What if you could make fresh-baked, yeasted, and entirely gluten-free bread in about an hour, and it would basically be like (quite moist) wheat bread in most respects? Would that excite you? Well damn, it should! Baking bread from scratch is rad, and being able to make it out of rice, lentils, or any number of other grains beside wheat is pretty great. And it turns out this is totally possible, and remarkably easy. I recently found a recipe via the constantly exploring and experimenting Emmymade on YouTube:
Problem is it doesn’t give you the actual measurements. So I subscribed to ChefSteps, which she credits as being the source of her version, and they in turn were inspired by an Instagram recipe video. It’s worth noting that the ChefSteps video diverts noticeably from the original and free Instagram one, and they put in a lot of effort to try different variations (lots of different grains, toppings and mix-ins, etc.). So ChefSteps may be worth subscribing to if you like that kind of in-depth content, but… this is a recipe that is basically out there in the ether already, it feels important to share it for gluten free folks, and of course you can’t actually copyright a recipe anyway, so here we go (this is 90% from memory after baking this 3 times, it’s that easy):
Equipment
First, you’ll need 3 important pieces of equipment that not everyone has (but should, if you can afford it, especially the digital thermometer!):
- A decent, preferably “high speed”, blender like a Vitamix
- A quick-reading digital thermometer like a “Thermopop”
- A spray bottle of water
Ingredients
350 g Jasmine, short grain sushi, or other rice
210 g Water, plus extra for soaking
80 g Any oil or fat (I used olive and sunflower oils, both worked well)
25 g Sugar
14 g Instant dry yeast (used non-instant, worked fine)
8 g Salt
Instructions
The steps are simple:
- Cover the rice with water and soak, aim for 2hrs minimum, but overnight (~8hrs) is ideal
- Drain the rice in a colander or similar
- Oil/butter a baking pan (I used this nifty cast iron one from Lodge and it worked great!); you can also use two small ones
- Add rice along with all other ingredients, including 210-220g water, to blender; amount of water depends on soak time (total weight should be around 700g for rice + water)
- Blend on high for about 1.5 minutes, until the temperature is between 105 and 110f; you should find that it’s not too splashy, so you can actually keep the lid off and measure easily and quickly with a brief pause
- Once desired batter temp is reached, pour it into your oiled baking pan(s), then spritz the top with water
- Let sit for 15-30 minutes to rise, but beware of over-proofing, you want it to rise a decent amount, but not come too close to (much less above) the rim of the baking pan or it’ll overflow then fall during baking (been there, done that)
- Preheat oven to 365 during this time
- Once risen, spray with water again then bake for 35-40 minutes, or 30-35 if using convection (consider adding a pan of water into the oven to maintain moisture); you want the internal temp to reach 205-210, so again the thermometer comes in handy, and you can turn up the heat at the end if it’s not brown enough by the time it reaches that
- Once baked, turn out onto a wire rack to cool, if possible.
It’s easiest to slice once cool, and best toasted. It’ll keep for several days on the counter, being easily “revived” with a nice toasting. Makes great croutons once it starts to get a bit harder later in the week (if it lasts that long). And it basically works like wheat bread for most things, in my (admittedly limited) experience. Good for sandwiches, breakfast, bread crumbs, etc. And according to ChefSteps you can do this with many other grains as well, including lentils, other varieties of rice, and even wheat if you like. It’s still an easy bread recipe, even if you don’t care about gluten free!
I have never made fresh bread before, and this recipe is kind of a revelation in how easy it is and how versatile. I plan to experiment with different grains, different fats (coconut oil could be great!), and mix-ins (nuts, fruits, chocolate?). The possibilities are almost endless, and it’s so dang easy, and so few ingredients, I won’t feel bad making bread all the time, I reckon! Give it a try and let me know what you think!