Today, I found my old bread machine which got lost when I moved a few months ago. I haven't used it since I went gluten-free and dairy-free several years back. I found a recipe without wheat or milk, and fired it up. Not only does it still work, the bread was so fantastic I had to share the recipe with you!
There's my old Cuisinart after a quick cleaning. The lid comes right off when you open it, but otherwise it's in good shape. It powered up just fine, so I gathered the ingredients.
This recipe makes a standard 1.5 pound loaf of white bread. I added the ingredients in the following order.
1 1/4 cups water at room temperature.
1/4 cup oil or soft margarine.
3 medium eggs. I am mostly vegan, but about a year ago started occasionally using eggs again. I only buy free range eggs (preferably from a local farm) that come from happy chickens. You can crack them right in, but I chose to scramble mine first.
1 1/4 teaspoon salt.
3 tablespoons sugar (or honey).
3 1/4 cups Bob's Red Mill 1:1 flour. This is a popular gluten-free blend available just about everywhere, but you can probably substitute other white flours.
2 teaspoons active dry yeast. I had instant dry yeast, which is versatile and can often be substituted for active yeast. It worked perfectly. Yeast formulated for bread machines would also likely be suitable.
Into the machine it went! I selected the gluten-free setting, and hit Start.
About 10 minutes later, it was stirring the ingredients, and some dry flour was stuck to the sides, so I used a spatula to push it off into the mixer.
This was about 20 minutes into the process.
About 40 minutes in, the dough was fully mixed, and the machine went still to allow it to rise.
About 90 minutes from the start, the dough had risen and taken the shape of a loaf. It began to bake!
The whole process took 2.5 hours, at which point I emptied the bread loaf out onto a cutting board to cool.
5 minutes later, I was slicing it up. Smelled amazing! I was relieved to see it turned out really well.
And the taste test? Perfect bread, better than I can get in stores. It was excellent with a bit of margarine, and made a delicious treat with some strawberry jam!
Recipe
To make it easy, here's the entire recipe in one spot.
1 1/4 cups water at room temperature
1/4 cup oil or soft margarine
3 medium eggs
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar (or honey)
3 1/4 cups Bob's Red Mill 1:1 gluten-free flour
2 teaspoons active (or instant) dry yeast
Add to the machine in that order, set for gluten-free loaf, press start.
After a few minutes of mixing, use a spatula to stir in dry flour from the sides.
It will take about 2.5 hours total, and creates a 1.5 pound loaf (about 12 slices).
The total cost was slightly less than what a similar loaf would be from the grocery store. It's a lot tastier, has better texture, and doesn't come with strange ingredients.
Optional: You can add nuts or seeds to the dough, or sprinkled on top while it is rising.
Thanks for checking out my post. Happy baking (and eating)!
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