Myst, I'm definitely going to try that recipe, when I've got a free couple of hours to devote to baking.
It sounds delicious. I think I've been making my dough too stiff. I've still got that wheat bread mind set, and want it to be stiff enough to knead. Which of course does no good at all, since there's no gluten. Well, one of these days I'll learn how to do it.
Hugs,

I tried the flax bread today. I can't eat egg yolks, so put in the two egg whites and then substituted 1 1/2 T applesauce and 1 1/2 T of the liquid from simmering ground flaxseeds and water (it has the consistency of egg white - I vaguely remembered the instructions from trying it years ago). I used traditional yeast and proofed it first with 1 tsp. sugar and 1/4 c. of the liquid.

The flavour was the best I've tasted yet (have just taken my sensitivity to wheat seriously the last little while) but it was only half the height of the bread pan after it was baked. It must have been missing the eggs, I wonder? Next time I'll use rapid yeast, and get the Ener-G egg replacer and see what happens. It seems that the bread recipes that come highly recommended always have lots of eggs. Sigh. I'm very happy to have found this site.

Hi Wendy,

Egg yolks are more of a binder, and mostly fat (I think - can't find the link I wanted.) They will probably affect the moistness and texture of the bread more than the height. If the bread isn't moist enough, you could probably add 1/2 tsp or so of unflavored gelatin. I did find this from http://www.mrbreakfast.com/superdisp...?recipeid=1136 but I have never tried it.

Did the bread "fall"? Or did it just not rise high enough to begin with?

If it fell, the dough itself may have been a little too "wet". You may need to cut back on the liquid just a bit. I have yet to master that issue with most bread recipes. This is the first one where I haven't had that problem.

If the bread didn't rise high enough to begin with, just let it set a while longer. I turn the oven on and let it heat up, then shut it off as soon as I start measuring out the ingredients. That gives it time to cool enough so the yeast stays happy and doesn't die from too much heat. Then I'll put the loaf in the slightly warm oven and put a bowl of almost boiling hot water on the bottom of the oven. Bread seems to rise better with warmth and humidity. The original recipe stated the bread took 80 minutes to rise.

Or, the yeast may have not been very good. If it's not fresh and in date, you may want to toss it and get new.

Hopefully others will post their ideas/thoughts/tips as well. Almost everything I've learned about bread, I've learned here.

Kim knows a lot about eggs. Maybe she will post some tips. She'd posted some really good links on OBT, but even that cache is unavailable now.

Kim, do you still have the link to the site that talks about what eggs do in baking, what egg yolks do, what egg whites do, how to whip the whites, etc.? There was so much info there, and I didn't bookmark it.

Yay! I found the link! And bookmarked it. http://www.baking911.com/pantry/eggs.htm

Maybe you already have great ways to freshen stale bread, and gf breads seem to go stale in days... I put my slices in the tortilla holder (clay pot with lid but glass and plastic also works if they set on a paper towel) and microwave for a minute or so and the slices taste fresh baked again.
Leslie

Well, I make the honey flax bread and it actually rose and gave me a loaf of bread. Wow!! Of course, I forgot the salt, so had to lightly salt each slice before eating. Makes me wonder what I forgot, or did wrong when I baked Judy's recipe and ended up with my famous doorstop!
Thanks for the recipe, Myst.
Hugs,

Thanks for the idea, Leslie. Makes me wish I had a microwave. I think I'm one of 3 people in this state that doesn't have one.

Lois, I'm glad the recipe worked for you. It seems that all GF bread recipes are different. I have since cut the salt in half, so am now using only 1/2 tsp in the recipe, after figuring out just exactly how much sodium is in a full tsp of salt.

Sometimes people who use sea salt and write recipes forget to put the 'sea' in front. (Guilty...)

Sea salt can be used at higher levels and provide trace minerals.

I believe that salt is like water. It's better to use it from the earth than to purify it to the point that it loses all of it's benefits. "Pure" does not always equal "good for you".

That said... I use the full amount... of SEA salt and am enjoying a piece as I read my weekend w. news.

I never thought about writing it as "sea salt" even tho that's what I use. Sort of. The one box I got wasn't the true sea salt. It's been processed so much, that it's fine and white like regular table salt, even tho it says right on the box in big letters "Sea Salt". Bah. Now, the smaller shaker I have is the true sea salt, and it does have less sodium. Not a lot less, but less.

My mom really has to watch her salt intake, and we're both baking the same bread recipe. She tries one thing, I'll try something different, and we compare notes. This time I cut back on the salt and the starch. If I can get one slice of bread from 220 mg sodium down to less than 100 mg, and still not taste the difference, I'm going for it. She may cut it down more next time, but this way we can still experiment in small ways and have a good loaf of bread to eat. Partners in crime.

That sounds like a great system. You are lucky to have someone 'doubling' your experiments.

Good on you for reducing your sodium intake if you need to also! Be aware that baking soda can adds lots of sodium also... if you're big bakers. I did some research on it a couple of years ago and ended up cutting a lot of that out too.

Lastly, watch your iodine levels. Lots of places in N.A. are known for low iodine levels in the people. This can produce fatigue. The weird thing is, they put iodine in salt... but sodium and iodine compete with eachother. From my understand, the body will take up sodium before iodine and so lots of NA people remain low... I haven't confirmed my resources yet though...

So if anyone else can explain this, I'd love to learn more. Please follow the iodine thread if you can answer this or have comments. That way we won't take this thread so far OT.

Thanks.
Iodine thread

My mom is getting braver with the experimenting. She's trying something again today, I hope it works out for her.

I don't know if I need to reduce my sodium at this point in time, but if I can't taste the difference I figure I can do without the extra.

Baking powder seems to be high in sodium as well. I made dumplings once with Pamela's Baking Mix, not realizing it already had baking powder in it. They were good, just rather salty.