other ingredients on the dough setting. once done, divide into two and place on trays sprinkled with semolina (to stop it from sticking). pop straight into a moderately hot oven (it rises in the oven) for about 25 min.

when you pull it out, it is good to let it rest for a little before you cut it. (i don't know why, but it cuts better after a little rest). 

it disappears quickly in our house, so watch out...  

easter cooking at home

i unexpectedly found myself at home this easter. alone. and sick. which hasn't made for the funnest easter ever. but has resulted in me pottering around the kitchen making things. 

like hot cross buns:

and loaves of bread

and pumpkin soup

 and tomato chutney (this one was with some gratefully received assistance). the chutney is one of stephanie's and i make it every year (well, i have for the last 3, does that mean its a tradition?). 

and tomorrow, i am making pesto, with this lovely fresh basil from a friend's garden. 

not too bad for a girl stuck at home with the almost-flu (i find the term 'cold' seems to under-describe how sick i have been over the last week). 

and with lent over today, i am no longer fasting from tea, and have therefore drinking pots and pots of it. nothing like tea to make you feel better.

hope you have had a lovely easter...

oaty, grainy, honey bread

this is my second favourite bread - its a new one that i have made a couple of times now and i am loving it, so i thought i would share...

oaty, grainy, honey bread

1 1/4 cups water

2 tbs milk powder

2 tbs butter

2 tbs honey

1 1/12 tsp salt

2 cups wholemeal flour

1 cup white flour

1 1/2 tsp yeast

1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup mixed grains

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

i throw it all into my breadmaker and put it on the dough setting (my wrists are dodgy and unfortunately not up kneading it myself) and then i pop it into a bread tin for the second rise.

once it has doubled, bake at 180 degrees C, for about 40 min.

mmm, fresh bread!

commitment bread

i can’t actually remember how but i stumbled across it, but i found pip’s bread recipe here. i have been making bread for awhile now, but unlike pip i use a bread maker to do the heavy kneading (one of the downsides of computer use – rsi – means kneading by hand is not for me). i have been experimenting with lots of different type of bread. two favourites so far have been honey and oat bread and muesli and date loaf. for the honey and oat, i am pretty lazy, and just let the bread maker do the whole thing – i put the ingredients in and press the buttons and walk away. easy as pie (well, easier actually). where as the muesli and date loaf does require a bit more effort. i only get the machine to do the kneading, and then i pop it in a proper bread tin for the second rise and bake it in the oven. but its not much harder to make.

but pip’s bread in our house it is referred to as ‘commitment bread’ because you have to commit two days to make it. you do the starter on day one, and then wait until day two before you actually make the bread. it has quickly become the ABSOLUTE favourite in our house now. i am a bit of a wholemeal bread fan though, so today i thought i would replace 1 cup of the flour with wholemeal, just to see how it goes. mmm wholemeal…i also put a bowl of water in the bottom of the oven, to make extra crunchy crusts. it turned out pretty damn good, chewy on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

but one of my favourite things about this commitment bread is the imprint from the tray i cooked it on: