Recipe: Yummy Gluten Free Bread

Breadmaking is a weekly routine in our household. Many of the gluten-free breads on the market are some combination of inedible and extremely expensive, so we purchase bulk flour and have made baking a Sunday afternoon ritual. Not only does homemade gluten free bread taste much better than most store-bought varieties but it saves quite a bit of money.

I have a go-to bread recipe that I modified from the Easy Gluten Free Baking website. It's extremely easy and versatile - I've used this recipe for everything from sandwich bread to Italian loaves to hamburger and hot dog buns.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cups tapioca flour
2/3 cups dry milk (optional)
1 Tbsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dough enhancer
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp canola oil
cooking spray
2 Tbsp melted butter (optional, for brushing - but trust me, you want to do this for Italian bread, as well as cutting diagonal lines in the dough before it rises!)

Directions
1. Mix water, sugar, dough enhancer and yeast. Set aside to foam.
2. Sift together dry ingredients.
3. Add eggs, oil and water/yeast mixture. Blend well - here's where the KitchenAid mixer comes in really handy. After everything has blended I let the KitchenAid knead the dough for at least 10 minutes.
4. Coat your pan with cooking spray. Spread dough into pan. If desired, brush dough with melted butter. Cover and let rise for approximately 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Bake for approx. 45 minutes or until bread is done. Test that bread is done by inserting a toothpick into bread - if it comes out clean the bread should be done. NOTE: My oven is on its way out and tends to cook faster than some other ovens so be sure to check that the bread is done, it's likely your oven will take longer!
7. Remove from pan and let cool. Enjoy!

Note - if you get bored with this recipe you can use alternate flour combinations as long as it adds up to the equivelent of 2 1/2 cups of wheat flour and 2/3 cup starch. So you could use something like:

• 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup sorghum flour, 1/2 cup amaranth flour, 2/3 cup tapioca flour
  

Use your imagination - it can make bread making fun and it's nice to not have the same monotonous thing every week.

Also - huge tip here - I have found King Arthur Flour's website to be absolutely invaluable for baking. My three favorite pans that I've purchased from their site are their hamburger bun pan, the New England hot dog bun pan, and the Italian loaf pan. Trust me, they're worth every penny!

Update: Thanks to Joan for catching my typo - and avoiding a real-life re-enactment of "The Blob!"