Hi All --

I was wondering if anyone had any opinions or advice on which machine would be best for baking gluten free bread? I'm looking for one that would let me put my ingredients in the same way a regular loaf is made instead of premixing it in a bowl and dumping it in the breadmachine to bake as I've seen mentioned on blogs. Basically I hate mixing GF dough. :)

I'm always looking for new GF bread/biscuit recipes if anyone has any to share.

Thanks so much!

I have started using a predigestion for my WW loaves to compensate for phytic acid, but I seem to be having trouble getting a good rise out of my loaves.  My predigestions have been approx 12-14 hours with 3, 45 min rises after adding the additional ingredients.  Has anyone else had any problems with this? I am wondering if the 14 hours is great for dealing with phytic acid but perhaps breaks down the gluten too much for average sized WW loaves.  Thoughts?

So I shaped a sourdough boule last night and put it in the refrigerator. This morning when I took it out, this is what I saw:

Any idea why I might have gotten that blowout on the left side? I shaped carefully with good surface tension. Could I have let it bulk ferment too long (~9 hours) before shaping?

What do the terms "high gluten" and "high protein" mean when it comes to flour that is optimal for bread baking?  Are they the same thing or should your flour have mostly one or the other?

Hi Everyone,

Newbye here.

I had little success with my first couple of loafs, as they were quite heavy and dense - i thought could this be fault of my flour?

I found data about my used flour (405D), which says "amount of gluten" 25-27%, and this flour is extreemly small dense and white (so called extra quality)

Would changing flour change quality of my bread? When i was buying this flour i looked for the most expensive one, but now i think this could be mistake?

I started my own sourdough starter a couple of months ago - simple organic white bread flour and water - and moved it into the fridge a couple of weeks later. It is lovely, lively and just the right level of sourness.
But I have recently started to notice something odd.
My method is to perpare a semi-stiff preferment, before mixing the final dough, i usually don't knead it much, but rather let it rise for 8-12 hours with random folding in between. The folds usualy quite clearly make the dough stronger and smoother, but recently it feels like the opposite is happening. The folds or short kneads seem to make the dough "break up" - instead of the surface becoming smooth it starts to break up, and the dough becomes more sticky each time. It feels like perhaps somehow the gluten isn't strong enough - and i'm not handling it too roughly.
I am perplexed as the first month or so, even after moving the starter to the fridge, it was working so perfectly, but now it's getting more and more frustrating.
The final bread still turns out fine - if only after a bit more effort: i've had to reduce hidration, retard it, increase proofing time, because it somehow doens't have the upmf anymore. But the final bread still tastes lovely i.e. I haven't noticed any increase in sourness or anything like that.
Any ideas? Will be greatly appreciated!
Maja.

Howdy!

The last few times I've baked sourdough bread, gluten strands have had a difficult time forming, and they seem weak. I knead it in my Bosch first, and had better luck by hand just today. At first I thought I might be overkneading it in the Bosch, but the last time, I'm sure that's not the case. When the dough rises, the gluten strands that had formed are very weak and the dough falls apart easily. When baked, the crust is lumpy since the skin on the dough is weak and breaks while rising.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Hello,

With the help of folks on this forum, I've been perfecting a South-Beach-friendly whole-wheat bread recipe (ie., using no sugar or white flour). The ingredients and procedure I'm using now can be found at:

     http://bmbmisc.home.comcast.net/bread_2.html

The resulting loaves are tasty and have a nice, although heavy, texture.

I've read elsewhere that a couple of TABLEspoons of vital wheat gluten are recommended per cup of whole wheat flour. As the link above shows, the recipe I'm using calls for much less.

If I want a somewhat lighter loaf with more of a rise to it, would it make sense to experiment with more wheat gluten? What do you think?

Thanks,
Bill

Hello Loafians-

Is gluten flour not the same as gluten?  I looked in the only store in my area I think might have gluten, and the closest I could find was "vital wheat gluten flour".  I figure I'm going to need extra gluten from time to time if I'm grinding my own flour (especially since I LOVE rye bread with caraway seeds).  But gluten is pretty much out of fashion these days.

And if it's not the same, how should I use the pound of gluten flour I bought?