I really think that I am on to something here! This is the very best bread I have ever tasted and the texture is amazing - even counting wheat bread. I have tried all kinds of recipes and bought premade GF bread, but none of them have had a springy, bendable texture like this. All of the others are crumbly and too firn to the touch. I have uploaded a quicktime movie to show the texture - link near the bottom. It isn't crumbly!
Now I need to go back through the two days worth of experiments to find out what were the KEY things that made for the great texture and get two days worth of experimenting into one streamlined recipe.
Thursday's Experiment - Day 1:
What I mixed together -
1/2 cup of rice flour that was milled along with ...
1 1/2 cup tapioca (Minute brand - same stuff that is used to make tapioca pudding)
1 1/2 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cup potato starch (this was from Grandma Ferdon's - homemade: see Nov 18th entry)
2 pkgs unflavored gelatin (Knox brand from the grocery store)
2 pkgs yeast
4 tbsp sugar
2 big handfuls of colby jack cheese
1 1/2 cup water from boiled potatoes (potatoes boiled until quite soft then removed)
6 cups of milk (that is hard to believe, I know. But the startches just sucked it all up)
Mrs. Dash seasoning was generously sprinkled into the dough (well covered layer)
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs Sure-Jel (this is from grocery store - it is what jellies are made with)
3 tsp guar gum (ordered from Grandma Ferdon)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 eggs
I mixed it all together by hand - literally, by hand. It had an unusual texture because of all the starches. If your kids have ever done science labs, you might get an idea of the texture. It was like slippery lumps that I kept working trying to get an even texture. I started out with far less milk at first, I just kept adding it in an attempt to get the lumps to smooth out. I ended up with soooo much dough; I put half into a large ziplock bag and put it in the refrigerator because I just had so much more dough than I had springform pans for.
I let it rise to double in height which it did in a normal fashion for any yeast bread. Then I placed it in the oven. It fell pretty flat - I mean really flat. LOL. Thursday night, I chalked it all up to a complete failure. See what I mean. :0)
Friday's Experiment - Day 2:
The douh that I had put in the refrigerator must have continued to work overnight because the ziplock bag was puffed up. I took the dough that I had put in the refrigerator out and added about 1 1/2 cups more rice flour mixed with 2 tsp of baking powder, about 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 more big handfuls of colby jack cheese. Here is a picture showing the consistency of the dough right after I added it to the springform pans (hamburger bun sized pans). I smoothed it with a fork - you can even see the tine marks. The consistency reminded me of potato salad. The nice orange color is due to the fact that I used free range hen eggs. We have a friend with a farm. :0) The yolks are intensely orange! Much more so than the sickly yellowish-orange of store bought ones.
Because the dough was sooo cold I let it sit out until it was only mildly cool to the touch. Then I placed it in the oven at 350 until done. Look at it now, The two on the lower left are cut open so you can see the internal texture. The cheese in them is easy to see.
You cannot tell that it has great texture from the pictures. To show the final texture, my hubby pressed, flexed, and broke off a piece of the bread while I recorded a 15 to 30 second quicktime movie. You can see it at
(Mmmm, the blog wants to split that link. If it doesn't work, copy/paste it to your browser)
It is so exciting when you make a GF bread that can pass in texture and taste for a glutened bread! I am hoping that among the GF community there are other GF bread experimenters. Jump in with this one and join me in figuring out what are the key elements that made for the great texture. There were several things I did this time that I have never done before - potato flour and the liquid from boiled potatoes, the overnight refrigeration, guar gum, cheese, Sure Gel, use of hamburger bun sized springform pans. Which were key to the success?
If you have not already found one, these hamburger bun sized springform pans are great. I just got ours last week at WalMart. Tasty, successfully wheat-like buns here I come. LOL Here is what they look like up close:
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Nov. 19, 2005 - I never knew there were springform pans that size