Clean Eating Wheat Bread

The past few weeks around our house have been all about getting creative with the meat in the freezer, using the all the veggies languishing in the crisper, and making do with what we have. I've gotten tired of shopping when the first layer--the "good stuff"--gets used up, leaving the same old rock-hard roasts and soggy celery dreaming of their chance in the spotlight.

OK, maybe I'm dramatizing the contents of my kitchen just a little. But for real, we did need to start using what we already had. Some unexpected expenses this fall have made me very aware of where our money is going. Bonus, I've always loved the nerdy satisfaction of using something up completely, whether it's toothpaste or a loaf of bread. Maybe it reassures me that I can provide for my family without going overboard or leaving them up a creek. In the name of provision, tonight I found myself making bread. Because a hunk of frozen lunchmeat just isn't very tasty by itself.

As I was making this, and a loaf of GF bread for The H, I wondered why I got away from homemade bread to begin with. The recipes are so simple! They come together remarkably quickly. And they saved me about $10 off the grocery budget this week.

I posted a link to this bread recipe years ago, but recently discovered it no longer works. Here is the recipe, from Clean Eating Magazine, with my minor tweaks at the end.


Whole Wheat Bread
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons yeast
1 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp olive oil
Warm water

Mix 1 3/4 cups warm water with the flour and yeast. Let this mixture rise until doubled in size, approximately 30 minutes. Add salt, honey, and oil to the dough and stir in completely; dough will be sticky. Let rise another 30 minutes, then knead or stir and let rise for 30min once more. Bake at 350* for 40 minutes. Slice and serve.



Tweaks: I know, from making this in the past, this has the texture of primordial ooze and will not tolerate kneading. It works well to simply punch/stir instead of kneading. Also, I moved 3/4 of the dough to a greased loaf pan before the final rise and made a flat focaccia out of the leftover. Tonight I was out of olive oil, but substituted blood orange infused oil with amazing results. Place a baking sheet under the loaf pan just in case.

Banana bread bliss

Remember how I said this was the best banana bread recipe, gluten-free or otherwise?

Wrong.

It has been relegated to second place, after this guy (not the one in blue):

Behold, the new best-ever vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free (except for the chocolate chips) banana bread! This beauty hails from Erin McKenna's cookbook BabyCakes.

Seriously, this loaf has changed my perception of GF baked goods, homemade or otherwise--and believe me, I've had plenty--from this day forward, henceforth and forevermore. (That sure looks good. Think she'll ever let me have a taste??)

Pretty tall order, right? You haven't tasted it, or you'd be nodding in agreement.

It's light, fluffy. Springy to the touch. Sweet but not overpowering. Completely devoid of that funky mouth-roof tingle or telltale GF aftertaste. Unbelievably soft. Not gritty. Very cake-like. Purely blissful. (It's about time, Mom!)

Equally blissful are the giant muffins I made out of the leftover batter, studded with walnut pieces.

These beauties, as big as my palm, nearly got Hoovered up by yours truly before I could even take a picture. Then self restraint won out, and I set [most of] them aside to cool before bagging them individually for a treat or quick breakfast later this week.

It's hard being so virtuous.

I don't know why this recipe turned out darker than any banana bread I've ever made; it's certainly not burnt. Maybe the coconut oil does that? The recipe, interestingly enough, is slightly different from the version Ms. McKenna posted herself in December 2010. Guess the only thing to do is try them both and hold a taste test!

Invite me over for that, ok?

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread
from BabyCakes by Erin McKenna

2 cups Bob's Red Mill gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut oil, plus more for greasing the pan
2/3 cup agave nectar
2/3 cup rice milk (I used plain unsweetened almond milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 medium-large fruits)
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325* and lightly grease a loaf pan with oil.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, and cinnamon. Add 1/2 cup oil, agave, milk, and vanilla. Stir until smooth.

3. Fold in bananas and chocolate chips using a rubber spatula.

4. Fill loaf pan halfway with batter (make the best muffins ever with the leftover!) and bake in center of oven 35 minutes, rotating pan after 20 minutes. The finished loaf should bounce back slightly when pressed, and a toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean.

5. Cool in pan for 20 minutes, then invert onto a cutting board or cooling rack. Slice and serve immediately, or cool completely before serving. Wrap in plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Cheddar garlic quick bread - gluten free!

Can you believe this is a gluten-free quick bread? Look at the RISE on that sucker! It was truly a thing of beauty--and tasty, too!



Once I read Steph's blog post, I had a craving I just couldn't shake. I was nice enough to let The H in on my craving (ok, I didn't want to eat a whole loaf myself!) and decided to make it gluten-free. Taking advantage of the fact that I work from home, I ran downstairs and whipped this up during my lunch break. We didn't go as far as Steph and make grilled cheese out of it--this time. :) Thanks, Steph! My slightly altered version appears below.


Gluten-Free Garlic Cheddar Quick Bread
originally from Stephanie Cooks

3 cups gluten-free flour blend (like Bob's Red Mill)
2 1/4 tsp xanthan gum (the gum-to-flour ratio is 3/4 tsp per cup)
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1/4 cup Sugar in the Raw
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, divided
1 1/2 cups milk (1%)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 350* and grease a loaf pan. Combine flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, cheddar, sugar, garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning in a medium bowl.

2. In a smaller bowl, combine milk, oil, and egg. Stir wet ingredients into dry.

3. Pour into loaf pan and sprinkle remaining Italian seasoning over the top. Bake in preheated oven 55-60 minutes, or until a sharp knife inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

4. Cool bread in pan for 10 minutes, then flip onto a wire rack to finish cooling.



I think this would be fantastic served with your favorite chili recipe... among other things!

Whole Wheat Flubber

This was my first attempt at bread-from-scratch in at least 10 years. I do have a bread machine, but I've been making The H's gluten-free bread in it and I don't want to risk cross-contamination. I've also been purchasing wheat and/or multigrain bread from a local baker, but I ran out before payday/shopping day and thought I'd attempt it on my own.

I used this recipe from the Clean Eating Magazine website. Seems simple enough... flour, yeast, water, honey, oil, salt, all of which I have readily available all the time. (Well, my wheat flour was "readily available" because it's been ages since I've used it. And though it gets stored in the refrigerator, I did not have high hopes for its level of freshness.) After the initial 30 minute rest period as I was beginning the first knead/rise cycle, two things caused me slight concern:

1. The dough smelled like cupboard.

2. It was the texture of Flubber.

When I went to knead it the first time, I seriously feared it would glom over the edges of the board and onto my kitchen floor.

Back into the bowl it went. I whipped it around with a spatula to incorporate the other ingredents. I did the same for the second knead/rise cycle and then let its rubbery self flump into my olive-oiled loaf pan for the last rise.

I'm glad I had the foresight to put a baking sheet underneath the loaf pan for the final rise...

And although I may have killed the end result in the process, I decided right then to split the loaf between two pans. There's no way I wanted *that* cooked onto my oven, thankyouverymuch.

The loaves came out short (duh) but tasted fine enough. I still think my flour is too old.

The texture is lovely; airy and light but substantial enough to not fall apart when buttered. I tried some with SmartBalance 50/50 blend, that's how I know.

But there was a nagging voice in the back of my head, asking, "What if you DIDN'T split the loaf? Would it have really overflowed the pan?" Wanting to be sure, I decided to make another batch. Seriously, the ingredients are so minimal and it only takes about 2 hours from start to finish. The H's gluten-free loaves take 2 hours and 39 minutes, and while that is hands-off time thanks to the machine, most of this recipe is pretty hands-off, too. Besides, if nothing else, making another batch would help me use up the bag of flour so I can buy a fresh one. If it ends up tasting funky, I'll let the little guy feed it to the ducks on our next run through the park.

Here is the second loaf on its final rise:

Yep, overflowage. It had the same rubbery-elastic texture that the first batch had. There is no kneading of this recipe, folks. Don't even try. Stick with old fashioned stirring. This time, rather than freaking out and dividing it, I carefully folded the escaping edges back over the top and gave it a few gentle pokes to deflate it a little, but not flatten.

Only a few minutes after it went into the hot oven to bake, I could see it crowning smoothly above the top of the pan--not awkwardly climbing over the sides. Hooray! The top was a bit more rounded before I opened the oven to peek. Oops.

Now that's more like it!

Happy sandwich-making to me! I really love how simple the recipe is: flour water yeast, honey oil salt. Clean AND cheap.

The best banana bread - gluten free!

Seriously. This is the best banana bread I've ever made--regular or gluten free--and that includes the 150 years I'd been making it before The H developed a wheat allergy. Everything came together just right to yield a loaf that was toasty golden brown, rising high above the edges of the loaf pan, moist in the center, sweet but not overwhelmingly so, and without that weird roof-of-the-mouth tingle that some people get from banana bread.

My secret? I think it was the ancient black bananas I pulled out of the freezer the night before. These were the ugliest things I've probably ever seen in my kitchen. I tossed them into the freezer on a lazy day, which means they were still in their peels. They thawed overnight in a glass measuring cup in the fridge, and by the time I got to make the bread last night, they were completely soft and floppy. Seriously nasty looking. When I smooshed them out of their peels, the fruit was limp and spotty. I wasn't holding out much hope.

But, using the recipe on the back of the gluten free all-purpose flour we use (and stock in mass quantity), I forged ahead since everything else was already in the bowl.

Banana Bread

adapted from Special Diet Solutions by Carol Fenster, Ph.D.

serves 10

1/3 cup canola oil

2/3 cup brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup gluten free all purpose baking flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups ripe banana, mashed (I used three bananas and did not measure them)

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1/2 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350* and grease a 9x5 loaf pan (I greased mine with a bit of walnut oil).

2. Cream together oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl with electric mixer.

3. Add flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon to egg mixture, alternating with bananas. Beat until smooth. Stir in nuts and raisins. Batter will be somewhat soft.

4. Spread into prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour in preheated oven.

Word to the wise: even though the recipe states that you should use an electric mixer, abandon that idea once the eggs, sugar, and oil are creamed together. The beaters got so gummed up from the downright rubbery batter that they wouldn't even turn anymore, and the sockets for the beaters were covered in brown goop that literally climbed up each beater as they tried to rotate. It was mildly alarming. Never fear--I grabbed a sturdy spatula and used good old fashioned elbow grease to incorporate the flour and bananas, and recommend you do the same.

When I've made this recipe in the past, I've always split it into two pans so we could freeze one for later, but this time I opted for a single loaf. I also substituted sucanat for the brown sugar to make it a little more clean, and would have used applesauce for the oil if I felt like digging through the fridge to find it--but canola oil is fine anyway, so it was not a big deal.

Even though these don't contain chocolate chips--which used to be a "must-have" for my banana bread--we didn't miss them. In fact, The H, who had two pieces last night, thought they were in there, even this morning when he and the little guy were having breakfast. Surprise! I hope you enjoy this as much as we have been.

A tale of two loaves

Once upon a time, as you may have read, I received a bread maker as a gift. Immediately, I set to work crafting my first mechanically-assisted gluten-free loaf. The recipe I chose was from the bread machine's instruction booklet: a simple white bread that I made GF by substituting Bob's Red Mill GF flour in place of the white flour called for. That this machine was not designed to handle gluten-less baked goods did not bother me. I figured I would simply add some xanthan gum to the mix and call it good. Alas, it was not good. It was really, truly, not good.

The bread never rose. It looked exactly the same after 3 hours as it did after the kneading cycles. It was dense and had kind of a salty flavor. When right-side up, it resembled a skull.

Unbeknownst to me, a standard bread machine kneads the bread three times... a process that is detrimental to finicky GF products. So I packed it up and set out for Bed Bath & Beyond, where I exchanged it for a machine with a specific gluten-free setting.

After stopping by the health food store for a few GF-specific baking products (something I could have done with the first machine, though I doubt it would have made a difference) I was ready to embark upon my second adventure.

Just as I did with the first loaf, I selected the most simple recipe in the booklet (a cheese bread, specifically written for the GF baker) and went to town. What a difference!

This one turned out moist, airy, and delightful in every way. The crust was crunchy but not burnt, and there were no funky aftertastes or odd textures to contend with. It wasn't overly cheesy (in fact, I couldn't taste it at all) and it did not fall after cooling.

The H said this was probably the best gluten-free bread he's tasted. What a compliment! It really was delicious bread, gluten-free or not. I have another loaf (different recipe) in the bread machine right now, this time a simple sandwich bread. I can't wait to try making French toast and clean(ish) BLTs. The specialty ingredients were a bit of an investment, but I can get all of it online for a lot less once we decide what our favorite recipes/ingredients are. Regardless of the price, it will taste WAY better than store-bought stuff! Totally worth it.

And we'll all eat happily ever after.

Well, here goes nothin' ...

My first attempt at homemade bread-machine bread is kneading as I type. It's more of an experiment than anything else; I fully expect to laugh at the result and toss it out after a taste test. Gluten-free breads are tricky when you're *not* trying a new machine at the same time!

The manual was very specific about the temperature of the water and how to add ingredients, and I felt like a sweaty-palmed 7th grader in the chemistry lab for the first time. (What will happen if I DO let water come in contact with the yeast? What if said water is 116 degrees instead of 115*? Are there charred eyebrows and fried textbooks in my future?) Following the instructions on the bag of my GF flour blend, I added some xanthan gum to the mix. The bag also said that yeast breads can be finicky (not a direct quote) and that eggs, vinegar, and even more liquid than the recipe calls for may be required. Well, shoot. How am I supposed to know?! Trial and error, my friends. No doubt many, many errors, in various states of edibility. I am not what one might call "a baker." Cooking has always been more sensory than scientific for me. I love to stir, smell, taste, add and poke when I cook, and last I knew, breads did not take kindly to such involvement.

As I left the kitchen, the little kneading arm was spinning its heart out, and my lumpy lump of dough was being dutifully tossed about. Given the appearance of some flour clods stuck to the sides of the bread pan, I likely will not be photographing the end result... or maybe I will. Laughter is good for the soul.

A bread machine!

My parents just gave me and The H our belated anniversary present - a bread maker! I'm so looking forward to trying it out. Buying gluten-free bread in the store is expensive. Our options lately have been the frozen bricks from the grocery store at $6 per loaf, or the delicious, light, airy, never-guess-it-was-GF varieties from the local specialty (organic! gluten-free!) bakery at $8 a pop. Rather limiting! I'll be sure to update on the successes and (inevitable) failures with my new toy, as I figure out just how to make it work for us.