I've made the Babes start sourdough starters from scratch for my Dark Onion Rye and then I made them not only make Injera but I made them make a whole Ethiopian meal to go with their injera.
Well, after this month, I'm pretty sure the girls are going to take my hosting duties away from me because I not only made them once again go scurrying around trying to find strange flours BUT I made them make a bread that didn't need to be kneaded when I chose a gluten free no knead sandwich bread from Nancy Baggett's Kneadlessly Simple
for our bread of the month.
I've made no knead breads before and gluten free breads before but I have never tried to do both at the same time. Since I have really enjoyed the other recipes from Nancy's fine book I wasn't worried about the recipe (and this one didn't disappoint me). This will be the Bread Baking Babes first no knead bread and our first gluten free bread of the month. Hopefully, it won't our last of either.
The thing I was most worried about was some of our gang in Europe easily finding the flours. There were a few folks who had some trouble, but based upon the usual flurry of flour discussions on our super secret blog, I think most everyone had success.
The bread has a nice crust, good crumb and other than being a bit dense (common for gluten free breads) was pretty tasty. I'm not sure I would want to live on a diet of this bread but I really enjoyed it toasted spread with almond butter or Nutella.
If you want to join us this month as a Bread Baking Buddy, we're giving you a little extra time than the normal one week after our posting to give you some time find the gluten free flours. You have until March 31 to make the No Knead Hearty Seeded Sandwich Bread, post about it on your blog and email me a link to your post. I'll email you a badge for your blog and post a round up off all your wonderful loaves on April 1.
I hope you will find this bread as much fun and tasty as I did. To see how the other Babes did with this month's bread, go check out their blogs from the links on my sidebar.
Oh, and don't freak out Susan but I'm actually going to participate in Yeast Spotting this week too! I just may be getting back into the swing of this whole blogging thing again...
A special thanks to Nancy Baggett for allowing me to post her recipe in full on the blog. If you want to try no knead bread for the first time, I can't recommend a better or easier book to use.
So, without further adieu, here is the recipe.
Gluten Free No Knead Hearty Seeded Sandwich Bread
from Nancy Baggett's "Kneadlessly Simple"
1 2/3 cup white rice flour, divided (may need more depending on your dough)
1/2 cup cornmeal or brown rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup flax seed or golden flax seed meal
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1 1/3 cup ice water
1/3 cup corn or canola oil
1/4 cup molasses (not black strap)
1 large egg, room temperature
1/4 cup plain yogurt, drained of excess liquid
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 Tablespoon of mixed seeds (millet, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, etc)
First Rise:
In large bowl, stir together 1 1/3 cups of white rice flour, cornmeal or brown rice flour, tapioca flour, flax seed meal, salt, yeast, and 2 Tbsp seed mixture. In another bowl, whisk together water, oil, molasses and mix thoroughly with flour mixture.
If too stiff to blend, add more water to form a barely firm dough. Tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap. For best flavor, refrigerate dough for 3 - 10 hrs then let stand at cool room temperature for 12 - 18hrs.
Dough will stiffen as it stands and it is alright if it doesn't rise very much.
Second Rise:
Whisk egg and set aside 1 Tbsp to brush top of loaf. Stir the yogurt, baking powder, and 1/3 cup white rice flour into the remaining egg. Vigorously stir the yogurt mixture into the First Rise dough until completely mixed.
If it is too soft, you can add more of the rice flour (white or brown, doesn't matter which). Turn dough into a well greased 9" x 5" loaf pan and brush a little oil on top of loaf.
Brush the reserved egg and seeds over the surface. Using a well oiled serrated knife, make a 1/2" deep cut lengthwise down the loaf. Cover the pan with a lightly greased piece of plastic wrap.
Let dough stand for 2 1/2 - 4 hrs in a warm room until dough extends 1/8" above the pan rim.
Loosen plastic wrap as dough nears top of pan to prevent dough from smooshing down.
Baking:
15 minutes before baking, place a rack in the lower third of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake bread on the lower rack for 55-60 minutes, until the top is nicely browned. If the top starts to over brown, cover with a piece of foil. Continue baking until a skewer inserted comes out with few crumbs or the internal temperature of the bread reaches 206-208 degrees. Bake for 5 minutes more. Remove bread from oven, and leaving bread in pan, let cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove loaf from pan
and let cool completely before slicing.
