They say you learn something new every day. The new food technologies have been changing so rapidly, it’s getting pretty hard to keep up with what’s available. There is of course an upside to the industrial technology frenzy in food and that is the opportunity to produce foods that were impossible to achieve only a few years ago.
A recent demand for gluten-free foods from my kitchen has sent me scrambling for new recipes and gluten-free ingredients. Trying to recreate the breads and short pastries has been a challenge and while ‘almost’ results can be achieved, the natural gluten found in wheat flour is impossible to mimic.
Doughs for different needs act, feel and respond in your hands differently. When working with dough on a day-to-day basis, you learn the feel of both the perfect and desired result and any issues with your finger tips. Gluten-free dough, while often giving an adequate finished product, feels as synthetic as the factory-made flours that are composed of starches and additives mixed together to create something that will allow everyone to sit at the table as equals.
The gluten-free flour I use to make Italian style bread is manufactured by an Italian company called Molino. It is comprised of starches from corn, rice and buckwheat, fibres from potato and psyllium, moisture-intensifying agents and additives E420, E464. I mix in salt, yeast, sugar, oil and water. The end result looks both the part with a hard crust and soft and airy inside and tastes a little like Italian bread.
If you have or feel the need, the end result is worthwhile.
Ingredients: (will make 8 good-sized bread rolls)
- 500 g Molino gluten-free Italian bread flour
- 17 g dry yeast
- 15 g salt
- 15 g sugar
- 525 ml water
- 17 g canola oil
Method:
In a mixer, add the dry ingredients and mix for a minute with the hook attachment. Add water and oil and mix on medium for 13 minutes. Shape and place on baking paper to rise for an hour and then bake at 210°C, no fan, for 35 to 40 minutes. The bread finishes with a hard crinkly crust and a soft airy inside. Give it a go if you have a need to drop your gluten intake.
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