Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Yeast Free, Gum Free Bread in a Bread Machine

 Man can not live by bread alone, and thank goodness that is true, especially for us Celiacs. The enemy, the challenge, the long desire for... bread. When first going gluten free I kinda gave up on bread. I wasn't about to spend a lot of money on pre-made bread that tasted like nothing and was hard as a rock. I tried many recipes at home with and without yeast to try and come up with something that worked, only to fail. Even if I perfected a recipe once, it would fail the next time I made it, even if I did everything the same.The reason why I try to make yeast free bread is because I notice the different in how I feel when I eat gluten free bread that has yeast verses ones that don't, so that is why I insisted on making yeast free bread. While some pre-made breads that are kinda new on the market are very good, I just don't care for the yeast in them, more like the yeast doesn't care for me. It wasn't till my sister started sharing her GF adventure online and shared with me, and the whole world, her bread recipe that I finally got GF bread to work every time I baked some. It works and it is very yummy. You can see her recipe here. Please note that her loaf is smaller then how I make it. I don't care which way you make, it's good healthy bread either way you slice it (ok bad joke, but I couldn't resist). I live at high altitude, nearly double at what my sister lives at, so going without yeast almost seems suicidal for where I live, but I've made it work in almost all of my baked goods. I have three secrets for making yeast free bread work.

The Baking Fairy
The first secret is the bread machine, or as I have named it: The Baking Fairy. I would struggle almost weekly trying to make bread, desperately wishing I had some magical creature to come to my rescue like the elves and the shoemaker. Then for Christmas my mom bought me a bread machine, aka The Baking Fairy. I have the Oster Breadmaker. It does not have a gluten free setting, but what I have found it that you really don't need one. I know that there are machines that come with that setting, but I think it is just an advertising gimmick. I've seen some bread machine box mixes that state to NOT use the gluten free setting and I figure it their test kitchen has gone into the trouble to make a bread mix work in a bread machine without a GF setting, then why bother paying for that extra feature. I use the Sweet setting on mine and I've seen other blogs that say you can use the Express setting as well. I'll tell you why I use the Sweet setting instead of the Express on mine here shortly.


Gum Free Baking
 The second secret to my bread is what I use instead of yeast and gum. I use chia seeds. This in kinda a new idea in the GF community. Many bloggers have dropped the gum and picked up flax or chia seeds. I use chia seeds because I already use flax in this recipe and too much flax isn't always good. The great thing about chia is that it is very healthy and adds lots of great nutrition, plus it does the most amazing thing when wet: it gels. It is this gelling power that the chia seeds perform that create the stability I needed this in this recipe. The technique I use with the chia seeds is one I haven't see yet preformed else where. It is listed with the wet ingredients for a reason and that reason is it needs liquid to gel. So pay attention when coming to this part of the recipe.

You can use gum in this recipe if you like, it does work well, but for those of you what to get away from gum or find them too costly this is a great alternative. Chia seeds I know can cost a pretty penny too, but if you can buy them in bulk that is the best way to do it. I get them from the bulk section of my health store. I get just a handful and it only costs me a few dollars. I keep them in the fridge and a little bit really does go a long way.


Who Needs Yeast?
The trick with using chia seeds or gum in a yeast free recipe is to understand that the gum or seeds in a way replaces the yeast. I use the Sweet setting on my machine because I need the rise time that is programed into that setting. Now a long express bake setting might be long enough, so feel free to try it. The reason why I want the rise time for my bread is that I need that amount of time to allow the seeds and flour to soak. The seeds or gum help stabilize the dough and the rice flour also soaks up the liquid; thus expanding the dough and creating a very nice rising affect lot like yeast. This works surprisingly well. This is something my sister stumbled upon, I just use the machine to do the waiting and soaking for me. I've a very impatient person, if it was left up to me I would start baking too soon.

The third trick to not using yeast is in the eggs. This isn't an egg free recipe and here is why. Eggs when beaten, create lift. I noticed this when I was watching Italian cooking shows. The ones that always made their own pasta almost always used the same ingredients: flour, eggs, and water. They would let their dough rest and it would double in size. Now how could a dough without yeast rise? I will tell you, it's the eggs. Now naturally their is yeast every where including the air, you can't get away from it, but the eggs do a fair job of creating lift in yeast free dough. By mixing the eggs with oil their is even more lift created. It's kind of like making Japanese omelets. They mix their eggs with oil and they create the most fluffy omelets ever. So I took this concept and put it into my bread and it works. This really is a simple recipe, it just has a lot of unique chemistry involved.

I hope you all enjoy this bread like we do. My daughter and husband always have to get the first slices. 

Bread
Dry Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar (not packed)
2 cup brown rice flour
1 cup millet or sorghum flour
4 Tbs tapioca or potato starch
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tsp flax seeds ground in coffee grinder (measurement before being ground)

Wet Ingredients 
2 tsp chia seeds  ground in coffee grinder (measurement before being ground)
2 eggs beaten
4 Tbs vegetable oil
2 cups max of milk or dairy free milk

In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients with a whisk, make sure the brown sugar is broken up and mixed well in with the other ingredients. 

In a small bowl beat the eggs, add the oil and continue to beat until well mixed. Add the ground chia seeds and stir. Once chia seeds are added you have just minutes to put everything together, because the seeds start to gel immediately.*

Add the egg and chia mixture to the bread machine pan, add the dry ingredients next slowly and make sure it is level.  Place pan into bread machine and start machine at the setting that is right for your machine. Add 1 cup of the milk or dairy free milk, add a few Tbs at a time until bread is the right constancy. It should be wet, but not soggy, but wet enough to that there isn't any patches of dry ingredients. Scrap the side of the machine during the mixing stage to make sure all of the dry ingredients is incorporated. Once done baking, remove form pan right away and let it cool. I like to store mine in a plastic bread bag with a paper towel wrapped around the bread. 

*If you are using gum instead of chia seeds, just add 2 tsp of gum to the dry ingredient and mix. Their is no need to add it to the eggs if you are using gum.