Gluten Free Bread (no milk, soy, eggs, etc. either!)

I have tons to tell you about as far as Noah's new program goes, but between all the unpacking, cleaning, organizing, and trying to recruit more volunteers, I just haven't had a chance to put any one of those things down in the blog. So I thought I'd add in a new gluten free recipe.

Bread is probably the hardest thing to duplicate without wheat and gluten. In fact, most bread recipes add EXTRA gluten to the wheat -- if you've ever gotten a stomach ache after eating the bread that claims "High in Protein," that's probably the tons of extra gluten added as gluten is a protein and difficult for even the gluten tolerant folks to digest.

But back to the point, I thinkthe hardest thing about finding/making a good bread sans wheat is the texture. I've had breads made with various flours, and they are usually either hard, grainy, dry, chewy, etc., or some combination of those problems. I have found, however, in many baked goods that garbanzo bean flour (or chick pea flour) has an exceptional texture, so I decided to make yeast bread out of it to see how it turned out. It actually turned out really well!

It is good in a meat sandwhich, peanut butter sandwhich, as toast, or even as an addition to dinner. My little gluten-free fellow (now 6 years old), was really excited about it, having tried other breads for sandwiches that just weren't good. He says it tastes like corn bread, but has a smoother texture of regular bread (not his exact wording).

Anyway, here is what it looks like, followed by the recipe:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour

1/2 cup potato starch/flour

1/4 cup tapioca flour

1 teaspoon xanthum gum

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup warm water

1 tablespoon yeast

2 tablespoons honey

1 cup warm water

3 tablespoons olive oil

Mix 1/2 cup warm water with yeast and honey (in a glass measuring cup is fine). Stir until dissolved, and let sit for around 10 minutes. Meanwhile, stir or sift first five ingredients in a mixing bowl. Once lots of bubbles have formed, add the yeast-honey-water mix into the dry ingredients along with the remaining water and oil. Stir with a spoon until all ingredients are well mixed and there are no clumps (3-5 minutes). Cover with a cloth and place in warm location to rise -- about 1 hour -- and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. After the hour, pour the batter into a greased or sprayed loaf pan, stir just a little, and allow one more rising for 15-20 minutes, or until the loaf reaches your desired size. Place in the oven and back approximately 25 minutes until the top is a nice golden brown.

The texture of this bread is really great -- which is, after all, what kids seem to find most important.