Bread and Jam for Bobbi

I gave up gluten in August of 2011.  Since then, I've only ever tried baking gluten free bread once.  That was a brioche and it wasn't wonderful.  I've thought about baking bread; I just never did it.

Yesterday, apparently I was ready.  I searched around a little for a recipe, then just went out to the kitchen and did it.  (just like that!  what was I waiting for?)

I'm so glad I did!  With a little of last summer's extra thick raspberry jam, it was wonderful:)

I adapted this recipe from Whole Living to fit the ingredients I had on hand and my preferences.  I won't type out the entire recipe here, I'll just give the ingredients I used:

• 2 tablespoons organic canola oil, plus more for pan
• 1/4 cup ground golden flax seed
• 1/4 cup chia seed
• 1 1/2 cups warm (115 degree) water
• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1 cup millet flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1/2 cup quinoa flour
• 2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
• 2 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
• 2 large eggs plus 2 egg whites (because that's what I had), room temperature
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons sea salt

I followed the recipe on the Whole Living site, but where it says to boil the millet, I just added 1/2 cup warm water to the 1/4 cup chia seed and let it sit about 30 minutes.

As this bread was baking, I was drooling from the yeasty, fresh bread smells coming from my kitchen.  When DH got home, I showed him the still warm loaf I had just pulled from the oven, and we decided not to wait until dinner.  This was bread!  So much like real bread!  True, it's been almost 18 months since I've eaten real bread, but this is very much what I remember.  The millet does have a certain green flavor that I'm not completely sold on, but it didn't get in the way so much that I didn't enjoy this bread.  The original recipe says that this bread does better toasted.  I did toast it for breakfast this morning, and that was nice, but we both agreed that it was pretty excellent straight from the loaf last night.  Many gluten free baked goods are very crumbly.  This bread sliced nicely, without falling apart.  The texture was quite close to what I remember bread being.  There is a bit of a quick bread texture, but the crust was very toothy. 

I really thought I would never have bread again.  As I was eating this, I just kept thinking, in awe, "I'm eating bread! and it's not going to make me sick!"  I kept wondering if I had somehow made a mistake and cooked with wheat flour (even though there is no wheat flour in this house).  I am now encouraged to keep experimenting.  I want to try doing this with oat flour and almond flour to see how that tastes.  Much of gluten free cooking (and eating) is about learning to like new flavors and textures without comparing them to what you've been used to.  I think that even non-gluten-free folks would enjoy this bread.  Try it and let me know what you think!