Bread Ahead

Eureka! We've had a bit of a breakthrough in the bread section, thanks to desperation brought on by a toast and jam craving.

I like to think that my grandfather, Basil, had a bit of a hand in it. He used to bake his own bread and I still remember pounding dough with him in our kitchen back home as he taught me the secrets of his Nutty-Wheat Bread. The 'Nutty-Wheat' part might be out, but the rest of his recipe has made its way into my first successful gluten-free loaf.

Every g-free bread recipe I've tried tells you to just add the instant yeast to the flour, mix in the wet stuff, leave to rise, bake and voila! They've never risen more than a centimetre and the tiny results weigh a ton. So I took the recipe on the bag of flour I had and made a few changes.

High-Fibre Gluten-Free Bread

2-3 tblsp date fibre*

Add g-free bread flour to the date fibre to make 450g (I used Dove's which already contains zanthan gum)

½ tsp salt

1 tblsp sugar

1 tblsp date syrup (use maple or treacle if you don't have this)

125ml warm dairy-free milk

200ml warm water

2 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp cider vinegar

2 eggs

6 tblsp oil

1 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 200C (fan oven). Mix the flour, date fibre, salt, sugar and baking soda together. When your warm water is body temperature, stir in the syrup (the syrup is vital as this gives the yeast the sugars it needs to activate) and add the yeast, leaving it to come together on the surface of the liquid. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, oil, vinegar and milk together and stir in the dry ingredients. Add the yeast and water mixture and stir until you have a sticky dough. Pour the dough into a greased loaf pan (I used an 8 inch x 3 inch one as a small tin is better for g-free baking), and don't worry about leaving it to rise for an hour. Place foil over the tin, leaving a bit of room for rising, and a tray of water in the bottom of the oven, which, I've been told helps to stop it cooking too quickly from the outside. Put it straight in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes. Leave to cool before slicing.

Tip: Gluten-free bread never gets the crisp crust of normal bread and will be quite a lot denser. It also dries out really quickly, so keep it refrigerated or frozen. If you're eating it a day or so after baking, it is best toasted or zapped quickly in the microwave.

* This looks much like coarse cinnamon powder