I finally found some millet flour! I think next time I may use equal parts millet and sorghum flour (1/2 cup each). Also, you can't really tell from the photo, but the bottom of the loaf is a bit concave and I don't understand why. All of the gluten-free loaves have been like this. I wonder if it's because of the steam I've used during baking (ice cubes in a skillet on the bottom rack). Next time I will try it with no steam. Also, I used the smaller pan this time and I like it better.

1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1 cup potato starch
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
3/4 cup millet flour
2 tbsp flax seeds, finely ground (about 1/4 cup ground)
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp rapid rise yeast
1 cup rice milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, cut up
1 tbsp honey
2 eggs

Sift the flours and potato starch into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add ground flax seeds, xanthan gum, salt, and yeast. Whisk well.

In a microwave safe bowl or 2-cup measure, place rice milk, butter, and honey. Microwave for about a minute. The milk should be warm (120°-130°F) and the butter starting to melt. Add this mixture along with the eggs to the flour mixture. Mix on medium-high speed with the paddle attachment until well combined.

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray, then pour in the dough. Flatten the top with a spatula. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

While the loaf is rising, preheat the oven to 375°F.

Bake about an hour, or until golden and the internal temperature registers 205°F. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.

I baked another loaf of bread this morning. I couldn't help it. This one turned out much better than the first. It tastes like bread!

I baked it in a slightly larger pan (9"x5") because the last loaf seemed too big for the 8"x4" pan, but it looks like this one would have been fine in the smaller pan. I also decided against the egg wash.

1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1 cup potato starch
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
2 tbsp amaranth seeds, finely ground (about 1/4 cup ground)
2 tbsp flax seeds, finely ground (about 1/4 cup ground)
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp rapid rise yeast
1 cup rice milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, cut up
1 tbsp honey
2 eggs

Sift the flours and potato starch into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add ground amaranth and flax seeds, xanthan gum, salt, and yeast. Whisk well.

In a microwave safe bowl or 2-cup measure, place rice milk, butter, and honey. Microwave for about a minute. The milk should be warm (120°-130°F) and the butter starting to melt. Add this mixture along with the eggs to the flour mixture. Mix on medium-high speed with the paddle attachment until well combined.

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray, then pour in the dough. Flatten the top with a spatula. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

While the loaf is rising, preheat the oven to 375°F.

Bake about an hour, or until golden and the internal temperature registers 205°F. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.

My foray into gluten-free bread baking has begun. I haven't been eating entirely gluten-free lately and I don't even know for sure if I should be avoiding it, but I have all these flours now and I might as well experiment with them. This recipe is based on one from Gluten-Free Girl. I couldn't find millet flour anywhere around here, so I took the millet leftover from the multigrain breads I was making a while ago and ground it up in a coffee grinder. The recipe called for 1 cup but I only had 1/2 cup, so I substituted oat flour for the remaining 1/2 cup. I also used about 1/2 active dry yeast and 1/2 rapid rise, and looking back I probably shouldn't have let it rise as long as I did. The last major difference is that I didn't have any guar gum so I left it out and added a little extra xanthan gum.

The final bread tastes more like a biscuit than a yeast bread. I also found it interesting that instead of letting the dough rise, then shaping it and letting it rise again, it only had to rise once. I wonder what would happen if I did it the traditional way. Would it not rise the second time?

Some thoughts for my next attempt:

• skip the beaten egg whites
• add some ground flax seeds
• use less yeast (all I have left is rapid rise) and don't let it rise too long
• replace the millet flour with extra sorghum and sweet rice flour (since I'm out of millet)

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (I used about 1 1/4 tsp active dry and 1 tsp rapid rise yeast)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup milk (I used rice milk)
2 egg whites
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1 cup potato starch
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
1 cup millet flour (I used 1/2 cup ground millet and 1/2 cup ground oats)
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, or butter substitute
2 eggs, at room temperature

» Full Recipe at Gluten-Free Girl

When I saw this recipe over at Smitten Kitchen in January, I knew I would have to try it. It looked like the perfect sandwich bread. But, at the time I was on a whole grain bread kick. I eventually came to my senses and admitted that the 100% whole wheat bread was not doing the trick. Sure, it's better for you than store bought "wheat" bread, but it wasn't what I craved.



This 33% wheat bread is also Peter Reinhart's recipe, from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I think I'll have to add that book to my collection.

2 1/2 cups (11.25 oz) unbleached bread flour
1 1/2 cups (6.75 oz.) whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 tablespoons (.75 oz.) honey
1 1/2 teaspoons (.38 oz.) salt
3 tablespoons (1 oz.) powdered milk
1 1/2 teaspoons (.17 oz.) instant yeast (I used active dry with no problem)
2 tablespoons (1 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups (10 oz.) water, at room temperature

» Full Recipe at smittenkitchen.com

This is what I started out with:

14 oz starter
1 tbsp oat bran
1 tbsp wheat germ
1 tbsp flax seeds, ground
5 oz rolled oats, finely ground
4 oz bread flour
4 oz 1% milk, warmed
.5 oz canola oil
1.5 oz honey
1.25 tsp salt
.25 oz yeast

I decided not to make a soaker, since I wasn't using any addition whole wheat flour, so I mixed everything together all at once. It ended up needing a lot more moisture  and flour. I shouldn't have used that many oats. I ended up adding about 3 oz additional water, and 4 oz additional bread flour. I let it mix in the mixer for a while so the gluten would develop sufficiently.



I ended up removing 11 ounces of the dough because I thought it was too much for the loaf pan. I tried making some pretzels with the extra, but they didn't turn out too great.



I think I took out too much of the dough though, because the loaf didn't get as big as I wanted.



This one didn't rise at all after it went in the oven. That's probably because I let it proof too long.



The verdict: not great. A little tough.

I think I need to take a break from the bread baking for a couple weeks. I have so much bread in the freezer that I'm probably never going to eat.

Aside from the burnt bottom, the bread is great. Makes me want to get a baguette pan though, so the bottom won't be flat. Or burnt.

Update (3.3.09): I ordered the baguette pan last night!

This is the first time I've incorporated steam into the baking process. I'm amazed by the outcome. If only I hadn't left them in the oven too long... The bottoms are pretty dark. I hope it still tastes ok.

For the steam, I put a rimmed baking sheet on a rack in the highest position while the oven preheated. When the loaves were ready to go in the oven, I poured about a cup of hot water on the hot sheet. I also spritzed the oven walls with water with a misting spray bottle. I think I left the oven temperature too high after I put the bread in. Then I didn't watch it as closely as I should have because the new HD TV was distracting me...

Also, next time I make baguettes I'll try to slash them at a sharper angle.

Since I'm serving this with soup, I thought a nice, crusty baguette would be perfect. Now, I don't know if they'll turn out as crusty as I'm hoping, but at least I have the shape down. I made a makeshift couche out of parchment and a couple rolled up kitchen towels.

soaker
14 oz mother starter
2 oz unbleached bread flour
5 g salt
.25 oz yeast
1.5 oz honey
1 oz canola oil

I mixed it in the stand mixer again. I kneaded it by hand for a couple minutes, then put it back in the mixer after letting it rest. I think I may have actually kneaded it enough this time.

I've decided that 100% whole wheat is a bit much. For this loaf I adapted the master formula so that the starter is 100% whole wheat but the soaker just uses bread flour. The book provides a formula for a transitional whole wheat bread, which is also a 50% whole wheat loaf, but that one calls for a whole wheat soaker and a white biga instead of a starter. I wanted to use my starter because I'd refreshed it a few days ago and I didn't want to waste it.

Since the whole point of the soaker is to soften up the whole grains, I figured this one didn't have to sit for a few hours before I could use it. I just let it sit while I waited for my starter to come to room temp from being in the refrigerator.

8 oz unbleached bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
6 oz milk, warmed