Braided Gluten Free Bread
A beautiful, nutritionally dense, gluten free braided loaf is created using a blend of various gluten free flours. It has a perfectly crunchy outside and a soft, light texture on the inside of the loaf. It only needs a short rise time and bakes on a pizza stone in about an hour.
Equipment
- 1 Bosch mixer or another mixer of choice. A hand mixer will not be strong enough.
- 1 digital scale
- 1 pizza stone
- measuring cups, spoons,
- glass measuring cup
- bowls for weighing ingredients
- parchment paper
- baking sheet
- lightly damp tea towel
Ingredients
- 200 g sorghum flour
- 200 g tapioca flour
- 60 g buckwheat flour
- 60 g almond flour
- 60 g potato flour
- 54 g psyllium husk POWDER
- 40 g cassava flour
- 40 g tiger nut flour
- 24 g SAF instant yeast
- 20 g sea salt
- 30 g raw honey
- 22 g Robust olive oil
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 680 g water, warm to about 110 degrees
- olive oil for the top of the bread before baking
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees and place your pizza stone in the oven on the middle rack.
- Using a digital kitchen scale, measure all the dry ingredients(sorghum, tapioca, buckwheat, almond, potato, psyllium husk powder, cassava, and tigernut flours plus the instant yeast and sea salt) into a large bowl. Add to the Bosch machine and using the cookie paddles, mix flours/dry ingredients well to combine.
- In a separate small bowl, weigh the honey and olive oil. Add apple cider vinegar to that bowl and set it aside.
- In a large glass measuring cup or another microwave safe bowl, weigh the water. Warm it up in the microwave for about 45 seconds on High or until the water is about 105-110 degrees.
- Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the Bosch machine. I often add about 620g(most of the water) and then add the rest of the water(or more if needed) after the I add the "wet" ingredients: the initial water, oil, honey, and apple cider vinegar. The dough should be thick, but it shouldn't be too wet, just a little tacky. This is one thing you will have to play with to see if you need to add a little more or a little less water. You only need to mix until all the ingredients are well mixed and the dough isn't sticking to the sides.
- Using your digital scale again, divide the dough into three equal amounts. Depending on the amount of total water you add, this will vary slightly from batch to batch.
- Gather your baking sheet and turn it upside down. Set aside.
- On parchment paper, lightly oil your hands with some olive oil, and roll each of the three portions into a rope that is about 18-20 inches in length.
- Carefully braid the three ropes together and form it into a ring as you are braiding. The dough might "break" a little as gluten free bread dough tends to do, so braiding carefully is important. If you do get a little breakage happening as you do this, get a very little bit of water on your hands, and gently help your dough connect back together.
- Very carefully slide the parchment paper with the braided ring onto the upside down baking sheet.
- Cover it with a lightly damp tea towel. Place this on top of your warm oven to rise(or another warm place) for 12-15 minutes or until bread has about doubled. When using SAF instant yeast, you don't have to wait a long time for your bread to rise, that is why I like to use this type of yeast. *I have not tried this recipe with any other type of yeast*
- When the braid has risen, remove the tea towel, and lightly drizzle and gently rub some Roburst olive oil onto the bread.
- Your oven and pizza stone should be perfectly warmed as it should have been heating for about 30-35 minutes at this point. CAREFULLY slide the parchment paper with your braided dough onto the hot pizza stone.
- Bake at 425 degrees for about 55 minutes. Make sure that your bread is up to at minimum 205 degrees in every area(especially the center of the ring). Once it has reached the correct temperature, remove the braided loaf from the pizza stone to a cooling rack.
- COOL THE BREAD COMPLETELY. no cheating! Gluten free bread needs extra time for the moisture to absorb into the bread. If you cut into it warm, it will be doughy and that is NOT tasty at all.
- Once the bread has cooled completely, slice it into slices and serve with my cranberry honey butter, or any topping of your choice. I actually think this bread tastes the best if you waiting 6-10 hours before cutting into it.
Notes
If you toast this bread, then put the cranberry honey butter on it, it is absolutely delicious!