A novel ingredient for better gluten-free bread!

 My last post was about another novel ingredient, which made great fake cheese, but sadly after further sampling, it doesn't like me any better than the real thing.  But so far novel ingredient number two is proving to both revolutionary to my gluten free baking and agreeable to my digestive tract.  I finally broke down and bought some 'fun' stuff a while back to experiment in the kitchen with and see what would happen, I actually turned my kitchen into a high school science lab for a little bit, trying 10 mini batches of 'cheese' to see what effect changing the various ingredients had on the final project.  Kappa carrageenan works great but can be hard on a sensitive digestive system, but so far expandex (modified tapioca starch) is gut approved and really improves your gluten free bread results.  I've been using regular tapioca starch for over a year with no issues and had been reading about this product on various gluten free recipe sites but had never tried it, as it was usually paired with whey protein isolate (and I am as sensitive to whey (hence my sad dairy aversion) as I am to wheat) to get seemingly miraculous results.  I did buy some egg white protein powder to try instead but in my trial with that, I really wasn't impressed.  I divided my regular bread recipe into 4 batches, one normal, one with expandex, one with egg protein isolate, and one with both.  There really wasn't a difference between the expandex bread with or without the protein and the protein and normal loaf were indistinguishable, save perhaps slightly drier for the former.

But the expandex looked promising so I have played with the same basic recipe but for various purposes: dinner rolls, French bread, a regular loaf of toasting bread and all were amazing.  I have grown used to smaller, denser, uglier bread in the past year, quite edible and tasty, but still lackluster compared to regular bread.  I can't wait to try it for cinnamon rolls (my original gluten free project, and still only partially successful) and pizza crust (which isn't quite so exciting since I still can't eat cheese, real or otherwise!).  I made a pan of dinner rolls last night, real, soft, fluffy, buttery rolls!  The recipes I have tried previously are either too spongy (too much tapioca starch!) and look more like a popover than a dinner roll or too dense.  I ate half the pan already and besides for being a little ugly (the dough is still a batter) and the size (I know 12 came from 3 cups of flour but they might be from a wheat recipe that made twice the many) I would be hard pressed to tell that they weren't wheat.  I tried to find recipes with expandex in it but most contain dairy, so I pulled out my own favorite recipes and substituted 1/4 c of the modified starch for the same amount of regular.  My sulky loaf bread that would hardly rise above the rim of the pan jumped up like a regular wheat loaf and will require a slit down the middle hence forth lest it crack in an awkward spot!  Comparing slices of my last loaf to the expandex loaf, there is a 35% increase in rise, the air pockets are larger, and it browns much more charmingly.

I love having a 'basic bread' recipe again that I can make everything from a loaf to cinnamon rolls to pizza crust with.  I used to add 1/2 tsp baking powder but I've started leaving that out, not noticing any effect on rise and wondering what it did to taste/texture and now with the expandex I certainly don't need it!  I've also finally started using apple cider vinegar instead of white, only to find it much more mild in flavor which certainly isn't a bad thing!  Somehow I thought adding the expandex would transform my batter into a dough and make it behave more like real bread dough, but nothing has changed in that aspect, you'll still need wet hands to shape it and some sort of mold or container to give it shape and structure (some aluminum foil and a little creativity can go a long way!).  I guess I looked at the final results of the other recipes and thought it changed the entire process and not just the results!  So it is still a sticky, gummy mess but the results are as close to real bread as I may ever get, well worth it!  Here's my basic bread recipe as a starting point for your own kitchen experiments!

Basic Bread Recipe:

1 cup corn starch

3/4 cup tapioca starch

1/4 cup expandex modified tapioca starch

1/3 cup each oat flour, millet flour, and brown rice flour

2 tsp xanthin gum

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar (if using honey or brown sugar, add to wet ingredients)

1 tsp instant yeast (combine all dry ingredients in one bowl, whisk together)

1/4 cup oil

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup warm water (or milk)

2 eggs or 3 egg whites (whip the whites until stiff peaks form in a separate container, add yolks to wet ingredients and mix well)

Using a high power mixer or a danish dough whisk, combine the egg whites, dry, and wet ingredients and mix until fairly smooth and well combined, will be a sticky batter.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit in a warm moist place for 15-20 minutes.  Using a silicon spatula and moistened hands, shape/pour dough into desired container or shape.  Allow to rise until double (keep covered!) and then bake until golden brown and cooked through.  Allow to cool thoroughly on a wire rack, covered in a towel.  Freeze anything you won't use right away and either microwave or toast before serving leftovers.  Can be used for anything from sweet rolls to loaf bread to pizza crust.  Use egg yolks and milk for a richer bread, honey or brown sugar add a nice depth of flavor to sweet breads; add garlic, parmesan or nutritional yeast to savory breads.  Spray container thoroughly with cooking spray before adding batter!  Works well in silicon molds or you can fashion a makeshift shape out of aluminum foil.

Neither flesh nor fowl nor good red herring!

I had come to think finding a decent replacement for dairy cheese was like lassoing a unicorn, I need something that melts, shreds, stretches and browns but my homemade stuff and store bought stuff just isn't cheesish, it is more like sodden tapioca starch morosely littering the top of my would-be pizza and highly unappetizing.  Then I found the secret ingredient: kappa carrageenan, a seaweed derivative that stretches, melts, and shreds no matter what you do to it.  And yes, it will kill you, at least according to a few terrified commentators, but then so will everything else if you read enough food blogs, yet these same people then complain that everything tastes like rocks and it is nothing like a cookie, but a cookie needs fat and sugar and grain to be, well, a cookie.  But making fake cheese is much easier than turning a zucchini into a delectable baked good, come to think of it, catching a unicorn might be easier as well!  So read up on the dangers of this strange ingredient and decide for yourself, but as far as I can tell, everything else you might replace it with is a poor second, you may get a block of something, but it doesn't melt, stretch, or brown, and is in nowise 'cheesish.'  

I actually made 10 batches of 'cheese' yesterday, and you really can't screw it up.  I found recipes using cashews as a base, tofu, and one with straight almond milk.  I used cashews and oats and tried the straight almond milk one.  I varied lemon juice and white vinegar and no acid.  I used vegetable shortening instead of coconut oil and wonder if lard might be a good choice to get a firmer 'cheese?'  I used both water and almond milk.  I even fermented one batch of oats overnight (like a sourdough starter).  And the result?  They all taste about the same and melt and shred and stretch.  Most recipes out there have you pouring boiling water in your blender, which is about as much fun as it sounds, rather mix everything (room temp water!) in your high speed blender (a ninja or bullet work great for small batches like mine!) and then transfer to a sauce pan and heat at medium, stirring constantly until the thing rolls around in a squishy ball before pouring into a bowl to set.  I want it to brown a little more, and according to google, browning in cheese is a reaction between the protein and the sugar, I wonder if I added some protein powder and a little sugar if it would help?  I made cheese sticks with the stuff and a pizza, even my skeptical husband enjoyed the 'cheese' sticks.  I still have work to do to perfect the recipe but it is very versatile and very close to real cheese, at least the closest you can get without real milk!