Gluten free baking is tough, especially with bread. Gluten holds the bread together and it also helps the dough rise and stay all fluffy by trapping the bubbles from the fermentation with the added yeast.

Yesterday evening after a particularly hard day with work, I got to take some time to just step back and do a little baking. We were already making a roast chicken with sweet potatoes and I just wanted something savory with the same herbs. On a whim, I looked up a few recipes and with some modifications and… pulled out a delicious gluten free focaccia out of the oven! I got a little nervous after I checked up on how the dough was rising (in an empty closet with a space heater since the oven was preoccupied with the chicken at too high a temperature) since many bread attempts went very poorly. Very relieved that it came out beautifully golden and very tasty. Reminds me of Italian bread dipped in some herbed olive oil… yum!

During the past few weeks there have been many baking fails with bread… and just dough in general. May get into that more some other time but for now these are some tidbits we’ve learned…

1. Measuring gluten free flour by volume (such as with a measuring cup) doesn’t work very well. The consistency of many gluten free flour blends is much more “fluffy” than all-purpose wheat flour. Even with a blend that says 1-to-1 measuring to flour you need to be careful. Packing the flour down lightly before leveling leads to PLENTY of inconsistent human error. Multiple doughs ended up just too mushy/wet and unable to hold any real three dimensional shape. Use a scale.
2. Just because the dough rises, it doesn’t mean it will stay. Gluten helped keep it all airy with that lovely texture. Without it, it often just falls flat and becomes dense. Make sure you have something that helps provide that sticky structure like xanthan gum. May want to experiment with the quantity. Psyllium husk powder can help make the dough more elastic yet stay together too.
3. Just accept that sometimes your dough isn’t going to hold itself up and consider baking it in a container in the shape you want your bread to be anyway…
4. Be patient with yourself. Have some fun.
5. Since we have the great option of a local compost drop off site there is at least the comfort that if there is an epic baking fail, it can get dropped off on the other side of town to return to the earth…

Happy Thursday! Time to figure out what’s for dinner …

-Feier