Quinoa & Buckwheat Gluten Free Bread, Original 2009 Recipe

A nice loaf of bread that does not crumble and is not dry, this is my original “grain free” recipe from 2009.

Suitable for children with a Salicylate allergy (yep, it’s failsafe). Gluten Free, nut free, soy free, egg free and dairy free AND it still tastes good! You need an accurate pair of scales for this recipe.

Ingredients

Flour Mix – YOU NEED A TOTAL OF 390g or 14oz of FLOUR

[box]THE MIX BELOW WORKS BEST FOR ME
150 g / 5 oz / 1 cup quinoa flour
150 g / 5 oz / 1 cup buckwheat
40 g / 2 oz / 1/4 cup potato flour
50 g / 2 oz / 1/4 cup tapioca/arrowroot flour[/box]

 [box]KIMS ORIGINAL FLOUR MIX WAS
110g potato flour
175g buckwheat flour
25g arrowroot flour
25g amaranth flour (or can use quinoa or buckwheat flour)
55g quinoa flour
(use unit convertor if you want to covert these values to imperial)[/box]

To your chosen flour mix you need to add:

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar – plain white sugar for failsafe, I prefer coconut sugar or molasses, this is food for the yeast.

2 tsp xanthum or guar gum OR Soak 25g linseeds and 25g chia seeds in 100ml filtered water for 15 mins.

1 rounded tsp dried yeast (Note: yeast strength can vary. Depending on your yeast you may want to add a little more or less)

Then the Wet Ingredients:

IF EGG FREE: UP TO 500ml / 17 fl oz warm water – IMPORTANT – Sometimes you will need all of this water, sometimes you won’t. It depends on humidity, altitude and moisture content of flour, which changes from batch to batch. see “TIPS ON THE FLOUR MIX” below for more information and details notes in the method)

IF YOU CAN USE EGGS: Add 1 egg and cut the water back to 400ml.  The egg will guarantee a perfect loaf and removes much of the need to get the water ratio perfect.

2 tablespoons / 40 ml / 1.35 fl oz olive or coconut oil or a failsafe oil for failsafe version.

Method

Lightly grease and line with baking paper a small to medium bread/loaf tin.

Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the yeast and make sure it is well combined/mixed. (SHORTCUT: I measure all the dry ingredients into a bowl including yeast and then just whisk it really well – it does the same thing as sifting and eliminates a step and fussing around with sifting).

In a separate jug combine  500 ml of warm water with the oil.

Add most of it to the dry ingredients and beat with a wooden spoon well combined. Stir it really well. It is important that the ingredients are really well mixed. (NOTE: You are looking for a sticky SLOW fall off the spoon consistency. If you need to shake the spoon for the dough to fall, it’s too dry, add more water. If it falls off the spoon quickly your moisture is too wet, not much you can do about that, your loaf will still taste great but it may rise too fast and then sink on cooling. How much water you add is down to experience, it may take you a couple of goes to get this “just right”, see “TIPS ON THE FLOUR MIX” below for more information.)

Spoon mixture into your loaf pan and smooth out the top.

Leave to rise in a warm spot while you preheat the oven to 180ºC. Leave your bread to rise for at least 20 minutes or so, longer if possible.

TIP: Reader Liz reports that she finds she gets a better result cooking with a hotter oven ” use a hot fan-forced oven and usually start at 220ºC for 30 minutes then reduce the heat to around 180ºC for 10 minutes then take the bread out of the tin for a final 10 minutes (50 minutes in total). Before coming up with this cooking method I was often finding the middle of the loaf was not cooked properly.”

Bake for 50 mins in total – 40mins in tin, then remove bread from tin and return to oven upside down for about 10 minutes at the end of cooking until nice and golden brown on all four sides. This ensures that it is well cooked all the way through and gives a nice crust on all four sides. The bread is cooked when it sounds hollow on all sides when you tap with your knuckles.

Place on wire rack to cool (not in tin or it will sweat). Wait until cool before slicing. It’s hard to resist I know but you need to let this bread cool down first!!!

Tips on the Flour Mix / Troubleshooting your Bread

Different flour combinations all can work well with this bread but all flours will absorb liquid differently. If you change the flour combinations take note of the following:

Using lighter flours like more potato or tapioca starch will mean you will need less water. Add it a bit at a time until you get the right sticky falling slowly off the spoon consistency. If it’s too runny weird things will happen (your bread will over rise when cooking and then collapse when cooling).

Using heavier flours like more buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth etc will mean you may need more water. Add it a bit at a time until you get the right sticky falling slowly off the spoon consistency. If it’s too dry weird things will happen (your bread will not rise when cooking and then have the consistency of a brick).

Don’t use too much tapioca flour – or if you do you need to beat your mix for about 4 minutes. Otherwise your bread will seem like it hasn’t cooked no matter how long you bake it.

Thanks to my friend Kim who years ago developed the original recipe and shared it with me, and happily allowed it to be shared with you all.