@Meandmythermie’s Gluten Free Crusty ‘French’ Bread

Woo hoo! Anne is coming for a visit!

Anne is one of my former team members at UK Thermomix and on her way to a wedding in her native France she delightfully took up my offer and came for a visit with her husband Alex. In the land of French baguettes and pastries, even a “let them eat cake” won’t cut the mustard for someone like Alex who is gluten intolerant. I had to find a good Thermomix recipe for gluten free French bread.

Enter Lesley Collins, another former Independent Thermomix Demonstrator in the UK turned delighted Thermomix ambassador, who writes the delightful meandmyThermie, a blog full of gluten free recipes she uses for her own family. I was immediately attracted by the title and its mention of Crusty bread. ThermoHubby John likes crusty! Lesley’s photo of her finished loaf looked so lovely, I figured this was the recipe for me. I gave it a go and not only is it fast and easy to make (thank you, dear Thermomix!), it is the fluffiest, most “real bread” gluten free bread I’ve tasted so far.

I couldn’t resist Facebooking and Tweeting my progress and have been asked many times for the recipe. In addition to directing readers to Lesley’s blog, I am reproducing here Lesley’s own recipe, with a few tiny interpretations based on her original tips. It produces a great bread that was gobbled up in no time by Alex and the rest of us so many thanks, Lesley!

@Meandmythermie’s Gluten Free Crusty ‘French’ Bread

Grind 1 minute/Speed 9:
90 g white rice
80 g brown rice
20 g buckwheat groats (or millet or chick peas or use besan flour or just extra rice, if you wish)

Add and mix 6 seconds/Speed 6:
90 g tapioca flour (or set the rice flour mix aside and grind tapioca pearls to a flour – 1 minute/Speed 9)
20 g potato starch or GF cornflour
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp rapadura/unrefined cane sugar or preferred sweetener (opt)
5 g xanthan gum (required for adding some substance to the batter)
2 tsp quick yeast (for yeast free, you could replace with 1 tsp citric acid and 1 tsp bicarb soda)

Add and mix 5 seconds/Speed 6:
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 egg whites at room temp
280 g warm water (if you have a second bowl, use it to warm your water, 2 minutes/37° C/Speed Spoon.)

Scrape down the sides give it a quick manual mix with the spatula, then lock the lid and knead 2 minutes.

* Lesley’s Note: it should be a fairly stiff batter, due to the addition of xanthan gum.  Without it, you’ll end up with a sloppy batter *.

Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 200° C/190° F.

Spoon into a French bread pan, if you have one.

Alternatively, spoon two separate lots onto a greaseproof lined baking sheet, cover your hands with some GF cornflour, then shape each blob of batter into two ‘French sticks’.

Wash your hands, shake them, then smooth out the tops of the bread dough/batter with your wet hands.

Leave to rise for 15 mins or so.
Before baking, score the tops of the dough/batter 3 or 4 times.

Bake for 1 hour at 200° C or 190° C fan-forced, until a good golden crust has developed. Turn the oven down to 160° C and continue baking for another 10 to 15 minutes. This ensures that the inside “crumb” gets fully cooked and is nice and fluffy and soft.

Bon appétit !

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