Low gluten bread recipes

[Bluffinwithmymuffin]

Trying not to eat much wheat or gluten so thought I’d have a go at making bread..... have done plenty of bread making in the distant past, but that was then and I’m not sure where to start. All the recipes on the packets of bread flour in the supermarket include a bread maker; don’t have one of those, just want to do it by hand.

Would you recommend rye or spelt?

Any advice would be welcome!

[LeGrandBleu]

I bake my own spelt bread so can only advise on this one.
I use wholemeal spelt flour and I use fresh yeast because this is what I like to use, but I think powdered yeast will be absolutely the same.

If making 100% spelt bread it will be a quite dense bread and it won't rise that much but I like it that way.

The base recipe is this:

500gr spelt flour
250 warm water (not hot, it kills the yeast)
2 table spoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
fresh yeast

The fresh yeast needs to be creamed, it means put a cube of it in a glass, add water and a bit of sugar and mix until dissolved.
Put all ingredient in a large bowl in the order I wrote them down and - ideally you have a stand up mixer with a hook , otherwise use a strong spoon to begin with and then transfer on the kitchen top (remember to put flour on kitchen top so it doesn't stick) and knead . You might need to add more water and oil. Finish by giving it a nice round shape and with a sharp knife cut lines on the top of the bread.
Put baking paper in a loaf tin or any other baking shape you have and put bread in it. It must have space to become bigger, as it will almost double in size.
Take a clean tea towel and run it under the tap so wet. Squeeze it and cover the bread and put bread in the warmest place in your house for at least an hour .
After an hour, preheat oven at 210, and put bread in it, without the tea towel of course.

The bread will be quite hard, but I like it that way. If you combine spelt wth wheat , you will have a softer bread.

Good luck!

[Bluffinwithmymuffin]

LeGrandbleu
Thanks so much for that, I’ll definitely try it. Don’t have a mixer so will go with the spoon for now... and if I find the bread too hard the first time, I’ll combine with a little wheat flour next time.
Many thanks again

[LeGrandBleu]

Remember, the gluten is what glues everything together, so you need to compensate for it with more liquids, but not too much. You should knead with your hand for at least 5-10 min, as by doing it you stretch the dough and allow air to come in which will be trapped . Wholemeal needs more working than white flour. If your hands become sticky, just put some flour on them and rub them.

When I toast it, it needs double the time as quite dense.
Please do come back and report on how it went!

[Blondie1984]

You know that both spelt and rye do still contain gluten though don't you? Just less than wheat

[LeGrandBleu]

That’s why she wrote Low- gluten in the title of the thread I believe

[Bluffinwithmymuffin]

Yes. Thanks... I’ll definitely report back. Plan to make at the weekend

[dontgobaconmyheart]

Why not just make it GF out of interest OP? Gluten isn't necessarily bad for you unless you have an intolerance or are coeliac, theres no real health benefit to using less. If you suspect you're intolerant using less won't allow you to see a difference either way- I'm coeliac and get ill from trace amounts.

Just curious about the rationale but feel free to ignore, I do realise you only asked for help with the bread

[Bluffinwithmymuffin]

dontgobacon

No, that seems like a reasonable enough question...

Tbh, I decided I wanted to start making own bread on a whim yesterday and didn’t overthink it; just knew I wanted low gluten - possibly rye or spelt- as can’t help being suspicious of gluten (not sure why) and although definitely nowhere near coeliac, I’m slightly wheat intolerant (like a lot of people I imagine) and believed spelt and rye to be tastier and healthier.

I guess I could have looked for gluten free flour in the allergy section, but at the time I wasn’t even thinking of there being such a thing as gluten free bread flour

Anyway, I’m going to try the spelt first and take it from there.

Thanks all

[Bluffinwithmymuffin]

Btw, when I say slightly wheat intolerant I mean I bloat and get gassy and puffy eyed on wheat products... and am also someone who loves baked goods and struggles not to eat too much once I’ve started the loaf/cake/packet of biscuits, or whatever.

[LeGrandBleu]

I think a lot of the gluten sensitivity comes from the ultra processing and degrading a food into the sum of its parts and than using those parts to make others foods or added to other foods to make them "better" in some sort of way . This fractioning is at the base of the ultra-processing of food, but wheat flour (normal white) + wheat bran isn't wholemeal flout, because you will have all the bad from the white flour and the gut irritating properties of the wheat bran when on its own.

Gluten has been added to so many products and in the long term, many don't feel great when having it. At the same time, whenever gluten is listed as an ingredient on its own and not the natural part of wheat, you will also have more ingredients and chemicals and additives. So it is the combination of these that exacerbates symptoms.

Real authentic bread isn't soft and spongy. If I throw a bread from a village bakery in France at your head, I will hurt you. The breads at the supermarkets? I can teach volleyball to my kids without fearing them hurting their wrists. Bread never was this spongy stuff.

Unless coeliac, going for a gluten-free flour is not a great idea, because, it is an ultra-processed high intervention substance, a great invention for the coeliac who have some alternatives.

For someone who has sensitivity and wants to try alternatives and more authentic breads, doing your own, is easy and way cheaper that those boutique bakery that sell real bread. Buy good quality flour and experiment in the kitchen.

Once you have mastered the breads you can become creative and do some biscuits, and cakes.

[Bluffinwithmymuffin]

Interesting.

I also don’t like the fact that most bread these days - even supposedly good quality stuff - can sit in a kitchen for over a week without going mouldy. What chemicals does bread contain for that to be possible?

Reminds me of the experiment a few years ago in which a Big Mac was left on a windowsill for a year. It shrunk slightly and dried up, otherwise, hardly any change.

[LeGrandBleu]

If you remove the germ from the wheat, the white flour has a very long shelf life. The package will say 1 year, but you can use it way past that date. So it is not so much what they add to the bread but what is taken out, in this case, the germ which is also where all the vitamins and minerals are . This is why even expensive breads made with white flour - labelled wheat flour on package - last for a long time.

When buying wholemeal bread, always make sure it is made with wholemeal flour and not wheat flour and bran.
A rustic bread should have only flour, water , salt and yeast, with maybe only bicarb soda or a very little amount of oil. The shorter the ingredients list the better.

The main ingredient for a great bread are often not listed on the package: time. Ideally, you want to let it double in size, then knead again, and let it rise for 8 hours, and a hot oven, so it makes the dark crust with a softer inside.

[Bluffinwithmymuffin]

Oh... I see.

Yes, I do remember, when I made bread back in the day, kneading and proving TWICE before it went in the oven, so I’ll do that when I make my bread tomorrow.