Gluten free baking with
Your Bread Machine

 Everyone seems to own a bread machine these days. The lure of being able to put all your bread ingredients into the hopper, press a button and voila!, a beautiful loaf of bread pops out ready to be devoured, is the dream of every baker.

That works great for regular wheat dough's, but not so great for gluten free dough's.

The problem begins with the heaviness of gluten free bread dough. The bread machine oven has a hard time cooking it all the way through. You end up with a dark brown almost burnt crust and a not quite done, slightly soggy interior.

The next problem deals with the kneading process. Gluten free bread dough's are more like batter breads, very soft and sticky. They require only one kneading to bring the dry and liquid ingredients together and one rise before baking.

Most bread machines have two kneading cycles and two rising cycles. Our fragile gluten free bread dough has a hard time recovering from that second kneading ad usually does not rise back up again.

So, how do we compensate for this?

Buy a bread machine that you can PROGRAM!

Many of the new bread machines have custom settings where you can tell the machine not to kneed or rise the second time giving your gluten free dough the best of both possible worlds. You can also allow it to rise for a longer time period, so your bread dough can reach its maximum height before the baking begins.

Using a bread machine that allows you to make a 1 pound loaf gives you more flexibility. Gluten free bread dough's bake and cook better in a smaller container. Being able to make a smaller loaf of bread, will ensure that the center has cooked through before the outside ends up burned.

I use a MINI Zojurishu which gives you a 1 to 1 1/2 pound loaf of bread. This is a great machine. I love it! The bread turns out perfect every time and I have just enough to last me about two days.

Remember, fresh gluten free bread has no preservatives so it goes stale very quickly. Making bread more often also keeps my freezer free for other things, like cookies and pies!

It is very space efficient also. it takes up about the same amount of space as my coffee maker.

What did I do with my old non-programmable bread machine? I gave it to one of my nieces who was interested in baking her own fresh bread. She loves it and I am now her favorite aunt forever!