Loafing Around

Fresh bread in the house is a beautiful thing. I received a Panasonic SD-2501 bread maker for Christmas and while it is quite an elephant of a machine on our kitchen counter, it works wonderfully, is both safe and quiet, and makes a rather amazing gluten-free loaf of bread in a self-contained system with little mess, unless you're a complete a monster and manage to wreak havoc in the kitchen in the 5 minutes of prep time.

Panasonic SD-2501 in gluten-free mode

Following the included tips on which order to put in the ingredients is key though it might seem counterintuitive to those who have baked bread before; water, salt, sugar, and fats (including eggs) are added before your flour blend and yeast is added last to ensure it doesn't kill the yeast prematurely. The gluten-free setting handles everything from kneading to letting it rise and the baking all within just under 2 hours. Sneaking a peak at the kneading process reveals a much runnier dough than you might expect for bread, almost alarmingly so but such is the nature of the beast. I don't think it ever really takes shape into a typical ball of dough, which is why I'm thankful for not having to clean up the mess that would ensue were I to make it by hand on as regular a basis. About a half hour before it's done baking, that glorious smell thwacks your olfactory senses. And so continues our lives dictated by the beeping of electronic devices. Take it out, resist the urge to hug and devour it, and let it cool.

10-12 slices of gluten-free happiness

A kitchen thermometer is a good means of testing that the bread is cooked through (100 C in the middle). Said thermometer also proved as a good indication that our bedroom was either very poorly insulated or haunted given that it was about 12 degrees cooler than in the lounge.

A good serated bread knife is also a prime investment. A dull blade will only assault what is already a weak crumb structure.

I tend to use the standard recipe included in the Panasonic user guide, though will modify it slightly depending on the size of my eggs and my desire to go out on a whim and experiment. If I'm running low on the bread flour (or if Tesco decide that they'll give me gluten-free apple pies rather than substituting it with something sensible, like other flours, when out of stock) I'll use a combination of other gluten-free flours I tend to have on hand; plain, self-raising, rice and/or tapioca and add a bit of xanthan gum to make up for any potential lack thereof.

330mL water
2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil (I only put a full 3 if my eggs are on the smaller side)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (Aspall do a gluten-free line)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
450g Doves Farm Gluten Free Bread Flour
2 teaspoons yeast