Artisan Bread
 

Last week I tried a recipe for Artisan Bread that was gobbled up before it cooled. There were many posts on this over at Delphi and I have not read them all, but if you are interested here are the links
http://forums.delphiforums.com/celia...es?msg=14862.1
post threads 57977.1 and 57672.1

What caught my eye was that this bread has no dairy or eggs and it is very easy to make--you just have to plan 12 to 18 hours ahead. I made a couple of changes from the post I found this in so I think it is ok to post here.


Gluten Free Artisan Loaf Bread

2 cups GF Flour Mix (I used the 6/2/1 rice (1/2 brown,1/2 white)/potato/tapioca)
1 1⁄4 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp. yeast
2 tsp. olive oil
1 cup water (cold or lukewarm water is fine)

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Quickly add olive oil and water to the bowl; mix by hand. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise 12-18 hours at room temperature. I put it in the oven (not preheated) to keep the draft off of it and removed it before preheating the oven.
Preheat the oven to 450°F with a corning ware covered casserole in the oven. After 20-30 minutes, take out the hot pan, add the dough and smooth out the top. Put the lid on the pan, and put the entire thing in the oven. After 20 minutes, remove the lid and then bake 20 minutes more.

This bread had a crunchy crust and chewy center. We made a shape like a loaf of Italian bread but it could be any shape. Some of the posts I read suggested double rising, and spraying the bread with water before baking and again when taking off the lid 1/2 way through baking. They also suggested using a cast iron dutch oven to bake in.

I think I will continue to experiment with this because it is easy and seems to be pretty forgiving. Maybe I will try different flour mixtures to see if I can make it somewhat nutritious. I might even try to see how it freezes.

--Judy

Thanks bunches! I'm going to throw it together right now. I've been thinking about doing some yeast bread for the Orthodox Christmas this weekend and don't have Cara's recipe right up front.

Now I can be lazy... and I enjoy that! :D

I forgot to thank you for the above-info. It is the very statement that made it worthwhile to try out (for me). :)

I raised it and then rolled it out into my strands to braid but now I'm thinking that I should've just rolled it out right away and raised it once as I noted that the top dries out and gets a bit crunchy.

Also, I left my in a glass bowl (covered with a cotton towel) and the light on all night... like I would do to make yoghurt... and it seemed to do well enough that I could've baked it right away, right in the bowl. Next time I will raise it overnight, right on the pan that I want to bake it on.

I tried it, too! Mine turned out pretty good. I baked mine in my cast iron pot with lid. Mine didn't rise really well, though I may be expecting too much, since I still tend to have a wheat bread mind set when it comes to baking bread. How much should I expect it to rise? Mine rose enough that it caused the outside to crack, so I know it DID rise. I let mine rise overnight, too. I subbed arrowroot for the potato startch, and since I didn't have any tapioca starch, I used my tapioca granules, added them to the water, and whizzed the water/tapioca mix in the blender for about 5 minutes before dumping it into the dry ingredients.
Hugs,

Next time I will raise it overnight, right on the pan that I want to bake it on.

Kim,
I think that the bread gets the crunchy crust because the pan was preheated in the oven to a high temperature. I had not run across that before. If you try the above method let me know how it turns out.

--Judy